Instant wealth without the Lottery?

Please note this  post is not about the lottery or making money or a business opportunity, but rather about Jesus!  I do not play the lottery or encourage anyone to waste their time or money on a random chance. In the gospel of Luke chapter 5 Jesus is teaching near the waters edge and the first disciples are being called out to follow him as well. I have read this bible passage before, but this time I saw something different. In this account we read about Jesus getting into a fishing boat belonging to Peter and pushing off shore to get some space away from the crowd.  Once Jesus pushes off shore a little he keeps teaching the large crowd from the boat.
       

After Jesus finishes teaching he asks Peter to go out into the deep waters.  “Simon answered, "Master, we've worked hard all night and haven't caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets."

    It is miraculous because they caught so much fish and almost sunk two boats trying to contain them. This is amazing to me because they walked away from the greatest catch  ever to follow Jesus. In verse 11 we read that “they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed him."

   We see are fisherman who had a long evening of hard work with NO CATCH. This was not a good business day at all for those fishermen who needed to go market, make a living so they could feed their families and perhaps employees. All this changed in a short amount of time when they obeyed Jesus as illogical as it sounded to Peter's ears. They have so many fish being caught that Peter calls for his partners to bring another boat to handle the catch. Before they realize it their boats are actually struggling to stay afloat because of the weight of so many fish.

 

       Emotionally it impacted their lives and especially Peter. Peter realizes he is in the presence of greatness and the divine Messiah. He is convinced through this encounter how sinful he is and completely humbles himself in the midst of fish, nets and other fisherman by falling on his knees before Jesus. I’ve got to imagine that the crowd on the shore is witnessing every bit of this adventure as well. For an exhausted fisherman who was working hard all night with his fishing companions this is a very humbling and divine encounter.

   This catch of fish is much like hitting the lottery. People play the lottery with the hope to win an instant large catch of cash to fill their lives with more than enough. Most people never win and waste millions of dollars on a system of chances. Yet in this account, these fishermen actually hit a bonanza of a catch as never probably experienced before in fishing history.  This catch of fish was likely so big that it could have put them over the top in their financial business lives above every fishing vessel in the area for weeks on end or longer.

      These fishermen hit the jackpot, yet they pulled up their sinking boats and LEFT EVERYTHING (a financial wealth of fish for market) to follow Jesus. Wow!! What should this tell us about following Jesus first and not be overly concerned with business above the clear instructions and directions of the Lord?  It does not mean we do not work or care and strive to succeed, but it does mean we listen and obey Jesus and follow him above all things first. If we do so, I believe the desire for the big catch (whatever that is for you) will fad away in comparison to the wealth of opportunity to know and follow the Masters plan for your daily life.  

Thank God that he can meet our natural needs in unorthodox and unusual ways if we will just keep listening and following our Master for our daily lives.  May we who call ourselves followers of Jesus continue to follow the real catch?

Fish Gut Grace!

Jesus was never known to be a fisherman, but rather a carpenter. Not much is known about those pre-ministry years, but we know he was raised in Nazareth and not along the seashore of Galilee. However, after Jesus publically launched his ministry he called a few disciples to follow him who were fisherman. So I presume he got familiar pretty fast with the cleaning process of fish in preparation for the fish market.

Well I am not a fisherman either, but I’ve fished over the years since I was a boy and have cleaned a few fish myself. When you get them home and clean them you got to do something with the guts right? To be honest, I can’t remember much about what I used to do with fish guts but I know I must have done something with them.

Over a year ago after we moved into our present home my wife observed a neighbor throwing a half filled 5 gallon pail of fish guts, heads and tails under a tree close to our home. The tree was not directly in the front yard, but not far away either. The conversation between us went something like this. She said, “That is really gross, you need to go clean those guts up before the kids get sick from them over something”. I said “I don’t want to clean up someone else’s fish guts. I’ll just go tell him to clean up their own fish guts.” She said, “You can’t do that, they are our neighbors and what will they think if you say that?” I said, “I don’t know, but they should have thought of that before they dumped them next to our tree”. Back and forth we went over what was the right way to handle the unexpected fish guts and what should be done  and what would Jesus do?

So it finally boiled down to me actually walking over to the fish guts and just starring at fish tails, heads and guts. It was starting to smell as well, since we live in the hot FL sun. My youngest two kids were looking at them as well saying how gross and stinky they were and wondering what dad was going to do. So I went and got my own five gallon pail and shoveled them into my bucket. Then I thought, I know what I will do, I will just dump them right on their front steps and show them. Since nobody was home the temptation grew. After another debate back and forth this time with the Lord, I finally did the right thing with the pail of fish guts. I ended up dumping them in my own garbage can and we smelled them all week long until the dump truck came.

Since then we have gotten to know those neighbors and have come to love the entire family in a Jesus kind of way. Had it not been for Jesus in our lives, fish guts might have truly divided us in the neighborhood over those stinky fish remains and how they should have been handled. If it were not for Jesus I think I would have likely dumped those heads, tails and guts in the wrong place instead of my own dumpster.

I am not perfect by any means and I know I have pulled my share of gut dumping onto someone else’s turf along the way. But I am reminded today that I can thank my God for the grace of Christ who took upon himself my stinky sinful fish guts and paid the price for me over 2000 years ago. Before I even knew how much my ‘fish guts’ would smell and would offend God  he placed them positionally Under the blood of Jesus. Once I disovered Jesus and put them in His pail they never were to again smell.

Today I have a different type of ‘fish guts’ that recently got dumped into my life’s front yard by different folks. These folks are actually my brothers and sisters in Christ. As I pray and seek His grace I hope I can discover again the wonder of His Grace to know how to handle another completely different round of fish guts. I find myself again looking for more ‘Fish Gut Grace’. If he did once he can do it again.  I live longing for more ‘Fish Gut Grace’.