A Fish Story
A True Stroy
The closest some will ever get to revival is when they get a hold of this thing called “giving.” Remember the story of Ebenezer Scrooge? (A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens) He was a cold-hearted miser until he learned the joy of giving.
We can learn a lesson from the Dead Sea, it has no outlet because it’s the lowest spot on earth. It’s called the “Dead” Sea for good reason. Nothing lives in it—too many pollutants and too much salt. If the Dead Sea had an outlet, it would cleanse itself and be like the Sea of Galilee, with fish in it. Both the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea are fed by the Jordan River, but only one has an outlet. The other retains everything it receives and only loses water through evaporation. Are you a “Dead Sea” Christian with no outlet—one who only receives and does not give?
It has been said that there are two types of people— “givers” and “takers.” Which are you? I can guarantee that the givers are happier. “I have shewed you all things, how that so labouring ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35). What was your happiest Christmas? We all like receiving gifts, but can you recall a gift you gave that put a smile on someone’s face, and one in your heart?
Abraham and Jacob tithed hundreds of years before the law. Jesus said, “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.” The “other” in this context was the tithe. There are other things that are much more important than tithing, as “the law, judgment, mercy, and faith”, and we should concentrate on these, but not forget to tithe. If you cannot trust God with your money, how can you trust Him at all? God will take care of you! “Give, and it shall be given unto you…” (Luke 6:38).
There is only one place in the Bible where God says, “Prove me,” and it is with tithes and offerings. “Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of Heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it” (Malachi 3:10). When God says “prove me,” He is saying, “Find out if I am real. Find out if I can keep my promises; prove me!” Why does God do it with money? Because we all know how much money we have left at the end of the month, and when we see that God blesses us, yes, even financially, then we say to ourselves, “God can keep all the other promises in the Bible, too.” God is not afraid of your taking Him at His Word. Are you afraid? Let God get a hold of your heart in this area and have joy, one of the fruits of the Holy Spirit!
“There shall not be room to receive it” (Malachi 3:10)
His name was Merle, and he was a commercial fisherman and a member of our church. He was faithful to the church and a good brother, who enjoyed tithing. We had held a stewardship conference in our church and one of our main goals was to raise money for a new church building. That night after the conference, Merle said to his wife, “Let’s pray about what our commitment should be this year.”
“Okay,” she said, and then added, “But let’s pray separately. I’ll go upstairs and pray, and you pray downstairs. I don’t want to hear you praying out loud about some amount we should give, and that number being placed in my head.” He agreed, and in a few minutes she came downstairs and asked, “How much do you think God wants us to give?”
Now, the number God had put on Merle’s heart was $3,000, but he was afraid to tell his wife the amount, so he asked her, “What do you think we should give?”
“I asked you first,” she responded.
“Well, I think we should give three thousand” he said.
His wife smiled and said, “Yes, that’s what I also believe God spoke to my heart about.” He was happy when he heard her say that.
As a commercial fisherman in Washington State, Merle fished for salmon in Puget Sound. As his money came in, he would go to the bank and put it in his account, in what he called “winter money.” He explained to me with his overhead and all, he needed $12,000 to get through the winter. He might make it with $10,000, but he really should have $12,000. Every time he deposited the winter money into his account, he felt convicted. “God first” is what the Bible says (Matthew 6:33). Merle said, “I prayed every time I deposited money: ‘Lord I did not forget about you. I just need my winter money first.’”
Have you ever done anything like this? Some people save their tithe until they see a need at church and then give, but it is not theirs; it is the Lord's (Leviticus 27:30). Waiting or procrastinating not only makes a temptation to spend what is rightly the Lord’s, but also brings guilt. When we make the decision to establish regular giving (Malachi 3:8–10, I Corinthians 16:1–2), it keeps us from fighting with it, and we can then have joy. Hey, if we are going to do it, let’s do it right! Merle said no matter what he said to the Lord, the conviction remained, so he got his checkbook and wrote a check for $3,000 for the building fund. Mind you, this was over and above his regular tithe.
We were at the church when Merle walked up to me and gave me the $3,000 check. He explained it was for the building fund and told me the story I just shared with you. He reminded me about his winter money and said, “Pastor, I only had $5,000 in the bank and now after this check to the church, I will only have $2,000.” I know there are some who would have given the money back, feeling sorry for him, but if someone has more faith than you, don’t stand in the way of their faith. He was following a biblical principle: Jesus first! Did Jesus give the widow’s two mites back after she put them in the collection plate? Twice Christ said she gave all, “all that she had, even all her living” *(Mark 12:41-44). And the state had no welfare programs in her day, so what would she eat? You can be assured God took care of her (see I Kings 17:11-15).
When Merle gave me the check, he reminded me there was only a month left for fishing and it had not been a good season. That night, as God would have it, he got a phone call that the fish were running and he could go fishing. Washington State regulates this; you cannot just go salmon fishing when and where you please. He fished with a 32-foot “bow-picker,” as he called it, which meant the boat had a large metal drum on the front that would bring the net in. This type of fishing is called “gill netting,” a net with square holes lets smaller fish swim through but catches the bigger salmon.
Those fishing on the sound that night were to fish between a buoy and a designated point on the shore, a sort of invisible line in the water. If you went past this invisible line, the coast guard would remind you where it was by giving you a fine! The best place to catch fish was to get as close as possible to this invisible line without going over it. Almost all the salmon ran in one direction between the shore and this buoy. The problem was, with all the boats in Merle’s group, there just wasn’t room for everyone on this line. The first boats out would get the best location right up to the line. Those who showed up later would have to stay behind the front row of boats, which meant they could only catch whatever fish swam around the front nets. In fact, it was even worse if a boat got stuck in the center with other boats all around it, because then it was difficult to catch the salmon that sometimes ran from the other direction.
Well, Merle got stuck in the center! I can remember him telling me, “Pastor, it was the worst place to be.” He said he was upset. “Pastor, I tried everything I could to get there early, but there were problems with the boat, and we got stuck in the middle!” He told me he would have gone back to shore, but doing that would have run over others’ nets. His deckhand talked him into letting down his net, and he told him maybe they would at least catch enough fish to pay for the fuel. They put out their net and hooked it up to the metal drum. That’s when it happened—God’s blessing!
Merle said the drum that was bringing in the net started making noise and slipping. He thought he had snagged a log. Then he saw the fish flashing in the water, and I can remember him telling me, “Pastor, in that first set I counted almost 150 salmon, the next set about seventy, the third set about a hundred.” Then he added, “On the front line, two boats did really good. One caught close to 450 fish and another peaked at 500. That’s big-time fishing out on Puget Sound!” He paused and then said, “Pastor, do you know how many fish I caught last night? I caught one thousand, one hundred salmon!” He told me later he had been fishing for over twenty years out on Puget Sound and had never caught that many fish.
Merle then quoted a portion of Malachi 3:10, saying, “There was not ‘room enough to receive’ them all.” He explained that as he was bringing in the last set, his boat was so heavy with fish, its bow started to dip into the water. His deckhand said that they would sink if he insisted on trying to get the last set in. Merle told me that when you finish fishing, you were to bring the salmon in by the shore and unload them into a barge. But he was already full, and he didn’t know what to do with the fish still in the net in the water. He couldn’t get them in the boat, and there was no way he could drag that long net all the way to the barge without getting it tangled up or other boats running over it. He said, “You just can’t leave a set of fish setting there in the water. I didn’t know what to do, and don’t get me wrong, Pastor, I’m not greedy, but God gave me those fish and I wanted them!”
He told me the other fishing boats saw what was happening, and after they had unloaded their fish, they untied the barge and brought it out to him so he could unload his boat and bring in his last set. He said he had never seen this done before, bringing the barge out to a boat. And this because there wasn’t “room enough to receive” them all.
When he was telling me this, I remember thinking, “I wish I could be a fisherman.” God couldn’t do that for a pastor or a plumber or a fry cook, could he? God says, “Prove me.” When people find out that God is able to keep His Word in connection with giving, they begin to believe and obey other commands in the Bible!
“And Simon answering said unto him, Master, we have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing: nevertheless at thy word I will let down the net. And when they had this done, they enclosed a great multitude of fishes: and their net brake. And they beckoned unto their partners, which were in the other ship, that they should come and help them. And they came, and filled both the ships, so that they began to sink. When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord. For he was astonished, and all that were with him, at the draught of the fishes which they had taken: And so was also James, and John, the sons of Zebedee, which were partners with Simon. And Jesus said unto Simon, Fear not; from henceforth thou shalt catch men” (Luke 5:5–10). “Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us” (Ephesians 3:20).
The closest some will ever get to revival is when they get a hold of this thing called “giving.” Remember the story of Ebenezer Scrooge? (A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens) He was a cold-hearted miser until he learned the joy of giving.
We can learn a lesson from the Dead Sea, it has no outlet because it’s the lowest spot on earth. It’s called the “Dead” Sea for good reason. Nothing lives in it—too many pollutants and too much salt. If the Dead Sea had an outlet, it would cleanse itself and be like the Sea of Galilee, with fish in it. Both the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea are fed by the Jordan River, but only one has an outlet. The other retains everything it receives and only loses water through evaporation. Are you a “Dead Sea” Christian with no outlet—one who only receives and does not give?
It has been said that there are two types of people— “givers” and “takers.” Which are you? I can guarantee that the givers are happier. “I have shewed you all things, how that so labouring ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35). What was your happiest Christmas? We all like receiving gifts, but can you recall a gift you gave that put a smile on someone’s face, and one in your heart?
Abraham and Jacob tithed hundreds of years before the law. Jesus said, “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.” The “other” in this context was the tithe. There are other things that are much more important than tithing, as “the law, judgment, mercy, and faith”, and we should concentrate on these, but not forget to tithe. If you cannot trust God with your money, how can you trust Him at all? God will take care of you! “Give, and it shall be given unto you…” (Luke 6:38).
There is only one place in the Bible where God says, “Prove me,” and it is with tithes and offerings. “Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of Heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it” (Malachi 3:10). When God says “prove me,” He is saying, “Find out if I am real. Find out if I can keep my promises; prove me!” Why does God do it with money? Because we all know how much money we have left at the end of the month, and when we see that God blesses us, yes, even financially, then we say to ourselves, “God can keep all the other promises in the Bible, too.” God is not afraid of your taking Him at His Word. Are you afraid? Let God get a hold of your heart in this area and have joy, one of the fruits of the Holy Spirit!
“There shall not be room to receive it” (Malachi 3:10)
His name was Merle, and he was a commercial fisherman and a member of our church. He was faithful to the church and a good brother, who enjoyed tithing. We had held a stewardship conference in our church and one of our main goals was to raise money for a new church building. That night after the conference, Merle said to his wife, “Let’s pray about what our commitment should be this year.”
“Okay,” she said, and then added, “But let’s pray separately. I’ll go upstairs and pray, and you pray downstairs. I don’t want to hear you praying out loud about some amount we should give, and that number being placed in my head.” He agreed, and in a few minutes she came downstairs and asked, “How much do you think God wants us to give?”
Now, the number God had put on Merle’s heart was $3,000, but he was afraid to tell his wife the amount, so he asked her, “What do you think we should give?”
“I asked you first,” she responded.
“Well, I think we should give three thousand” he said.
His wife smiled and said, “Yes, that’s what I also believe God spoke to my heart about.” He was happy when he heard her say that.
As a commercial fisherman in Washington State, Merle fished for salmon in Puget Sound. As his money came in, he would go to the bank and put it in his account, in what he called “winter money.” He explained to me with his overhead and all, he needed $12,000 to get through the winter. He might make it with $10,000, but he really should have $12,000. Every time he deposited the winter money into his account, he felt convicted. “God first” is what the Bible says (Matthew 6:33). Merle said, “I prayed every time I deposited money: ‘Lord I did not forget about you. I just need my winter money first.’”
Have you ever done anything like this? Some people save their tithe until they see a need at church and then give, but it is not theirs; it is the Lord's (Leviticus 27:30). Waiting or procrastinating not only makes a temptation to spend what is rightly the Lord’s, but also brings guilt. When we make the decision to establish regular giving (Malachi 3:8–10, I Corinthians 16:1–2), it keeps us from fighting with it, and we can then have joy. Hey, if we are going to do it, let’s do it right! Merle said no matter what he said to the Lord, the conviction remained, so he got his checkbook and wrote a check for $3,000 for the building fund. Mind you, this was over and above his regular tithe.
We were at the church when Merle walked up to me and gave me the $3,000 check. He explained it was for the building fund and told me the story I just shared with you. He reminded me about his winter money and said, “Pastor, I only had $5,000 in the bank and now after this check to the church, I will only have $2,000.” I know there are some who would have given the money back, feeling sorry for him, but if someone has more faith than you, don’t stand in the way of their faith. He was following a biblical principle: Jesus first! Did Jesus give the widow’s two mites back after she put them in the collection plate? Twice Christ said she gave all, “all that she had, even all her living” *(Mark 12:41-44). And the state had no welfare programs in her day, so what would she eat? You can be assured God took care of her (see I Kings 17:11-15).
When Merle gave me the check, he reminded me there was only a month left for fishing and it had not been a good season. That night, as God would have it, he got a phone call that the fish were running and he could go fishing. Washington State regulates this; you cannot just go salmon fishing when and where you please. He fished with a 32-foot “bow-picker,” as he called it, which meant the boat had a large metal drum on the front that would bring the net in. This type of fishing is called “gill netting,” a net with square holes lets smaller fish swim through but catches the bigger salmon.
Those fishing on the sound that night were to fish between a buoy and a designated point on the shore, a sort of invisible line in the water. If you went past this invisible line, the coast guard would remind you where it was by giving you a fine! The best place to catch fish was to get as close as possible to this invisible line without going over it. Almost all the salmon ran in one direction between the shore and this buoy. The problem was, with all the boats in Merle’s group, there just wasn’t room for everyone on this line. The first boats out would get the best location right up to the line. Those who showed up later would have to stay behind the front row of boats, which meant they could only catch whatever fish swam around the front nets. In fact, it was even worse if a boat got stuck in the center with other boats all around it, because then it was difficult to catch the salmon that sometimes ran from the other direction.
Well, Merle got stuck in the center! I can remember him telling me, “Pastor, it was the worst place to be.” He said he was upset. “Pastor, I tried everything I could to get there early, but there were problems with the boat, and we got stuck in the middle!” He told me he would have gone back to shore, but doing that would have run over others’ nets. His deckhand talked him into letting down his net, and he told him maybe they would at least catch enough fish to pay for the fuel. They put out their net and hooked it up to the metal drum. That’s when it happened—God’s blessing!
Merle said the drum that was bringing in the net started making noise and slipping. He thought he had snagged a log. Then he saw the fish flashing in the water, and I can remember him telling me, “Pastor, in that first set I counted almost 150 salmon, the next set about seventy, the third set about a hundred.” Then he added, “On the front line, two boats did really good. One caught close to 450 fish and another peaked at 500. That’s big-time fishing out on Puget Sound!” He paused and then said, “Pastor, do you know how many fish I caught last night? I caught one thousand, one hundred salmon!” He told me later he had been fishing for over twenty years out on Puget Sound and had never caught that many fish.
Merle then quoted a portion of Malachi 3:10, saying, “There was not ‘room enough to receive’ them all.” He explained that as he was bringing in the last set, his boat was so heavy with fish, its bow started to dip into the water. His deckhand said that they would sink if he insisted on trying to get the last set in. Merle told me that when you finish fishing, you were to bring the salmon in by the shore and unload them into a barge. But he was already full, and he didn’t know what to do with the fish still in the net in the water. He couldn’t get them in the boat, and there was no way he could drag that long net all the way to the barge without getting it tangled up or other boats running over it. He said, “You just can’t leave a set of fish setting there in the water. I didn’t know what to do, and don’t get me wrong, Pastor, I’m not greedy, but God gave me those fish and I wanted them!”
He told me the other fishing boats saw what was happening, and after they had unloaded their fish, they untied the barge and brought it out to him so he could unload his boat and bring in his last set. He said he had never seen this done before, bringing the barge out to a boat. And this because there wasn’t “room enough to receive” them all.
When he was telling me this, I remember thinking, “I wish I could be a fisherman.” God couldn’t do that for a pastor or a plumber or a fry cook, could he? God says, “Prove me.” When people find out that God is able to keep His Word in connection with giving, they begin to believe and obey other commands in the Bible!
“And Simon answering said unto him, Master, we have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing: nevertheless at thy word I will let down the net. And when they had this done, they enclosed a great multitude of fishes: and their net brake. And they beckoned unto their partners, which were in the other ship, that they should come and help them. And they came, and filled both the ships, so that they began to sink. When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord. For he was astonished, and all that were with him, at the draught of the fishes which they had taken: And so was also James, and John, the sons of Zebedee, which were partners with Simon. And Jesus said unto Simon, Fear not; from henceforth thou shalt catch men” (Luke 5:5–10). “Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us” (Ephesians 3:20).