In the episode A View from the Cross, I shared a dream that the Spirit gave me 20 years ago called the “Strange Fishing Dream”. With the help of friends gifted in interpretation, the dream helped me understand the type of ministry the Lord called me to. Not long after, the Spirit gave me an even stranger fishing dream that for nearly 20 years, I had no interpretation for and I forgot about it. When writing the scripts for the Martha and Deacons episodes the Lord brought that dream back to mind, with an eye-opening interpretation.

The Cow Fish Dream

From the window of a vacant building on a pier over the Puget Sound, I was fishing and hooked a big fish, the size of a cow. Somehow I managed to reel it in on a pole much too small for the job, lifted it out of the water, pulled it through the window and placed it on what looked like a boat cradle. I don’t remember that the fish weighed anything.

NOTE: This article is a follow up to the article Martha! Martha! Martha!

I’ve been inspired to read Acts 6:1-6 in several different translations where I picked up on a few additional cues that raised even more questions concerning the creation and ordination of deacons.

Normally, I use the ESV version for casual reading, which for Acts 6:2, reads in part:

“And the twelve summoned the full number of the disciples …”

The word “summoned” jumped off the page at me and leaves me rather unsettled, because it is often used in situations of authority, e.g., a court of law summons someone under the law to stand before the judge. Strong’s dictionary defines the Greek word προσκαλέομαι (proskaleomai / pros-kal-eh’-om-ahee) G4341 as:

“to call toward oneself, that is, summon, invite”.

You know the story; Jesus and the disciples drop in on Martha, Mary and Lazarus, and Martha gets steamed at Mary for leaving her to do all the serving by herself while Mary reclines at Jesus feet. Martha is upset enough that she even throws a little lip Jesus’ way (Luke 10:38-42). Sermons about the encounter typically conclude with “be a Mary, not a Martha”. Of course, such sermons are NEVER delivered on the same day that the church holds a potluck. No one gets served if everyone is a Mary.

The Greek word used to describe Martha’s serving is the same word used in Acts 6:1, when the apostles decided that serving food was a hassle and foisted the job off onto 7 deacons so they could focus on prayer and the word of God. Except for the Greek, one wouldn’t see the connection because the King James renders the word “serving” in the passage about Martha, and “ministration” in the passage about the apostles. I guess that means when women serve food, it’s service, but when the men do it, it’s ministry.