Fishnet Theatre Presents:

We had a great time with Fishnet Theatre on Sunday morning.  They started at 7:00 am and had our stage and sanctuary transformed into a veritable theater well before the 10:00 am start time.  The play centered on a couple from the 1930's, Johnny and Annie Imes.  Johnny is a well known private investigator, but in this story Annie takes the lead.  What is the case?  To find solid evidence for God, faith, and a Creator.

They did a fantastic job of portraying characters that had you laughing, but also had you learning about different questions people ask and how they can be answered.  The Bible tells us in 1 Peter 3:15-16,

"Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, ¹⁶ keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander."

It is easy to get intimidated by tough questions and to respond more out of fear and defensiveness rather than out of love.  It is not a failure to lack an immediate answer.  It is however a failure if we don't investigate for ourselves in order to give an answer to the questions that others are asking.

The play did a wonderful job of displaying the real-life problem that even when we lovingly answer people's questions they still have to make a decision.  Some will believe and be saved and some will not.  This is a hard fact of life: our own free will.  When you take time to truly meditate on the concept of free-will, what the Bible has to say about it, and what our experience shows us, you find many questions.  Don't fears, habits and engrained mental pathways often act as prisons to our will?  Do people sometimes want to do something but find that they can't?  Or even stranger do they sometimes wish that they wanted something, but deep down they don't?  The balance to the issue of free choice is the Love and the Spirit of God.  God in his grace helps us to break beyond what we "can't" do and even the junk that our hearts get set on at times.  His Spirit and the love of his people work to break down the walls and false idols of our hearts.  Many people throughout history have gone from not being willing to surrender to Jesus, to wanting to serve him.  This is a mystery that cannot be fully explain though it can be fully lived.

Have you surrendered your life to Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior?  Another way of saying this is, Have you surrendered your life to Jesus as your personal Leader and Rescuer?  Maybe you have questions that need answering?  Here are "Annie's Notes" from the play.  Fishnet Theatre did a good job of making sure everyone left with a copy of the valuable information they presented throughout the play.

Thank you to the Cast and all the workers behind the scenes that came together to serve our group on Sunday and may the Lord continue to bless this ministry with new scripts and ideas of how to present the gospel, until He comes.  And, may all believers in Jesus take seriously the duty we have to fight for the hearts and minds of those who do not know Jesus with the greatest weapon of all: Love.