John 21

Jesus appeared to the disciples again while they are fishing. He called them to shore and said to them: "Come and have breakfast." (Verse 12... This is one of my favorite verses in the bible, I love breakfast!)

Jesus then turned his attention to Peter. He asked Peter "Do you love me?" Peter had denied Jesus three times while Jesus was on trial, so he asked Peter three times, "Do you love me?" And three times Peter said "Yes Lord, you know that I love you."

Jesus responded the first time by saying "feed my lambs," the second time by saying "take care of my sheep," and finally by saying "feed my sheep."

I am fascinated by what Jesus doesn't say. He doesn't tell Peter to go to church and he doesn't tell him to preach the gospel. He tells Peter to serve others.

I don't think Jesus would say worshipping God is a bad thing, and we certainly need to preach the gospel. I do think Jesus is saying, "if you want to prove that you love me, serve others."

It's hard to find time in our lives to serve others. We are busy serving our families, our employers and ourselves. We serve our families because we love them, we serve our employers because we need a paycheck and we serve ourselves because we need to.

Jesus doesn't call us to serve others so that we will feel better about ourselves or be more thankful for what we have... He calls us to serve others because we love him.

I need to get better at loving Jesus, actually, I want to get better at loving Jesus.

All I need is for him to love me.