Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. -1 Peter 4:8 A few years ago, me and Dave would grab coffee in downtown Quincy after serving meals at the Crisis Center and just talk about controversial topics in Christianity: war, soldiers, guns, world religions, etc… Having grown up together, we could do this with civility even with opposing views because we loved each other regardless. Our differing views didn’t prevent either of us from going to heaven, we weren’t debating whether Jesus was just a man, but merely things with which many a Christian struggles to define. He had already known where I was coming from, both growing up in similar church surroundings(and sometimes the same one), and I wanted to understand better where he was coming from. The ideas he was throwing at me were strange, yet sounded and felt right in my… [Read More]
Posts Tagged ‘1 peter’
Suffering for Christ
January 30th, 2011 
Dana Fisher But rejoice inasmuch as you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed. ~1 Peter 4:13 You ever notice the more you veer towards the Lord the harder life becomes? That straight and narrow path is narrow for a reason and sometimes, certainly for me, it feels as if either side is a ledge. When I look back at some of the big trials in my life I see a moment in time on that same point where I made a decision for Christ and against the World. We don’t teach that in Sunday School. We teach hey come give your life to Jesus and watch the blessings flow. I believe Christianity need come with a warning. Those blessings do abound but they come at a price. They also often come inside peace that surpasses understanding. I realize this is hard… [Read More]
Posted in American Christianity 
Tags: 1 peter, 2 timothy, bible, blessings, Christ, Christian, Christianity, christians, death, devil, evil, fear, glory, God, Isaiah, Jesus, Jesus Christ, joy, life, Lord, love, Luke, peace, Peter, Psalm, satan, scripture, sin, Spirit, spiritual, Timothy, trial, trials, trust, truth, war 
Comments OffIt’s Real Love
August 16th, 2010 Dana Fisher But you – who are you to judge your neighbor? ~James 4:12 Last week a local newspaper headline began with the words “Bible Thumping Pastor…” A friend posted a status saying to call them and complain over the attack on Christians. Curious, I did a little searching and was able to find the article online and read it. After reading it, it didn’t seem so bad so I asked what was bad and if he had read it. His response: He hadn’t even read the article. Proverbs 21:23 says “He who guards his mouth and his tongue keeps himself from calamity.” I have always read that and thought, “don’t call people jerks” or “don’t swear”, but this situation made me realize it also includes speaking inaccurately, and swaying peoples opinions on things I don’t know or fully understand. The comment itself wasn’t bad but swaying someone into believing a lie… [Read More]
Posted in American Christianity, Radical Christianity Tags: 1 peter, bible, Christ, Christian, Christianity, christians, compassion, grace, James, Jesus, love, mercy, proverbs, religion, sin, sinner Comments OffLet the horse do the work
October 28th, 2009 Dana Fisher Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.. ~Matt 11:28 “I want you to take your hands off the reigns and trot over the bars without holding on.” The instructor said. “You want me to do what?” I looked down at her perplexed from atop a beautiful, large horse. I hadn’t ridden on a horse in over 20 years and I had only been on this one for about 15 minutes. “You’re leaning forward with your shoulders, using your own power to keep you up.” She replied. “You need to sit back more and allow the horse to do the work.” I’m a sports guy, I’ve played them my entire life. The instructor went on to explain that in sports you are trained to lead with your shoulder and in horseback riding it’s the complete opposite. There’s this large, powerful horse… [Read More]
Get off your butt
September 20th, 2009 Dana Fisher “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. ~2 Corinthians 12:9 Any one who’s ever been in a relationship long enough or who is married has seen this scenario. You both are exhausted, you can barely keep your eyes open. Maybe you’re lounging on the couch or falling asleep in bed. And then men, you hear “Honey, could you get me a glass of water?” Perhaps if your relationship is young you jump up and grab that glass of water or whatever she asked for. But the day comes later on when you’ve been together so long that the voice in your head wants to tell her “Your legs aren’t broken, I’m tired.” See, the Bible tells us to die to self(1 Peter 2:24) but inevitable our selfish nature creeps back in. When we started out as new Christians with our baby relationship we… [Read More]
Posted in Christian Living Tags: 1 peter, 2 corinthians, bible, Christ, Christian, christians, church, Corinthians, creation, cross, Ephesians, God, grace, Jesus, John, life, lion, Lord, love, Peter, power, relationship, revelation, romans, satan, Spirit, weakness No Comments »Defiant
February 11th, 2008 Dana Fisher “Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion” – 1 Peter 5:8 Have you ever heard the saying “everything comes in 3′s.”? It’s a common theme, you get a new car cheap, and find a $5 bill on the floor of the local stop and shop and one of your friends mentions “hey what’s next? Good things come in 3′s.”, and vice versa for bad things. Let me walk you through the last month of my life: I got severally sick for 2 weeks(bed ridden for days at a time), my heat broke, I ran out of heating oil, I hurt my back to where I thought I had just had back surgery again, I was down to my last dollar, a girl at work is trying to make my job hard and for some reason doesn’t like me, and as soon as I fixed my heat, it… [Read More]
We’re all searching
February 3rd, 2008 Dana Fisher For in the image of God has God made man. – Genesis 9:6 Our DNA is hard coded to worship Jesus. For any of us who follow Christ daily this fact is undeniable. When we worship it stirs up emotions we don’t feel at any other time. At points it drives us to tears of repentance, sometimes tears of joy, and other times tears of shear awe. For those who don’t serve this God, who have doubt, who have questions, this seems perplexing. How can worshiping something no one can see help me? How can it possible change my life? How do I know it’s even real? John 16:13 says “But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all truth.” When Jesus died, rose from the dead, and ascended to heaven God sent His Spirit as our guide.(John 16:5-11) In worshiping God and surrendering your… [Read More]
Posted in Christian Living, Radical Christianity Tags: 1 peter, bible, blessings, blood, change, Christ, Christian, christians, church, death, eternal, genesis, God, grace, heart, heaven, jeremiah, Jesus, John, Lamb, life, Lord, Matthew, Peter, Repent, saved, sin, Spirit, truth, war, worship No Comments »Devastated
December 27th, 2007 Dana Fisher The elements will be destroyed by fire. – 2 Peter 3:10 The smell of smoke and ash filled the air, choking out the breath in my lungs. But that wasn’t why my eyes began to water. Sitting on the cold, wet pavement just up the road was a young woman, wailing and sobbing. My brother came rushing in the door moments before. “Get out here, QUICK!” Confused and seeing the obvious excited panic in his eyes and went to the door in my socks. Not 500ft from my house flames licked the cold night sky. They stretched far out the top of the roof in the front, smoke billowing out from underneath the shingles in the back. It’s a sickening feeling knowing your helpless. I had heard the fire horn about 30 minutes before but thought nothing of it until now. As I walked down towards my neighbors house I… [Read More]
Don’t freak out!
December 17th, 2007 Dana Fisher For nothing is impossible with God. – Luke 1:37 I went to leave for work today and there was an odd white ring around my tire. I took a closer look and my wear bars were showing. A very bad sign and not something I should drive to work on. Okay, no problem I told myself. I called my mother who works for a tire company and got an appointment to get new tires. I can’t really afford them but it’s a need not a want at this point. With my appointment set I called work and told them I’d be working from home. As I sat on the computer doing the work thing I noticed my thermostat wasn’t on. It turns off when the furnace is blowing so I didn’t think much of it until the blower stopped and it still wasn’t on. Ooops, heat stopped working! It’s 20… [Read More]
Roller Coaster
December 7th, 2007 Dana Fisher Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering. -1 Peter 4:12 At the end of every school year my tiny Christian school would have an outing to a small amusement park about an hour from us. There was nothing great about the park, mostly kiddie rides, but they did have one ride all us older kids loved to get in line for. “The White Roller Coaster”. It wasn’t much to look at, an old school roller coaster made of wood. There aren’t many of these vintage coasters laying around anymore. It was rickety, it was noisy, and no matter how many times you rode it you always felt like this time could be your last and the cars could go flying off into the parking lot. There are four phases I see: The Anticipation, The Ride, The End, The Do-Over. The White Roller Coaster was… [Read More]
Posted in Christian Living Tags: 1 peter, 2 corinthians, change, Christ, Christian, Corinthians, God, Jesus, life, Lord, love, pain, Paul, Peter, satan, trial, trials No Comments »
