John Fischer The Catch

Don’t you ever get tired of those who are always right, while pointing out what you are doing wrong?

It’s already a bad day, fighting off the anxiety that surges down to the bottom of your toes, you try coaching yourself to “Keep that chin up.” Yet no sooner do you release a deep sigh convinced that, “It’s going to be okay” when out of nowhere comes an imaginary finger wagging right in your face. “I’ve blown it,” you admit as this self-imposed shame creeps in and through your veins, “I’ve been entrusted with something more important then my fretful worries and proven myself untrustworthy, again.”

Now tell me.
1.     Are you in a courtroom in front of a judge with a panel of jurors, who have already made up their mind?
2.     Are you late for work because when you tried to flag down drivers to help in the pouring rain the cars just drove around you, a solid stream of passing headlights?
3.     Are you trying to care for your disquieted children, covering them with kisses, assuring them (and yourself) that everything is going to be all right when everything is going so wrong?
4.     Not necessarily any, but maybe some, or all the above?

Where do you find yourself when the pointed finger is saying it is right and therefore you are wrong?

The condemning feeling we experience is when any pointing finger attests to the right way – to a flawless life that we obviously are not living.  The best intended pointy finger gets us to feel really bad, especially if it is working off an assumption that a specific truth reveals the secret to this picture-perfect life, and while you are fully aware that no one on earth is capable of living such a life, you believe someone must be, which requires you to tell yourself that you are all wrong.

You can feel the humiliating burn from the condemning finger, which is causing you to disconnect from everyone around you. You find yourself applying intelligent thought or self-made rationalizations to your current situation, which can only secure moderate inroads.  More often, you simply watch yourself silently slink away into the nothingness.

All of us that hurt feel the proliferation of both the spoken and unspoken pointy finger. However, hardly any of us recognize that the primary source of such condemnation is found within our own picture-perfect Christian environment amongst other want-to-be perfect Christians, where there is no sustained and permanent change taking place. What’s more, we tend to derail the pointy finger off onto others, forcing them into the world unarmed, unhealed, alone, and just like us, unchanged.

To give an alternative to these routes of action and provide a chance to change our culture – a chance to change ourselves – we need to rewrite our own stories from today’s real life scenarios.

To serve as a real life example, let’s start with today’s scenario: It is already a bad day. You are fighting off the anxiety that surges down to the bottom of your toes. You place the call.  “There has been an accident.  I totaled your car.  I am so very sorry.”  You wait for the silence at the other end to start screaming into your ear.

“Are you all right?  What about the children?” the voice on the other end of the phone asks.  His words for your personal worth feel as if they are coming straight from an angel.

“Yes, we are all right.  But your car…” you trail off, worrying. Where the heck am I going to find the money to pay for the damage I have done?

“Thank God everyone is in one piece,” he says.  “Now, where are you?”

You tell him.

“Do you have any money?” he asks, and you say you do.

“Call a cab and get your kids to school and yourself to work.”

“What about the car?”

“Bother the car.  I will call a tow truck. You make sure you get to where you need to go.”

“Aren’t you angry?” you ask.

“Of course not, it is just a car.  Off you go, missy, this is the first day of the rest of your life.”

The absolute aloneness lifts. You connect. A soft wind of energy creates a quiet, “Thank you” as you hang up the phone. Gathering your babies into your arms for a further shot of momentum, you call for a cab.

Everyday, we are given opportunities to choose an alternative route of action from the incriminating pointy finger to life-changing grace, and everyday we share the chance to change our culture and those within it through our real everyday life scenarios.

And that is why the “Catch” is delivered to you today, tomorrow and the next day to keep us alert to applying more than just intelligent thought to what we do in our everyday lives, to wake us up to those around us – wake us up to each other – wake us up to walk alongside one another, to experience connection, and as a result, to change and sustain the lives of those around us because acts of love are taking place, not just words.

We understand we do not change overnight nor do our entrenched ideas and beliefs.  Nevertheless, one thing is certain, the “Catch” exists to recall to our hearts and our minds that God never meant for anyone to judge another, but rather He calls us to walk alongside one another, connect, and trust Him to work His love through us in real life experiences, because where there are acts of love taking place, lives will change.

The Catch exists to remind us that there is absolutely no reason for any of us to accept a pointy finger wagging in front of our faces without a solution that is offered in action-oriented love, and there is certainly no acceptable reason for any one of us to deflect that critical finger to anyone we stumble across – because with God there is nothing random in anyone we mee

First John

Clutter and mess show me that John’s life is being lived. In the past, he holds his breath in suspended animation while I tidy.

As an artist, John makes messes to discover who he is while widening and expanding his writing so we can experience our sense of life. Every morning, John serves us breakfast; he feeds our soul by making us shake our heads with the exactness of the truth, laugh about ourselves or life, resulting in a buoyancy restored for the new day just about to be experienced.

As real Christians he encourages us to dance and for those too timid or unable, he claps along with us. We stomp in time to the music. We laugh and cry freely about the absurdity of life. And this is far better then being squashed by the ridiculous over and over again. It’s like singing on a boat during a terrible storm at sea. You can’t stop the raging storm, but singing can change the hearts and spirits of the people who are together on that ship.

John’s mess is a miracle actually. His words we read each morning unfold a little bit more about us in our world; they show us what community and friendship mean; his words can sing to us, comfort and quiet or excite us; they show us how to live and die.  John’s words tell us why we are here.

I, on the other hand, came to Jesus just as I was—a foul-mouthed woman who surrendered to Him in my very own version of the sinner’s prayer, punctuated with the f-word. That’s because He told me that He loved me just the way I was but that he loved me too much to let me stay like I was.

I have a zany passion for Jesus.

To be sure – not everyone likes me. Several disagree with me on many fronts. However deeper within me than my outspoken experiences and concentrated concerns for creativity, bad hair days, and the meaning of life, is a reality that has won me many friends – a mixed bag of hilariously sustainable affections.

It is not necessarily true, that to know me is to love me, but thankfully, you will never mistaken me for John and his heart for Christians to enter and participate amongst mankind so that Christ (and not you and me) are revealed. Christians in the marketplace is what John has and always will live for regardless of his physical needs (house, insurance, vehicle, and even his son’s special school education).

I have a lot of faith. I am also afraid a lot, and have no real certainty about things. Faith can include doubt and does not necessarily entertain certainty. Faith includes noticing the mess, the emptiness and discomfort, and letting it be there until some light returns, which is where you all fit in.

As participants in the Catch and already comfortable with uncomfortable things, we look to your influence to attract and enlist others willing to consider joining an assignment in weight training for life.

I think joy and sweetness and affection are a spiritual path. We’re here to know God, to love and serve God, and to be blown away by the beauty and miracle of Him. While we need to get rid of baggage to be light enough to dance, to sing, to play, there is a responsibility to sensitivities that cannot carry grudges; there is not time to cling to the need to be right.

When God is going to do something wonderful, He starts with a hardship; when God is going to do something amazing, He starts with an impossibility.

We believe that we are on the edge of something amazing in the form of a cyberchurch and invite you to look at the following results of our research into this current phenomena, and let it inform your thinking about the Catch of the future and your giving as well.

We encourage you to cast in your line in continued support of our vision and us. Contributions are acceptable via the link below (remember you can use your own credit card if you prefer; you do not have to have a PayPal account) or via check.

All of us are born broken. Jesus Christ lives by mending us with the grace of God as if He were the glue.

“We know that the law is good if one uses it properly.” Paul wrote to Timothy, which would indicate there is a proper use of the law. Wonder what it is. Helping an old lady across the street? Reading your Bible? Praying? Going to church? Serving as a deacon? Singing in the worship team? Of course it must include a long list of doing good, otherwise how will anyone remember? Once we’re Christians, the law becomes as kind of guide for what we should and shouldn’t do. Everybody knows that. And then Paul wrote: “We also know that the law is made not for the righteous…” Hold it right there. You mean the law won’t make me better? I thought that’s what the law was for: to make good people better, but Paul puts an end to that right here. “We also know that the law is made not for the righteous, but for lawbreakers and rebels, the ungodly and sinful, the unholy and irreligious…” (1 Timothy 1:8,9).

There you have it; the law is not for good people, or more accurately people who think they’re good. The law isn’t going to make anyone better. The proper use of the law is to round up all the bad people and bring them to Christ – people like you and me, or else we wouldn’t even know Jesus. Once you are a Christian, there is no proper use of the law except to continue to reveal our sin to us so we can live and move in His New Covenant.

And the proper use of your cell phone tonight is to access our Teleconference Bible Study, Catch On at 7 pm Pacific, 10 pm Eastern. It’s easy to do. Just dial 218-237-3840 and enter 124393 when prompted. Tonight we’re talking about the masks we wear. Can’t wait to meet you!

Here is a typical scenario for a Christian today. See if any of this fits, and then let us know.

When you first became a Christian you were acutely aware of your sin. Indeed it was your sin and helplessness to stop it that drove you to Christ because you had heard that He had forgiven your sin, removed it as a barrier between you and God and even broken sin’s power over you on the cross. Suddenly salvation is free and being right with God is there for the taking. As to your own sin, you had nothing to hide. You were not measuring yourself as a semi-good person coming to the cross. You were not “joining God’s team.” You were despicable and incapable of anything good. And in your confession and forgiveness, you were washed clean, unburdened, overwhelmed with grace, thankful, open, honest and pure. You felt like a baby inside, giddy with delight, like Ebenezer Scrooge on Christmas morning, the spirits having done it all in one night! This is how you felt.

Then you started going to church and hanging around other Christians who have been Christians for a while and something gradually changed. A shift occurred. The shift was away from focusing on sin, the need for forgiveness and helplessness to produce anything good, and towards what you could do to become a better Christian.

The law or the process of obeying the commands of scripture became something attainable. It became something able to make good people better. And there are countless programs, seminars, small groups, books and studies to help you do this. Hardly any of these remind people of either their despicableness and their inability to do good; almost all of them help you to become better.

What is the goal? To be good people.

What do we try and show the world? That we are good peopleWhat happens when we turn out to really be bad people hiding behind a mask? People laugh at us and feel better about their own sin. What they supposed about us all along is true – we are a bunch of hypocrites – and the gospel is totally wasted on them. They never hear it. (The world only hears the gospel when it hears about our sin.)

What happens to the gospel, the cross, forgiveness, grace and the great feeling of astonishment? It becomes a story in the past – something to sing about and be sentimental over.

The New Covenant is the same as our conversion. We need the Spirit to begin and we need the Spirit to continue. The New Covenant requires our sinfulness and inadequacy to do anything good and it requires an unmasked life so that the miracle of the life of Christ can be easily seen in us and not confused with us.

If any of this has peaked your interest you should seriously consider jumping in on our Catch On Teleconference Study tomorrow night. See tomorrow’s Catch for all the details.

Our self-effort is nothing compared with the glory of God at work in us.

Regardless of our background, skills, sharp wit and dedicated heart for success, the real truth about our Christian lives is that God is at work in us and he can do so much more through us than you or I could ever do without him. We do not have to psych ourselves up to accomplish something for God. In fact we know that even in our feeblest weakness God is able to work through us – and that is what we count on.

Yes, the world is waiting to see the truth and all we have to do is be available, and yet something stands in the way of this happening. It is us. We are in the way. We hide the truth behind the masks we wear because we are not willing to be seen as the sinners we really are.

The glory of Christ can only truly be seen in contrast to our own despicable sinfulness. As we begin to lose a heartfelt awareness of our own wretchedness as Christians, we begin to lose the full significance of Christ’s work on the cross for everyone. His glory is seen only against the horribleness of our sin. Yet we create masks to hide our sins. Our masks return us to bondage and keep us from the freedom found in His Spirit’s liberty.

Masked with near perfection, sin hides itself beneath the surface of good churches, good confessions, good works, and good intentions. Everyone really knows that something is wrong, but because of all the good rituals, works and confessions, sin is not seen for its exceeding sinfulness (Romans 7:13). When our sin is not seen as exceeding sinfulness, our light is no longer His, but darkness masquerading behind all the ‘right’ things we do, making our darkness even darker.

We are all called to be ministers of the new covenant. God is making us able. We understand that God breathes into our lives and through us to all those around us – our families, our neighbors, our workplace, our community, our world. If we are willing to live unmasked, life will never be the same again.

Join John, a pastor who cannot remember ever not being an evangelical Christian and his street Christian wife this Wednesday evening, October 19^th at 7:00 PDT for our Catch On Teleconference Bible Study. We will continue to explore the New Covenant: Transforming the Marketplace. Embrace its truth, recognize its ramifications, and witness our new found freedom to be who really are. This is a Bible Study series that you do not want to miss. It will change your life forever.

My recent trip to Grove City, Pennsylvania was punctuated everywhere with a sense of appreciation for history. The college itself was founded in 1876. Brick, stone and mortar are the consistent building materials including the newer buildings that have been designed to blend with the old and present a seamless whole bordered everywhere by tall, broad hardwood trees – themselves sentinels of hundreds of years.

I stayed in the Cunningham house, one of the first homes to be built in Grove City in the mid-eighteen hundreds and recently lovingly restored.

Harbison Chapel, the architectural icon of campus, was erected in 1930, a high-ceilinged affair with a huge stained glass window on one end and two stands of organ pipes on the other. Intricate carvings on the ceiling beams 60 feet high at its peak have been recently rediscovered and enhanced with lighting. One step inside this building and you know nothing would be built like this today.

But the most amusing piece of history came from my driver to the airport who was a Grove City native and retired from 25 years with the police force. He told me about a football game in 1949 (he was there) between Grove City College and its cross-town rival, Slippery Rock University. It was the last year these two teams would play each other due to changing conferences so there was a lot riding on this final meeting. Who would have the last say?

Grove City was undefeated that year and heavily favored to win, but Slippery Rock managed an upset, and their delirious student body rushed the field and started tearing down the goal posts.

Dr. Weir Carlyle Ketler, President of Grove City College from 1916-1956, also ran out onto the field to try and stop this mayhem and got taken out by a punch to the face. Way to go, Pres, I thought. Way to take one for the team!

No heavy spiritual thought today, but I will say, this story inspires me to think about taking one for those I love like my family should it become necessary.

Student Union, Grove City College

So I’m back in the Student Union building at Grove City College, Grove City, Pennsylvania. I say “back” because it was two years ago when I last wrote a couple of Catches from here. I spoke in chapel yesterday morning for the allotted 17 minutes, and something must have struck a chord because over 800 students came back to hear me in a 45 minute session last night.

I had numerous individual comments that what I was saying was just what was needed right now on this campus. And what I am saying is that the Christian subculture in America has gone off its track (if, indeed, it was ever on), and it was now up to them to enter the world as Christians in culture, not as cultural Christians. The use of the word “Christian” as an adjective is now a liability in a culture that thinks Christians are judgmental, pushy, anti-homosexual, and hypocritical.

I pointed out to them that as Christian musicians, we never proved ourselves on the world’s stage. We only excelled in our own separate Christian market where it was easy to be somebody with limited competition, like playing in our own sandbox.

I am amazed that they are receiving this and accepting the challenge to prove themselves in the world and bring the gospel along with them. The world never needed Christian anything. It needs Christians taking up their place in it. We can only pray that some of these students will do just that.

[By the way, if you live in the Grove City area, I have one more session tonight in the chapel at 7pm. I would love to meet you!]