“He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives” ~Isaiah 61:1 As we celebrated Memorial Day this weekend I was struck by a sign outside a church I passed on my way to a cookout late Saturday afternoon. It was a small white building, typical of an older baptist style church with large front doors and a steeple that rose high above the trees. Right at the edge of street was their sign with the black plastic letters which slide in and out with a new message each week. On it it read “Freedom is not free. Thanks to those who fight for ours”. The sign really struck me because freedom really is free. Jesus came, as is written in Isaiah, to set the captives free. Regardless of where you are living, what you have done or are doing, Jesus Christ set you free. The… [Read More]
Posts Tagged ‘Christianity’
Freedom is free
June 1st, 2010 
Dana Fisher 
Posted in American Christianity, Non-Violent Resistance 
Tags: burden, Christ, Christian, Christianity, church, God, gospel, heart, Isaiah, Jesus, Jesus Christ, John, pray, praying, religion 
No Comments »Your religion teaches that?
May 31st, 2010 Dana Fisher When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him, “Look! Your disciples are doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath.” ~Matthew 12:2 I’ve been having some great challenging conversations with my new boss over the last several months. She’s Jewish and only believes the Old Testament but even from there her viewpoint is really of a secular nature. Our talks, during work no less, have covered sin, the flood, creation, Jesus’s life, and most recently Christians in general. Each time I have been challenged, stumped, and enlightened in some way and while I wasn’t shocked by the last one, it still sort of sat in my stomach for a while with a sickening feeling like eating a bad burrito. We started talking about illegal immigration, similar to my story several weeks ago about the immigration bill. I really don’t need to rehash the whole story, being that it was so… [Read More]
Posted in Non-Violent Resistance, Social Justice Tags: Christ, Christian, Christianity, christians, compassion, God, Jesus, Jew, John, love, Matthew, old testament, Pharisees, religion, sin, sinner No Comments »god hates us
May 28th, 2010 dave a small group of guys that i am a part of has been discussing the atonement as a result of watching this video featuring mark driscoll, pastor of mars hill church in seattle, washington. i want to share some quotes with you all from this video: “god hates all who do evil.” “we sin, God hates us!” ”we do what we are!” interesting. how do we reconcile this with john 3:16, never mind a whole score of passages in scripture that speak of God’s intense love for humanity, despite their wickedness? interesting that it doesn’t say that god so hated the evildoers of the world that he sent his only son to redeem them. this is not to say that it doesn’t in fact say that God hates evildoers in psalm 5:5, but we must not take one verse and apply an emotion or characteristic to God that seems entirely inconsistent when… [Read More]
Posted in American Christianity, Non-Violent Resistance Tags: Christ, Christianity, church, creation, evil, God, gospel, Jesus, Jesus Christ, John, justice, kingdom, kingdom of God, love, Mark, mark driscoll, mars hill, mercy, peace, Psalm, revelation, scripture, sin, war No Comments »Keep your sword, I’ll keep my Jesus
May 10th, 2010 Dana Fisher I am stunned by the lack of compassion and the brutal use of force by Christians. My Jesus never did any of that. I’m at a loss. The below conversation is real. I’ve only removed the names for anonymity. Below it you will find my thoughts about the whole thing. This conversation started as a result of a comment about the immigration law that was recently passed in Arizona PERSON 1 “is planning a trip out to Az. I will support them regardless of what the uninformed Boston city council says.” Now, these are the comments that followed: Dana Fisher: Maybe we should reread James 2. Maybe their motives aren’t pure and maybe they are trying to take advantage but who are we to judge? Hasn’t Christ called us to something higher than persecuting someone because they are from another country? Since when was this land “ours” and not the… [Read More]
Posted in American Christianity, Social Justice Tags: America, bible, change, Christ, Christian, Christianity, christians, compassion, cross, death, Ephesians, eternal, fear, God, gospel, hell, James, Jesus, justice, kingdom, life, Lord, love, Luke, Mark, Matthew, money, murder, old testament, peace, Peter, romans, satan, sin, sinner, sins, Spirit, spiritual, struggle, temple, truth, uncategorized, violence, war No Comments »Move with a sense of urgency
April 9th, 2010 Dana Fisher Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first… 2 Thessalonians 2:3 I see two things happening recently that are disturbing and exciting at the same time: A lack of enthusiasm and energy from Christians In-fighting within Christian circles I have a couple of friends that lead youth groups or young adult studies at various churches. A once vibrant young adults study of 30-40 has fallen to 1-2 people a week. Another which was 15 or so is now dwindled to those same numbers of just 1 or 2. From church to church the effort to do for Christ has shifted to “do for me”. Everyone is becoming lazy and apathetic. Kids aren’t excited to go to youth group, they are excited for events. “What can keep me entertained?” As people leave one church and head to another(for various… [Read More]
Posted in American Christianity Tags: Christ, Christian, Christianity, church, destruction, hell, Herod, Jew, messiah, Paul, satan, Saul, Thessalonians No Comments »old and new
March 25th, 2010 dave genesis 4:3-11: “in the course of time cain brought to the LORD an offering of the fruit of the ground, and abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. and the LORD had regard for abel and his offering, but for cain and his offering he had no regard. so cain was very angry, and his face fell. the LORD said to cain, “why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? if you do well, will you not be accepted? and if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. its desire is for you, but you must rule over it.” cain spoke to abel his brother. and when they were in the field, cain rose up against his brother abel and killed him. then the LORD said to cain, “where is abel your brother?” de said,”i do not… [Read More]
Carrying the Burdens of Others
March 24th, 2010 Dana Fisher they seized Simon from Cyrene, who was on his way in from the country, and put the cross on him and made him carry it behind Jesus ~Luke 23:26 I think we can all agree that the health care bill now shoved through Congress despite the outrage of the American people is frustrating. Why are we burdened with the few? Why is American becoming more socialistic as the days progress? The economic system in America is being held up by popsicle sticks as we’re determined to spend nearly a trillion dollars on just 32 million of the 309 million Americans to provide them with health care. I spent a bit of today in a heated argument with someone about the whole thing. I’ll be honest, Christianity did not ring out in my words. As her comments became more ludicrous and began landing below the belt I retaliated back with jabs… [Read More]
our f word
March 2nd, 2010 dave luke 23:34 – and Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” here, while Jesus is dying on the cross, he asks his father to forgive his killers for the ignorance of their actions. haven’t we always been taught that we have to ask for forgiveness from God before we can receive it? why then does Jesus ask his father to forgive his killers, despite the fact that they crucified him with no remorse? through Christ, i’ve come to find that the most shocking and earth-shattering thing you can do to another person is what Jesus did. forgive them. whether they deserve it or not. forgiveness is central to the life of a follower of Christ. it leads us to love neighbor and enemy alike, since we know that we are nowhere near being worthy of the forgiveness we continually receive. imagine, if you will, that… [Read More]
Posted in Mercy Tags: Christ, Christianity, cross, discipleship, enemy, forgiveness, God, Jesus, life, love, Luke, power, revenge, sin No Comments »the hardest way to live
October 6th, 2009 dave hey everyone, thanks so much for all of your fantastic insight into this issue. i resonate with everything that was written and struggle with the implications of being a peacemaker in this world of violence. it is quite simply the most difficult way to live. i have questioned, for quite some time, why it seems to be true that Christians (more than other people i speak with) have a hard time accepting that God asks us to love (and do good) to our enemies, to bless those who curse us and to turn the other cheek. not only does he ask us to live this way, but God himself lived this way through Jesus Christ. why is it that we praise the martyrs of 1st and 2nd century christianity, but we are now baffled by those who would rather die and kill? why do we continue to pluck out our… [Read More]
Posted in Non-Violent Resistance Tags: brother, Christ, Christian, Christianity, christians, cross, curse, desire, God, Jesus, Jesus Christ, love, peace, praise, Savior, struggle, theology No Comments »
