Hover over Romans 1:20-22 for proof of God's existence, and over Matthew 5:27-28 for Judgment Day’s perfect standard. Then hover over John 3:16-18 for what God did, and over Acts 17:30-31 for what to do.

Saturday, September 25, 2010

Welcome to the Atheist's Church

"And so was also James, and John, the sons of Zebedee, which were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, Fear not; from henceforth you shall catch men. And when they had brought their ships to land, they forsook all, and followed him" (Luke 4:10-11).

Simon (Peter) had gone into business with the Zebedee brothers in the fishing industry. But God had another plan. They were going to "catch men" (mankind) for Him. The fishermen were part of a group of people on a small planet in the universe, who were a dying race. However, their Creator had decided to show them mercy and grant them everlasting life, and the way that He was going to herald the good news of this salvation was through the preaching of men. These three lowly fishermen were going to learn how to cast a net into the world and bring men and women into the everlasting Kingdom of God.

Those who read the Scriptures regularly will know to "interpret Scripture with Scripture." This is because any text taken out of context can easily become a pretext. It would seem to the untrained eye that as soon as Jesus spoke to these men, they dropped everything and followed Him. However, when we read the harmony of the gospels, we see that six weeks earlier, two of the disciples had spent a day with Jesus, and one of them had introduced Peter to Jesus (see John 1:35-40). So Peter at least had time to think about his first experience with Jesus of Nazareth and when he followed him, he had already weighed the issues.

You too are being called to follow Jesus. You too are being called to forsake your own life and become a fisher of men; and you too should weigh the issues. You can either carry on with sin’s pleasures, end up being swallowed by death and be justly damned in Hell, or you can forsake your sins, follow Jesus and have everlasting life. That shouldn't take too long for you to figure as to which is the more sensible way to go.

Jesus told the story of a prodigal son, who found himself desiring the filth that pigs were eating. The Bible said that he came to his senses, got up out of that dirty pigsty and went back to his father. That is a picture of salvation. Leave the pigsty of sin, and run to the God who gave you life, and the Bible says that He will give you "abundant mercy," then join us and become a fisher of men. There’s no higher calling.