John Fischer The Catch

Living well

Posted on February 17, 2015 by jwfisch

My wife gave me three books for Valentine’s Day and a little box of chocolates. The books are Vanishing Grace: Whatever Happened to the Good News by Phillip Yancey, Nearing Home: Life, Faith, and Finishing Well by Billy Graham (probably his last book), and Small Victories: Spotting Improbable Moments of Grace by Anne Lamott. The chocolates were from a small store in town that makes its own candy.

The chocolates were most surprising, because I have been on a sugar fast, at her insistence, for the last few weeks. What’s the deal here? Her instructions were to have the chocolate when I’m sitting down to actually enjoy it. Not to grab one because it’s there, or because I need a rush (there’s always a downer later), but to notice it — make it an event. Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged meaning, purpose | 6 Comments

Thoughts on Presidents’ Day

Posted on February 16, 2015 by jwfisch

We live in a time of unprecedented partisanship, and animosity between factions. The thing that makes America great — the freedom to hold differing views and debate one another with honor and civility — is rapidly diminishing. Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged beatitudes, factions, partisanship | 6 Comments

God’s Valentine

Posted on February 13, 2015 by jwfisch

JESUS CHRIST IS GOD’S VALENTINE TO THE WORLD

REAL LOVE Real love isn’t our love for God, but His love for us (1 John 4:10)

HUG God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself (2 Corinthians 5:19)

UR FORGIVEN Not counting their sins against them any longer (2 Corinthians 5:19)

UR MINE You were bought with a price (1 Corinthians 7:23)

I’M YOURS I will be their God, and they shall be My people (Jeremiah 31:33)

ALL IN I will never turn away anyone who comes to Me John 6:37

KEPT And this is the will of Him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all those He has give me (John 6:39)

FOREVER … but raise them up at the last day (John 6:39)

YOU ROCK He rescued me, because He delighted in me (2 Samuel 22:20)

TALK 2 ME Call on me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you (Psalm 50:15)

LOVE YOU For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16)

HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged God's love, the gospel | 3 Comments

Counterfeit Christianity

Posted on February 12, 2015 by jwfisch

Christians could never have gotten the reputation for being judgmental and condemnatory if we were all walking in the grace of God.

Pam wrote after yesterday’s Catch:

Thank you so much. This is something that has been reaching into my heart lately too. My son, who has wandered from the Lord, is dating a girl I have not met, but I know she is trying to get out of a drug culture, that she smokes and that she is going to a recovery program for alcohol. There was a time in my life when I would have despaired that this kind of person was entering the sphere of our family. But I have seen my own sin more deeply, in the last few years (a season of trial, failure and loss) and have begun to understand God’s grace more deeply (still have a long way to go!). Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged grace turned outward | 3 Comments

Pharisee Alert!

Posted on February 11, 2015 by jwfisch

“I understand why sinners sin.” Mylon LeFevre

Alvin Lee, Mylon, Steve Winwood & George Harrison

We had such a great time with our friend and brother, Mylon LeFevre, last night on our BlogTalkRadio show, but what stood out to me was this one simple statement: “I understand why sinners sin.” Why is that important?

The comment came out of Mylon’s story about growing up in a gospel-singing Christian family. Mylon’s first recorded song, “Without Him,” was recorded by Elvis Presley and became one of Elvis’s most loved spiritual songs. It speaks of a strong personal knowledge of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged sin and mercy, sinners | 5 Comments

The other side of the gap

Posted on February 10, 2015 by jwfisch

Generation gap

I was up late talking with my 15-year-old son Chandler last night and I must say, I have fully graduated to the other side of the generation gap. I know I felt some of this with my adult children when they were Chandler’s age, but not like this. Perhaps they humored me. Chandler doesn’t have ability to placate in his character. He is who he is and speaks his mind, and that’s that. Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged generation gap, law and grace | 11 Comments

‘So now what?’

Posted on February 9, 2015 by jwfisch

I came home from church yesterday with notes all over my bulletin. Marti wasn’t feeling well and had opted to stay home, so I committed myself to bringing home the sermon. I was eager to get everything down so I filled up the “Sermon Notes” page and spilled over onto the back of the prayer request card.

Central to the sermon was a diagram the speaker had constructed on a white board that started with a vertical line bisected by a horizontal line and then two diagonals all going through the center — the way you would go about cutting a pie into eight pieces. Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged discipleship | 9 Comments

Learning from Jesus and Earl Weaver

Posted on February 6, 2015 by jwfisch

Earl Weaver, colorful manager of the Baltimore Orioles for 16 years, was famous for kicking dirt on umpires and putting his players in their places. One of his pet peeves was the overly spiritual Christian ballplayer. He had no time for the typically religious sayings of some of his players.

A case in point was the player that greeted him after hitting a home run with, “The Lord was with me, Skip;” to which Weaver replied, “Oh yeah? Then who was with that poor S.O.B. that just threw you that hanging slider?” Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged discipleship, faithfulness | 9 Comments

Drag me out

Posted on February 5, 2015 by jwfisch

Boy, do I understand this.

I didn’t realize it at first until I kept reading one of our member’s comments, because I was so intrigued by its honesty and its beauty, and discovered she was a poet. I took out all the punctuation and started to play with the words on a page, and, sure enough, a poem emerged.

I decided to share it with you today because I think many of us feel this way. I do. I don’t want to connect with anyone much of the time. But the Lord pulls me out. Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged recovery, relationships | 9 Comments

Which God?

Posted on February 4, 2015 by jwfisch

I think we all know that God is a God of judgment and punishment. It seems that the prevailing attitude of most people who don’t know God is that He is an angry old man just waiting to jump all over anyone who does wrong. Certainly some part of this picture is true. And who would want a world where evil goes unabated and unpunished? Yet what a lot of people don’t know is that God is also a God of love and mercy, and according to His own statement, delivered by Moses along with what we commonly call the Ten Commandments, is that His love trumps His judgment and punishment 250 to 1. It’s right there in the fine print after commandment #2 to not make idols of any kind. Continue reading →