FIB'ers: Website

Devotion : FIB'ers

Contributed by Jayson Quimby

As humans, it is only natural to be fearful.

As a saltwater bass tournament angler I'm often prone to fear myself. Before every outing I'm plagued by fearful questions like:

What if my boat breaks down?

What if it's too stormy to get to where we want to fish?

What if it's not stormy enough to make the fish bite?

Why am I going to risk my life by putting my boat in the surf zone to catch a 5 pound bass I'm going to throw back at the end of the day?

What if the Pelagic Red Crab or squid turn off the Calico Bass bite and we come back to the scales with nothing?

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Bad news in the headlines has a tendency to cause us to fear as well!

Airplanes disappearing

Another person blowing themselves up in the name of their god

Thousands of innocent people dying each year

Another crazy thing Trump has to say....

And worries of what this world is coming to when we consider who will be in the White House next year.

These are all things that can cause us to fear, but those who are in Christ truly have nothing to fear!

As a fisherman and surfer who has seen many stormy seas, I love how practical this story is from the book of Mark chapter 4:39-40

Jesus told his disciples to get in their boats and go to the other side. This was a command, and when Jesus tells us to do something, He provides a way for it to happen. Jesus must have been really tired because He was sleeping in the back of the boat as the storm began. While the winds howled, and the waves roared, His disciples began to fear that they would die.... Remember, these guys were experienced sailors and fishermen and they were best buds with Jesus, so the storm must have been really bad, as the disciples literally feared for their lives. I love what Jesus does next. Jesus doesn't ring His hands and pace back and forth. He didn't even lose any sleep over it :–)

He was totally at peace. The Bible says... "He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, "Quiet! Be still!" Then the wind died down and it was completely calm. He said to his disciples, "Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?"

We are commanded by God not to fear, and that He will meet our every need.

Isaiah 41:10 says "fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand."

In John 14:27 as Jesus was preparing to leave His Disciples He said,

"Peace is what I leave with you; it is my own peace that I give you. I do not give it as the world does. Do not be worried and upset; do not be afraid."

There are many other places where God addresses the issue of FEAR. The bottom line is this : We need to believe that God is who He says He is and He will do what He says He will do.

We cannot do this on our own power. However the Bible gives us practical steps we can take each day. The one passage that sums it up best to me is Proverbs 3:5-6 Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.
6 In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.

Trust and Know that He is coming again. No army will be able to stand against HIM!!!! We know that Christ will return some day. It will be redemption for those in Christ and judgement for those who are not in Christ. As an English Literature teacher, I especially love how John in the book Revelation illustrates Christ's return for us.

Revelation 19

The Rider on a White Horse

11 Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. 12 His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many crowns, and he has a name written that no one knows but himself.13 He is clothed in a robe dipped in[d] blood, and the name by which he is called is The Word of God. 14 And the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses. 15 From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. 16 On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords.

So I finish with this: Trust in Him who made you, who loved you enough to redeem you with His own blood, and who promises to direct your every step if you will acknowledge Him in every aspect of your life and stop depending on your own understanding.

HE is Faithful and TRUE!

Walk By Faith

by Raul Ries

When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke with tongues and prophesied.

Acts 19:5-6

If we start back in Acts 2, we see the power of God falling upon the church on the day of Pentecost. By the time you get to Acts 19, the Holy Spirit has been moving very powerfully, establishing the church of Jesus Christ.

Something incredible happened to the church in Ephesus. When you read Acts 19 and the Book of Ephesians; the Holy Spirit had become powerful in the church, but if you go all the way to Revelation 2:1-7, you see the changes in the church.

When you start reading the letter to the Ephesian church, it seems like they were right on. They hated liars and they hated evil men. They had even tested those who came professing to be apostles and found them liars (Revelation 2:2).

With all the good they were doing, what problem could they have? In only 30 years, from Acts 19 to Revelation 2, the church had become cold and the Christians in Ephesus had left their first love (Revelation 2:4). Wow!

I have seen this happen to many Christians. They begin their walks with the Lord on fire and then the flames go out. They are living on emotions and not by faith. Remember, we walk by faith, not sight, empowered by the Holy Spirit, (2 Corinthians 5:7).

“To live by faith is a far surer and happier thing than to live by feelings or by works.”
~C. H. Spurgeon~

Catch of the Day –

by Jimmy Houston

“The water I give will become a spring of water gushing up inside that person, giving eternal life.” John 4:14

Determining what the water is doing at any given time is one of the keys to fishing success. Is it rising, subsiding, warming, chilling, clearing up, getting muddy? Water is always doing something. Pay attention to what the water is doing. The more you understand what the water, the more fish you will catch.

The bible calls Jesus “living water.” Water that gives eternal life. Water that quenches your thirst forever. This means that Jesus is all we need to have life eternal with God. We don’t need good looks, power, fame, or even money. All we need is faith in Jesus. Is your pitcher filled with the living water of Jesus?

Do I Applaud What Is Right?

by Max Lucado

The summer before my eighth-grade year I made friends with a guy named Larry. He was new to town, so I encouraged him to go out for our school football team. He could meet some guys, and being a stocky fellow, he might even make the squad. He agreed.

The result was a good news-bad news scenario. The good news? He made the cut. The bad news. He won my position. I was demoted to second string. I tried to be happy for him, but it was tough.

A few weeks into the season Larry fell off a motorcycle and broke a finger. I remember the day he stood at my front door holding up his bandaged hand. “Looks like you’re going to have to play.”

I tried to feel sorry for him, but it was hard. The passage was a lot easier for Paul to write than it was for me to practice. “Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep” (Rom. 12:15 NASB).

You want to plumb the depths of your love for someone? How do you feel when that person succeeds? Do you rejoice? Or are you jealous? And when he or she stumbles? Falls to misfortune? Are you really sorry? Or are you secretly pleased?

Love never celebrates misfortune. Never. I like the way Eugene Peterson translates the passage: “Love. . .doesn’t revel when others grovel, [but] takes pleasure in the flowering of truth” (MSG). J.B. Phillips is equally descriptive: “Love . . .does not gloat over the wickedness of other people. On the contrary, it shares the joy of those who live by the truth.”

You know your love is real when you weep with those who weep and rejoice with those who rejoice. You know your love is real when you feel for others what your heavenly Father feels for you. Remember, love “rejoices whenever the truth wins out” (1 Cor. 13:6 NLT).

Excerpted from A Love Worth Giving
W Publishing, 2002

The Hush of Heaven

Revelation 8:1 by Jon Courson

The Apostle John is writing to a group of people who are picked on, put down, beat up, and persecuted as they are fed to lions, crucified upside down, and ignited as candles by the hand of the Roman Empire. As you read the book of Revelation, keep this backdrop in mind. The temptation is to view this Book only in the context of current events and eschatology.

Although current application is important, we must listen to John’s heartfelt words to his audience in 96 A.D. — people who had no prestige, power, or prominence — people who perhaps wondered if they even had a prayer. ‘Yes! You do!’ John would say resoundingly. ‘These winds of persecution do not have to blow you away because you do have a prayer.’

I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day . . . Revelation 1:10

‘I was on the island of Patmos due to persecution,’ writes John, ‘but I was in the Spirit. ‘Egenomen en pneumati’ in Greek translates literally, ‘I came to be in the Spirit’. Not, ‘I was sitting in a pew, when I suddenly found myself in the Spirit’ — but ‘I came to be in the Spirit. I actively pressed in.’ How did John press in? He prayed.

The entire Book of Revelation is a mixture of vision and prayer. And here in Chapter 8, John deals with this issue in a most powerful, picturesque, practical way as he reminded his persecuted people to pray.

According to Church Historian Hendrik Gruven, the distinctive feature of early Christian prayer is the certainty of being heard. In other words, when the Early Church prayed, they believed God was actually listening.

And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour. (Revelation 8:1)

Commentator after commentator will tell you the silence in heaven of Revelation 8:1 is a mystery. But I suggest to you our text indicates that as the prayers of the saints ascend before Him, it’s as though God says, ‘Hush.’

To the living creatures who cry Holy, Holy, Holy, He says, ‘Hush;’
to the twenty-four elders who praise Him continually, He says, ‘Hush;’
to the thousands of angels who serve Him perpetually, He says, ‘Hush;’
— rendering heaven completely, totally silent.

It’s as though God says, ‘At this moment in time, nothing else has My attention like this prayer being offered to Me. I don’t want to miss a single word.’

Because our days are filled with a cacophony of noise, we don’t hear each other very well. We talk but we don’t listen. We converse, but we don’t understand.

There is, however, one exception: Two people who are totally in love can sit in a crowded, noisy restaurant and converse as though there’s no one else around. And that’s the idea here. ‘I am passionately in love with the child speaking to Me,’ says God, ‘and I don’t want to miss a word he’s saying.’ So, like a laser, fixing His full attention on the person offering even the simplest of prayers, God listens.

People spend thousands of dollars on psychiatrists, or months waiting for a pastoral appointment — yet God gives His undivided, complete, total attention to the prayers of anyone going through tribulation or trouble. The key is to pray . . .

And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. (Revelation 8:3)

The prayer which causes silence throughout heaven is mixed with much incense. Throughout Scripture, incense speaks of intercession. Hebrews 7:25 says that Jesus Christ, our Great High Priest, ever lives to make intercession for the saints. In other words, the incense of Jesus’ intercession on our behalf sweetens our prayers.

You see, my prayers stink because they’re tainted by my flesh. I ask for something I think is good, but Jesus, knowing my request would have disastrous results says, ‘Father, this is how Jon is praying, but what he really means is . . . .’ Knowing our heart, Jesus perfumes our clumsy and faulty prayers through His intercessory ministry.

And the angel took the censer, and filled it with fire of the altar, and cast it into the earth: and there were voices, and thunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake. (Revelation 8:5)

The angel takes the censer of prayer, perfumed with intercession, and casts, or literally ‘hurls’ it back to earth. As the answer re-enters earth’s atmosphere, the whole world is shaken with incalculable effect. These guys being beat up and persecuted, are told through this prophecy that their prayers are heard, and that, in due season, the answer will shake their world.

And the seven angels which had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound (Revelation 8:6)

What was the answer? It was music to the ears of the persecuted, for when these first century believers studied the Bible, they studied the Old Testament. And when they did, they read of trumpets . . . The blast of seven trumpets preceded the collapse of the seemingly impregnable walls of Jericho (Joshua 6). The alarm of two trumpets reminded the children of Israel that the Lord their God would bring them victory (Numbers 10:9). The sound of the trumpet signaled the year of Jubilee — in which all debts were canceled, all slaves set free (Leviticus 25:9). Thus, the answer to their prayers was truly music to the ears of John’s congregation, for the sound of the trumpet promised victory, liberation, and the collapse of a city even stronger than Rome.

‘Interesting study,’ you might be thinking, ‘‘but I’ve been saved for awhile, and I know differently. Oh, I’m not saying God doesn’t listen to prayer generally — just that He doesn’t hear My prayer specifically.’’ ‘My marriage was on the rocks’, or — ‘My daughter had cancer’, or — ‘My business was going bankrupt, so I prayed and prayed and prayed — and nothing happened. You talk about blaring trumpets, about a fireball of an answer hurled from heaven. That’s fine theoretically, but it doesn’t play that way for me personally.’

If you feel this way, you’re not alone. Turn to Luke 1 . . .

There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judaea, a certain priest named Zacharias, of the course of Abia: and his wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elisabeth. And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless. And they had no child, because that Elisabeth was barren, and they both were now well stricken in years. (Luke 1:5-7)

Because barrenness was considered a curse, Zacharias and Elisabeth were considered sinful in the eyes of their community. Although God deemed them righteous, others believed there was a defect in their piety. This being the case, perhaps Zacharias and Elisabeth lived their lives brokenhearted, wondering what was wrong.

And there appeared unto him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense. And when Zacharias saw him, he was troubled, and fear fell upon him. But the angel said unto him, Fear not, Zacharias: for thy prayer is heard; and thy wife Elisabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John. (Luke 1:11-13)

‘What prayer?’ Zacharias must have asked. ‘Prayer for a son? I stopped praying for a son thirty years ago!’

Do you understand the implication? This verse tells us that God remembers even the prayers we forget. ‘Give us a son,’ prayed Elisabeth and Zacharias. But they heard nothing day after week after month after year because God wanted to give them more than just a son. His plan was to give them the herald for His own Son (Matthew 11:11).

Slowly I begin to understand that my prayers remain in the Lord’s ‘To Do’ box even though I may have given up hope long ago. Mixed with the sweet incense of Christ’s intercession, they simmer on the altar until God answers them in a way I would never have dared dream (Ephesians 3:20).

Thus, the delay in answered prayer is not due to God’s procrastination, but to His desire to exceed even our wildest imagination.

‘Shhh,’ says God. ‘My child is praying.’ And at the right time — maybe that day, maybe next week, maybe ten years down the road, maybe half a century later — the answer will quake his world.

How's Your Fishing Form?

Deuteromy 6:5-9

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates. (NIV)

Thoughts
Most outdoors people are more than willing to talk about their latest trip, discuss the pros and cons of the latest fishing or hunting equipment they have used, or the latest magazine article or TV show they have seen on their favorite sport. I knew a young man that would spend hours on the telephone talking to buddies about his latest trip afield or afloat. Even the professional anglers and guides love to talk about their latest catches. They may not share exactly where they caught the lunker, but they will gladly share the rest of the information. We are passionate about our sport and not bashful about sharing information.

Action Point
Moses was pretty passionate about his love for the Lord, spreading information to whoever would listen or had eyes to see, "Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates." Anglers and hunters proudly wear fishing and hunting equipment patches upon their shirts and jackets. You will find a line of folks waiting to receive a free hat or T- shirt if they know that a displayer at an outdoor show is giving them away. Our trucks and cars display the outdoor organization decal that we support. How about the same zeal for the Lord?

Talk openly with others about what the Lord is doing in your life. Who knows, they may be going through the same thing. How many people call their friends and spend time on the phone talking about what the preacher or minister said on Sunday morning? The Sunday sermon isn't relegated to one day. Don't be bashful in talking with your own children about some of the "tuff" topics of growing up. Bring in how God can be part of the situation. Share your own life as you grew up. Your kids can see that mom or dad is really "real". Get passionate about what you believe in -- the saving love and grace of Jesus Christ!

Contact FIB'ers
P.O. Box 11373, Costa Mesa, Ca 92627-0373