Simon and the Sons of Thunder, Inc. had just come back from a grueling night of fishing. They caught nothing at all, and had brought their boats in to clean the gear. Jesus, never really doing things like a normal person, gets into one of the boats and starts preaching. Then, to top things off, he tells fisherman who owned the boat, “Now go out where it is deeper, and let down your nets to catch some fish” (Luke 5:4). At this point, Simon answers him, “We did this all night and got nothing.”

Sure enough, the Bible story picks up right about here, and within a few words, the net was overflowing and the boat was sinking under the weight of the fish. The entire company was astonished, and when they landed, they left everything and followed Jesus.

There’s a few points I got out of this as I read that I’d love to share.

1. Just because you just came back from a fruitless season doesn’t mean God can’t use you. Jesus took the fisherman who were worn out after a zero-fish catch, who were cleaning their nets so they could give up for a little while, and brought them to an abundant harvest.
2. At God’s Word is better than at our word. Simon’s word was, “there are no fish here. All night for nothing.” Nevertheless, at Jesus’ word he let down his net and the consequences were awe-inspiring.
3. What we let Jesus use, he will use greatly. The other boat was not the one filled with fish, just the one Jesus was in and using. I love that Jesus preaches from the boat beforehand, because it’s a brilliant metaphor. Are we a vessel, a vehicle for Jesus to fish for men from? He’s always faithful on his end, do we hold up our end of the bargain in preaching, leading, serving, loving by letting Him use us?
4. Our stuff isn’t good enough. Did you notice that the net was breaking when they let things go Jesus’ way? What we have, even if we use it day to day in a live work environment, isn’t ever going to be enough to handle a move a God. Why? So we get a fuller picture of who God is and how much we need him. We don’t have the capacity with all of our manmade things to do what God can do with all of his Godmade things.
5. Landing in the same spot with different results beckons a response. The story started and ended at the landing point, the shoreline. The response was completely different each time. At the beginning of the story, the men had left the boats completely, dejected and cleaning their gear. At the end of the story, the men had left the boats completely, accepted and following God. When they landed, they realized what had transpired between the two times they had docked the boats, and they made a bold response to it. These three men gave it all up to become the inner three disciples of Jesus. They wouldn’t even go back to fishing until after Jesus was crucified.

It’s easy to feel like the empty boats in the story. Notice what Simon says in Luke 5:8: “Oh, Lord, please leave me—I’m too much of a sinner to be around you.” You can be in a dry spot spiritually and God can still take you out on the water one more time and use you. Jump forward to John 21. Peter says “I’m going fishing.” Read into that, “I’m going back to my old way of life. We’ve been separated from Jesus and don’t know where to go next.” Not really the rock of the church right now, Peter is. But Jesus offers the same invitation then as he did in Luke 5 and does to us now, “Follow me.” Because Peter followed when he had given up, both times, he was on the front line for Pentecost, preaching the sermon and shepherding the moment the Holy Spirit was given to the Church.

Similarly, it’s too easy to come back from a great haul and have the wrong response. We elevate ourselves and our gear, or aren’t changed at all. It’s a kind of a mission-trip high. You can feel really good about who God is and what he does, but never really get how much you need him and need to open yourself up for one more fishing trip. We aren’t disposable humans; God can use us again and again for his glory, but we have to respond each time by getting in line with God’s direction and submitting to that next insane-sounding request to go fish in the deep.

Where are you in this story? Where do you want to be in this story?

-Zachariah

Of all the possible descriptions of his prime, Job mentions the friendship of God.

I think this says a lot about the importance of intimacy with God and how it works.

Job’s prime coincided with God’s closeness in two ways: locally and relationally. The relationship with God was good enough to be called a friendship, and it happened near to Job, being felt in his own home.

So often we can get caught up in chasing after the prime that we miss what’s connected to the prime. We miss the friendship to be in during the prime.

Let’s take the challenge together to experience a local, relational intimacy with God. It’s part of being in your prime.

-Zachariah

— Job 25:5

You’ve looked at the sky at night, right?

It’s absolutely beautiful. I could stand in awe for hours looking at the moon and all the intricate collections of stars and planets and galaxies and everything else above my head.

And our God is more glorious than all we see in the night sky. His glory shines brighter than the stars. ALL OF THEM.

It’s an absolutely mind-blowing thought.

He not only compares to this amazing expanse of existence we see before us, but he precedes and exceeds it. He comes before and His glory goes beyond anything we can feast our eyes upon in this world. Moon & stars included.

I’m in awe.

-Zachariah

P.S. Playlist time! A plenty of worship songs have solar system imagery in them, so I listed a few here for you to listen to, in no particular order.

1. Sing Along by Sixteen Cities
2. Sun and Moon by Phil Wickham
3. God of Wonders by Marc Byrd and Steve Hindalong.
4. Stars Will Fall by Aaron Shust
5. God Who Stretched the Spangled Heavens by Catherine Arnott Cameron (written during the space race)
6. Any Christmas song mentioning the star that guided the Magi.

One of the reasons I am opposed to prosperity gospel preaching is summed up by what John Piper says on the subject, that the prosperity gospel “overlooks or minimizes the dangers of wealth, the biblical call to a wartime mindset, and the necessity and purposes of suffering”

The necessities and purposes of suffering? Not so attractive sounding now, are we, Christianity?

Yet, if the more we suffer for Christ, the more God will comfort us, isn’t suffering then desirable?

The comforts we build for ourselves will only last, at most, for a lifetime. God’s comfort is eternal.

So why do we focus on the comforts made by human hands, when we should desire the suffering that leads to God’s comforts?

Flip your perspective on comfort. Desire suffering. In our weakness, He is strong. In our suffering, He showers comforts.

-Zachariah

WARNING: AWESOME PRE-TRINITARIAN GLIMPSE AT THE TRINITY!

Job is doing his whining about his friends thing. If you’ve read even a few chapters of Job, you understand how this works. Job mopes about his life being awful (because it all went down hill really fast) and declares his innocence. His “friends” tell him how sinful he is and spout out wisdom at him. He tells them they stink at being good friends. It’s a very established pattern.

Also in the pattern is a general amount of hopelessness.

This one verse seems to be a departure from that hopelessness. It also has a fantastic lesson for us in the part of the calendar called A.D.

Whether or not Job is innocent (that’s later in the book), he has faith in an advocate in heaven, witnessing to his character and faithfulness.

We know this advocate today to be Jesus Christ himself. 1 John 2:1 tells us “But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate who pleads our case before the Father. He is Jesus Christ, the one who is truly righteous.” Jesus ascended to heaven, and sits at the right hand of the father (Heb. 1:3). He is right beside God the Father, advocating our innocence by his blood.

No matter the consequences we set into motion by our sin, the ultimate consequence of our eternal destiny is absolutely advocated for. Just as Job needed this mediator (v. 21), so we also need and yet have a mediator in Christ.

There is hope amidst the brokenness and sin and sorrow and downfall. Christ is our advocate. Our hope is sure.

-Zachariah

P.S. Take the chance to listen to this song, and mediate on how Christ advocates for our sake. He “ever lives and pleads” for us. Praise God!

Have you ever been in what seemed to be a dead end service to God? You were doing something that seemed meaningless or useless?

Maybe you feel that you’re in a position like this now. This passage was written for just that kind of season in your life. I’m not sure this passage was written to people who experience a lot of drive and success and purpose. The enthusiastic probably didn’t need the spiritual pep talk.

What do we do with these situations that appear to be going nowhere?

Paul gives us an alternate reaction to take. Instead of feeling weak and transient and purposeless, we are to work with enthusiasm.

Take a look at how we could react and the flip-sides we find here.

We could be depressed and sad that we don’t have such a glamorous or upfront or immediately visibly fruitful ministry. Counter that with enthusiasm. Whatever you’re doing isn’t useless. It has a place in the picture. Cut back on any pride that says you need to be in the spotlight to be in God’s spotlight as he searches to and fro for those who love Him.

Maybe you don’t even see the picture. You’ve lost track of the vision that your role fits into. Remember that the “work for the Lord” part is bigger than any human list of goals and mission statements. In (not for) our faith we work for the glory of God. Every Godly vision ultimately points to living for God and His glory. You may miss the big picture, but you never have to lose the biggest picture.

Another reason we could see what we do for God is when we don’t see the results. When the harvest falls outside the scope of our time or watchful eye, we can be less than enthusiastic. But we can trust Galatians 6:7, “God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap.” The seed salesman may not see the crop, but he knows that he contributed to it in a valuable way.

Never doubt that all your service for God has meaning. Every part of the body is useful, and any part that gives up functioning is noticeable and detrimental. Be strong and enthusiastic about it, whatever you do. After all, it’s not for you, but for God.

-Zachariah

Such knowledge is higher than the heavens—
and who are you?
It is deeper than the underworldt—
what do you know?

It is broader than the earth
and wider than the sea.

— Job 11:7-9

Zophar’s words here are irritating to me.

I have a hard time with faith sometimes. A lot of the time.

I don’t want to have to just believe in something I can’t understand. Perhaps it is because I’m afraid of what I can’t understand. However it happens, I crave knowledge.

Knowledge that I just won’t get.

I want to be able to reason out God. To philosophize who He is and what He’s like. I want to know God.

Yet, I can hardly reach any of this knowledge.

Who am I? I can’t reach the heights of the heavens, the depth of the underworld, or the breadth of the earth and sea.

Even more can I not get such knowledge.

Faith is a challenge for me. A challenge to give up on having to know, and instead live on having to believe.

I’m human. I can’t understand God. I can just have faith that He is who He says He is, in His own Word.

If you’re like me in your cravings for knowledge, take a step back with me today. Let God be God, and let us be humans who don’t quite understand Him.

It isn’t knowledge of God the size of a mustard seed that moves mountains; it’s faith.

-Zachariah

— Psalm 37:34

An idea that I’ve been trying to articulate for a long time is the connection between God’s will and God’s promised blessings. David does a pretty good job here.

Travel steadily along God’s path, and then he will honor you by giving you the land.

In case you missed it, land was one of the three big blessings the Israelites claim in their descent from Abraham. The covenant God made with Abraham included land, kids, and general blessings.

So, there’s a formula here.

Hope + Path-traveling = Promised blessing.

Another way to see it is that the promised blessing is a destination on the path. You have to take the path all the way to the destination of the blessing, or else you never get at it.

I’m not trying to propose anything odd or prosperity gospel or vending machine Jesus or God-manipulation here.

This is the way it works. And worked.

God’s path for Abraham’s life included faith in God and traveling to the Promised Land. He had to go there to get it.

Don’t just expect God’s blessing. Follow the God’s path to get to the blessing.

-Zachariah

About a month ago, Pastor Steven Furtick from Elevation Church (Charlotte, NC) wrote a blog post about how God doesn’t do the details.

If this sounds sketchy to you at all, take the time to read it. The moral of the story is that God seems to “not do details” in the Bible, with the broad, vague, big-picture commands He gave out. The reality, though, is that He has every detail covered. He might not communicate all the details, but He’s got them all worked out.

If I may be so bold as to tag on to the thoughts of a brother in Christ, I’d like to here.

Not only do I agree with Pastor Steven, I’ll take it one step further.

The details of your life, though God might not communicate them to you, are worked out and delighted in.

Following God has the perks of the direction of God and the delight of God. It may not seem that there’s a plan or a purpose or a hope. Yet, the puzzle pieces make something beautiful together even if they never see the top of the box. God sees it all, every detail. He not only has it worked out, but He’s delighting in the details too.

God is excited about the details of your life.

So stick with His direction, and accomplish those details.

-Zachariah

Stop being angry!
Turn from your rage!
Do not lose your temper—
it only leads to harm.

— Psalm 37:7-8

I don’t know about you, but I’ve been needing to hear this for a while.

My work commute is filled with poor drivers. I’ll admit that I’m not the best driver in the world, but I’m just unassertive, not reckless or dangerous or illegal.

I’ve only had three cars run red lights in front of me and five swerve into my lane this past week. (Not to mention the one that swerved all the way into the lane as my girlfriend was driving with me on my day off). But who’s counting?

I am.

Because I am a begrudging and sometimes angry human. Imperfect. Being sanctified at a sinfully slow pace.

It’s very easy to get angry about traffic skirmishes. After the initial panic, I’ll be irritable and entertain thoughts of road rage.

Yet, I shouldn’t really worry. Even if people drive poorly or illegally and somehow live and remain unticketed, that isn’t my focus.

If it is my focus, it just leads to harm. It harms me to turn away from the task at hand: to be still.

Faith ultimately takes resting patiently in God’s presence, acting fully on his purposes, in order to someday receive the promises.

The start of that is to be still. Not to be angry or bitter, at bad drivers or angry managers or the people who ask you really dumb questions. Just be still in God’s presence.

Take a chance to be still and meditate on one of my favorite passages on God’s peace:

“Don’t worry about anything, but in everything, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.  And the peace of God, which surpasses every thought, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (Phillipans 4:6-7)

-Zachariah