John Fischer The Catch

Isaiah Comes Alive

Posted on September 20, 2022 by jwfisch

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by John Shirk

Our guest writer today is our Director of Discipleship, John Shirk. John lives with his wife Amy and their 4 daughters in Chicago, Illinois. They minister to the postmodern artistic subculture and to victims of trauma and abuse. The tools of their ministry include chocolate chip cookies, vegan chili, and poetry. John is the author of A Sacrificial Poet.

Some people can’t look back on a long life of faithfulness. For them an encounter with God brings feelings of shame and unworthiness. We can’t imagine coming alive. We know what we have done.

Such was Isaiah’s encounter with God. He was immediately made aware of his sin and cried out: “Woe to me! … I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.”

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Elijah comes alive!

Posted on September 20, 2022 by jwfisch

by John Shirk

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Like Lazerus, Elijah was a man of faith who needed to come alive. No, he wasn’t actually dead and buried. He just wished he was.

He had experienced great victories following God. A solitary man, he stood in God’s power and stared down the false prophets of Baal until fire rained down from heaven to consume a waterlogged sacrifice on a flooded altar.

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Lazarus comes alive

Posted on September 15, 2022 by jwfisch

(Click here for a video of John reading this Catch.)

by John Shirk

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Our guest writer for the next 3 Catches will be our Director of Discipleship, John Shirk. John lives with his wife Amy and their 4 daughters in Chicago, Illinois. They minister to the postmodern artistic subculture and to victims of trauma and abuse. The tools of their ministry include chocolate chip cookies, vegan chili, and poetry. John is the author of A Sacrificial Poet.

It’s been said that a life of faith doesn’t pay very well but the retirement plan is to die for! Lazarus lived a life of faith and was enjoying his retirement. His sisters weren’t. They were left behind, grieving his death. But Lazarus had left this broken, sinful world to enjoy his eternal reward. Or so he thought.

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Posted in discipleship, Facing death, Uncategorized | Tagged death, resurrection | 7 Comments

Time to set your watch

Posted on September 14, 2022 by jwfisch

(Click here for a video of John reading this Catch.)

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Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near. Revelation 1:3

I think Revelation should be required reading for all believers at least once a year. It’s a little like setting your watch. We can get so entrenched in everyday life that we lose sight of the bigger picture. The bigger picture — the forest we lose sight of for all the trees in front of us — is the fact that this world, and time itself, is passing away. There is an end in sight. Life does not go on indefinitely even if it feels like it.

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A different kind of end times?

Posted on September 13, 2022 by jwfisch

(Click here for a video of John reading this Catch.)

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We call it the Great Commission. It’s where Jesus gave his disciples (that would include us) their final assignment. It’s His parting word to them before He ascended into heaven. “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matthew 28:19-20) No small thing, indeed.

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Posted in end times | Tagged end times | 2 Comments

State of the world

Posted on September 12, 2022 by jwfisch

(Click here for a video of John reading this Catch.)

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Every day it seems we are presented with, no matter what your chosen news source, a new list of terribly worrisome things that we can do nothing about. The last part of that sentence is the most important — the fact that we can’t do anything about these worrisome issues is what has so many people frightened. That produces a helpless feeling, unless, of course, you know someone that can do something about the state of the world. Well here is the good news: we do.

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Posted in end times, fear, Worldview | Tagged Christian worldview, fear | 2 Comments

Happy Birthday, Chandler!

Posted on September 9, 2022 by jwfisch

(Click here for a video of John reading this Catch.)

This is a special day. Yes, there is much going on with the queen’s passing, a new school year starting, fires burning in southern California and ash falling from the sky during the hottest heat wave of the summer here, but none of that can hold a candle to the real news today. Today is Chandler’s birthday. He is a 9/9/99 baby, and that makes him 23 today.

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Posted in image of God | Tagged image of God | 6 Comments

Mentoring through time

Posted on September 8, 2022 by jwfisch

(Click here for a video of John reading this Catch.)

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Tuesday night’s BlogTalkRadio interview with Brent Garrison is required listening for everyone over 57. It’s about mentoring across generations, especially between Boomers and Millennials. Our research tells us that the Millennials are all for it, but the Boomers aren’t quite sure. Now if mentoring sounds scary, it’s not. Mentoring can seem intimidating if you think of it as the formal imparting of information. You have to train and create materials or use someone else’s. You have to be much farther along in personal development than the person you are mentoring, or so we often think, but none of this is true or necessary.

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Posted in discipleship, Millennials | Tagged discipleship, mentoring | 1 Comment

It’s all about Jesus

Posted on September 7, 2022 by jwfisch

(Click here for a video of John reading this Catch.)

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At the beginning of the Seventies, a small group of musicians shook Christianity to its base. They burst on the scene seemingly unknown to each other yet all with the same message. The message was about Jesus and how his gospel related to the deep, unresolved needs of their generation for love, meaning, community, peace and justice. These “Jesus Freaks” melded the freedom of the Sixties and the Jesus of the Gospels into a new way of looking at Christianity.

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