Highway to the Danger Zone

February 10, 2016

Highway to the Danger Zone

“Again, the Kingdom of Heaven is like a fishing net that was thrown into the water and caught fish of every kind.

Matthew 13:47

Jesus’ parable of the Fishing Net is yet another affirmation that the mission of the church is to proactively reach out to her entire community to fulfill her charge to make disciples of all nations. (Matthew 28:19) The church is to engage in disciple-making and leave the disciple-judging to God.

The key to grasping Jesus’ intent is in the meaning of disciple-making. The goal of disciple-making is to develop fully-devoted followers of Jesus. They are fully persuaded that they have no claim on their life; their lives belong to Jesus, by creation and redemption they belong to Jesus! Therein lies the rub.

The reality of robust disciple-making is that all kinds of fish are going to fill the net. On any given Sunday, people at all stages of their spiritual life will fill our sanctuary. Some are there because their wife sings in the choir, and they don’t know what else to do. Others maintain church membership to insure a place for future weddings or funerals. Some are working out their need to be loved, accepted and valued. Many are there learning how to love mercy, act justly and walk humbly with their God. This mixture of serious folks, working out their salvation with fear and trembling (Philippians 2:12), and those present for less noble reasons is just fine with the Lord. Well, almost fine.

Yes, it is the Lord’s sole responsibility to judge. It is, however, the church’s responsibility to never, ever lose sight of her mission, or as the old adage goes, The Main Thing, Is To Keep The Main Thing, The Main Thing. The church loses this focus when, instead of being fishers of people, she becomes focused on keeping the congregation happy. While all the fish in the net are welcome, not all the fish are qualified to set the agenda for the church. Too often our churches lose sight of this truth, and they try to make the congregation as comfortable and as unchallenged as possible. Jesus didn’t come to console us in our comfort zone; he came to lead us on his Highway to the Danger Zone!   

Sē’lah

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(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com. The BLOG is also available on Amazon Kindle, by subscription.

Publications by Alex M. Knight:

·        Seeking the Life in Christ, Meditations on the New Testament and Psalms has been published and is now available at Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle.

·        The second edition of First Think – Then Pray is available on Amazon Kindle.

·        Meditations on The Story of My Life as told by Jesus Christ has been released as an e-book on Amazon Kindle.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright© 1996, 2004, 2007, 2013 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.