On Sunday we continued our sermon series on 'The Cross of Christ'. This week our focus was on the part of the story where Jesus is taken off for trial. It was during this time that Peter, one of his closest disciples, was asked three times if he knew Jesus and all three times he denied that he knew Him. Jesus had predicted this would happen just after Peter pledges his loyalty to Jesus in front of all the disciples. As soon as Peter denied Jesus for the third time a cock crowed.We were encouraged to think of who are best friend is and what we would be willing to do for them. Even though Peter made a bad choice, took the easy way out and let his friend down Jesus made the biggest choice and chose the cross for Peter and for each one of us.
After His resurrection one of the first things Jesus did was to forgive Peter and give him the chance to express his love for Jesus. Peter then goes onto become one of the first leaders of the early church, preaching a sermon that brings 3,000 people to faith!
In our prayers we said sorry to God for the times we had denied Him and let Him down. We asked for strength and courage to be bold and strong to speak up for God. We also prayed for those who are persecuted for their faith that God would strengthen and encourage them as they daily risk their lives to live out what they believe.
