Wednesday, November 26, 2014

November 26, 2014 … "Go Fish!!"

Daily Berry Patch Devotions in 2014 - Day 330

Devotional Song: Go to this link  … Please take the time to take in the lyrics with Steve Green singing the poignant and always pertinent song People Need the Lord. … declaring our commission to become fishers of men just as He called His inner 12 to become.

{Elly Berry walking the beach where Jesus called His "fishers of men"}

Highlight Passage - NKJV Luke 5: 10b … Paul describes the “Father of their Faith” to Christians …
  10 And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid. From now on you will catch men.” 
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Highlight Context #1 - Luke 5: 1-10 [NKJV]USE THIS LINK …   Jesus calls the fishermen to become "fishers of men"
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Reference Passage #1 - Matthew 4: 18-20 [NKJV]USE THIS LINK …   Matthew’s version of Jesus calling the fishermen by the Sea of Galilee … and …
Reference Passage #2 - Mark 1: 16-18 [NKJV]USE THIS LINK …   Mark’s version of Jesus calling the fishermen to come and become His disciples

Reference Passage #3 - Matthew 28: 18-20 [NKJV]USE THIS LINK …   All disciples of Christ are commissioned to be “fishers of men (and women)”

Reference Passage #4 - John, Chapter 21 [NKJV]USE THIS LINK …   Jesus returns to His men after the resurrection to restore Peter to be His fisherman

My Journal for Today: Today’s Our Daily Bread devotional entry, authored by David Roper, took me back to our time in the Holy Land where my wife and I walked the very beach where Jesus called the fishermen, Peter and his brother Andrew, to come and follow Him and become “fishers of men.” In the attached photo, you see my wife and a few others in our party of pilgrims walking on that very beach, which archeologists are sure was the beach where Jesus called His disciples and where he met with them for breakfast after the resurrection and where Jesus restored Peter after he had denied Jesus [see the link to John 21 above].

 It was sobering to be on that beach where Jesus first called the big fisherman, Peter (and the others) - see the highlight passage from Luke 5 and the parallel passages in Matthew/Mark. To realize that we were walking where Jesus, after His resurrection came back to that very beach to dine with His remaining 11 Disciples and then to restore Peter, who was so broken after his denial of The Lord [see the John 21 link above].

 Jesus had called Peter (and the others) to follow Him and become “fishers of men;” and then, after our Lord was raised from the dead, He returned to the very same beach where He had called Peter to recommission him to “feed My lambs.” It’s our Lord’s beautiful symmetry of the Gospel call to all Disciples. And when Jesus left this earth to return to heaven (see Matthew 28: 18-20), all Christians were/are called, just as was Peter, to GO and become fishers of men and feeders of God’s flock. And that’s what Steve Green sings about in the linked song above. … All people need the Lord; and we are called to share the Gospel with any and all whom we’ve been given the opportunity to share God’s redeeming grace with those who need Him.

 It’s like that command from the children’s card game. We are called to “GO FISH!!”   So, today, as we walk about, may we be convicted to remember that any and all, who look us in the eyes, are those who need Christ. Yes, as Steve Green sings, “People Need the Lord!!”

My Prayer for Today … Lord, … help me to be a fisherman today. Amen

Blogger Note: Everyday during this year, my daily devotional blogs are influenced by the reading and study of the online devotional blog entitled Our Daily Bread, distributed online via email by RBC Ministries. If you GO TO THIS LINK on the date of my blog, you can read/study the ODB blogs; or you can subscribe to the blog via email at that site.

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