I love to fish. In fact if it were possible I used to spend to much time fishing, I would tell me wife that God made the world 3/4 water so we should spend 3/4 of our time fishing. It really does not matter what kind of fishing it is either. I like to bass fish, fish for catfish, trout, bluegill, you name it I love to go. For me there is nothing better then hooking into a big fish. Even when I was little I loved to go out and fish and try to catch the “big one”. There were times when I would go and stay out all night simply fishing. Well Jesus knew how to fish as well, Luke 5:4-11
And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” 5And Simon answered, “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets.” 6And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking. 7They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink. 8But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” 9For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish that they had taken, 10and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.” 11And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him.
This scripture has always intrigued me. I mean Jesus tells the disciples to fish out in the deep in the middle of the day. He is telling them to fish where everyone would say not to and during a time when everyone would say is bad time. The disciples knew that you fished at night near the shore. But Jesus knows where the fish are at. So the disciples obey and they catch so many fish that their nets are going to break and they end up filling 2 boats and the boats almost sink. Wow that is a good day of fishing. I cant help to believe that these verses have some application to the church.
I believe it is time for the church to wake up. For whatever reason we think the fish are just going to come and jump into our nets and we are going to have this great catch. Fish are never just going to come and jump into our nets it is time for the church to “launch into the deep and let down there nets” we have to stop thinking the fish will show up and start obeying where Jesus may be telling us to fish. Jesus knows where the fish are but are we willing to listen. We must not be content to sit back and to wait for them to come but to GO and find them.When I go fishing if I am in one spot for awhile and I do not get a bite I move to another spot looking for fish. I am not saying the church has to pack up and move but I am saying that we have stop thinking the people will come to us and start realising we must go to the people.
We have become so good at building aquariums that we think our aquarium is good enough to make fish come and be happy just sitting in our aquarium. I dont know about you but I have never seen an aquarium gill itself. I mean we have grown so accustom to worrying about how our service looks, or how our church looks, or how are music sond, or what Bible we use, or whether we have a Starbucks in our church and honestly it is meaningless. Sure it may attract a few fish here and there but ultimately our aquariums seem to be for the fish e already have. Dont get me wrong I like good music, I love Starbucks coffee but I am already in the church. Fish are not just going to swim right into our aquarium but we must go and get them. When will we learn that the great commission requires us to go and not to stay. We must go somewhere and find the fish and then go fishing.
We are all to be fisher of men will you go fishing?