Observations about Peter and Paul

     As readers of the Gospels know, Peter is the spokesman for the 12 disciples, the one who is always first to do things. But nowhere in the four accounts of the life of Jesus do we see Peter using Old Testament Scripture. Jesus did constantly but Peter did not follow His example until... the Day of Pentecost. Filled with the Holy Spirit we see Peter saturating his sermon with the Bible. He begins with the end of what we know as Joel chapter two, proceeds to the end of Psalm 16 and adds Psalm 110:1. And three thousand repent and are baptized. Hebrews 5:13 states "Everyone who partakes only of (spiritual) milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe." Verse 14 continues "But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised  to discern both good and evil." (NKJV) What have they used to discern good and evil? The Word of God. What are they skilled in using; the word of righteousness. One way that we know that we are maturing is when we can minister the truth of the Word of God to ourselves and to others.
     On another note the Lord showed me something about apostolic ministry this past week. Over time a handful of individuals have indicated that they thought i have an apostolic ministry. The primary reason seems to be my traveling around to encourage various churches. Some years ago i was led to do a study on the characteristics of those in apostolic ministry in the New Testament. This causes me to say that i simply do not have apostolic fruit.
     However i do think about the nature of this ministry. I have only known two apostolic brothers personally. Both they and I have the same problem, one which Paul avoided. We spread ourselves too thin. The brother with whom i have relationship currently has fifty-five different congregations looking to him for guidance and covering. Even assuming that it was possible for him to travel every week, which it is not because he has a family and local responsibilities, this would mean visiting every group only once a year. When i was visiting twenty house churches i could see them about the same once a year. Even if this went on for a decade it would not be possible to develop strong relationship or train the Timothys of the next generation.
   Paul avoided this by staying in one location for longer periods of time; eighteen months in Corinth and three years in Ephesus for example, so that he could develop these relationships and train younger leaders. This is much more difficult than flitting in for a day or a week.