Daily Encounter: A Week-day Devotional by a staff of ACTS International.

Thursday, January 2, 2014

In the Book of Matthew in the Bible we are told of Jesus calling his first disciples. "Follow me," he said, "and I will make you fishers of men."¹ Only once in the Gospels does it say that you must be born again (as important as this is), but it has been reported that Jesus said, "Follow me," 21 times. Almost 2,000 years later how are we measuring up?

I recently heard a pastor say that the reason he doesn't give an invitation in his sermons for people to accept Jesus Christ as their Savior, and to follow him, is because Jesus didn't give invitations! Yet 21 times that we know about Jesus said to people, "Follow me." I don't think you can get a clearer invitation than that.

Note, too, that Jesus not only said in his invitation for people to follow him, but that when they did, he would make them fishers of men. If you and I are true followers of Jesus, we, too, have been commissioned to be fishers of men; that is, to invite and seek to win people to Jesus and to follow him. However, how many who claim to be followers of Jesus today are "fishers of men for Jesus," and share some of the gospel, but never draw in the net by inviting people to accept Jesus as Savior and to follow him? As followers of Jesus it is our responsibility to inform people that, according to the words of Jesus, to enter God's heaven, they, like Nicodemus, must be born againâ€"spirituallyâ€"otherwise they will never even see the Kingdom of Heaven, let alone enter it.² It is also our responsibility to invite them to accept Jesus as their personal Savior, and in so doing receive God's forgiveness and his gift of eternal life.

Jesus also said, "I have come to seek and to save that which was lost."³ In all of our teaching, preaching, and witnessing for Jesus Christ, if we make people feel comfortable with God just because they go to church, but never invite them to follow Jesus and to receive his forgiveness for their sins, we are not only teaching a false, incomplete gospel, but are inadvertently damning people to a lost eternity.

Suggested prayer: "Dear God, please help me to be a true follower of Jesus and a good 'fisher of men' [people], by introducing people to Jesus and inviting them to accept Him as their personal Lord and Savior. Thank You for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully in Jesus' name, amen."

SPECIAL INVITATION: If you have never accepted Jesus' invitation to follow Him and accept Him to be your Lord and Savior and thereby receive God's gift of forgiveness and eternal life, I would like to invite you to do that today. For help please go to this website today at: http://www.actsweb.org/invitation.php.

NOTE TO: To help you to be a "fisher of men/people" in an attractive, non-offensive way, may I suggest that you obtain and use some of the ACTS business witness cards. These are attractively produced and encourage the receiver to go to a Good News website to receive articles that apply the Christian message to the needs everyday people feel. See: https://actscom.com/donate_wcards.php. These cards are available for a donation to cover our printing and postage costs.

1. Matthew 4:18-22.
2. John 3:3, 5.
3. Luke 19:10.

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