Luke 5:11

Wow, it's been awhile since I've posted on here. Been pretty busy the last couple weeks.

Anyway, about this verse. I was reading the Bible today and it hit me. If you look it up, it doesn't sound too exciting. If you read it in context, you barely notice it. But it is the very end of the story of the call of Peter, James, and John into the ministry. This is what the verse says:

And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him.

(Luke 5:11 ESV)

It's a famous story; Peter, James and John have been fishing all night without success. As in-no fish. At all. When Jesus comes along, he tells them to try...just one more time. They don't believe him at first, but they agree to give it one more attempt. They didn't just catch a fish-they caught so many fish that the nets-designed for fishing-started to break, and the boats started to sink from the weight. Awed and humbled, they ran to Jesus who told them they would become fishers of men. Then this verse comes, Luke 5:11. They left everything and followed him.

These men did not know Jesus, they had never followed Him before. Yet after one miracle, they left everything they had ever known. In those days, people stayed in the same place for their whole lifetime. They were leaving their family, friends, and every thing they had ever worked for or put time into-for Jesus. Willingly, they poured out their lives, enduring terrible hardships and terrible deaths-all for Him.

And yet we still struggle with reading our Bibles once every day.

They had nothing but God. They didn't have what we have, they didn't have our luxuries. But they never gave up.

We have a book-quite a LARGE book, the Bible, that tells us SO many things. When we read the things in the Scriptures about God, our sin, and our forgiveness, we should fall to our knees in tears, and thank God and live our lives for Him.

Yet we often simply skim over the words we take for granted.

So today, I give you three challenges:

1. I don't press you to read the Scriptures. I press you to study them. Get up half an hour earlier and spend time reading, taking notes, and highlighting. Stop school earlier so you can. Do other things if necessary. But do it today.

2. Have the faith that Peter, James and John had in Jesus-that He IS the Son of God, and that we are NOT called to do little things.

3. This is the hardest step. But if you haven't yet, get on your knees and ask God to take control of your life. Cry out to Him. And then-change. So your life revolves around Him-and not yourself.

I have decided to follow Jesus

No turning back, no turning back.

P.S. For an extra challenge-write out Luke 5:11 and post it somewhere where you'll see it-a lot! (Mirror, wall, desk, etc...)