No straight lines from the Bible to politics

Posted on March 4, 2016 by jwfisch

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Leave it to politics to bring out the best/worst in us. I’ll never forget the time I intimated casually in one of my CCM (Contemporary Christian Music) magazine columns that Jimmy Carter might have been a better President in terms of true red-letter Christian values than Ronald Reagan and you would have thought I’d lost the faith and was suggesting people come over to Satan. Cards and letters streamed in (this was before the Internet) and I couldn’t help but think of all the articles I had put out up to that point, painstakingly trying to connect faith to life, and not a peep from anyone. What is it about politics that can boil our blood so quickly? I’m sure you’ve heard it said that if you want to get into a bitter argument, bring up religion or politics.

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Who are those evangelicals anyway?

Posted on March 3, 2016 by jwfisch

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Some have wondered if it’s worth our time caring about what the general populace is thinking and saying about Christians and Christianity. “That’s not my business,” some would say. “It’s only my business to live my life as a true follower of Christ.” I agree that this is ultimately what matters: how we live versus what we say; as Marti likes to say, “It’s the little things you do, not the big things you say, that matters.”

However, having said that, it still is important to be aware of the broader cultural messages that are being displayed in the media as “Christian,” and where those messages are wrong or misguided, we, as followers of Christ and leaders of others who are following, need to point out those errors and correct them. Indeed, virtually all of the teaching of Jesus was set in the context of what the prevailing religious leaders were teaching that was wrong.

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Leaving a mark instead of being marked

Posted on March 2, 2016 by jwfisch
Trump at Jerry Falwell's Liberty University

Trump at Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University

Is anyone else as tired as I am of seeing report after report from the press about the evangelical vote? We’ve got politicians courting us, pollsters measuring us, and marketers surveying us. Evangelicals have become a very important bloc in society for various reasons, none of them having anything to do with the gospel. The motivation behind all this press is not to report on how we are influencing our neighborhoods and our world, but how easily we can be manipulated into serving someone else’s purposes and agendas. Do you feel used? Does faith seem to be belittled? “Yes,” and “Yes,” I say, and the more we play into this abuse by basking in the attention, the more the gospel loses.

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Game over; now let’s start living

Posted on March 1, 2016 by jwfisch

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Every gambler knows
That the secret to surviving
Is knowing what to throw away
And knowing what to keep
‘Cause every hand’s a winner
And every hand’s a loser
And the best that you can hope for
Is to die in your sleep

You’ve got to know when to hold ’em
Know when to fold ’em
Know when to walk away
And know when to run
You never count your money
When you’re sitting at the table
There’ll be time enough for counting
When the dealings done

Chandler, Marti and I played the longest UNO game in memory last night. Must have lasted an hour and a half. We were playing with two decks and some cards missing, so the odds of someone winning must have been drastically reduced. All three of us were down to one card numerous times but no one could clinch it. In fact, in over two hours, we only played three games and Marti won them all. That’s even with Chandler and me cheating. (I was passing colors to him under the table he didn’t have so we could somehow end that marathon game. After an hour and a half, we didn’t care who won, just if we could finish the darn thing.)

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Put to the test in Laramie

Posted on February 29, 2016 by jwfisch
Hotshot tortoise.

Hotshot tortoise.

Thanks to some generous gifts from a few of our Catch citizens, we are in Wyoming this weekend to be with Chandler and hold an in-person evaluation of his progress (and ours).

It is a somewhat bruised, battered and humiliated author who writes to you this morning, given my commitment to granting two of Chandler’s wishes for this weekend — one being a workout at the local recreation center Friday night with Chandler serving as my personal trainer, followed by a snowmobile trip Saturday morning in the mountains 45 minutes outside of Laramie. Both of these activities had me thinking early on, “Okay, aren’t we ready to be done now?”

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Welcome to the Gospel of Welcome

Posted on February 26, 2016 by jwfisch

th-86There are some people who have dropped in on this discussion about Christians and Muslims via social media who think I’m off my rocker; I’ve lost my marbles, and become a heretic. If I had a dollar for every person who has quoted John 14:6 to me, I could take my wife out to dinner on it. If you think I am saying all religions are the same, and there are many paths to God, you have not been very considerate or thoughtful about what I have written. And if I’m splitting hairs, it’s because there are hairs that need to be split. This issue is a lot more complicated than some are making it out to be, while in other ways, it is a lot more simple.

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Discipleship is not about having your own personal Jesus

Posted on February 25, 2016 by jwfisch

th-85My friend, Wayne, had a very insightful comment after hearing our interview Tuesday night. “Our brothers in that part of Christendom focus on the teachings of Jesus whereas evangelicals focus on the substitutionary atonement.  Granted, in our circles, discipleship … apprenticeship to Jesus … sanctification … is supposed to be the process of becoming like Jesus (or, if you will, focusing on obedience to His teaching).  I fear, however, that there is a huge disconnect because we make such a big issue of ‘getting saved’ as a transaction assuring heaven that sanctification (in most evangelical circles) simply translates into being a good American and adding on prayer, Bible reading and church attendance.”

Wayne’s comment deserves a good deal of thought. I agree, that as evangelicals in America we focus so much on salvation that we skirt over what happens after that — what it means to be a disciple of Christ. There are more than likely many Muslims who know more about the teachings of Jesus than we do. It’s as if once we get saved that’s the end of it. Like Wayne said: go to church, read your Bible once in a while, pray when you’re in trouble … that’s about it for discipleship in America.

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Living in fear or living in love

Posted on February 24, 2016 by jwfisch

th-83And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.  (Hebrews 11:6)

I talked to a man last night who earnestly loves God. He prays regularly. When he sins, he asks God for forgiveness. He even calls God, the Mercy-Giver. He believes everything he has found out so far about Jesus (and he’s found out a lot — more than many others have who claim to follow Christ). He has adopted as the purpose of his life that which Jesus said embodied all of the law: to love the Lord his God with all his heart, soul, mind and strength, and to love his neighbor as himself. He knows that Jesus is going to return some day to judge the world so he humbles himself and weighs his choices in light of that fact. He is seeking to live at peace with everyone around him, including his enemies, whom he is seeking to love because Jesus told him too. He even believes that Jesus is the Messiah and He has reconciled us to God. If this man were my neighbor, I would want to walk and talk with him; I believe he would undoubtedly make me a better follower of Christ.

There’s only one problem: he’s Muslim.

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Is there common ground between Christians and Muslims?

Posted on February 23, 2016 by jwfisch

David Hungerford & Safi KaskasThis is going to be an interesting conversation tonight on BlogTalkRadio, and if you can’t listen live at 6 o’clock Pacific time, be sure to go to our BlogTalkRadio site later when you can. We will have as our guests Dr. Safi Kaskas (calling in from Saudi Arabia) and Dr. David Hungerford, creators of a new version of the Qur’an in simple English with over 3,000 references to the Bible.

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Finding more ways to Jesus

Posted on February 22, 2016 by jwfisch

I’m enjoying your comments as we explore the question of whether Muslims and Christians worship the same God. (Especially our dear friend Mark who shared a quote by Frank Zappa: “The mind is like a parachute; it doesn’t work unless it’s open.”)  Some of this is a little hard to swallow, I’ll admit. That’s only because it’s a different way of thinking, not a different truth. Truth is truth; you can’t mess that up. Jesus is the only way to God, but the path to Jesus is going to be different for everyone. Perhaps I should put all the words to my song here for you to consider.

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