as a preface to the second part of my ‘growing up christian’ post i’d like to make it clear that i am in no way attempting to be negative or overly critical. i am simply interested in digging up my past in a way that will move me forward to being more Christ-like. if it ever comes of like i’m preaching, it’s because i’m pleading with myself to keep going. i got way off track in my first post and didn’t bother to edit it, so i will try to be more focused in this one. preface done. so much of what we learn as evangelicals is that there are a specific set of core beliefs that one must affirm in order to be considered “in the fold,” so to speak. this list includes the following doctrinal affirmations: God created the world in six days (literal or figurative), we are… [Read More]
Posts Tagged ‘sins’
growing up christian (part dos)
August 5th, 2011 
dave 
Posted in American Christianity 
Tags: angel, bullhorn, Christ, Christian, cross, Dave Capozzi, death, disciples, eternal, faith, faithful, God, Jesus, Jesus Christ, life, love, religion, resurrection, scripture, sin, sinner, sins, struggle, turn or burn, war 
No Comments »Why I love Buddha
March 6th, 2011 Dana Fisher 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]
know thyself
July 9th, 2010 dave hola. i believe it was socrates (sow-craits)johnson from bill and ted’s excellent adventure who said, “know thyself.” well socrates, i fully intend to. i’ve come to a point in my life where i am not all that concerned with hearing about my negative traits. i’ve actually come to the point of wanting to know more of them and even embracing some of them. i want to know the things that other people think about me and just won’t tell me. seriously, i can handle it! over the past couple of months i have been involved in a group that has allowed me to open up about the things that i struggle with, and they in turn have told me what they believe to be my flaws as onlookers to my life. side note: they are real jerks about it. i’m thinking about leaving the group. joke. in fact, they have… [Read More]
Posted in Mercy Tags: Community, confession, forgiveness, God, grace, John, life, pain, sin, sins, struggle No Comments »fuzzy lines
June 18th, 2010 dave hola friends, i had a brief, but great, conversation with my friend jeremy yesterday when he visited my workplace. we were talking about the bible and some of its apparent contradictions. since jeremy is the pastor of his own community in hingham i will not speak to anything he said, but as you might assume, i am not too shy to let the world wide web know my current thoughts on the matter. a little background to start…i have, for a few years now, come to embrace the teachings, life, death and resurrection of jesus as the benchmark for which my life should be patterned (of course i fail. of course i cannot do it on my own). this is certainly not anything groundbreaking, but when it first occurred to me that jesus actually meant for us to take his word seriously my whole life changed. as one who grew up… [Read More]
Posted in American Christianity, Mercy, Radical Christianity Tags: America, angel, bible, change, Christ, Christian, christians, Community, Corinthians, death, disciples, evangelicalism, fear, God, grace, Jesus, kingdom, life, light, Lord, love, Mark, Matthew, mercy, old testament, patience, peace, pray, resurrection, revelation, romans, Savior, scripture, sermon on the mount, sin, sins 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 »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]
Let 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]
Salt Water Taffy
March 19th, 2008 Dana Fisher …but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. – John 4:14 I love salt water taffy! One minute you’re chewing on cinnamon, the next mint chocolate. Any flavor you can imagine probably exists as a piece of salt water taffy somewhere. One of the best and worst parts is how chewy and sticky it really is. It gets stuck so far down in your teeth you taste it for hours. As I grabbed a piece from the candy jar at the pet store the other day it got me thinking; I’m just like this little piece of taffy. In the scope of things this little piece of taffy is insignificant. If it fell on the ground, or got dirty and was unusable we’d throw it away. We get dirty every day with sins we don’t even realize we commit. Yet Jesus comes along and cleans us off,… [Read More]
It smells so good!
January 16th, 2008 Dana Fisher Count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. -Romans 6:11 A couple of months ago I was walking to my car after work and recognized an unmistakable smell; The smell of autumn. It was 45-50 degrees, the sun was beginning to set, and it just smelled like fall. I love that smell for some reason. Maybe it’s memories, maybe it’s the changing landscape but something about that smell seems calming. I started thinking about what the smell actually was and it dawned on me that it was leaves. And I started thinking about why leaves die and regrow, why they change color, and why do they smell so good in the fall. God gives us a perfect example of His word in a real world visual. See, leaves bud, the sun gives them light and they grow. They mature and turn in to a vibrant color… [Read More]
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]
