Losing isn’t so bad after all

Posted on May 19, 2022 by jwfisch

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

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Well the Angels won the 7-inning game on my birthday but they lost the 9-inning one. They might as well have phoned in the eighth inning, allowing 7 runs on walks and some embarrassing defensive plays on the field. They went into the eighth inning up 4-3 with only 6 outs to victory. They walked off the field, three outs and multiple mistakes later, trailing 10-4. “Mama said there’ll be days like this,” and baseball is like that. Twenty-two-year-old Reid Detmers, (born two months before Chandler), started this game for the Angels one week after he pitched a no-hitter against Tampa Bay in just his 11th big-league game. But game 12 was a little different. This time he didn’t last three innings. “Mama said …” (you know the rest).

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Posted in grace | Tagged , | 4 Comments

Birthday faith

Posted on May 17, 2022 by jwfisch

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

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I woke up to a myriad of birthday greetings and I appreciate every one. Marti wanted to know what I wanted for my birthday so I told her. I wanted to go to an Angels game but they are playing the Rangers in Texas. So I said I wanted to go to our son, Christopher’s house, sit in his recliner and enjoy three hours of guiltless television baseball on his large screen TV complete with hot dogs, beer and peanuts. Not sure about the peanuts but we’re going to do it. I also told him he had to guarantee a win for my birthday (apologies to all our Texas Catch citizens) and he said no problem. 

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Posted in walk by faith | Tagged | 7 Comments

100% raw organic

Posted on May 13, 2022 by jwfisch

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

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I once met a woman who described herself as “100% raw organic,” and what she meant by that was that what she sees when she looks at herself in the mirror isn’t very pretty. It was her way of saying she was pretty messed up. We were at a small church gathering at the time, and the comment served to endear her to everyone. We all knew immediately what she meant. I mean, really, who wants 100% organic all the time, anyway, and when you throw in “raw” well that makes it even less appealing.

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Posted in being human, forgiveness, freedom | Tagged , | 6 Comments

What to do in these strange days

Posted on May 12, 2022 by jwfisch

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

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These are truly strange days, indeed. If I ever feel myself growing tired or complacent, I simply pinch myself and say, “Is there no crisis? No hijacking of Christianity by issues? No washing out of the message? Steeples are toppling everywhere; the institutional church is crumbling. The big churches are being torn apart by personality cults and conflicts; the little ones are like turtles pulling inside their shells. People aren’t trusting the churches anymore, especially Millennials, because the churches have mostly all become political. They know that’s what keeps people coming in their doors.

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Posted in discipleship, grace turned outward, love | Tagged , | 12 Comments

Is Christianity a brand or a relationship?

Posted on May 10, 2022 by jwfisch

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

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Yesterday we looked at Jesus plus. We realized that being a Christian today comes with a long list of assumptions — assumptions that, for the most part, are not true but that have nevertheless become tightly associated with Christianity, especially in the minds of non-Christians. 

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Posted in Christianity and politics, Jesus, Marketplace Christian | Tagged | 2 Comments

Jesus plus nothing

Posted on May 9, 2022 by jwfisch

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

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In C.S. Lewis’ famous Screwtape Letters, Wormwood is a junior demon who is being instructed by his senior, Uncle Screwtape, as to how he can steer a believer off course so as to ultimately render him ineffective as a servant for the “Enemy” (which in this case, of course, is God). Through the clever creation of letters from Screwtape, Lewis is able to show how Satan trips believers up with various shady interpretations of truth and distractions of the mind and body that confuse the “patient” (a typical believer like you and me).

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Posted in Jesus, Jesus Movement, Millennials | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

Strangers in a strange land

Posted on May 6, 2022 by jwfisch

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

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Dear friends, I warn you as “temporary residents and foreigners” to keep away from worldly desires that wage war against your very souls. Be careful to live properly among your unbelieving neighbors. Then even if they accuse you of doing wrong, they will see your honorable behavior, and they will give honor to God when he judges the world. 1 Peter 2:11-12

I tend to think of foreigners, strangers and exiles as people from foreign countries who cross our borders — immigrants. I think of myself as belonging; I am born, raised and living in this country — my country. 

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Posted in Immigrants, Jesus Movement | Tagged , | 3 Comments

Sent

Posted on May 5, 2022 by jwfisch

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

OIP

Jesus came and told his disciples, “I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Matthew 28:18-20

“Therefore, go.” Okay, we got that down. That means we don’t just sit around and wait. Nor do we leave it to someone else to do. If you go, you’re not going away from the action; you’re going into it. This is purposeful. You’ve been sent. Sent to do what? To make disciples. Great, how do you do that? Is there a discipleship manual? Is there a notebook for this? “Ten Things Every Disciple of Mine Should Know,” by Jesus Christ. 

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Posted in discipleship, Millennials, relationships | Tagged , | 4 Comments

Pioneering in the 21st Century

Posted on May 4, 2022 by jwfisch

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

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Just what is pioneering in the 21st Century? Hasn’t everything already been mapped and charted? What frontiers are left? 

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Posted in Jesus Movement, new frontier | Tagged , | 3 Comments

Pioneers, then and now

Posted on May 3, 2022 by jwfisch

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

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At the beginning of the ‘70s, a group of us shook Christianity to its base. We 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 our generation for love, meaning, community, peace and justice. We were, most of us, in our early twenties at a time when we were looking for what we were going to do with our lives. Finding Jesus and the fact that He had a mission we could join that would change the world was a huge boost to our motivation. Though there was a great deal of social disorder at the time over things like civil rights and the war in Vietnam, there was an underlying hope that as young people, we could make a difference. We marched and we sang and we ran into Jesus just when we were losing faith and hope in the system. Here was the Prince of Peace, Love from the highest order (God), Forgiveness for wrongs done, and a place to belong in the Family of God. It turned into a movement. 

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Posted in Jesus Movement | 2 Comments