Today’s Podcast
Today’s Bible reading plan:
Read it in a year – Psalms 1-2
see the whole year’s plan [here](http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.pdf)
Today’s Devotional
Matthew 4:19
Jesus: Come, follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.
What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?
Jesus doesn’t use a lot of words when a few clearly spoken will do. His command to Simon Peter and Andrew are just one example. “Come, follow Me.” He also tells them the task He will give them when they obey His command. I’ll not just make you fishermen, but I’ll let you catch a more important haul, men.
Jesus’ calling of these first two of His circle of twelve intimate disciples tells us something about how He calls not just them, but us. If we look at Jesus’ words we see how He calls each of us when we listen to His voice.
First, He says, “Come.” You can’t follow Jesus from afar. He wants you within arms reach. Trying to follow Him from a distance just doesn’t work. Remember the story of Elijah whining about his plight and God letting him hear His voice on the mountainside? Elijah didn’t hear God’s voice in the thunderstorm or in the earthquake, but in the still small voice he had to listen carefully to hear.
I learned a technique from my father many years ago that served me well with my children and in counseling and disciplining soldiers during my military career. When I really want someone to listen and hear what I’m saying, my voice gets softer, not louder. Our instincts are geared to put us into a fight or flight mode when we hear loud noises or aggressive actions from an enemy. So when we shout at someone or raise our voice in anger, the person on the receiving end no longer hears us. Their brain is getting into a fight or flight mode preparing to defend themselves. So I lower my voice and get you come close. I get you to almost strain to hear the words. I get you to listen instead of fighting against the words.
God does the same thing, but so much better. God cannot be defeated. He never fails and so has no need of defense. So when He speaks to us, He doesn’t need to scream at us to make us hear Him. That puts us in a fight or flight mode. Why would He want to do that? Instead, He whispers, “Come. Get close so I can talk to you. I have some things to tell you that I really want you to hear.”
See, you can’t be a disciple, a follower, a Christian from long distance. You just can’t hear what God has to say when you’re far away from Him. You need to snuggle up close so He can put His lips up to your ear and whisper His commands, His blessings, His thoughts to you. He wants you at His fingertips ready to talk to you all the time. He can’t do that if you’re not right there in His presence. So first, He says, “Come.”
The second thing Jesus told those crusty fishermen was, “Follow me.” When we come to Jesus, He won’t leave us alone. He won’t leave us where we are. God wants to change us. He doesn’t want to leave us in the state we live in now. He calls us to Him to transforms us, to make us over into the creation He wants us to be. And so He says, “Follow me.”
Jesus will take us into places that challenge us. Places that test us. Places that causes us to rethink how we approach others. Places that make us weep and laugh and stand in awe of Him and fall on our face in worship and lay prostrate before Him for our failures and thank Him for His strength in our successes. He will take us to places that transform us into His likeness and help us to understand love and mercy and grace. He will take us to the mountain tops and to the lowest valleys in our spiritual journey. And as we follow Him we will know sorrow and we will know indescribable joy.
Jesus tells us to follow Him because He knows exactly the path we must take individually to make us more like Him each day. He knows the transformation that must happen and just like a skilled surgeon, He knows each operation that He must perform on us and the order each must take place. And although some of them may be painful and the recovery from some of those operations might seem difficult and arduous, Jesus knows, as the Master Creator He is, exactly how to lead us along this path of life to make us the child of God each of us are meant to be.
Jesus also reminds us in His command to follow Him, that we never walk on that path alone. If we follow, it means we walk along with Him, not by ourselves. It means He is just ahead of us. I sometimes think about the point-man in a squad walking toward an objective on a battlefield when I think of Jesus’ command. Jesus is that point-man. I follow Him, but He is out front making sure the path is clear. Watching out for any booby-traps. Watching for enemy troops waiting in ambush. Jesus is right there with Me, but clearing the path ahead of me on my journey through life.
Finally, Jesus’ command tells us the task He gives Simon and Andrew as they follow. They will fish for men. I think, Jesus has a task for everyone. God gives each of us different gifts to build His church. Paul tells us some have the gift of teaching, some preaching, some hospitality, healing, speaking in different languages, and the list goes on. I think, Paul would say mathematics skills is a gift, or science, or IT skills, or prowess in a sport. All of these talents and skills can be used for God’s glory. The question is, how do we use the talents, skills, experiences, desires, gifts that God has given to us?
Jesus said, “Come, follow me, I have a job for you to do.” Have you followed close enough on the path to hear His task for you? He’s ready to talk, but He also keeps walking along. It’s time to get moving!
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