Listen to Wisdom

Posted on February 8, 2021 by jwfisch
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The road into town …

Listen as Wisdom calls out!

    Hear as understanding raises her voice!

On the hilltop along the road,

    she takes her stand at the crossroads.

By the gates at the entrance to the town,

    on the road leading in, she cries aloud,

“I call to you, to all of you!

    I raise my voice to all people.” Proverbs 8:1-4

How obvious is this? Wisdom is everywhere. Wake up everyone! Look! Listen!

It’s on the hilltop …

     along the road …

     at the crossroads …

     by the gates …

     at the entrance to the town …

     on the road leading in …

That’s a pretty ubiquitous coverage of wisdom. It’s everywhere and it’s for everyone. “To all of you,” could have possibly meant just the nation of Israel, but “to all people” leaves no doubt. It’s inclusive of everyone.

But how do you find this wisdom when there are so many lies, fabrications, manipulations, theories and false teachers going on and on about their idea of what is wise (which could actually be foolish)? How do we determine the truth? How do you listen for wisdom in the midst of so much foolishness?

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Posted in Worldview | Tagged | 1 Comment

Till We Have Faces

Posted on February 5, 2021 by jwfisch

Some random thoughts about the pandemic:

I first encountered sidewalk dining in Europe in 1970. It was love at first sight. I loved being outdoors; I loved watching the world walk by; I loved the open feeling it gives you versus being trapped in a cramped, noisy room. Now suddenly everyone has sidewalk dining whether they want to or not. Actually, here in California, it’s the only way a restaurant can do business. Parking your car is now a little more challenging since parking spaces in front of restaurants have turned into another row of tables. One block in the center of our town has been closed off to traffic so the whole street can accommodate platforms and tables for several restaurants. It’s actually kind of nice — one of the few things about this pandemic that is.

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Posted in pandemic | Tagged | 4 Comments

Patron saint

Posted on February 3, 2021 by jwfisch

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I listened again this morning to Lambert Dolphin’s interview from yesterday, and my wife asked me what I liked the most about it. I like that this man has a vast knowledge of the universe, both from his study of outer space to the study of the earth from a geophysical standpoint, a vast store of experiences from major religions to mind-altering drugs, to life in 20 different dimensions including a brush with heaven, and some time spent on the dark side, and in the end, at 88 years old, he is consumed with talking about Jesus, the importance of the word of God, and intimacy with Christ and those in the body of Christ. Basically everything we talk about here at the Catch.

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Posted in church, community, discipleship | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Lambert Dolphin, space and time traveler

Posted on February 2, 2021 by jwfisch

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“Jesus is running the whole universe so we have to let Him run our lives too.”

         – Lambert Dolphin from the instantly famous BlogTalkRadio interview

Our Catch today is going to be a little different. Your Catch is to listen to our 30-minute interview with Lambert Dolphin. Lambert Dolphin is an 88-year-old scientist who knows more about the universe than all of you and me put together and he loves God with a passion.

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Posted in church, community, discipleship | Tagged , | 5 Comments

Empathetic Savior

Posted on February 1, 2021 by jwfisch

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Turn to me and have mercy,

    for I am alone and in deep distress.

My problems go from bad to worse.

    Oh, save me from them all!

Feel my pain and see my trouble.  Psalm 25:16-18 (NLT)

Does this not describe most of us right now?

We are indeed alone, isolated in our homes and care centers. This isolation is affecting us all often in ways we don’t realize. It’s subtle, but it’s real. We keep our distance, like there’s a six-foot invisible shield around everyone. Try to get closer and you bump into it.

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Posted in pandemic | Tagged , | 3 Comments

A Call to Failure

Posted on January 29, 2021 by jwfisch

by Marti Fischer

What to do with failure? Hide it? No, unless you like being alone to yourself.

“So how are you?” someone inquires and you say, “I am fine. I am all right. I absolutely couldn’t be better.” And if pressed to continue, you will find past successes to tell about. But you will still be isolated in your failure, hiding condemning feelings and the agonizing thoughts of regret. These thoughts and feelings work overtime in your mind causing you to be intimidated by your very own shadow, not to mention by the people you regard and respect.

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Posted in Tragedy | Tagged , | 6 Comments

Never Forget

Posted on January 28, 2021 by jwfisch

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A Special Remembrance of a Horrible Atrocity

“First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.” – Martin Niemöller, a Lutheran pastor from Germany

I was just about to post today’s Catch when the following came by way of our good friend Bob from Seattle. With a new wave of racism raising its ugly head in this country, let us remind ourselves where the road of supremacist thinking ends.

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Posted in diversity, racism, Veteran's Day | Tagged , | 6 Comments

Zooming with Jesus

Posted on January 27, 2021 by jwfisch

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For where two or three gather together in my name, I am there among them. Matthew 18:20

I met with a fellow pastor yesterday for about 45 minutes on a zoom call. I must admit, this pandemic is changing a lot of our patterns of doing things, but not all of them are bad. Take this meeting for instance. This was someone I have never met, though we have many mutual friends. Had we not had this meeting on zoom, it would have meant getting in my car and driving about 40 minutes to get to a Starbucks equidistant from each other, where we could meet, order a latte, and sit down and talk. Say we met for the same 45 minutes, you have to add roughly an hour and a half driving both ways, figure a few more minutes transition getting yourself and the car ready, then getting back into whatever you were doing before all this started, and whole thing has pretty much eaten up the whole afternoon. Whereas, this way, I see it’s time for our meeting, I click on the zoom link and there is my new friend staring me in the face.

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Posted in church, relationships | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Jesus was a brown-skinned, Middle Eastern Jew

Posted on January 26, 2021 by jwfisch

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Red and yellow, black and white

All are precious in His sight

Jesus loves the little children of the world

                        Clare Herbert Woolston

When will we ever be able to get on with getting along? Since when has it been so hard to put up with each other’s differences? Who ever said being alike was a virtue? The virtue is getting along when we’re different. The virtue is seeing all people as equals. The virtue is recognizing — even worshiping — the image of God in everyone. Do you have two eyes, two ears, a nose, a mouth, walk on two feet and speak a known language somewhere on the planet? And if you don’t have one or more  of these things, what tragedy has happened to you that we all can have compassion for and marvel at your ability to overcome?

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What price discipleship?

Posted on January 25, 2021 by jwfisch

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Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me. If you try to keep your life for yourself, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for me, you will find true life.  Matthew 16:24-25 (NLT)

He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose. –  Jim Elliot, one of the five missionaries martyred in Ecuador in 1956.

Here at the Catch, we are all about discipleship. Discipleship is what it means to follow Christ on a day-to-day, moment-by-moment basis. And these verses in Matthew are probably the most direct and clearest statement about what Christ said it means to follow Him. This isn’t the most popular thing about being a Christian because it doesn’t necessarily fit into our idea of promising the good life by which we often try to entice people into becoming Christians. This is not what you call fun. And it’s not necessarily what we all want to do. Jesus said that if we want to follow Him, we must deny ourselves, pick up our cross, and get in line. Whoopee!

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Posted in discipleship | Tagged | 8 Comments