(Click here for a video of John reading this Catch.)
A real relationship with God is so hard for us to accept because we can do nothing to earn it, and nothing to discredit it. We are not used to this. We are used to earning our reputations. We are used to pleasing our superiors. We are used to gaining acceptance and love. We are used to a world where good behavior is rewarded and bad behavior is punished.
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“Go and marry a prostitute.” Thus begins the unusual story of Hosea, one of the most surprising prophets to the nation of Israel. It was his prophetic mission to marry a prostitute and love her in spite of her whoring with other men. In doing so, he became a living illustration of God’s love for His people in spite of their sin of giving themselves over to the worship of other gods.
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For the life of our marriage, quite consistently, my wife has loved me for no reason.
Now in case you’re wondering, that’s a good thing — a very good thing, indeed. Because if she loved me for reasons, what if those reasons changed or if I changed and lost the reason why she first loved me? Then what? What if she loved me because I was a good guy but she later found out I wasn’t as good as she thought? What if she loved me because I could serenade her with my guitar, and suddenly I have a numb hand and I can’t play guitar anymore? No, I’m quite fortunate to have someone to love me like this — for no reason.
(Click here for a video of John reading this Catch.)
With the All Star game set for tonight in Dodger Stadium, it seemed fitting to go back to a Catch I wrote in 2016 in honor of Vin Scully’s last game. You can’t breath the words Dodger Stadium without hearing Scully’s voice somewhere in the mix.
He had a voice that was made for the transistor radio. It was a match made in baseball heaven.
(Click here for a video of John reading this Catch.)
My Angels have fallen from heaven. Their halos are crooked. They started out this season so promising. They were tied for first place at one point and they have two of the best players in the game. There was lots of promise and lots of excitement and good vibes going around. But there’s a problem. There aren’t just two guys on a baseball team; there are nine, and more than that, there are at least three or four relief pitchers used in every game. That’s twelve or thirteen players or more a game. It’s a team effort. Two guys just can’t do it without a balanced team around them. They’re lacking the balance and the consistency. When they pitch well, they have no offense and they lose games by scores of 1-0, 2-1 and 3-2. And when they hit well, they don’t pitch well and they lose games by scores of 11-10, 9-7 and 6-5. How frustrating is it to score in double digits and still lose? It takes a toll on the emotions. And now, mid-season at the All Star break, they are 20.5 games out of first place. It’s possible to make that up in the last half of the season, but highly improbable.
(Click here for a video of John reading this Catch.)
You have set your glory
in the heavens. Psalm 8:1
I continue to be mesmerized by this picture of deep space taken by NASA’s new Webb telescope which we put out there in orbit along with us from where we can see further than we’ve ever seen before.. Yesterday we talked about the eternity in the heart that this picture represents, but there is more — so much more. One of those things is what David has captured in the Psalms.
(Click here for a video of John reading this Catch.)
So far, NASA’s new Webb telescope has revealed “cosmic cliffs,” the glittering landscape of a star’s birth, black holes never seen before, a dying star’s final performance, the steamy atmosphere of a distant planet in detail, and the deepest images ever of a formerly unseen universe. The picture above is of a tiny sliver of the universe represented here on the ground as looking through a window the size of a grain of sand held at arm’s length.
(Click here for a video of John reading this Catch.)
I am normally not a fan of ten steps to this or five steps to do that, but I recently came up with these six things to remember about being a marketplace Christian. Think of them not as steps to get somewhere, but as ways to think which might be different than what’s gone before.
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“I can say I have met the most amazing people on this planet when I have pushed the walls aside and just gotten to know people for who they are.” So writes one of our Catch members. He works in the Human Resources Department of a major university and describes himself as a “Generalist.”
(Click here for a video of John reading this Catch.)
I’M FOR THE SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND HATE — a popular bumper sticker that speaks a volume of truth.
Every once in a while, it becomes necessary to refocus our sight. Who are we as Christians; what do we stand for; and what are we supposed to be doing? This has become increasingly hard to do and increasingly necessary in a society where Christians have become associated with causes that run far afield of what Jesus championed and the early church adopted. So much so, that before we can talk about what a Christian is, it becomes necessary to point out what a Christian is not, because the presuppositions formed by a culture war will color everything else you try to say and do.
John Fischer The Catch 