Put Out Into the Deep and Let Down Your Nets for a Catch

Luke 5:1-11, Matthew 9:35-38

This is the scene of calling the disciples. What is the calling from the Lord? Now we open a totally different world. Now it is time to fish for people. Jesus spoke two sentences in this part. He said, 'Don't be afraid." The fisherman will fish for people. He will save many souls. This amazing commission is given to this fisherman. If we lose this point, we will be like salt lost its saltiness. What is the purpose for our lives? To become the disciple of Jesus is to save many souls.

The Lord asked Peter to put out into deep water. The core of my life is to save people. This is the will of the Lord for me. It is not we choose God, but it is God who choose us. What is the hope of God? He waits for us to love him back.

This should be our identity. We are the fisher of man. The disciples felt tired. They lived a life with the empty net. They have tried their best and worked all night. They could rejected the word of Jesus since they were good at fishing and have tried many times. But they thought "OK, I will try again."

After they followed the word of God, they caught a lot of fish. Even though we may feel tired, we still need to be obedient to the word of God. When the time comes, God will give a lot of fish. So obedience is the key of everything. It is the faith toward the word of God.

The Lord is obedient to his father God, even to the point of death on the cross. He is the most beautiful son of God who shows his love to the father through his obedience. When we run our race toward the kingdom of God, we may feel tired after continuous emptying ourselves and dying to ourselves. We may feel we have reached our limitation and could not move forward. This is the time to meditate on the cross again and fill out hearts with his love.

Putting out into the deep means answering the deep questions of the souls. Messages are the answers. How deep can you touch the soul? Well, it depends on the degree of your meditation. I hear different messages from different preachers. Some people have really deep digging into the well of salvation. And when they preach, you may feel you have been lifted up to a level you never enter before. And your hearts are totally cleansed like being baptised again. You feel humble and quiet enjoying sucking the clear water and just feeling satisfied and full in your soul. Actually each time when we meet Christ, we should like bride meeting with the groom again being refreshed and getting excitement with his love pouring down into our souls.

Do you enjoy and treasure the moment you sit there quietly and talking with the Lord in your soul? When you read his words in the scripture and when you listen to the messages, do you feel a kind of warm stream flowing into your heart? Do you love him more than anything else? Do you love the truth and his way of life? We are created by the love of the Lord. And what we love the most will decide our lives in the end.

Jesus died on the cross revealing his love toward us. He loved us to the point he would show his unconditional love to us through his death on that cross. He loved us and he would taste death which is the penalty of sin for us to redeem us. He loved us so deep in a way he abandoned the heavenly glory to come to this sinful world to serve us. He didn't choose to leave us alone even when men hated him and killed him.

Love is stronger than death. No matter how profound is our sin, he carried the cross for us to embrace us again and telling us "I love in a way of eternal love. Will you accept me?"