Jesus' Teaching on Prayer—Part 2

Today I invite you to join me in spending a second blog entry as we work our way through this extremely important teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ in Matthew 6:1-18. Please take the time to pause and read this passage of Scripture.

Last blog entry, I suggested that you respond to the first portion of Jesus’ teaching by doing the following: “Get alone with God. Call Him “Father.” Sit quietly in His Presence. Acknowledge that He is Holy. And, submit your will to His. Ask Him to complete His will in your life here on earth.”

In a sentence, I attempted to share with you that “Jesus teaches us that the Holy Spirit uses our prayers to illuminate the pathway of obedience.”

You see, its all about “obedience.” The one and only “thing” God asks of us: obedience.

Jesus continues his teaching in this passage by instructing us to take the opportunity—while we wait quietly in God’s Presence and talk with Him—to ask Him to give us whatever we need for each day. “Give us this day our daily bread.”

Part of our acknowledgement of who God is—that He is our Father, that He has chosen us before the foundation of the earth to be His children—requires us to recognize that all that we are and all that we have comes from His mercy and grace. Nothing that we are—our accomplishments, our achievements, our successes, our reputations, our health—and nothing that we possess, comes as a result of our efforts. Everything we are and everything we have has come to us as a gift from God.

Every breath that we take, every beat of our hearts is a precious gift from God. Every bit of intelligence that we possess, every bit of cleverness that we exhibit, every bit of success that we enjoy, every sliver of recognition that we receive, everything we are and everything we have has come to us as a gift from God.

Last blog entry I suggested to you that “the very God of the Universe waits to welcome us into His Presence.” I suggested that “prayer is a fundamental, cohesive, and powerful component of our relationship with God. He is not only willing to have us talk with Him, He welcomes it. He expects it. He longs for it. He waits for it. He waits for us. He wants us to come and sit with Him a while and talk with Him. We have the authority of no one less than the Son of God, Himself, telling us to come into the Father’s Presence and sit a while with Him.

Along with His desire to have us call Him “Father,” He also wants us to act as if He is the “Giver of every good and perfect gift.” Time and time again, throughout the New Testament, Scripture tells us to sit in God’s Presence and present our needs to Him. Tell God what we need.

Just a few verses later in this very “Sermon on the Mount” we are looking at, Jesus tells us in Matthew 7:7-11:

⁷ Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find’ knock and the door will be opened to you. ⁸ For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. ⁹ Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? ¹⁰ Or if he asks for a fish, will given him a snake? ¹¹ If you, then, though you are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!

So, as you sit quietly in God’s Presence, whatever you need for this day, ask your Father. He waits to grant you everything you need. Just remember, He gets to choose whether or not you really “need” it. And, also remember, you are asking for today. Not for yesterday, and certainly not for tomorrow, but for today. God expects His children to live very much in the present. We could talk about that at greater length, but that will have to wait for another warm August Sunday, because I need to press on to the hardest teaching of all.

In verses 12 and 13, Jesus instructs us to ask God to forgive our sins and to lead us away from temptation by delivering us from the clutches of satan, the evil one.


Peter tells us in Chapter 5 of his first epistle:

⁸ Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. ⁹ Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings. ¹⁰ And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. ¹¹ To him be the power for ever and ever. Amen.

Just as I shared with you last blog entry, when you first acknowledged that God had chosen you from the foundation of the world to belong to Him, when you responded to that gentle wooing (or not so gentle wooing) of the Holy Spirit and yielded your heart to God, He imbued you with His holiness.

When Jesus died on Calvary’s cruel cross and shed His precious blood to cover your sins, God took that blood and dipped you into it. He plunged you into that saving flood. And, when you emerged you were clean clear through. He sent His Holy Spirit to live inside your heart. And, you became a walking, talking vessel of God’s holiness.

And yet, until we pass from this life and enter God’s eternal kingdom—the process that Paul describes in Romans Chapter 8 as “glorification”—we remain “sinners.” Yes, our sins are covered by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. But, the sin nature that we inherited from Adam through our parents, grandparents and so forth, remains active in us, ever striving to drag us into the old patterns of sinful behavior. Our redemption comes through our relationship with God in and through the Lord Jesus Christ.

As an indication of our obedience to God, He asks us to mirror the relationship we have with Him by the way we relate to each other. Frankly, I think this is the hardest part of obedience. I am expected to relate to each one of you in the same way that God has chosen to relate to me.

My offenses against God condemn me to eternal death. At the moment of my birth, because I inherited the sin nature passed down from Adam through my parents, I started this life condemned to eternal death, separated from God. And, my conscious and active behavior from that day forward has only served to exhibit the sin nature within me. Charge upon charge has been laid to my account; sin upon sin.

Praise God, that before the foundation of the earth, He chose me to belong to Him. He sent His Holy Spirit to convince me—or, “convict” me, if you will—of my sinfulness and give me the opportunity to receive His mercy and grace by acknowledging His gift of redemption through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. It’s a great mystery. Yes, it is! A very, very great mystery. But, its true, nonetheless.

So, God wants me to mirror His forgiveness by forgiving everyone who sins against me; every single, solitary person who offends me, who sins against me. He wants me to extend to them the same unconditional forgiveness that He has extended to me.

And, if that’s not enough of a challenge, He instructs me through the words of Jesus to comprehend the seriousness of this sign of obedience by reminding me that He has forgiven me first. Even though I did nothing to deserve His mercy, He has chosen to forgive me.

Not only did He choose to forgive me, He made the first move. He sent His Holy Spirit to speak to me through my conscience and draw me irresistibly into His mercy and grace.

Dear friends, this “forgive our debtors” requirement is serious business. God gets our attention by asking us, “How would you like it if I made my forgiveness conditional on whether or not you forgave those who sinned against you?”

“Wait a minute,” I hear you respond, “Isn’t that what Jesus did say? Didn’t He say that if I don’t forgive the one that sins against me, my sins won’t be forgiven?”

Well, if that is how you read this passage, let me ask you a question: “Why do you persist in bearing a grudge against those fellow members of the household of faith who have offended you?”

In Matthew 18:15-17, Jesus tells His followers:

¹⁵ “If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over. ¹⁶ But if he will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’ ¹⁷ If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector.”

Did you notice that Jesus expects the one sinned against to make the first move? Astounding! Jesus expects the one sinned against to go to the one who sinned and attempt to make it right. That’s a far cry from our normal pattern of waiting until the one who sinned comes to us to apologize before we extend forgiveness. You see, God expects us to forgive just like He forgives. Paul tells us in Romans 5:

⁸ But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Examine your own hearts right now. Do you bear a grudge against a brother or sister in Christ who you believe has sinned against you in the past. Oh, you may not call it “sin.” You may say that “so and so” offended you, or did something wrong, or spoke ill of you, or questioned your authority, or challenged your judgment, or (you insert your favorite euphemism for “sin.”). Do you still hold that fault against the person who perpetrated the fault? Well, then, Jesus calls you to obedience and instructs you to forgive.

“But I can’t forgive!” you may respond in exasperation. “The hurt is too deep. The offense is too enormous. Why what ‘so and so’ did tore me apart. He or she ruined my family, defamed my reputation, stole my inheritance. You don’t know the awful things he or she did to me. How can I possibly forgive?”

The truth is, you can’t.

Remember how we talked about God placing the Holy Spirit inside your heart? Part of the reason God did that was to give you the power to be obedient.

No. You can’t forgive. You don’t have the power by yourself. You are too weak, too frail, too mired in your sin nature. But, God can enable you to forgive by the power of the Holy Spirit within you. With the same mercy and grace that God extends His forgiveness to you for your sins—which, by the way, are ever so much more horrible than any sin that any person here on earth could commit against you—God will enable you to forgive. All you have to do is let Him.

In a sentence, what I have been trying to share with you from the second portion of this passage is “Jesus teaches us to show our love for God by trusting Him to meet our daily needs, including our need to forgive others.” Let me say that again. “Jesus teaches us to show our love for God by trusting Him to meet our daily needs, including our need to forgive others.”

Are you wondering what to do? Here’s my suggestion for the week ahead. As you sit in quietness with God—if you took my suggestion for last week, surely you will want to continue to meet with God each day—ask Him to bring to your mind the name of one of your brothers or sisters in Christ who you believe has sinned against you. Then ask Him to give you the power to forgive. Just say to Him: “Father, please give me the power to forgive ‘so and so.’” And, speak that person’s name aloud.

It may even help you to name the sin that you believe the person has committed against you. “Father, please give me the power to forgive ‘so and so’ for doing (and just name the sin that you believe the person has committed against you.)”

Be careful to understand that I am asking you to start with one of your brothers or sisters in Christ, rather than someone who may not be a believer. I’m doing this because I am asking you to follow the pattern in Matthew 18.

Next, whenever you think of that brother or sister during the week, see that one in your mind’s eye as someone God is helping you to forgive.

Then, in obedience to Scripture, go to that person and talk with him or her about what you believe he or she did to you. Go humbly, go quietly, go patiently, and share the offense that resides in your heart: “You know, I have been holding a grudge against you for a long time because you did (and name the sin). I am asking God to help me forgive you. And, I just want to let you know that as far as I am concerned, you are forgiven.”

This may be the hardest thing you have ever done in your life. And, be prepared to learn that the one who you believe has sinned against you feels that you actually provoked his or her behavior toward you. During your conversation with this brother or sister in Christ, you may even find that the Holy Spirit is convicting you of sin in the matter. In that case, you will both have to ask forgiveness from each other. So, when you approach the one who you believe has sinned against you, make sure you to do so in a spirit of humility seasoned with great grace.

Now, just a word of caution: If the person that God brings to mind is a brother or sister in Christ who is continuing to sin against you, when you approach that one to tell him or her that you are extending forgiveness, you should also tell him or her that you are asking him or her to please stop sinning against you. “You know, I have been holding a grudge against you for a long time because you did (and name the sin). I am asking God to help me forgive you. And, I just want to let you know that as far as I am concerned, you are forgiven. But, I also want to ask you to please stop doing what you’re doing to me. Please, stop sinning against me.”

If the brother or sister in Christ that you speak to in this way is also seeking to be obedient to God, the sinning will stop. If it doesn’t, then follow Matthew 18. and the next time you go to the one sinning against you, take along a reliable witness. Follow the pattern of Matthew 18 all the way through to the end, if need be. But, if my experience over a life time in the church is reliable, you will almost never have to move beyond step one.

God asks you to forgive. In fact, He asks you to forgive everyone, whether a particular person is a believer or not. But, He has a special interest in maintaining harmony among the members of His household.

At the same time, don’t expect the instruction in Matthew 18 to work for a non-believer. Someone who does not belong to God through the power of Christ’s blood, someone who does not have the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit, cannot be expected to behave according to the patterns of those who belong to God. You still have to forgive. But, you have no reasonable expectation of repentance on the part of the non-believer who sins against you.

God asks one thing of us. And, its the hardest thing. He asks us to be obedient.

As I shared with you last week, “Jesus teaches us that the Holy Spirit uses our prayers to illuminate the pathway of obedience.”

Now, there is so much more to glean from this passage. I haven’t even written to you about “fasting.” Let me simply say that fasting energizes prayer by illustrating true self-denial. Perhaps we will have the opportunity to share that some other time.

In your moments of quiet alone with God this week, ask Him to bring to mind the name of one of your brothers or sisters in Christ who you believe has sinned against you. And then, ask Him to give you the power to forgive.

“Jesus teaches us to show our love for God by trusting Him to meet our daily needs, including our need to forgive others.”

_{Copyright © 2010 by Dean K. Wilson. All Rights Reserved.}

 

Jesus' Teaching on Prayer—Part 1

Do you know that Jesus was the very best teacher when it came to learning how to pray?

In order to understand the very familiar passage of Scripture that will form the basis of this blog entry, Matthew 6:1-18, we must first of all examine a bit about the writer who captured these important words of the Lord Jesus Christ. (Before you read on, please click on the link above and read the Scripture passage.)

Purely on the basis of human expectation, Levi Matthew represented a most unlikely disciple. If a popularity contest had been held in Matthew’s day, he would not have even registered on the scale.

When Matthew walked down the street, people would cross over to the other side to avoid passing him. Those that were bold enough to approach him would likely mutter a curse under their breath or even spit at his feet. You see Matthew had a most loathsome job. He was a publican or tax collector.

His fellow Jews considered Matthew a traitor. He had reached into his pocket and paid a significant sum of money to the Roman government to purchase the right to collect taxes from a segment of his fellow Jewish citizens. The whole purpose of the Roman occupation was to develop an ever-growing base of people from whom Rome could extract taxes to support the spendthrift policies of the ruler in Rome. Talk about diverting funds from one geographic area to support another. The Romans had elevated that political maneuver to an art form.

And here was Matthew: part of the problem rather than part of the solution. Scripture does not record any specific accusations against Matthew. But, we do know that most publicans made it a practice to double or even triple the amount of money for which Rome was actually asking. This gave them a 100% to 200% markup that they could pocket for their own. As long as Rome got its required per capita tax, it really didn’t care how the publicans wrangled the money out of the occupied citizens.

When Jesus called Levi Matthew to become a disciple, this act must have truly shocked the people following Jesus. Matthew, himself, chooses not to even mention his calling. Fortunately we have a record of this event in Mark Chapter 2 and Luke Chapter 5. Luke gives the fuller account in Luke 5:27-29:

²⁷ After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector by the name of Levi sitting at his tax booth. “Follow me,” Jesus said to him, ²⁸ and Levi got up, left everything and followed him.

²⁹ Then Levi held a great banquet for Jesus at his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were eating with them.

Did you notice the phrase “Levi got up, left everything and followed him?” Imagine that. So taken by Jesus simple invitation, Levi responded. And, it changed his life. Forever.

Based on the feelings of his fellow Jews, we could easily imagine that Levi Matthew might have become the first and most zealous missionary to the gentiles. After all, he had spent most of his life being despised by his fellow Jews.

Instead, Matthew becomes the disciple who specifically and intentionally reaches out to his Jewish brothers and sisters.

Some of you reading this may have heard me explain before that when God, in His mercy and grace, moved four writers to write the good news of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, He did so in order to create four very special points of view. Of the three “story” gospels, what Bible students call the synoptic gospels—Matthew, Mark, and Luke—Matthew writes specifically to the Jews. He portrays the Lord Jesus as “King of the Jews” and creates a word picture very much like an oil painting. Filled with subtle brush strokes and showing the effect of light and shadow, Matthew’s gospel has a rich texture that captivates his audience.

Mark writes to the Roman mind, portrays Jesus as a servant, and gives us a series of candid photographs. Some old timers, remembering the Dragnet television series from the 1950’s and 1960’s, refer to Mark’s gospel as the “Jack Webb gospel”—just the facts, only the facts.

Luke writes to the Greek mind, portrays Jesus as a man, and provides a motion picture or movie of Jesus’ life.

John writes to all mankind, portrays Jesus as the Son of God, or God the Son, and gives us an X-ray of the life and teachings of Jesus.

So, Matthew, despised by his Jewish brethren, aims his gospel squarely at the Jews. And, particularly, he wants to make certain that he provides a contrast with the haughty teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees of that day.

In Matthew Chapters 5, 6, and 7, we have a lengthy discourse of the Lord Jesus that Bible students often refer to as “The Sermon on the Mount.” In the 111 verses of these three chapters, Matthew lays out the fundamental teachings of Jesus on a wide variety of subjects. The common theme that threads its way throughout this discourse: “obedience.”

Matthew records Jesus’ teachings concerning some very difficult and touchy subjects. He deals with how to fulfill the Law of Moses, murder, adultery, oaths, retribution, love for enemies, giving to the needy, accumulating treasures, worry, judging others, what to do when you find yourself in need (asking-seeking-knocking), pathways, fruit inspection, and building wisely.

Smack dab in the middle of this very precise and very scary list of teachings that lead to obedience, Matthew records Jesus’ teaching on prayer.

Jesus tells us, first of all, to get alone with God. Go into a place where we can be quiet before Him. Set ourselves apart from the hectic traffic of the day. Sit quietly in His Presence. And, simply, talk to Him. Talk to God. Talk to the Father.

Begin by acknowledging that God is our Father. He has chosen to adopt us into His Eternal Kingdom. We are not mere creatures that He has created, but He has chosen us to be His children. As children, chosen before the foundation of the earth, we have the rights and privileges of children. We come into God’s presence as His children and we rightly may call Him “Father.” Not only do we call Him “Father,” but we acknowledge that He is. He is not someone who once was. Rather, He currently exists in all His power and glory. And, He waits to welcome us.

You know we really don’t understand this. We don’t get it. The God of the Universe, the One who spoke a word and all creation came into being, has chosen us as His children. And, He waits to welcome us to come and sit with Him and talk with Him.

Prayer is a fundamental, cohesive, and powerful component of our relationship with God. He is not only willing to have us talk with Him, He welcomes it. He expects it. He longs for it. He waits for it. He waits for us. He wants us to come and sit with Him a while and talk with Him. We have the authority of no one less than the Son of God, Himself, telling us to come into the Father’s Presence and sit a while with Him.

Next, in verse 9, Jesus continues His instruction by telling us to speak to God about His holiness: “hallowed be your name.” “May your Name be Holy.” As we sit quietly in His Presence, Jesus implores us to wrap a cloak of God’s holiness around us. By speaking to God of His holiness, we allow the Holy Spirit within us to latch on to that holiness and begin to weave God’s holiness into the very fabric of our beings.

Now I know that some of you reading this are getting more than a little uncomfortable at this point. “Wait a minute,” you say. “I’m not holy. And, I’m not really sure that I want to be holy. That sounds way too much like one of thosescary kind of Christians. I surely don’t want to be one of them!”

Well, in that case, I have bad news for you. When you first acknowledged that God had chosen you from the foundation of the world to belong to Him, when you responded to that gentle wooing (or not so gentle wooing) of the Holy Spirit and yielded your heart to God, He imbued you with His holiness.

When Jesus died on Calvary’s cruel cross and shed His precious blood to cover your sins, God took that blood and dipped you into it. He plunged you into that saving flood. And, when you emerged you were clean clear through. He sent His Holy Spirit to live inside your heart. And, you became a walking, talking vessel of God’s holiness.

Paul tells us in Titus 3:3-7:

³ At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. ⁴ But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, ⁵ he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit,
⁶ whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, ⁷ so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.

So, Jesus teaches us to acknowledge the holiness of God, that we might acknowledge His holiness within us.

Then Jesus instructs us to ask God to bring His will to pass in both heaven and on earth. In this simple statement hangs the chief problem that you and I face each day in our lives. “Not my will, but Thine be done.” The trouble is, I want Mine, not Thine.

As I think about you magnificent people reading this blog entry, I know that every one of you represents the very embodiment of kindness, generosity, and good will. Right? Of course not!

Every one of you—and me, too—all of us are filthy, dirty, horrible, corrupt sinners. And, the worst part of it is that we cannot even take credit for this awful state we are in, for we inherited it from our parents. And, they inherited it from their parents. And, so forth, all the way back to Adam.

But, praise God, through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ we have been cleansed. Our sins are covered. The penalty paid. We have been redeemed. We have been adopted into God’s family as His precious children.

And, once again, we had no part in this salvation other than being the recipients of God’s grace. He redeemed us through the power of Christ’s death on the cross. He guaranteed our place with Him for all eternity through the power of Christ’s resurrection.

So, what’s left for us to do? Just one thing. And that “thing” is the hardest “thing” of all. God wants us to be obedient. He wants us to surrender our will to His. He wants us to do His bidding in this world. He wants us to reach out to those around us—not because we are really nice, kind people—but solely because of His love that He places in our hearts by the Holy Spirit.

“Not my will but Thine be done.” That’s the watchword. And, Jesus asks us to say those words to God in prayer. He wants us to experience the power of sitting quietly in God’s Presence, surrounded by the solitude of our secret hideaway, and say those words of total submission. Jesus wants us to do that because He knows that out of obedience comes great joy.

In a sentence, what I’ve been trying to say to you concerning the first few verses of this passage is “Jesus teaches us that the Holy Spirit uses our prayers to illuminate the pathway of obedience.” Let me say that again. “Jesus teaches us that the Holy Spirit uses our prayers to illuminate the pathway of obedience.”

“Okay,” you might say. “I don’t like the fact that you called me a horrible, corrupt sinner, but I’m going to try to overlook that and ask you, ‘So, what?’ Exactly what do you want me to do about all this?”

Here’s my suggestion for the week ahead. First of all, start today, and find a time to get alone in absolute quietness with God. I know your lives are teeming with noise and busyness. In spite of all that, find a time when you can slip away to a place where you can get alone in total quiet to spend even a few minutes with God.

Then, talk with Him. Call Him “Father.” Just speak that word: “Father.” And then, wait a bit and just rest in His Presence. God has told us that He is everywhere present. So when you sit in quiet and speak His Name, you can be assured that He is there.

Next, acknowledge that He is holy. Tell Him that you realize that He is absolutely holy. “Hallowed be Thy Name.”

And, lastly, ask Him to make His will come to pass on earth, in your world, in your life, in your family, in your friends, in those you love and care about. Submit your will to God. Consciously. Quietly. Earnestly. Just submit your will to God.

That’s all I ask of you this week. Just those few things: Get alone with God. Call Him “Father.” Sit quietly in His Presence. Acknowledge that He is Holy. And, submit your will to His. Ask Him to complete His will in your life here on earth.

Once you do that, I will likely not have to convince you of the wisdom of doing it again. So, do it tomorrow, too. And, the next day. And, the next. All through the week. If you do, when we next meet back here on this blog, you will be a different person. And, so will I.

“Jesus teaches us that the Holy Spirit uses our prayers to illuminate the pathway of obedience.” That’s Lesson One from this passage.

_{Copyright © 2010 by Dean K. Wilson. All Rights Reserved.}

 

A Poem for Christmas

As Mary holds the babe in her arms,
The Wonder, wrought by God,
Makes her heart beat faster.

Wonderful Counselor, this new-born King,
Brings to all mankind
Salvation and Eternal Hope.

As shepherds huddle around the manger
On this star-lit night,
The distant background reveals a cruel cross.

Born to die! A terrible thought.
Yet, Mary knows that this very night
The door has opened to heavenly light!

—Dan Karroll Williamson

_{Copyright © 2009 by Dean K. Wilson. All Rights Reserved.}

 

What Christmas Means to Me...

Christmas can, and should, be a time of great joy and celebration. But, for countless tens of thousands of people, it can also have a few tinsel strands of sadness mixed in with the joy.

If you have lost someone you love at Christmas, that often heightens the depth of the emotions one feels. My dad passed away on December 15, 1981. And, my mom died on December 16, 1985. Christmas always reminds me of how much I miss them. Genuine sorrow is something that a person never really loses. Yes, with the passing of time the hurt lessens. But even now, all these years later, at the oddest moments I am overcome with grief at the loss of my parents. So, Christmas becomes a time of remembering those who are now gone.

Times of trouble in one's life at Christmas also can leave a twinge of sadness. I spent Christmas 2005 in the hospital fighting to live. By God's grace, and the care I received from many wonderful doctors and nurses, I pulled through. So, Christmas always reminds me of the healing I received at a time when I lay helpless in a hospital bed, unable to move.

Most importantly of all, Christmas is a time to remember the birth of the Christ child, God Incarnate. Out of His unfailing and undying love, God gave us the gift of His Son that we might move from mere creatures to become His children and joint heirs with Christ of the Kingdom of God. Everyone who has even a glimmer of understanding at the enormity of this gift should truly join with the choir of angels and sing, "Glory to God in the Highest and on earth Peace to all mankind."

_{Copyright © 2009 by Dean K. Wilson. All Rights Reserved.}

 

Abiding in Christ: In Affliction and Trial

Luke 15:11-32

As you can see, the title for today’s entry is “Abiding in Christ: In Affliction and Trial.” Said another way: “What in the world do we do when our world collapses around us?” Yeah. What do we do? How do we respond? Where can we find the strength to go on?

The concept of “Abiding in Christ,” is based on the words of our Lord Jesus Christ as recorded by the Apostle in John 15:1-2.

If I am to properly interpret the sense of these verses, the afflictions and trials that come into my life may well represent the pruning of God; pruning so that I “will be even more fruitful.”

Well, thank you very much! Pruning. Just what I needed to brighten my day!

It seems to me that the key to learning how to abide in Christ during times of affliction and trial rests in developing an understanding of how we respond to such events in our lives.

The truth is, I do not know any of you well enough to properly evaluate how you would respond in the face of affliction and trial. I do not know how you would act and react when your world gets turned upside down. So, I guess I will have to approach this subject by taking a really hard look at my own life.

Except for my wife of 41 years, most people who see me today have never known me other than as the man who has to walk with two canes, or ride in a powered wheel chair. But, I haven’t always been like this.

Eleven years ago, I was a man who moved like the wind.

“That rumble you hear once in a while,” someone at the insurance company where I worked back in Connecticut was heard to say, “that rumble is Dean Wilson charging up and down the stairs. I’ve never seen anybody move up and down stairs faster than Dean.”

Then one week, while I was on a business trip in Cincinnati. I came down with what I thought was the flu. And, then I found a blister on the bottom of my right foot that I did not know I had. Diabetes had long ago robbed me of the ability to feel any meaningful sensations from my feet.

Getting sicker by the minute, I boarded a plane to return to Connecticut. By the next morning, I was so sick that I had to call a friend to take me to the hospital emergency room because my wife, Shirley, was already at her school teaching. In God’s Providence, my doctor was already at the hospital attending a seminar. He took one look at my foot and called for his friend, a surgeon.

Blood tests showed that infection had spread into my bloodstream and was coursing through my body and starting to attack my organs. My doctor later shared with me that he was fairly certain I was going to die.

Massive doses of antibiotics, and significant surgical debriding of the wound, brought some healing. But, I was not “out of the woods” by any means. And, my life as I had known it was over. Forever.

Throughout the course of the next months, I ended up having the outside two toes on my right foot amputated. I was placed on seven months of twice-daily intravenous antibiotics, followed by a three-year-long course of powerful oral antibiotics. The wound on my right foot became re-infected twice more before it finally closed. In all, I suffered for over two and a half years with an open wound that would not heal.

Then, just when I thought I was getting better, my knees gave out in the Baltimore Airport. My doctor diagnosed me with progressive, profound osteo arthritis of the knees and hips. Soon, I could hardly walk, could not climb stairs, and within two years, had to end my career as a fire protection engineer and retire on disability because I could no longer perform the necessary field work.

In the midst of all of this, the wound on my right foot opened up again. I began a long period of wound care that included two hospitalizations. Fortunately, I received excellent care from a host of doctors. This time it took almost three long years before the wound would finally close.

Then, throughout the summer and fall of 2005, I began to have a shortness of breath. In December of that year, I was rushed to the hospital by ambulance and declared to be in congestive heart failure. By God’s grace, I survived.

Gastric bypass surgery followed in the summer of 2006. But my recovery couldn’t be simple, could it. No, I had to go into kidney failure. The treatment for the kidney failure put me back into congestive heart failure.

I think I’ll stop talking about my medical woes now. First of all, you didn’t come here to this blog for an “organ recital.” And, secondly, your story is probably even more horrific than mine.

After all, I only lost a couple of toes and a way of life. Maybe you have suffered through the death of a spouse, or a child, or some other loved one. Maybe you have seen your career tumble into shambles because someone at work decided to treat you unfairly. Maybe you have watched your financial security evaporate in a falling stock market, or a bad investment scheme of some kind.

I just don’t know what you have experienced in your life. But, I know this for sure: you’ve had afflictions in your life and you’ve had trials in your life. The question for you and the question for me is “How do we respond?”

Frankly, we respond in anger.

Anger is a very interesting emotion. It comes in all varieties. Sometimes anger appears like a pot of slowly boiling water. Over time, that kind of anger gets hotter and hotter until it boils over. That boiling kind of anger can last a very long time before it boils over. It can last hours, days, even months and years. Once it boils over, it can take a very long time to cool off.

Sometimes anger appears like a stick of dynamite with a very short fuse. Once the torch hits the fuse, an enormous explosion erupts that flattens everything in its vicinity. That kind of explosive anger can have a short fuse or a very, very short fuse. Once it explodes, the anger itself can wither away to nothing in an instant. But the damage around the site of the explosion may never be repaired.

We really don’t like to talk about anger, unless we can do so in the abstract. Said another way, most of us will gladly talk about anger, as long as we are talking about someone else. We don’t like to confront our own anger, or even admit we become angry. And most of all, we do not like to talk about the fact that from time to time every single one of us becomes angry with God.

“Oh, now hold on,” you may say. “Angry with God? Are you kidding? Who in the world would ever admit that he or she would become angry with God?”

Okay. Here’s the deal. I frankly don’t have enough time or space in this blog entry to try to win you over to my way of thinking. So, I’m just going to lay it out for you and then let the Holy Spirit either confirm that what I am saying is the truth, or take my words and cast them away into the wind.

You see, I believe that every single one of you has been angry at God at some point in your life. In fact, I believe that some of you have been angry at God for a long time and are still, to this very day, angry with Him.

That’s right. I’m talking about being angry with God. Our God. Our Father. The God of the Universe. The One who created us. The One who chose us before the foundation of the earth to belong to Him. That God. Angry with that God. Angry with Him.

I cannot possibly address today’s topic: “Abiding in Christ: In Affliction and Trial” unless I deal with the most pervasive aspect of this subject. When you and I face affliction and trial in our lives, at some point in our processing what’s happening to us, we will feel anger toward God.

Why some of you regularly shake your head and wonder what God is doing. How can he possibly allow 416 children to live in an environment in Texas where they are subjected to physical and sexual abuse, all in the name of honoring what the cult members are calling “God’s Law.”

When a hurricane and resulting flood sweeps across the Gulf Coast and leaves thousands of the poorest people in that region without homes, some of you have at least thought about how you would take care of such matters if you were God. And, you are most certainly not at all pleased with the way He is taking care of the situation, or even that He permitted it to happen in the first place.

Or when people you know, or know about, die because radical-thinking adherents to some religion crash airplanes into the World Trade Center, or the Pentagon, or a field in southwestern Pennsylvania, just for a moment—or maybe from that day to this one—you feel a bit of anger toward the God who would permit such a tragedy.

And what if your theology holds to the orthodox belief that every thing that happens can only happen if God so ordains it?

Well, enough of the abstract.

What about you? What about those times in your life when things have not gone the way you wanted them to go? Did you respond by being angry with God? Of course you did!

What was the issue for you? What pushed you over the edge? Did you get sick? Did you watch someone you love battle illness, get weaker and weaker, until they died in your arms? Did you experience the sudden death of a loved one in an accident or because of a heart attack? Did you lose a child during childbirth? Did you want to have children so badly that you would do almost anything, but years passed and you remained childless? Did someone steal your reputation? Did you lose your fortune? Did an unfair supervisor at work make your daily life miserable, but you just could not afford to give up your job? Did a fire claim all your possessions? What was the issue for you?

Oh, I know I probably haven’t even come close to naming your issue. But, if you will only be honest with yourself, you will have to admit that sometimes the kinds of things that happen in your life have pushed you to the point that you have been angry with God. For some of you, that anger may have only lasted for a moment. For others of you, hidden in the deep recesses of your heart, you still harbor anger—even resentment—toward God.

In the moment of our anger, every one of us turns and runs away from God. Yes, we run away from God. It’s the only logical thing to do. When we believe someone is hurting us deliberately, we turn and run. We run as far away and as fast as we can.

But, do you know what? God understands. That’s right. God understands. He understands our frustration, our heartache, and He understands our anger. He understands our anger, even when it’s directed at Him.

And, what is even more amazing, He loves us just the same. Unbelievable. But, it’s true.

One of the most amazing parts of the parable from our Scripture text for this blog entry takes place in Luke 15:17-24.

The son came to his senses. In the Greek text for this passage the sense goes something like this: “when he returned to his proper thinking” or “when his mind began to function clearly” or “when his reason began to rule his emotions.” Wow! Imagine that. When he came to his senses he did the only thing he could possibly do: he acknowledged his sin, turned his back on that sin, and returned to his father in a spirit of humility.

But, the part of this parable I like the best is the part where the Scripture tells us that “while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.”

Did you get that? While the son was still “a long way off,” his father saw him. Did you ever think why the father saw his son? It didn’t just happen. The father didn’t just happen to walk by and see his son in the distance. He saw his son because he was looking for him. In fact, I believe the father stood looking for his son every single day since the son left the father’s side.

In responding to the afflictions and trials in your life, has your anger, or your sorrow, of your unbelief pushed you away from the abiding presence of the Lord Jesus Christ? Do you know that every day since you stormed away, or walked away, or crawled away from Him, He has been looking for you, watching for you, waiting for you to come to your senses and return to Him?

In a sentence, what I am trying to share with you today might go something like this: “When our anger at afflictions and trials pushes us away from God, He lovingly waits for us to come to our senses and return to Him.” Let me say that again, “When our anger at afflictions and trials pushes us away from God, He lovingly waits for us to come to our senses and return to Him.”

If you are looking for a way to respond to the truth of what I am saying, let me offer this suggestion: starting today, read the passages in Luke 15 and John 15 again.

After you’ve read those passages, ask yourself whether or not you harbor any anger against God.

If the answer is “yes,” then let me respectfully suggest that you stop, bow your head in prayer, and ask the Holy Spirit to guide you to a place where you can come to your senses and return to God.

So, my suggested assignment has three parts:

First, reread the text from Luke 15 and John 15.

Secondly, examine your own heart to see if you harbor anger or resentment or disappointment with God.

Then, thirdly, ask God in prayer to send the Holy Spirit to guide you to a place in your thinking where you can come to your senses and begin to make your way back into the shelter of God’s Presence.

One day a man waited expectantly to join his wife and four daughters who had sailed across the ocean ahead of him. He had recently lost his only son and then seen his fortune destroyed by the Great Chicago Fire. He had planned to holiday in England with the hope of rebuilding the life of his family there. But, a business matter delayed his departure. As a result, he had been away from his family for an extended period of time. His heart ached at the thought of them. He longed to be with them once again.

Then the horrible news of a shipwreck reached him. Fearing the worse, he waited for days and days to hear whether or not they had survived. Finally, he received the news from his wife—two simple words—“Saved, alone.”

All four of his beautiful, dearly loved daughters had perished in the shipwreck. He had lost his fortune. And, now, he had lost his family.

Out of his broken heart, Horatio G. Spafford, penned these words to a familiar hymn:

When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to say,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.

Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,
Let this blest assurance control,
That Christ has regarded my helpless estate,
And hath shed His own blood for my soul.

My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!
My sin, not in part but the whole,
Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!

And Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight,
The clouds be rolled back as a scroll;
The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend,
Even so, it is well with my soul.

“When our anger at afflictions and trials pushes us away from God, He lovingly waits for us to come to our senses and return to Him.” Amen.

_{Copyright © 2009 by Dean K. Wilson. All Rights Reserved.}

 

New Beginnings: How Do We Handle Change?

Every new beginning presents a unique set of challenges. Whether that new beginning occurs on a purely personal level, or extends beyond the walls that surround an individual, every new beginning creates a moment of pause.

Songwriters have always found fertile soil on the occasion of new beginnings. Lots of love songs talk about new romance. Patriotic tunes evoke images of sweeping changes that can affect the lives of thousands of people.

Not a few Christian songwriters have penned words that talk about the deeply significant changes that occur when the Holy Spirit whispers the words of Christ’s eternal love into the heart of one whom God calls to Himself.

Even the Apostle Paul talks about new beginnings with an air of excitement and determination in 2 Corinthians 5:17:

¹⁷Therefore, if anyone is in Christ he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come.

Perhaps in your life, or in mine, we stand at yet another time of new beginning. We seem to have experienced a lot of those kinds of times in the past few years. Haven’t we?

It is appropriate, even healthy, to take a moment for reflection and ask ourselves, “How will we respond to this new beginning?”

Over the course of my life, like many of you, I have observed lots of changes. A friend remarked recently that one of the few benefits of getting older comes from the fact that, if one lives long enough, he or she begins to observe certain patterns that seem to repeat themselves. I think that’s true at a time of change.

It seems as if people respond in one of three ways to change. Some people relish change, look for it, long for it, anticipate it, and glory in it. For these folks, the more change the better.

The second group of people abhor change. They do everything they can to avoid it. When change inevitably comes, they try to hide from it, resist it, flee from it, dread it, and agonize over it.

The third group seems impervious to any change. Whether things change or whether they don’t, these folks move forward at a steady pace, following their own muse, keeping on their self-determined path, oblivious to what happens around them, focusing only on their own well-defined world.

I don’t know which category you fit into with regard to change. For the most part, I’m in the second camp. I generally dislike change. In fact, I go to great lengths to try to systematize my life to such an extent that I insulate myself from even the thought of change.

But, do you know what? Change still occurs. And, more often than not, that change proves good: good for me, good for those around me, just plain good.

How about you? Does any of this resonate with how you feel about change and your response to change? If so, I think you may agree that both you and I need to take this time of “pause,” as we stare over the brink of another new beginning, and ask ourselves some questions.

To what degree are we willing to allow God to bring about change in our lives? Do we understand that, in reality, He is the One who is always in control? Are we ready to acknowledge that He has charted a pathway for each of us that He lovingly waits to reveal to us step-by-step? Will we respond to His great love for us and consciously yield ourselves daily to His purpose for us, His plan for us, His perfect will for us?

I am certain we need to pray for each other. After all, with us or without us, change is inevitable. Also, history stands as a witness that change is often healthy, beneficial, spectacular, exciting. life-giving, and good.

A song from the 1960’s says it well:

There’s a new day coming,
And it's just around the bend.
There's a new day coming
This one's coming to an end.

There’s a new voice calling,
You can hear it if you try.
And it's growing stronger
With each day that passes by.

There’s a brand new morning
Rising clear and sweet and free.
There’s a new day dawning
That belongs to you and me.

Yes, a new day’s coming,
The one we’ve had visions of,
Coming in peace, coming in joy, coming in love.

^{adapted from Mama Cass Elliot}

And, again, from the Apostle Paul from 2 Corinthians 5:17:

¹⁷Therefore, if anyone is in Christ he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!

_{Copyright © 2009 by Dean K. Wilson. All Rights Reserved.}

 

From Fisherman to Follower

I am not certain whether or not the "Scripture police" permit a person to have a favorite Gospel, but I confess to you to the Gospel of Luke is truly my favorite Gospel.

Most of you probably realize by now that God, in His great Mercy and Grace, wisely gave us four Gospels for a very distinct reason. He simply did not want to rely on the voice of one individual telling a story as important as the one that describes how God sent His only Son to become a man, to live here on earth for a season, to die a horrible death on Calvary’s cross to pay the atonement for the sin of all mankind, and then to rise from the dead, return to heaven and make a home for all those whom He has redeemed.

Years ago, a Bible-teacher gave me some clues to understanding the four Gospels, and I want to pass them on to you. He introduced me to a volume called A Harmony of the Gospels (Robertson, A.T. A Harmony of the Gospels. New York: Harper & Row, 1922.) You may have seen one of these interesting books. The book is set up in four parallel columns, one for each of the four Gospels. The story of Christ is listed chronologically. As each Gospel writer contributes to the story, text appears in the column for that Gospel writer. Where the writers tell the same story, text appears in each column. It provides a very interesting way of understanding the life of Christ. It also gives some insight into what events each Gospel writer chose to report.

This same Bible-teacher also gave me some insight into the purpose of the four Gospels. He explained that Matthew wrote his Gospel to the Jewish-mind. He paints an exquisite oil painting of the life of Christ. He portrays the Lord Jesus Christ as the King of the Jews.

Mark wrote his Gospel to the Roman-mind. He provides a series of candid photographs of the life of Christ. He portrays the Lord Jesus Christ as the Servant. Someone has called Mark’s Gospel the “Jack Webb Gospel,” referring to the actor in the old “Dragnet” TV-series of the 1950’s and 1960’s. “Just gimme the facts, just the facts.” And, of course, Mark is the first “streaker” recorded in Scripture. Some time take a look at scene of Jesus arrest near the Garden of Gethsemane, as recorded in Mark 14:51-52:

⁵¹A young man, wearing nothing but a linen garment, was following Jesus. When they seized him, ⁵²he fled naked, leaving his garment behind.

Most scholars believe that the young man was John Mark, himself.

Luke wrote his Gospel to the Greek-mind. He provides a motion picture of the life of Christ. He portrays the Lord Jesus Christ as the Man.

John wrote his Gospel to the mind of all men and women. He provides an X-Ray image of the life of Christ. He portrays the Lord Jesus Christ as God the Son.

Perhaps my love of motion pictures, my fondness for movies, draws me to Luke’s Gospel. Or, maybe my fondness comes from Luke’s portrayal of Jesus as the Man. In any case, I find myself gravitating to the Gospel of Luke when I seek for accounts of Jesus time here on earth.

The particular passage from Luke 5:1-11 has a unique fascination for me. I suppose that fascination comes from the unlikeliness of it all.

The passage opens with Jesus standing by the Sea of Galilee, what the New International Version rightly refers to as the Lake of Gennesaret. Luke records that Jesus was speaking to a crowd of people. It is interesting to note that what Jesus was sharing with the people was the “word of God.” How appropriate. Jesus, in this early stage of his earthly ministry, is sharing with interested listeners the word of God.

Perhaps he was sharing with them from one of the prophets. Or, maybe, he was giving a discourse on one of David’s Psalms. We don’t know exactly what passage he was opening for them, but we can be pleased to know that most appropriately, Jesus was sharing with the people the word of God.

Luke seems to give us an interesting insight into this crowd that has gathered around Jesus. We can imagine that it started by just a few people standing around him. The longer he spoke, the more people joined the crowd. The more people joined the crowd, the more tightly they pressed around Jesus.

Some of the people were moving around, trying to get a better look at Jesus. Some were trying to move closer so they could hear better what he was saying.

As the crowd grew in numbers and pressed more tightly around Jesus, he realized that he needed to draw a bit away from them so that they could see him better and hear him better.

Luke records that he spotted a couple of fishing boats at the water’s edge. The boats belonged to some fishermen who had finished their day’s work and were now doing the clean up activity of washing their nets.

In a “take charge” way that characterized many of Jesus’ actions, he got into one of the boats. He very specifically chose the boat that belonged to Simon Peter. To understand who Simon Peter was, we have to look over at John 1:35-50. John records in very simple terms the first encounter that some of the men who would become Jesus’ disciples had with their Master.

We are told in this passage that Simon Peter’s brother, Andrew was one of John the Baptist’s disciples. The other disciple of John the Baptist who is not specifically named in this passage is likely the Gospel writer, John, himself.

John and Andrew witnessed Jesus baptism by John the Baptist in the Jordan River. They saw the Holy Spirit descend on Jesus. They heard the testimony of John the Baptist that this was the Son of God. In response, they began to follow Jesus.

Andrew sought out his brother Simon and reported that they had found the Messiah. This simple statement in Scripture does not begin to do justice to the enormity of this revelation.

You must remember that every devout Jew who walked the face of the earth was waiting eagerly and expectantly for the Messiah. Especially since the scourge of Rome had descended on their land.

Here was Andrew telling his brother, Simon, “We have found the Messiah.”

So Andrew brings Simon to Jesus. Jesus tells Simon, “You are Simon, son of John. You will be called Cephas.” (which, when translated, is Peter.)

The scene that John records gives us insight into the calling of the first disciples. At some point, between the record of John and the passage we have today in Luke, these disciples return to their daily occupation, that of fishermen. We do not know why they left Jesus’ side, but they obviously did. For here at the shore of the Sea of Galilee, many weeks later, we find James and John, and Andrew and Peter back at their daily work.

So, back to the Luke 5 passage. We can understand, now, why Jesus may have felt at liberty to get into Simon Peter’s boat. This was not some idle or presumptuous familiarity. Simon Peter was already known to Jesus and had been called as a disciple. However, Jesus found him at this moment back at his original job, catching fish.

Luke records that Jesus asked Simon Peter to row out a little ways so that Jesus could continue addressing the crowd. Oh, to have stood on that shore that day. To hear the very voice of Jesus teach the word of God. Whatever Jesus had to say, none of the Gospel writers have chosen to preserve those particular words. This omission likely stems from the dramatic events which followed this discourse.

After he was done speaking to the crowd, Jesus directed Peter to put out into deep water and let down the nets to catch some fish.

Do you have any idea how utterly ridiculous this request was? Do you grasp how completely taken by surprise Peter must have been?

First of all, Peter knew who Jesus was. Peter knew that Jesus was a carpenter from Nazareth.

Now, I have a very healthy respect for carpenters. While I, myself, can barely drive a nail home without bending it, my father, and his father, and his father’s father were all Scotch/Irish carpenters. I grew up in a home where the work of carpenters was revered. As a small boy, I was surrounded by craftsmen who worked in wood.

Not only was my father a carpenter, and my grandfather, and great grandfather a carpenter, my mother’s father was a carpenter, and my mother’s grandfather and great grandfather were all carpenters. And not just any garden variety carpenters, they were Swedish carpenters!

The highest complement my father could pay a fellow wood worker would be to call him a “cabinet maker.” I can remember asking my father if Bud Seagren was a carpenter.

“No, son,” my father replied, “Bud is not a carpenter, he is a cabinet maker.”

So understand, I have a very, very high level of respect for carpenters. Jesus was a carpenter. But, carpenters don’t know anything about catching fish. And, Peter knew this!

First of all, it was the middle of the day. No self-respecting Jewish fisherman would begin to fish in the middle of the day. Secondly, Jewish fishermen did not fish in deep water. They routinely fished in the very early hours of the morning, just before dawn, and they always, always fished in relatively shallow water.

These Jewish fishermen, James and John and Andrew and Peter knew the best time to catch fish was before dawn in shallow water. One did not catch fish in the middle of the day by letting one’s nets down into deep water. Absurd. Absolutely, positively absurd.

Notice how Peter responds to Jesus’ request in verse 5:

⁵Simon answered, "Master, we've worked hard all night and haven't caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets."

You see, Peter was willing to set aside everything he knew about fishing and follow the instructions of the one that he had begun to follow many weeks ago after his brother Andrew had reported to him, “We have found the Messiah.” Peter was beginning to understand, he was beginning learn, what it means to be obedient.

Notice what happens next in verses 6 and 7:

⁶When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. ⁷So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink.

Wow! What a total surprise! You can’t catch fish in the middle of the day by letting your nets down into deep water. And, yet... And, yet, here was the biggest catch of the year, if not in their entire lives. Amazing. Simply, amazing. Imagine what would have happened if Simon Peter stuck to what he knew to be true and refused to be obedient to Jesus’ instructions.

Notice Simon Peter’s response in verses 8 through the first half of verse 10:

⁸When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus' knees and said, "Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!" ⁹For he and all his companions were astonished at the catch of fish they had taken, ^10aand so were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, Simon's partners.

When faced with the reality of Christ’s power, Simon Peter is immediately convicted of his sin. In the face of the overwhelming righteousness of Christ, as evidenced by this miracle, Peter falls to his face before Jesus. Simon Peter asks Jesus to “go away.” He declares that he is not worthy to remain in Christ’s Presence. But in His great mercy, grace, and love, notice what Jesus says to Simon Peter in second half of verse 10:

^10bThen Jesus said to Simon, "Don't be afraid; from now on you will catch men."

It seems as if Jesus says to Peter:

“Don’t be afraid. Don’t be afraid, Simon Peter. Don’t be afraid of my overwhelming righteousness. Don’t be afraid of my mighty power. Don’t be afraid that more and more you are beginning to realize who I am. Don’t be afraid that more and more you are beginning to realize who you are.

“Don’t be afraid. Don’t be afraid of this great catch of fish. Don’t be afraid. I have greater plans for you. I have better plans for you. I have more exciting plans for you. I have other work for you to do. From now on, Simon Peter, you won’t need to be concerned about catching fish.

“No, No, Simon Peter. From now on, you will be catching men and women and boys and girls. From now on, you will become part of my program, part of my process, part of my world-changing army. Don’t be afraid. Don’t be afraid, Simon Peter. Don’t be afraid.”

Can you imagine how Simon Peter must have felt? Can you imagine the emotions that were coursing through his being? Can you feel the electricity that must have shot through his body at these words? If you had heard Jesus say these words to you, how would you have responded?

Notice how Peter and the other disciples responded to Jesus' call to them, in verse 11:

¹¹So they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed him.

Can you imagine it? They pulled their boats up onto the shore, left everything, and followed him. What a response. What an amazing response. Talk about obedience. Talk about following Jesus. Talk about devotion. Talk about commitment. Wow. They pulled their boats up onto the shore, left everything and followed him.

Would their pathway be easy from now on? No it would not. Would they cease from sinning, never to sin again? No they would not. Would their devotion continue without any slipping backwards? No it would not.

And, yet, when given a new beginning by Jesus, they did the only correct thing they could do. They pulled their boats up onto the shore, left everything, and followed him.

You see, in the case of Simon Peter, fishing had gotten into the way of being a follower. Fishing had taken an upper hand. But that would happen no longer.

This was truly a different kind of following. This was a new beginning. This was a change from the first time that Jesus had called them after his baptism. This was the charting of a new course for their lives. This was the beginning of a life-changing turn of events. And, the only correct response they could make was to pull their boats up onto the shore, leave everything, and follow him.

What about you and me today? Do you hear Jesus’ voice? Across the centuries of time do you hear Jesus’ speaking to you? Do I?

Do we see Jesus standing at the shore? Do we see him step into our boat and ask us to row out a little way into the Lake so he can address the crowd that has gathered? Do we hear him ask us to do something that is so very much against everything we know to be true that it cannot possibly be correct?

And, yet, because it is Jesus who is asking us, we decide to be obedient. We decide to let a carpenter tell a fisherman how to catch fish. We decide that we will allow the wisdom of God’s Only Son to direct us in what we are to do.

And, I ask you my dear friends, will we be surprised when our nets fill to overflowing? Will we be shocked when we have to call our brothers and sisters to come to our aid, lest the catch of fish swamp our boat so that it begins to sink? Will we find ourselves falling at Jesus’ feet, acknowledging that we are sinners, and asking him to leave us because we are not worthy to be in His Presence?

Will we hear Jesus tell us that today we will no longer catch fish, but will become fishers of men and women and boys and girls? Will we decide to respond the only correct way to respond? Will we pull our boats up onto the shore, leave everything and follow him? Will we decide that we will allow nothing in our life to stand in the way of our relationship to Him. Will we consciously, and with determination, choose to let nothing keep us from our relationship to Jesus Christ?

Will we examine our hearts and ask God the Holy Spirit to reveal to us anything that we may be holding onto so tightly that it is keeping us from a full and complete relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. And, will we release our grip on whatever it is and become fully devoted followers of the Savior of the world?

What I have been trying to share, in a sentence, would go something like this: “When people begin to truly believe who Jesus is, they determine to let nothing stand in the way of their relationship to Him.” Let me say that again, “When people begin to truly believe who Jesus is, they determine to let nothing stand in the way of their relationship to Him.”

_{Copyright © 2009 by Dean K. Wilson. All Rights Reserved.}