The disarming nature of good

Posted on May 28, 2020 by jwfisch

download-2

Never pay back evil for evil to anyone. Respect what is right in the sight of all men. If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men. Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. “But if your enemy is hungry, feed him, and if he is thirsty, give him a drink; for in so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. Romans 12:17-21

In his comment from yesterday’s Catch, our brother, Paul, reminded us of this verse. (Not Paul the Apostle, who wrote it, but our Paul, who may be an apostle himself; we’re still finding that out!) How apropos these words are to our current cultural climate of hatred and division.

Continue reading →

Posted in grace turned outward, Integrity, Worldview | Tagged , | 2 Comments

A soldier’s cross

Posted on May 27, 2020 by jwfisch

OIP-13

OIPMaybe you remember it when this story first came out almost 10 years ago — the photograph of a wooden cross strangely draped with a military dog tag and a purple vestment and crowned with an army helmet. It was a memorial to Captain Dale Goetz, a chaplain in the US Army who was killed along with four other soldiers by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan. He was the first chaplain killed in combat since the Vietnam War.

Captain Goetz considered himself called to this job and had volunteered for the position. He was known as one who always went to the soldiers in the field where he could help them “through long days and nights of fear and dread.” His wife, and sudden single mother of three children under 11, struggled with the loss though she knew he was doing what God wanted him to do.

Continue reading →

Posted in forgiveness, grace, Memorial Day | Tagged | 7 Comments

They were young

Posted on May 26, 2020 by jwfisch

OIP-12

 

 

We were young

We have died

Remember us

 

 

 

Thomas Edison High School in Philadelphia sustained 54 casualties in the Vietnam War, highest of any high school in the nation. Fifty-four out of a total of 58,272.

Continue reading →

Posted in Memorial Day | Tagged | 1 Comment

‘ALL HAVE SINNED’

Posted on May 22, 2020 by jwfisch

th-64

The sign inside the historic Church of the Open Door, once in downtown Los Angeles, is remarkable if you think about how many churches would be willing to put “ALL HAVE SINNED” over the front of their church. Think of what that would do for people visiting. Think of what that would do for the regulars. I can think of only good things coming out of that.

Continue reading →

Posted in church, forgiveness, gospel of welcome, grace | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Church, 2020

Posted on May 21, 2020 by jwfisch

th-10

Think about the amount of trust in the Holy Spirit there had to be in the formation of the early church. Especially after the persecution scattered believers all over the region. Groups of believers were springing up everywhere. All of them were preaching the Good News about Jesus and people were being added daily to the faith. It would have been impossible to monitor all those groups. These were not Bible Study Cell Groups with a form of centralized leadership and a notebook and video for the host to follow. There was no curriculum. There was no New Testament, at least in the very beginning. Later on Paul would write his letters to the young churches, and I’m sure those were copied and passed around, but in the beginning the church was made up of informal groups of people meeting in homes, many of them separated from sanctioned leadership. And if the book of Acts says they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, that means there was an apostle there teaching them! Kid you not.

Continue reading →

Posted in church, Millennials, walk by faith | Tagged , | 6 Comments

Empathetic teacher

Posted on May 20, 2020 by jwfisch

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30)

Did you know you had an empathetic teacher?

Our interview with Gunnar Simonsen last night on BlogTalkRadio is a “must” podcast for all of us. I’ve heard it twice now and I will listen again. It’s all about change. In his own words, “In three years, every last thing in my life has changed.”

Continue reading →

Posted in 12 Steps, forgiveness | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Building bridges instead of walls

Posted on May 19, 2020 by jwfisch

th-11

Jesus gave us one command before He left. It was the last thing He told us. He told us to go. Go into all the world. Go into all the world and make disciples. Go into all the world and make disciples of all nations. That is a massive undertaking and it is entirely inconsistent with current cultural trends toward separation and isolation. How can you go anywhere with walls around you, and no bridges to get there? “Going” in a season of walls will take some serious bridge-building or you can’t even get there. We will have to buck the trend. Here are some ideas that will help you do that.

Continue reading →

Posted in discipleship, Worldview | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

‘Till we meet again’

Posted on May 18, 2020 by jwfisch

117315

First the title caught my eye. It came in an email I receive through an online Christianity Today subscription. “Died: Joyce Lin, Missionary Pilot Transporting Coronavirus Supplies: The American crashed just months after she started flying in Indonesia.” Then I saw her picture and I was struck by a deep sadness I couldn’t explain. Joyce was 40 years old, but in the picture she looks to be in her twenties.

Continue reading →

Posted in diversity, Facing death, pandemic | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

All together now

Posted on May 15, 2020 by jwfisch

th-13

Can you find the Christians in this picture? No? Good.

As far as I can tell, this is a picture of a bunch of sheep and goats together in a big herd. And when you see them all together like this, you get a sense of their sameness. They all have cloven hooves, four legs, the same shaped heads and ears, they all go “Baa,” and they can even mate and produce offspring. Someday they will be separated, but not today. Today they are all together and with the exception of social distancing, which they are obviously ignoring, that’s as it should be.

Continue reading →

Posted in pandemic, the gospel | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

First century Christians

Posted on May 14, 2020 by jwfisch

th-19I just spent an hour with a few of our Vanguard leaders talking about the future of the Catch. With the world turned upside down right now due to the pandemic, and the church turned outside in due to the lockdown, it’s important that we see ourselves as first century Christians, because, in many ways, we are starting all over again. It’s good that we get back to our foundation anyway, because we had strayed far from it. “Church” was starting to resemble something with no biblical counterpart.

Continue reading →

Posted in church, discipleship, grace turned outward, pandemic | Tagged , , | 3 Comments