Record snowfall in Pennsylvania.  Last weekend we (State College) had 14-17 inches, while parts of the state went close to 30.  Then this week we got another 8-10 or so.  In some parts of the state the roads/whether were so bad they were even asking the snowplows to stay off the road!

Meanwhile we had all the usual snowfall blessings: Snowdays, 2 hour school delays, breakfast with my family at Waffleshop on a weekday, sidewalks to shovel, scenes of sledding, and trying to navigate the Harvest Fields hill in a mini-van!  I’m sure I could come up with other snowfall blessings.  In fact in a earlier blog post I talked about my great memories of snowdays and snowstorms — Snowdays.

So it just got me to thinking, put an imagine moment in my mind — what if the blessings of God were like snow in a snowstorm?  Can you imagine?

• – Hey looks like they are calling off school today, just too many blessings all over the place.  It’s a blessing-day.
• – Jake and Josh, don’t forget I want you to go out and shovel the blessings off the sidewalk.  People can’t even walk past our house, the blessings are piled so high.
• – Did you see those kids out in the park?  They are up to their butts in blessings, it looks like they are having so much fun.
• – Sweetheart, there is nothing I like more than sitting with you, by the fire, just  watching the blessings softly in our neighborhood.
• – Or my favorite — Looks like we’ll have to cancel church on account of the record blessings-fall.

Well anyway, you get what I mean.  It was just a rich image in my mind today of Malachi 3, when God says, “Test me in this (God is challenging the people to be generous.) and see if I will not open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room for it all.”

Two thoughts come to my mind:

1) Thank you for your generosity these last few months.  Without a great deal of fanfare, you gave over $125,000 in the 1% offering, another $6000 to bless local families this Christmas, and then over $22,000 to give Haiti Hope.  And I’m thinking, let it snow Lord, let it snow!

2) In Ephesians 1, Paul relates that those who are in Christ, have already been blessed with every spiritual blessing.  Think about that.  I think our problem is that our minds immediately add the word “physical” when we hear the word “blessing.”   We want the snow outside to represent every physical blessing we desire.  But God has given us every spiritual blessing — NOW.

What if the spiritual blessings were of greater value than the physical blessings?  If they are available now; if blessings like peace, forgiveness, love, joy, patience, wisdom, community, and a deep connection to God are available now, and I don’t feel blessed, then is it a problem with God’s giving or my receiving?

It is my prayer that the days ahead will include a blessing-day or two, days when you are so overwhelmed with the blessings of God, the spiritual blessings of God, that you have to take a day off and just savor the blessings.

Meanwhile — go shovel your sidewalk, so that someone doesn’t slip on the remnant of past blessings.  :)

So just a few thoughts on my 2010 Suberpowl experience:

1) Still a little bitter that the Vikings didn’t make it all the way, but glad that they got beat by the eventual champs — in  a good game.

2) Can’t believe all the anti-hype about the Tebow ad.  Some editorials were labeling it the end of the suberpowl as we know it.  Really?  I think Drew Brees got more religious in his post-game remarks than the Tebow ad.  Yeah I know the ad led to a Focus on the Family website, but I think if Suberpowl watchers can handle wardrobe malfunctions and godaddy commercials — they can handle the decision as to whether or not they will go to that website.

3) It’s normal for our minds to get preoccupied by the “big plays” but you really can’t boil the game down to one or two plays.  I know it’s easy to do, but as much as we want to believe that life comes down to one or two defining moments, it’s much more beautifully complex than that — a football game is the same.

4) I didn’t think the commercials were quite as good as other years, but — it was cool to see a commercial produced by a church (doritos casket Mosaic church); the snicker commercial made me laugh;  once again the godaddy commercial made me ask “why?”; the Letterman commercial made me go, “hmm that’s interesting,”; and finally I thought the google search add was pretty creative.

5)  I like the “gutsy” play-calling by New Orleans — not so much the plays themselves, those kinds of calls are labeled genius when they work and stupid when they don’t.  What I really liked was the way the team pulled together to go from one “gutsy” call to another.

6) Drew Brees is a class act.  You had to love the picture of him and his child at the end of the game, and his soft-spoken pointers to God in the post-game interviews were great.  I don’t know too much about him, but he seems to be the real deal, not just in words, but in actions.  If you want to hear a bit more about him.  Take a look at this interview with FCA.

Oh yeah — suberpowl is not a misspelling, apparently the NFL is concerned about churches infringing upon their rights when we advertise “Superbowl Parties.”  In fact in 2007 and 2008, they were threatening to sue churches that had superbowl parties.  This year they relented a bit and churches could have a superbowl party, but they couldn’t call it a Superbowl party — so I’m suggesting that next year we all have Suberpowl parties.  :)

I’ve run into this concept a few times lately — the lizard brain — most recently in Seth Godin’s book, Linchpin.  What is the Lizard Brain?  In a simple sense it is that part of us that is always focused on survival, safety, and comfort, and pleasure.  It likes the status quo as long as the status quo is safe.  It runs from pain, almost always has a knee-jerk response to fear and gives this constant push away from risk.

When  you fail, it is the Lizard Brain that says quit.  When  you embarrass yourself, it is the Lizard Brain that pushes you to avoid that situation or those people, next time around.  When a creative idea for a new strategy bubbles up in a meeting, the Lizard Brain makes sure that all the reasons why it will fail, get top billing.

One of the ideas on Linchpin is that we need to gain an ability to quiet the Lizard Brain in the times when it wants to yell.  So how do we quiet the Lizard Brain?  I’m not sure what Godin’s answer is — haven’t read it yet — but here are two ideas that come to mind.

1) Seek Courageous Compassion.  Those two words go together.  Courage is not the absence fear.  The absence of fear is closer to stupidity than it is to courage.  Courage is what happens when I love someone or something more than I love myself.  The Bible says that love casts out fear.  If we want to quiet the Lizard Brain we need to love someone/something more than we love ourselves.

2) Redefine Failure:  One of my favorite words of wisdom is found in Proverbs 24:16, “For thought a righteous man falls seven times, he rises…”  In other words failure is not defined as falling, it is defined as quitting.  If you don’t quit, a fall is just an opportunity to learn.  Redefining failure will help quiet the Lizard Brain.

3) Develop Faith in God:  Today at Calvary we talked about becoming an “if-you-say-so-Jesus” kind of person.  It’s from the story of Jesus calling Peter to come and be a follower.  (Click here to listen to the talk: Follow Me.) A faith relationship with Jesus is the kind of relationship that will cause your Lizard Brain to lose it’s voice!  As you see what God does when you take those scary steps of faith, what God does when you step out of your comfort zone, then soon what once was fearful, becomes the new normal.

I’m not sure if your Lizard Brain is whispering in the recesses of your brain — if so, you’ll have to decide if you will live by the statement, “if you say so lizard brain” or “if you say so Jesus.  (Sorry you might have to listen to the sermon to figure that one out. :)

Mark records this story of how to follow Jesus call in 1:14-20:

After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. “The time has come,” he said. “The Kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!”   As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake,  for they were fishermen.  “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men.” At once they left their nets and followed him. When he had gone a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John in a boat, preparing their nets. Without delay he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him.

Be honest, this seems kind of strange right?  This guy Jesus just comes up and says follow me and they drop what they’re doing and go?  Just like that? Immediately?  Seems kind of rash.  If some guy walked up to me and asked me to follow him, I’d have some questions.  Like: Where are we going? What are we going to do?  How long am I going to be gone?  When are we going to leave? Can I keep my stuff?  How is this going to work out?  Where will I end up?  Can I talk to my family about it?

When Jesus comes calling we have all sorts of questions don’t we?  And to be honest, I think the only answer available to us, is the same answer that was available to them, “The time has come,” he said. “The Kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news! …Come follow me.”

Now as we read the gospels, we discover that although the disciples didn’t really understand this Kingdom story, they did understand that it was about coming alive.  They believed that the Kingdom of God was the story they had been waiting for all their lives and so when Jesus called, they followed.

Just like that…now.  I wonder what I would’ve done?

My cousin Kevin died last week.  When we were kids, we were pretty close, same age.  I remember all kinds of adventures he and I embarked upon.  From snowmobile rides to selling flowers in his neighborhood, from the ocean at Huntington Beach to riding the pigs on our farm in South Dakota.  Kevin introduced me to ketchup and bologna sandwiches and I introduced him to church camp.

I think he may have gotten the short end of that deal.

See Kevin had a rough past.  His mom and dad divorced when he was young.  His three closest friends died fairly young in tragic ways.  He struggled with alcohol throughout his life.  When his mom died, he and his siblings (a brother and sister) ended up at odds over the inheritance and as a result were not close over the last years.

One year, when we were both still kids — probably 6th or 7th grade or so — Kevin came back to South Dakota (from California) to spend the summer with us on the farm.  In the midst of that summer he came with me to church camp.  I’ll be honest I was pretty excited about him coming — both because we were friends, and because I wanted him to know more about Jesus.  Already at my age I had found that my relationship with Jesus was an important part of my life and I wanted my cousin, my friend to find the same relationship.

Unfortunately when we got to the camp — a fairly conservative, somewhat legalistic camp — the leaders were perhaps more concerned about the length of his hair than they were the needs of his heart.  I think that experience marked his view of Christians throughout his life, in a negative way.

Actually I loved that camp, I liked my church.  My church at that time was of the same personality, fundamental, somewhat legalistic, very conservative.  But my years at that church were — for me, an insider — a positive experience.  But not so much for outsiders, which most of my friends happened to be.

It was just a couple of years ago that I ran across the term “holy discontent.”  In his book, “Holy Discontent” Bill Hybels writes,

I believe the motivating reason why millions of people choose to do good in the world around them is because there is something wrong in that world.  In fact there is something so wrong that they can’t stand it.

As I thought about this term — holy discontent — I realized that my greatest holy discontent was the kind of churches that care more about the people inside than they do the people outside.  My holy discontent is churches that think the most important part of church is what happens inside the four walls on a Sunday morning, rather than what happens Monday through Saturday in neighborhoods, schools and workplaces as we serve our city and love our neighbors.

My holy discontent has led me to have a deep desire to be part of a church that Kevin would love. I think we (Calvary) are becoming that church.  But Kevin will never know.  I guess in a way, if you like Calvary because you have found the people at Calvary to be a people of grace and laughter, a people of generosity and passion, a people who love God but embrace humility — then at least in part, you have Kevin to thank.

His memorial service is next Tuesday.  I’m not sure if I will be there or not… but he will be on my mind.

I could call this post — “The Sweet Waters of Vindication” but it’s also wilderness experience #2 in my series.

There is a story in the book of Numbers about Moses.  I am fascinated by the life of Moses, his was one of those “great potential” followed by “tragic decisions” followed by “wilderness experience” followed by “redeemed potential” followed by “tragic decisions” kind of lives.   Yet in the midst of those cycles he was also one of the greatest leaders the people of Israel ever followed.

So the story — It takes place in the wilderness.  Moses is leading the people from slavery in Egypt to their promised land but the people miss their door of opportunity because they don’t have enough faith to confront the giants in the land.  (Which by the way brings up another wilderness principle: Sometimes the quickest way to a wilderness experience is to run from your giants.) So God decides that the people are going to spend a generation in the wilderness.

Now think about this, put yourself in Moses’ sandals.  You had enough faith to go into the land.  You wanted to go after those giants.  But the people wouldn’t follow you and now you get the same wilderness experience that God is giving to everyone else.

To make matters worse, in the wilderness, the people start complaining about Moses’ leadership!  Like their lack of faith was his fault.  They are murmuring, grumbling and complaining.  You know what I think?  I think sometimes Moses prayed, “Lord the wilderness wouldn’t be so bad without these people!”

So the story — It’s recorded in Numbers 20.  The people are grumbling and complaining about the lack of water.  So Moses goes to God and God gives Moses a plan.   “Moses, I want you and Aaron to go over to that big rock.  I want you to call the people of Israel to gather around the rock.  Then I want you to speak to the rock and water will gush out for the people.

So Moses and Aaron went over to the big rock.  They called all the people to gather around.  Then Moses raised his staff high up in the air and he struck the rock and water gushed out and the people drank.

Mission accomplished, right?  Wrong.  The Lord spoke to Moses, “Because you did not trust me enough to honor me as holy in front of the people, you will not lead the people into the promised land.”  Whoa.  Speak to the rock.  Strike the rock.  Patatoe Pototoe.  What’s the difference?

I remember thinking through this story and asking the same question, “God what is so bad about Moses striking the rock instead of speaking to the rock.”  God brought to my mind the words “the desire for vindication leads to failure.”

Imagine you are Moses.  You don’t want to be in the wilderness.  You are here because of other people’s mess.  Meanwhile you are giving and serving and all you ever get from them is whine, murmur, grumble, whine, complain. Why did you do this Moses?  Why didn’t you do that Moses?  We would be better off if you had left us in Egypt Moses.  What makes you think you are our leader Moses?

Imagine God gives you this opportunity.  All the people of Israel are gathered around you, thousands upon thousands.  The crowd goes way back.  If all you do is speak to the rock, nobody will know the part you played in bringing the people water.  But if you raise your staff up high above your head and then strike the rock…?  What only a few hundred might have heard, tens of thousands might see.  And you will be vindicated.

Everyone will know that you were right.  No one will complain about your leadership, your decisions, your wisdom, your direction.  Your.

God spoke into my heart that day — the sweet waters of vindication will keep you in the wilderness.  The desire for vindication looks like justice, but really it’s a lack of trust in God.  The desire for vindication comes off as good leadership, but really it’s self-centeredness.  The first sip of the sweet waters of vindication taste so good, but ultimately they will leave you empty and alone, missing out on the promise.

So next time God says speak to the rock — obey me behind the scenes, serve me where few will notice — speak. Remember Moses, the waters of trust and obedience are far sweeter than the waters of vindication.

Probably the majority of those who read this blog are a part of the Calvary family.  If so this is review, but I thought it was worth reviewing.  So I’m going to do a few blog posts on the wilderness experience.  My thoughts get started in Mark’s gospel… 1:8-13 or so.

One day Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee, and John baptized him in the Jordan River.  As Jesus came up out of the water, he saw the heavens splitting apart and the Holy Spirit descending on him like a dove.  And a voice from heaven said,  You are my
dearly loved Son, and you bring me great joy.    The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness.  And he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan.

Can you imagine this?  Jesus comes up out of the water, the heavens open and the voice of God thunders.  “This is my Son.  I love Him.  He pleases me.”  Heaven erupts with applause.  Can’t you almost hear God cheering?   We easily visualize the all-powerful God; always in control; the holy God who hates sin; the God who hears us, leads us, and even suffers with us.  But how often do you imagine a God who fills the stadium with cheers; who applauds?  This is the roar of a God who is for you, not against you.  It is the applause of a Father who is your greatest fan; the laugh of a Father delighting in His children.   It is an awesome blessing.

Then upon receiving this amazing affirmation, the Spirit of God immediately DRIVES  Jesus into the wilderness.  Think, pushed, cast-out, no choice, forced, that’s what this means.  About all I can say to that is that it stinks!

What is a wilderness experience?

The wilderness is the place where you feel all alone, even if you aren’t.  It’s being consumed by a ferocious past or a present that you can’t share.  It’s struggling with doubts or rejections or grief.   The wilderness is a dry place, filled with sand but no ocean — intense thirst, emptiness.  It’s the constant beating of heat that brings great weariness — a marriage that has lost it’s love, the struggles of being a single parent.  In the  evening you sleep with a little coolness but in the morning, it’s back again.   The wilderness is a place where you can loose your sense of direction, wander around in circles asking, “Why is this happening…where am I going?  Will this ever end?”

Nobody really seeks wilderness experiences.  In fact when they come, we tend to question God’s love for us.  So how do we deal with this untamed, undomesticated God who in one breath says, You bring me joy and I love you.  And in the next moment drives Jesus into the wilderness.  There is a booklet which has been used by God to lead many people to believe in Jesus.  It’s called the 4 Spiritual Laws and Law #1 is, “God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.”  Now I believe God has a wonder-filled plan for my life and it’s a great tool for talking about Jesus, but what if…

The flip-side is also true?  God Loves You and Has a Difficult Plan for Your Life.

Not too many Christian best-sellers incorporate that into their title.  How to Discover the Difficult Plan of God for Your Life — 5 Easy Steps. Not too many songs about the God who plans to make our lives difficult, and guess what?  If he really loves us and is really pleased by us — like he was with Jesus — get ready for wilderness.

Here is the bottom line for post #1 — If you find yourself in the wilderness, it doesn’t mean God doesn’t love you.  In fact, it likely means exactly the opposite.

If you want to listen to the whole talk from this weekend, go to (

Someone posted this video on youtube — pretty effective — made me want to go out and put on a seat belt just to feel loved.  Watch it and then I’ll tell you what came to my mind.

There have been a lot of new children added to Calvary’s family in this last year, more on the way, (in fact for those of you who have followed the Sublett Saga, Annabelle has arrived.)  So mom’s think back to your first.  You have anticipated, dreamed, attended months of huffing and puffing classes.  You’ve gazed lovingly at ultrasounds that have no shape, you’ve seen people rolling their kids in strollers at the mall and dreamed of the day when you would have one of those.  And then you go through delivery, and bring this wonderful bundle of joy home only to discover that a baby is simply an apparatus with an opening at both ends and control over neither.  Reality sets in.

But it doesn’t take long to adjust and realize that it really is true.  This child is a masterpiece of awe-inspiring value, and you will do anything you can to protect this masterpiece of creation.

Anybody remember what it used to be like to drive a car — before seat belts?  Before seat belts, you could pack eight kids into a family car, ages one week to 18 years, with no restraining thoughts or devices.  We’re more regulated today, from car seats, to lap and shoulder belts, automatic lap and shoulder belts, to airbags.  Before all these mechanical safety devices, however, some of us grew up with a different kind of child-restraint system.  Judith Viorst reminds us of this when she writes…

This year I received a Mother’s Day card that pictured a mother driving a car, her son in the passenger seat and her outstretched arm protectively flung across his chest. I’ve heard a great deal from my sons about my overprotective tendencies but I think that this card’s message said it best.  The message said, ‘To Mom, the original seat belt.’

Most of us at some time in our lives have felt the protective reach of a mother (or a father for that matter).  It starts in the womb…as a mother makes a safe space in her body for a child.  In doing so she sacrifices much; appearance, equilibrium, energy.  I talked to one mother who even gave up coffee during her pregnancy to provide a safer space!  But then after nine months, the protective reach grows outside the body.  It starts with the stair-fences, child-proofing the house, plugs in the outlets.

As the children get older…you hear, “Don’t run with that stick you might poke your eye out.  Don’t shoot those spit wads, you might poke someone else’s eye out.  Always wear clean underwear, just in case you’re in an accident.”  Then the protective reach extends to sleepless nights waiting for a son or a daughter to come home from a date. It extends to professional chauffering, praying the day never comes when he/she is allowed to drive. Finally it even extends to the wedding day, where parents do their very best to test the prospective son/daughter-in-law to be, to see how much aggravation they will put up with in order your child.

It is a natural part of being a parent, this protective reach.  If you have a parent who has in the past tried to be your protective reach.  I know, they know, we parents know that we can’t do it forever, but don’t blame us for trying.  Give us a little grace as you develop friends and family who will be your new protective reach.

But it made me think of God, my father.  How far does his protective reach — reach?  When bad things happen to good people, is it because God wasn’t there with outstretched arms?  Or was it because we didn’t buckle up?  If we don’t feel God’s protective reach around us, is it because He isn’t there, doesn’t care?  Or are there times (forget the seat belt imagery now) when God must drive us into the wilderness so that we can grow through adversity?

This weekend at Calvary we will consider a scene from Jesus life, where he heard the voice of God expressing his love for his son, and then immediately God drove Jesus into the wilderness.  (Mark 1:1-13) (Go to Calvary Media to listen next week)

It seems maybe like God loves you and has a difficult plan for your life?

David Livingstone was a man who gave all that he had to serve Christ. He very easily could have spent hours working in a plush, luxurious office, but instead he chose to go to an area of Africa to serve on the mission field. For years, Livingstone was the only white man there, sharing his Christian beliefs with the natives.  On December 4, 1857, Livingstone, made a stirring appeal to the students of Cambridge University…

For my own part, I have never ceased to rejoice that God has appointed me to such an office. People talk of the sacrifice I have made in spending so much of my life in Africa. …Is that a sacrifice which brings its own blest reward in healthful activity, the  consciousness of doing good, and a bright hope of a glorious destiny hereafter? Away …with such a thought! It is emphatically no sacrifice. Say rather it is a privilege.  Anxiety, sickness, suffering, or danger, now and then, with a foregoing of the common conveniences…of this life… All these are nothing when compared with the glory which shall be revealed in and for us. I never made a sacrifice.

After years of service, Livingstone contracted a disease in Africa, which eventually took his life. The natives were crushed; they dearly loved this man who had introduced them to Jesus. They loved him so much that before his body was shipped to England, the natives honored Livingstone by cutting out his heart and burying it in African soil. They felt that after all of his years of sacrifice and service his heart belonged there.

Jesus once said that where we put our treasures, our hearts follow.  When you come to the end of your days, where will your heart be buried? At the office, in the mall, underneath the TV set, in the safety deposit box at the bank? In your dream house? In a box with your summa cum laudes?  Or will it be buried with the people who were on the receiving end of your service, your love?

I love good stories.  I love hearing good stories and I love telling good stories.  One of the things I love about going on a mission trip is the stories.  Like this one.  The Burmese people are one of the largest unreached people groups in the world.  27 million people 97% plus are Buddhist.   In terms of persecution the Joshua Project ranks them in the top 25 countries for the persecution of Christians.

While theoretically it’s legal to have a church and legal to be a Christian, practically it brings a host of potential difficulties and legally it is against the law to encourage others to become followers of Jesus.  This means that baptism is a big deal. It costs something to make a public declaration for Jesus.

But the good news is that around Christmas time, the government seems to relax a little and so the orphanages are able to serve their villages with a Christmas outreach.  They will go into a village, put on a Christmas presentation, someone will tell the people about Jesus and then they will feed the people who come.

So in December the orphanage we support chose two different villages to go into for their Christmas  outreach.  They arrived at the first village the night before but that night the devout Buddhists surrounded the home they were staying in and began to throw rocks at the walls and beat the walls with sticks.  Our team took that as a sign that they were not welcome so they left the next morning and they went to the second village.

The second village was more receptive.   So they proceeded to do their Christmas outreach.  After the presentation, one of the leaders (J) told the people about Jesus and Christmas and the power and love of God.  After this (J) was having a conversation with one of the men.  His name was (MS).  At one point in his life (MS) was actually a Buddhist Monk, his sons were in training to be Buddist monks.  But now (MS) works in agriculture overseeing a farm and fish ponds.  So (MS) was talking to (J), asking him about this Jesus and prayer and the power of God.  He told (J) that he had a pain in his arm and his side that was so bad that he couldn’t do his job.  He couldn’t oversee the fish ponds.  He looked at (J) and asked, “Do you think Jesus could heal me?”  (J) said yes, he gathered the team around and they began to pray.

He wasn’t healed and so he went away doubting in the reality of this Jesus.  But that night he woke up about 3am the morning and he had a vision of a bright light coming down through his house and covering his head and his arm and his arm was healed.

That same night one of (MS) sons was sleeping on the edge of a field miles away.  He was working in the field during the day and sleeping at the edge of the field at night.  That same night his son had a dream of a cross with a light coming from it.  He didn’t even know that (J)’s team was in his village.  When he came home he told his father about his dream.  His father told his son about his vision and his healing — and the whole family decided there must be something to this Jesus.

So they went to talk to (J) and he explained to them that Jesus is more than just a healer, He calls for a commitment of our whole live to Him.  (J) explained to them that baptism was a symbol of this commitment.  He asked if they would like to be baptized, but they were not ready or willing to do that.

So (J) invited them to come to the pastor’s conference that we had while I was there.  Come and listen to the pastor talk about Jesus.   At the end of the first day, (J) asked them if they were ready to be baptized.  No, we want to hear more.  At the end of the second day, (J) asked them if they were ready to be baptized.  No, we need to think more.  On the last day, (MS) came to (J) and said, “We believe in Jesus and we want to be baptized, our whole family.”  That day, he walked out on stage with his sons, dressed in their Buddhist monk robes carrying the traditional begging bowl, his begging bowl.

He shared the story of his encounter with Jesus, then he and his sons took off their robes, folded them up, gave them to me, and through an interpreter he asked me to bring them back to show others that Jesus has the power to change the heart of a Buddhist monk.  That Sunday I had the honor of baptizing (MS), his wife, four sons and one daughter.

I love good stories.  I love to hear good stories and I love to tell good stories.  But you know what I love even more.  I love those moments that we (each of us) are given to be part of a story.   Here is my promise to you from God.  God isn’t through writing your stories and there are epic stories in which He has a part for you.  Just tell Him right now, you want to be a part of His-stories.  Who knows where his pen will take  you?