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My Two Cents
by Rev Chuck Behrens
March, 2016
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Past Articles |
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Honestly, I have a tough
time sleeping when I am out of town--not in my own bed; in my own
surroundings. I can usually go right to sleep, but I can't stay THERE!
Sometimes that happens at home, too. I remember not to long ago when I
stayed over at my brothers house and THIS happened, I was about to fall to
sleep when I kid-you-not, I heard a Rooster crow.
The rooster didn't care; it was still crowing as I was saying bad rings
about him under my breath. Thank you Mr. Rooster, I just got to sleep.
Now, I didn't grow up on a farm. So this was my first opportunity to
listen each morning to the power of a rooster's wakeup call, whether I
wanted to wake up or not.
It's LENT. . the season for many things leading up to Easter. Hear any
Roosters lately? Matthew 26. It's a familiar account of the denial of
Jesus by His main man, Simon Peter. And in verse 73, we come upon the
third time Peter is going to deny his Lord. "After a lit-tle while, those
standing there went up to Peter and said, 'Surely you are one of them, for
your accent gives you away.' Then he began to call down curses on himself,
and he swore to them, 'I don't know the man!' Immediately a rooster
crowed. Then Peter remem-bered the words Jesus had spoken, 'Before the
rooster crows you'll disown me three times.' And he went outside and wept
bitterly."
It appears here that Peter betrayed Jesus twice before and didn't deal
with what he had done. He managed to get through that okay. But the third
time, the Bible says, "He went out and wept bitterly." In fact, the Greek
means he went out and wept bitterly and loudly. You could hear this man
sobbing aloud after what he had done.
And it was the sound of the rooster that triggered repentance. In a sense,
that rooster did to Peter what roosters often do; he woke Peter up. Now,
Jesus told us the Holy Spirit would specialize in wakeup calls. He said in
John 16, "When the Holy Spirit has come, He will convict the world of
sin." When you betray your Lord in some sin or some compro-mise, there is
- in a sense - a rooster calling in your heart saying, "Wake up! Look what
you're doing! Do you know how this makes your Savior feel?" It's like an
arrow to the heart.
The question is, "What do you do when the Holy Spirit's conviction says,
'What have you done?'" It's possible that the rooster's been crowing in
your heart lately; things you've been doing in secret or when you're with
that person that maybe you never should have been associated with. Or
maybe when you've compromised the truth, or you've neglected your family
again, you've hurt the people you love again, you rationalize what you
should be repenting of.
Peter graduated from spiritual treason to spiritual greatness after his
denial. Why? He let God break his heart over his sin. He responded
emotionally to the stabbing pain in his heart. Do you? Spiritual disaster
begins when you begin to quench the Spirit; you ignore the call that
should wake you up. Hear any Roosters lately?
We are well into the Season of LENT. Listen. . .the rooster's crowing
again. It's the Holy Spirit say-ing, "You're breaking Jesus' heart." It's
time you shed some tears over it, as He is. It's the cry of a rooster that
means a new day is dawning. The conviction of the Holy Spirit can begin a
whole new day in your life if you'll wake up. It'll be Easter morning in
not so many blinks and not only will the Rooster be still. . .but so will
every thing that made it CAW to begin with. . .THAT'S how you'll know it's
EASTER!
See you in Church,
Rev. Chuck
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