fisher of men

“For He shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone” (Psalms91:11-12). The popularity of angels is evident each year as they are described in books and songs or portrayed in movies. Beyond captivating cultural interest, angels are real beings with supernatural power and a supernatural purpose. We can see in the Bible that angels have six specific purposes in the lives of believers. 1. Angels give praise to God. The primary purpose of angels is to give worship and praise to God. In Luke 2:13-14, we are told “[a]nd suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.” In Revelat...

As you resist temptation, keep a close watch on the stories around you, not with a prurient interest and certainly not with a sense of moral superiority, but with a sense of warned empathy. You could be in every one of those situations. Feel the horror that comes with each of them. Also, though, keep before your conscience the warnings of eternal loss. I recognize that this idea will probably trouble many of you so let me preface it by saying what I’m not arguing. I am not arguing that you ought to be wondering whether or not Jesus will reject you and you’ll go to hell. I believe one who is genuinely born from above by the Spirit will continue in that faith until the very end. The one who believes in Christ will be raised with him at the last day (John 6:40). But, at the same time, no one ...

“Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others.” Colossians 3:13 (NLT) When I was 10 years old, I did something unkind to my brother, Averell. It was a hot summer day, and he’d claimed the last Coke in the refrigerator. I asked him to share it with me, but he refused. When he was distracted by a knock at the door, I decided to help myself to a few sips. He immediately noticed and was upset. I knew it was wrong, so I apologized and expected him to say, “That’s OK. It’s not a big deal.” But to my surprise, he was very distraught, and it took him a long time to get over it. It seems silly now, but for the longest time, all I wanted was for him to forget about my actions and forgive me. Looking back, I sho...

You could look at it this way: Only one time did a bad thing happen to a good person. That person was Christ. The bad thing that He suffered was the punishment that our sins deserved. We are only good because He has taken our sins and is transforming us into His good image. The question still remains: Why do bad things happen to those who have faith in Christ? 1. God uses pain to get our attention. “We can ignore even pleasure. But pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world” (C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain). 2. God uses pain to help us grow. “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters,whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the test...

I could take you to where God told me to marry my wife, Susan; where God told me to give up music and pursue a life of speaking and writing; where God told me to start a church. These were nothing less than shouts from God. What I mean is that He spoke so clearly and so strongly impressed Himself and His will on my spirit, it was as if He had thundered from Sinai. There was no doubt in my mind what I was to do. His finger had written it on the tablets of my heart. God will do that from time to time. For Moses, the first of many shouts to his heart from God was a burning bush. The story is worth a close look: Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the desert and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. There the ...

And therefore will the Lord wait, that he may be gracious unto you… blessed are all they that wait for him (Isaiah 30:18). We must not only think of our waiting upon God, but also of what is more wonderful still, of God’s waiting upon us. The vision of Him waiting on us will give new impulse and inspiration to our waiting upon Him. It will give us unspeakable confidence that our waiting cannot be in vain. Let us seek even now, at this moment, in the spirit of waiting on God, to find out something of what it means. He has inconceivably glorious purposes concerning every one of His children. And you ask, “How is it, if He waits to be gracious, that even after I come and wait upon Him, He does not give the help I seek, but waits on longer and longer?” God is a wis...

God made us in His image (Genesis 1:27), which means He imprinted upon us several of His attributes. This sets us apart from the beasts of the field and the birds of the air (Genesis 1:28). Yet, God did not endow humans with all of His characteristics, hence why man stands at a lower rank than even the angels (Hebrews 2:7). In our search to see where God left His fingerprints on us, we’ll discover what He shared with mankind (communicable attributes) and what qualities belong to Him and Him alone (incommunicable attributes). What are the communicable attributes that God shares with us? Before we dive into this, we do have to understand that if we share attributes with God, we do not share the full extent of them. For instance, both God and humans have an innate sense of justice (Proverbs 2...

Will you finish your course? JULY 21 “But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, that I might finish my course” Acts 20:24 Do you pay a price—some extra time in the morning—to get into the Word of God?  Do you pay the price of being ridiculed because you keep your Bible on your desk in the office or bow your head and thank God for His gracious goodness to you when He gives you a meal? Are you willing to be different? Will you finish your course? When you’re running this race, you’re going to find out that you’re running right against the grain. Don’t get the idea that there’s the broad road and the narrow road, and the narrow road runs alongside the broad road, and over there a bunch of people are going this way, and over here you’re going in the same ...

The parable of the Prodigal Son, or Lost Son, is found in the New Testament of the Bible in Luke 15:11-32. It is the third of three parables in that chapter directed at a mixed audience of tax collectors, sinners, Pharisees (religious leaders), and teachers of the law. All three parables are on the topic of lost things being found: a lost sheep, a lost coin, and a lost son. Likewise, all three parables point to the heavenly joy over every sinner who repents from sin and turns to Jesus. Jesus had his specific audience, a mixture of “sinners” and “righteous,” in mind when he told these three stories. Jesus was prompted to tell these parables because the Pharisees and teachers of the law were accusing him of welcoming sinners and eating with them (verse 2). Clearly, the Pharisees and teachers...

I sometimes just say “Lord Jesus, lovely Lord Jesus” over and over slowly, there is nothing better or more healing… There hath not fail one word of all His good promises. All the promises of God are “yea” and “amen,” and that’s enough right there to go on. — Dottie, my mother-in-law Life on this planet can be tough. Jesus never promised otherwise: “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33) John recorded that in his gospel, but he doesn’t leave it there. In his first letter, John puts it in perspective for those who are born again: In fact, this is love for God: to keep his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This ...

Although Christians differ about the age of the Earth and how long each day of creation took—whether seven literal days or millions of years between the days—Christians do agree on one thing. God created the Earth and everything within it. Granted, some differ on whether He did so via evolutionary means or through direct creation, but nothing exists on Earth that God did not have a word in. However, when you encounter the first two chapters of Genesis, it appears as though there are two separate creation stories. Genesis 1 follows the seven days of creation in a chronological, organized manner. But when we get to Genesis 2, the narrative seems to take a step back and focuses on the sixth day, the day God created man. Differences in the language, some contradictions in the text, and the dif...

One of the challenges in any sphere of life, particularly ministry, is staying creative. And it’s an important challenge. We need creativity in our messages, children’s programs, outreach strategies and so much more. So what is the solution to becoming more creative in your output? It’s simple. Become more creative in your input. Here are five easy ways to increase your creativity input and, as a result, increase your creativity output. 1. Read – There is no substitute for a steady stream of good books that will fill your mental tank with ideas. 2. Travel – Exposing yourself to new places, and ideally, different cultures, will expand your creative vision exponentially. 3. Capture – When you have a creative idea, capture it immediately. Write it in a journal, take a note on your phone, jot ...