WordLive - Year OneSample

Prepare: Draw a timeline of your life; mark the key points of change: a new job, getting married. Note God’s guidance and pray, thanking him for your life. Pivotal moments There are pivotal moments in all our lives when the choices we make will have long term, life-defining consequences. It’s all about timing and when the right opportunity comes at just the right moment it takes courage to take it, acknowledging the cost but seeing the potential. In these verses it is one of those moments for Jesus and he in turn creates one of those moments for Simon, Andrew, James and John. The arrest of John the Baptist is a trigger. The bigger story John said of Jesus, ‘He must become greater; I must become less’ (John 3:30, NIV), and in a very tangible way this is what is happening. Mark gives us the strong sense that Jesus is part of a bigger story; that his life is not random but guided. For the fishermen it was an extraordinary day. Family loyalty, career and social status were abandoned. Jesus the Rabbi was calling his disciples and these young men would never expect to be among them. They may have felt insecure but they swallowed their fear and obeyed. Respond: Jesus is Lord and he is calling us to be his disciples. Every day we make a life-defining choice – to include Jesus in our daily routine. Today, pray using the words of Romans 12:1: ‘Lord, I offer my body as a living sacrifice’, and be caught up in his salvation plan. http://www.wordlive.org/Session/Classic/2012-01-18