An Impossible Life

Do you reach out for things that are beyond yourself?  Are you living for dreams that currently seem unattainable?  Does the thought of something beyond your control terrify you or cause you to want to dive right in?
Too often we let dreams and visions that we've had fade into the rear view mirror because they seem impossible or impractical.  We settle for a life of low expectations and therefore fewer dissapointments.  But is that  how we were meant to live?

I like to think about a few fishermen 2,000 years ago who were coming back from an exhausting night of work.  No fish = no money.  They were broke, tired, and probably stank.  They had no expectations, no dreams, and seemingly no future.  I doubt any of them could have imagined leaving the shores of Galilee. Yet on their way back from work, something happened. They met a man named Jesus. They'd probably seen him before even heard him speak. They respected him enough to begrudingly and faithlessly throw their nets over "the other side of the boat" like a kid that says "if I have to" and then half-heartedly picks up a handful of the hundreds of toy pieces he needs to clean up.

What they didn't know was because of their simple obedience they were about to move from having an idea of who Jesus was to encountering his life-changing power.  They threw their nets into a situation that seemed impossible and before they knew it they were exploding with fish!  So improbable and impossible seemed this turn of events that Peter was left terrified begging Jesus to leave him alone because he felt too sinful to be around this man who held such divine power.

Jesus didn't leave Peter grovelling on the deck of his boat; instead he invited Peter to leave his nets and follow him.  And Peter, his brothers, and his friends began a journey into what moments earlier they would thought to have been an impossible life.

A few year later, Peter and friends would find themselves alone in an upper room in a city which had mocked and killed their best friend and heavenly emissary, Jesus.  He had commissioned them with another impossible task to testify to the whole world about who He was. 

Peter and friends threw their nets in one last time.  Out of simple obedience, they hosted a series of daily prayer meetings, and one morning they encountered the life-changing power of Jesus once again. This time in a different but even more powerful form - the Holy Spirit.  The result was 3,000 people met Jesus that day and started their own impossible life. The world would never been the same.

Throw your net on the other side. Pray with Jesus. Encounter his power. Live an impossible life. Join us at...

Fenway Church's Fall Kickoff Prayer Meeting

Monday September 13 @ 7PM

874 Beacon Street  Boston  2nd floor

http://www.fenwaychurch.org/calendar.php?pageID=6