![\"Fishers](\"https:\/\/sing2jesus.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/Sun-Fishing.jpg\" "\\"Fishing\\"")
<\/a>Fishing in the wrong place?<\/p><\/div>\u201cBeing with nonbelievers is the first step in fishing.\u201d We are to be channels of God\u2019s Truth and Love, not reservoirs. They are His gifts. We were created to give His gifts of love, truth, and even our lives away. Sadly, many of us cling to the safety of Christian fellowship and never venture out to where the fishing is really good. It requires work, effort, planning, and sacrifice.<\/p>\n
\nI believe that in this slow journey of spiritual maturity there are many \u201csubtle\u201d stumbling stones. They disguise themselves as pointers, but after spending any length of time around their arena — you will stumble. One is self-righteousness, the other is social isolation. God\u2019s Word states \u201cnone are righteous!\u201d Only Jesus did what needed to be done. Only Jesus is righteous! It is His righteousness that intercedes for us with our Heavenly Father. <\/p>\n
\nWe create a cocoon of safety within the confines of our church and Christian fellowship. We build walls around our prejudiced theology reluctant to let anyone or anything in from the outside. We fear that these outside influences might spoil our purity, our holiness, our self-righteousness. Jesus said \u201cGo!\u201d and make disciples. Filling your head with the knowledge of God’s Word is important, but James says “Faith without deeds is dead.” \u201cHe who is full loathes honey, but to the hungry even what is bitter tastes sweet. \u201c <\/i>(Proverbs 27:7)<\/p>\n
\n\u201cBeing in the world, but not part of it\u201d can be hard to separate. Some temptations are too strong for some and not for others. Break down the barriers preventing you from fishing in good spots. If invited, go to the bar with friends and have a “good” time. Go to office picnics and shine! Join the local softball team and make a difference for love! Chaperone your teenager\u2019s dance and let God\u2019s goodness speak through you! Coach your child\u2019s soccer team and model honesty, charity, grace, and mercy! Be different for goodness’ sake!<\/p>\n
\nJesus says this in Luke 7:31-35:
\n “To what, then, can I compare the people of this generation? What are they like? They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling out to each other: “‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not cry.’ For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine, and you say, ‘He has a demon.’ The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and “sinners.”‘ But wisdom is proved right by all her children.”<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cBeing with nonbelievers is the first step in fishing.\u201d We are to be channels of God\u2019s Truth and Love, not reservoirs. They are His gifts. We were created to give His gifts of love, truth, and even our lives away. Sadly, many of us cling to the safety of Christian fellowship and never venture out […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[47,48,49,50],"class_list":["post-371","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-worship","tag-fishers-of-men","tag-fishing","tag-isolation","tag-self-righteousness"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/sfZYJd-fishing","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sing2jesus.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sing2jesus.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sing2jesus.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sing2jesus.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sing2jesus.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=371"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/sing2jesus.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":379,"href":"https:\/\/sing2jesus.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371\/revisions\/379"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sing2jesus.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sing2jesus.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sing2jesus.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}