The preeminence of being and doing

Posted on July 7, 2016 by jwfisch

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I can remember thinking that if we could just put a born-again Christian in the White House, everything would be different. Everyone in the nation would automatically be Christian. We’d all fall on our knees and worship God. And, of course, this Christian President would make all the right decisions, his speeches would be Bible studies, and he’d have a hotline to heaven, so God would specially look after us. Then along came Jimmy Carter, a devout, born-again Christian, and nothing of the kind happened. Most people thought he wasn’t a very good President, and the 444-day hostage crisis took away any thoughts of God’s special blessing on a nation with a Christian President.

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Breaking free from the snare of politics

Posted on July 6, 2016 by jwfisch

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Near the end of Christ’s three-year ministry on earth with His disciples, upon entering a home, He grabbed the bowl of water that was often provided at the entrance of a home in order to wash the dirt from the road before entering, got down on His hands and knees, and started washing the disciples’ feet. When Peter — always the vocal one — protested, Jesus said that if he wouldn’t let Him wash his feet, then he (Peter) would have no part in Christ. To which, Peter proclaimed: “Well then, in that case, wash all of me!” Jesus then told them to wash each other’s feet as a symbol of what we now call servant leadership.

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Us on parade!

Posted on July 5, 2016 by jwfisch

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Everybody loves a parade.

Part of our Fourth of July celebration yesterday included attending a local, small town Fourth of July parade. The star of this show, especially for us, was a young girl playing in a beginning youth orchestra including little kids with violins almost as big as they were. Our young friend played a cello, and that was a bit of a challenge for a parade, calling on Dad to pull a wagon that she could set her instrument in. About every couple hundred feet of “marching” (they were actually just walking along), they would stop, put their cellos and bases on the ground and play one verse of “My Country ’Tis of Thee.”

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Fighting for what’s already yours

Posted on July 1, 2016 by jwfisch

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Exactly 240 years ago next Monday, on July 4, 1776, the American colonies declared themselves free and independent states, but were they free and independent? No. Not until five years later at the last battle of the revolution in Yorktown, Pennsylvania, did they achieve that independence, which was made official two years later in the Treaty of Paris.

Which amounts to this: The colonies declared themselves free, then they had to fight for what they declared. I had to look this up to find it out. Prior to that, I would have said that July 4 marked their victory over Britain. When you think about it, it makes sense that they would declare themselves free before they actually earned that freedom. They needed an identity to fight for. Prior to that, they were fighting against something; on July 4, 1776, they began fighting for something — an idea, a bold new initiative, a country that did not exist before came into being.

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How to step into someone’s life rather than around it

Posted on June 30, 2016 by jwfisch

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I have a friend who likes to experiment with new ways of beginning a conversation. He’s kind of forced into this because he works with homeless teenagers in the downtown district of a large city where it’s hard to start a conversation with “How are you?” when the unpleasant answer kind of screams in your face without anything being said.

There are ways in which we say hello to people that indicate if we intend on engaging them in conversation or are just politely dismissing them. I think first we have to ask ourselves if we really care. If you really care about the answer, you are probably not going to ask someone “How are you?” Maybe it will be a version of the familiar phrase, like “How are you, really?” or maybe it will be something else. My friend has a question to suggest: “What has brought you life today?”

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The rest of the gospel

Posted on June 29, 2016 by jwfisch

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For the better part of fifty years now, we’ve been preaching half a gospel. Not that anything we’ve been saying is wrong, it’s more about what we’ve been leaving out. To be sure, we’ve started with the fall — with human depravity and the need for a savior, followed by the provision of that very thing in God’s Son, Jesus Christ. So the whole thrust has been to convict people of sin and then tell them about Jesus who alone can save and promise eternal life. John 3:16 has been the touchstone of this message for this generation, and Billy Graham has been the key proponent. That’s why we’re evangelicals; we’re all evangelists concerned about getting people into heaven. This may sound like the whole story, but it’s not. It’s the guts of the story, but it’s missing the bookends.

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The Church of the Open Door

Posted on June 28, 2016 by jwfisch

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Church is home for bad people. Jesus didn’t come for good people; He made that very clear. And yet, why does this always seem like such a radical concept? Like, once we are in church, we are all supposed to be good. It should not be this way. This should be the most obvious thing about being a Christian — a continual sense of astonishment over God’s grace to the undeserving — us.

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‘Paranoia strikes deep’

Posted on June 27, 2016 by jwfisch

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In an article this weekend in The New York Times called “The Bad Faith of the White Working Class,” author J.D. Vance pointed out that the politi cization of the church has led to widespread thinking that the main enemies of our faith are external. The bad guys are all out there — the secularists, the “evil elites,” the Muslims, etc. And while preachers preach against all the evil out there, Christians on the inside are pulling further and further away from the world and more into isolationism and finger-pointing. This isolation and fear of encroachment from the outside and tendency to project complex problems onto simple villains is fueling both the current political campaigns here in America and the decision in Britain to leave the European Union. It is a widespread fear that has gripped the white working class in the Western World that the world as we know it is changing.

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There never was a moral majority

Posted on June 24, 2016 by jwfisch

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I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. But now I am writing to you that you must not associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sister but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or slanderer, a drunkard or swindler. Do not even eat with such people.

What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? God will judge those outside. “Expel the wicked person from among you.” (1 Corinthians 5:9-13) *

These are indeed harsh words but they reveal a kind of reversal that has taken place in the last few decades in the church. Notice who Paul is hard on here — those inside the church. You rarely see this kind of strict judgment taking place inside the church today. It’s much more popular to spot the immorality of those outside than those inside, and yet the apostle Paul is asking us to do the opposite. Be hard on ourselves and easy on the world.

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“Why doesn’t God do something?”

Posted on June 23, 2016 by jwfisch

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Today I want to draw your attention to a conversation between Robinson Crusoe and his man Friday: “Well,” says Friday, “you say God is so strong, so great: has he not as much strong, as much might as the devil?”

“Yes, yes,” Crusoe says, “Friday, God is much stronger than the devil.”

“But if God much strong, much might as the devil, why God no kill the devil so make him no more do wicked?”

“You might as well ask,” Crusoe answered reflectively, “Why does God not kill you and me when we do wicked things that offend?”

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