'Hanging in there' not allowed!	Friday, May, 09, 2008
by John Fischer Yesterday morning, immediately after reading through the day's Catch about being on a mission instead of just muddling through life, I was about to write in an email reply to a friend who asked how I was doing: "Well, I'm hanging in there." The words were already in my head and I started to type them out, but I suddenly remembered, and typed instead: "I'm on a mission." That I could forget so fast my own message shows how breaking paradigms takes constant focus. At the same time, it really drove the message home to me, because I immediately applied the truth to my situation, and let me tell you, it's much more fun being on a mission than just hanging in there. It lifted my spirits. Come to think of it, I don't think "just hanging in there" should even be in our vocabulary. No matter how desperate the situation, we are still on a mission. We are still being lead by Christ. We are still a part of His Kingdom on earth and His plan for that Kingdom. So I guess you could complain that this is just a repeat of yesterday's Catch and you would be right. But what I'm saying is: "I got it this time. I applied my own message to my life and benefited by it." It also impressed upon me how quickly we can forget, and how necessary it is to remind ourselves of new paradigms -- new ways of looking at things. Being on a mission or just hanging in there is all up to me. It's how I choose to look at my reality, and when you've spent a lifetime looking at life one way, to change it takes a conscious choice, all the time. So do I look at my reality the way God looks at it, or do I choose to trash it and just survive. This isn't just wishful thinking or hocus-pocus; it is an act of faith. You tell yourself "I'm on a mission" by faith, and it will always be true regardless of how you feel. I've got a mission today. It's as big as the Kingdom of God on earth. Find out my part today and do it. "Hanging in there" not allowed!
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Sent	Thursday, May, 08, 2008
by John Fischer Sometimes I act as if I'm just muddling through life. I'm lucky if I make it through a day. People ask me how I'm doing and I hear myself say -- even to fellow Christians -- "Oh, I'm hanging in there, just barely." Then I remember Christ praying to the Father: "As you sent me into the world, I am sending them into the world," and I have to ask myself: Do I sound like someone who has been "sent?" If I have been sent, then I am on a mission, and if I am on a mission, how can I just be muddling through life? Somehow I don't think muddling is in my mission statement. I'm thinking of Paul in 2 Corinthians 2:14-17 where he says that he is always being lead in a public display and is manifesting, wherever he goes, something real about the nature of his faith in Christ, and it is always having an effect on people, and I realize God can accomplish this mission in spite of what is currently happening in my life. Paul even makes this statement right after he has confessed his anxiety over plans not going as expected (verses 12-13). Even then, he could still say he was being lead on a mission. That means nothing can stop us because nothing can stop God's work in our lives. It would be great today if when people ask how I am, I could say, even if it's just to myself, "I'm on a mission," because I am. I'm on a mission to love God today with all my heart, and let that love reflect in all I do. I'm on a mission to love those closest to me -- to be ruled by care and compassion. I'm on a mission to tell my story to anyone who wants to hear it. I'm on a mission to manifest the fragrance of the knowledge of Christ wherever I go. All this can happen regardless of the circumstances in my life. I don't get to muddle through anything. In the movie "Saving Private Ryan," a platoon of men in World War II are on a mission to find Private Ryan and bring him home. Sometimes they struggle with their mission. Some of them almost abandon it, but as long as they are moving with the mission of the group, they are all in on it. They were sent. How about you today? Have you been sent? Then you aren't just hanging in there; you are on a mission. Be aware of it today, and look for what God has for you, because you were sent. [Original copyright Purpose Driven Life]
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'Here's lookin' at you, Lord'	Wednesday, May, 07, 2008
by John Fischer Becoming like Christ seems like a daunting task, and it is, but there is a certain grace in its impossibility. Because we can never reach it in this life, this becomes a goal that will never stop driving us—a purpose that takes us through to the end. If it were an attainable goal, what would we do then? This was certainly the error of the religious leaders of the day when Jesus was here on earth. They thought their strict adherence to the requirements of the law had earned them a place among the righteous. They had arrived, in other words. Of course they hadn't, and this was something Jesus was continually trying to bring to their attention. The only thing they had arrived at was their own interpretation of the law, which was sorely inadequate to produce the true inner character of righteousness that God is after. They were measuring themselves by a scaled-down version of the law, and looking at those who they deemed worse than themselves in order to make themselves acceptable in their own eyes. Had they looked at Jesus, something very different would have happened. When you look at Jesus, at least three things happen. 1) You realize your own shortcomings and how far you have to go, 2) You realize God's love and accept the forgiveness made possible through Christ's death for us on the cross, and 3) You reflect his glory, not your own. It's the only way you can still stand in front of His perfect righteousness and not be consumed—you receive, as a free gift, a righteousness you cannot earn. Looking at Jesus makes you humble and holy all at the same time. Not holy like the Pharisees, mind you, but holy in that you are totally counting on Christ for your own righteousness because you realize how much you lack. Humphrey Bogart made the line famous in "Casablanca:" "Here's lookin' at you kid." It was a special look—a secret he and Ingrid Bergman shared as unrealized lovers. In the same way we go through our day looking to Christ; it's a secret we know about but not necessarily information shared by everyone. Our love for God and His love for us make up for the deficiencies in our character and the distance we still have to go to have Christ fully realized. And yet, as we keep looking to Him, we begin to reflect something of Him in our lives, and without even knowing it, we become like "mirrors that brightly reflect the glory of the Lord" (2 Corinthians 3:18). So "Here's Lookin' At You, Lord!"
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Always 'on'	Tuesday, May, 06, 2008
by John Fischer Some of you have probably heard about a light bulb hanging in a Livermore, CA firehouse that is still burning after 107 years. There was an article about it in the Los Angeles Times yesterday and the reason you might have already heard about it is because it has been written about and preached about numerous times. The light bulb is already in the Guinness World Records book, and even boasts its own website with a webcam so fans can monitor its continuous burning. It's so old that in 1901, when it was first screwed in, it presided over horse-drawn water carts. In all this time it has only been off for 22 minutes when it was moved to a new station in 1976. It gave everyone a scare for a moment when they plugged it back in and nothing happened, until someone jiggled the switch, and on it came. And on and on it burns. They say the secret to its longevity is that it has always been on, and of all the many lessons that could probably be taught and illustrated by this quirky little industrial-age miracle, it is that one that hits closest to home for me. I don't know about you, but I have times when I allow myself to be spiritually and/or emotionally turned "off." I tell myself that I deserve a rest. I consciously flick my switch "off." Not everyone is expected to be "on" all the time. Except then I remember Paul told Timothy to "be ready in season and out of season" (2 Timothy 4:2), and also warned us to always be alert because our enemy, the devil, roams around like a lion seeking someone for lunch (1 Peter 5:8). When I think about these things, I realize that light bulb is onto something. We need to think of ourselves as always "on." Switching the light off and on all the time really isn't good for its longevity. We saw Ironman this weekend, but he doesn't hold a candle to my new superhero -- a light bulb in Livermore that's always on.
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Die Hard	Monday, May, 05, 2008
by John Fischer Often, as a child, when I complained about some ache or pain that had no clear physical explanation, the simple parental diagnosis was: “It’s just growing pains.” I used to imagine my muscles and bones actually hurting while they stretched and grew. While I know nothing about the scientific nature of this evaluation, I do know it has a spiritual application that is entirely accurate. It hurts to grow. It hurts to grow because we have to die to old ways in order to live anew, and old ways die hard. We place a high premium in life on dying peacefully, but in reality dying almost always is accompanied by pain. We have dependencies with coping mechanisms that have enslaved us. It’s hard letting go of our security blankets. In a touching scene from the romantic comedy, Mr. Mom, Michael Keaton has to coax his toddler’s “whoopee” blanket away from him. Upon rendering it up, the little boy asks for a moment to himself to grieve the loss and we can almost touch his pain. We would like similar moments to grieve our little daily deaths, but we have to learn to move on, because the pain of losing is followed by the greater joy of finding God always meets us on the other side of our loss. It hurts to grow because growing usually means facing into some fear or weakness that has limited us. Though God saves us through no effort of our own, he asks for our cooperation when it comes to our spiritual growth. Real spiritual growth only happens when our effort to act upon God’s word meets the provision of the Holy Spirit in us. Or as Paul teaches, “Put into action God’s saving work in your lives, obeying God with deep reverence and fear. For God is working in you, giving you the desire to obey Him and the power to do what pleases Him” (Philippians 2:12-13 NLT). This is always the spiritual principle of growth. We obey by stepping into our weakness or our fear, hoping in the fact that because it is something He asks of us, He will meet us somewhere along the way with the power to do it. This is almost always a painful proposition because it requires a step into the unknown. What if God doesn’t show up? What if this is all a hoax? I suppose we can ask these questions, but we will never get them answered on this side of the pain. We have to take the step, believing that there is something there that we can’t see. And if that doesn’t hurt, it’s probably not faith. It's hard to die... but it's the only way to live.
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Adopted	Friday, May, 02, 2008
by John Fischer His unchanging plan has always been to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. And this gave him great pleasure. (Ephesians 1:5). I know something about this feeling. We have an adopted son and the pleasure he has brought us has been unequaled. And I thought I was doing him a favor. We have two of our own who are now adults and pretty much out of the house. This new little guy could be our grandson. I often tell people having a child at this stage in life is like being a grandfather without having to give the child up. I know grandparents are supposed to like the fact that they can return their grandchildren to sender, but in this case we are doubly blessed because that would be very hard to do, as attached as we are. What's really going on here is something I'm not quite sure I can explain, it's just that I haven't loved anyone in quite the way that I love my adopted son. There is no question that he is mine. It's not like he's in second position or anything less than my own. In some strange way he is more mine than my own, and I know that I can't explain that. The fact that he doesn't belong to me by birth means nothing because he belongs to me anyway. I've always loved him. He has my name. I have his papers. I grew up in a family that did not look very favorably on adoption. I had a cousin who, according to the adults in the family was always causing trouble. And I always heard she was trouble because she was adopted. Bad blood. Should have stuck to our own. Never know what you let in otherwise. If someone even hints of this kind of thinking in regards to my adopted son now, they will meet with my wrath and it will not be a pretty sight. By the way, I haven't been in touch with my cousin very much but when I do talk to her I realize how wrong we all were about her. I don't know of anyone with more love and compassion than this person. And she will do anything for you at the drop of a hat. She has so many legitimate reasons to be resentful, but she is not. Now here's the point. How I feel about my son is just a small picture of how God feels about you and me. We have all been adopted into the same family. No one can degrade us or take us away from where we belong. And there's a whole bunch of us who, as brothers and sisters, share this incredible privilege together. And here's the catch: God did this so we could bring Him much pleasure. I understand this now.
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Different Parts; Different Hearts	Thursday, May, 01, 2008
by John Fischer Why do we all have different passions? So everything that's supposed to get done will get done. Sometimes we get overwhelmed because we are constantly exposed to people with various passions for service, and when they represent their cause, they are so committed to that which has captured them that we feel guilty for not sharing their zeal. We seem indifferent in comparison. When I was in college, we had chapel every day and almost every day we heard a message from someone who had a passion for some particular ministry. They were usually in some ways recruiting us for service, whether it was in missions, or in the church, or in society, or among the poor. It was overwhelming, and often frustrating, because everyone made every concern sound like the only thing any caring person would support. The same thing happens in our churches. Sometimes we feel guilt because we don't have the same passion as the last person who talked about missions, or abortion, or the homeless, or marriage, or singleness, or men's ministry, or AIDS prevention, or prisons, or evangelism, or the military. What we forget is that there are so many needs because there are so many of us to meet them. We aren't supposed to get our bell rung by every appeal that comes by. We are a body made up of different parts and different hearts; we don't have to all be moved by the same issues and needs. This is where the concept and the practical nature of spiritual gifts come in. There are a variety of gifts and there are a variety of ministries, but the same Lord working in all and through all. No one has to do everything; no one can. It is up to us to find out where we fit and what God put us here to do. Soon you will be just as passionate about something because it's your thing. This is the way it's supposed to be. We only get frustrated when we forget this and try and take on everything, or get so overwhelmed that we take on nothing at all. All of this should just make us marvel at the wisdom of God even more. He's designed us all with different abilities and different interests so that we are not only good at what we do, we do not have to be frustrated or depressed over what we aren't good at. When we all do our part in the body of Christ, everyone gets a job, everyone gets honored and everyone's important. That's the way it's supposed to be.
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Opera night	Wednesday, April, 30, 2008
by John Fischer Okay, everybody, get out the Kleenex. And get out all your excuses for not going after your dream, and put them on the table. While you're at it, empty your pockets of every ounce of pre-judgment you can muster and get ready to do something with that too. Then dump out your fears, small thinking, and inadequacies and watch this video. When you're done, I suggest you clear the table of all that unnecessary stuff and decide what you're going to do. You are gifted by God to do something that will amaze and delight those around you in no less of a manner than this. http://www.maniacworld.com/Phone-Salesman-Amazes-Crowd.html
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Grace Card	Tuesday, April, 29, 2008
by John Fischer Well, after a week of fighting an intestinal virus that landed me in the hospital for 24 hours last Thursday, I am happy to announce that I am back. Thank you for all of your notes and prayers. So now that I have failed to provide you the service I promised, I am asking all of you to get out your Grace Cards and swipe them once for me. Any relationship is going to require a Grace Card. That's because we are destined to fail each other over and over again. We will fail because we are fallible, and we will fail without even trying, because our expectations are always too high for the other to meet. One of Christ's disciples once asked Him how many times he should forgive his brother, "Seven times?" he suggested. That probably seemed like a lot to him. "Try seventy times seven," Jesus replied (Matthew 18:22 The Message). Now I don't think Jesus meant by this that we were to literally count up all the times we have forgiven someone and as soon as we get to 490, say "Okay, that's it. I'm not forgiving you anymore!" I think what He meant was: if you're going to put a number on it, make sure it's too big to keep track of. Or better yet, how about a credit card with an unlimited account? An account Jesus opened on the cross? An account we can draw on as much as we need, for ourselves, and for those who offend us, or sin against us, or disappoint us, or let us down? You've already got one if you've been to the cross. Why not activate it today? Grace Card. Don't leave home without it. (Don't go home without it, either. That's probably where we need it the most!)
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Blissfully ignorant in Laguna Beach	Friday, April, 18, 2008
by John Fischer One of our readers has informed me that I am not fully embracing the coffee experience if I am still drinking Starbucks -- or "Charbucks" as he calls it from his opinion that Starbucks coffee is way over-roasted. I have heard this before. According to our reader, the only way to truly experience the subtleties of taste is to grind and brew your coffee within 24 hours of coming out of the roaster, and the best way to do that is roast your own as well. Apparently there are inexpensive roasters on the market that will allow you to do this. So I asked a local roaster (he roasts beans once a week in his store) when I should come by to get a cup of coffee right out of the roaster. He looked at me somewhat horrified and told me that no one would grind his beans inside of a week. He purposely keeps the newly roasted beans out of circulation for at least a week or two. He said they need time to "set." Now I'm beginning to wonder if there is a Bible on coffee or if it is just up to everyone's own tastes how you do it. I'm beginning to think this is true. I have tried those other blends and other makes of coffee beans and every time, I end up back with my Starbucks French Roast. There is a certain nuttiness I have come to look for in the flavor and I only find it in this blend. Now I'm beginning to wonder if the thing I actually like is the over-roasted burnt taste that everyone complains about. What if that's what I'm hooked on? Well then, I will be content to remain blissfully ignorant on what really good coffee is. Isn't that wild? I actually prefer the thing that is supposed to be the worst thing about the brand. Here's what I like about this. True love loves the worst thing about someone. Doesn't just tolerate it. Doesn't just put up with it while it tries to get rid of what it doesn't like. No, love actually likes my burnt taste. Somehow I think this is what grace is all about. Not that we don't grow and change and get better, but that thing that no one else liked is still the thing God loves the best. Extra Credit over the weekend For those of you who like to find truth in pop culture: an assignment. I'd like you to write me about what you see in the following lyrics of a Bob Dylan song. I have been jogging with this song for the last few weeks because its rhythm and beat is exactly on my pace, and the energy of it keeps pushing me on. So naturally I have gotten more and more into the words and each time I hear it I see more. That is one of the things about a prophetic gift -- it speaks something to everyone, and not all see the same thing. For those of you wondering if we are talking about the pre-Christian Dylan, the Christian Dylan or the post-Christian Dylan, we are talking about none of the above. We are talking about a man who has had the hand of God on him all his life and has been speaking truth to this culture for 50 years whatever period you want to put him in. So have fun with it. I'd like to see if I am reading too much into these lyrics. I'd like to know what they say to some of you. I'll give you just one hint that is pretty obvious: Like many of Dylan's songs over the years, this one is about the end of the world. Thunder On The Mountain (from the album, Modern Times, 2006) Thunder on the mountain, fires on the moon There's a ruckus in the alley and the sun will be here soon Today's the day, gonna grab my trombone and blow Well, there's hot stuff here and it's everywhere I go I was thinkin' 'bout Alicia Keys, couldn't keep from crying When she was born in Hell's Kitchen, I was living down the line I'm wondering where in the world Alicia Keys could be I been looking for her even clear through Tennessee Feel like my soul is beginning to expand Look into my heart and you will sort of understand You brought me here, now you're trying to run me away The writing's on the wall, come read it, come see what it say Thunder on the mountain, rolling like a drum Gonna sleep over there, that's where the music coming from I don't need any guide, I already know the way Remember this, I'm your servant both night and day The pistols are poppin' and the power is down I'd like to try somethin' but I'm so far from town The sun keeps shinin' and the North Wind keeps picking up speed Gonna forget about myself for a while, gonna go out and see what others need I've been sitting down studying the art of love I think it will fit me like a glove I want some real good woman to do just what I say Everybody got to wonder what's the matter with this cruel world today Thunder on the mountain rolling to the ground Gonna get up in the morning walk the hard road down Some sweet day I'll stand beside my king I wouldn't betray your love or any other thing Gonna raise me an army, some tough sons of bitches I'll recruit my army from the orphanages I been to St. Herman's church and I've said my religious vows I've sucked the milk out of a thousand cows I got the porkchops, she got the pie She ain't no angel and neither am I Shame on your greed, shame on your wicked schemes I'll say this, I don't give a damn about your dreams Thunder on the mountain heavy as can be Mean old twister bearing down on me All the ladies of Washington scrambling to get out of town Looks like something bad gonna happen, better roll your airplane down Everybody's going and I want to go too Don't wanna take a chance with somebody new I did all I could and I did it right there and then I've already confessed - no need to confess again Gonna make a lot of money, gonna go up north I'll plant and I'll harvest what the earth brings forth The hammer's on the table, the pitchfork's on the shelf For the love of God, you ought to take pity on yourself
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Confessing is easier than forgiving	Wednesday, April, 16, 2008
by John Fischer Someone turned me on to some old news today, at least old to some. Apparently the Boston Red Sox began their home opener a few weeks ago by having Bill Buckner throw out the first ball. Yes, that would be the same Bill Buckner who became the goat of the 1986 World Series that the Red Sox lost to the Mets. It usually takes a whole team to blow a lead, but because Buckner made the last error -- the one that allowed the winning run to come home for the Mets in the ninth inning of game 6 -- he got the brunt of it for the last 22 years. I know enough about Bill Buckner to know that his life didn't grind to a halt after that. He settled somewhere in Idaho with his family where he is a successful businessman who coaches his son's little league team and teaches Sunday school class in the local Baptist Church. When you've had a career as he has, you learn to take the low points along with the high ones. Life is like that. Every infielder that has ever played the game has had numerous balls roll under his glove and die in the outfield. It happens to the best of them, and Bill Buckner was one of the best. His career stats rival a number of Hall of Fame players, but Buckner will never see the Hall of Fame. And he's okay with that. I know this because I have heard from someone who is a fellow Christian and goes to Buckner's church -- the same friend who passed on my article about him, "Thank You, Bill Buckner!" (http://www.fischtank.com/ft/articlesdetail.cfm?articleid=5) and collected an autographed baseball for me in return. He says that Buckner has made peace with his 22-season baseball career, and only hopes that the grilling he took from the media and the city of Boston hasn't discouraged some kid from trying for fear he might screw up. I understand that. Was that error the low point in his life? Not even close. That would be when his dad died when Billy was only 14. So what was that 4-minute standing ovation the Boston fans gave him a few weeks ago all about? I really don't think it was for him. It was for them. With over 20 years and now two world championships between them to ease the pain of that lost Series, the city was ready to acknowledge how silly the whole thing had been. So what's the bottom line on all this? Confessing is easier than forgiving. Bill Buckner has been just fine for the last 22 years. Poor Boston is only now beginning to heal.
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'What has brought you life today?'	Tuesday, April, 15, 2008
by John Fischer I have a friend who likes to experiment with new ways of beginning a conversation. He's kind of forced into this because he works with homeless teenagers in an inner city district where it's hard to start a conversation with "How are you?" when the unpleasant answer kind of screams in your face without anything being said. There are ways in which we say hello to people that indicate whether or not we intend on engaging them in conversation or just politely dismissing them. I think first we have to ask ourselves if we really care. If you really care about the answer, you are probably not going to ask someone "How are you?" Maybe it will be a version of the familiar phrase, like "How are you, really?" or maybe it will be something else. My friend has a question to suggest: "What has brought you life today?" Now that will stop you in your tracks. What made you sit up and take notice of the fact that you are actually alive? What made your heart beat faster? What got your attention? Something in the news? A God moment? A phone call from your daughter? A brush with death? What made you know you were alive today? It's a valid question that cuts through much of our mundane existence. If you can go through an entire day without coming up with anything that made you feel alive, it doesn't necessarily mean there wasn't anything; it just means you didn't notice it. That's why the question is a good one. It draws something of value out of us. As it is set up now, "What has brought you life today?" is more of an end of the day question. And for those of you who are reading this first thing in the morning, a slight adjustment may need to be made. You might want to think about living today in such a way as to have an answer to that question later on. You might want to plan on making some things happen that you know would bring you life, like that phone call to your daughter, for instance. In other words: make life happen, don't just let it pass by in front of you. And then think about using this kind of opener on someone else. Just be sure you are awake and alert when you do, because chances are you will get a real answer that will demand engagement. As my Denver friend says: "I want you to explore for yourself what brings others to life. I want you to open your canned conversation starters and find ways to step into others lives not around them." Copyright  2007 by John Fischer
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Through His eyes	Monday, April, 14, 2008
by John Fischer Jonnie Anderson has developed a most unusual hobby. She photographs prostitutes in Las Vegas. It's turned into much more than a hobby -- something of a ministry, actually, though she would most likely never call it that. In "Beauty, if just for a moment," a feature article that appeared in The Los Angeles Times last Thursday (April 10, 2008, pg A1), she speaks of her penchant for capturing ordinary people on film. Apparently she was fired from a job for photographing her co-workers. So she photographed the HR person firing her, and went to work as a bartender. It was then that Jonnie got the idea of photographing women of the street who frequented her bar. The reason? I'm not even sure she knows why she started, but she kept on doing it when she realized it was giving something back to these women, not taking something away. "Thank you for making me so pretty," says one, and that seems to be echoed over and over again. Jonnie always offers them $20 for a sitting, but many refuse, wanting only copies of their head shots -- a glimpse of glamour in an otherwise grotesque world. Jonnie feels for them, especially the younger ones, only because she knows how the occupationally requisite methamphetamine and crack use will soon eat away most of their teeth and a good deal of their lucidity. It takes lots of make-up to hide the bruises, but for a moment they get to be beautiful. She rents a motel room for her shoots. Stocks it with clothes, props and backdrops. "We took them out of their lives for a few minutes and they were so happy." You can't help but read this story and think of how God loves us -- how ugly we must look to Him, and yet how He manages to somehow find beauty in us. It's because of His love that we are lovely. It's what He sees through His camera's eye. I don't know how He does it; I only want Him to teach me to see people through that same lens. I want to be like Jonnie and catch the glamour in everyone. "When I'm gone," she said, knowing she would not be staying there long, "they may not have anyone to view them as the wonderful, amazing and beautiful people that they are." As followers of the one who sees this way all the time, we, hopefully, will have something to say about that. [For more on this story, go to www.latimes.com/jonnie.]
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Like, that's just so God!	Friday, April, 11, 2008
by John Fischer So King David was settling into his palace one day in a time of relative peace with Israel's enemies at bay and his kingdom united, when he started to feel bad about his fancy cedar digs compared to the Ark of God out in a tent somewhere. So he told the prophet Nathan about this, and Nathan ended up hearing a message from God for David that went something like this: "So you want to build me a temple? Why? I've never lived in a temple. From day one with you guys, my home has always been a tent, moving from one place to another. And have I ever complained? Has anyone ever heard me say, 'Why haven't you built me a beautiful cedar temple?' "No, David, you forget that I've been with you since you were a little shepherd boy. I chose you to lead my people. I've been with you wherever you've gone. I've destroyed all your enemies. I've provided you a permanent homeland, and now I'll tell you what I'm going to do. I'm going to build you a house -- a dynasty of kings! And I will establish your throne forever." (2 Samuel 7:1-16) Now isn't that so God? "I'll keep the tent; you take the house." When you think of it, really, it's pretty silly to imagine building God a house. Now if He were just a little god, an idol of our making, a house would make sense. But He is God, the one who made the universe. The one who made us. The one who uses the earth as a footstool. How could we possibly build anything that would contain Him? Just like David; we can't. And the truly remarkable thing is that, just as with David, God, instead, is building a house for us. Jesus is preparing a house for us in heaven, but there's more than that. As God established David's throne, so He is establishing our future. It's not only a house He has for us, it's a legacy. It's as if God says to you and to me: "I'm going to establish you. Your legacy will be forever. Don't worry about building a place for me. You can't. In fact, why would you put me in a temple when I'm already at large in the world? No if you want me in a temple, then start getting used to the fact that you are my temple! I will live in you! You're the only home I have or desire here on earth. And meanwhile, I have you secured in eternity and my Son is working on your permanent home right now." In other words, "I don't need a house; you take the house." I mean, like, isn't that just so God? Copyright  2007 by John Fischer
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How's your 'knower' working?	Thursday, April, 10, 2008
by John Fischer I received an E-mail from a gentleman who has been corresponding with me off and on for a few years. He is a person who does a lot of thinking, and as a result, belief comes hard for him, because his keen, curious mind has him looking at things from so many different angles. For every question someone else might have, he will have five. His recent message revealed he was up to his old tricks. In his own words: "I don’t 'know' anything (I guess my 'knower' is broke), but I believe that there is a God, simply because of the world around us. Isn’t that what Romans says: that God will make himself known by his creation so that there will be none with any excuse? I am just waiting for him to continue so that once again I can believe that Jesus is the evidence of that." I like people like this -- people to whom belief doesn't come easy -- because when it comes, it will be solid and true, and those who have gone through this kind of personal process can help others who are struggling in similar ways. C.S. Lewis was a person like this who has helped countless people wrestle with the issues of faith, only because he has wrestled with them himself and written about it. And I believe it was to these people (well... all of us) that Jesus was speaking, when He said: "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you." (Matthew 7:7) In other words, don't stop asking, seeking and knocking. These are the people God rewards, and it is an ongoing process. A lot of people stop this process because they are satisfied with what they've gotten, when in fact they have gotten very little. My friend suggested that his "knower" was broken. I don't think so. I think his "knower" is working just fine because he is still seeking to know. Your "knower" is only broken when it's not being used, and it could very well be that there are lots of people with broken "knowers," because they stopped asking, seeking, and knocking years ago. A while back, the Irish rock band U2 first recorded and sang, "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For." It was presumed at the time that some of these guys were Christians, and this was confusing to many. Aren't Christians supposed to have already found what they were looking for? Well... yes, and no. Coming into a relationship with Christ connects me with God, but it does not end the process of knowing; it actually begins it on the right foot. All U2 was saying in this song is that there is much they still want to know. My friend who wrote me the E-mail still wants to know. I still want to know, and I expect to still want to know until the day I die. How about you? Is your "knower" still working? Copyright  2007 by John Fischer
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E pluribus unum	Wednesday, April, 09, 2008
by John Fischer Charleton Heston died last weekend at 84. An article in the Los Angeles Times on Tuesday revealed Heston as an avid newspaper reader who would have his assistant spread sections of the morning paper around his pool so the actor could pursue various stories between laps. He was even known to call the Times editors from time to time with his opinionated comments. Today's edition of the Times printed some selections from his letters to the paper. One I found amusing and poignant. As he tells it, while attending one of those silly "A-list" parties, he fell into conversation with a "stunningly beautiful, famous star (not a bad actor either)" who said to him, "Well, look what it says on the dollar bill: 'e pluribus unum,' From one, many." To which Heston replied, "Actually, you've got the Latin backward... It translates, 'From many, one.' As in one nation... indivisible?" "No kidding?" he remembers her saying. "Well... whatever." To which Heston concludes, "And there you have it. We live increasingly, in a 'well, whatever' nation. God help us all." From many, one, or from one, many... whatever... they're just versions of the same thing, right? Well... no. One leads to factions and ultimate chaos and the other to unity. Perhaps that is what is happening in our country: we are stressing the many divisions while overlooking the unity for which we were formed. Diversity is a wonderful thing to celebrate, as long as in our diversity we are still gathered under one banner. It's not just diversity, and it's not just unity, it is both at the same time we seek. God has peopled the earth with a very diverse population of people, languages, races and cultures. To stress any one group to the exclusion of another would not be embracing all that God is, for as Paul stated, in Acts 17:26-28, "From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. 'For in him we live and move and have our being.' As some of your own poets have said, 'We are his offspring.'" When you start with one and work out toward the many, you grow farther and father away from your source and apart from the others around you. Like moving out from the center on the spoke of a wheel you end up distant, alone. If you are in a group or faction, your group would only stand to be more entrenched in your own and your own way of doing things to the exclusion of all others. When you move the other direction, from the many to the one, you move closer to others and to the One who is the center of all things. Nothing could be further apart than these two understandings of "e pluribus unum." ...or whatever.
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For such a time as this	Tuesday, April, 08, 2008
by John Fischer The Book of Esther in the Old Testament is the story of a young Jewish woman who, based on her beauty and desirability before the king, became the queen of Persia in a time when Jews were living there in exile. And when a plot is uncovered to kill the Jews, Esther puts her life on the line to thwart it. Mordecai, who raised Esther after her parents died, challenged the queen with the opportunity her position gave her. "For if you remain silent at this time," he told her, "relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father's family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?" (Esther 4:14) Mordecai presents us here with two seemingly contradictory things. (I have come to expect this kind of thing from the truth.) 1) Don't think you are indispensable. 2) Don't sell yourself short. Somewhere between being dispensable and being Johnny-on-the-spot lies the will of God for Esther, and in turn, I think, for all of us. We mustn't think too highly of ourselves. God will not be without a witness. I mean, historically God has used angels, pagan kings, donkeys, and bushes to speak for Him if needs be. He can certainly fill in for you if you decide to take yourself out. At the same time, He puts us in places where our influence can make a big difference, and we are the ones who lose out if we don't rise to the occasion. The will of God is an opportunity and a destiny. It is a very cool thing, actually. Not something you have to do, but something you get to do. Who wouldn't want to step out under those conditions? And when you step into it, you step into the flow of God's plan and provision. Resources you didn't know you had become available. Think about it this way. God doesn't need you (He can do fine without you, thank you), but He wants you (He wants to bring you into His plan and accomplish something together with you). He'll use somebody or something else if you bail out, but why would you do that? Why would you miss the opportunity of a lifetime? We see this reality in a historical moment in the Esther story, but I think this story is there to teach us this truth is also at work in our lives daily. There will be opportunities today to step into the will of God or miss it. If you miss it, you are the one who loses; someone else gets the action. Based on other assurances in scripture, that doesn't mean you won't get to your ultimate destination, it's just that you will miss a good deal of adventure along the way. Think about the fact that you are alive today for such a time is this... and don't miss it! Copyright  2007 by John Fischer
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'I Thirst'	Monday, April, 07, 2008
by John Fischer Please give me a drink. – John 4:7 We worship a God who became a vulnerable human being. Superman took kryptonite. Samson lost his hair. Jack Frost relinquished his wintry powers to become the town tailor. Jesus got thirsty. It’s a story that is played out not only in history, but in fantasy, legend and mythology -- someone with supernatural powers gives up those powers to become human, and it is always done for one reason: love. That was God’s reason. "But God showed His great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners." (Romans 5:8) And yet Jesus did more than just come to die. He also came to live as a human being. And that’s how it came to be that the God who made the heavens and the earth, including the clouds that bring water to a thirsty land, wound up at the well of Jacob asking a Samaritan woman for a drink. She had something He needed. He gave her worth by asking her for it. Due to tradition and culture, He should have had nothing to do with this woman. As it turned out, He ended up revealing to her His identity as the Messiah -- something He did not do that directly to anyone for the rest of his ministry on earth. Love always makes you vulnerable. There’s no way you can love without being exposed in some way or giving something up. Love and need go together. God’s love compelled Him to do what He did because that very love created in Him a need for us. By creating us He also created in Himself a place for us, and that need was reflected many times through the life of Christ. Jesus Christ didn’t die for us because it made for good theology; He died for us because He loved us, lost us to sin, and gave Himself up to buy us back. By doing this He had to become vulnerable to the very system He created, that we might see how true love behaves. There is a death in love, and that death is the death of self. Jesus died to love us; we die as well in order to love and serve others. And part of that is in being vulnerable. Sometimes the best thing we can do for someone is ask for help. Jesus asked the woman for a drink and three years later, he was asking for the same thing from a soldier as He hung on the cross -- symbolic of the vulnerability He placed Himself into for the whole human race. Being vulnerable to those you love is a big part of what love is. Copyright  2007 by John Fischer
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Bowing to the coffee god	Friday, April, 04, 2008
by John Fischer I got a new coffeemaker. For those of you who don’t know about my relationship to coffee, this is a little like changing churches. That’s because coffee is my religion. I can say that because Christianity is not my religion. In fact, I don’t have a religion; I only have a relationship with God through Jesus Christ His Son. But I drink coffee religiously. Religion is ritual, habit, doing certain things to get certain results, and pleasing the acceptable god by bowing, scraping and doing all the necessary penance required by that god to please Him/Her/it. I have been known to bow and scrape to the coffee god, but thankfully, not the real God, because the real God does not require this. God does want my love and devotion, but He doesn’t want it in the form of religion. He has even been known to get upset with people who make a religion out of knowing Him. He does not want our sacrifices, our regular attendance at worship, or even the praises of our lips, if our Hearts are not in it. And if our Hearts are with Him, where they should be, none of these things are good for brownie points in Heaven. They may be a part of our lives, but they will flow out from us as a natural expression of a loving relationship. Now I’ve had my old coffeemaker for at least 10 years, and this new one has a different set of rituals attached to it that I will have to adjust to. No problem. I can do this; it’s just coffee. God, on the other hand, would not want to be a 10-year habit broken only by a new church, devotional book or pattern of personal discipline. Discipline is fine when it comes to self-control, but God would not like to be the product of discipline any more than you or I would. God doesn’t want our words, our singing, our sacrifice or our self-flagellation; He wants our Hearts. A real relationship is based on love and wanting to be with someone. That comes from the Heart. And if it isn’t in your Heart, no amount of religion will ever put it there. Meanwhile, for my coffee experience, I continue to worship at the Cathedral of St. Arbucks. My coffee religion remains firmly rooted. For me, religion applies to coffee, but not to God. God is too reckless and unpredictable to fit into any religious system or practice. And aren’t you glad? Copyright  2007 by John Fischer
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Being saved	Thursday, April, 03, 2008
by John Fischer In 2 Corinthians 2:15, Paul writes: "For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing..." In two simple phrases, he arranges all of living humanity into only two camps. There are "those who are being saved," and "those who are perishing." I would submit to you that this is a much better way to distinguish in our minds between people than to think of them as Christians and non-Christians. Our usual distinctions as to Christians and non-Christians may, in fact, be wrong. Paul's definition is superior in that it implies a process while ours implies a fixed state. Christian and non-Christian terms also allow us to think we know something when we don't. These terms simply do not allow for the spiritual journey that we all are on. A person whom I might call a non-Christian today might very well be one who is being saved. In the same manner, I am sure there are people whom we would call Christians today who are, in fact, those who are perishing. In any case, we don't know for sure, who is what, and I, for one, think that's a good thing. By thinking of people as being saved or as perishing, it relieves us of the pressure to have to pigeonhole everybody. Every single person you meet is either being saved or perishing, and you may not know which it is. This is the kind of truth that allows us to treat everyone the same. All have equal importance since the book is not closed on anyone. And here's something I'd like to offer you in light of this if you find it helpful. I have decided that I will treat everybody as if they are being saved, regardless of what they say. Why not? If I'm right, then I will have helped them along the way. If I am wrong, then I will have created the best possible environment for them to believe. Actually, I thank God I don't know ultimately who is perishing, because I can't imagine someone I love going to hell. I'm going to hope for them right up to infinity and beyond. You never know what kind of deals can be done with angels in the last seconds of life -- seconds that we may never know about. At least not yet.
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Wise men still seek Him	Wednesday, April, 02, 2008
by John Fischer Okay, I realize I am pushing the limit. One more word about bumper stickers might just put some of you over the edge, but I will just have to take that chance, because there is one more important message here, and like all the messages in this bumper sticker "series," it's really not about bumper stickers anyway, but about what they say about us as Christians, and what needs to change. There is really only one bumper sticker message that I have ever liked, and if I were to ever put a sticker on my car (and I can't imagine that I would) it would be this one: "WISE MEN STILL SEEK HIM." What is good about this message is something we can learn from in how we approach those around us who are not Christians -- at least not yet. For now, I will point out four things, though there are undoubtedly more. 1) This statement draws you in. Jesus said, "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him" (John 6:44). God is in the business of reeling people in. Some people don't even know it yet, but the hook is already in place. Since this is all God's doing, the pressure is off us to feel obligated to tell everything we know or correct everything that we think is wrong. We can enjoy people for who they are and watch God work in their lives. 2) It leaves a lot unsaid. Have you ever really read the 4 Gospel narratives of Christ's life on earth and been surprised at how obscure Jesus was? He spoke in code (parables). He answered questions with questions. Often He was so hard to understand that He had to explain everything a second time to His disciples after He talked to the masses, and even then they didn't get it. Why do you suppose He did this? The answer to that rests mainly in the next point. 3) This statement rewards the seeker. Yes, God is drawing us, but He is also inviting us to draw near to Him. He said that those who earnestly seek Him will surely find Him (Hebrews 11:6). He told us to keep asking, seeking and knocking (Matthew 7:7). Like a mechanical rabbit at a dog race, He keeps His truth a step in front of us so that we will always be grasping, always reaching. Robert Browning captured this in one of his poems: "If my reach doesn't go beyond my grasp; then what's a heaven for, and for what do I ask?" If you ever stop seeking, then you're in heaven, so beware reaching heaven too soon. 4) It's based on respect. This is probably why I like this message the most. It says that those who seek Him are wise. What a welcome affirmation. Instead of pointing out all the flaws in those who don't think like Christians -- instead of the insulting digs and half-baked innuendos that are so common to many of the messages that get publicized -- this message appeals to the wise. And who wouldn't want to be considered wise?
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Lost in Translation	Tuesday, April, 01, 2008
by John Fischer So this weekend, I was on a long drive and happened to pop an old Mars Hill Audio tape that had been riding around in my glove compartment for a few years into my tape player (yes, my car is old enough to still handle cassettes), and this is what I heard during the opening introduction by Ken Meyers: "Because many critics and pundits assume that our political culture can be described in simple terms of left and right, liberal and conservative, radical and traditional, many paradoxes of contemporary life are ignored or denied. Our public discussion and many private discussions of important matters requiring civic definition and commitment are thus flattened out and over simplified. This serves the interests of no one except those who are adept at managing movements. Many public issues are reduced to their utility in building power bases, in raising money, and in designing bumper stickers." (Mars Hill Audio, volume 77, November/December 2005; www.marshillaudio.org - I highly recommend all their resources, by the way.) Perfect. I had some notes to this effect to share in the wake of last week's discussion on bumper stickers but this said it better. The real problem with all this is that whatever Christian message you put on a bumper sticker, it will be interpreted only in terms of what side of a two-sided political/cultural/religious debate you are on. There is simply not enough room on a bumper for paradox, ambiguity, process or the nuances of truth. So identifying as a Christian in the public square is "flattened out and over simplified" so much that any real thinking about the truth of the gospel we might hope to engender by a slogan on a sticker is lost in translation. As a result, I simply do not identify myself as a Christian without a chance to personally mediate the message; otherwise what most people receive as my message is miles away from what I really want to communicate. Here is the only message that really counts: "By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another" (John 13:35), and you can't put love on a bumper sticker; you can only put it in a relationship, and that relationship operates in a community, not plastered to the rear end of an automobile.
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'In case of rapture, can I have your car?'	Friday, March, 28, 2008
by John Fischer So I guess you could call this "Honk if you love Jesus" bumper sticker week. And I have to let Danny have the last word on that. He sent this one: "Love your neighbor - any damn fool can honk!" Dolores, another of our readers writes: "My husband was a printer, and he loved the Lord, but he could always see things from the unsaved point of view. He found one bumper sticker particularly arrogant. Many cars in our area had one. It read: 'In case of rapture, this car will be unmanned.' So my husband printed up his own bumper sticker that read, "'In case of rapture, can I have your car?'" Now that's identification! Her husband understood unbelievers so well that he created a bumper sticker just for them that didn't presume or pressure their salvation. I love that. You know, if all those rapture people are going to heaven, I just might want to stay back, too. Of course, I'm one to talk; I can remember when we used to love the rapture thing, only our sticker was inside the car. It was a little sign we put on the dashboard: "In case of rapture, grab the wheel; the driver of this car is saved." How arrogant is that -- to assume the passenger in the car isn't! We never saw the arrogance of it then. That's because we were too arrogant to notice. That's the thing about arrogance, by the way, you can never see it when you have it, or you would do something about it. No one wakes up in the morning and rubs their hands together, saying: "I think I'll be real arrogant today." We just walk around, blindly arrogant. But this is where Dolores' story turns ugly. "He (her husband) had to print up two more (his version of the rapture sticker) because the first and second stickers were pulled off of our car, crumpled up and thrown on the ground while we were in church!" I guess I'm not surprised. Not too many Christians want to identify with the left behind, but until we do, we won't have the compassion to bring anyone to Christ. It was C.T. Studd (1860-1931), a famous cricket player who left the sport for the mission field and gave his inherited family fortune away to fund missions, who said: "Some want to live within the sound of church or chapel bell; I want to run a rescue shop within a yard of hell." "My husband is in heaven now," wrote Dolores, "and the third rapture sticker was taken off of the car in the hospital parking lot where he died from cancer. Quite poetic. That's my bumper sticker story."
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More on those sticky bumper stickers	Thursday, March, 27, 2008
by John Fischer I wish that for just one time you could stand inside my shoes Then you'd know what a drag it is to see you. - Bob Dylan Some of our readers had difficulty with yesterday's Catch where I pointed out how a "Honk if you love Jesus" bumper sticker might likely be interpreted by those outside the church or Christian circles as something different than what we intended. For one thing it can come off more like an inside joke for believers that leaves everyone else out, and only serves to strengthen the wall between Christians and non-Christians. If I don't want to honk my horn, does that mean I don't love Jesus? That's the implicit message. First let me make clear that the bumper sticker thing is just a metaphor to get us to think about what our messages mean to others. Our activities and behaviors in front of a watching world mean something very different to non-Christians than they do to us. Whenever we put anything in the public eye, we need to seriously take into consideration how those outside the church will interpret it. Truth is, we don't do nearly enough looking at ourselves while standing in other peoples' shoes. My preference for the message "Honk if you love cheeses," an ad I saw for a local wine and cheese deli, is due to the fact that it pokes fun at the inside joke, and by poking fun at ourselves, we can get a lot farther down the road of building bridges with those on the outside. As to making fun of other Christians... my intent was to make fun of Christians as a Christian. It's like a black man making fun of blacks, or a Jew making fun of Jews. You are making light of something that you realize is a part of you -- even an error with the way you are perceived -- for the sake of diffusing what might be a hindrance to dialogue. It's like saying to the world: "You are right to see us as distant and judgmental because... well, to be truthful, we are. I admit that is one of our big problems." By admitting this, we call the objection before anyone has a chance to use it against us. And then there was the very humorous piece a couple of you sent about the lady with her brand new "Honk if you love Jesus" bumper sticker proudly displayed, standing at an intersection blocking a long line of cars because she failed to see the light turn green. She's so out of touch with the people behind her that she thinks all their honking and screaming and arm waving is an overwhelming response to her invitation to love Jesus, so she just sits there and basks in the glory of it all, until, just before the light goes red, she finally crosses the street, waving back at all her newfound friends. It's a great joke, but it's also a way of seeing what can happen if we don't really pay attention to someone else's point of view.
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All those honking Christians...	Wednesday, March, 26, 2008
by John Fischer Having second thoughts about that "Honk if you love Jesus" sticker? I have a solution for you. I have something you can cover that sticker up with. Not that there is anything wrong with honking or loving Jesus, but that sticker means something entirely different now than when it first came out. When the "Honk if you love Jesus" sticker first got pasted on a bumper, Christians were a minority (at least we thought we were). A lot of followers of Jesus were meeting each other and growing spiritually outside the church. Stickers and buttons were a means of finding each other in the marketplace and that created a sense of newly formed family. And to those outside the church and Christianity, this growing band of "Jesus Freaks" was no threat. In fact, the idea of Jesus being championed by hippies and street people had many looking on curiously. Many even came to Jesus-oriented events just to find out what it was all about. Today Jesus represents something entirely different to those outside the church. To most of these people, Jesus is the champion of a conservative political base. The Jesus who always stood on the side of the poor and oppressed, who stood against established religious rule and authority, who advocated turning the other cheek and loving your enemies is nowhere in the lexicon of what is perceived a Christian today. In fact for a crash course on how many view Christians today, reflect a bit on this bumper sticker: "I'm for the separation of Church and Hate." Hmmmm. So "Honk if you love Jesus" today means, "Honk if you are on our side..." "Honk if you are one of us..." and all that honking only confirms the fact that those who are not honking don't want to have anything to do with those who are. So I promised you a new bumper sticker. Here it is. I saw it on my neighbor's car. "Honk if you love cheeses." It's an ad for a local wine and cheese deli. This bumper sticker will do two things for you. 1) It will put you on "their" side. To those who are familiar with the original Jesus sticker, they will think you are making fun of Christians (which you are), and you can start in with how there is a lot to make fun of; and 2) it might put you in touch with wine and cheese lovers, and that just might lead to a relationship, and isn't a relationship what it's all about? Anything that makes a relationship is far superior to that which makes an enemy. Besides, I don't think Jesus wants to have anything to do with a whole lot of honking.
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Nothing secular	Tuesday, March, 25, 2008
by John Fischer What is God doing in the world today? As Christians, it is so easy to think that God has nothing to do with secular things. I sometimes think we even like to think that God is only involved with Christians and Christian activities so we can get on with our secular lives and not bother Him with what we are doing in the world that He might not approve of. But this fails to recognize that God is in the world already with a mission to reach people with the good news of his love. Isn't that pretty silly? We're in the world, trying to see how much of it we can get away with, and God is in the world, too, in the process of saving it! We need to get more of God's view of the world, and a good place to start would be to realize that He is not willing for any to perish, even those who we might wish would at least disappear. Ever think of the fact that for God, there is nothing secular? Think about it. How could anything be secular to God? There is only one world and it is God's. It might be pretty messed up, but it is His world just the same. Like the hymn says, "This Is My Father's World." And the reason it is His world is that He made it and filled it with people He loves. That means it is a sacred thing to be in the world, because the world is full of sacred people, every one, a reflection of God's image — every one, someone He died for. That sounds like a pretty holy world to me. So forget your "secular" job or those "non-Christian" friends that can so easily annoy you. Try not to even thinking of anyone as a non-Christian. Think of everyone as people whom God loves and died for. And think of yourself as on a mission to love them too. God is up to something in the world today. Let's find out what that is and be about His business. [First appeared on PurposeDrivenLife.com.]
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Why Worship?	Monday, March, 24, 2008
by John Fischer I will worship God today because it is good and right to do so. I will worship God today, not because of what it will do for me, or because it is popular, or because it is Sunday, or because I like the worship music, but for the simple reason that I was made to do this. To worship God is what I am here for. Worship is not an asset. It is not an added benefit to my life like working out or taking vitamins. Nor is it a secret formula that will add a deeper dimension to my life. Worship is the air I breathe. It is the blood pumping through my veins. It is the cells in my body that reproduce and keep me alive for this. Everything else I do is extemporaneous. To worship God is the root of my being. I understand why, but it is not necessarily good that worship has become a trend—a seminar that pastors attend to learn how to do it better. Music directors are now worship leaders, and this is all well and good, but it can also be demeaning to worship if we end up thinking that this is all worship is: the latest idea that will get more people to come to church. Remember the pet rock craze? Or canned air? Or rain in a jar? Or anything else so basic that someone tries to make a buck off of packaging, in a clever way, what everyone already has for the taking? In the same way we risk the danger of belittling worship by marketing it or using it as a means to an end. No one needs to sell worship to anyone. Worship is the end. The Westminster Catechism calls it the "chief end" of man. That's another way of saying it is the most important thing we were created to do. And if it's that important, then it is accessible to everybody, all the time. The Lord our God is one God, and we will love him and worship him because of who he is and who we are. It is good and right to do so. It is arrogant not to do so. We are his creatures; he is the creator. We are the sheep of his pastures; he is the shepherd. We are mere people; he is God. To do anything but worship him is to inadvertently put us in his place, and I don't think anyone in his or her right mind really wants to be there.
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The most precious drops in the world	Friday, March, 21, 2008
by John Fischer [In 2 parts: Part 1 for Friday/Saturday; Part 2 for Sunday. Happy Easter!] Part 1 The wounds on his hands bled slowly. Pressure from the weight of his body held back the flow. If there had been no other sounds that afternoon, it probably would have sounded like the slow, steady drip off the eaves of a mountain cabin on a damp, foggy night. But there were many sounds. Taunts from the soldiers, weeping and wailing from the women near the feet of Jesus, even careless laughter from children playing haphazardly around the perimeter of the crucifixion hill, oblivious to the significance of this particular execution. Small dark puddles would gather briefly under the top beam of the cross, only to be covered by the shuffle of a guard's feet. And then it would start in again: drip … drip … drip – little droplets seen but not heard. Mary saw them. She stared at the puddle through her bloodshot eyes while his life flashed before her, and it seemed to her that the earth swallowed his blood as if it had been created for this. As if it were drinking its fill and would thirst no more. Then she slowly turned her eyes up to his face, and her breath failed her. He already had her in the grasp of his eyes. It was the first time he had looked at her from the cross, and suddenly it seemed as if she were falling into a bottomless abyss. She looked until she could bear it no more and turned her eyes away so she could catch her breath again. Once more her gaze went to the small puddle in the dirt, and it seemed now that she, and only she, could hear the droplets landing, loud enough to shut out all other sounds. Then she heard his words spoken to her: "Dear woman, here is your son." And to the disciple he loved, "Here is your mother." Soon after that, the dripping stopped, right after the earth shook and Jesus cried out with a voice that nearly shut down Mary's heart for good. And all was still except for the sucking, sporadic breathing coming from the other two criminals. "This one's already dead," said one of the guards. "Can you believe that?" "No need to break his legs, I guess," said another. "Well, just to make sure …" One of them approached the dead body of Jesus with his spear, and before Mary could scream out, "No!" he thrust its tip up into the torso of the Son of God just under the ribs. Her scream and the sudden flow of blood and water came out at the same time. Disgusted, the guard wiped a few drops from his face and walked away, oblivious to the fact that these were drops of blood that could set him free forever. Part 2 The sun rose that first Easter morning on an entirely different world than the one that had existed hours earlier. For most people, to be sure, it was the same. Birds twittered as they usually did in their pre-dawn revelry. Lazy dogs barked at the sound of the first early risers. In his penthouse in downtown Jerusalem, Pilate rolled over in bed and moaned at the mockingbird making a racket on his veranda. He could feel his wife's stiffness next to him. He didn't even have to look to see her wide, sleepless eyes locked on a crack in the ceiling for fear of the dreams that might come back if she closed them. In the nearby barracks, a soldier snored on in thick oblivion. Soon his comrades would wake up to wicked hangovers, a usual Sunday morning experience. Things were always quiet on the Jewish Sabbath, so Saturdays became party time for the Roman soldiers. Out in the courtyard, roosters crowed, and Peter, curled up next to a stone wall, was sure he heard every last one of them. He hadn't been sleeping, either. All those great plans and dreams for himself and his nation had vanished with three denials and two rooster crows. Roosters had been rattling and cackling in his brain for two nights. They wouldn't let him sleep, and they wouldn't let him forget that look on the Savior's face that left him frozen in his betrayal. On the edge of town, three women made their way quietly through abandoned narrow streets, clutching vials of sweet-smelling perfume. In the hazy light of early morning, they were headed for Joseph's garden, where the remains of the man they pinned their hopes on as the Son of God laid without proper respect. There had been no time on Friday to anoint the funeral wrappings, and such activity was forbidden on the Sabbath. Nicodemus and Joseph had done a credible job with limited time and little preparation, but it fell to the women to complete the burial requirements – as much for their own sake as for the sake of the custom. Just when they started to wonder who might help them move the huge stone over the face of the tomb, they found, lo and behold, that the stone had already been moved away. The soldiers guarding it shifted on the ground in a deep sleep; the wrappings that should have been around the body lay limply on the rocky shelf inside. And an angelic being, bright and glorious, asked a question that would change them and the world forever: "Why do you seek the living among the dead?" May your Easter celebrations be filled with the same joy and wonder these women experienced on that first Easter morning! [Reprinted from the book: On A Hill (Too) Far Away, by John Fischer.]
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Spiritual Vacuums	Thursday, March, 20, 2008
by John Fischer Everybody worships something or someone. Worship may be a new emphasis these days, but it is not new for human beings. We have been doing it since we were created. God did more than create us and tell us to worship him. He created us with a NEED for worship. Blaise Pascal, the brilliant French physicist we looked at yesterday, is the one who is credited with the idea of a God-shaped vacuum in every human heart. That's because he studied the vacuum and noticed that whenever a vacuum exists something by nature has to rush in and fill it. It seemed to him the perfect picture of how God created us, as constantly pulling in something. Think of yourself as a human spiritual vacuum. Now the thing about a vacuum is that it will pull in anything that is within its reach. Like me, you may have heard this concept before, and assumed its work was already accomplished in someone's life by becoming a Christian. God created us with a need for Him — a hole inside us that is in the shape of God so nothing else satisfies that need but Him, and once I respond to Christ, that hole is filled and I am spiritually satisfied. But this description doesn't go far enough. It doesn't show that we are continuing to need Him. God doesn't plug up the hole so we can go on and indulge in whatever we like since this foremost thing is taken care of. He has made us with an enduring need to keep filling ourselves up. In other words, we not only have a vacuum, we are vacuums — always on, always sucking up whatever is near the heart. Whatever you put near the door of your heart is going to be sucked in. Think of the number of things cluttering our spiritual core simply because we have not kept God and his truths close to our hearts at all times. This is why Jesus said we couldn't serve God and anything else. In order to live the way we were meant to live, we need to keep God as the focus of our worship and nothing else — not pride, or money, or material things, or even people. Think about what you have near your heart today, and make sure that God is there, because only He can satisfy.
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Mind on Fire	Wednesday, March, 19, 2008
by John Fischer [One of our readers requested I repeat a piece on Blaise Pascal, a brilliant French Renaissance thinker whose life and work lend credibility to the fact that faith and intellect can coexist. So here it is.] In thirty-nine short years (nine, while suffering with an illness that finally claimed his earthly existence) Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) created mathematical theorems that are still in use today, discovered and researched the properties of a vacuum, dialogued with the greatest scientists of Europe, and wrote volumes of discourse on the meaning of life and the existence of God that is still considered to contain, in its mastery of reason and logic, the finest prose in history. I doubt there is a literary or law degree in the western world that does not include, as its foundational study, the writings and argumentative skills of Pascal. And here is what you find out in all that body of work: that his mind was on fire with the light of Christ. With all of his genius intellect, it was a direct encounter with the risen Christ that filled up the emptiness in his own soul. Pascal’s most amazing discovery was that you cannot know God through intellect alone. You know Him through the heart and that comes through experiencing Him directly in a spiritual way. "The heart has its reasons, that reason knows not of." On the night of November 23, 1654, while reading the seventeenth chapter of the Gospel of John, Pascal had an encounter with God that instantly filled the emptiness in his heart. It was a life-changing experience he would memorialize on a parchment that he had sewn into the lining of his coat until his death, eight years later. On that parchment, he wrote: From about half past ten at night to about half an hour after midnight, FIRE "God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob," not of philosophers and scholars Certitude, heartfelt joy, peace. God of Jesus Christ. God of Jesus Christ. The world forgotten, everything except God. "O righteous Father, the world has not known You, but I have known You" (John 17:25). Joy, joy, joy, tears of joy. In a moment of his greatest illumination, Pascal wrote what a child could have written. From that moment, he went on to write: "Reason Can Begin Again by Recognizing What It Can Never Know," and "The Transition from Human Knowledge to Knowing God." Both of these titles indicate that it is not sufficient to know about God or even argue His existence (which Pascal could do better than anybody); it was ultimately necessary to meet God and come to know Him personally. 350 years ago, one of the greatest minds in human history trembled in the presence of God and cried tears of joy over his salvation, and now, scholars, scientists and lawyers have to read about it, because he wrote it so well. I don’t know about you, but that kind of stuff sets my mind on fire! [First appeared on PurposeDrivenLife.com.]
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Pleasing God	Monday, March, 17, 2008
by John Fischer If you’re anything like me, you are really good at beating yourself up on a regular basis. Most of us live with a lot of guilt. We were never good enough. Everything is our fault. This is because all our lives, we have learned acceptance based on performance. If we behave properly, we will be loved and accepted, but one mess-up and love is withdrawn. We are expected to do well, so we only hear about it when we don’t. God loves us on a wholly different basis. With God, we begin with love and acceptance and we move out from there. When John the Baptist baptized Jesus, a voice was heard from heaven as He came up out of the water, “This is my beloved Son, and I am fully pleased with Him” (Matthew 3:17). At this point in his ministry, Jesus has done nothing to prove Himself or earn his Father’s approval. No healings. No teachings. No disciples. His baptism signaled the beginning of his ministry, and yet we find God fully pleased with Him at this point. It was a given. It is the same thing with us. God delights in us just as we are. You are pleasing to God already. Or to put it another way: God likes you. This may be hard to believe but it is true. You bring pleasure to God right now as you read this. God’s love is extended freely through Christ’s death on the cross. It’s what Christ did that brings us into fellowship with God, not what we do. The things you do today will not cause God to like you or dislike you, they will grow out of knowing you already bring Him pleasure. And there is nothing you can do to alter that fact. So take it. Bask in it. Yes, right now, without lifting a finger, God is pleased with you. He made you for this. He made you and He delights in you. This is where we start. [Adapted from an earlier Purpose Driven Life daily reading by John Fischer.]
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Sunday, any day	Friday, March, 14, 2008
by John Fischer What do I need to worship You Lord? Do I need some religious icon set in stained glass to carry my spirit up out of this earth's vain pull? Do I need music to lift my soul to another plane? Do I need to have someone tell me how I should think about You, and what I should say to You? Do I need someone else's words to communicate with You? Do I need someone else's song? Do I need to be religious to worship You, or can we just walk along and talk like You did with Your disciples? Do I need the proper prayer order — you know, thanksgiving first, then confession, then protection, then petition, then praise — or will "Help!" suffice? Can You fill in all the rest? Aren't You here, anyway? Right here? I have the feeling I have Your attention all the time; the bigger question, I suppose, is do You have mine? I have to honestly say You do not. Not always, and certainly not enough. Forgive me Lord for forgetting — for missing You breathing down my neck. I worry so much about things that You already know about. You know how this is going to turn out, anyway. If I could just trust You…. Hear me today, O Lord. Accept my worship today even though it's just an ordinary day. Teach me something today that will change me tomorrow. May I bring You pleasure as much by walking through my day today as I would singing in church, or reading my Bible or praying in a fellowship group. I'm not a religious person, O God, and if You want the truth, I don't want to be. I just want to know You and know You are with me. I know You are, in my head, just help me to see You with my heart today. All day. Any day. [Adapted from an earlier Purpose Driven Life daily reading by John Fischer.]
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Keeping On	Thursday, March, 13, 2008
by John Fischer Life is difficult. Nothing worth anything is easy to come by. I'll never forget my first backpacking experience. I was 21 years old and hiking with a group of experienced high school students. I had never heard of this sport. We climbed over 3,000 feet the first day to get over a pass at 11,000 feet. Of course I had no idea how elated I was going to be reaching the top of the mountain and descending down the other side to a pristine High Sierra lake in the wilderness untouched by anyone other than backpackers on foot. All I could think of for the excruciating last two hours of that first ascent was what on earth was I doing this for? Barely managing one foot in front of the other, focused only on the pack of the kid in front of me, we slowly made our way up above the timberline through gravel and shale that made you slip back every few steps 'til it felt like you were taking two steps back for every one step forward. I knew nothing of the reward; I knew only to keep going — keep pushing through the pain of adding 35 pounds to my weight, and testing the muscles in my back, legs and lungs that had not been used to this kind of demand. But how all that changed when we reached the top! A lot of our spiritual journey is the same way. Obedience sometimes seems like nothing but hard work. We keep on moving forward — keep on believing — even when we have no clue how much farther we have to go or what's on the other side. But I have noticed one encouraging thing about this. My subsequent experiences of backpacking were easier to endure once I knew what was waiting for me on the other side of the mountain. A few rewards of faith under your belt will go a long way towards giving you the courage to believe again, even in testing times. Once you have believed God and found his faith to be real and full of actual substance in the midst of demanding circumstances, it makes it easier to believe him again when a new trail challenges you. So whether you are on this trail for the first time or the umpteenth time, keep your eyes fixed on the goal and your feet moving one in front of the other, even if you slip back from time to time. It will all be worth it (and much of the pain forgotten) on the other side. "Job is an example of a man who endured patiently. From his experience we see how the Lord's plan finally ended in good." (James 5:11) [Adapted from an earlier Purpose Driven Life daily reading by John Fischer.]
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News Conference	Wednesday, March, 12, 2008
by John Fischer The governor is tight-lipped. His wife, by his side, is stone-faced. They're on the front page of the newspaper because he just got caught setting up a call girl. He is apologizing. Don't you feel just a little bit sorry for this guy? What if every time you sinned, they had to hold a press conference for you to apologize for it? I guess what I'm feeling is the total absence of anyone admitting a double standard here. How many of the reporters who worked on this story have cheated on their wives? How many, given the protection of anonymity, would do it again? How many husbands reading this story are just glad they haven't gotten caught yet? And yet we love to catch these guys, as across the nation, heads shake, tongues wag, and enemies gloat. Isn't it all about getting caught? Would this man have apologized had this not come to light? Would you? That's probably what we need to think about today -- the moral compass that God put inside each of us. Are we listening to it? Can we police ourselves? Would we blow the whistle on ourselves, or must we wait until the whole thing explodes in the morning paper? Because -- when all is said and done -- wasn't that my picture I saw this morning? You don't even have to try and figure out if I'm confessing adultery here, because God knows I've thought it hundreds of times, and Jesus said my thoughts were as good as guilt. I know the caption read Governor Spitzer, guys, but I think it could have been any one of us.
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Too much church	Tuesday, March, 11, 2008
by John Fischer [Note: Many of you have written and asked what's going to happen to the Catch. Well I am not ready to answer that yet, and that is why I am filling the Tank with earlier readings from the Fischtank and from my archives with Purpose Driven while I seek an answer to that question. I was deeply moved by the great outpouring of response I received from many of you. Please know I will not do anything without letting you know. You are all very important to me.] One of the greatest deterrents to a Christian's witness in the world can often be too much church. I met a man once who served on the Missions Committee at his church. He told me how he was most proud of a certain former member of the committee — a woman who had put a promising career aside when she and her husband decided to adopt three children from Lithuania. Figuring that these children, who had grown up at great risk, would demand her full time attention, she committed herself to that very thing. She did enjoy volunteering at the church, however, and ended up serving on the Missions Committee and teaching Sunday school. Then suddenly, as abruptly as she had begun serving her church, she informed my friend that she was resigning from the Missions Committee and giving up her Sunday school class as well. He asked her what was wrong, and she said that everything was fine — God had just spoken to her, and she was going to follow His lead. "I spent most of the summer being a pool mom," she told him, "taking my kids to the pool four to five days a week. I became friendly with several other moms, and we all had a lot of time to talk together. As August was winding down and the pool was about to close, one of them said to me, 'It has been a real pleasure getting to know you this summer. The rest of us have been friends all our lives. We went to the same schools, the same summer camps, and the same temple. We were at each other's bat-mitzvahs, and we attended each other's weddings, but we've never gotten to know anybody like you. Maybe we could keep in touch….' "So what could be a clearer direction from God than that?" she concluded. "I've decided to spend the next year completely focused on being a friend to this group of young Jewish ladies. I am going to practice friendship first... and I don't want to be distracted by the demands of church activities. If I don't give them up, I'll have a very hard time fitting my friends into my schedule. This next year is for them! After that, who knows?" So there you have it: someone got off the Missions Committee to perform a mission — a mission of being a friend. One of the greatest deterrents to a Christian's witness in the world can be too much church. If more Christians were less busy with church, I bet more people would get introduced to Jesus. [Adapted from an earlier Purpose Driven Life daily reading by John Fischer.]
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'Are you okay?'	Monday, March, 10, 2008
by John Fischer If you should see someone alone and crying on a bus — or anywhere else, for that matter — you might want to consider asking that person what's wrong. That simple act of concern may be enough to save a life. It would have been enough to keep John Kevin Hines from jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge. As it turned out, he lived to tell about it anyway. Halfway through his 4-second, 220-foot plunge into 50° water with his 19-year-old life flashing before him, Hines found himself thinking, "What did I just do? I don't want to die." His youth and excellent physical condition were what helped him be one of the few to survive the popular suicide leap — that, and a newfound determination to live. A struggling bi-polar mental patient, he had been in the severe grip of depression a number of times, as he has since his jump, but his survival has given him a new sense of purpose in his life: to help prevent others from trying what he calls "a permanent solution to a temporary problem." "I was supposed to die," he said. "I wanted to die. Every day that jump prompts me to ask, 'Who am I? Why am I?'" For John Kevin, having a purpose in life is what keeps him alive now. A most revealing part of his story is what we would do well to reflect upon today. He relates that on the morning of his attempt, he kissed his father good-by and boarded a bus to the bridge, crying most of the way. On the bus, he told himself that if anyone asked him what was wrong, he wouldn't jump. No one did. He had only one human encounter on that fateful trip, and it was on the bridge itself just prior to jumping. After 40 minutes at the railing, crying and wrestling with his demons, a tourist stopped and asked if he would take her picture. He did, and as she walked off he thought, "That's it. I'm going. Nobody cares." It's so easy to say someone else's problems are "none of my business," but nothing could be more wrong. We are all each other's business. Just a simple acknowledgment of someone else's pain was all Mr. Hines bargained for with his life. He wouldn't have even asked someone to solve anything. Just care enough to ask: "Are you okay?" Quotes are taken from "A Jump Survivor's Bridge to Activism," The Los Angeles Times, May 23, 2005, p. A1. [Adapted from an earlier Purpose Driven Life daily reading by John Fischer.]
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Sense and sensitivity