[CS-FSLUG] "Catching Fish, Cleaning Fish"

[Fred A. Miller]

A WORD WITH YOU
By Ron Hutchcraft
#4744 - "Catching Fish, Cleaning Fish"
Luke 19:5 

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        My Dad worked to make the money for our family, so my Dad decided 
where we went on vacation - fishing. Now some people would consider that a 
dream vacation, but the high-energy, ten-year-old me didn't think so. After 
just a little while, I was complaining that I was bored, but we kept fishing. 
Did I mention that my Dad made the money? Actually, we did have a good catch 
there and they were good eating. Catching them was fun. Eating them was fun. 
In between, there was this one step that was less fun - cleaning them. But 
for that fish to realize its culinary destiny, it had to be cleaned. 

        I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about 
"Catching Fish, Cleaning Fish." 

        If you're a fisherman, you're apparently Jesus' kind of person. Four 
of the twelve disciples He called were fishermen by trade. When He summoned 
them to His service, He said: "Come, follow Me, and I will make you fishers 
of men" (Mark 1:17). He told Simon Peter, "From now on you will catch 
men" (Luke 5:10). 

        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. I like pizza. I don't like worms. But if I put pizza 
on my hook, I'm going home with an empty bucket. I've got to offer what will 
be interesting to the fish 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. 

        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! Too many times, lost people feel judged by us rather than loved 
by us - because we're attacking the things they do because they're lost 
instead of 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. You can see Jesus working that way in Luke 19, 
beginning with verse 5, our word for today from the Word of God. The whole 
town is shocked when Jesus says to Zacchaeus, of all people - the town crook 
- "I must stay at your house today." As stunned as anyone, the Bible says 
Zacchaeus "welcomed him gladly. The people started muttering, 'He has gone to 
be the guest of a 'sinner.'" But after meeting Jesus and experiencing His 
unconditional love, Zacchaeus can't stand his sin anymore. He announces he's 
going to make right the dishonest wrongs he has done, "If I have cheated 
anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount." Jesus 
announced, "Today salvation has come to this house." 

        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 
that 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. Stick to His cross!

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"A Word With You" by Ron Hutchcraft is a daily radio challenge, with 
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Copyright (c) 2005, Ron Hutchcraft. Reprinted with permission. "A Word With 
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