Let’s Go Fishing

Carlos Thompson   -  

2020. Wow! Wars, rumors of wars, earthquakes, locusts, dust storms, riots, protests, Ebola, murder hornets, hurricanes, tsunamis, wildfires, elections, political ads, democracies in crisis, no clean water in Flint. Huge numbers of pending evictions coming in winter, food banks and other charities stretched to capacity. Oh, and a little pandemic — COVID-19.

It’s November, surely we can breathe again. In March things looked pretty grim when we were first told about COVID-19 and the numbers rose since then and fell over the summer, now they are rising again and it is almost Christmas. Time to celebrate the birth of our Savior.

In case we forgot, in the midst of all the chaos in the world that we are in the world but not of the world because of our Savior Christ Jesus. For many 2020 represented a return to basics, whether it was growing a garden for food or making your own soap, taking a class, spending more time with your family, or getting closer to God. We know from scripture that stuff will happen in the world and it will get pretty bad. This is why, more than ever, it is important for us to share God’s love with others.

In Matthew 4:19, Jesus called Simon Peter and Andrew to be fishers of men. Once we begin to follow Jesus, we are all called to witness and follow in His footsteps. Our old lives, phobias, fears, and doubts cease to exist and we look forward to our new calling in faith to serve the kingdom of God.

In Matthew 25:35, Jesus talks about ways we serve the kingdom of God when we take in strangers, feed, clothe and visit people in prison. While there are needs around the globe and opportunities for us to do this, there are opportunities closer to home in your local communities, hospitals, prisons, community centers, even at church where we have been blessed to feed multiple hundreds of families every Thursday on a weekly basis through our food pantry.

As we look forward to 2021, let us not forget that while we may be slightly impacted by the pandemic, there are others who are a lot less fortunate. We happened to serve a family who had just been evicted on Nov. 19 through our food pantry. As the winter promises to affect more and more people, let us reach out much as Jesus reached out to us to serve, to give and to help our brothers and sisters in Christ, for we are all God’s children.

Continue to pray for the church that we can continue to be a beacon to others, pray for our church leaders and ask God to show us ways in which we can continue to make a difference in 2020 and beyond. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

To go deeper, consider checking out an online course by Tony Evans on evangelism: https://tonyevanstraining.org/courses/EVANG.

CT