Bible Quiz The answers are at the end of the blog. Have fun!!
According to the Bible, are these statements true or false? 1. Jesus did not call Himself God. 2. Jesus’s use of the term “Son of Man” indicates His view of His humanity as His primary nature.
Dear Prayer Warriors,
“I learned an important lesson on fishing. If you are going to do it as a lifestyle, then you should prep your fishing holes.” ~ Butch Turpin on preparation
I am not a great fisherman. For me it was a simple, leisurely outing with my son, Sam – bait, bobber, shoreline, hit or miss. To tell you the truth, I was more committed to an outing with Sam than I was to actually catching a fish. Sam, though, became an avid fisherman so for one of his birthdays, I hired “Butch,” a freshwater fishing guide on one of the premier fishing lakes in Texas. This was the real thing. I was amazed as we went out onto this giant lake that Butch seemed to know intuitively where the fish were located. He would power his boat out into the middle of the lake and then stop. After telling Sam where to cast his line and bob, a big ol' crappie would immediately hit Sam's lure. This event repeated itself all morning. Sam was in fishing heaven! When we got back to shore, our cooler satisfyingly full of fish, I began prodding Butch for his secret. He finally confessed that each year after Christmas, he took his truck around and picked up Christmas trees that people left for trash pickup. He then took these trees to his spots, tied them to a cinder block and sank them. These trees became ideal organic homes for all sorts of fish, and he marked these spots on his GPS. I learned an important lesson on fishing. If you are going to do it as a lifestyle, then you should prep your fishing holes.
Here is how I “prep” my fishing holes. We always shop at the same merchants and become known to them. We take time to meet the managers and owners. We are careful to not just say “have a great day,” which any non-believer can use, but “God bless you.” If they say they are having a bad day, we pray with them. We are nice to them and encourage them. If they say to me, “Have a good day,” I reply with “Of course!!” and then with a smile quote Psalm 118:24 (”This is the day which the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.”) What I am doing is preparing my fishing holes, just like Butch. At Christmas, I will go around to all of these merchants and invite them to our church's Christmas service. I will give them a New Testament (with a Four Spiritual Laws tract inside) as a gift. I will offer to share the gospel with them. We have seen merchants come to Christ as a result of this prepping. Some, who were already Christians, have returned to the Lord. Still others who were Christians, have been built up in the faith and become emboldened themselves to witness on the job. It all begins, though, with preparation and ends with presentation. For Butch to spend all of that time developing his fishing holes and yet never get around to fishing would be very sad. In the same way, to spend time prepping your evangelism fishing holes but never getting around to sharing the gospel is equally sad. Butch would drop those trees in at Christmas, but in just a few months he was fishing them in earnest. You can begin now to prep your fishing holes, but by Christmas you should be fishing in earnest for the souls of men. Spiritual preparation does not take long, but the sad truth is that most people spend years prepping while allowing others to come along and fish their holes.
Sam Mahon - Bait and Opportunity
I learned a lot from my son Sam about bait, lures, and opportunity. Sam would keep his tackle box and rod in his car. If he had some time and saw a spot that looked like it could be fished, he was ready. I try to do the same thing in fishing for men:
1. Front Door – We have at our front door a basket. In this basket are both English and Spanish evangelistic materials. Just this week we were able to give the exterminator, the pizza delivery man, the mailman, the UPS delivery man, the lawn men, and an animal control agent New Testaments, Christian evangelistic books (such as Billy Graham’s "How To Be Born Again"), and Four Spiritual Laws Tracts. We keep bottled water and cokes in the fridge. Every person who comes to our door receives the Gospel, the Word of God, and something cold and refreshing to drink.
2. Dashboard of Car – Just like Sam always had his rod and tackle box in his car, so I keep gospel tracts (The Four Spiritual Laws) in the car with me where they are easy to grab.
3. Never Leave Home Without It – This is true with my Bible. I never leave home without it. God is happy to give us evangelistic opportunities as long as we are ready.
4. Keep Your Eyes and Ears Open – Sam would always be alert to hear from people about a good fishing spot. I try to do the same. Many times you can catch from the most casual conversation an opportunity to share Christ. If you can’t share Christ, then you can drop your hook in the water by offering a prayer, a tract, or a verse from Scripture.Think outside the fishing hole “box.” I was once driving down a wooded street with Sam and he said, “You know, Dad, you would be surprised how many little ponds there are in woods like these. No one ever goes out there because they are hard to get to so they are not over-fished, and the fish are always hungry and biting.” I learned a good lesson – don’t just share the gospel in the places where it is easy and consequently over-fished. I am always looking for those places where others will not fish for men.
Grandpa Williamson – Hunting Down the Big One
My grandpa was a high school principal in Starkville, Mississippi and wrote a weekly article for the paper called “Hook, Liar, and Sinker” in which he recounted fishing stories both true and not-so-true. When we would visit Grandpa, he would always take me fishing. I remember a giant catfish that was known in the area as “Old Granddaddy.” It was a fish that had gotten away so many times that it had a reputation. My grandpa was always looking for this fish. He hooked it several times before he finally caught it. I don’t like for souls to “get away.” I find most people give up too soon. I have been known to share Christ with someone for seven or eight times before they receive Christ. As a counselor for the Billy Graham Crusade, I remember being told that most people who make decisions at these crusades have been brought to the point of decision at least ten times previous to their coming to Christ at the crusade. The decline in the 21st century of decisions at crusades is often attributed to culture, but I attribute it to the fact that they have probably not been witnessed to ten times or more by members of local churches. Most people will witness to someone once and then give up. Take a lesson from Grandpa Williamson, and hunt down that fish, even if he gets away several times.
Wyman Mitchell and Offshore Derricks – There is a Price to be Paid
I took Sam redfish fishing once. We bought a space on a fishing boat that took us 80 miles out in the Gulf of Mexico to the offshore wells where the redfish gather. About ten miles out, Sam and I started throwing up, and we pretty much threw up the whole day. We only caught one fish because we spent the rest of the time on deck leaning over the rail puking. I shared this with Wyman Mitchell, the minister who led me to Christ back in 1968. He told me that there was a man in his church that took him out redfish fishing every year and that he threw up the whole time as well but loved catching those redfish so much that he went anyway. Well, I don’t love redfish that much, but I do love the souls of men. When I am on the mission field, lying on the bathroom floor and periodically leaning over the toilet throwing up (which I do on almost every trip we make - sooner or later, there I am), I remember Mitch and tell myself, if ol' Mitch can puke for redfish, then I can puke for the eternal destiny of the souls of men.
Catch and Release – What if I end up with a Christian?
I read a lot about “catch and release” in the sports sections of magazines and papers. I guess when it comes to fishing for men, catch and release would be when you come up with a Christian. Every once in a while, I will end up sharing Christ with a Christian. Whenever I do, I always offer to teach them how to witness, then I release them.
A Word of Warning – Feeding Fish for Fun and Mark Lewis’s Family Farm
I remember as a college student going out to a family farm of a young man in my Bible study named Mark Lewis. His dad took us out to the pond on their property and showed us something pretty neat that I had never seen before. They had a pier extending about 30 feet into the water. At the end of this pier was a vertical pole with bell on it. In the water was a plastic hoop about four feet in diameter. When Mark’s dad rang the bell, the water inside the pool began to churn. Then his dad took some rabbit pellets from a bucket and started throwing them into the hoop. Soon, giant catfish began eating the pellets. There must have been dozens of those fish crowding into that hoop. When he wanted fish, he had them all trained and ready. I asked him if many people used this system, and he said, "To tell you the truth, most people started treating the catfish like pets and didn’t want to catch them - just feed them." I close with this word of warning. Being nice to non-Christians can be a lot of fun. The problem is that when you get a lot of them around and they get used to you being nice to them and then you start telling them they are going to go to Hell unless they accept Christ, it may stop being so much fun. This can be a danger to Christians. Jesus warned the disciples not to “stumble over Him,” that is because Jesus, though the salvation of man, is also offensive to man. Jesus Himself forewarned us of this in John 15:18-20 by stating that “if the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, 'A slave is not greater than his master.' If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they kept My word, they will keep yours also.” Don’t make the mistake of getting so used to being nice to non-Christians that you do not want to offend them with Jesus. Remember the objective is to be “fishers of men” and not “pleasers of men” (Mark 1:17).
By His mercy, II Corinthians 4:1 Rev. John S. Mahon Director: Grace Community Int. – Preparing for departure to Nigeria (You can update yourself in terms of our most current ministry praises and events on our GCI Facebook page. Simply “like” us on Facebook at: www.facebook.com/gciweb.)
Answers to this week’s Bible quiz 1. False – This lie, that Jesus did not claim to be God, is promoted by satanic cults such as Islam, Hinduism, Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Mormons, as well as liberal theologians, both pagan and apostate. Numerous times in scripture, Jesus made this claim and it was because of this assertion that He was killed. (See Matthew 26:63; 27:11, 43; Mark 14:61-64; 15:2; Luke 22:70; 23:3; John 4:26; 5:17, 18, 25–27, 33; 9:36–38; 10:24–30, 36; 11:30, 33; 14:9; 16:67; 18:37; 19:7.)
2. False - The exact opposite is true. Jesus used this term as a Messianic equivalent, and the Jewish leaders received it as such. Again, notice their reaction in Mark 14:61-64. The reason for this reaction is because of the prophecy in the Book of Daniel as found in Daniel 7:13-14. All references by Christ to Himself as the “Son of Man” are not reference to His humanity but instead, affirmations of His deity as prophesied by Daniel and others.
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