Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, Heavenly Father, may the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer.
In Isaiah 9 verse 2, “the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in a land of deep darkness on them light has shined.
While The Old Testament ended with the prophets of God preaching the coming of the anointed one, Let’s Fast forward to The Gospel of Matthew, Jesus the Messiah is here to help us with our burdens he is here to lighten the load. To give us hope and a promise of a new future.
Matthews Gospel provides us with a vital link between the Old Testament and the New Testament. Matthew begins by tracing the genealogy of Jesus, starting with his birth, the baptism of Jesus by John, It is in Matthews gospel, Matthew describes Our Lord’s defeat of the Satan in the wilderness, and how Jesus begins his public ministry. Jesus moves from Nazareth to Galilee, the former territory of Zebulun and Napthtali, and the prophesy of Isaiah nine is fulfilled.
In John chapter 8 verse 12, Jesus says of himself: “I am the light of the world, whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
Like a well written script Sounds pretty easy and simple doesn’t it? If all the characters step up to the plate, if the costumes all arrive in good condition if the scenery fits it should play out nicely, if we believe in God, follow Jesus and live our lives accordingly we should be reaping wonderful rewards. Ah yes but here comes the darkness, the devil in disguise, sending us the wrong script, giving us the wrong information tempting us with the wrong scenery. When that happens are we strong enough sure enough with our faith in God to overcome, or do we end up getting defeated yet once again.
In Galilee he saw Peter and Andrew, he called upon them to follow him, In verse 19, Come and follow me, Jesus said and I will make you fishers of men. And they followed.
Now if Jesus came into our church at this very moment and after we got over the initial shock and knew it to be true that it was Jesus, and he said to us, follow me, I want you to help me teach our people to repent to teach them to believe in God, I want you to show others how much I love them, would you be putting on your coats and following? Or would you like me think gee gosh Jesus, I have to go home get dinner ready, clean my house, pack my suitcase, and make sure I had enough money in my wallet. Would you go willingly or would you negotiate. As soon as my life is in perfect order Jesus I will follow you, but for now I will take advantage of some of your services but not all of them.
Jesus said follow me and I will teach you how to fish for people. If you are a follower of Christ, Christ teaches you many things, Christ teaches you how to love, how to forgive, how to pray. But Christ also teaches you how to fish for people. Peter, Andrew, and all the other disciples had to learn, it wasn’t easy. Many obstacles were put in their way.
What does that mean for us? How do we as followers of Christ fish for people? One way setting the way for others is showing example of how we live our own lives, do we have the right attitude towards others, is it a infectious attitude and contagious attitude a positive attitude or do we show doom and gloom in our attitude, How on earth can we show Gods love if we are living in darkness.
It is part of our discipleship to fish for others, for like the first disciples whom Jesus called and those who came after them through their proclamation and the work of the Holy Spirit, we are enabled by Jesus calling to lay aside our old understandings of Human purpose and to follow Jesus with renewed vocation.
We who often find ourselves lost and defeated have been remade in Christ’s image to share the work that he began, to be bearers of light and hope to the darkness. Believe that the great challenge of faith is really and truly grasping what Jesus tells us about the power of light over darkness.
If you walk in the darkness, you do not know where you are going. While you have the light, believe in the light so that you may become children of light.
I am often in awe of some of the great witness’s of God, how many before us has set the example of how to follow Christ, how to share Gods words, Mother Theresa is a great example. She never asked for anything and felt shameful for being glorified for doing what she felt God called her to do. I have some words of wisdom from Mother Theresa called Between you and God
People are often unreasonable and self-centered.
Forgive them anyway
If you are kind, people may accuse you of ulterior motives
Be kind anyway.
If you are honest, people may cheat you
BE honest anyway
If you find happiness, people may be jealous
Be happy anyway
The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow
Do good anyway
Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough
Give your best anyway
For you see, in the end, it is between you and God,
It never was between and them anyway.
Follow me, Said Jesus and I will teach you how to proclaim by word and example the good news of grace, the good news of the kingdom, if you walk in the darkness, you do not know where you are going.
Lord make us a channel of thy peace that, where there is hatred, we may bring love; Lord, grant that I seek rather to comfort than to be comforted, to understand than to be understood, to love than to be loved; for it is by forgetting self that one finds; it is forgiving that one is forgiven; it is by dying that one awakens to eternal life.
