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AND HE SAID TO THEM ... FOLLOW ME ... AND I WILL MAKE YOU FISHERS OF MEN......
...................MATTHEW 4:19..

YOU'RE IN THE ARMY NOW!

The very next scripture says they immediately left their nets and followed Him/Jesus.

After you have caught a fish the next steps are usually .. scaling, gutting and sometimes beheading. In relation to the saving of souls, this is the hard part for many to accept. Once Jesus said hard things to His disciples and it states that they desired to walk with Him no more.. John 6:66-69.

The hype that usually accompanies .. word of faith teachings and prosperity preaching has flowed over into the altar calls of many church meets, only to find that those who went forward were gathered together not to enter into a relationship with the God of Heaven and join His army but merely to have their present day problems and heartaches erased. Jesus was one that told all before they started out, the loses and gains, the cost of discipleship and the foolishness of starting something you are unable to finish or choose not to finish. Is this the message we hear today at the altar or has it changed somewhat.. in the past century? .. Romans 9:6, Acts 14:21,22.

I remember back when I joined the Australian Army, while I was in boot camp each night as the soldiers sat around and talked, you could hear many say in great disappointment .. I didn't know it was going to be like this. They seen the television commercials, the rifles and the uniforms, the wages and the fun parts but knew very little if not naught of the hardships and loneliness that soldiers experience at times.. Peter the apostle said..

FOR IT WOULD HAVE BEEN BETTER FOR THEM NOT TO HAVE KNOWN THE WAY OF RIGHTEOUSNESS .. THAN HAVING KNOWN IT .. TO TURN FROM THE HOLY COMMANDMENT DELIVERED TO THEM .......................... 2 PETER 2:21.

Then it goes on to say they went as a dog to the vomit and a sow to the wallowing in the mire. This refers to men as the dogs and women as the sows, people who walk into church situations where there is a speaker operating who has a testimony that would impress the minds of people for a given time, need to be told very clearly that Jesus the Christ has a army and where there is an army there must be discipline. My belief is that for most of the time, churches in this day and age only ever tell of the story of the Christian goldfish bowl. What I mean by that is .. the fishers of men, tell the new fish or converts that once you say their prayer you shall then be placed in the Big Christian Gold Fish Bowl .. where life is grand and no harm lurks. This is the total opposite to the .. army, battle field and rugged cross picture that Jesus the Christ tells of in His word. Sheep among wolves, lambs among savage wolves and being hated by all for His names sake. Is it any wonder people go AWOL/absent without leave? . . backslide, even apostatise.. 2 Timothy 2:1-5.

Many will be swept into the church structures but how many shall enter into the Kingdom?..the word of God still stays the same, it says .. few!.

Amen.