Fishers of Men
When He had finished speaking, He said to Simon, “Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.” Simon answered and said, “Master, we worked hard all night and caught nothing, but I will do as You say and let down the nets.” When they had done this, they enclosed a great quantity of fish, and their nets began to break;
-Luke 5:4-6
Notes:
For you fishing fans out there, can you imagine fishing all night and not catching a single thing? I have experienced that myself, and it is not fun because you have no room to brag about the fish you caught that you claim was 3 feet long while it was actually about 7 inches long. Imagine then a guy coming up to you and saying, “I know you have all these poles in the water all night, and you haven’t gotten a bite, but, reel them in, and cast them out one more time, and this time, cast them into the deep. You do, and the minute the bait hits the still, calm water, the line is set, the drag begin to sound, and within a couple of seconds you have a fish on every line! I don’t know about you, but the next time I go fishing, I am bringing that guy along!
As Peter was pulling up all the fish, Jesus then said,”Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Now, the issue that we as a church face is that we have multiple fishing poles casted out all over the place, but have never actually caught a single fish for God to clean. One reason it may be that there fishing to shallow, and afraid to launch out into the deep. The other reason could be because they have casted in places according to their will, and not the will of God. We must realize also that Jesus brought the fish to the boat of Peter, while at the same time Peter did His job to cast out the nets. If we are following Jesus sincerely, and simply being obedient to His voice, He will do the same for us, and will put people in our paths to “catch” for the kingdom of God and discipleship.
Willing to Take the Challenge?
As you increase in your walk with Christ and sincerely make the decision to follow Him each day, be observant who the Lord puts in your path. Next, be in obedience and prayer as to how you can possibly help bring this person to the cross in order to start their journey and destiny with God.