John Fischer The Catch

The awesome authority of prayer

Posted on April 8, 2022 by jwfisch

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

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“I tell you the truth, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them.” (Matthew 18:18-20)

These are almost frightening words! They reveal to us the most attractive yet fearsome thing about prayer, and that is its authority. Prayer is a powerful force in the world of men and has done a great many things including:

Dividing seas and rolling up flowing rivers,
Quenching flames of fire,
Muzzling lions and disarming vipers
Bursting open iron gates
Conquering the strongest devils
Commanding legions of angels down from heaven
Bridling and chaining the raging passions of men and
Destroying vast armies of the proud.

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Posted in prayer | Tagged prayer | 2 Comments

There are no little prayers

Posted on April 7, 2022 by jwfisch

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

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We’ve been talking about prayer this week — big prayer —prayer against the forces of evil, prayer for suffering refugees, prayer for God to intervene in these destructive movements of history — prayer to send angels. It is important not to belittle the importance of this kind of praying. We play a role in God’s plan for the world. Why else would He ask us to pray for God’s will to be done on earth as it is in heaven? That’s no small thing. “And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people” (Ephesians 6:18). “Keep on praying for all the Lord’s people …” that’s a pretty big group right there! These kinds of prayers are significant and necessary for God’s work to be done in the world. Don’t let anyone sell you short on this. Your prayers are holding back the works of darkness and bringing light into the world.

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Posted in prayer | Tagged prayer | 7 Comments

A prayer for today

Posted on April 6, 2022 by jwfisch

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

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Seven years ago, when the world was in the grip of ISIS terror, we were led in prayer on one of our BlogTalkRadio podcasts by Pastor Doug Stevens. I stumbled upon that prayer recently and found it quite relevant to our situation today. I offer it again for your consideration, not only as a prayer to pray, but in support of the attitude it expresses, which I believe is just as important as the prayer.

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Posted in diversity, fear, Poverty & homelessness, war | Tagged refugees, war | 2 Comments

Kingdom refugees

Posted on April 5, 2022 by jwfisch

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

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“Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.” Matthew 8:20

We are stardust; we are golden

And we’ve got to get ourselves back to the garden – Joni Mitchell

There are over 26 million refugees worldwide fleeing such countries as Syria, Afghanistan, Venezuela, South Sudan, Myanmar and now Ukraine. Not to even begin to imply that our lot should even be on the same page as the horrible conditions these millions of displaced people are going through, nevertheless, there is a sense that believers are refugees, too, from heaven.

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Posted in kingdom of God, war | Tagged kingdom of God, refugees | 4 Comments

Send angels

Posted on April 4, 2022 by jwfisch

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

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War sucks.

I thought the picture of two corpses on the side of a suburban street with their roller luggage intact and the only thing standing after trying to escape, was bad enough. Then I saw a picture of a body covered up next to a bag of groceries spilled out on the street and that was too much. Stop. Lord, stop this insanity.

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Posted in Facing death, revolution, war | Tagged war | 6 Comments

The real Charlie Brown

Posted on April 1, 2022 by jwfisch

(Click here for a video of John reading today’s Catch.

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Later, Levi invited Jesus and his disciples to his home as dinner guests, along with many tax collectors and other notorious sinners. (There were many people of this kind among the crowds that followed Jesus.) But when some of the teachers of religious law who were Pharisees saw him eating with people like that, they said to his disciples, “Why does he eat with such scum?”

When Jesus heard this, he told them, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do. I have come to call sinners, not those who think they are already good enough.” Mark 2:15-17

It’s so easy to think that once you are a Christian, you are better, or at least you’re supposed to be. After all, isn’t that the point? Isn’t that why we go to church and why we get busy doing “Christian” things and hanging out with “Christian” people, so we’ll be better? We’ll be in a better environment? Isn’t that why we send our kids to “Christian” schools, so they will have better friends and not those scumbags that populate the public schools? Isn’t that the way we think? What’s wrong with thinking that way?

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Posted in being human, Dealing with sin, the gospel | Tagged honesty, sin, the gospel | 4 Comments

‘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 being human | 5 Comments

On the road again

Posted on March 29, 2022 by jwfisch

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

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 Baseball, grace turned outward, service | 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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