A New Dawn (Luke 5: 1-11)

_1 And it came to pass, that, as the people pressed upon him to hear the word of God, he stood by the lake of Gennesaret,
2 And saw two ships standing by the lake: but the fishermen were gone out of them, and were washing their nets.
3 And he entered into one of the ships, which was Simon's, and prayed him that he would thrust out a little from the land. And he sat down, and taught the people out of the ship.
4 Now when he had left speaking, he said unto Simon, Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught.
5 And Simon answering said unto him, Master, we have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing: nevertheless at thy word I will let down the net.
6 And when they had this done, they inclosed a great multitude of fishes: and their net brake.
7 And they beckoned unto their partners, which were in the other ship, that they should come and help them. And they came, and filled both the ships, so that they began to sink.
8 When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord.
9 For he was astonished, and all that were with him, at the draught of the fishes which they had taken:
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.
11 And when they had brought their ships to land, they forsook all, and followed him._

The value of a promise is a function of the speaker of the promise. In this world, there are men and there are men. When some men talk you can go to sleep because they will honor the word even if it is at the cost of their lives. But when some other men pronounce a promise they carry no weight at all. They can renege on a promise just because it rained heavily or it was a sunny day. Our God is not like that.
Proverbs 23:19 says “God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?”
There are three things that make the word of our God of particular consequence.

First is the Ability of our God.
No one can give what he does not have. Recall the story of the exorcists who; trying to mirror the spiritual exploits of Paul in casting out demons said in Acts 19 to evil spirits “...We adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preacheth.” Interestingly, the Bible calls them “Vagabond Jews”. By definition, vagabond means “impostor”, not born of the presumed father. In truth, that was who they were. They were claiming the brotherhood of the Kingdom when in fact they had no identity in Heaven. Our God is not like that.
By proofs again and again; by proof documented in medieval times and now, our God has proven His capacity to do what men cannot do.

The Integrity of our God
It was Alan Kooi Simpson a United States Republican Senator representing Wyoming who served from 1979 to 1997 that said “If you have integrity nothing else matters. When you do not have integrity nothing else matters”. The integrity of God is unquestionable. Even the integrity of those who follow in his steps is solid.

The story of Peter as x-rayed in the above scripture is unique. It has been a whole night of fruitless trouble and Peter being now exhausted was washing his boat and nets and looking to take some deserved rest. They spent all night but did not get anything. By training they knew that the best time to get a decent catch was in the night. It was now morning. Jesus is asking at an unusual hour that they make one more try. Jesus is asking after their very best efforts had been expended for them to make one more try. Jesus asked after they had applied skill without outcomes to apply “faith”. See, skill is great and you should get skills. But the best progress in life are not often the direct products of skills.
Often they are products of grace. To be clear, grace is Jesus staking his integrity to qualify us beyond our skills. That was the whole story of Peter.
And lastly, the love of God God speaking through the mouth of Prophet Isaiah in Isa 49:15 says “Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee.”

When I think about the love of God it makes me shiver. God sent His only begotten son to the world to die for mankind in hope that mankind would take advantage of Calvary. And I ask, what if all men reject His offer? What if no one repents? His only begotten son would have died in vain. God took a pre-emptive risk. That’s a depth of love no one can explain.
These three reasons above makes it impossible for God to fail whenever he says a thing.
Paul speaking to the Roman Church says in Rom 8:32 “He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?” Dear friend, if there was anyone who knew God at close range Paul did.
As this new month unfolds I challenge you therefore to hold on strongly to what you have heard Him say to you. He is not a son of man. He cannot lie. He has said it emphatically- even though it is November God is making it your own January. The implication of that just in case you do not know is restoration of time in all of its dimensions. Men say that time is the only resource in the world that once lost can never be regained- not with God.

Jesus came to the tomb of Lazarus three days late, in spite of that defining lateness, when he got there, he was still right on time. He did not just reverse the death of Lazarus he restored time unto him (John 11:1-45)

It is my prayer for you today dear reader that God will fulfil the promise of Exodus 12:1-2 in your life.
November shall be as January to you and you shall pursue and recover all.
Happy new month.

DATE: Wed, 1st Nov. 2023 1:43pm

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