Josh Hatcher's Blog

Mat 5:10-16 "You're blessed when your commitment to God provokes persecution. The persecution drives you even deeper into God's kingdom.
"Not only that--count yourselves blessed every time people put you down or throw you out or speak lies about you to discredit me. What it means is that the truth is too close for comfort and they are uncomfortable.
You can be glad when that happens--give a cheer, even!--for though they don't like it, I do! And all heaven applauds. And know that you are in good company. My prophets and witnesses have always gotten into this kind of trouble.
"Let me tell you why you are here. You're here to be salt-seasoning that brings out the God-flavors of this earth. If you lose your saltiness, how will people taste godliness? You've lost your usefulness and will end up in the garbage.
"Here's another way to put it: You're here to be light, bringing out the God-colors in the world. God is not a secret to be kept. We're going public with this, as public as a city on a hill.
If I make you light-bearers, you don't think I'm going to hide you under a bucket, do you? I'm putting you on a light stand.
Now that I've put you there on a hilltop, on a light stand--shine! Keep open house; be generous with your lives. By opening up to others, you'll prompt people to open up with God, this generous Father in heaven.

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It's tough to be a Christian today. We live in a country, where 85 percent of the people "claim" to be Christian, and the other 15 percent hate us, along with about 50 percent of those who call themselves Christians.

Just check out this google search if you want to see what the rest of the world thinks about us.
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=%22stupid+christians%22


I will go into why they hate us, but the first thing to note is that it's to be expected. IN fact, Jesus promised that we would be persecuted.

I am NOT saying that what the American church is going through is persecution.. that would trivialize the sufferings and the glory of Christians in the rest of the world.
http://www.persecution.com/


But what I am saying is this.. we're not popular. And this is my preamble.. for the next several blog posts we'll talk about this, and maybe not only learn how to deal with the anti-Christian bias in culture, but how to be Christians that make sense, and Christians that show love, and Christians that don't get lumped in with all the other "stupid christians."

Well, something is DEFINITELY wrong with our pastor. I think it's time someone had a talk with him.

I mean, come on, a week without TV, and now a week without food?


I much better like being a Christian on Sunday morning... This is just too hard.



Allright, that's not my thoughts here at all. I'm all about this. Not that I'm a fasting expert, mind you, the longest I've ever gone is three days, just several weeks ago.

Then I kept saying, I want to do a fast for five days, and then eventually seven days (my next step)... but I kept finding reasons not to do it.

Well, now I can't find a good excuse.


What is the deal with it? you might ask?

1. It gets me out of the norm. We're creatures of habit. And we find comfort in that habit... not that comfort or habit are bad, but they can and often do take your faith and crumple it up. God is often unexpected, and a life that follows Him should be as well.

Which brings me to Number TWO

2. It gets me closer to God. When I want to eat, I replace that hunger with a prayer. If i just get hungrier, I'm going to pray more. And not much gets you closer to God than prayer.

3. When we do it together, it draws us closer together. When we do an acto fo worship like singing, or praying, or fasting together, it gives us someting in common, which helps us relate, which makes us better friends.... man, i love you guys...

4. It's good for me. Face it. I'm fat. And my diet has been so bad recently.. I lost twenty pounds earlier this year with excercise and portion control, and i haven't gained much back, but i have ceased eating healthy, and i have no energy, and no self control. or at least very little... fasting forces my body to cleanse itself, and it helps me learn self control...

I hope you all are fasting with us, and it's not too late to start if you missed the first two days.

Even if you don't think you can do a whole week (I think you can do it..) you can at least do a partial fast, or a shorter fast. Skip one meal a day, give up sweets. Start somewhere....

So as i'm doing this fast, I'm crying out to God, and asking Him to show Himself. Might sound kind of bold... but God says if we seek Him we'll find Him... and even though many of us could say we've "found God" .. could any of us say that we've got all of Him we really need? that we know Him so well that we're content? that we know all there is to know about Him?

i'm satisfied by Him, but I know He's bigger than what I've imagined him to be.... so why not seek more?

Open Arms has been given a call. And it starts tomorrow.

I'm actually a little scared about this. I'm sitting here cramming... checking all my favorite websites, watching the Home and Garden Channel, and getting my "fix" to last me for five days.

TO be honest, I'm a junkie.


Television and the internet get way too much of my attention.. and I JUSTIFY it by saying that I\I'm watching family safe programming on SkyAngel, or I'm working on the "church" website, and looking at Christian sites...


but guess what.. the fact that suggesting going five days without them makes me scared tells me I have a problem.

and I don't want anything to get more of my attention than my God, and my family.... But a lot things creep their way in and seduce me with advertising gimmicks, or flashy design, or cool music... Sometimes they could be "godly" things.. sometimes they can be borderline, or downright wrong....


the point is.. The net and the TV have become such a fixation for me...


so, for five days, this is my last post.


starting at bedtime tonight.. No more media other than what I need at work to do my job....(which is media by the way)


and we are imposing it on the rest of the family... The kids have been runnning around.. Calling each other crude names they heard on some program... Their only media access will be the use of the internet for school... Sorry Michaelah, you can't go to barbie.com... sorry,. Abe, no Bob the Builder for you.


and sorry Josh... No more fox news channel, home and garden, relevantmagazine.com or even Open Arms Echurch Interact Forum...


I'll let you know how it comes out....

My Dad came to take me to the hospital today for my surgery. He popped in a CD of country stars singing old hymns in a bluegrass type style.

Now I'm a huge fan of music, not particularly country, but any music that's done with real passion, that gets me excited.

So hearing the old hymns I grew up with brought back some memories.

I know church has changed. Culture had change, language has changed, and while the gospel will never change... sometimes the method must, to reach a postmodern generation, who won't go to church, and some never have.

So for the sake of nostalgia, I want to take a minute and remember some of what I liked about church as a kid.

I remember waking up Sunday morning, and getting a bath, and then eating powdered white donuts in my underwear before I put on my crisp yellow or blue shirt, with a brown striped clip on tie, and brown pleated polyester pants, and shiny black shoes, or leather loafers.

I remember singing the COUNTDOWN song (somewhere in outer space, God has prepared a place) in Sunday School, before the teacher told a bible lesson with the flannelgraph.

I remember going upstairs to the sanctuary, and a silvery haired old man would pull peppermints out of his pocket and give them to my brother and I, as we juggled Sunday School papers.

I remember the organ preludes, the old hymns, dry, but rich...

and I remember Pastor Youngblood delivering a sermon, and asking the "ladies" to come and play a few verses of Just as I am, or another "invitation" hymn.

It was enough to make me want to run forward and give my heart to Jesus, and eventually I did.



Not that I think we should go back to "old church"... It's time to reach a new generation.. I just wanted to wax nostalgic and walk down memory lane.

Here's a couple of the hymns that played on dad's CD player after the surgery. They spoke to me, and reminded me that when I am in pain, when I'm lonely, or tired, or scared, my faith is there to comfort me.... and that's another blog post entirely!


I Need Thee Every Hour
Softly and Tenderly

Number 1. October is over... Time flies so fast. My youngest is ten months old. Where did this year go?


Number 2. October is or WAS, Clergy Appreciation month.... oops.
So Pastor Mike, did we tell you we appreciate you last month? If not, know this. The people in this church love you and respect you.

Who else does what you do for this wacky ragtag bunch of believers?


Clergy appreciation month came and went, and we didn't do the usual fare of "passing the hat" and buying our pastor something really neat, like Steelers Tickets, or Star Wars Episode Three on DVD.

How did we miss it?

I'll tell you... We've all been busy serving God. We've been busy being lights in dark places, and helping each other out when we need it. And scrubbing church floors, and planning Outreach events, and drawing closer to God with fasts and prayers, and building websites, and working our day jobs, trying to represent Christ to our neighbors and coworkers....

and ultimately, all of that, shows that we're actually LISTENING to the things that Mike's been teaching us.


And I'm sure that he sees it, and that he knows that we love him.

While I know there's been contention and conflict, we've stayed loyal, and tried to keep our eyes on God.


Sorry Mike, if you didn't get a card. I can GUARANTEE you that while you may not have felt appreciated in October, you were, and still are.

I think of the time when I called after I bounced my checkbook, and you helped me out.

Or when I needed a ride home that one night. Or when my kids were sick and you prayed for me.


And the time when you and Marne brought us pizza, and we "talked shop" for hours, while we made dinner, and cooked the pizza on the cardboard.....


Hey bro.. and that's just how you've ministered to ME.. And there is literally hundreds of other people in our church whom you've poured just as much love into....


yeah "rev", we appreciate you.

I hope you can see it in the way the people of Open Arms try to live out their faith....

because we're all following the teachings you give us.... And you do a heck of a good job at it.