Call by the Sea

Daybreak arrived over the Sea of Gawlee-law. Weary and discouraged after a long night of fishing, their nets still empty, some of the fishermen headed for shore. Petros and his brother Andre were in one boat, Yah-kobus and Yo-hawn bar-Zabdee in the other.

They noticed Yeh-shuah among the crowd assembling on the shore. It was early morning, yet already he was teaching and healing many people hungry for the truth. When he saw Petros’ boat land, Yeh-shuah stepped into it and Petros pulled a short distance away from the shore. He continued to speak to the people from the boat.

When he was finished, Yeh-shuah said to Petros, “Launch out to sea, Petros, and let down your nets.”

“But Master,” Petros objected, “We’ve fished all night with no results. Daylight is a really poor time to try to catch anything with the nets.”

“Come on Petros,” Andre urged. “ If the Teacher says so, let’s do it.”

Farther out, they let down the net, but when they tried to pull it in, it was so full of fish that it began to break. They called Yah-kobus and Yo-hawn over from the other boat to help out. When the net was finally empty, both boats rode low in the water.

As they slowly made their way to shore, Petros stared at Yeh-shuah for a long time. “Get away from me, Master!” he exclaimed, “because I am an evil man.”

“Don’t be afraid, Petros,” Yeh-shuah said. “From now on you will catch men, not fish. Come. Follow me.” Back on shore, Yeh-shuah said to the others, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” So from that time on, they quit fishing and followed him.

Giving up a steady income to join a volunteer religious movement carried serious risks, especially if one had dependents. This was a great opportunity for Jesus to demonstrate that his disciple's needs would always be met. From the time he invited certain hand-picked individuals to become his closest disciples, these men shared money and food among themselves, whatever the source, giving to whoever had a need.

Maybe the disciples sold their property and possessions, and maybe Jesus' other followers contributed to the now jobless men's support. Their communistic-like form of organization is like the organization needed on the New Earth. The Chosen Ones will share houses and lands and possessions, and, close bonds of friendship. Too bad evil and selfish and murderous men had to corrupt true communism on the Old Earth and turn it into a curse.

To unselfishly share one's stuff and money with others is a noble thing to do. On the New Earth, those who give will receive even more than they gave.


By demonstrating the power of the Kingdom of God in remotely controlling fish, Jesus gave much hope to these men who had just spent a futile, endless night of net-fishing on the water, and who were also discouraged by the news that John the Baptist was now in a stinking prison cell. John, they thought, was to play an important role in ushering in the New World Order, with their own tiny nation ruling the entire world.

The Gathering of Fish was an object lesson, too, for the nearly blind disciples, blinded by centuries of blind spiritual guides. Like the fish, people, too, could be drawn to Christ by a remote-control power, a force humans have not yet discovered. Although his motley crew of blue-collar workers had no degrees or titles, they were transformed into coworkers of powerful extraterrestrial beings.

Although the "wise" men of the day, bigots, really, despised the humble appearance of the lowly fishermen and their unimpressive-looking master, theses common laborers received an education worth far more than any earthly degree. The wisdom they received from Christ came from another, distant civilization, the Kingdom of the Stars.

It wasn't that education in itself was a bad thing, but the self-confidence and self-importance of the "wise" men of the time made them bigots, incapable of sympathizing with the lower classes and with suffering humanity. The very first thing every worker for God must learn is the lesson of self-distrust.

Jesus' handpicked team of unlearned fishermen were humble and teachable, not hopelessly corrupted by the erroneous traditions and customs of their time. After undergoing his training, they were no longer ignorant and uncultured, but were like him in mind and character. People took notice of this transformation.

Only life can beget life, and this is what turned these selfish, squabbling men into powerful teachers. When mind connects with mind and soul with soul, only then can this vitalizing energy be shared. From the three years of daily contact with the life of Christ has flown every life-giving impulse that has blessed the world.

Those who endure the discipline necessary to allow the Holy Spirit to work on them have no limit to their usefulness. Only by willfull acts in destroying our own selfishness can God teach us how to serve him, and humanity. This is, in fact, our destiny: to serve God and others on the New Earth.

Whether or not we are chosen for the next life probably has little to do with church attendance, church membership, or correct theology. Rather, those who are chosen will have demonstrated their love for God by their self-sacrificial concern for others. This is the kind of personality needed in workers on the New Earth.

We don't need to attend universities or obtain their degrees to qualify us as teachers for Christ. With the Holy Spirit as our guide, our weak, flip-flopping natures can be transformed into strength and steadfastness.

How is this possible? How can we develop minds like Christ's?
We must devote our minds completely to God.
We must experience constant devotion.
We must connect our minds with Christ's by studying his life and by thinking and acting like he did.
Our prayers must not be for ourselves, but for others.
We must devote our own lives to improve the lives of others.


As we develop a connection with Christ we will see things more clearly, our discernment will sharpen, and our judgment become more balanced. Those who form this connection will be energized, not into sitting passively in a church pew once a week, but into seeking out others, as Christ did, and sharing with them a glimpse of A Better Life Beyond This World.

The next life, for those chosen by what they have said and done in this life, isn't floating on clouds and playing harps in eternal bliss, neither is it spending an eternal vacation playing with animals or picking and eating magical fruit. The next life is all about jobs, because, like some of the extraterrestrials in the Bible have said, we will be servants/slaves of God. Hence the need for a Day of Rest on the New Earth.

Being a slave/servant of God is not a bad thing, really. It's much preferrable to destruction and non-existence, following the terrible shock when we realize what we should have done to join God's Kingdom of the Stars, but, we were too lazy or too busy or too distracted with our stuff, or, we didn't study the Bible, especially Jesus' teachings, and instead believed a myth.

We can join the Kingdom of God wherever we are in life. We don't need to obtain degrees or attend seminars or workshops to teach us how to increase our church's membership. All we need to do is sit at the feet of Jesus and receive an education in the highest of all schools. This will transform us into servants of humanity, servants of God.

The disciples could have, after being chosen, settled down and attended synagogue every Sabbath and lived a comfortable life helping Jesus out in their spare time on weekends or after work. For his Team One, though, Jesus needed full-time workers with little or no distractions.

Like Jesus' disciples, our mission is not to live comfortable lives and surround ourselves with stuff, but rather, our mission is to serve humanity with our time and money. If we have stuff we don't need, we can get rid of it by donating it or selling it.

On the Great Judgment Day our life records will be carefully scanned to determine what we did with our time and money. Did we spend it on selfish pursuits or did we try to uplift humanity from the gutter? Did we attend the right church, grab a microphone and tell everyone how much we loved Jesus, then later went out and did nothing to serve him or anyone else?

On the Great Judgment Day there will be weeping and wailing, not from the fires of hell, but from those who were rejected from membership in the Kingdom of God because they weren't good servants on Earth. We can be good servants by studying the life of Christ and doing what he tells us to do.

This is what our churches should be teaching us: How to live our lives as servants of God. We don't have to rely on any church for this because the responsibility for learning how to be good servants lies with our own selves. The words of Christ are there for us to study.

Many are called but few are chosen. There will be hot tears of anguish for those who have been unfaithful servants of God on Judgment Day. Like noxious weeds, they must be destroyed in order to purify the Kingom for those who are chosen for their good words and deeds.