By Pastor Doug Cox

 During Jesus’ earthly ministry, He told His disciples many times that He was going to die. The disciples couldn’t wrap their head around the idea. One day Peter literally rebuked Him for saying it. “Jesus began to show to His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day. Then Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, far be it from You, Lord, this shall not happen to You!”

Peter was probably proud of himself at first, that is until Jesus turned to him and said “…Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.” Matthew 16:21-23 NKJV –

Wow! That had to have been awkward. Have you ever wished you could melt away and not be seen because of some stupid thing you said. I have, and that’s probably how Peter felt. One minute he is called blessed by the Lord and the next he is called Satan. I wonder how long it took for him to live that one down?

The reality is this same thing could happen to any of us. But, if we will learn from Peter’s mistake we can make it less likely. Jesus told Peter he was “… not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.” Can you see it? We must keep our mind full of the things of God and not so much the things of men.

It is vital that we cover ourselves in the Word of God because we are living in a world full of voices that are coming at us from almost every direction. These voices come at us even when we aren’t looking for them. Everyone with a social media account like Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, etc. knows what I am talking about. AI tracks us, listens to us and then feeds us things that pique our interests. Some of it is good but a lot of it is a distraction. Sound familiar?

Today, the voices are louder, faster, and more accessible than ever. Culture wants to indoctrinate us. Algorithms and entertainment want to evangelize and disciple us. What happens next is they subtly shape our lives without us realizing it. Many are getting wrong ideas about manhood, womanhood, marriage, sexuality, success, and identity that are completely detached from truth because they haven’t ducked for cover in the Word of God.

Read your Bible every day so you can be “renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.” Ephesians 4:23-24 NKJV