The word “Christian” makes a very bad adjective. In fact, there should be an automatic red flag that pops up in your mind every time you see or hear it, or especially when you try to use it as such. When you’re about to write or say “Christian something-or-other,” there needs to be a pause in order to make sure that is what you truly want to portray.
Jesus is the answer for the world today
Above Him there’s no other, Jesus is the way
– Andrae Crouch
Two comments from yesterday’s Catch taken together make a Catch of their own. Andrew reminded us that Jesus ultimately has an answer for everything, but then Bob pointed out that the one big question, “Why?” stuck in his craw and sent him on a long journey from which he finally came back to Jesus.
The explanation of the Book of Job is that there is no explanation.
Questions are so much better than answers.
If I had a Book of Answers to sell you or a Book of Questions, which one would you be interested in? There was a time when I would have bought the Book of Answers, because that’s what I was looking for. I wanted the answers to life’s problems. I wanted to answer everyone’s questions. I thought that if Christianity answered everything, then everyone would want to be a Christian.
Ask [and keep on asking] and it will be given to you, seek [and keep on seeking] and you will find, knock [and keep on knocking] and the door will be opened to you. Matthew 7:7
Jesus has issued a challenge. I don’t think many people think of it that way when they see this verse, but that’s really what it is, and that’s the spirit in which it was given. Jesus has issued a general challenge to all to come and get to know Him. It’s at least an invitation, but I think it’s more than that. Come on, if you want to know me better: take me on. You won’t be disappointed. This, of course, is the reason for the challenge. Jesus wants a relationship with us, and He wants the give-and-take of a two-way relationship. He wants a relationship with someone who wants one with Him.
Set wide the window. Let me drink the day. Edith Wharton
My wife loves open windows. If she had it her way, she would have our windows open year-round, rain or shine. It’s about the fresh air. I’m thinking about the NPR program, “Fresh Air” and what a great title that is for a program. Open windows let in fresh air.
How hard it is to avoid passing judgment! Patricia, one of our readers, wisely pointed out in a comment on yesterday’s Catch that when I suggested that the preacher railing against pornography has probably got a pornography problem, I was giving you permission to judge all preachers who get mad at some sin as being guilty of the same. While that could be the case, it isn’t necessarily always the case and certainly no cause to pass judgment. Isn’t that what we are trying to avoid here? In the process of trying to get you to avoid judging, I was giving you cause to judge more, and I didn’t even notice that until I read her comment.
I take notice today that there are actually two sides to judging: there is judging, and there is being judged. Both are important and both are something we should be without. We don’t talk very much about the second one, but it may be harder to get rid of than the first.
Pre-school candidate par excellence.
Our son, Christopher, lives about ten minutes from a church that has the reputation, among many churched and even non-churched people, for having the absolute best pre-school in town. It’s like the USC or Stanford of pre-schools. Christopher’s daughter, Jocelyn, is three years old and eligible to attend this school in the fall. There’s only one problem. They started too late on the admissions process. A place in this school is so sought-after that the closest Joci can get to enrollment for next fall is the wait list.
So whatever happened to Nabal, that foolish guy in the story of David and Abigail (1 Samuel 25) who refused to share his bounty with David and his fighting men, and would have met his fate at the end of David’s sword were it not for the timely, courageous action of his wife Abigail? The scripture reports that after David listened to the advice and counsel of Abigail and went back to his camp, appeased by the gifts of food and wine that she had brought him, she went home to report all that had happened to Nabal and found him “In high spirits and drunk.” So it happened that the following morning, when he was sober and Abigail told him all that had happened including how close he had come to losing everything including his own life, that Nabal’s “heart failed him and he became like a stone. About ten days later, the Lord struck Nabal and he died” (25:37-38).
[Note: If you’ve been reading the Catch all week, you can skip the first two paragraphs.]
John Fischer The Catch 