Luke 5:10 Then Jesus said to Simon, "Don't be afraid; from now on you will catch men."

1. As we read the Bible, we find ourselves becoming a part of the ____________.

2. God is righteous and holy. Upon a glimpse of His ____________ we sinners would shutter in ____________ for the sake of our souls.

3. But the Word of ____________ removes all ____________. Jesus says, "Don't be ____________!"

4. Our gracious and holy Jesus has come to you, called you, and is now ____________ you to make others a part of His story.




Scripture Readings
Isaiah 6:1-8
1 Corinthians 14:12b-20
Luke 5:1-11


Take It With You!

From now until Lent we will be examining the early parts of Jesus ministry. Here we will offer thoughts and meditations on the various aspects of Jesus ministry to help us as we contemplate and discuss and wrestle with the messages.

[The] Holy Scriptures are story-shaped. Reality is story-shaped. The world is story-shaped. Our lives are story-shaped. "I had always," wrote G. K. Chesterton in accounting for his Christian belief, "felt life first as a story: and if there is a story, there is a story-teller." We enter this story, following the story-making, storytelling Jesus, and spend the rest of our lives exploring the amazing and exquisite details, the words and sentences that go into the making of the story of our creation, salvation, and life of blessing. It is a story chock full of invisibles and intricate with connections. Imagination is required.

We are delighted to find ourselves in this world of the biblical text. There is so much to explore, so much to learn - and to think that we have a place in this! It is not just about Ishmael and Isaac, Jacob and Esau, Zipporah and Asenath, David and Jonathan, Jeremiah and Ezekiel, Priscilla and Aquila, Rhoda and Phoebe, Barnabas and Mark - it is about me, and about you. Our parents and our children, our friends and our enemies, our neighborhoods and our governments are all included.

Eugene Peterson, Eat This Book: A Conversation in the Art of Spiritual Reading. pg. 62 & 63.