John and Kathy Deisher

One Call, One Harvest, 50 Teams

Christ

Heroes

By

Fairy tales do not give the child his first idea of bogey. What fairy tales give the child is his first clear idea of the possible defeat of bogey. The baby has known the dragon intimately ever since he had an imagination. What the fairy tale provides for him is a St. George to kill the dragon.”

— G.K. Chesterton
"Fairy tales do not give the child his first idea of bogey. What fairy tales give the child is his first clear idea of the possible defeat of bogey. The baby has known the dragon intimately ever since he had an imagination. What the fairy tale provides for him is a St. George to kill the dragon."

My children used to love VeggieTales. Well, actually, I did, too.

My favorite was Larry. He looked at life differently. He saw it as an adventure. And, he had no use for a hairbrush because he had no hair. I can identify with that.

But my favorite memory of him was when he became LarryBoy. His catch-phrase was simplicity itself. He knew the situation called for someone to do something heroic. So he would declare:

“I am that hero!”. And he was. He was the hero needed for the moment.

We don’t need more problems. We don’t need more things to fear.

We need a hero.

When Peter and John ran to the tomb, they thought they would be the heroes to an unfolding drama. They would catch whoever removed the body of Jesus. (Hat tip here to Eugene Peterson and his great story about this in his book Five Smooth Stones for Pastoral Work)

But Jesus didn’t need a hero. He was that hero. He faced that biggest dragon we face, death, and defeated it.

So Peter and John became storytellers. Their story was one where people faced financial problems, sickness, lies, betrayal, even death, and declared that there was a hero for us.

Jesus.

Yes, dragons exist. But so does the dragon killer.

Change Yourself

By

When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.”

— Viktor E. Frankl 
"When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves."
Photo by Javier Allegue Barro on Unsplash

At some time or another, we all will encounter a situation that is beyond our control.

It is not very pleasant to be in that position.

We do what we always do: we try to change the situation. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn’t.

When it works, it is great.

When it doesn’t, it is not so great.

So what do we do? Mostly we complain. But is there a different path?

What if we could change ourselves? That is the challenge. It means we find a different perspective in which to view this situation. 

Maybe find a Kingdom perspective?

Because in the midst of every situation, there is always an opportunity for us to become more like Christ and see what God is doing.

Our Shoes

By

Christ literally walked in our shoes.”

–Tim Keller

I cannot tell you how many times I have talked with someone about something they are experiencing and have heard them say, “You don’t understand.”

They feel that because I have not had the exact experiences they have had, I can’t possibly understand.

And, maybe that is true.

But Jesus Christ can. He walked in our shoes.

Literally.

He experienced everything we will ever experience.

He was loved and reviled, accepted and rejected, embraced and betrayed.

Fully God…fully man. Fully capable of feeling and experiencing everything I have ever felt or experienced.

But with one exception. He never sinned.

So, I m confident that when I come to Christ, he understands. And he teaches me to love as he did, to forgive as he did, to embrace the journey he has placed before me.

So I can walk in his shoes.

Missing the Point

By

The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried.” 

― G.K. Chesterton, What’s Wrong with the World

Photo by Jukan Tateisi on Unsplash

Thomas Jefferson had a Bible. It was a very private book

The reason it was so private was that Jefferson had created a Bible suited for himself. He had taken all of the miracles out of the Gospels and was left with a document showing Jesus as a man of morals.

This leaves you with an easier Christian life. No Virgin Birth to explain. No miracles to deal with. No death and resurrection to mess with your idea of the afterlife.

Just a book of moral teachings offering an easy Christian checklist on what you should do.

Except we don’t do it.

Christ was never meant to be easy. It was never about checklists. It was about things that stretch us, challenge us, frustrate us, capture us, change us, shape us.

It was about “Greater things than this you will do.”  It was meant to be difficult apart from Christ.

So, you cut out what you don’t want.

And miss the point entirely.

Ambitions

By

Are you following Christ’s ambitions for your life or expecting Him to help you reach yours?”

― Stephen Davey
Following Christ

Photo by Jehyun Sung on Unsplash

A guy walks up to Jesus on the road.

Sounds like the start of a joke, doesn’t it? But it turned out to be anything but that.

He wanted to follow Jesus. I mean, REALLY follow Jesus. Great credentials. Great background.

We would have signed him up right then to be a deacon or a teacher or small group leader.

Instead, Jesus said he was only lacking one thing.

That’s not bad, right? Only lacking one thing?

Except the one thing was everything. The one thing was everything the young man had sought—money, security, comfort. They were the things that made up his ambition

And when the young man’s ambitions for his life encountered Christ’s ambitions for his life, he couldn’t do it. Achieving his ambitions were more important than following Christ.

Whose ambitions are you following?