"At your word..."

I HATE MOVING! My wife will testify that I don't do this very well, probably because I'm such a creature of habit; when things "aren't in their spot" it just throws me for a loop. Honestly it would be easier to just stay put and forget it. This causes my dear wife a great deal of stress because she nearly kills herself trying to get stuff unpacked and settled for her weird husband. SHE IS SIMPLY AMAZING! Honey I love you and I owe you a cruise. Over the last month we've been trying to get settled in our new home and ministry in Corpus Christi Texas. While I may hate moving, I have to go  when I hear the Lord say to me it's time for me to join Him in another assignment.

For those of you who've never moved cross country, the logistics of that are monumental. I am so thankful to the Lord for His grace and provision to make this move probably one of the smoothest transitions we've ever had. It was still full of stress, mostly related to the close timing of closing on the sale of our house in Moundsville West Virginia on a Friday and being able to close on this new home in Corpus on Monday morning. Yet the Lord worked out the myriad of details and supplied the funds we needed on both ends. The distance required a moving company that would do a long distance move and Cheryl and I both remembered our move to Houston several years ago from New Hampshire where we were without our belongings for 40 days! Thankfully this time, the company we used from Pittsburg did a great job and were right on time.

Over the last month, I've watched the Lord work out detail, after detail, after detail. Multiple miracles literally stacked up on top of one another. I tell you all this because in my Quiet Time this morning, my reading was from Luke 5 when Jesus first called His disciples. Simon Peter and his buddies had fished all night and had caught nothing. Their boats were empty on the shore and they were cleaning their nets and preparing them for the next time. Jesus came along and used Peter's empty boat as a make shift pulpit. He sat down in true rabbinical fashion and began to teach people the word of God. The context seems to indicate Peter and the other fishermen were listening to Jesus' teaching while they kept on working. After fishing all night, dragging those nets up and down, over and over again, catching nothing; I can say with certainty these hard working, blue collar, "salt of the earth" kind of guys probably wanted to do nothing else but go to sleep. As Jesus wrapped up his teaching, He addressed Simon, his nets drying nearby, and told Peter to relaunch the boat into the deep, put out his nets he just finished cleaning and Jesus specifically said "for a catch" in vs. 4. 

Now Peter had a big choice to make didn't he? He could have blown off what Jesus said and just dismissed it. He could have had a smart-aleck wise crack with a few choice words for the preacher to get out of his boat so he could go get some much needed rest. He could have made excuses about how much he had yet to do for his wife and kiddos at the house that morning before he could go to sleep. But old Peter didn't do that. He called Jesus "Master." That means he had surrendered his will to the will of this new preacher who showed up - much more than a preacher, the Messiah, the Christ, the Hope of Israel. Simon told the Lord (I believe for our benefit) that they had labored all night and caught nothing! Professional fisherman came up empty. That's a tough expensive night. That means no food on the table from the sale of the catch, bills aren't going to be paid and mama ain't going to be happy she can't go to the Galilee HEB or Walmart to buy food, school supplies and clothes for the kids.

Notice what Peter said however in Luke 5:5 "But at your word, I will let down the nets." Peter responded in obedience to the word of the Lord. He responded in faith to what Jesus said, that Peter needed to do this... "for a catch." Of course the rest of the story is they had such a fish haul their nets were breaking and they had to summon James and John to come help them. This fish catch was so huge Peter recognized it to be a miracle by the hand of His Creator and he was instantly, painfully aware of his sinful condition (vs. 8). The Bible says they were astonished at the catch of fish - literally they were afraid because they knew they were in the presence of God in the flesh. Jesus reassured them they were going to be catching men from now on.

A couple of quick thoughts of application to consider:
1. Obedience to the word of the Lord by faith is never convenient. When God speaks to us through His word, it always requires a faith response and it is always going to stretch us and move us away from the safety and convenience of the status quo. Yet the promises of God and responding to them in faith and obedience produce great blessing! Not just material blessings as in this case; but spiritual blessings! Peter learned that his sins can be forgiven. He saw God at work in and through his faith and obedience and it forever changed his life. "At your word" - Oh how I hope and pray you will respond to what God says to you daily in faith and obedience and watch God do incredible stuff in your life each day and also in the lives of others!

2. This encounter with Jesus perfectly illustrates what Jesus would later teach His disciples in John 15  in the parable of the vine and the branches where Jesus said in John 15:5 "I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever abides in Me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing." Peter and his buddies tried hard, they worked and labored all night with no success. They did all they could do and had nothing to show for it. "But at your word..." They got invited to go work where Jesus was working and it made all the difference in the world. So are you laboring in your flesh and strength alone or are you abiding in Christ? Sure it takes time to have a quiet time with the Lord in the morning or evening when you have other stuff to do, or you want to veg and watch TV; or you want to have time to stop by the new Starbucks to grab coffee on your way to work. Abiding in Christ means you have to sacrifice things like sleep to get up a little earlier or stay up a little later like Peter did in Luke 5. Jesus showed His new disciples that time spent laboring in obedience and faith is never wasted time! Joshua 1:8 says "This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you shall make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success." Same principle, same result. "At your word" means the success and results of our labors for Him are in Jesus' Almighty and all powerful hands, not in our feeble pitiful fingers.

3. Finally, you know the old saying: "If mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy." Peter could have placed his wife and family on a higher priority that day. Sadly a lot of men do that every day. They labor ridiculous amounts of hours trying to provide a lifestyle for their wives and children to make them happy. Yet in the end it all collapses and their family is falling apart and they don't understand why. Men, as the spiritual leaders of your home, put Jesus first, obey Him and His word each day no matter how inconvenient it is. Leave the results to God. I bet Peter's wife that day was pretty pleased that her hard working husband decided to respond in faith and obedience "at your word."

I plan to obey the Lord "at your word" today, from my little corner of the world to yours. Will you join me?