If I take the wings of the morning And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, Even there Your hand shall lead me And Your right hand shall hold me. - Psalms 139:9-10

My name is Joe Browning, and I am a sixty year old fisherman. I have been a Christian for just a couple months. In my younger days, I used to enjoy drinking, and I was a smoker. Like many others, I felt that if I were good enough and did enough good things with my life, that when life was over, I would be given a place in Heaven because I had earned it. I was so surprised to learn that salvation doesn't work that way at all.

Recently, my nephew David began to talk to me about eternity, and where I would spend it. As a fisherman, I've road out pretty bad storms, and sometimes I was pretty scared out there. But I never saw that life had become a turbulant storm, and that I was out there in the middle of it, spiraling out of control.

I had gone to church (mass) as a child, but had not attended since becoming an adult. Some of what I had been taught came to mind as David talked to me about me soul. But I told him that I'd never be good enough to be saved. Gradually, I realized that I could never hope to earn my way into Heaven, no matter how hard I tried. I began to see that my only hope was in Jesus and the Cross. I began to realize that I was a sinner. As David and I prayed, I realized that I needed to be sorry for my sins. I was. I needed to repent of my sins and turn away from them. I did. I needed to trust in Jesus. I did. I no longer depend on being good enough, but I try to live good. I no longer try to earn my way to Heaven, because my salvation was given to me as a free gift from the Lord.

I have given up the things I once thought I enjoyed, but I'm happier without them. Jesus has made such a difference in my life, and I now understand what Ephesians 2:8-9 means when it says that we are saved by grace through faith, and not of ourselves. As hard as I might have tried, I could never be all that it takes to earn my way to Heaven. And neither can you.

If anyone had told me even a year ago that I would be in church, be reading the Bible and be living for Christ, I wouldn't have believed it. I wouldn't have laughed, because I always had respect for people who lived that way. But I'd never have believed in it for myself. But God changed me. I now have a great desire to learn all that I can about Jesus and about what is in the Bible. And I sometimes still wonder where I would be now if I had't accepted Jesus as my Savior. I'm glad I don't know the answer to that one, because I'm sure I wouldn't like it there.

Recently, I came across this statement: "No one ever followed Jesus who didn't become a fisher of men. If you are not fishing, it's questionable how closely you're following". How true this statement is! NO ONE, no one ever followed Jesus who didn't become a fisher of men! No one means EVERYONE -- no exceptions. This statement has become my personal challenge in my life to consider how close my walk with Jesus is. And more than anything, this fisherman wants to be a "fisherman for Jesus".

In Matthew 9:37-38, Jesus says that the harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. We should pray to the Lord for more labourers into the harvest. He needs each one of us to rise up to become a "fisher of men".

I never thought I had what it takes to become a Christian. I'm just a man who's spent the last forty-plus years of his life in a boat on the earth's bodies of water fishing for a living. But I am constantly reminded that Peter was an uneducated fisherman. Yet by the anointing of the Holy Spirit, he became the chief among the disciples. And I'm anxious to see where the Holy Spirit leads me in my life.

What once seemed impossible and unclear is now so easy to see. All I had to do was repent of my sins and ask the Lord to come into my heart to be my Savior. I should have known this all along. After all, as a fisherman, I catch the fish and THEN I clean them. So does the Lord!