Gone Fishing

Many pastors have taken up golf as their chosen stress reducing, getting away from it all activity.  Golf is not for me.  I choose rather to follow the encouragement of those bumper stickers.  I’m sure you have seen them, haven’t you?  “When the going gets tough, the tough go fishing”; “life is short- fish hard”; “will fish for food”; and my favorite, “a fisherman lives here with the best catch of his life”.  It doesn’t get any better than sitting on the shore or in my kayak reeling in a rod-bending catch.  Gone fishing are two words that are music to my ears.

Peter was a fisherman before the Lord called him to be a Christ-follower.  Jesus told him to: “follow me and I will make you to be fishers of men” (Matt. 4:19). Not only did Jesus call Peter to be a fisher of men He calls all of us to this activity. The kind of fishing He spoke about does not involve boats or nets or even a fishing pole.  Fishing for men is also called witnessing, soul-winning, or sharing the gospel of Christ.  It is an activity that seems to have fallen out of practice with many Christians.  We seem to think that if the fish want to be caught let them swim over to our boat and jump in.  It doesn’t work that way with real fish, neither does it work for people.  We must share the gospel with those we know.  We need to make sure all those around us hear that God loves them and Christ died to save them from their sins.  We must invite them to receive Christ as their Savior.  Rather than fishing for men, I am afraid that our churches have become aquarium keepers, where we swap fish once in a while.  Our churches need to put forth every effort to be centers where fishers of men are sent out to reach people for Christ.

How about you?  Been doing any fishing lately?  Why not grab your Bible and let’s go fishing for men.