Fish (Part II)

By Odon Bulamba (19 October 2001)

The fish give us two lessons. One day Jesus was walking with His disciples and He told Peter to throw in his hook. Peter caught a fish; opened it and two coins were in it. Christians who live in the Lord must have a treasure in them; it means that when others need what we have inside of us we will be able to give them an answer.

So what is your treasure? How can you help others? Will you just pray for them? Some Christians don’t even know how do help others and don’t even know what their treasure is. They only know how to count their bank account and don’t know how to count their spiritual treasures.

So Jesus asked Peter to fish and the fish gave him coins. If Jesus tells Michael to fish from Oscar what treasure will come out from him? Try to imagine if Peter found nothing in the fish, what do you think he would have said? He would have been disappointed as they were disillusioned with the tree that didn’t bear fruit.

We also have the fish story about Jonah. A big fish swallowed Jonah and took him somewhere; it means we must be missionaries for Jesus Christ. We must keep them with us for a few days until the goal is reached and then take them to the place where they should be.

If you brother is sick and you start praying for him you must keep on praying until you see the results. If Michael doesn’t go to the prayer meetings anymore and you pray for him, pray until he turns up on your doorstep. The prayer you pray must be according the Word of God.

There is one danger for the fish, what is it? It is the food it eats. Without bait or nets it is not easy to catch a fish and large fish can tear the nets so they can flee. When the devil attacks us we must make him understand that we are stronger then his nets so that he will regret trying to catch us.

Sometimes when I (Odon) am tempted I tell Satan, do not waste your time Satan because I can see you coming. Try to remember that the devil can hear you, and when you speak he respects what you say.

We must live like fish in the water; they don’t like hot water or very cold water because they will die. We must know our level in the Word of God. It must not be very cold water (the word) or the very hot water so ask God to give you a temperature that our body, heart and spirit will be comfortable with to avoid confusion in our lives.

The Bible says in the book of James 1:14 that man is tempted by his own desires. It means that the devil doesn’t have the power to attract you into evil. The devil will not take you by the hand and say come here and sin, nor will he take your hand and tell you to kill a man. The problem comes from the desire of your heart and it cannot push you if you don’t want it. If you decide not to drink water then you won’t drink, if you feel like lying but say no I don’t want to lie then you will stop yourself, but if you respect your desires you might sin. We often tell young Christians that Satan tempts us and it is true, but we must understand that our own desires lead us to death also. What the devil does is that he puts something in our desires, and when we are attracted by it we lead ourselves to death.

Someone told me once that he regretted his life. So he went to a nightclub and gave some money to a prostitute, after two minutes it was all over. After he had finished he regretted his actions. He asked himself, what have I done? Where did my money go? What did I gain from it because the desire I had has also gone? When the desire makes you fall into sin everything else disappears. It is like someone who drinks 14 bottles of beers and vomits; you will not take that vomit and drink it again because it will be smelly and dirty. A few days later the drinker will ask himself, why did I drink? Many people say that they will stop drinking but because they don’t know how to control their desires they will drink the next day. The Bible says we must control our desires and leave our lives as little fish, and the only way to leave our desires is to live in deeper waters.

For example Shari can hate Donna for no reason, and if she respects or follows her desire she will sin. This is true with sisters, with something little they can hate or become furious and don’t feel like eating. This is a danger because when you are hungry the desire you have will not help you with your anger and you will carry on suffering.

James 1:22, we deceive ourselves when we just listen to the Word of God and do not practice it. Many Christians go to church on Sunday to listen to the Word but don’t put it into practice and still claim to be Christians but are mistaken! If you don’t practice what you have learnt you are mistaken. It doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t go to church but we must go to learn and practice it, and as you listen your faith will grow.

I have never found anyone who doesn’t remember what their face looks like; can you find anyone who doesn’t recognize him or herself in the mirror? Who can forget their own face? Nobody. The Bible says that it is impossible to forget who you are, so we must know where we are up to and must remember our face all the time.

There was a solider who went to war, and as you know a solider misses his family. This solider went to war and found a mirror; he said that if he returns home alive he will give the mirror to his wife. When the war was over he returned home and gave his wife the mirror. His wife had been weeping all the time he was gone and didn’t have time to bath or brush her teeth.

So when the husband came back he showed his wife the mirror. His wife looked in the mirror and asked her husband, who is this? How could you have married a woman who doesn’t comb her hair and is very dirty? So the lady called her mother who was eighty years old, she looked in the mirror and said my son-in law, how can you marry a woman without teeth? He looked at the two woman and said, what you see is yourself. Some

Christians don’t recognize their own face and see how beautiful they are. When the Word of God touches them they turn it to Angela and say, this is for Angela’s life, not for mine or they say how can Angela be so spiritually ugly? But actually the Word is for you. The Bible says don’t be drunk with wine but at home you have two bottles in your fridge. You say that Peter is the drunkard of the group and put this verse on him because you only drink a little.

Remember this, if you throw a little stone and a big stone into the water both of them will sink. There are no big sins or little sins but Christians today show others their mistakes. For example I can ask Sylvie why she doesn’t pray, she will say she doesn’t pray because of what Oscar told her and will never say that she is lazy or weak. When you speak to Sylvie about laziness she will say that Shari is lazy that is why I call her a turtle because a turtle is lazy.

We must know our own situation; if we are weak we must accept our weaknesses together. If the devil catches us we must be careful and we must avoid putting sin on people’s heads to cover ourselves.

Two fish fed 5000 men, if we are 12 fish today our many men can we feed? If two fish can feed 5000 men our many will 12 fish feed? We will be able to feed 30 000 men so what are we waiting for? We must know our worth and walk on.

There was a man who brought some wine over to my place; I said that if you drink you will be confused. I told him that people drink red wine with meat and white wine with fish. A fish is something holy but you must be careful with the wine because if you put the two together you will have bad results. So the brother had one drink, and after drinking a bit of wine he was on the toilet for three hours. I told him to continue drinking because he hadn’t touched the bottle but he said that he didn’t like the wine because it was out of date, but it wasn’t out of date. Why do I say this? It is because we do things we shouldn’t and the result is always negative, but if we do what we know is right, we will have positive results.

The first person mentioned in the Bible to be drunk was Noah. Noah had a vineyard and one day became drunk and was naked before his children. If we don’t think about what we are planting, one day we will be found naked in front of everybody.

Pray that God may help you and give you strength to live like a fish in water, and that the devil will not be able to catch you in his nets. Also to be like a fish that accepts all kinds of humiliation and that knows evil doesn’t please God. Finally ask God to help you be a doer of the word and not a mere hearer of the word.