As we see from Luke chapter 4, Jesus had previously met Simon. He had healed Simon's mother-in-law. Simon and possibly his co-workers had been witnesses to Jesus' healing and preaching. They had seen Jesus' authority. This would give them some reason to believe now, when Jesus tells them to drop their nets.
Jesus' actions were out of character for a powerful man. He raised up a groveling lower-class person. By the way, there's no mention of them being out of the boat when Simon prostrates himself before Jesus, so he was lying down in a pile of fish, more than likely. Jesus lifts Peter up. He respects him. He takes a hard working man from one noble occupation to another.
God's work is to take our eyes off ourselves and our sin. He points us to what he desires to do through us. He raises us out of ourselves. All we do is whatever our Lord has placed in front of us to do.
Have I not heard people tell me this innumerable times? Of course I have. We all have. But I needed to hear it yesterday.
For what it's worth, Pastor Bentrup is one of the characters who makes me think I'm not too old of a dog to learn new tricks and work in pastoral ministry. I forget how old he is. He told me once. I'm thinking it's somewhere in the early eighties. Quite an elderly man. We appreciate him coming out of retirement a little way to fill our pulpit some of the time while our regular pastor is recovering from a hip replacement operation.
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Dave Spotts
blogging at http://capnsaltyslongvoyage.blogspot.com and http://alex-kirk.blogspot.com
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