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But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness Gal 5:22 |
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Dear
Friend,
If you do not already have a habit of gathering daily manna the first thing in the morning (we can look at the example given to us in Exodus 16 and find the pattern for collecting daily manna), make it a habit. Establish your life and your schedule to allow you the necessary time to do your daily collection first thing every morning to give you the strength to make it through the day. And remember that today’s manna will not be sufficient for tomorrow; tomorrow’s manna must be collected tomorrow morning. Saturday, July 15, 2017
Today's Passage : Today's Passage: Subject:Jesus Calls the First Disciples Bible Verse:Matthew 4:18-22 (ESV) "While walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon (who is called Peter) and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Immediately they left their nets and followed him. And going on from there he saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets, and he called them. Immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him. " Message:
All of us hear some sort of call to Christ. Most often when we read about it in the Bible, it is dramatic. Picture Saul on the Road to Damascus, being knocked from his horse and stricken blind, or Jonah being swallowed by a great fish and disgorged on a beach.
fishers of men, Simon Peter Andrew
The call to the first four apostles is almost as dramatic. Peter and Andrew, fishermen at work, immediately leave their nets to follow Jesus. Being a fisherman is honest labor but a hard life with little reward, and back then even moreso than today. It was literally a earning a living, and a risky one at that — for coming up empty-handed after a days' work is always a risk for fishermen, and injury is common. Christ's first call, a call that will determine the people he will leave in charge of his church, is not to the educated, wealthy, influential; these are not people who have shown any intimation of greatness.
And what do they do when they hear the call? They quit their job on the spot. We call someone taking great risk without any backup “jumping without a net”, figuratively; but they do so, literally. They abandon their slim source of sustenance.
James and John are in a similar position, but notice the difference. They are said to leave their boat and their father, emphasizing that they have left behind their home and family. We see people in the two primary spheres of life — at work and at home — dropping everything.
Such calls continue to happen today; a man or woman, in a sudden flash of insight, will repent of their sin and follow Christ. Often dramatic conversions occur to prisoners, addicts, people whose lives are truly a mess. But for most of us the call comes more subtly, more gradually, often to the point where we hardly notice it. We do not need to experience our rebirth in Christ as a great moment of epiphany. Although theologians will tell us that there is a moment when the miracle occurs and we answer our call, we may hardly know when it was.
Growing gradually in faith is the rule; it is the sudden dramatic call that is the exception. God gives us a lifetime to find him, and our growth in faith may happen in such small stages, with so many small steps backwards, that we hardly notice how much we change. We should, none of us, doubt our call! Nor should we fear to drop our nets and follow Christ in stages. We come to Christ as we are called, and if the realization of our salvation comes slowly, it is none the less real and eternal.
Meditation : Prayer : Now all glory to God, who is able to keep me from falling away and will bring me with great joy into his glorious presence without a single fault. All glory to him who alone is God, our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord. All glory, majesty, power, and authority are his before all time, and in the present, and beyond all time,. Amen |
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