Onboard With Jesus!

"If we want to fish with Jesus, we're going to have to set sail into the waters of faith."  And with that quote from Charles Swindoll, I launch my thought today from one of my favorite Gospel writers, Luke, the physician. In chapter 5, we see a story very familiar to students of God's Word where Jesus has begun His public ministry and the people are following Him by the throngs to see His miracles and on this particular morning, to hear the Word of God.

Simon Peter has been washing his nets after a long and unproductive night of fishing and Jesus has borrowed his boat as his pulpit to teach these hungry people on the shore. No doubt, Peter and the other ones who have been fishing with him, are listening to the words of Jesus, the greatest Teacher anyone has ever heard. I wonder what His subject was as He began to graciously speak. Luke doesn't expound to us His exact words but I guarantee you it was good because the Master was speaking. I wonder if the subject to set up the miracle ahead might have been from Ps. 127:1- "Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain."  I know that is speculation but it is a verse that came to mind as I meditated on the disciples' frustrated plan this morning.  Saints, are we eager to read for ourselves and then thirsty also to hear others teach the Scriptures? Are we excited to listen to what Jesus said?  We should be! Our lives are spiritually anemic when we aren't engaged in this delightful discipline of listening to His words. I fear we are allowing too many loud voices to drown out the life-giving Word today. Have you noticed that the world is so very noisy and their clamoring is so anti-Biblical instruction?

Simon listened to His words and then Simon launched at Jesus' command. Now, Simon may have thought that he knew more as a seasoned fisherman than this Master Teacher knew. (We can relate, can't we? At times, we just feel the need to let Him know that" this doesn't seem like it is going to work, Lord.") "Nevertheless, at Thy word I will let down the net."  Oh, we can never go wrong at obeying the command of Christ as Peter, James, and John are about to see.  They are experiencing the Sovereign Lord- that He is Master over the sea and all the fish in the sea. Maybe as He taught from the boat a little earlier, the fish had begun to swim toward His direction at the sound of their Creator. If that is a little simplistic for you, then you read the wrong lady's blog. I am simple. I believe the winds and waves obey His voice! I believe a donkey spoke in the O.T. because He deemed it to be! I believe a fish swallowed up Jonah and then got sick to its' stomach at the appointed time! Even later in this same Simon's life, a rooster crowed when Jesus told it to do so!  Peter recognizes the Sovereign Lord and also realized the sinner's lament, as Isaiah did in chapter six when he saw the LORD high and lifted up. "Woe is me!"  That is the response, Brother and Sister, when we see His marvelous power in our lives. We don't get pompous and puffed up but rather, we wonder why He would choose to use us and yet, here is the truth-  the empty vessel is the one which can be filled.

      

We see them listening, launching and lastly- leaving all to follow their Lord. Leon Morris writes- "They left the greatest catch they had seen in all their lives."  They knew what the Apostle Paul explained in Phil.3:7-8- "But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for Whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ."  Dear Pilgrim, are you tired and disappointed as probably these fishermen were on this morning? They had toiled all night but little did they know what or Who awaited  them  in the dawn of a new day. Jesus was on the shore- up to something good! He always is!  "Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, Unto Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, worlds without end. Amen."  Jesus changed their occupation that day to fishers of men and on the day of Pentecost, this same Peter preached and the Scripture says that "the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls."

- Deborah

A prayer from Ken Gire- "Call me, Lord, out from a shallow faith near the shore, which requires no risks and offers no rewards. Call me to a deeper commitment to you. And when you call, grant that I would be quick in my boat, swift to my oars, and fast with my nets. And I pray, grant me the eyes to see Who it is Who labors by my side- an awesome and almighty God. Take me to a place where I have worked hard by my own strength and yet ended up with empty nets. Take me there to show me the depths of your dominion and the net-breaking fullness of your power. Keep me ever aware that you are Lord. And ever aware that I am a sinful person. And in that knowledge keep me ever on my knees before You. At your bidding, O Master, I will let down my nets. And at your bidding I will leave them forever behind. For what you have to offer is infinitely more than all the seas of this world ever could. "  Ken Gire, Intimate Moments with the Savior (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan Publishing House, 1989)