‘The skin I’m in’

Posted on March 30, 2022 by jwfisch

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

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“I don’t deny… that there should be priests to remind men that they will one day die. I only say… it is necessary to have another kind of priests, called poets, to remind men that they are not dead yet.” – G.K. Chesterton

Jesus didn’t go around cursing his flesh all the time. He sanctified it by the way he lived. He came not to negate life, but to live it. Jesus was connected to the Spirit of God and to his own humanity at the same time, and he found no conflict. If Jesus Christ was not fully human, then we cannot be fully saved and there is no ultimate hope for our humanity but to discard it completely and try something else. This is not what Jesus did. There is no “something else.” This skin I live in is it for me, and it is what Jesus came to redeem.

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Posted in being human | Tagged | 5 Comments

On the road again

Posted on March 29, 2022 by jwfisch

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

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Yesterday was Catch Ministry Day at the ballpark. I figured four people associated with the Catch at a single event was enough to make it official. On my left is Mike High, part of our Vanguard accountability commission, and on my right are Nancy and Al Gonzalez who are longtime MemberPartners. 

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Posted in Baseball, grace turned outward, service | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

Beaumont, Banning, Blythe, and the tufted Flycatcher

Posted on March 28, 2022 by jwfisch

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

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Beaumont, Banning and Blythe — kind of has a ring to it, doesn’t it?

Beaumont, Banning and Blythe — three towns in California hardly anyone knows about. If you drive eastward from Los Angeles into Arizona, you will go through all three of these towns. But they don’t feel like California. They feel more like the Midwest. In California, there is San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego, and perhaps Sacramento, but the rest is small-town America. Beaumont, Banning and Blythe each have a local high school and a football team with an identity. They probably also have little cafes or diners that are not franchised or corporate. One in Blythe, Steaks ’n’ Cakes, barely made it through the pandemic. I’m so glad, too, because it’s always been the first stop on my annual spring training trip.

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Posted in Natural beauty | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Just-as-if they were you

Posted on March 25, 2022 by jwfisch

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

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He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. Micah 6:8 

But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream! Amos 5:24

Here’s what I have seen. Christians doing Christian things like going to church, praying, reading their Bibles, but not really heeding calls for justice, fairness, and equality. We are selective. We cozy up to people with power and wealth, not people who are poor, weak and disenfranchised. These latter are the real Jesus people. They are the ones He hung out with. 

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Posted in Justice | Tagged | 2 Comments

Justice in everyday life

Posted on March 24, 2022 by jwfisch

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

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It’s an injustice when where you live determines whether you live. 

Right here in America there are zip codes in the same city where there can be a difference of as much as 20 years in the average life span of a person.

It’s an injustice when where you live determines whether you live. 

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Posted in Justice | Tagged | 5 Comments

God, made public

Posted on March 23, 2022 by jwfisch

(Click here for a video ofJohn reading today’s Catch.)

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There can be no debate about this: God is on the side of the poor, the weak, the disenfranchised and the powerless. God is in the business of setting things right. That is what justice is. It’s putting everyone on equal footing. It’s raising up the powerless and bringing down the proud. 

I repeated the illustration from yesterday in today’s Catch, in case you didn’t take the time to notice it. Three little guys are standing on crates in order to watch a ball game over a fence. The taller one and the middle guy are doing fine, but the littler one is too short to see over, even with the crate, so the taller one, realizing this, stacks his crate on top of the little boy’s, so that they can all see together. It’s such a simple illustration but it says a lot. It says the taller one had to have noticed the little guy couldn’t see, and that he could do something about that. Justice is first noticing the inequity, and then doing something about it. We may not always be able to do something about injustice, but we need to be looking for where we can. 

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Posted in Justice, Marketplace Christian | Tagged | 3 Comments

I think I’m missing something

Posted on March 22, 2022 by jwfisch

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

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What word appears 130 times in the Old Testament and15 times in the New (used mostly by Jesus) but hardly ever shows up in the language of evangelical Christians?  What word has such political overtones that it galvanizes the polarization of believers when it should be a simple quality of the heart for all believers that flows from the heart of God? What word was high on the list of the secular culture of the ‘60s but hardly ever mentioned among most of the Jesus Freaks? What word shows up consistently in black inner-city churches but not proportionately in white suburban ones? Give up?

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Posted in Christianity and politics, diversity, Justice | Tagged , | 2 Comments

America, passing time

Posted on March 21, 2022 by jwfisch

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

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Now that baseball is back, it’s time to make something of the nature of the sport that has given it longevity as “America’s pastime.” First let’s just think about that — passing time. Doesn’t that sound great right now? Doesn’t that sound like something you’d like to have the luxury to do? 

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Posted in end times, Worldview | Tagged | 6 Comments

A pagan whore in the ancestry

Posted on March 18, 2022 by jwfisch

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

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There’s a pagan whore in the genealogy of Jesus and a very smart one at that. This was no accident. She was purposely worked into the stories of the lineage of Christ. Actually, Christ’s ancestors are all sinners, the whole lot of them, no one worse or better than the rest, but we needed at least one who was outwardly sinful lest we miss the point that grace was mercifully extended to them all. We always put on our best face but we’re scoundrels nonetheless. I think God loves to work in a little color into our stories.

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Posted in walk by faith, women | Tagged , | 6 Comments

It’s one or the other

Posted on March 16, 2022 by jwfisch

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

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“Do not fear threats; do not be frightened.” But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. 1 Peter 3:14-15

Whatever you do, don’t let fear rule your heart. To be sure, there’s much to choose from these days when it comes to fear. COVID, Ukraine, global warming, inflation, soaring gas prices, another possible war with Roman numerals, Putin’s itchy finger on the nuclear button — there are plenty of things to fear right now. So what do you do?

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Posted in fear, Jesus | Tagged , | 7 Comments