Status Updates From The Big Fisherman

“Utterly spent, Peter flung himself at full length upon his bed. It seemed very strange that his shameful confession of cowardice and disloyalty should have made him an accredited ambassador of the Master’s Kingdom!”

Ohhhhhh what a fun little plot twist! Well done, Lloyd!

Prince Deran is such a prat. Ugh. His arrogance is too much!

King Zendi! Ah. I have such compassion in my heart for him. His was not am easy life and while I do not agree with some of the choices he made concerning his son and wife, I understand.

🔥🔥🔥✝️✝️✝️

“From now on – so long as I live – I’m going to be more careful – about what I say – and do… One never knows when he may be standing there.”

💔😭💔😭

While it’s probably true that I found Marcellus and Demetrius from The Robe to be more compelling characters, I’m finding myself so moved and impacted by Simon Peter’s character in this. There’s so much inner struggle for virtue and so many hard lessons that Jesus teaches him—I’m resonating so deeply with his journey of sanctification towards his ultimate calling.

“Simon Peter had had no use for Esther, nor she for him, until their boundless devotion and tireless service to Jesus had made them kin.”

This chapter had me in tears, especially when Peter was talking about being Simon some days and Peter other days. I so resonated with that struggle between the old creation and the new one in Christ. 🥹❤️🙌🏻

“If a man has enough faith,” replied Peter, “he can find his way in the dark—with faith as his lamp.”

“To set things right by violence has been tried again and again by earnest men, ever since the world began, but to no avail. My kingdom will overcome evil with good. It is not an easy way, my friend, but it is the only way!”

❤️❤️❤️

“The man has a compelling voice. I can’t describe it or the effect of it. It’s a unifying voice that converts a great crowd of mutually distrustful strangers into a tight little group of blood relatives…the Carpenter added that the light he carried would reflect from those who received it: they, too, would illumine the path for those who were lost in the dark, even as a lighted city on a hill-top.”

The strangely convincing dreams of the individual people being called back to Jerusalem on Pentecost....wow! Especially Mencius!

Tipsy country boys who embraced and harangued strangers on the street were casually admonished by the legionaries to take it easy, but nobody was arrested. It was the one day of the year when the Holy City unbent a little. If the solemn greybeards didn't like it, they could stay at home.

Lol

Then they all knelt while he prayed for them; and when they arose from their knees, he was gone. Nor did they ever see him again, though—to the end of their days—they were constantly on the alert for his return.

Ahhhhhhh. This.

To have been alive at such a time like this.

Simon’s inner struggle and journey towards Christ is unbelievably moving and relatable. ❤️🙌🏻

Seriously—what an incredible blending of imagination, history, theology, anthropology, geography, character study, and terrific writing!!