So What Does That Look Like?

Mark 1:18-20 - At once they left their nets and followed him. When he had gone a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John in a boat, preparing their nets. Without delay he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him.

Jesus came with an announcement. The time has come! The kingdom of God is near! Repent and believe the good news!

Wow, what a series of declarations! So what does that look like? When Jesus says "repent and believe," what does he mean by that? Well, the phrase means to turn away from one object of trust, and to commit yourself completely to another--Jesus and the good news!

So what does that mean, to completely turn away from what you are putting your trust in, and completely put your trust in Jesus? We don't have to guess, we can see what happens to simple people who don't really know Jesus, simple fishermen without any training.

They left everything to follow Jesus. They turned from their trust in the nets, and put their trust in Jesus. Maybe it helped that they didn't catch much (Luke 5)! Nonetheless, notice their response--it was immediate and complete!

What does this mean for us today? What is Jesus looking for when his words echo into the 21^st century?

We turn from our objects of trust and comfort. You know what they are, those things you put your hope in, those things that take your focus from God. God must be number one!

If you feel like Jesus is calling you to change, you are in good company. Let us imitate the fishermen and follow Jesus today, with all we have!

Pray for Vienna

Vienna is the beautiful capital of Austria, with 1.7 million inhabitants. If you visit Vienna, you must see the Schönbrunn Palace where Queen Elizabeth used to live. You also have to try the famous Sacher cake!

The church in Vienna was planted in 1995 by disciples from Munich and Berlin. The congregation went through a very hard time in the last nine years, and it's still not in good shape. From the once 43 disciples there are only 8-10 now. We're still in search of our identity, and that is the overarching theme for the prayers needed.

Please pray for:

• Unity in convictions (differentiating between core doctrine and opinion matters.)
• The development of a leadership team.
• For evangelism to come back into the center of our church life.
• There are a lot of teens in the church (some are already baptized) but they definitely need lots of prayer.
• Taking responsibility for one another in relationships.