{"id":351,"date":"2015-01-28T14:07:20","date_gmt":"2015-01-28T19:07:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/randy-smyth\/?p=351"},"modified":"2016-07-12T13:08:27","modified_gmt":"2016-07-12T18:08:27","slug":"fishing-for-fishermen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/randy-smyth\/fishing-for-fishermen\/","title":{"rendered":"Fishing for Fishermen"},"content":{"rendered":"

We each grabbed a wiggling fish with our bare hands. There, ten feet below the surface of the sparkling clear green river, we broke the neck of the\u00a0fish and swam up to deposit each\u00a0on the floor of our dugout canoe. After gasping for fresh air, we dove down again to where our cast net was draped over a\u00a0huge boulder. The fish darted from under the boulder at the sight of us. The big ones were caught in the net by their gills. Another fish, another gasp of air! We repeated the fishing until the net was empty. The village chief and I caught over eighty fish that day. That was a fun fishing trip!<\/p>\n

Several weeks later the entire village went fishing in\u00a0the same river and caught much, much\u00a0more.<\/p>\n

\"net<\/a>
Da’an boy net fishing from dugout canoe on another river. Photo by Ken West<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This time the villagers washed a particular kind of tree bark in the water. They beat\u00a0the bark on the rocks with clubs and rinsed\u00a0the bark\u00a0in the river. The clear green water turned milky white as it mixed with the sap. Downstream the smaller fish floated belly up to the surface. Medium size fish\u00a0swam sluggishly. Women and children scooped them out with hand nets and baskets. Men swam in the water and speared the bigger fish or pulled them to shore with bigger nets. (Many of the fish ended up in sacrifices of food offered to the spirits of the gardens.)<\/p>\n

We went where the fish were. In all of my travels I have not yet caught fish on a dry mountain trail. To catch fish you must go where the fish are. It also helps to fish with someone who knows both where the fish live\u00a0and how to catch the fish.<\/p>\n

\"Da'an
Da’an people washing tree bark for gathering fish.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Not everyone catches fish the same way.<\/p>\n

Near the lake of Gennesaret,\u00a0the fishermen were washing their nets when Jesus used Simon’s boat\u00a0to speak the word of God to the crowds along the shore.<\/p>\n

When He had stopped speaking, He said to Simon, “Launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.”
\n<\/em>But Simon answered and said to Him, “Master, we have toiled all night and caught nothing; nevertheless at Your word I will let down the net.”\u00a0<\/em>Luke 5:4-5<\/p>\n

The reluctant fishermen filled up their nets, called for another boat and both boats were filled so full that they began to sink.<\/p>\n

Another time, seven of the disciples were together.\u00a0\"NgaRaunVillageFishing\"<\/p>\n

Simon Peter said, \u201cI\u2019m going fishing.\u201d \u201cWe\u2019ll come, too,\u201d they all said. So they went out in the boat, but they caught nothing all night.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

At dawn Jesus was standing on the beach, but the disciples couldn\u2019t see who he was. \u00a0He called out, \u201cFellows, have you caught any fish?\u201d \u201cNo,\u201d they replied. Then he said, \u201cThrow out your net on the right-hand side of the boat, and you\u2019ll get some!\u201d So they did, and they couldn\u2019t haul in the net because there were so many fish in it.\u00a0<\/em>John 2:3-6<\/p>\n

Would it not have been wonderful to be in the boat when Jesus told His disciples to put the net on the other side? They listened to Him, they believed Him and received the benefits of obedience.<\/p>\n

I think one of the\u00a0points that Jesus was making is that God\u00a0fills the nets. We might go where the fish are, but God\u00a0alone fills the nets.<\/p>\n

Jesus knows the joy of catching fish and used fishing to illustrate what He had in mind for His disciples. He told them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.<\/em>” (Matthew 4:19)<\/p>\n

He has invited us in on the catch.<\/p>\n

This is where we are in ministry. We are calling for the other boats.<\/p>\n

The need is great. That is a great motivator. One tribesman threatened to cut of his finger as a sign of his grief that he has no one to tell him about God. \u00a0(Finger story<\/a>.)\u00a0With 100 people groups asking for missionaries to tell them about God, we need laborers. We need fishers of men. We need people who will declare God’s glory to people who are apparently eager to hear. We also need people to declare His great glory to people who have no idea of His greatness. We need people who will persevere over a long time in the marathon missions work of planting indigenous, self-governing, Bible-believing, reproducing churches among remote people groups. However the need will not sustain a missionary in this work. Nor will the desire to lay up treasure in heaven.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The greater motivator is the awareness of the greatness of God’s glory. \u00a0He is so wonderfully good in every way that this motivates us to share the wonderful riches of His glory and proclaim His worthiness of our worship everywhere. It is all about Him.<\/p>\n

As believers in Christ, we\u00a0have been given the honor of being His ambassadors, carrying the message of reconciliation in the ministry of bringing people to God. For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face\u00a0of Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n

A big part of our current ministry is inviting people in on the catch. We are fishing for fishers of men.<\/p>\n

Just as Jesus went to the water to find His fishermen, we are going to aviation events, universities, schools and churches to find help.<\/p>\n

A\u00a0missionary kid who was raised in South America once showed me how to catch fish with his bare hands. He waded into the water to his thighs and lightly slapped his leg in the water until the fish came to investigate. If he could see the fish, if he was fast enough, if the fish was unwary, then he could slowly move his hands under the fish and suddenly throw it up out of the water on to the shore.<\/p>\n

Here in the West it seems that we are often using rods and reels. We splash a fancy glittering lure and pull it in hoping some fish will see it as attractive and chase it. Some times this is effective. Much of the time it is not. Should we get a better lure?<\/p>\n

We do have to go fishing! We need to invite other people to go fishing with us to receive a bigger catch and involve them with the blessings. Faith comes by hearing the Word of God which is shared by messengers who are sent. This is true not only of the faith of salvation but for the faith of those who will be fishers of men. Bringing people to see the light of the knowledge of the glory of God is much more exciting than catching fish! The results are much more long lasting!<\/p>\n

While we may be\u00a0out where the\u00a0fish are, it is God who guides\u00a0the fish to where we can bring them in. Some are just waiting to be brought in.<\/p>\n

It is all about God’s\u00a0glory, not the glory of the fishermen.\u00a0Maybe that’s why He told us this:<\/p>\n

“… The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few: pray therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth laborers into his harvest.\u00a0<\/em>Luke 10:2<\/p>\n

Will you take a moment to pray for us? We need the wisdom, the means and the open doors to go where the laborers are and bring them into the glorious harvest. Will you take a moment right now to pray with us for laborers? Will you ask God to fill our nets? Thank you!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We each grabbed a wiggling fish with our bare hands. There, ten feet below the surface of the sparkling clear green river, we broke the neck of the\u00a0fish and swam up to deposit each\u00a0on the floor of our dugout canoe. After gasping for fresh air, we dove down again to where our cast net was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1016,"featured_media":527,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,1],"tags":[448,637],"class_list":["post-351","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ministry","category-uncategorized","tag-ethnos360","tag-new-tribes-mission","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/randy-smyth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/randy-smyth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/randy-smyth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/randy-smyth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1016"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/randy-smyth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=351"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/randy-smyth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/randy-smyth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/randy-smyth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/randy-smyth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/randy-smyth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}