Leadership
WHEN THE FISH REFUSE
TO BITE
Sometimes in our fishing experience, we may conclude that the stream is understocked with fish or is fished out altogether. I recall when I first started fly-fishing, there was a stream that looked very inviting but a man who lived on the stream told me not to waste my time fishing there because there were no fish left. The next day I encountered him and he told me with amazement that someone caught an 18-inch brown trout at that same spot where I was going to fish. I have fished in Montana where my son lives and tried fishing in the streams of Yellowstone National Park and all I did was wet my fly, and never got even as much as a nibble from a chub. I went up a few miles on the same stream with the help of a guide and caught several fish. So, I know the problem wasn't with the stream and it wasn't with the fish. The problem was that I was fishing in unfamiliar waters and did not know the right approach or the right type of bait to use. I have also fished in areas where the water was deep and I still caught nothing.
So, it is easy to conclude that when we are not catching fish that there is either no fish or they are just not interested (or indifferent). We have that problem in fishing for men. The problem of indifference is a challenge that we can face confidently because we are Christ's fishermen and He promises results. There are reasons why people are indifferent to the gospel. We may make the analogy with fish. First, the problem is with polluted water. Polluted water affects the appetite of the fish, and since they cannot see clearly enough to be able to tell what is good and what is not, they will bite at just about anything when they are hungry. Men who were caught up with the pleasures and the lost-ness of this world have become comfortable in their situation. They have no standard to know what is good or what is bad. When they are hungry they will eat just about anything.
Men are like that when they get used to the pleasures of this world and the promises that are made, they accept these low standards as normal and have no appetite for anything that will make their life more meaningful. Sometimes we can find a way to reach these fish. Sometimes consulting people who are familiar with the water situation can tell us what works. Now, this might work for fish but there are other ways to reaching indifferent men. I cannot stress enough the importance of personal involvement in the lives of these indifferent people. When we take an interest in them we are helping them to find a way out. When they see that our life is genuine and what we speak is true to what they know about us, they begin to take the interest. I recall a man who came to my church who is very interested in our church and in the end, the people and in the ministry in general. He was very generous to my wife and me by allowing us to plant a garden on his property and he and his family always encouraged us. He became my best friend there and because he was so actively involved in coming to church, I thought he was a Christian. I never confronted him about it because his life was more outstanding than the rest of my church members. But after I left, I received a phone call from him and he told me that he had become a Christian, and he was concerned about the lost people in the community. That was wonderful to hear but since I had no part in his conversion, I wonder how it took place. He was watching my life but I didn't know. He said to me that the thing that he liked the most and felt was different was that I was honest and told the truth. Knowing what I know now, he came from a situation where speaking the truth was not something that was done. The people lived on lies. My speaking and living the truth aroused his interest, but all the while I had no idea that this was going on.
The point I'm making is this. If you want to reach people who seemingly are indifferent, become their friend, be interested and involved in the things that are important to them, be a friend without any reservations or expectations from them. Billy Graham told a story of a woman who started to read a certain book. Maybe it was indifference or some other reason, but she couldn't get interested in reading the book. That changed because one day she fell in love with the author and married him. That's a good way to overcome indifference. When people love God, they begin to love His word. Sometimes people need to learn how to love God, and they learn how to love God by seeing God's love toward them in action. We are a people who respond to the way others treat us, and that the Christian brother and sister is acting in genuine love toward indifferent people. Keep loving them, because eventually, they're going to face a difficulty in their life where you are the only one they can trust.
I have a sister I love very dearly, she does not want me to talk about religion and that's okay with me, it’s not religion that is going to save her soul or change her mind. It is a false religion that has made her this way. We have been separated from each other due to time and distance for many years but lately, I have been talking to her on the phone and we have been connecting like we never have before. It's an experience for both of us and I see the antagonism toward religion beginning to close as she gains the new understanding of biblical truth. She is like one of these indifferent fish who cannot see the truth and has no interest in feeding on it because she has been for so long a time in her pollution.
Another problem that keeps the fish from biting is false teaching. Fishing for trout is a little trickier than fishing for bluegills. Bluegills are not fussy and they will bite on just about anything but trout have certain things that attract them. Sometimes I find that if I want to catch trout, I must use worms or minnows or real bait rather than flies to get more action. Somehow, they can tell the difference between the false and the true but unlike trout, men do not know what is false or true. If they have never heard the truth of the Scriptures as a child, they will have no basis in which to know what is true.
Men will believe false teaching because it promises to meet the desires that they have. They also will believe false teaching because it harmonizes with what everyone else is doing. The society and the school has a great deal of influence on people's thinking and it is only after they understand the gospel that they recognize the false teachings that have held them for so long. In this, we must be careful, because there are a great many pretenders of Christianity that offer something that is not true, and when people become locked into this false religion it is difficult for them to leave. It is through the prayers and careful explanation of the gospel done by the true fisher of men, that they may find their way out of this.
security. This is different from believing false religion and that there is no need for them to have to change. Perhaps we can illustrate this by comparing fish who were raised in a pond, who were fed the same food every day, and fish who live in a stream where they’re used to a wide variety of food. The fish in the pond are secure. The fish breeders feed them every day and there's no need to worry because the food is always there, the fish in the stream work for their food. The fish in the pond usually are larger and more uniform in their size from the food that they eat; not so, the fish in the stream. The fish in the pond usually do not bite on any type of bait except that which resembles what they already have, in other words, flies do not attract them. They only eat one kind of food. I remember in Canada fishing for perch. We caught a lot of them because the only thing they ate were leeches.
Now let's try to compare that to men who are satisfied with the way things are. They do not know what sin is. As far as they are concerned they are good people compared to everyone else. Why do they need religion? They are just as good as the people who go to church in their minds? They are like that fish in the pond: they are perfectly secure with what they have. People living in poverty are in a sense falsely secure because they think that no one else cares about their problem, so they do whatever they can to survive.
This is where the Christian can help remove this type of thinking. When we give, they bread when they're hungry, and we give them clothing when they have nothing to wear, and when we give them rides in a car when they need to go places and they have no money for transportation. These are all ways that we can penetrate these false securities that they have. The rich man has issues as well. He thinks as he has money, everything is fine. He works hard, spends sleepless days and energies to achieve great wealth and prides himself into thinking that he has what he has because of what he does and who he is
. Money and more money dominates his thinking, and he has no idea that the joy of life does not come from what we have, but what we can share and give away. This is where the Christian gospel penetrates these false securities. They are there and unless we learn how to break through them we find that the fish are not biting at all. If we want the fish to bite we need to know what kind of fish they are, what interests them, what hinders them from embracing the truth, and most of all what needs they have that we can meet to reveal the love of Christ to them.
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