Some must leave their work

And Jesus, walking by the Sea of Galilee, saw two brothers, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen. Then He said to them, "Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men." They immediately left their nets and followed Him. Going on from there, He saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets. He called them, and immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed Him. Matt. 4:18-22

Last night I was thinking about this passage and how it relates to the work of the ministry. Peter and Andrew were at their work, "casting a net," when Jesus told them to leave it and follow Him. They had to leave their work to follow Christ.

I believe that there are some occupations that are completely incompatible for a Christian. Examples of such could be thief, prostitute, a cloak-and-dagger business, and some others I am not thinking of. There are also those occupations that are not wrong for everyone but for someone they are not right. Was there anything wrong with being a fisherman? No, but was it the right occupation for those men? No, it wasn't. Later when they were waiting for Christ after the crucifiction they went fishing to provide breakfast John 21.

What I am trying to say here is that while God can use you and me in any occupation, He may not want you in just any occupation. Also, it is interesting to note that the disciples were going to provide themselves breakfast and they ended up with no breakfast until Jesus provided it for them. Showing again that "all that we have, all that we are, all that we hope to do," is from God. I think God made the fishing bad that night to show the disciples that their calling was not fishing. Jesus had been crucified and now was talking about going back to heaven, and I think that they were thinking about what came next. Jesus, in causing there to be no catch, showed the disciples very clearly that they were no longer fishermen, they were fishers of men.

Yet Paul was a tent maker, even during his ministry years. He kept the manual occupation that his was trained in to support himself and the other laborers in the gospel with him. He used it to expand his work by witnessing to the other tent makers where he would set up shop.

I have to stop for this morning. Not that I want to but I have run out of time. I get my SAT scores tomorrow, so this study will be ongoing for the next several mornings. . .

God Bless!