November 08, 2005

Being Politically Incorrect!
by John Fischer

Wrong is wrong even if everyone is doing it; right is right even if no one is doing it. - St. Augustine

Notice how little you hear about right and wrong these days? When right and wrong are purely subjective (what's right for me may not be what's right for you), we lose any external standard for morality. We have a cultural expediency right now called postmodernism that allows for a great deal of ambiguity over right and wrong. Indeed, any external standard of right and wrong has now become politically incorrect. Now isn't that convenient?

Even the Ten Commandments have become more of a controversial symbol of a fight over church and state than what they were intended to be -- a standard by which human beings can behave properly and live long on the land. I read recently where one commentator suggested that with all the fighting over whether the Ten Commandments should be displayed at government sites, obeying them has been completely overlooked. I think he's right.

Based on the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20), lying is wrong. Stealing is wrong. Wanting what others have is wrong. Killing is wrong. Adultery is wrong (regardless of what the meaning of “is” is). Worshiping anyone or anything other than the one true God is wrong. Invoking God's name when you have no real thought towards Him is wrong. And then there are a couple things that are right: honoring your father and mother, and keeping one day of rest among seven

I don't know about you, but I have a long ways to go on just these. I tell people I'm going to do things that I end up not doing. It's always well intentioned, but it is a lie if I don't follow through with what I said. I steal by being in debt and not paying back. I was doing fine on killing and adultery until Jesus came along and redefined killing as hatred and adultery as lust. (Whoops!) And then there are those commercials that appeal to everything I want that I don't have, and I don't see a whole lot of resistance going on in my own life. I want as much as the next guy.

Meanwhile, God's idea of right and wrong hasn't budged an inch since the beginning of time. We would do well to get a little old-fashioned about this. These commandments are there not only to help us be better people, but also to remind us how far we have to go, and how much we need God's grace and forgiveness to get there.

When it comes to right and wrong, we could afford to be a little politically incorrect!

	John Fischer is the Senior Writer for Purpose Driven Life Daily Devotionals. He resides in Southern California with his wife, Marti and son, Chandler. They also have two adult children, Christopher and Anne. John is a published author and popular speaker.
	Click HERE to sign up for The Better Life, an e-newsletter brought to you by PurposeDrivenLife.com, with articles by Rick Warren and other insightful writers. To see a sample of The Better Life, click HERE.

October 28, 2005

More On Religion and Spirituality
by John Fischer

When you give a gift to someone in need, don't shout about it as the hypocrites do--blowing trumpets in the synagogues and streets to call attention to their acts of charity! I assure you, they have received all the reward they will ever get. (Matthew 6:2 NLT)

I don't know how many of these sayings are floating around out there, but I may have uncovered something significant. Earlier this week I quoted one of our readers as saying that a religious person sits in church thinking about fishing while a spiritual person goes fishing thinking about God. (Not at all meaning to imply that the spiritual person is fishing in place of going to church, by the way. The point is simply that spiritual people worship God with a heart that permeates everything they do, while religious people may look holy, but not have their heart in it.)

Now someone has sent me this: “A religious person is trying to avoid hell; a spiritual person has already been there.”

Religion is the nemesis of Christianity, and these types of contrasts point that out. Religious people are stuck in a religious points system that keeps track of everything. They are actually pretty confident that hell can be avoided based on their own point tally. By contrast, keeping track is the last thing spiritual people want to do, because their track record condemns them. They believe that they deserve hell and get heaven by God's grace. Spiritual people are constantly pinching themselves because they can't believe their good fortune. The last thing they want to do is tally up points, because that will only confirm what they already know: they don't have enough. Never will.

I think I'll try my own hand at this:

Religion is a system; spirituality is a state of being, made possible by a relationship. Religion is trying to please God; spirituality is enjoying God. Religion is Martha fussing in the kitchen; spirituality is Mary listening at the feet of Jesus. Religion keeps the score; spirituality keeps the faith.

And yes, spiritual people have been to hell and back, because that is how they came to know God in the first place. They all came to the end of their rope in some way, calling out desperately to God and finding Him there, eager to listen and respond. It's the hellish kinds of experiences that have brought them to realize their need.

No one can be found unless they are lost; no one can be saved unless they are drowning. Spiritual people realize this because they have been rescued. By contrast, “Jesus saves” means nothing to the religious because they have nothing in their determination from which they need to be saved. Religious people have too tight a hold on their own lives to ever let go. Spiritual people let go and find that God is always there to catch them.

Consequently, when spiritual people serve, they do it out of full hearts of gratitude. When religious people serve, they do it for points, and as Jesus said, they already have their reward (Matthew 6:2).

You can see how religion has kept a lot of people from Christianity. It's a shame, because there couldn't be anything farther from the truth of what it means to know God.

	John Fischer is the Senior Writer for Purpose Driven Life Daily Devotionals. He resides in Southern California with his wife, Marti and son, Chandler. They also have two adult children, Christopher and Anne. John is a published author and popular speaker.
	Click HERE to sign up for The Better Life, an e-newsletter brought to you by PurposeDrivenLife.com, with articles by Rick Warren and other insightful writers. To see a sample of The Better Life, click HERE.

September 19, 2005

Flunking Witnessing
by John Fischer

But telling others about Christ is one of the five great purposes in our lives. Why do we often find this so hard? Partly I think it’s because we’ve made such a big deal about it. In some circles it’s not one of five purposes, it’s our only purpose, and it’s usually presented as if we were at a sales conference getting pumped to sell our product.

I don’t know about you, but I’m a very poor salesman. I’m the kind of guy whose sales pitch would be, “You don’t want to buy this, do you?” I don’t like interrupting people. I don’t like infringing on their space. I hate it when people do that to me, so why would I engage in it myself? Plus, I don’t like pretense. I don’t like being nice to someone just to make a deal. I wouldn’t want anyone to think they are a means to an end.

That’s why I’ve been very encouraged to find out that true witnessing doesn’t involve any of these things. It doesn’t even involve having a memorized speech. Witnessing is really nothing more than befriending people and telling them your story at the right time (usually when they ask you).

Witnessing is being so in love with God that you eventually end up talking about Him. Witnessing is being so overwhelmed by the undeserved nature of your salvation that you can’t contain your joy. Witnessing isn‘t coercing someone; it’s quite the opposite. It’s having someone coerce the gospel out of you, because they can’t stand not knowing what’s going on with you anymore.

If you want to prepare for anything, think about your own story, how you can tell it, and how you can connect it to the events that are happening around you, and the things that are going on in the world that you know people want to talk about. But don’t worry about not being prepared. Probably some of the best witnesses around are people who would flunk a witnessing course, but make excellent friends.

	John Fischer is the Senior Writer for Purpose Driven Life Daily Devotionals. He resides in Southern California with his wife, Marti and son, Chandler. They also have two adult children, Christopher and Anne. John is a published author and popular speaker.
	Click HERE to sign up for The Better Life, an e-newsletter brought to you by PurposeDrivenLife.com, with articles by Rick Warren and other insightful writers. To see a sample of The Better Life, click HERE.

September 18, 2005

Thinking Something Different
by John Fischer

Discovery consists of looking at the same thing as everyone else and thinking something different. - Roger von Oech

I love this quote. I found it in the sign-off of an email from a friend and it has provided a good deal of reflection, some of which I offer to you today.

First is the use of the word “discovery.” You could replace that word with “worship” and the quote would still work. “Worship consists of looking at the same thing as everyone else and thinking something different.” I have found a good deal of worship is discovery. As we find out more about who we are and why we are here, we discover that God is more involved than we thought. When you find out the truth about God, it's like discovering what was always there; we just missed it somehow.

C. S. Lewis coined the phrase “of course” to describe the discovery of God's presence in the world and in our lives. Worship is the uncovering of God at work in the world. It's all about discovery. For instance, when you find out you were made for God, it's not like some radical thought that never crossed your mind. It's almost as if you knew it, but you forgot. “Of course,” seems to capture this discovery aspect perfectly. A purpose-driven life rings true because it confirms something we all knew deep inside; it's just that no one put words to it for our generation until now.

Secondly, I like thinking something different. A follower of Christ looks at things differently. Learning to “see” is a lot of what it means to be a Christian. Christ gives us new eyes, and nothing looks the same to us anymore.

A follower of Christ looks at:

	John Fischer is the Senior Writer for Purpose Driven Life Daily Devotionals. He resides in Southern California with his wife, Marti and son, Chandler. They also have two adult children, Christopher and Anne. John is a published author and popular speaker.
	Click HERE to sign up for The Better Life, an e-newsletter brought to you by PurposeDrivenLife.com, with articles by Rick Warren and other insightful writers. To see a sample of The Better Life, click HERE.

September 14, 2005

A Modern-Day Solomon
by John Fischer

Coming from the honorary president of the American Humanist Association, that’s quite a statement. That’s like the president of NASA giving up on space exploration, or the president of baseball giving up on the game. His cause for pessimism is the apparent collapse of American values beneath an avalanche of public and private greed, and a social justice that has been obscured by war and fear. Still, after all of this, his advice is to keep going anyway, “and from moment to moment try to behave like Jesus, doing good unto others as much as we can.”

Now as you can imagine, that part about Jesus and doing good came from out of left field, and I couldn’t resist the opportunity to reflect on a leading pessimistic humanist concluding that Jesus nonetheless had the corner on living a meaningful life. With his glaring contradiction between giving up on humanity and living like Jesus, Vonnegut becomes a modern-day Solomon, who in the Book of Ecclesiastes, declared life utterly meaningless and then concluded the only thing to do was to fear God and keep His commandments (Ecclesiastes 12:13).

Of course Vonnegut is referring to the teachings of Jesus and not Jesus himself, but it’s certainly a step in the right direction.

And what is there to gain by reflecting on this today?

1) Even the most pessimistic of intelligent people can’t get away from the fact that we must have a purpose for being alive. We need to remember this as we share Christ with others. Sometimes the most pessimistic people are the closest to the truth.

2) His conclusion, like Solomon’s, was right; it just doesn’t go far enough. If all we have is our own humanity, we are most miserable and desperate regardless of what we try to tell ourselves otherwise. The deepest thinkers know this.

But the glorious truth of the gospel is that we not only follow the teachings of Jesus, we come into a personal relationship with God through Him. Indeed, it is impossible to fulfill the teachings of Christ without the knowing Him personally and having His Spirit in you to interpret the truth and enable you to live it. Both Kurt Vonnegut and Solomon missed the personal relationship that makes their own conclusions possible.

So if you’re about to give up on humanity, look into Jesus. He gave up on it too, so He could create a new one of which He is Lord. That’s the good news: something better than what we started with is possible!

	John Fischer is the Senior Writer for Purpose Driven Life Daily Devotionals. He resides in Southern California with his wife, Marti and son, Chandler. They also have two adult children, Christopher and Anne. John is a published author and popular speaker.
	Click HERE to sign up for The Better Life, an e-newsletter brought to you by PurposeDrivenLife.com, with articles by Rick Warren and other insightful writers. To see a sample of The Better Life, click HERE.

September 13, 2005

Better Than Who?
by John Fischer

One of the more damaging fallacies Christians can fall into is the thought that, because you are a Christian, you are of necessity better than most people out there who are not (i.e., you’re a better mom, a better husband, a better child, a better teacher, a better coach, or you have a better marriage, a better family, etc.) Though it may appear prideful or self-righteous, that may not necessarily be the case. This kind of thinking can spring from a genuine, though incorrect assumption that Christianity, in order to be true, must produce better all-around people. In other words, we take on the responsibility to defend the truth through the ”better” lives we display.

Now granted, we are all growing in Christ with the ultimate goal of becoming like Him, but that doesn’t necessarily mean we are “better” than other people. It means we are in the process of becoming more loving, more truthful, more peaceful, more patient, and more kind. “Better” is often defined in terms that have little to do with becoming like Christ. The religious leaders of His day would never have described Jesus as being better than anybody. In fact, they thought Jesus was a scoundrel – they called Him a drunkard and a glutton (Matthew 11:18,19). So “better is a relative term.

What’s true is that we should be getting better, but “better” compared to what? Compared to ourselves – what we used to be – which may still be a long way from someone else out there who is perhaps a more healthy person overall. Bottom line: it’s not good to compare yourself with others, whether they are Christians or not. “Better” means better than I was yesterday, not better than you.

Admitting that an atheist has a better marriage, a Mormon has better kids, a Muslim family is more loving, or a Buddhist is more healthy need not be a threat to one’s Christianity. The point is, as Christians, we are saved, and that’s the most important thing. We are all sinners saved by grace, and rather than making ourselves out to be different from everybody else, we should be focusing more on our similarities. If we need Jesus, so does everybody else, and that makes us basically the same as the rest of humanity.

I might think of myself as a good father but you know there are lots of good fathers out there, and when it comes to fathering, I have much to learn. So someone might teach me about fathering, and I might, in turn, be able to share Christ with that person because he may be experiencing a lot of guilt inside, or he may be carrying around a sense of failure, or he may feel alone and distant from God and wondering what his life is all about.

	John Fischer is the Senior Writer for Purpose Driven Life Daily Devotionals. He resides in Southern California with his wife, Marti and son, Chandler. They also have two adult children, Christopher and Anne. John is a published author and popular speaker.
	Click HERE to sign up for The Better Life, an e-newsletter brought to you by PurposeDrivenLife.com, with articles by Rick Warren and other insightful writers. To see a sample of The Better Life, click HERE.

September 03, 2005

Solo Violin
by John Fischer

In Atlanta, a killer on a rampage was stopped in his tracks by a single mom wielding Day 33 of The Purpose Driven Life. I wonder if any purpose can be found in New Orleans right now. At first glance it looks like chaos and anarchy with loss and despair higher than the high water mark in town.

But there are bound to be a number of believers in that mass of homeless humanity, and by that I don’t mean good, regular churchgoers, I mean people who know Jesus, and because they know Jesus, they have strength of character, fortitude and purpose that nothing in this world can faze.

This is a time when truth is tested, and real character prevails. You either lose it or you stand solid like a well-rooted tree when all around is giving way. People who have a purpose in life beyond their possessions or their place – people who know that a relationship with God is their most valued possession and nothing can take that away – will rise to the occasion. These people will continue to worship God even when their church is under water. They will grow leaps and bounds in their faith because faith becomes tangible in moments like this. They will bond immediately with others who know Christ, and serve those around them because that’s all you can do – that or complain, and they will be too buoyed by the reality of their faith to complain about anything. And they will realize a mission to spread the love of Jesus like never before.

Pray for these people, and know they are there. They are all over the place, and their time has come. Like Ashley Smith’s time came alone with a killer in her apartment, the time for a calm, steady faith, and even suitable humor has come.

There’s a story already out about a man in the Superdome who managed to escape the youth hostel where he was staying with his violin, and surrounded by the stench of human waste and the press of crowded suffering, he took his instrument out and began to play the Adagio of Bach’s “Sonata No. 1 in G Minor.”

“These people have nothing,” he said. “I have a violin. And I should play for them. They should have something.”

Pray for the believers who escaped with their faith and now have something to share with those who have nothing. It is their time to stand out like a violin in an overcrowded arena.

	John Fischer is the Senior Writer for Purpose Driven Life Daily Devotionals. He resides in Southern California with his wife, Marti and son, Chandler. They also have two adult children, Christopher and Anne. John is a published author and popular speaker.
	Click HERE to sign up for The Better Life, an e-newsletter brought to you by PurposeDrivenLife.com, with articles by Rick Warren and other insightful writers. To see a sample of The Better Life, click HERE.

August 29, 2005

It’s Not About Being a Good Christian
by John Fischer

Here’s one of the greatest things about being a Christian:

You can accept yourself for who you are.

Here’s one of the most tragic things about being a Christian: You can be one for a long time without knowing this.

I was. I was what you might call a model Christian. I filled the bill. Any church or Christian school would have seen me as a poster child Christian. There was only one problem: I thought I was, too – when all the while I knew I wasn’t. I knew it was all pretty much a game.

All this was back when I thought a Christian was all about being a good person – someone who would rank high in relative goodness when compared to others more spiritually challenged.

This was before I realized that Christ died to save sinners, and to qualify for the free gift of salvation you have to realize you are desperately in need of being saved. You are drowning. You are dying. As a sinner, you are among the worst.

Once you make “being good” the criteria for being a Christian, you of necessity become the judge of others, because you have to judge others in order to remain good in you own eyes. So if you have not come to this, (i.e. you are still pretty good in your own eyes), and you preach the gospel (many do, from this perspective), it becomes a gospel for other people – not for you. And something doesn’t ring true.

You also remain aloof to just about everybody because you can’t really know anyone for fear they might come to know you and find out your secret, that you really are a scoundrel like everybody else. It’s a lonely life. Believe me. It’s much better to be a sinner whom Jesus Christ loves and for whom He died so you can spread the good news about Him to other sinners like you. Then you have nothing to hide, and only Christ – and a lot of friends – to gain by telling the truth.

I’ve been thinking a lot about Billy Graham lately and I think this is one of the things that made him such a good evangelist. When he preached about the gospel, he never excluded himself from needing it. He knew the gospel wouldn’t preach if it were not, first and foremost, for him.

Which brings us back to being a Christian and accepting yourself as who you are. That’s why Paul says in 2 Corinthians 3:18 that we all have unveiled faces. We have nothing to hide because we are reflecting the face of Christ whom we worship in continual gratitude for our salvation.

Thank goodness. I never liked being a good Christian anyway.

And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. 2 Corinthians 3:18

	John Fischer is the Senior Writer for Purpose Driven Life Daily Devotionals. He resides in Southern California with his wife, Marti and son, Chandler. They also have two adult children, Christopher and Anne. John is a published author and popular speaker.
	Click HERE to sign up for The Better Life, an e-newsletter brought to you by PurposeDrivenLife.com, with articles by Rick Warren and other insightful writers. To see a sample of The Better Life, click HERE.

September 1, 2005

Acts of God; Tears of God
by John Fischer

Hard to think of anything else right now but to feel for the people in the southern United States whose homes and virtual lives lie under feet of water, mud and rubble. My neighbor was out on her porch late last night talking about how she couldn't stop watching CNN. She knows friends and relatives in or near some of the flooded areas and there's no way to get through to them. I'm sure that is a very common dilemma right now. It's hard to pull yourself away because it is so hard to imagine this happening to anybody, much less someone you know. It's moments like this when we feel so frail and helpless as human beings. We are victims of forces way beyond our control.

In legal terms disasters like this fall under the category: “Acts of God.” Doesn't bode too well for God's reputation, does it? Is it that God doesn't have anything better to do than devastate the lives of hundreds of thousands of people? To some it may seem like that. We call natural disasters “Acts of God” because there is no other way to explain them. I would prefer to believe God is in charge of even things like this, and accept the inconsistencies that come with that belief, rather than live in a world even God can't control, or worse, where there is no reason for our existence and no one there to hear our silent screams.

One thing we need to remember is that this is the same God who let the world and His human creation go bad, and then turned around and sacrificed His own Son in a brutal death in order to save it. Will we ever understand that? Probably not. But as a result of God's unique divine/human incarnation, He understands us. He is neither distant nor untouched by our human predicament. Believe me, He's got His arms around these flood zones right now eager to help and comfort. And just as God suffered over Jesus, His heart is breaking over these losses. Whatever you feel, you can be sure God feels also, and then some. The acts of God include the tears of God. And just as He will ultimately redeem the human race, He will also turn our lives and devastations into good somehow. Life will go on and God will still be God.

Yesterday the governor of Louisiana asked for everyone to spend the day in prayer. That's where we turn when things like this happen. To have no one there to pray to would be even more devastating.

"[Prayer] would be the best thing to calm our spirits and thank our Lord that we are survivors," said Governor Kathleen Blanco. "Slowly, gradually, we will recover; we will survive; we will rebuild.”

	John Fischer is the Senior Writer for Purpose Driven Life Daily Devotionals. He resides in Southern California with his wife, Marti and son, Chandler. They also have two adult children, Christopher and Anne. John is a published author and popular speaker.
	Click HERE to sign up for The Better Life, an e-newsletter brought to you by PurposeDrivenLife.com, with articles by Rick Warren and other insightful writers. To see a sample of The Better Life, click HERE.