A Favorite fish of many hobbyists 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 When placed in a lake, however, 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? Some people’s world revolves only around their own selfish wants, where they want to go and what they want to do 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, 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 he was the only one who had not bowed his knee to Baal God informed him that there were 7,000 who Elijah knew nothing about.
There are brothers and sisters in need m our ecclesia, others live m isolation, and we now have members of our spiritual family in places like East Africa, Central and South America, Korea, Eastern Europe, India, etc
God appeared to Peter m a vision to let him know there were other fish whom God wanted to draw into His gospel net Peter thought God’s pond did not include the Gentiles When the voice from heaven told Peter that what God has cleansed he was not to call common, Peter’s pond became an ocean.
How big 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 have fallen away? There are those in need in our local ecclesias as well as m far-away countries where our missionaries are serving Are we sharing our hope with our friends and neighbors? 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 ecclesia, such as weeknight Bible classes and Sunday evening programs? Do we invite lonely brothers and sisters into our home to do the Bible readings? 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”
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One