I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. – John 13:17 There are many things I will take away from my time at the Wild Goose Festival in North Carolina this past weekend of which I plan to write in depth on after a little(and much needed) digestion. One question raised in passing during one conversation was the wish that we had more, if not all, of what Jesus said. It is true that we have just a small portion of his 33 years of life wrapped up in the pages of our Bibles but I had never heard this sort of disappointment almost at the fact we did not have more. Mainly for my own benefit I wanted to hash that out in words. In order… [Read More]
Posts Tagged ‘gospel’
Everyone gets to Heaven
February 26th, 2011 
Dana Fisher A little discussion for your minds: Who gets in to heaven? Take a look at the article on Rob Bell, written by Justin Taylor. If you don’t want to read the article, at least scroll down and watch the video(the most important part). Many know that I am a believer in non-violent resistence, and am frequently called a pacifist. Having a background laced with anger and violence and continually struggling with my temper it took 27 years to come to the realization that Jesus really did call us to something drastically different than how we operate as people and nations. I want to discuss this, not because I side with Rob Bell or find truth in his statements, but because I see those believing in nonviolent resistance and a loving God getting lumped into this ‘other’ group which, in my opinion, is veering off the path into a scary realm…. [Read More]
Posted in American Christianity, Non-Violent Resistance 
Tags: believer, Christ, death, God, gospel, heaven, hell, Jesus, Jesus Christ, justice, Lord, love, nonviolent resistance, rob bell, romans, salvation, Thessalonians, truth, violence 
Comments OffLausanne Movement – Ramping up
October 18th, 2010 Dana Fisher The challenges of pulling off something of such a large stature have been apparent on day 3 here at Lausanne Cape Town 2010. We’ve had issues with our pipeline for internet access as our network fluctuates drastically. While they try to get some of us up on internet it has bottlenecked other teams from accessing and uploading information. I’m running off chocolate bars and 5hr energy that I happened to sneak in to my carry on bag during these 12 hour days as we ramp up for the opening of the congress. There is enough energy in the conference center to sustain me for this week, although I know I’ll be feeling it come the 27th when I am back on American soil. Today I met Mark, a father, professor, and missionary working in the context of Orality. It is an interesting topic, one that I had never heard of… [Read More]
Posted in Social Justice Tags: America, bible, Cape Town, Cape Town 2010, Father, gospel, Jesus, Lausanne, Lausanne Movement, Mark, Mark Overstreet, missionary, pray, relationship, sin Comments OffFreedom is free
June 1st, 2010 Dana Fisher “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]
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 »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 »hearing and doing
April 6th, 2010 dave matthew 7:24-27 – “everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. and everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against the house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.” over the month of january i read the sermon on the mount every day. it was a great discipline for me, and i learned many things about the gospel. one thing that continually stuck out to me was the way… [Read More]
Posted in Radical Christianity Tags: Christ, discipline, gospel, grace, Jesus, Matthew, pray, sermon, truth No Comments »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]
Jesus…the bully?
January 12th, 2009 dave check out this article in the ny times magazine. talk about making God in OUR image! mark driscoll has made Jesus into an american indie rock artist who would rather pummel his enemies than die for them. however, i do see his point since apparently we have turned Jesus into a “limp-wristed queer.” seriously?! i’ve never really thought that turning the other cheek, walking the extra mile or loving our enemies was “queer”. actually it is just the opposite. it takes a much bigger and stronger person to do what Jesus taught than to live the way driscoll teaches. while it’s hard to say that driscoll’s method has not changed many people’s lives for the better, i can’t help but think he is giving them a different Jesus than the one who is portrayed in the Gospels. in the long-term, there is a very real danger to believing in this… [Read More]
Posted in American Christianity, Radical Christianity Tags: America, calvinism, change, God, gospel, Jesus, Mark, sin No Comments »why does God allow satan to live?
November 28th, 2008 dave this little excerpt is taken from John Piper’s blog (you can read the rest here): Why does God allow Satan to live? …before I answer it, let’s make sure that we agree that it is true that God could take Satan out anytime he chose. Because I think there are some who would say, “He really can’t, because of some rights (or authority, independence, free will, etc.) that Satan has.” But the reason I know God can take Satan out without turning me into an automaton or breaking any rules is because he is going to take him out. He is going to throw him in the lake of fire. And the question is, “Why didn’t he do it yesterday? If he had done it yesterday I wouldn’t be tempted the way I am today. The Bible says, ‘Lead me not into temptation.’ Well, the best way not to be… [Read More]
Posted in American Christianity Tags: authority, bible, calvinism, Christ, death, eternal, God, gospel, hell, Holy, Holy Spirit, Jesus, Jesus Christ, John, kingdom, life, love, murder, pain, power, relationship, satan, sin, Spirit, struggle, temptation No Comments »
