Fear

I've been looking at Luke 5:1-11 for Sunday morning, its the calling of the disciples. What has struck me as I have done so is that Simon's response to Jesus revealing himself via the miraculous catch of fish is fear. We are told that they were "astonished" and Jesus first words to them are "Do not be afraid". Why were they so terrified?

Because of what the miracle revealed about who Jesus was and what they feared it meant for them. They knew they were not right with God and Jesus found them out! The natural response is to be afraid, judgement should follow.

But we don't really do fear, even when it comes to God. So somewhere there is a fundamental difference in our thinking about God and the disciples. I think there are two areas where we fail to appreciate reality here: we have a wrong image of God and a wrong view of sin.

The Bible reveals a God who hates sin, who can't even look on it, who finds it utterly abhorrent. Sadly that is not how we think. The challenge is to bring my thinking in line with the Bibles especially on these two issues and to tell others the truth.