I had the pleasure of taking the guys from my Community Group Bible study fishing in Venice Louisiana this past weekend. For those of you who don't know, I enjoy fishing, and there is no greater fishing in the world(if you ask me) than Venice. It is a very special place. When the Lord told me to move my family to Memphis to start the church he knew getting me away from Venice would be tough, as I will be 6-8 hrs from any body of saltwater. I guess I will just have to take up freshwater fishing. Pictured here is my friend Cole Martin standing on Breton Island (a barrier island off of the coast of Louisiana) holding his first ever Jack Cravelle, a prize fish to many anglers. The fish was about 40 inches long and weighed approximately 30 lbs, the fish was released and swam away in the pristine waters joyfully. Congrats Cole. I had about 9 of my closest friends with me on this trip and we had a great time.As we were cutting up and laughing around the dinner table Friday night at the marina restaraunt after a day on the water the Lord reminded of the story in the Bible when Jesus speaking to some of His future disciples said "follow me and I will make you fishers of men". These men were rough neck, blue collar, ordinary guys (fisherman by occupation), and Jesus challenged them to leave what they knew and felt comfortable doing, to do what sometimes can be the uncomfortable, for us Christians (fishing for men). As I began to think about most of the guys at the table that night, I started thinking about thier stories, remembering when they came to know the Lord, and how far in life they had come. I started to think about the individuals that had invited them to church or shared the message of Christ with them, that would eventually lead to thier salvation in Christ. I thought about the difficulty of a fishing trip to Breton Island, this an Island that sits about 8 miles off of the coast, and can at times be not easy to get to, but if one can get there, the fishing grounds are tremendous, the fish seem to always be there. Sometimes as Christians we tend to want to sit back in our comfortable places and never leave the shoreline, it's not always easy, but Christ is calling us out into the deep, where the hurting world is crying out for a savior that is real. That savior is Jesus, and I challenge all of us including myself to launch out into the deep on a daily basis and be a fisher of men.
