The Grands Letter

Dear Grands,

John 21:3-6, “Simon Peter said to them, ‘I am going fishing.’

They said to him, ‘We will also come with you.’ They went out,

and got into the boat; and that night they caught nothing.

4 But when the day was now breaking, Jesus stood on the beach;

yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. 5 Jesus therefore

said to them, ‘Children, you do not have any fish, do you?’ They

answered Him, ‘No.’ 6 And He said to them, ‘Cast the net on the

right-hand side of the boat, and you will find a catch.’ They cast

therefore, and then they were not able to haul it in because of the

great number of fish.”

Exactly why Peter decided to go fishing is not explained. A lot of

miraculous things had occurred over the past few days, so maybe

he just wanted to clear his head. Work does that. Peter was a

good fisherman, but as daybreak came his nets were empty. Jesus

spoke to them as His own, calling them “children” or “boys” –

those who as yet did not understand. They didn’t argue or make

excuses; they just did what Jesus told them, which was to cast

their nets on the other side –the right side of the boat. When

they did, their nets were so full, they were not able to haul it all in.

The late and inimitable Dr. Donald Barnhouse once said that the

miracle was not that they caught so many fish, but that Jesus had

kept the fish out of their nets all night long. Either way, the message

is that no matter how skilled and how practiced we may be in what-

ever we do, we will never be successful without Jesus!

I remember so well being excited about hearing a young Jewish

Christian friend, who was scheduled to preach on a Wednesday

night. He was energetic and made a great start, but for some reason

he looked at the clock on the wall and said, “Wow! Only three

minutes gone! We’re really going now!” And from that moment

everything went downhill. No matter how skilled we are at

anything, we will never be successful without Jesus!

May the LORD bless you mightily as you cast out your nets,

Nana & Dado III

Gene L. Jeffries, Th.D.

Springdale, Arkansas

“We never know that God is all we need

until He becomes all that we have.”