Jesus told Peter and Andrew

that if they followed Him, they would become

“fishers of men”.

 

 

 

 

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This is how I came onboard. 

What Was Your "Hook"?

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     I was 48 years old and wondering why my life wasn’t making sense.  I had a wife that loved me, a prominent position in my “dream job”, living in a golf course home and had a teenage daughter that really was a good person.  

Yet, I couldn’t connect the dots.   I was unhappy, grouchy, and my normal method of buying adult “toys” like new cars and boats wasn’t doing much to move me out of my sullen moods.  

A caring lady in the community kept inviting me to church and finally to shut her up I agreed to go.  We drove almost an hour to a little church in the foothills of the North Carolina Mountains.  (An hour! Are you kidding me?  Really?).  

It was pleasant.  I enjoyed it.  I especially enjoyed the fact that I didn’t have to go through some trial by ritual (up, down, kneel, sing, secret handshake, etc.) that I could just sit and listen.  Listen I did.  How could a guy talk for over an hour from just the Bible?   I wasn’t “MOVED” but I had to admit that I did feel better.  I agreed to go back the next week.  

The second week was similar to the first.  Same small group (about 30 people) same caring smiles, same genuine handshakes.  At the end of the service however the Pastor gave me a devotional book with about 35 “stories”.  Each story began with a Bible verse and a page or two of why that verse was meaningful to the author.  

No harm no foul – I didn’t have to pay for it so I took it home.  A few days later I was thumbing through it, scanning the Bible verses.  Then I hit one that was impossible for me to believe.  It certainly could not be true.  It read, “our citizenship is in heaven” (Phil. 3:20).  That was meaningful to me because I was flying internationally each week.  I knew how important my citizenship in the United States was via my passport.  Without my passport identifying me as a citizen I would be stuck, unable to make a living and perhaps to even get back home.  Now that was taking this God stuff just too far!

 

WHERE IS THAT THING?
 

I had to look around the bottom shelf to find a Bible (I know I’ve got one here somewhere).  Look up the index, find P-H-I-L – oh, that’s Philippians.  What does this 3 mean?  Oh ok, third chapter – verse 20.  And there it was – in black and white – “But our citizenship IS IN HEAVEN.  And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ” (Phil. 3:20).

My “God” paradigm shifted.  There was more to this thing than I thought that I knew.  My small world of self-knowledge blew apart.  I was crushed by the discovery and my life changed that day.  I went back to church the next Sunday (again with the older lady) but with a different heart, a different mindset and humbled by the love of Christ.   The older lady just smiled.  

Thank you Pastor Roark and Sister Myrtle.  
 

WHAT ABOUT YOU?
 

Where you “hooked” or like me “gaffed”?  Are you sure?  Do you know?  There IS a way to know!    

“if you declare with your mouth “Jesus is LORD”, and believe in your heart God raised Him from the dead, you WILL be saved.”  (Rom. 10:9)

What is your story?   Please share and post it HERE

 

 

 

 

 

In Love,
Bro. Mike