Michael Rasmussen challenged us last Sunday to be disciples of Christ as we looked at Christ calling his first disciples in Luke 5:1-11 to be fishers of men (and women).

We learned that . . .

• Disciples are ordinary hard-working people. Christ did not call disciples from the synagogue leaders/rulers, he called the people down in the trenches.
• Christ bonded and connected with these people. He had compassion. He built relationships. He went into Simon Peter’s house. He interacted with them, taught them, he was part of them.
• Loving Jesus is to be his disciple. Jesus had many followers in the area, people he connected with, but some he called to a life of dedicated ministry. He calls ordinary people, people in the trenches. Last week we learned from Rev. Yehoshua Odidi how God even uses children/youth like the young Jeremiah.
• Disciples love Jesus and they turn away from the world. They give up everything for Christ. These disciples gave up everything and followed him, even to martyrdom.
• Compassion. Jesus’s ministry in Galilee and throughout the Gospels, particularly Luke is a ministry of compassion. He connected, he wept, he loved these people.