Category: grace
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‘Joy Deep As Sorrow’
Well, we made it. As the dawn started to creep into the morning sky, I realized we had made it through the longest night of the year. From now on, the sun will come up a little earlier and go down a little later each day. We’re tilting back toward the sun. Every day gets…
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Love over barriers
For the past three weeks, Hebrews 13 has been revealing its treasures to us daily. There are many and they are prophetic, and they are so very timely. And I am personally excited because I have been praying for this. Of course, all of scripture is prophetic and certainly timely, but some passages seem to…
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One more reason why church should be like an AA meeting
Let us, then, go to him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore. Hebrews 13:13 “Hi, my name is John, and I’m a sinner.” “Hi John!” That’s the way church should begin. Before the Call to Worship; before the opening hymn — even the Invocation. Church should start with, “Hi, my name is John, and…
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‘You really gotta get out more’
Thanks to Sandy, Toni, Gail, Nick, John, Liz, Lyn, Phillip, Merlyn, Bob, Lisa and Jill for their comments on yesterday’s Catch. As Phillip pointed out, we are all very busy and don’t always get to all our emails so that some people don’t respond just because they never saw it. I realize that, and that…
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A community of love
By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another. John 13:35 The over-arching theme of all that we do here at the Catch — indeed for Christians everywhere — is love. It is the driving force in the Bible and in all Christian communities. In fact, I propose calling…
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It doesn’t matter what your excuse is
A bruised reed He will not break. Isaiah 42:3 I can see it now. Jesus, on the night in which He was betrayed, goes to the olive grove called Gethsemane taking Peter, James and John with Him, and urges them to “Stay here and watch with me” while He goes on ahead to pray. “My…
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Our wishful Washington concert
What a concert! Yesterday I wrote a Catch about how music might have affected the large political gathering at the Capitol building last week the way music addressed another political crowd gathered near the nation’s capitol back in 1963 during the civil rights march on Washington where Dr. Martin Luther King gave his famous…
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Anna of Arendelle
A funny thing happened to me this time on the way to the Catch. I ran into Princess Anna of Arendelle. Not the animated version from the Disney movie, Frozen, but the real princess — the younger sister of Elsa, the Snow Queen with the magic powers. You might know that it was those powers…
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A soldier’s cross
Maybe you remember it when this story first came out almost 10 years ago — the photograph of a wooden cross strangely draped with a military dog tag and a purple vestment and crowned with an army helmet. It was a memorial to Captain Dale Goetz, a chaplain in the US Army who was killed…
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An army of Grace Turned Outward
We’ve been talking a lot about MemberPartners lately. That’s because our MemberPartners are the key to the Catch Ministry. They are the ones who believe in our vision — Introducing the Gospel of Welcome — Grace Turned Outward — to Everyone, Everywhere — and are committed to making it happen by any way and any…
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The miracle of forgiveness
Catch MemberPartner, Robert, from Seattle, shared with us a “sore thumb” story about forgiveness. The story was featured on TV, so it reached a large number of people and makes a statement that no sermon could ever equal. And even though it took place 14 years ago, the story is still playing on the internet.…
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Love and mercy
Brian Wilson, mastermind of the famous Beach Boy sound, says he was in his piano room playing “What the World Needs Now” when he got the idea for his 1988 song, “Love and Mercy.” He went on to say that he poured his heart into this song and that it was the most spiritual song…
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‘Behold I am making all things new’
Last night in our Catch church service on line, we had a blessed time recalling Isaiah 53 as the true meaning of Christmas. Remembering it was the birth of a suffering servant whose life was “cut short in midstream” for your sake and mine. This was the birth of the Son of Man who bled…
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‘All aboard!’
People, get ready There’s a train a-coming You don’t need no ticket You just get on board All you need is faith To hear the diesels humming Don’t need no ticket You just thank the Lord – Curtis Mayfield Get ready people; something’s coming. Curtis Mayfield knew it. “I must have been in a very…
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Tender mercies
This week we are looking for the new covenant in the Old Testament of the Bible. Most Christians have a tendency to think about the Old Testament as being all about the old covenant, and the New Testament all about the new. That is generally true, but it doesn’t mean there is no new covenant…
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Forgiveness Now!
If you had been somehow able to view from outside our bathroom window, the conversation I just had with my wife, (why is it that all meaningful conversations in my house happen in the bathroom or the kitchen?) you would have wondered what that crazy woman was doing bouncing back and forth, hopping first…
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Why Grace Turned Outward is so important
Once, you Gentiles [all non-Jews] were rebels against God, but when the people of Israel rebelled against him, God was merciful to you instead. Now they are the rebels, and God’s mercy has come to you so that they, too, will share in God’s mercy. For God has imprisoned everyone in disobedience so he could have mercy on…
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To judge or not to judge
How hard it is to avoid passing judgment! Patricia, one of our readers, wisely pointed out in a comment on yesterday’s Catch that when I suggested that the preacher railing against pornography has probably got a pornography problem, I was giving you permission to judge all preachers who get mad at some sin as being…