{"id":22102,"date":"2021-11-13T00:01:18","date_gmt":"2021-11-12T23:01:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gfhlive.tv\/freshfire\/?p=22102"},"modified":"2021-11-12T22:35:24","modified_gmt":"2021-11-12T21:35:24","slug":"the-other-disciple","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gfhlive.tv\/freshfire\/2021\/11\/13\/the-other-disciple\/","title":{"rendered":"The Other Disciple"},"content":{"rendered":"<!--[if lt IE 9]><script>document.createElement('audio');<\/script><![endif]-->\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-22102-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"http:\/\/gfhlive.tv\/freshfire\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Nov-13.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/gfhlive.tv\/freshfire\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Nov-13.mp3\">http:\/\/gfhlive.tv\/freshfire\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Nov-13.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n<p class=\"p1\" style=\"text-align: center;\"><i><a href=\"https:\/\/www2.bible.com\/en-GB\/bible\/116\/ECC.4.9-10\">Eccl.4:<sup>9-10<\/sup><\/a> \u201cTwo people are better off than one, for they can help each other succeed. If one person falls, the other can reach out and help. But someone who falls alone is in real trouble.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www2.bible.com\/en-GB\/bible\/116\/JHN.18.17\">John 18:<sup>17<\/sup><\/a> \u201c<i>The woman said to Peter, \u201cYou are not also one of this man\u2019s disciples, are you?\u201d He said, \u201cI am not<\/i>.\u201d When the woman said, \u201c<i>also<\/i>\u201d, it means there was someone they knew was Jesus\u2019 disciple, right? They knew John was Jesus&#8217; disciple and John was present as an acknowledged follower of Jesus,<!--more--> but he was not afraid that anybody knew. So, that begs two questions; firstly, why did Peter deny Jesus? The people already knew that John was a disciple of Jesus. But because of John\u2019s connections, he was not afraid. Why did Peter deny Jesus? John did not deny Jesus. The truth is that John should have stayed far away from that place. It does not matter the connections you have, if your master is going to be crucified, you better run away because you will be crucified with him. So, John could have taken off, but he did not.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\">Despite John&#8217;s courage, why did Peter deny Jesus? When Jesus said that Peter would deny Him, Jesus was foretelling, telling Peter what will happen. Jesus was not saying this is what must happen. You can change prophecies. Yes, you can! So, Jesus can foretell what will happen but your decisions and your heart towards God can make God decide to do better for you. So, the fact that Jesus has said it does not mean Jesus cannot change it. Many times, in scriptures, God would say, \u2018I did not want to do this for anybody but because you have done this for Me, I will do it for you.\u2019 David is a case in point. Peter was in a peculiar situation; he had just cut off someone\u2019s ear and the person&#8217;s relatives were there. He just wanted to be anonymous.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\">In addition to that, this was Jesus that Peter thought was going to be president and he, Peter, the minister of finance or minister of power and steel has now been captured. The disciples actually thought that Jesus was going to rule physically on earth, did you know that? So, it was a volatile situation for Peter. But should Peter not have drawn from John&#8217;s strength? The second question is, why did John not set Peter straight? When Peter denied Jesus the first time, why did John not set Peter straight? John was there, and he did not deny Jesus. Everybody knew who John was, \u201cAre you also one of Jesus\u2019 disciples? Peter said, \u2018No, I am not\u2019 and John kept quiet. Why did John not set Peter straight? I will leave you to wrestle with this but we will discuss it further in tomorrow\u2019s devotional. Also, read <a href=\"https:\/\/www2.bible.com\/en-GB\/bible\/116\/JHN.18.22-23\">John 18:22-23<\/a>. Have you been unjustly treated? How did you respond?<\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www2.bible.com\/en-GB\/bible\/116\/JHN.18.28\">John 18:<sup>28<\/sup><\/a> \u201c<i>Jesus\u2019 trial before Caiaphas ended in the early hours of the morning. Then he was taken to the headquarters of the Roman governor. His accusers didn\u2019t go inside because it would defile them, and they wouldn\u2019t be allowed to celebrate the Passover<\/i>.\u201d Jesus\u2019 accusers did not want to go into the temple, they did not want to be defiled because of the Passover. But the Passover Himself was with them; Jesus was the Passover Lamb. They allowed Jesus to go inside to see Pilate.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\" style=\"text-align: center;\"><b>Prayer<\/b>: Father, according to Your Word, I pray that the people I do life with will be better off because of me. Help me stir them rightly in wisdom, in Jesus Name. Amen!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Eccl.4:9-10 \u201cTwo people are better off than one, for they can help each other succeed. If one person falls, the other can reach out and help. But someone who falls alone is in real trouble.\u201d John 18:17 \u201cThe woman said to Peter, \u201cYou are not also one of this man\u2019s disciples, are you?\u201d He said, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58,425,442,94,440,114,90,464,109,8,285],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-abuse","category-accountability","category-accused","category-answers","category-betrayed","category-bible","category-caution","category-christ","category-identity","category-jesus","category-justice"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gfhlive.tv\/freshfire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gfhlive.tv\/freshfire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gfhlive.tv\/freshfire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gfhlive.tv\/freshfire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gfhlive.tv\/freshfire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22102"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/gfhlive.tv\/freshfire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22102\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22390,"href":"https:\/\/gfhlive.tv\/freshfire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22102\/revisions\/22390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gfhlive.tv\/freshfire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gfhlive.tv\/freshfire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gfhlive.tv\/freshfire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}