So the business of bringing people into a relationship with Jesus Christ apparently has some things in common with fishing. For example, you don't try to attract the fish with what you're interested in, but what they're interested in. Now look, I like pizza. I don't like worms. But if I put pizza on my hook, I'm going home with an empty bucket buddy. I've got to offer what will be interesting to the fish that I'm trying to attract. And so it is with reaching people for Jesus Christ.
If all we offer is religious bait, coming to a religious meeting to hear a religious speaker talk on a religious subject in a religious place, we probably won't attract many of the lost people who need Christ so desperately. But if we're talking about needs they care about in a place where they feel comfortable, in words they can understand, we have a far better chance of getting them within hearing distance of the Gospel, don't we.
But there's another very important fishing principle we need to keep in mind as we present Jesus to the people around us. It's a principle it seems many believers have never thought about. You don't clean fish until you catch them! See, too many times, lost people feel judged by us rather than loved by us, because we're attacking the things they do. And they do those because they're lost, and instead we should be leading them to the One who will take them from lost to found! You catch them, then you clean them! Actually, God catches them and cleans them, through you.
Zacchaeus got clean, but he got caught first! The problem with the lost people you know is not their profanity or their dishonesty or their immorality - they're lost and they're living like it! Their real problem is they need a Savior! Yes, they must repent, but that's part of being rescued by Jesus from their sin! Don't make their lifestyle the issue. Make Jesus the issue, and say with the great spiritual fisherman, Paul, "When I came to you...I resolved to know nothing except Jesus Christ and Him crucified" (1 Corinthians 2:1-2). If you want to help people be in heaven with you, stick to Jesus. And stick to His cross!
[Ron Hutchcraft]
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Mark 1:17 ... And Jesus said unto them, Come ye after me, and I will make you to become fishers of men.
Matthew 4:19 ... And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.
Luke 5:10 ... And so was also James, and John, the sons of Zebedee, which were partners with Simon. And Jesus said unto Simon, Fear not; from henceforth thou shalt catch men.❤
