Scriptures: John 1:35-51

The church is called the bride of Christ. When a person becomes a follower of Christ, he becomes a part of His bride. That raises this question--why doesn't Jesus take His bride immediately to heaven to be with Him? To put it another way, once you become a follower of Christ, a part of His bride, a part of His body, a part of His family, why does He leave you here instead of taking you to heaven? The primary reason we are left on this earth is to fulfill what we know as the "Great Commission," the command of Jesus Christ to go out and make disciples of all people. In other words, we have been left here to fish.

"If we are going to be fishing buddies with Jesus, we are going to have to learn to involve ourselves in the lives of other people and cultivate relationships." --Dr. Merritt

Keywords: relationships, Gospel, evangelism, Lamb of God, Rabbi, John, New Testament, Jesus, seeking, disciples, disciple-making, deep, soul, fish