John Fischer The Catch

21-Day Challenge: Day 1

Posted on July 1, 2014 by jwfisch

Missed Opportunity

Now when I went to Troas to preach the gospel of Christ and found that the Lord had opened a door for me, I still had no peace of mind, because I did not find my brother Titus there. So I said goodbye to them and went on to Macedonia. But thanks be to God, who always leads us as captives in Christ’s triumphal procession and uses us to spread the aroma of the knowledge of him everywhere. (2 Corinthians 2:12-14)

What is John doing here?

The new covenant begins in human failure. It begins at a place we can all claim. This opening example from the life of Paul, in itself, is a terribly freeing bit of good news. The new covenant operates in our lives, in spite of ourselves.

Who would start an important argument about winning his respect and favor with the people he was writing to with such a story of human frailty and inadequacy? Who would lead with a story of his or her own weakness, if it wasn’t someone who wanted to show that the new covenant doesn’t depend on us, it depends on God and His purpose in our lives, and He will accomplish His purposes even if we falter in delivering our part of the bargain?

It’s not a little bit from us and a little bit from God. It’s nothing from us and everything from God. This is and will always be the battle cry of the new covenant: Nothing from us; everything from God.

Do you think you can handle that? Do you see why this passage is so life-altering?

Paul’s first illustration is a story about human anxiety and missing an opportunity where God had clearly opened a door. Paul, on his journey to Macedonia, stopped in Troas for the sole purpose of preaching the gospel. But did he ever preach that gospel? No, he didn’t, even though the Lord had paved the way for him to do so.

There was a plan. Titus, his co-worker, was going to meet him in Troas and they would travel on together from there. Paul arrived in Troas and saw a wide-open door for ministry there, but his anxiety over not finding Titus made him unable to follow through with that ministry.

And here is the shocking part. What does Paul have to say for himself after revealing his error? “But thanks be to God, who always leads us as captives in Christ’s triumphal procession and uses us to spread the aroma of the knowledge of him everywhere.”

What? Are we reading from the right Bible here? Didn’t he just say he blew it when it came to ministering in Troas, and yet, in the next breath, he is praising God for always leading him in a sort of victory parade that spreads the fragrance of Christ wherever he goes? Doesn’t that sound like a disconnect to you?

It is a disconnect, except for the fact that the new covenant operates on an entirely different basis from how we would operate if we were in charge of things. How would I write it? I would have Paul apply his own words in Philippians 4:6 about not being anxious about his brother Titus, but by praying about it and “giving it to the Lord” he would have gone on to preach the gospel and thousands would have been saved, precisely because he had been filled with the peace that passes all understanding. That’s not only what should have happened; that’s biblical!

But our lives aren’t always biblical. We aren’t always able to do what the Bible says. Sometimes we can be overcome by human emotions and distance ourselves from the right answer. But never mind. God gets His will done anyway — with or without us. And not only that, He is still able to affect people through our lives anyway — even when we have taken ourselves out of the game.

Recently, Jered Weaver, ace pitcher for the Los Angeles Angels, an extremely competitive guy who hates to be taken out of games, took himself out of a game in the middle of the sixth inning because he knew he was out of gas — he didn’t have his usual stuff — and if he had stubbornly stayed in, he would have decreased his team’s chances of winning. Besides, there was a whole bullpen of fresh arms to come in and do the job.

He was expendable, and so are we. But get this: God uses us anyway, so that even in our failure and human limitations, we can thank God anyway.

Day 1 Challenge:
Briefly identify a time when you worked and worked on something, only to see it begin to unravel before your very eyes. How did you feel? (Like a failure? Anxious? Troubled?) What did you do? (Try to make right what was wrong? Stood frozen? Became sick to your stomach?)

Were you as frustrated and anxious as Paul was when looking for his friend so that you walked past an open door of someone needing understanding and insight?

We can all identify with Paul. Nothing is going well. I am frustrated. I am concerned. I am worried. And yet, Paul immediately reverses his position and rejoices.

Action Item:
Write about a time, or send us a picture of what you looked like, when you were so anxious about someone or something that you walked past an open door that you knew was meant for you to walk through.

CLICK HERE TO RECORD YOUR ANSWER ON OUR FACEBOOK PAGE

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged new covenant | 3 Comments

21-Day Challenge, Q & A

Posted on June 30, 2014 by jwfisch

Okay, I give. What’s the 21-Day Challenge?

Well, you’ve heard of the 40 Days of Purpose? This is nothing like that.

For the next 21 Catches, I will be writing from what we call here The New Covenant Passage, 2 Corinthians 2:12-4:12. (The complete passage runs to 6:13, but this is the heart of it.) With each day’s Catch, there is going to be a challenge that will involve your creativity to explore personally the deeper ramifications of the passage for that day, in some cases involving reporting on some aspect of acting out part of it in your life. Then we will all react via Facebook by telling a story, or posting a picture or a video, enabling us all to share in each other’s insights. The end result will be a much deeper understanding of what the new covenant means in our lives as we integrate it into our shared experiences.

Plus, my wife, Marti, the “So what?” of my speaking and writing, is the one who will be coming up with the challenges, and believe me, it’s going to be good. She gets you facing stuff you never knew was there. You will not want to miss a day!

You’re always talking about this passage – i.e., the 12-step series on the website, and lots of your Catches already – is this the only passages of scripture you know?

No, but in our thinking, none is more important, yet least understood. It’s least understood because it is contrary to our natural inclinations as human beings. Consequently, if we aren’t aware of the new covenant, chances are, we are not enjoying it in our lives. Much of popular Christianity operates in the old covenant which puts people in bondage instead of setting them free. How much of your Christian experience is frustrating versus liberating? Are we trying to live the Christian life, or is the Christian life living in us? That’s the difference, and the new covenant holds the secret.

If this is so important, why is it just in one passage? Shouldn’t it be all over the scriptures?

It is all over the scriptures. In fact, once you see it, you see it everywhere, even in the Old Testament. This is just one of the best passages to see it and understand it. The reason for that is the reason behind 2 Corinthians in the first place.

Between these two letters to the Corinthian church, Paul’s authority was being called into question by other leaders and false teachers who were in a bit of a power struggle with him over leadership in the Corinthian church. So, most of 2 Corinthians was written to re-establish Paul as an apostle of the church. And in this particular section we are looking at, he pulls back the curtain, as it were, on his life and ministry as if to say, “Look, here is who we are, and here is how we operate, and here is why this is not me, Paul, ministering to you; it’s the Lord doing the whole thing.” In doing so, he reveals the secret of his own power and authority, and the means by which we can do the same things in our lives, since we are all ministers of the new covenant.

So, what can I expect after 21 days, if I stick with this?

You can expect things like change, empowerment, freedom, vulnerability, availability, and the exhilarating experience of knowing you were used of God in someone else’s life. You can expect to have your Christian life make sense, in some cases for the first time in your life.

Finally, why is this so important?

As we look to the future of the Catch Ministry, it becomes clear that if we are going to take the Gospel of Welcome to everyone, everywhere, it’s going to be through you. We are discipling you in order for you to disciple others. It’s all about discipleship and it’s all about you, and before you can do anything in terms of ministry, you need to know this. Otherwise, you will be scared, frustrated, and needing to mask all your fears and insecurities. With the new covenant, masks come off as you discover that fears and securities are actually the key to your strength.

This could very well be the most important 21 days of your life!

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged discipleship, new covenant | Leave a comment

Recipe for a revolution

Posted on June 27, 2014 by jwfisch

We are now at a critical juncture in our cultural history as Christians in America. We are discovering that the kingdom of God has nothing to do with the kingdoms of this world, be they political, social or religious. You cannot use any power attached to a worldly kingdom to further the kingdom of God. It has been a gross error of the last 30 years for so many to presume that political power could further the work of God in the world. Great harm has been done to America and the church as a result.

Because there has been such a confusion of kingdoms in the Christian subculture, we believe it best to abandon the subculture altogether and seek primarily to be Christians in the world. Wherever the word Christian is used as an adjective, there will be a confusion of kingdoms. The only thing that can truly be Christian is a person – a follower of Christ.

As a result of this confusion and discrepancy, it is crucial that a new model of conscious involvement in the world be established, and we at the Catch are seeking to provide that, all the while admitting that this is a process which includes making mistakes and learning from those mistakes.

Though not complete, and most likely not entirely right, since we are in process, we nonetheless humbly offer the following statement of beliefs as the beginning definition of what we now call the Gospel of Welcome.

First, we believe the Holy Spirit has left the building. The Holy Spirit is not and has never been confined to a subculture or the four walls of a church building. The Holy Spirit is alive and well and at work in the world at large, and it is the job of all Christians to find out what He is doing in the world and join Him.

Second, we believe that the gospel of Jesus Christ welcomes all comers, so our “doors” are closed to no one. You do not have to commit to a particular agenda, lifestyle, or orientation to walk with us. Our community is open to all sinners saved by grace.

Third, we believe that true freedom comes from being a disciple of Christ. “If you hold to my teaching,” Jesus said, “you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” For this reason we are not in support of a Christian agenda or even the Christian religion. We are not in support of “Christian” (as an adjective) anything; we are followers of Christ committed to finding out about and following His teaching. That is all.

Fourth, we believe that we can affect the greatest change in the world through humbly loving and serving others, not by lording it over them. Being a Christ-follower is all about power under people, not power over people.

Fifth, we will assume nothing based on words only, but as Jesus taught, by word and deed.

Finally, we believe that all these things taken together constitute a new movement of the Holy Spirit not unlike the Jesus movement of 40 years ago. And because we are an Internet community, worldwide, we believe the Catch community can best act as a leader in this movement. We – John and Marti — enthusiastically accept that role and ask all in our community to do the same.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Christian subculture, serving | 12 Comments

Unholy alliances

Posted on June 26, 2014 by jwfisch

Part 3 of a 4-part series

Continuing through to the end of the week, we are going to be putting the Catch in historical context, corresponding to how God has led us (John & Marti) from the beginning of our lives until now. This is because we believe we are on the cusp of a major shift in attention by the Holy Spirit related to the church and the world, and we want you to understand and appreciate its significance, share in our excitement, and be ready for what’s coming.

What happened with the church and Christianity in the last quarter of the twentieth century was something that hadn’t happened since the Crusades of the Middle Ages. Christians became a powerful force in society. Wielding power at the highest levels, we elected presidents, affected laws, shut down clinics, boycotted products and generally pushed some heavy weight around both politically and socially.

First we were the silent majority, which would have been fine if we were sacrificing and serving as Jesus taught us – welcoming all comers, and taking no sides but the side represented by the kingdom of God. But we didn’t. Instead, we slowly but surely woke up to the realization that if we were, in fact, a majority, and if we decided to be silent no more, we could affect some changes – maybe even “take America back” (as if we ever had it). A new excitement swept over the church: There are enough of us here who care about the same things, and together, we could make some real changes.

But there is a problem: this kind of coalition forces one to take a side, and that created enemies and put us in bed with those who didn’t represent all of our values — only some of them — the ones that we deemed most important. We tried to paint the world as black and white, good and evil — the evil, of course, being those who were not on our side. World view became our view and we were going to finally establish our view as the law of the land.

So, the silent majority became the Christian coalition, which became, at least in the media, the Christian right. Suddenly politicians had to pay attention to us. We tasted power, and power can be intoxicating. It can make you do things you might not do if you were “sober” and more awake to the Spirit of God.

We tried to change the world in the worldly way — what Gregory Boyd calls in his book, The Myth of a Christian Nation, the “power-over” tactics of the politics of worldly governments as opposed to the “power under” way of service and sacrifice that Jesus championed.

Now we have to deal with the aftermath of all this misguided effort. We have enemies who should not be our enemies; we have perceptions of Christians and Christianity that are wrong; we have people excluded from the church and the gospel who should be welcomed in; we have people feeling judged by us when we are not to be doing the judging in the first place; we have Christians isolated in their own social enclaves, walled away from neighbors who should be their friends. We have arms folded that should be wide open.

Now, after over three decades of this cultural isolation, there are long-overdue deep questions brewing. Was this what we were supposed to do? Is the Christian subculture the same as the kingdom of God on earth, or is that kingdom somewhere else, mixed into the world in ways that are not so black and white? Is God only in things declared “Christian” by a subculture, or is He waiting for us to find Him and join Him out in the world? Does the world really need Christian music, television, media and politics; or does the world need Christians in music, television, media and politics?

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Christian subculture, politics | 17 Comments

New wave

Posted on June 25, 2014 by jwfisch

Part 2 of a 4-part series

In June of 1972, a five-day event was held in Dallas, Texas, that came to be known as “The Christian Woodstock.” Estimated crowds of 100,000 or more young Christians converged on the city for daily seminars and nightly gatherings in the Cotton Bowl, culminating in a large outdoor concert featuring many of the new Christian rock bands in an open field, and attended by an estimated crowd of 80,000. The event was organized by Campus Crusade for Christ, and officially called Explo ’72.

It was the beginning of a new era for the church and for Christians in general, and what I look upon as the end of the Jesus movement. I think of it as the end of a movement because it was highly-organized and promoted all over the country, and attended by people who were for the most part already Christians. Up until this time, events were poorly-organized, hastily thrown together and attracted large numbers of curious non-Christians. It was a street movement with the goal of presenting the gospel of Jesus Christ and had a real sense of being Holy-Spirit-inspired. No one could take any credit for what was going on.

The new era, however, was highly-organized, commercialized and well-marketed. Immediately following this event (and some commentators think because of it), Christian music exploded at a rapid pace as record companies sprang up, utilizing Christian radio as a centralizing force. Christian radio became a sort of non-denominational headquarters for promoting everything that was culturally Christian. By 1973, non-Christians stopped coming; they pretty much left us to ourselves. Consequently, it wasn’t Jesus music anymore; it was now “contemporary Christian music.”

The young people of the Jesus movement were becoming young parents wishing to raise their kids in a safe Christian environment, and a multi-billion dollar contemporary Christian industry was more than willing to serve them, offering Christian music, Christian jewelry and Christian books covering everything from personality temperaments to the end times. Out of the Jesus movement, a subculture was born, providing conformity, and a safe place to hide in an ever-threatening world.

Now we can see what was dangerous about this; then it was too new and exciting to notice anything wrong. What could be wrong with large numbers of Christians coming together to worship God? What could be wrong with Christian music, Christian radio, Christian schools, Christian aerobics, and pretty much Christian anything that the culture at large enjoyed? In other words, what could be wrong with an alternative Christian subculture?

I can think of a few things:

Isolationism
Separatism
Judgmentalism
A new sense of power in numbers
A new sense of cultural power

Even way back as far as Explo ’72, one local newspaper reporter who attended explained what he experienced there as “militant Christianity.”

Uh-oh.

I think I can see where this thing is headed. What happened to the gospel? What happened to “Welcome Back?” When did open arms to the world turn to folded arms of a culture war? What happened to the Gospel of Welcome?

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Christian subculture, Jesus Movement | 11 Comments

One way to heaven

Posted on June 24, 2014 by jwfisch

I haven’t been this excited since Eldridge Cleaver and Hal Lindsey spoke at Body Life service, Peninsula Bible Church in Palo Alto, California.

Today, and through to the end of the week, we are going to be putting the Catch in historical context, corresponding to how God has led us (John & Marti) from the beginning of our lives until now. This is because we believe we are on the cusp of a major shift in attention by the Holy Spirit related to the church and the world, and we want you to understand and appreciate its significance, share in our excitement, and be ready for what’s coming.

We also are excited about getting you ready for our 21-Day Challenge, which will be an in-depth study into the new covenant Christ came to establish versus the old one we all broke (and are still breaking), featuring a specific challenge each day to integrate into your life.

That “Body Life” service I referred to in my opening sentence was just over 40 years ago, when God brought together a movement of His Holy Spirit through a generation of disillusioned young people who wanted to change the world through peace, justice, and love. These were all the right things, but they were just looking in the wrong places. This is when Jesus, the Prince of Peace, the author of love, and the maker and sustainer of life, met so many of these men and women. He found them on the National Mall in DC, on the beaches of California, in the hidden corners of Colorado, and in just about every University across the country — and a spiritual revolution was born. It was later called the Jesus movement.

Not confined to America, there were similar simultaneous movements of the Spirit of God, among young people especially, in North and South America, Europe and South Africa. I just recently learned of a story involving two brothers in Cape Town, South Africa. One of them gathered a crowd in a theater by playing Jesus music, and the other one preached the gospel. This played out nightly to large crowds for months in the late 1960s, and these humble beginnings ended up creating what is now one of the strongest evangelical churches in South Africa. Not too different from what happened in Hollywood at precisely the same time.

John and Marti were born just as the current age of the church began what many believe may be its final phase. It began with the monumental founding of the nation of Israel in 1948. This was followed by a 50-year period of personal gifting, calling, and the establishment of the authority of the believer. Leaders during this time were called by God and raised up in an independent reality, and John and Marti were no exception. Each was called by God from outside the context of the local church and began his/her ministry led only by the Holy Spirit — John in music, and Marti through leadership in the Fellowship of Christian Airline Personnel.

They received training in the ministry through the restoration of the pastoral gift that began in the 1960s — John, under Ray Stedman at Peninsula Bible Church in Palo Alto, California, and Marti, under Hal Lindsey and Bill Counts at Jesus Christ Light and Power House in Westwood, California. With Stedman, the emphasis was on what he called “The Ministry of the Saints” (biblical instructions equipping every believer for the ministry) and “The New Covenant” (the empowering of every believer for this work). Marti’s training was around Hal Lindsey’s work centered in prophetic teaching regarding the end times (The Late Great Planet Earth) and the resulting opportunity this message created for evangelism. Time to get yourself right with God.

So what’s the point? God works personally in the lives of individuals, but they also fit into the context of wide spiritual and cultural influences. What are those influences right now, and how do they affect what we do? That’s what we’re going to find out.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged church history, Jesus Movement | 6 Comments

Summer solstice

Posted on June 23, 2014 by jwfisch

Show me, Lord, my life’s end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting my life is. – Psalm 39:4

Saturday we reached the midpoint of the year — the longest day. Every day from now until the shortest day of the year, the winter solstice that is just before Christmas, gets a little shorter. It’s the wobble of the earth that creates our seasons. We’re either tilting toward the sun or away from it. Two days ago, we were tilted as close to the sun as we ever get. Now we are tilting back away from the sun. Each day gets a tiny bit shorter and potentially colder, though we won’t start feeling that until September or October. (Of course, if you live in the southern hemisphere, like our friends in South Africa, it’s all the opposite of this.)

But can you believe that we’re already on the downhill run? Christmas is just around the corner, and I’m still not quite used to writing 2014 on my checks! Is it my age, or is time speeding up? Does anyone else feel this?

I’m thinking that it depends on your circumstances. If you’re waiting for something, time probably slows down. Chandler can’t wait until he’s fifteen and a half and can drive a car. It’s going to seem like forever for him to get to next March. On the other hand, if you are dreading a certain date, it seems to get here much quicker.

The Bible says that our days are numbered, and that God knows that number, although we don’t. But it does tell us to number our days, and that by doing so, we will gain a heart of wisdom. If God has them numbered, we should number them too.

If I am numbering my days, then I am realizing how important each one is.

If I am numbering my days, then I am realizing that I get only a predetermined amount of them in my lifetime. There’s going to be an end to this, so to let the days fly by without taking them into account is to be foolish and not wise.

If I am numbering my days, then I am doing what God does.

I am speaking to myself here more than any of you, because if it seems like this year has flown by so far, that would indicate that I haven’t been numbering my days. If I were numbering my days, then I would be aware that it is precisely June 23, 2014, and I would be ready for this day. I would not be surprised at this, because I would have been waiting for, and planning for, this day, and now that it’s here, I would know what to do with it. I would know that I have one less day than I had yesterday. And that would be important since our days are numbered.

Live each day as if it counts, because it does.

Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom. – Psalm 90:12

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged responsibility | 1 Comment

What’s God up to?

Posted on June 20, 2014 by jwfisch

“Look, you mockers, be amazed and die! For I am doing something in your own day, something you wouldn’t believe even if someone told you about it.” (Acts 13:41; Habakkuk 1:5)

This quote is a prophecy first given by the prophet Habakkuk to the nation of Israel, predicting that they were going to be carried off into exile by the Babylonians. It is quoted later by Paul preaching to Jews in the synagogue, announcing the gospel of Jesus Christ had come, and the fact that this good news was now going to be given freely to the Gentiles.

In other words, Paul picked up this prophecy and applied it to his own day. I believe we can apply it to our day as well.

Do you not believe that God is doing something in our own day? Can this not apply to us today — to any day, for that matter? Does God do something only on certain days, or is He always doing something?

God is doing something in our own day. We just started offering prayer for those who request it, and already prayers are being answered. There is a general way in which this is always true, because we know that God is always acting into our world.

God is in your life today. He has things He wants to do. His ability to do them is contingent upon our desire to cooperate with Him. He doesn’t force His way on us; it’s more like a partnership. He wants our participation. It’s not that He can’t work without us — of course He can, He is God — but He chooses to work with us. He desires our participation and our fellowship. We were created for this. So a big part of working with God each day is finding out what He wants to do. Find out what He is doing and get there.

One of the ways we do this is to get really familiar with God’s word. The word of God trains us in better knowing God’s heart. The closer we get to God’s heart, the easier it will be to determine what He wants. God is doing something in your day, today. Don’t you want to find out what it is and be a part of it?

But I believe there is also a specific way in which this is also true that may not necessarily be true every day. Marti and I have spent the last two days seeking to discover what God might be getting ready to do in our day. Forty years ago, we were a part of a fresh movement of the Holy Spirit among young people both inside and outside the church. Is He getting ready to do something like that again on a broad scale? We believe He is, and we are positioning the Catch to be a part of it. When He does, we’ll be ready.

“People get ready, there’s a train a comin’…”

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged faith, prayer | 6 Comments

Instant transparency

Posted on June 19, 2014 by jwfisch

Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. (James 5:16)

As more and more prayer requests come in, you, our Catch community, become more and more real. That may be one of the side effects of praying together – we share our lives with each other. What I would call instant transparency. Prayer gives us the immediate opportunity to get to what concerns us.

There are lost jobs, cancers, deadbeat kids and struggles with gender identity to deal with. This is not necessarily the kind of information usually divulged upon first meeting someone, nor what you hear around the water cooler at work, yet when prayer is involved, we get right down to it.

This is good. It gets us beyond superficialities and into what really counts. After all, if we’re going to ask for prayer, we’re naturally going to go to those things that are most troubling to us. And, in turn, that deepens our relationships. Here we are divulging our greatest fears – our most pressing dilemmas – to total strangers, and we’re making connections. We’re making contact. We’re getting help where we need it the most.

If there is anything following Christ has taught us, it is that we are all hurting, needy people. Not one of us has it all together. Not one of us doesn’t have a painful prayer request to reveal. So, in asking for prayer, we touch each other. We come together at the point of need. This is what God wants us to do.

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. (2 Corinthians 1:3-4)

I get something to give to you; you get something to give to me. What comes around, goes around.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged prayer, vulnerability | 3 Comments

The surprise of answered prayer

Posted on June 18, 2014 by jwfisch

We are so pleased that a number of you have taken advantage of our offer to pray for your specific needs. You are not alone. We are already feeling much closer to many of you by sharing in your life in this way. We are getting to know you. That’s part of what prayer does — it brings us together.

We are also deeply indebted to those of you who have volunteered to pray. You are standing as intercessors between all of us and the Lord. It is a priestly function, and much appreciated. We have already received answers to prayer.

Sometimes those answers surprise us.

I am reminded of the story in the Book of Acts when the Roman king, Herod Agrippa, began persecuting some believers in the church. “He had the apostle James (John’s brother) killed with a sword. When Herod saw how much this pleased the Jewish leaders, he arrested Peter” and threw him in jail under guard (Acts 12:1-5). Herod’s intention was to bring Peter out for a public trial. “But while Peter was in prison, the church prayed very earnestly for him.”

The night before Peter was to go on trial, an angel of the Lord came to him, freed him from the bonds that had him chained to two sleeping guards, opened the prison gate and led him out. It was all so miraculous that at first Peter thought he was dreaming the whole thing. Finally convinced it was real, he went to the home of Mary, the mother of John Mark, where many of the believers had gathered to pray for him. While they were praying, Peter came and knocked on the door to the outer gate, and a servant girl named Rhoda came out to open it. When she recognized Peter’s voice, she got so excited that she raced back inside to tell everyone, leaving Peter standing outside the door. How perfect is that?

Not only that, they left him outside while they tried to convince the girl that she was imagining things. How long they left him out there, we don’t know, but it’s most comical.

“You’re out of your mind,” they said when she told them, and when she insisted, they decided it must be his angel. It was beyond them to think that God might be actually answering their prayers at that very minute.

Meanwhile, Peter was still outside, patiently knocking. When they finally went and opened the door, they were amazed. They were amazed that God actually answered their prayer in a miraculous way.

I like this story because it’s so much like what we would do in similar circumstances. We pray, but we are shocked when we get an answer, especially a miraculous one. But God is God. He can do anything He wants.

Better be careful what you pray for — it might come true!

Isn’t that so like us?

If you have a burden too big to bear and you would like prayer, we have people standing by to pray for you. And if you are thinking about contributing to the Catch, we encourage you to consider becoming a MemberPartner by signing up for a regular monthly contribution that will fit your budget. We appreciate your one-time contributions, but regular support helps us become sustainable so we can do more for you. Links to both of these activities are in the column immediately to the right. God bless you!

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged prayer | 2 Comments