Thought of the Day !!

When Simon Peter realized what had happened, he fell to his knees before Jesus and said, "Oh, Lord, please leave me—I'm too much of a sinner to be around you." For he was awestruck by the number of fish they had caught, as were the others with him. His partners, James and John, the sons of Zebedee, were also amazed.
                                                         Luke 5:8-10a (NLT)

This comes after Jesus told Peter to take the boat out into the deep waters even after they had caught nothing all night long.  When they did, they let down their nets and caught so much that it almost sunk two boats.

Peter had had some faith in Jesus…enough to go out into the deeper waters and waste his time trying to catch fish again.  But when the miracle happened, it dawned on him just how powerful Jesus was.  At this point Peter falls on his knees before Jesus understanding for the first time his own sinfulness and low standing before Jesus. 

One of the first things we must do before going deeper in our faith journey with Christ is realize our place.  I love singing the songs about Jesus as our friend like "What a Friend We Have in Jesus".  I absolutely love the fact that I am able to speak to Him as a friend or a big brother.  But Peter illustrates the fact that Jesus is much more.  He is God incarnate.  He is to be worshiped.  He is all powerful.  And when we stand before Him, we must realize the need for our change.  We must realize how great our sin is and how He is the only one powerful enough to take that sin away.  He has the unique quality of being a friend and at the same time a Lord.

We must not look flippantly on our sinful nature, making excuses like “we’re only human” or “at least we’re not as bad as so-in-so".  We’re not to make excuses before Jesus, but instead to apologize and ask for help. 

When we do this, God hears, Jesus walks with us, the Holy Spirit strengthens us and our voyage to deeper waters of faith starts to become a reality.

In the love of Christ,
greg