boats

What kind of boat are you?! A bit of a weird question I know...let me explain...

So this week at Bode we have a couple speaking; Simon and Gill Brisco. Gill have been taking a few of our lectures giving us all some 'life lessons' as they have been called. She is such an inspiration; she's just an amazing woman of God.

Anyway, today we turned to Luke 5 where Jesus gets onto the boat with Simon Peter and tells him to cast his nets out on the other side of the boat, and so they end up catching loads of fish...I'm sure you all know the story well.

Gill explained how we are all like boats, and Jesus want to be on our boat. We are called to be 'fishers of men' and we should have Jesus as 'Lord of our ship'. Each of us has a different shore of people who we are to fish and share the gospel with; our friends, our families, our work colleagues. And through us and our boats Jesus want to reach these people.

And what is awesome is that our boats are all ready equipped with all that we need to reach these people, no matter what kind of boat you have. Some boats are big cargo ships, they can carry a lot of things, they can reach a lot of people with all the knowledge and supplies that they have. Some boats are more like submarines; they work for Jesus underwater, behind the scenes. Some are more those little pulling boats that guide the bigger ships out of, or back into, the docks. But regardless of our type of boat, God has supplied us with all the skills and talents we need to reach out to those people on our shore.

Gill challenged us to try to think of what type of boat we are, and what supplies and talents God has blessed us with in order that we may go and fish for him. She also and asked us to think about who and where our fish are. Are we fully utilising the supplies that God has given us to reach out to the people on our shores? Are we even making it to our shores, or are we just bobbing up and down in the same place in the waters?

So often I think it is easy to just stay out on that water. Or even to fish in the swimming pool of the church. We need to get out of the swimming pool and into deeper waters where there are people searching for something; searching for God. And we need to step onto that shore where our friends are, and tell them about who Jesus is.