Let's Go Fishing!

You don't have to ask me twice! But please, no competition fishing for me. I am more of the laid back style of fisherman. Just being on the bank, leaned against a tree, and a line in the water....that's the life for me. Contrast that with professional fishermen that depend on a good catch to provide income for their families. Those are the folks Jesus was addressing and extending the invitation, "Let's go fishing."

Mark 1:14-18
14 After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. 15 “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!” 16 As Jesus walked be-side the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. 17 “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.” 18 At once they left their nets and followed him.


Just two ordinary fishermen, working at their daily task, when Jesus beckons....."Come, follow me." Think of their lives and yours, and how following Jesus transforms the ordinary into the extraordinary.

Are there things in your life that prevent you from following Jesus? Simon and Andrew are the examples for us. What are the "nets" you need to leave?

The story is one of love. First, the love we have for the Master who continually shows his love for us. Second, our love for those with whom we share the good news. Daily we should be mindful of his love for us, and obedient to his command to love our neighbor….to love him enough to do some fishing for people.

A Peek into Heaven

If you had the chance to peek into heaven, and perhaps hear from its inhabitants, would you, like me, ask them to give you some inside secrets on how to get there? How did you do it? What do I need to know? How good do I really have to be?

John gives us the inside track in writing the book of Revelation. This is how they did it and how we will do it, too.

Revelation 12:10-11
Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Messiah. For the accuser of our brothers and sisters, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down.  They triumphed over him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.

There is the picture of heaven...salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of the Messiah. Is that how you had it pictured? Is that what you would pick for eternity?

Read verse 11 again. Those are the elements of victory. They triumphed over Satan by: 1. The blood of the Lamb, 2. The word of their testimony, 3. Their earthly life did not take priority over eternity. Does this add new perspectives to your search for eternal life?

 2 Corinthians 2:14.
Thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him.

Knowing that God always leads us in triumph,  is cause for celebrating the victory and its promises right now.

Blog Update

We welcome new readers of the blog, and hope you will be coming back soon and often.  Thanks also to the "regulars," who support the blog by stopping by almost every day.  Daily devotional messages will continue, some as essays and some as Bible study format.  I wanted to give an update on our progress and statistics since yesterday was the 4-week anniversary of when the blog began.  

With little more than word of mouth advertising, we grow daily in readership.  The encouraging part is that we are picking up readers from foreign countries. Special note is given to those who are coming almost on a daily basis from Canada and Russia. Recent statistics also show we are having visitors from England, Germany, Indonesia, Sweden and South Africa, along with the majority of blog visitors from the USA. (If our tracking program has left out anyone, chalk that up to me missing some before I learned how the tracking worked. My apologies.)

My thanks to you for stopping by and reading the blog.  If you wish to make comments, either through the blog or by email, please do.  My email address is at the top of each blog page. If you wish to become a follower, that is appreciated, too. There is a Google registration process to become a follower. Also remember to click on the +1 box at the bottom of each blog.  This keeps us higher on the search engine lists. And if you just want to drop an email saying "hello," I would like that.

Above all, the aim of the blog is for God to be praised and  his people to grow closer to the word. All glory belongs to Him.

There's Going to be a Wedding

In one of my recent estate sales, there were several hundred music CD’s from various artists, some unknown, but some were from very popular musicians. When I was preparing the property in the house for the sale, I found myself sitting in a comfortable chair and going through all those CD’s just to see what was there. There were some I was considering buying for myself. Some friends stopped by a few days before the sale and noticed all the CD’s and started looking through them. I was surprised to hear one of them say. “Oh look, here is one that’s all wedding music.” I was even more surprised that he eventually was the one that bought the wedding music CD.  Later when I saw him, he was telling me of how much they had enjoyed listening to the CD’s they bought so I just had to ask, if they had listened to the wedding music. He said they had listened to it and really enjoyed it. That seemed a little odd. A couple that had been married for years, still enjoying the wedding music.

Just a few weeks ago, I attended a wedding and caught myself paying close attention to the music and specifically, the words of the more traditional wedding songs. And even the musical

arrangements were appealing to me again. It was while I was having these thoughts that I

remembered the relationship that I have with Jesus is likened to that of a bridegroom and his bride.

Israel was told by the prophet Isaiah, “Just as the bridegroom rejoices over his bride, God rejoices over his people.”  We are also familiar with the parable Jesus told about the ten virgins awaiting the bridegroom, five of which were prepared for his arrival, and five were not. That parable ends with the warning of Jesus that we should always be ready for his return.

The ultimate fulfillment of these verses is seen in Revelation 19, “Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His bride has made herself ready.”

Before Jesus ascended back into heaven, he promised he was going to prepare a place for us. He is making all the wedding preparations, and we already know how much he loves his bride, the church. Just as he prepares for the big wedding, we, as his bride are to be making ourselves ready as well.  We prepare ourselves through our devotion to the bridegroom. Turning from our lives of sin and failure to a life in which all we are and all we have is committed to him. It’s this kind of commitment that brings us to the point of excitement and eager anticipation. He is coming for us!

Imagine the crowd…..and the decorations…and the fancy clothes…and the beautiful flowers. It’s a time when tears are tears of joy. Happiness abounds. “Let us be glad and rejoice.”

The bridegroom is coming to claim his bride! We will see Jesus. I can hardly wait to hear the wedding music.

Ready for Some Politics?

Election year is here and I am already tired of political announcements and news stories. The slate of candidates isn't finalized but survey polls have been active for months, showing the strengths and weaknesses of the candidates.  The candidate you pledged to support last week might not be the same candidate you support this week.  Your choice might change numerous times before we actually vote.

How should Christians feel about politics? What is the position of scripture on issues such as immigration or the nation's economy?  How conservative are we to be if we are wearing the label of a political conservative, or how liberal are we allowed to become if we are among the liberals?  Perhaps we have thought the separation of church and state handles all of these decisions for us, and politics has no place in Christianity.  Would it surprise you to learn that some who attend church with you disagree with you politically? (Here would be a good place for me to suggest that we all need to be in prayer for our nation during the coming months as we select our leaders.)

One time Jesus was speaking in his hometown, and he quoted the prophet Isaiah, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me; he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners; to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor" Isaiah 61:1-2. That almost sounds like the pleadings of one running for political office.  After all, it solidifies the basis on which Jesus will be dealing with people during his earthly life; the platform upon which he will base his ministry. It appears to be directed to the poor, the widows, the maimed, the captives, the orphans, the brokenhearted. In fact, there seems to be somewhat of a bias on the part of God toward the lowly, the social outcasts, the losers. Perhaps that is why, in the teachings of Jesus, we find that we are required as a follower of the Lord, to feed the poor, and visit the prisoner, and offer a cup of water to the thirsty.

Consideration should be given to  what it means to be a disciple of Jesus. The literal definition of "disciple" means "one who comes under the discipline of the one he follows."  So to be a disciple of Jesus means that we must place ourselves under the discipline of Him.  The discipline of Jesus is his purpose...his objective. It is outlined in the above scripture of prophecy about him, and proclaimed by him in a message to his hometown crowd.  Remember he says the Spirit of the Lord is upon him and the Lord has anointed him.  We as his disciples, with his Spirit living in us, share in accomplishing his anointed mission.

There are probably numerous suggestions on just how all this is to be done. We might not all agree on how we should feed the poor.  Some would be thinking locally while others would think internationally. And while making a meal available to the poor is a noble cause, others among us might suggest we need to tackle the entire world hunger problem.

There will be diversity among us in the ways these things are to be done; just as diverse as the backgrounds and personalities of the twelve Jesus chose to follow him and carry on his work. They differed in both political and religious things.  What was it that caused these men to work closely together even though their ideas and beliefs were so different? This is the point we must learn. The unity of the Lord's church and its work doesn't mean we will all share the same ideas and agree on everything. Our oneness....our unity comes from our common allegiance to the Lord.  It comes from imperfect people who have placed themselves under the discipline of Jesus Christ.

"How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity" Psalm 133:1.

Go With What You Have

I read a story this week about a 100 year old church, located near the downtown section of an American city.  The church found itself with a "mostly older" membership, and that was dwindling.  The downtown area had fizzled and only a few of the stores were hanging on.  All of downtown and the close-in neighborhoods were suddenly overrun by the homeless.  The future of this church was bleak. Many of its elderly members were preparing themselves for the inevitable closing of the doors.

Someone suggested that the church change its direction of ministry to meet the needs of the homeless people that were roaming the streets of downtown, and minister to these people right where they were.   Several meetings were held to discuss the suggestion, but each meeting seemed to end abruptly when someone mentioned the lack of funds available from the members that remained. It was a sad day. The decision was made for the church to close.

During the earthly ministry of Jesus, there was an occasion when he and his disciples retreated to an isolated place, only to find that a large crowd had gathered to be close to him. Many of these people had witnessed his miracles of casting out demons, healing the sick, an even raising a dead girl back to life. Some were curious but others were becoming followers. The huge crowd seemed to make the disciples uneasy because they couldn't fathom how they were going to minister to all these people. They reminded Jesus that it was getting late, so he should send all these people away to the villages so they can buy food for themselves. Matthew 14 contains the story, and verse 16 is where we pick up the response of Jesus to the suggestion of the disciples. "They do not need to go. You give them something to eat." Their reply revealed some difficulty to accomplish feeding such a large crowd. "We only have five loaves and two fish."  Jesus took the available food, instructed all the people to sit on the grass, and gave thanks to God and broke the loaves. The disciples were told to pass out the food to the people. Everyone ate and were filled and then the disciples picked up twelve baskets of leftovers.  Scripture says that day Jesus fed over 5,000 men, plus the women and children.

Before I compare this bible story with the closing of the old church, let me emphasize that I do not know all the details that went into the decision of that church closing its doors. I am guessing, but I figure they were all good people, but were overwhelmed with their situation. The comparison I wish to make however, is that we often forget we are people of faith.  In the story of feeding the multitude, the disciples were ready to send away the crowd, because of a lack of resources to minister to them. In the story of the old church, homeless people were not ministered to in that city because the church decided it didn't have the resources.  Two different stories with different players, but both needed the same message. It's the message Jesus gave to his disciples during their dilemma. "Bring what you have to me," and then turn the situation over to God.

It makes me wonder what ministries and opportunities lie before us that are defeated before they start because we are reminded that our resources are lacking?  When faced with making decisions in such circumstances, how do we decide?  I wish to suggest we ask ourselves two questions:  1. Are we convinced this is the will of God? (This requires time in the Word and time in prayer.)  2. Is this ministry needed in this place? (This requires some research and time spent with those we will be ministering to.)  If the answer is "yes" to both questions, then our faith should lead us to  go with the resources we have and seek God to supply the rest as it is needed.

God is going to bless the efforts of his people who demonstrate their love for him and their faith in him.  And the blessing continues as God's people show the love they have for others by helping to meet needs, and sharing the good news of the gospel.

I Am Light

Matthew 5:14-16
14 “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven."

The contrast between darkness and light has been around since creation. God made that contrast when he spoke saying, "Let there be light." The contrast continues throughout scripture as we learn we are transformed from the kingdom of darkness when we accept Jesus. That's a dynamic spiritual truth...it's Jesus that changes us from darkness to light.

Which is it for you..........darkness or light? (You can answer that question more accurately than anyone else.)

In what ways should we be putting our lamp on a stand and allowing it to give light to everyone in the house. (What a bold way of showing our light has a positive effect to everyone living under our roof.)

Think of how you can, while letting your light shine before men, give glory to God? (When we try to make the glory ours, we are allowing the light in us to grow dim.)