Installment #2 in Fishers of men//the Great commission:
You will have to forgive me if I have two series running side by side, but I have so many thoughts running through my mind sometimes I get ahead of myself, hence “body and soul” and “fishers of men”. And it goes with my nature to sometimes switch the conversation….so today it is “fishers of men” I’m also hoping that Naida will interject some of her writings in to the mix. She is such a great writer.
As a matter of fact some of you may recall Naida asking for you our readers to make this an interacting blog, a Bible discussion online. Well a few have done just that and this entry today is somewhat inspired by the comments I have received on the previous blog, especially what coffee had to say. If you haven’t availed yourself of reading his comment then do so now because it is profound,( I think.) I like the part where he mentions the garbage fish. It does seem that the Asian folks like them and that would make (sculpens, or is it scalpen?) anyway what we consider to be a garbage fish a pretty popular dish considering that a great portion of the world are Asians Sometimes we look down on these folks or even other cultures and nationalities because they are different than we are. Then we need to remind ourselves as Christians living in a still somewhat Christian culture that Jesus died for everyone. Remember the old children’s hymn “Jesus loves the little children?” It says “red or yellow, black or white, all are precious in His sight” How true when we look at the garbage fish for an example and realize that so many folks like to eat them, how much more important is a soul, no matter where they have originated, no matter how ugly they may seem to us, no matter their outward facial features(the sculpen is an ugly looking fish) a fish with horns, yet. WE should fall on our faces before God and ask His forgiveness for ever making racial remarks or even making fun of any person for whatever reason, be it their looks, lifestyle, or anything that we deem out of the ordinary . Remember the story of Jonah(speaking of fish?) I can’t get over his rotten attitude, but then I can’t get over my rotten attitude sometimes either. One time God called him to go and preach repentance to some folks. Let’s read it from the book of Jonah the prophet starting at chapter 1 verse #2 ,the Amplified Bible:2Arise, go to [b]Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim against it, for their wickedness has come up before Me.(A)
3But Jonah rose up to flee to Tarshish from being in the presence of the Lord [as His prophet] and went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish [the most remote of the Phoenician trading places then known]. So he paid the appointed fare and went down into the ship to go with them to Tarshish from being in the presence of the Lord [as His servant and minister].(B)
4But the Lord sent out a great wind upon the sea, and there was a violent tempest on the sea so that the ship was about to be broken.(C) Moving on to verse15
15So they took up Jonah and cast him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging.
16Then the men [reverently and worshipfully] feared the Lord exceedingly, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows.
17Now the Lord had prepared and appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.(D)
Chapter 2, verse10And the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land. Jonah had gone to hell it seems in the belly of that fish and now God delivered him for His original purpose and that was to preach a revival in Nineveh. As you read this story you will discover that Jonah was a racial bigot. He actually wanted God to destroy the Ninehvites because they lived such wicked lives. Look at what he says after he preached and Nineveh repented (much to his chagrin) I never could figure this one out…how he had such great success as a preacher and didn’t want it.
Jonah 3
AND THE word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying,
2Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach and cry out to it the preaching that I tell you.
3So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city of three days' journey [sixty miles in circumference].
4And Jonah began to enter into the city a day's journey, and he cried, Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown!
5So the people of Nineveh believed in God and proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth [in penitent mourning], from the greatest of them even to the least of them.
6For word came to the king of Nineveh [of all that had happened to Jonah, and his terrifying message from God], and he arose from his throne and he laid his robe aside, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.
7And he made proclamation and published through Nineveh, By the decree of the king and his nobles: Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything; let them not feed nor drink water.
8But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth and let them cry mightily to God. Yes, let every one turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands.
9Who can tell, God may turn and revoke His sentence against us [when we have met His terms], and turn away from His fierce anger so that we perish not.(A)
10And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God revoked His [sentence of] evil that He had said that He would do to them and He did not do it [for He was comforted and eased concerning them].

So God forgave them their sins and spared them. Now you would think that would make a preacher rejoice, wouldn’t you? After all he won the entire city to the Lord. Not so old Jonah. Look at what is said in chapter four.
1BUT IT displeased Jonah exceedingly and he was very angry.
2And he prayed to the Lord and said, I pray You, O Lord, is not this just what I said when I was still in my country? That is why I fled to Tarshish, for I knew that You are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and of great kindness, and [when sinners turn to You and meet Your conditions] You revoke the [sentence of] evil against them.(A)
3Therefore now, O Lord, I beseech You, take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.
4Then said the Lord, Do you do well to be angry?
5So Jonah went out of the city and sat to the east of the city, and he made a booth there for himself. He sat there under it in the shade till he might see what would become of the city.
6And the Lord God prepared a gourd and made it to come up over Jonah, that it might be a shade over his head, to deliver him from his evil situation. So Jonah was exceedingly glad [to have the protection] of the gourd.
7But God prepared a cutworm when the morning dawned the next day, and it smote the gourd so that it withered.
8And when the sun arose, God prepared a sultry east wind, and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah so that he fainted and wished in himself to die and said, It is better for me to die than to live.
9And God said to Jonah, Do you do well to be angry for the loss of the gourd? And he said, I do well to be angry, angry enough to die!
10Then said the Lord, You have had pity on the gourd, for which you have not labored nor made it grow, which came up in a night and perished in a night.
11And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons not [yet old enough to] know their right hand from their left, and also many cattle [not accountable for sin]?
Do we well to be prejudiced against other peoples of other cultures and races? Should we not be praying for these who are lost and asking the Master to help us bring the message of the cross to the perishing. The Great commission still compels us to give of our substance and to go if He calls us and to be everything He would have us be so that we are the witness He has called us to be to whosoever will. Coffee in his summation of yesterday’s blog mentioned the fact of casting one hook into the vast ocean and trying to entice a fish to come to that one piece of bait, his words were “we expect the fish to find it”. What we did discover was that if you put more hooks on your line, you will catch more fish. Perhaps we need more hooks with more bait. Do you catch my drift(no pun intended)? Or like Jonah, are we more concerned about the gourd? Are we more concerned about our own comfort? This takes me back to the series on the sheep. The shepherd left the ninety and nine in the wilderness, left his own comfort station and went out in the darkness and the wilds to look for and to find that one lost sheep.
Sheep…fish…people