What happened on the way to being single

[Music that Matters Radio Announcement]

John Fischer Presents: Music that Matters Radio — a presentation of music like you’ve never heard before. Forget about styles, genres, and generations. This is music from only one category: music that matters. If it matters to the heart, to the soul, to the mind or to the spirit, we’ll play it.

Anchoring the station will be a selected blend of Jesus Music from the 1970s, with personal appearances by many of these artists. But this music will merely set the stage for the transparency, honesty, and spiritual passion to be found in the rest of Music that Matters Radio. We are blending music of the boomers and the music of the millennials (and everything in-between) and finding a synthesis. Because of this our song list will be anything but static. It will grow as we find the music, as we remember it, and as it is currently written. And as you catch the wind of what we‘re doing, you can add your suggestions.

So welcome to a truly unique selection of songs you love, songs you’ll wonder about, and songs you’ve never heard before, but most of all … songs that matter.

We are live now at http://musicthatmattersradio.com . (Note: you can download the Live365.comapp and take us with you. Just open the app and search for “Music that Matters.”)

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Treat younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, and younger women as sisters, with absolute purity. (1 Timothy 5:1,2)

On August 5, 1973, while serving as a ministerial intern at Peninsula Bible Church in Palo Alto, California, I brought a message to our Sunday evening Body Life service titled “A Single Person’s Identity” on being single and single relationships that was in immediate demand as to its popularity. It was first “mimeographed” and later printed as part of the print ministry of that church, and finally, as demand continued to grow, it was made into a pamphlet and distributed by the non-profit publishing company associated with the church. Without any promotion whatsoever, orders began to flow in from all over the world. Many came in bulk. “Send us 100 copies for our singles group in Des Moines.” “Send us 300 for our Bible college.” On and on it went for at least a couple decades.

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Unbroken circle

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That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. We write this to make our joy complete. 1 John 1:1-4

It’s all fitting together. We’re doing a series on relationships. Jackson was born yesterday. Christmas is coming with its celebration of the birth of Christ, and the reason for His coming. And in my current plan for New Testament reading, November 30 is the beginning of 1st John, where John states that the reason for Christ’s coming was so that they, as His disciples, could see Him and touch Him, and pass on that knowledge to us, so that ultimately their joy would be made complete — the circle being drawn, and unbroken.

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Listening to angels

 

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It’s a cold, blustery morning and the sun is darkened by rainclouds. It usually would be streaming in by now on my early morning work place at the dining room table, forcing me to move to another location in the house because of the glare, but a steady November rain has changed all that. The struggling flowers in our garden are immensely pleased. We seem to never get enough water to them here in drought-happy southern California, even this time of year, when they shouldn’t require so much. The fact that I am still in my early-morning spot at this hour makes me feel like I have a reprieve from waking up so late — a response to working late last night. It feels like it’s at least two hours earlier than it is right now, like I’ve got extra time.

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Dealing with relationship disabilities

 

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I ran into one of Chandler’s former tutors in the bakery yesterday and he started talking about how the internet, cell phones and social media have changed the nature of relationships, especially for Gen X, Y, and Millennials. He specializes in working with kids who struggle with learning disabilities. In his observation, most kids now text their relationships out as much as they talk. He mentioned a couple of autistic kids he works with who hardly ever talk at all who would have been social outcasts ten years ago, but today they are popular with friends everywhere via text. Have you ever noticed someone struggling with something to say and they suddenly hold up an imaginary cell phone and tap the air with their thumbs as a gesture that will somehow help them formulate their thoughts? It’s a generation that thinks with its thumbs.

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Representative of the Lord Jesus

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If you have to have a switch, imagine both directions read “ON.”

And whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father. Colossians 3:17 NLT

This is a very practical and all-inclusive statement. “Whatever you do or say” doesn’t leave out much. If we’re not doing, we’re saying; if we’re not saying, we’re doing something. About the only time I can think of when we are not doing or saying is when we’re asleep. That means the switch is on all the time. You and I are at all times representatives of the Lord Jesus Christ. Not just when we’re doing something spiritual. Not just when we are teaching a Bible study or a Sunday school class, or singing in a worship band, or talking to someone about Jesus, but all the time — everything we do and say.

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Full circle Thanksgiving

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And as God’s grace reaches more and more people, there will be great thanksgiving, and God will receive more and more glory. 2 Corinthians 4:14

God’s grace is closely tied to thanksgiving. It figures. If everything comes from God and nothing comes from us, then the only response to God’s grace is to simply and purely thank Him. It’s a very simple formula. Grace humbles us, but it empowers us at the same time, so we end up humbly strong — strong, but not in our own strength. A little hard to grasp unless you look at Jesus. He was the God of the universe who emptied Himself of His rights as God and became a servant. That’s what Grace does.

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Rearranging the furniture on a revolution

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John, one of our regular readers who frequently comments on Catches, commented on yesterday’s Catch with a story of his own. He went through a similar experience with adjusting to the deaths of his parents while living in the same house they occupied for 45 years. He spoke of similar feelings that I had being in my neighbor’s house which was for sale following her passing, yet still had her furniture and everything arranged the way she had it. I related that I had felt the presence of my neighbor somehow in the house and John experienced the same thing with his parents, until he decided to rearrange the furniture, add some new pieces — a new bedspread here, a table and lamp over there — and change things around from the way his parents had it, and lo and behold, it felt like a different place, no longer “haunted” by memories of his parents. Now we’re not talking about ghosts here, just memories, and feeling unable to break away from childhood feelings and impressions. The new arrangement gave him a fresh start.

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520 Green Street

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The For Sale sign went up on Friday, and when I saw the Open House sign on Sunday, I told Marti I was going to go over there and check it out. The house is next door, and for the last 47 years, it was the home of our good neighbor, Anne Wood, a retired school teacher who died a few months ago. Anne was a dear lady, loved in the community for her work for the homeless, and loved by us for her sharp wit and dry humor. This time of year she would be busy getting ready the big Thanksgiving dinner in the park for the homeless. She was always a big part of our Thanksgiving, as long as it was after everyone was fed in the park. She had to be there for that. Anne never married, and as far as we know there were no surviving relatives except for her Goddaughter who inherited the house, which made us think she was going to be moving in, but apparently she has other plans.

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More Visible Evidence

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California is a multiple disaster area. In the north, thousands are suddenly homeless and scores are missing and presumed dead from wildfires that swept away whole communities trapping the unfortunate ones who could not get out fast enough. And in the south, more fires wreaked devastation on neighborhoods while a random shooter cut down a dozen young people enjoying a country dance. Just to look at the paper every morning around here or watch the news puts you on empathy overload. You can’t imagine what it must be like for so many people hit by these disasters. Their lives are going to not be “normal” for years. Actually, the Governor has proclaimed this current state “the new normal.”

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Christ lives in you

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And this is the secret: Christ lives in you. Colossians 1:27

Through suffering, our bodies continue to share in the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be seen in our bodies. 2 Corinthians 4:10

This is big stuff. This is the mystery. Paul writes that “this message was kept secret for centuries and generations past, but now it has been revealed to God’s people.” (Colossians 1:26). And what is it? What is this big secret that is no longer a secret? It’s that Jesus Christ lives in us. I’ll write it again so we won’t miss it: Jesus Christ lives in us.

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