Dirty Fish

During a sermon a couple weeks ago, our pastor made a statement that threw my mental bearings for a loop.

He said, “Jesus called His disciples to become fishers of men. He called them to catch the fish, not to clean them. That was Jesus’ job.”

We are all dirty fish when Jesus reels us in. Sometimes He hooks us through another believer, and sometimes we happen to just swim into the well-placed net. But once we’re on the boat, He cleans us. (Now I’m not going to take this analogy to some weird extent that Jesus fries us and eats, too. I’m just going with the catching part.)

What “caught” me was the reminder (or realization, if you will) that we’re responsible for attracting people to God, not cleaning them up for Him. I sometimes wonder if my blog comes across as always trying to “fix” people and their sin. That’s not my intent, but I think it comes from the general lack of righteousness preached to believers. As in, I feel like most of what I hear in the mainstream Christian circles focuses solely on the comfy aspects of Jesus’ love without including the prickly urgings toward true obedience–which is our love shown towards Him. So essentially I feel like I’m always batting to the left to balance out the other.

Both are true, and both are important…but it’s not my job to make sure you’re right with God.

It is my job to be right with God. It is my job to be diligent in my faith and to encourage you in truth. It is my job to be honest and to proclaim the good news that Jesus died for our sins and rose again and now is seated at the right hand of the Father. It is my job to declare boldly the power of Christ in me and that I have no guilt in life or fear in death.

As believers, the Holy Spirit inside of us prompts us toward the truth. If we are obedient, we will let that truth cast light in the corners of our hearts where we try to hide from the fullness of submission. I am not your Holy Spirit.

I’m just a dirty fish who got cleaned and wants you to let Him clean you, too.

“As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, He saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. ‘Come, follow Me,’ Jesus said, ‘and I will make you fishers of men.’ At once they left their nets and followed Him.”

– Matthew 4:18-20

 

P.S. Props to the talented Molly Gort-Sorensen for contributing the cover picture. You can check out her work here: http://inthebelfry.wordpress.com/