Walking Backwards Down the Stairs

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Have you ever had a day when you ended up further behind than when you started? That was me yesterday. I actually spent half my day undoing what I did the first half of the day because no one told me what I did was not the best thing to do at the time. I was told later I needed to wait a couple months. (It would have  been nice to have had that information ahead of time, but … oh well.) So now I am switching back phone carriers trying just to get back to where I was at the start of yesterday. I basically will be telling them today, “Make it like yesterday never happened.” Can they do that?

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Crowned to serve

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What an unexpected surprise to have the first coronation of a British monarch in 70 years be a lesson in servant leadership. I bet you weren’t expecting that — I wasn’t. Of course there was plenty of regalia as would be expected, but the emphasis from start to finish was on the words of Jesus, “The Son of man came not to be served but to serve.” (Matthew 20:28) Whether he does it or not, time will tell, but King Charles III at least chose the right model of leadership.

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Mysterious lights

“Work Out The Life”

by John Fischer

Work out the life God works in you

Day by day

It’s His good pleasure to see you through

If you simply obey

He’ll lead all of the way

You have a new mind and you have a new heart

Created by the King

You have a new hope and you have a new start

You don’t lack a thing

Live out your years in humble fear

Love the Lord

As innocent children you’ll appear

Like a mysterious light

In the darkest of night

You have a free spirit you have a new soul

Given you by the King

You don’t have the pressure to make yourself whole

He has given you wings

Work out the life God works in you

Day by day

It’s His good pleasure to see you through

If you simply obey

He’ll lead all of the way

Click here to listen to this song on YouTube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIrMlBOH46A

Do all things without grumbling or disputing; so that you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world. Philippians 2:14-15

“Children of God … in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world.” Almost makes us seem like aliens, doesn’t it? Like we glow in the dark or something. Well, maybe we are, and maybe we do. Peter seems to think we are a little strange when he writes, “Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul” (1 Peter 2:11). “Aliens and strangers.” I’m sure he’s referring to the fact that, as ultimate citizens of heaven and eternity — our real home — we are, as Larry Norman coined the phrase in one of his early albums, “Only visiting this planet.”

So what is that light we appear to be? That light is the light of Christ that shines in us, in spite of us. It is not that we are shiny happy people all the time — we struggle and question and wonder like anyone else — but, because of the presence of Christ in our lives, there is a light inside that shines on regardless. We don’t make it shine, or turn it on or off, it’s simply there. It is not us; it is Christ in us. We are not even aware of it most of the time, but it’s there anyway because it is there by faith.

We have hope when things are hopeless. We believe in the middle of our doubt. We love when everything and everyone around tells us to hate. We keep going when we want so much to stop. We live a paradoxical reality in a paradoxical world because we have a foot in two worlds at once. So we keep working out, by faith, the life God is working in us by His Spirit.

So plug in some earphones, listen to the song, and be encouraged that God is indeed working in you today.

And join us for church this Sunday at 6pm Pacific at facebook.com/thecatch. Come join us and join the dialogue.

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Stories, then and now

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What will happen to the Millennials when we older ones leave? Nothing, at least as far as we are concerned, if we don’t do something now. They won’t even know we’re gone. There’s a distance between us that some think might as well be there. We’re two different generations. Life will go on for them with or without us. True, but wouldn’t life be richer for them and us if we did something about that?

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Someone’s worried about you

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“I’m worried about you,” he whispered in my ear, not because it was a secret, but because that was the only way I was able to hear him. He could barely move his limbs. It took a mechanical sling to get him out of bed, and he could tolerate that for only a few minutes every day. His wife, 86, and a feisty five feet tall could handle everything about his healthcare except the sling, so that’s where I had come in. She and Marti were good friends so Marti volunteered me, and that’s how I became friends with someone whom I would otherwise have never known. And what a surprise it was.

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Look. Hear. Touch. Give.

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Look all around you and see what is real

Hear what is true and be sure what you feel

Touch someone near you in love if you can

Give all you have and be part of God’s plan

               – from the song Look All Around You by John Fischer

Take action. This song is all about action. God is not a thought. He is not a list of precepts — a statement of beliefs. God is not what we believe; He is Who we believe. We don’t just believe Him or something about Him, we experience Him. We enter into a relationship with Him and He effects everything we do.

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‘Godmother of Rock ’n’ Roll’

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One of our regular readers, Elizabeth, shared the following comment with us and it’s so good, I had to pass it on. It came from a line in a play she recently saw, “Shout, Sister, Shout,” about Sister Rosetta Tharpe who, as early as the 1930s was singing and playing guitar in a gospel style that earned her the title: “Godmother of Rock ’n’ Roll.” In one scene she looks out at the audience in a spell of stage fright and says, “God loves you, and God loves me, and there ain’t a thing we can do about it.”

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The truth will set you free

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Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.  John 8:32

It’s a difficult time for truth.

At the end of 2016, the Oxford English Dictionary declared “post-truth” as the word of the year. The adjective is defined as “relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.” We also have “alternative facts” to deal with when the reported facts are deemed to be incorrect. Not to mention “fake news.” When the sources of our information are deeply ensconced in their own opinions, it’s almost impossible to sort out the objective truth. We have numerous versions of the truth but most of it appears to be opinion, and so we all go to those sources that will tell us what we want to hear. But that doesn’t make us any more confident that we are hearing the truth.

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The gospel of welcome

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And let the one who hears say, “Come!” Let the one who is thirsty come; and let the one who wishes take the free gift of the water of life. (Revelation 22:17)

The gospel of welcome. What does it mean? It means the good news is good news for everybody. It’s a blanket, all-inclusive invitation. There isn’t anyone to whom it doesn’t apply. You don’t have to qualify for the gospel. You don’t have to get cleaned up first. There isn’t a particular sin that will make someone shut the door on you. If you’ve been rejected elsewhere, you won’t be rejected here.

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Heaping burning coals

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There’s a way to hurt someone you really don’t like. Love them. Of course if you love them, you can’t not like them anymore, nor can you wish hurt upon them. But it does solve the problem, doesn’t it? It’s a lot simpler and a lot more effective. Just love. You’ll always be right if you love.

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