Follow me! I will make you fishers of men. (Matthew 4:19)I'll be preaching on Jan. 23 using that text as a basis. Jesus speaks these words to fishermen as he calls them to a new life. That new life he calls them to, however, is not entirely different from the life they knew before. Yes, they leave the tools of their former profession behind. But when he speaks to them and calls them to follow, he speaks to them in a way they can understand. Before, they had been catching fish. From then on, they will be catching people.
Jesus speaks their language. Jesus knows them. There are probably several ways of understanding this, some of which are just "normal." They lived in the same area, knew some of the same people, may have even connected professionally--as a carpenter in Galilee, Jesus may have done some work on wooden boats like the ones the fishermen used. But Jesus doesn't only rely on what we think of as natural or normal knowledge. He knows them deeply, spiritually, way down in the depths of who He--the Son of God--created them to be.
Each one of us can hear and obey Jesus' call. Jesus is risen from the dead and He speaks to us today through the Holy Spirit. Jesus sees you way deep down inside and wants you to use everything you are to serve him. He knows you just as well as he knew those fishermen. He knows your positives and negatives and can deal with you perfectly. So we pray and ask Him to speak in a way we can understand. We listen for him as he speaks directly to our hearts, as we read his Word, as we trust others to help us discern his call. When we hear and obey that call, it's wonderful. It's as if we find a way of life for which we have been custom designed.
I'm writing this from Texas. We're at our friends Wendy and Joel Berthelsen's home for the weekend. Wendy is the author of a wonderful common sense book that will help you hear Jesus' call in your life now. I'll write about that next--stay tuned.
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