Who is your Spiritual Father?

Another Facebook Post...thought I would share it with you...

I am overcome with emotion this morning.  It started out with my Bible reading during my quiet time...I always do that before I do a chapter in whatever Bible study I'm currently doing.  My heart was tender this morning as I prayed about some burdens that are weighing heavy.  
I'm currently reading in Numbers...you wouldn't think that would be a particularly "stirring" book...read it again.  I'm on the last week of my current Bible study, Living Intimately by Lenya Heitzig and Penny Rose and they are addressing the prayer Jesus offers up to His Father before leaving the Upper Room and going across the Kidron Valley to the Garden of Gethsemane.  (John 17).  Very timely considering that Resurrection Sunday is just two weeks away.  I have picked this study up and put it down several times over the last six months.  I couldn't have planned the timing on this if I had tried.  God's timing is always perfect!  
The scripture that brought me to tears early this morning...and opened the flood gates of my heart in the following hours...is John 17:20 which says, "I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word;". 
I began thinking of the number of times that Pastor Dave has said that we are here (as believers) because of the faithfulness of those who have gone before us.  I really took that statement and that scripture out and looked at it closely and let it play out in my mind.  I was just overwhelmed by the fact that because of the faithfulness and obedience of the disciples to go out and be Jesus' witnesses "in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." (Acts 1:8) that I am spending eternity with the Lord Jesus and avoiding an eternity in Hell.  That baton has been passed on countless number of times to people all over this globe all throughout the last two millennia.  
I also began to wonder which of the disciples was my "Spiritual Father"... which one told whoever who told whoever who told whoever and so on...who told my pastor, who told me.  To whom do I cry out my thankfulness when I meet him someday in heaven?  To whom do I say, "I am here because you loved the Lord enough to follow His teaching, to obey His command, to love the unlovable...to reach out to someone so lost in their sin...someone like me?"  
I know that my salvation does not rest on the shoulders of any man and that it is only by the Father's mercy that He drew me to the Son so that I could repent and find forgiveness for my sins.  But I would have never heard the truth of this Savior, plain and straight, if someone hadn't been faithful to have shared His Words with me...and my pastor, and so on in reverse, for the last 2,000 years.  For that, I am truly eternally grateful...and humbled by that tie that binds me to one of Twelve who was so faithful to His Lord.  That is a treasure that is worth pondering, exploring and sharing!  
And for what it's worth...I tend to think it must have been Peter, the brash, headstrong, and at times, quick-with-the-tongue and quick-to-fail disciple...I see some strong "family resemblances" in him!  :)