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Enjoy Life, Enjoy God


Dale Patterson

THE NET

January 31, 2013

When I was a boy on my grandparents' lake, we'd get a seine net in order to catch some minnows for bait.  But sometimes in the net, no telling what we'd find.  

 
...The kingdom of heaven is like a net that was let down into the lake and caught all kinds of fish.  When it was full, the fishermen pulled it up on the shore.  They they sat down and collected the good fish in baskets, but threw the bad away.         
                                                  --Matthew 13:47,48 TNIV
 
How does God's economy, the kingdom work?  Like a net.  No telling, says Jesus, what you'll find in that net, the good and the bad.  Yet while the good and bad flop around in the net, sooner or later there will be a separation.

Notice, the fish don't do the separating; "we" just flop around together.  Someone else does the sorting.  Our lives and ministries, I think, are less about US figuring out who are the good and bad fish, but making sure we pursue righteousness and the grace of God in Jesus Christ.  Swim on! 
 
Joyfully,
 
Dale Patterson