Anatomy of a Spiritual Crash pt2

So at church the past few weeks we have been going through the anatomy of a spirutual crash. We will be wrapping up the 3 pt series this upcoming sunday. Its been eye opening and convicting, i’ll tell you that much!

Part 2 is centering around Luke 22:54-62 where Peter denies Christ.

Notice verse 54. ” Then they seized him and led him away, bringing him into the high priest’s house,and Peter was following at a distance.”

-There is really no following Christ from a distance. You cannot love Jesus and love the world. Also, note the lengths that Peter will go to in order to protect himself; lying being one.(verses 56-60) This reminds me of the times that we are in front of people, our friends, coworkers, etc and completley act like we know nothing of our Jesus Christ. We lie, we get ashamed, we start to care too much about their opinion’s rather then God’s.

Two things led Peter to make this choice. One being fear of man. We put confidence in man because like I just stated we are TOO concerned about other people’s opinion’s about us. That crazy cousin that need’s Jesus that we come in contact with a few years during family gatherings we dont even mention the name of Christ because we are too concerned about what cousin larry will think of us rather then what God will think of us.

The second thing that led Peter to this choice was the illusion of safety. This is the part that struck me. YOU are not safe. WE are not safe. At any moment a meteor could come crashing into earth. At any moment someone could break into your house and take your life. At any moment a fire could break out and kill you. Listen to this statement: Your security is in God, otherwise it is NONEXISTANT. Your security is in God alone. He is the only one that has kept you safe thus far in life. And if there’s moments where you havent been safe, like sitting in a bathroom during an F4 tornado the only thing keeping those walls from collapsing on my head was the grace of God!

So what brought Peter back?

Well, he saw Jesus. Verse 61 says “And the Lord turned and looked at Peter”. They made eye contact, during that split second their eyes were connected. Secondly, he has a memory of Christ’s words. Still in verse 61 ” And Peter remembered the saying of the Lord, how he had said to him, ^(G) “Before the rooster crows today, you will^(H) deny me three times.” Peter remembered what the Lord has said to him, and that broke him down. The last thing that brought Peter back was Jesus’ prayer and God’s power. Luke 22:32 states ”

³²but^(A) I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again,^(B) strengthen your brothers.”

Peter not only learned from all of this but he GAINED from this experience. Much like in our own lives when we go through things like this there is a purpose that the Lord has because he wants us to gain from experiences like this.

Peter was finally able to see how jacked up he was and to see and hate his sin. He learned that there is grace and forgiveness even for sins like the one’s that he committed.  In our lives we dont want to go through things like this because we measure “good” differently than what God measures it by. Get this statement:

We want comfort, God wants Christ likeness.

Wow! We want comfort, ease, we dont want to have to go through hardships. But God wants Christ likeness and sometimes gaining Christ likeness includes going through things that will stretch us, help us learn, and make and mold us into who God wants us to be.

Finally, Peter was brought to the end of himself and learned wisdom and learned humility. Listen to 1 Peter 5:5-8 that demonstrates this.

Likewise, you who are younger, be subject to the elders.Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you,  casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. Be sober-minded;be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.

Peter is speaking through experience through this passage. He is telling us to clothe our selves with humility because its something that He did NOT do. He learned humbleness and is telling us to HUMBLE ourselves because he DIDNT and he elarned. He is telling us to be watchful of our enemy because the enemy GOT him and took him DOWN and wants us to learn from HIS mistakes.

Its such an eye opening way of reading this passage. Im so excited to see the ending part of this series. God is so good!!

“The List”

So before I ever met Trey I made a list. I was encourged to make a “list” of what I was looking for in a future spouse, and a list that any man would have to match up to in order for me to date them. Can I just say I am so glad I made this list, let me share the list with you:

Okay, so these are musts:

/faithful to the lord/

/consistantly in the word/

/has a desire to be a leader/

/loves people in general/

/someone pushing me beyond my limit/

/respectful in every aspect/

/family man/

/encouraging to me and others/

/has a passion and desire for growing in the lord/

/involved and loves the church/

/heart for the lost/

And now for the sillys:

/sense of humor/

/random/

/passion for music/

/trys new things and spontaneous/

/not afraid to cry/

/loves to eat/

I just think its funny that Trey matches up to a point everything on this list, even the sillys. It is describing him more than I can tell you. This boy has a huge passion for music, is an excellent musician, and is def. not afraid to cry. If you know Trey you know this!

That is all. : )

As it is in Heaven..

Engaged!!!

Well, we had been anticipating a date together for awhile because we have both been so busy this summer it seemed impossible to have time to go out on a date.  Trey had a lovely date planned but wouldn’t mention to me exactly what it was or what we were doing. He gave me two rules: Dress up. Don’t eat a lot. Needless to say, Trey had already been acting really funny the past 2 weeks or so, so I knew that something was up because I know him more than he thinks!

July 17th, a friday, was when we finally decided we could go out on a date. It was my only day off that week!! Trey got to my house, we hopped in the car, and off we went! We went downtown but I was still not sure where exactly we were going. But a few minutes later we arrived at Texas De Brazil. I looked at him like he was crazy and said “baby, this is WAY too expensive”.  But we continued to go inside. It was the best meal we have ever had together in our lives. Perhaps the best meal we have EVER had.  It was a really classy place, everyone was dressed up, the lights were dimmed, and the servers did everything for you! It was quite the dining experience and it was so much fun! We ate lots and lots of meat until we couldn’t handle it anymore.

We finally decided we had enough steak and began to leave. To my surprise we walked out and he had a carriage ride waiting on us. One of those light up ball carriages that looks like a Cinderella carriage. I was SO excited because I have always wanted to go on one of those! I hopped on without hesitation and we were off. I noticed Treys backpack sitting on the carriage would confused me a bit, he went for it and grabbed his laptop out of it.  He said that he had made a video for me and wanted me to watch it. As we watched it I came to find out that it was a movie about US! He gathered pictures together, videos, and music in the background. It was such a sweet video. It lasted about 20 minutes and the sun was setting as we were finishing the video. Then we stopped. Trey jumped out of the carriage and said “come here!”. I said “what are you doing!?”

We get out and we walk a few feet and we are in front of a beautiful church downtown with huge red doors and a really high roof. Trey began to talk about how husbands are called to love their wives as Christ loved the church and that it’s how he wants to love me.  He talked about the Ephesians passage for a few minutes and then got on one knee. “Amber Leigh Campagna will you marry me?” With tears welling up in my eyes and my heart full of excitement I said YES and hugged him!

To my surprise our friends ran out from across the street. Bri, Beth, and Hannah had been hiding across the street taking pictures of us!!! We celebrated with them the rest of the night! It was all so perfect and I am so excited to see where this journey will lead.