Fishing for Men

I went fishing with a guy in the church last Friday. We went up to Lake Erie to do some walleye and perch fishing. We didn't catch anything. Well that is not completely true. We didn't catch any keepers. Let me rephrase that, we did not catch anything we wanted to keep. Over all we did probably catch 20 or 30 fish, but we weren't counting. A couple of them were five pounds or better. But because they were not the right kind we didn't keep them. They were not what we were targeting.

It's funny, one of the guys with us was pumped when he caught a big sheephead. He wanted to take a picture of it, but we did not have a camera. We probably wouldn't have taken a picture of it anyway. It was not the right kind. We did not want it.

In Acts 10, Peter has a vision of a sheet being let down by it's four corners. It was filled with animals that were considered unclean by the law. A voice from heaven told him get up and eat. Peter replied, " Surely not, Lord! I have never eaten anything impure or unclean."

Then the voice said, "Do not call anything impure that God has made clean."

This vision was so that Peter would begin to change his paradigm. Until now it was unlawful for a Jew to associate with a Gentile. Peter had to make a quick change in attitude. Would he go with the Gentile men at his home to meet Cornelius? Yes. Why? Because God told him to and that was good enough for him. Jesus had said to Peter that if you follow me I will make you fishers of men. And even if you think one of those fish is not a keeper, you keep it.

How many of us are selective in who we associate with? How many of us decide what we are fishing for based on a specific target and when we catch something different we are not satisfied with the catch?

Our attitude should be the same as the guy who caught the big sheephead with us on Friday. He was excited because he caught something big. He was excited about the other fish he caught, even though they were not keepers. Why? Because he was there to fish and it did not matter what kind of fish he caught, he was successful because he caught fish.

How many times do we come in contact with people who desperately need to hear about Jesus and we blow them off because they are not the right kind. They are not our target audience, they not one of us. God spoke to Peter one day and said we have no right to call something impure that He has made clean.