Besides Sheep, Jesus Used the Analogy of Fish and Fishing

^NLT.Luke.5.3 Stepping into one of the boats, Jesus asked Simon, its owner, to push it out into the water. So he sat in the boat and taught the crowds from there.

⁴ When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Now go out where it is deeper, and let down your nets to catch some fish.”

⁵ “Master,” Simon replied, “we worked hard all last night and didn’t catch a thing. But if you say so, I’ll let the nets down again.” ⁶ And this time their nets were so full of fish they began to tear! ⁷ A shout for help brought their partners in the other boat, and soon both boats were filled with fish and on the verge of sinking.

⁸ When Simon Peter realized what had happened, he fell to his knees before Jesus and said, “Oh, Lord, please leave me—I’m such a sinful man.” ⁹ For he was awestruck by the number of fish they had caught, as were the others with him. ¹⁰ His partners, James and John, the sons of Zebedee, were also amazed.

Jesus replied to Simon, “Don’t be afraid! From now on you’ll be fishing for people!” ¹¹ And as soon as they landed, they left everything and followed Jesus.

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^{ESV.Matt.13.47} “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and gathered fish of every kind.

Our 11-year journey takes us to interesting places to find devotional material, and today’s no exception. Stephen Bernard writes at Mouse Squeak (the computer type of mouse) and shares this personal reflection. Click to read this at source, and take some time to read some of this other recent essays.

When You Can See The Fish But They Won’t Bite

I went out fishing during the hours when the moon was down and they’d be out feeding. I wasn’t wrong either. Upon arrival the tide was high, the river was flowing and the weather was nice and warm. Under the bridge I could see crowds of fish. They were of all sizes big and small. They looked so good I could taste them. In my district I’m only allowed to use barbless hooks and no live bait so I use golden and silver spinners/spoons most of the time.

When I first arrived I started casting and did not see the crowd of fish until later when I actually began to look. As usual I casually began casting the line here nor there. Quite content I began to relax. But when I saw the horde of fish all nicely piled together I began to get excited. Try as I may, for more than one hour I cast that rod in their direction and none of them would bite. . . Not one.

I had the best gear, spinner and even though I changed my spinner from gold to silver (assuming it was overcast and would help) nothing happened. I almost fired the rod into the river to stab one of them with it that’s how frustrated I became. When I cast my line in their direction I only further complicated matters as it simply scared them away. You see? I got too excited and my enthusiasm ended up dispersing them.

I can see why Jesus uses the theme of catching fish for souls in the Gospels. It’s incredibly similar. Sometimes we can arrive at the seemingly right time. There’s plenty of people to introduce the Gospel to. We’ve got what we think is the right bait and all the best of gear available to us, but nothing ever gets them biting, right? You think fishing is hard? Try evangelism.

As Christians we often change our bait according to the fish we are trying to catch. One method of evangelism gets replaced for this method depending on the size, personality and location of the fish. We use the kind of food they’re used to according to their local customs. Even so, none of them seem to catch on. What are we to do in these cases?

Today I threw in the towel and walked away. I think sometimes that’s what we need to do with souls. It can be very easy to get frustrated with people. When they’re not interested or willing to listen sometimes you’ve no choice but to wave the white flag of surrender and go home.

If you hang around and keep shouting in their direction like I did with the fish, you end up scaring them away altogether. There are moments when we get too enthusiastic and such overtly religious attitudes can make them run a mile. Sometimes it’s enough that they’re there in Church sitting in the pew. They’ve all these bizarre ideas about their faith and their hearts are not totally into what you’re preaching, but at least they’re there. You can sermonize and drop lots of the sweet corn of good advice into the ocean but they won’t be interested.

By simply being present these souls give us the opportunity to come back another day, maybe with different bait or other methods and try again. It really is after that down to the Lord to catch them for you. I’m thinking of the bit in the Gospel where the apostles have been fishing all night and caught nothing. Then Jesus tells them to cast their nets again. They do as they’re told and loads of fish come in. Jesus teaches us that by our own efforts no fish is ever reeled in. The Grace of the Lord is always required on any expedition we undergo to evangelize the world.

Today the Lord was not with me.* Why? Because he wanted me to write this article that’s why. He allowed me to go out and waste my absolute time and effort to teach me a valuable lesson which is to say I can do nothing without him. . . nothing. In my ignorance I didn’t even pray. Maybe next time in addition to bringing the best of fishing gear I should bring along the greatest form of bait one can find. . . Jesus.

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*Editor’s note: Maybe the Lord was with Stephen all along, or we wouldn’t be enjoying today’s meditation!

…Where he lands the plane today is neither about sheep nor fish, but comes from a passage where Jesus uses another analogy, about vines and branches.

^{TLB.John.15.5b} For apart from me you can’t do a thing.

Comfort Causes us to Lack the Need for Faith

Well, this is a first! Today’s devotional was sourced at a website which is provided by a business. Check this out:

Veterans United Home Loans (VU) is a company dedicated to the home-ownership experience. But hopefully that isn’t all that it is. The employees of VU crafted three values that guide the collective along, and one of these values serves as an informal mission statement: Enhance Lives Every Day.

We want to use our lives to enhance the lives of others, both inside and outside of work.

And with that sentiment in mind, VU’s Faith & Community “department” was formed in 2013 to allow people opportunities to have their lives enhanced through deepening faith and improving community—hopefully experiencing greater peace on both vertical and horizontal relational planes.

There’s a devotional tab on the Faith & Community website; or you can get there by clicking the header which follows.

All In Faith

by: Stan Shollenbarger

If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire; and He will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But even if He does not, let it be known to you, O king, that we are not going to serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.”  Daniel 3:17-18

Do you live by faith or logical calculation?

I am so happy and feel very blesssed to live in America. The freedoms, opportunity, and safety we have is honestly the exception as compared to the rest of the world. But that comfort also sometimes brings with it a lack of a “need” for faith.

Shadrach, Meshack and Abed-nego were actually subjects to the conquering Babylonians. Despite the fact that they and Daniel were given a degree of favor by the king they were still by no means living a life that made following God easy. King Nebuchadnezzar, in a show of force was drawing a line in the sand and was going to show these three who was boss. He was asking them to submit to his wishes and both he and they knew those wishes were contrary to what they believed God wanted from them.

I wish my reaction, when I have to choose between what I know God would have me do and what the worlds asks me to do would look like the reaction of our three friends. And, if in the end I look foolish, so be it – I want to be faithful to God.

Nebuchadnezzar gets so mad that he orders that the furnace be made seven times hotter than normal. It is so hot it kills the guards trying to push Shadrach, Meshack and Abed-nego in the furnace.

When the heat gets turned up, and up, and up that is when my logic wants to start kicking in and create a compromise. Can you relate?

I want my reaction to be, God is with me. That’s all I need.  I don’t understand it and this really seems weird, but no matter what, I want to have faith that God is with me.

In the furnace the king sees 4 men walking around and the appearance of the 4^th is like that of the gods. (V25)

I would not have seen that coming!  Jesus meeting them in the fire and then protecting them so that not even their clothes smelled like smoke when they came out! Really, look at verse 27.

and the satraps, prefects, governors and royal advisers crowded around them. They saw that the fire had not harmed their bodies, nor was a hair of their heads singed; their robes were not scorched, and there was no smell of fire on them.

You see over and over again in the bible examples of when God showed up. He is faithful.

When push come to shove are you looking to solve the problem or are you willing to go All In on faith. I have tried to solve problems with so-so results. Will you consider joining with me on an all-in type of faith?

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Go Deeper: A few months ago in October, Clarke Dixon looked at the same story from the Book of Daniel: Ready for the Furnace.

Why We Pray

Today we pay another return visit to the blog Christward Collective. This post is by Jason Helopoulos. Click on the title below to read this at its source.

Nine Reasons to Pray

Why should we pray? God already knows our hearts. He already knows our desires. So why pray? We could easily say it is because the Bible commands it. Paul goes as far as to say, “Pray without ceasing” (1 Thess. 5:17)—that is reason enough. But let’s explore a few other reasons for why we should pray.

1. We pray because we love:

A relationship of love is one of enjoying each other. If I say “I love my wife” but never speak to her, it is likely that I don’t love her. If I love her, then I will want to talk with her, spend time with her, and desire her. This is why we see Jesus in passages like Mark 1, “rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed.” He loves the Father. The Father loves Him, so He wanted to spend time talking with Him even before the day started.

2. We pray out of gratitude:

James says, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights” (James 1:17). Paul says in Philippians that we are to “be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God” (Philippians 4:6). Like the one leper who returned to Jesus, we are to return to God time and again with thanksgiving. All that we have been given, all that we have received, is a gift from His hands. Prayer demonstrates and provides a vehicle for our offering gratitude.

3. We pray because we want to know God more fully:

There is nothing more lovely, nothing greater our hearts can seek, and nothing more fulfilling than God Himself. And as we speak with Him, we get to know Him more. As the Psalmist says, “One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple” (Psalm 27:4). We want to know Him. We want to know God in all His glory. If that is the case, then like a young woman dating and trying to get to know a young man, we will want to talk with Him more.

4. We pray to know our own hearts more fully:

I think of Habakkuk’s words, “The Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silent before him” (Habakkuk 2:20). There is a real benefit in coming before the Lord in silence. It is true that we get to know Him more fully in prayer, but we also get to know ourselves more fully. How often we pray and are convicted by some sin that we didn’t know was present before. We hear it uttered from our lips or find our minds entangled by it as we approach Him in prayer. Like Peter on the rooftop, we are made aware that what we have believed or practiced or dreamed or sought is unholy. Prayer lays open our hearts not only before God, but before ourselves. God already knows what is in them, we often do not.

5. We pray to be conformed to His Image:

Some have said that prayer’s purpose is not so that we might change God, but so that God might change us. And there is much truth in this. Calvin said, we pray in Jesus’ name so “that there may enter our hearts no desire and no wish at all of which we should be ashamed to make him a witness, while we learn to set all our desires before his eyes, and even to pour out our whole hearts.” In prayer our hearts are shaped and molded, our affections are stirred, and our minds are transformed. The prayer closet is the academy of righteousness. One may enter as a truant and emerge a cadet.

6. We pray to acknowledge our dependence upon Him:

We are not independent beings. As Paul preached at the Areopagus, “In him we live and move and have our being.” We are and can be nothing apart from Him. Prayer recognizes that. Ursinus once commented that, “Prayer is as necessary for us as it is necessary for a beggar to ask alms.” A beggar is by definition one who asks for alms. We are people, human beings, created in His image; by very definition we are dependent and are to pray.

7. We pray to receive from Him:

James says, “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach and it will be given him” (James 1:5). We ask to receive. Jesus follows His teaching of the Lord’s Prayer in Luke 11 with the story of the man who is awoken from bed by a friend who desires three loaves of bread. And Jesus says, “How much more the Father? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” This is all in the context of the Lord’s Prayer, which is filled with asking to receive. We do pray to receive. And we have a Heavenly Father, who loves to give. He is the giver of all good gifts. If everything good comes from Him, then in prayer we rightfully seek and ask of Him.

8. We pray because God chooses to use means:

There are many who say, “Why pray if God already predestines all things? Why pray for someone’s conversion, why pray that God would heal my body, why pray for anything?” Because God chooses to use means. He uses rain to make the grass grow. He uses the sun to light the world. He uses our prayers to accomplish His purposes. It is one of the most amazing and humbling realities in the universe, but it is true. God chooses to use us in accomplishing His purposes. Our prayers may be the very means He uses to save our children, to provide health to the person on the prayer list, or maintain unity in our local church. James says, “The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working” (James 5:16). We have no clue this side of heaven what our prayers are accomplishing for the sake of the Kingdom, our church, our families, or our person. Frankly, we would be overwhelmed in the present if we knew how purposeful, meaningful, and essential God has made our prayers. It is humbling. And it is terribly exciting.

9. We pray that God might receive glory:

When the lame man is healed in Acts 3 by the prayer of Peter, his response is to rise, leap in joy, and praise God. When God answers our prayers, we offer praise. God receives glory as men receive from Him and respond rightly.

Prayer is a gift from a heavenly Father, who loves to hear from His children. There are countless reasons to pray. Let’s be a people of prayer. Never will one minute in prayer closets be a minute wasted or later regretted.

 

 

Just Ask It

When Jesus told his disciples, “Ask anything in my name and it will be done…” scholars might wonder what type of blanket prayer requesting he was authorizing. Can I ask God for a new car? The one we have is getting old, and I think it’s a fairly valid request.

If you believe that repetition solidifies and establishes doctrine, then you’re in good shape here because the offer of an answered prayer appears three times in Jesus’ Olivet discourse:

1. John 14:13 & 14
   
   And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.  You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.

   Other Translations

2. John 16:23
   In that day you will no longer ask me anything. Very truly I tell you, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.

   Other Translations

3. John 16:24
   Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete.

   Other Translations

Couple this with other faith-building verses like “With God nothing will be impossible,” and my new car is practically driving up my driveway on its own.

Despite this, there is another passage entirely that theologians refer to sometimes as “the prayer God will always answer” and that is found in James 1:

⁵ If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. ⁶ But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.

In a way, asking God for wisdom is a form of surrender. It’s saying that he is greater than I. It’s saying that I don’t know everything I need to know. It acknowledges that we are utterly lost in certain arenas of life.

Years ago, a popular worship chorus was the “Cares Chorus.” In our church, we sang it a little different from the lyrics in the video that follows.

I cast all my cares upon you
I lay all my burdens down at your feet
And anytime I don’t know what I should do
I will cast all my cares upon you.

I pointed out to our congregation that the melody in the line “I don’t know what to do” goes up really high musically. I just picture a little kid throwing up their hands in utter helplessness, and it’s not surprising that the song was also popular in Children’s ministry.

What got me thinking about this is the current #AskIt series of sermons running at North Point Community Church. (As messages are posted, you can view them at justaskit.org) The theme of the series is this prayer:

Across the North Point viewing audience, people are making their own graphics of the prayer, and you might see these on Facebook or blogs:

In light of my past experiences, current circumstances and future hopes and dreams, what is the wise thing for me to do?

I believe that just as the Lost Son’s father came running down the road to meet him, so also does our heavenly father want to run to us with the wisdom we’re requesting.

I’m not saying the other prayers, prayed in sincerity, in faith and in right motives won’t get answered, but I believe that the best place to learn to exercise the John 14 and John 16 kind of faith is with a James 1 kind of request.

Francis Chan: The Heart of the Author

I mentioned the other day of keeping an eye on bestseller lists, and if there’s an author who has resonated with a whole lot of people at once, for whatever reason, you ought to check out what that author has to say.

I said all that in connection with Francis Chan’s book Crazy Love and the more recent Forgotten God.  A lot of people don’t know him yet, and I think another dimension — without embracing celebrity culture, something Chan himself would despise — is to check out other resources that help you to get to know the heart of the author.

Especially if you can see and hear that author speak.  What a difference to then be able to read the author’s printed works and hear the author’s voice inside your head as you read or imagine their smile or the spark of passion you see in their eyes.  But — and this is important — to also know more background as to where the author is coming from.

If you want to play this out with reference to Francis Chan, there’s a little 4-minute video that really says it all:

Sometimes certain natural giftedness plays out and certain authors and music artists simply work their way up the “success” ladder of Christian influence.  However, there are other times that I believe people are justified — even if it can be a little cliché — to say that God has “raised up” certain people with a unique message for our particular place in history.

If you’ve got 55 minutes to invest, here’s a recent message where Francis returned to Cornerstone Church in Simi Valley, California after seven months away.  (If you’re on dial-up or have a slow connection, scroll down to the second link, which is audio only.) If your time is very limited, after an intimate time of getting re-acquainted with his former congregation, the sermon begins at 16:47.  Sort of.  Please remember, I’m not posting this because it’s the best Francis Chan sermon out there; I’m posting this because it reveals his heart.

This link below is for people who get frustrated with slower connections and lagging video; it’s just the audio of the same sermon.

Length Does Not Equal Depth

I often wonder if King David’s compatriots felt short-changed with Psalm 117.   A scant two verses long, you’ve got to admit it seems to come up a bit short lyrically.   Perhaps Psalm 119, at 176 verses, makes up for it.

^{Psalm 117 (NLT) 1} Praise the Lord, all you nations.
Praise him, all you people of the earth.
² For he loves us with unfailing love;
the Lord’s faithfulness endures forever.

Praise the Lord!

Or what do you do with this short lyric:

I can finally see
That you’re right there beside me

I am not my own
For I have been made new
Please don’t let me go
I desperately need you

That’s the entire lyrics for a song by popular artist Adam Young, better known to fans of pop radio as Owl City.   The song is called Meteor Shower.

For today’s meditation, I want to leave you with the words of Adam Young himself.   I know someone will read this and say, “Well he didn’t use the J-word.”   No, he didn’t say a lot of things; he’s leaving his readers to discover some things and connect some dots.

It goes without saying that materialism is fleeting and will inevitably come and go but what if the things that inspire you actually have effects beyond the way you write if you’re an author, the way you strum if you’re a musician, the way you see the world through lenses if you’re a photographer, the way you paint the page if you’re an artist…

The sky really is the limit.

Life is such a beautiful gift and I’ll be the first to admit I haven’t got it figured out in the least. But the more days go by and the more I turn around and look back on them, the more I realize I have no interest in living for myself and that my focus is far better fixed on things unseen. I realize I’m being a bit ambiguous but it shouldn’t be all that hard to put together.