“Gangway to Galilee”

Isaiah 43:1 ¹But now thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.
            We sometimes might not realize that God has called everyone to be His, most of the time it is in our actions or rather in the lack of our actions.  Jesus called the twelve apostles from their place of work and asked them to follow Him.  Some of these workers were fishermen like Simon Peter, Andrew, James and John.

The people that Jesus called were not rich or well-known but rather they were much like you and me who have to work hard at making a living and to feed and clothe our families.  Ordinary people, that is who God calls, and through His call we become more than ordinary, we become the children of God.  Because we are the children of God we get to share in the same inheritance of our Lord Jesus Christ the only begotten Son of God, which is in the gift of eternal life and relationship with God.

Psalm 25:5 ⁵Lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all the day long.
            We also do not realize that God does give us the means to understand Him, which is through His Holy Scriptures.  Moses, the Prophets, and even our Lord Jesus Christ teaches us about God’s interaction with us.  Jesus especially teaches us of God’s great love for all of us who are descendants of Adam and Eve and also Noah and his wife.  Jesus teaches us about the great love of God and how salvation works to adopt us out of our captivity in sin and bring us into salvation as God’s children.

Jesus taught the fisherman to listen to God and they will be successful in all they do.  When Jesus told them to put their nets down in the same waters that did not allow them to catch fish the fisherman caught more than they could handle.  The other lesson was that the fish they caught were so many they had to share the load with other fishermen in other boats.

Romans 1:7 ⁷To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
            Do you realize that God keeps us safe from the evil one and from our own sinful nature?  God gives us freedom to do as we will however sin takes some of that freedom away.  Because sin takes away part of our freedom sin is the major cause of our suffering.  It is the consequences of sin that we suffer sometimes being our own sin and sometimes being the sin of others.  In other words God does not punish us and make us suffer for our sins, the consequences of our sins do that.  God hopes that the consequence teach us so that we can work our way out of sin.

Unfortunately our sinful nature doesn’t go away, but the good news is that God knows this and delivers us peace.  The peace God delivers us is through the forgiveness that was bought by Jesus dying for our sins on the cross.    Christ’s death keeps us safe from the slavery we have to sin and its consequences.

Jesus calmed the storm for the apostles who were afraid they would perish.  We have a world that fears they will die and be forgotten.  The truth, with salvation Jesus has calmed the storm and gives safety from our fears.  Through eternal life we will be kept safe even from being forgotten.

Matthew 14:27 ²⁷But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, “Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid.”
            Peter walked on water until he lost faith due to giving into his fears.  If Peter had not lost faith he would have reached Jesus and stood beside him as if he were on solid ground.  We all would love to have that great faith that we too could walk on water.  It must be possible to walk on water even for us because Peter did it even for a short time.  But we are very much like Peter our faith starts out strong and falters on the way.

Did you notice that Jesus rescued Peter?  Though Peter’s faith had faltered Jesus did not let Peter drown.  Jesus does the same for us too, if our faith should falter, and it does, Jesus is there to rescue us so that we too do not drown.  At the time of Noah many people did drown because they turned their back on God completely, but for Noah and his family God rescued them as He will do for us also.

Ephesians 2:8 ⁸For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,
            Do you have any Fish?  Again the Apostles (Fishermen) listened to Jesus and caught many fish (153 to be exact).  When we listen to Jesus we will always find that He will provide what we are striving for.  What every person strives for is salvation whether they believe in that Christ is our savior or not.  Jesus Christ is our savior and what He wants us to listen to is this, Christ has saved us. He shows us the way to our salvation through Him.  Do you hear Him calling you by name?  Amen.