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Chapter 4: Faith

With God there are no lost causes.

Jesus was a master fisher of men. He also put the fishermen who became His disciples to shame. Now the fact that He is God and can tell the fish to do whatever He wants might be considered cheating, but whatever. One day He saw some men fishing on the Sea of Galilee and He went over to them and just got in the boat! Then He asked them to put out into deep waters and let the nets down for a catch. I don't know why they did it, they had been fishing all night and hadn't caught a thing, but for some reason they just did what He said.

They put out into deep water. That is exactly what Jesus calls us to do today. You see big fish live in deep water. You can't catch big fish unless you are in deep water. If we want to reach people for Christ, we have to dive deep into the community in which we live. That means that we have to be involved in things outside of our churches! How many of our churches local outreach programs amount to little more than sticking our head out the door and whispering the name of Jesus? We wonder why people aren't coming to know Christ, its because we aren't listening to His call to us to go deeper!

Why is that? Because we fall into the trap of linear thinking. Linear thinking is "drawing conclusions about the immediate future based on the immediate past." Linear thinking says that we can't bring people to Christ today because we've never done it before. "Linear thinking says there is no hope for the prostitute, the abusive alcoholic, the adulterous spouse, the murderer, and the northern Colorado farmer convicted of dealing drugs, but faith disagrees- because with Jesus there are no lost causes."

I'm not a fisherman, but I do know this: If you want to catch fish, you have to put your line in the water. "Its one thing to want to catch fish, its another thing to put your bait in the water. It's one thing to have faith in Jesus and put our into deep water; it's another to put your faith into action and let down the nets for a catch."

"As we eat with sinners, we must have faith that God wants to save them. We must also be willing to do whatever it takes to make sure they know that."

What are you doing that constitutes putting out into "deep water?" What can you do this week to "put your bait in the water?"

Enjoy the Journey