The Rooster

The rooster crowed. Twice.

We know the story from the Gospels. Peter boasted to Jesus and the other disciples that he would never turn his back on the Lord. Jesus knew better: "Before the rooster crows twice, you will deny that you ever knew Me." Peter, and the others, insisted it would never happen.

The rooster crowed. Twice.

And Peter's heart sank as he caught Jesus looking at him across the shadowy courtyard. Three times Peter had denied his relationship to Jesus, punctuating the final one with a curse.

The rooster crowed. Twice.

Peter wept, bitterly. He was not the man he thought himself to be. The good news is that Jesus arose from the dead and re-commissioned Peter. The denying one would be used mightily in the early church and would eventually lose his life as a martyr for the Gospel.

What about us? Today's Church says much about Jesus, but are we really with Him? What if push came to shove as it did with Peter? The world we live in is already far down the road away from Jesus Christ and His teaching. In some cases the local church has not made disciples. There is no salt and light, no doctrine, no spice, no cross, no message, no Christ. 

Others have embraced Christ and taught Him. They are disciples as Peter was in the sense of continuing in His word. You are my disciples if you continue in my word (John 8:32).

The rooster is about to crow, I think.

In our state of Maryland, voters will face choices on two critical ballot issues: One related to homosexual marriages and the other regarding the expansion of casino gambling.

The rooster is about to crow. Twice, it seems.

These issues and how we answer them as believers are sounds in a culture that wants so much to silence the Gospel message. But perhaps they will also alert us to our denial. They are the evidence of a culture going awry. Will we deny the Lord's message about the depraved nature of man and his need for the Savior? Will we live compromised lives?

Let's recognize coldness where it exists in us.
Let's see the shadows and cobwebs in corners of our hearts.
Let's pray prayers that put fire in the hearts of the men behind our pulpits.
Let's drown out the strange sounds of the world with the message of grace and salvation.
Let's hold fast to the Book and lift up the Cross.
Let's preach Christ and deny Him not.