Today's encouragement comes from the wonderful interchange between Christ and His disciples, as it is found in John 6:66-68:
"From that time many of [Christ's] disciples went back and walked with Him no more. Then Jesus said to the twelve, 'Do you also want to go away?' But Simon Peter answered Him, 'Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.' "This is a very poignant scene in the ministry of the Messiah. After intentionally paring-down the numbers of His "disciples" by teaching them that they would have to ingest His flesh and blood into their beings, and that God alone could draw them to Himself, etc.—the Lord Jesus is left with just a few remaining hearty souls, (one of which was Judas, who, of course, was a traitor).
Peter's confession, representing the believing church throughout all the ages, is not only brilliantly insightful, but it was also eminently practical: there is no one and nowhere for any of us to go for any true life, in this world (or the next), but to Jesus. Everything else is tinctured with death.
[Puritan quote of the day: "When the Word comes to any place, the kingdom of heaven is said to come. . . . and Christ rules in it by the preaching of the gospel.” —Jeremiah Burroughs, in, "Gospel Remission"]
