Monthly Message - NOV 19

A Big Fish in a Small Pond

A favourite fish of many hobbyist is the Japanese carp, commonly known as the koi. The fascinating thing about the koi is that if you keep it in a small fish bowl, it will only grow to be two or three inches long. Place the koi in a larger tank or small pond and it will reach six to 10 inches. Put it in a large pond and it may get as long as a foot and a half. However, when placed in a huge lake where it can really stretch out, it has the potential to reach sizes up to three feet. 

The size of the fish is related to the size of the pond. What about us? Is our growth determined by the size of our world? Of course, it is not the circumference of the earth or our physical size that is important, but our spiritual growth. 

Are we allowing our growth to be stunted by the size of the tank we have placed ourselves in? Some peoples world evolves only around their own self, what they want, where they want to go and what they know. They remain a very small fish in a tiny fish bowl. 

Others expand their horizons a little bit and their world revolves around their immediate families and their close friends. They act as if the rest of the world does not exist and they live in a small pond. 

How do we get into a bigger pond? If we look outside ourselves and think of the needs of others instead of ourselves, we stretch our horizons and begin to grow. The measure of a man is often determined by his concern for others. How much concern do we have for others? 

There are so many fish in God's sea. He knows about each one. At one point Elijah thought that he was the only one who had not bowed his knee to Baal. God informed him that there were seven thousand that Elijah knew nothing about. 

There are people in need in our churches and communities, others live in isolation, and we are all too familiar with the sufferings of people living in Africa, Central and South America, Korea, India and other parts of the world. 

God appeared to Peter in a vision to let him know that there were other fish that God wanted to draw into His Gospel net. Peter thought that God's pond did not include the Gentiles. When the voice from Heaven told Peter that what God had cleansed he was not to call common, Peter's pond became an ocean. 

How small is our pond? Are we reaching out to others beyond our normal circle of friends and family? Do we reach out to the sick, elderly or those who are enduring hard times? There are those in need in our local churches as well as in far flung countries where missionaries are serving. Are we sharing a positive hope with our friends and neighbours? Our attitude should be, " Let each of us look out not only for our own interests, but also for the interests of others" 

What can we do? Do we support the activities of our local church and community? Do we invite lonely members of our community into our homes to encourage and build up? If we cannot go into the mission field ourselves, let us at least support those who are there with our prayers, with letters to encourage them and with our finances.

God is not willing that any should perish, and like Peter, we can help drag the net to land full of great fishes. The increase is the Lord's, but we can play our part. Let us open our minds to the vastness of God's ocean. Let us stretch our horizon by thinking of the needs of others and forgetting about ourselves. "Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself."