Dear Precious Friends,
On this Fill our Soul Sunday I pray we all take time today to worship our Lord, fellowship with other believers, are fed from a true Bible teaching church and embrace the gifts He has given us. We are on Luke 5 in our read a chapter of Luke each day challenge for December and once again it is impossible to write about all the incredible teaching. I am sharing from a devo from Redeeming God about what spoke to my heart most.
There are Five characteristics of a disciple in Luke 5:1-11
Disciples love to hear the Word of God taught (Luke 5:1-3)
Disciples obey Jesus even when it doesn’t make sense (Luke 5:4-7)
Disciples are aware of their own sinfulness (Luke 5:8-10a)
Disciples are fishers of men (Luke 5:10b)
Disciples are willing to forsake all and follow Christ (Luke 5:11)
In Luke 5:11. So when they had brought their boats to land, they forsook all and followed Him.
Simon just had the greatest fishing day of his life. He had the greatest fishing day he had ever heard of anybody ever having. He had probably caught more fish in one day than he had ever caught before in an entire year. Enough to fill two boats. Hey, they could sell the fish, and not work for a whole year! That would be great. Think of the family vacations they could go on. Think of the nice clothes he could buy for his wife. Think of the new house they could afford. But Jesus has just called them to go after something bigger and more valuable. He had called them to be fishers of men.
And they realized that this was of such supreme importance, that they forsook all and followed Him. They didn’t even pause to count the fish. They just beached the boats, then jumped to land, and left it all behind. The boats, the nets, the record number of fish, everything. They knew that following Jesus was much more valuable than a boatload of fish. And they knew that if Jesus could give them a boatload of fish in the middle of the day, He would certainly provide for their needs later as they arose. So they didn’t care about what they were leaving behind. It didn’t matter when compared to the value of following Jesus.
Becoming a Christian is absolutely free. There is no cost whatsoever. Jesus paid it all. Through his death, he paid the penalty for our sin. We receive the free gift of eternal life simply by believing in Jesus Christ for it. But becoming a disciple is completely different. There is great cost involved to becoming a disciple. It may cost everything you have, everything you are, everything you own. But the results are well worth it. The reward far outweighs the cost. This is what Simon and his companions realized, and this is why they left everything and followed Christ. They were already believers. They had already believed in Jesus for eternal life and so were guaranteed a place in heaven. But now Jesus was calling them to much more. Jesus was calling them to become a disciple, and they answered the call with a resounding YES!
Are we willing to give up our schedule and our priorities, and make listening to God’s Word a priority? Are we willing to give up what you think you know about life and success and just obey Jesus no matter what? Are we willing to give up your priorities and make following Jesus your top priority? Are we willing to give up our plans for our life and let God use us to bring people into His kingdom? Are we willing to give up all our possession and worldly wealth and forsake it all for the sake of following Jesus? Simon Peter did, and it not only changed his life, it changed eternity.
JUST WOW!
About two years after this event, Jesus had died on the cross, and then risen from the dead. It was amazing to think about, but Simon Peter always found he could think better when he was fishing. So that is what he did. He went fishing. He and his buddies fished all night, but once again, they didn’t catch anything. And then, just as dawn was breaking, it was déjà vu. A man appeared on the shore, and yells out, “Have you caught anything?”
“No.” Simon Peter yells back. “Just some seaweed and sticks.”
“Try throwing your nets on the other side of the boat” the man hollers back. Simon Peter rolls his eyes. Who does this guy think he is? Jesus? But he glances at his fishing buddies in the boat with him, and they all shrug. Why not? What could it hurt? So they do it. They haul in their nets, and toss them off the other side of the boat. And just as before, they caught so many fish, they couldn’t bring them all into the boat! Simon Peter knew it was the Lord, and so he jumped into the water and swam to Jesus. Let his friends deal with the fish – he just wanted to be with Jesus. Who cares how silly he looked splashing around in the water, he just wanted to be with Jesus.
Simon Peter had gone back to fishing, but he found that nothing in the entire world compared to being with Jesus. And Simon Peter became one of the greatest fishers of men the world has ever seen. And it’s all because of the time when Jesus said, “Come follow me” Peter responded with, “Yes, I will.”
WOW! This certainly spoke to my heart. This came from the devo Redeeming God and just had to be shared.
God bless all of you and may we seek Him first and His kingdom, hearing from Him so we can be faithful to what He is calling us to do.
AMEN!
Source: Holy Spirit, God's Word, Redeeming God devo
