Greg Laurie daily devotion - Dec. 17, 2010
Is He Your Captain?
But Simon answered and said to Him, "Master, we have toiled all night and caught nothing; nevertheless at Your word I will let down the net."—Luke 5:5
We find a story in Luke's Gospel about a time when Jesus borrowed Peter's boat to preach to the multitudes. After He had finished speaking, He said to Peter, "Launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch" (Luke 5:4).
Peter replied, "Master, we have toiled all night and caught nothing; nevertheless at Your word I will let down the net" (verse 5). I think in all honesty, Peter was respectfully saying to Jesus, "Look, Jesus, you are the man. When it comes to theology, when it comes to telling us about God, you are the authority. We respect you. But you are kind of a landlubber, okay? You don't know the waters like us. We are seasoned fishermen. This is what we do. But at your word, we will do it." The result was they had so many fish that it caused their little boat to start to sink under the weight of them. Then Peter fell down before Jesus and said, "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!" (verse 8).
Then Jesus said, "Do not be afraid. From now on you will catch men" (verse 10).
This all happened because Jesus was on Peter's boat. Is He onboard yours? Jesus will not force himself into your boat. He will ask you to invite Him onboard, and He wants to be in control and guide you through life. And here is what the Captain says: "Let us cross over to the other side" (Mark 4:35).
Whether in this life or in eternity, we will understand one day why these storms came and what their purposes were. But until then, we need to realize that Jesus is traveling with us through our calamities.
It has been a fantastic year. Do you realize that the A New Beginning radio broadcast now has 700 releases every single day around the United States and abroad? That means that we reach a daily audience of two to three million people!—even more, counting our podcasts and web streaming. We thank God for this success.
In our crusades, we brought the gospel to more than 200,000 people in Southern California, Chicago, and Seattle. The amazing thing is how many people are also watching these events live on the Internet: over 550,000 watched a crusade event live online. And most importantly, 20,772 people registered decisions to follow Christ. We again praise God for His work!
The last few days of the year are a critical time at Harvest, as we seek to finish this incredible year with all of our ministry expenses from this year met. We are currently a little behind where we need to be and are looking to reach that goal in these last days of December. Your year-end gift, no matter the size, will help to meet this last challenge of 2010. Can you send a gift of $35, $45, or more today, to help us meet this final challenge of 2010?
For the gospel,
Greg
For more relevant and biblical teaching from Pastor Greg Laurie, go to www.harvest.org
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