778 points!  At Calvary we have this thing we call God-stories.  Almost every staff meeting I’ve ever led, or Leadership Team meeting I’ve ever participated in, I will ask the question, “Who has a God-story?”  A God-story is simply a story of God@work.  It might be something you have seen God do for you, or through you…or it might be something you have see God do for or through someone else.  It might be something that God is teaching you, a scripture, idea or conviction that God spoke into your heart.  Because the reality is that when God speaks, He is at work — even today.

I think for some people (maybe even for me) some times, it is viewed as a superficial, or perhaps even tedious, exercise — like I’m asking people to just come up with something, when they haven’t seen God doing any big deal, or haven’t heard him speak.  But what I’m really trying to do is train our eyes and our ears to look for the evidence of God’s presence rather than the evidence of God’s absence.

I believe that God is at work around us all the time but the world has trained us to see ___________ (fill in the blank) our problems, our circumstances, our economic downturns, our diseases, our unmet expectations, as the evidence of God’s absence.  In Matthew 6:22-23, Jesus said, “Your eye is a lamp that provides light for your body. When your eye is good, your whole body is filled with light. But when your eye is bad, your whole body is filled with darkness. And if the light you think you have is actually darkness, how deep that darkness is!”

I think he meant that there is a way to see the world — and God’s involvement in the world — in such a way that will fill your life with light, and there is a way to see the world — and God’s involvement in the world — in such a way that it will fill your life with darkness.  There is a way to see a 778 point drop in the market which will fill our lives with light, and a way which will fill our lives with darkness.  For example the Dow lost 1.2 trillion dollars in market value today, but did you know that God did not lose a dime?  In fact with full confidence I can say that today’s events are God-stories in the making.

I want to encourage you to look around and ask questions like, Where is God at work?  What is God doing?  What blessing does He want to give to me and give through me?  God what story are you writing in my heart?  What do you want me to do?

I haven’t written for a few days, got back home and found my time was better spent connecting with my family…now I’m preparing for my last sabbatical trip.  But the lack of writing does not equate to a lack of thinking and I’ve been thinking alot about the Kingdom of God.  The Kingdom of God is a reign not a realm, it’s a person not a place.  The Kingdom of God was Jesus’ main teaching topic.  Lately as I’ve been thinking about the Kingdom of God, two subjects have come to my mind, politics and transformation.

So I’m still crystallizing some of my thoughts on both topics, so meanwhile let me give you two blog posts that give an interesting take on politics.  One is from my friend Paul Grabill and the other is from a BGC pastor in Minnesota, Greg Boyd.

Here is Paul’s:  Patriotism

Here is Greg’s: True Believers

Enjoy… or not.   :)

I’ve been thinking this morning… Why is it so hard to become like Jesus?  Actually it’s a thot that has come to me in many different ways during the course of this sabbatasizing process.  It’s a thot that could also come under similar headings like… Why is it so hard to change?  or… Crud, why did I do that again?  or… Shoot where did that attitude come from?

This question came to my mind again as I sat for two hours around the dinner table talking to a group of Estonian pastors about the process of transformation in our lives and the lives of people in our congregations.  Our discussion ranged from homosexuality to greed to marriage and family issues to conflict.  But shaping the whole conversation — at least for me — was this question… Why is it so hard to become like Jesus?

Maybe that isn’t your experience…maybe the day you became a Christ-follower…the transformation of your soul was handed to you with a nice bow.  But I gather that for most of us, this was not the case.  On the other hand, my deep, deep heart conviction is that the Jesus-transformation of my soul is possible.  So what makes it difficult?

The next few days I’ll share a few possible reasons…here is the first one.

1)  In a consumer-culture our minds have been conditioned for quick and easy.  We buy products fashioned for quick and easy consumption. Nobody milks cows and  then churns butter, we just to to the store and buy butter.  Go to Barnes and Noble and you realize that authors know that change sells…rows upon rows of self-help/change/personal growth books.  But how many books have titles like “5 Almost Impossible Steps to Becoming a Better Person” or “The Painfully Hard Journey to a Happiness.” or how about “Better Relationships:  If it was Simple Everyone Would Do It.” Then count the books that use words like quick or easy.

But following Jesus — becoming like Jesus — is a hard journey, Gary Thomas calls it The Beautiful Fight. It is not a consumer oriented experience.  It may be a spiritual battle.  It may be like training for the marathon.  It may even be like art — in my case more like sculpting granite, than painting watercolors — but it is not a consumer oriented experience.

If we want to become more like Jesus, we have to want it bad enough to battle for it, train for it, and chisel away for years on end, because of what we see inside.  When it comes to becoming like Jesus, I just wonder if we/I want it bad enough?

I even wore a sweater vest!  We were at the Siion (Zion) Church in Kuressarre, Estonia, one of the largest Baptist congregations in Estonia.  We have some cool connections to this congregation.  For example, they sent four people to our Leadership Advance event; Herb McKinstry has played his trumpet in this church; folks from Calvary have painted a building that they use for a children’s camp; and it’s also the first place from which my sermon was both live over the radio and internet.  If you would like to check it out click here:  siion1

But before you click here are two very important pieces of information:  1)  It’s mostly in Estonian and I don’t come on till about 30 minutes in.  2)  The video perspective squashes me, so it makes me look larger than I really am… no really…it’s true.

So I wore a sweater vest.  I preached.  Not more than one…maybe two people fell asleep.  It felt pretty good.  Anytime we are connecting with God’s call on our lives, it should feel pretty good.  I’m looking forward to doing it at Calvary again.  My first weekend back preaching will be October 18 & 19th.  See you then if not before…

Kingda Ga. It’s a name that strikes fear in meek mannered DelGrosso’s amusement park lovers, but a name that brings a smile to the face of hardcore rollercoaster-ists. My face had a fearful smile. Josh, my son was just all smile.

One of the great joys of my sabbatical grant is the opportunity to take each of my kids on a one-on-one trip. I let each of the kids choose where they wanted to go and what they wanted to do. Josh knew right away…an amusement park. So he did the research, figured out what park had the most roller coasters, what park had the biggest, tallest, fastest, scariest roller coaster. He settled on Six Flags New Jersey. Home of Kingda Ga.

It’s really a rocket coaster, more so than a roller coaster. Hydraulic motors launch the train from zero to 128 miles per hour in 3.5 seconds. And you need the speed because by the time you have hit full speed, you are going straight up… 456 feet — about 45 stories tall. Then you crest the hill and you head straight down 456 feet! I’m not sure which part was more exciting, zero to 128, straight up, or straight down.

Actually the best part was watching my son. I love it when my kids step forward, exercise a little courage, and take a risk…even when the risk is an amusement park ride. There is just something about overcoming fear. See the reality is everybody experiences fear…courage is not the absence of fear…it is stepping forward in spite of fear. Any fears you need to step into?

I’ll be honest, Josh whupped me when it came to coasters, I think he did about 16! So here are a couple of videos, maybe they’ll inspire you a bit..because if my 12 year old son can do it — no actually if I can do it — maybe you can too. First watch the youtube video of kingda ga. Then watch the video of Josh getting ready to go alone. Three times was enough for me.

So why Dancing Cripples as a blog title? It comes from a sermon title. I like to think that every sermon I preach is memorable, but most are only meant for the moment. You may or may not remember this one, but a year or so ago, while preaching through the first nine chapters of Acts, I ran across this story in Acts 3. It was the story of a crippled man who sat outside one of the gates in Jerusalem. He had been crippled for forty years…and from an early age till the day Peter and John walked past him on their way to a prayer meeting…he had been brought to this gate to beg for help. But this day would be different, Luke writes,

Then Peter took the lame man by the right hand and helped him up. And as he did, the man’s feet and anklebones were healed and strengthened. He jumped up, stood on his feet, and began to walk! Then, walking, leaping, and praising God, he went into the Temple with them. All the people saw him walking and heard him praising God. When they realized he was the lame beggar they had seen so often at the Beautiful Gate, they were absolutely astounded! They all rushed out to Solomon’s Colonnade, where he was holding tightly to Peter and John. Everyone stood there in awe of the wonderful thing that had happened. Acts 3:7-11

I love this picture. A crippled man is seen, gets healed, starts to dance, and everyone around stands in awe. Now I’m not much of a dancer, but this story made me start thinking about my crippled places. I’ve got a few, but when God’s grace combines with my crippled places, there is dancing and awe.

This story grabs me on so many different levels. Read more…