Posts Tagged ‘love’

Light Up the World

// August 21st, 2009 // No Comments » // Music, Spiritual, Web Sites

Our eyes will see the glory of God…

The story behind the video: Heartwork.tv

Visit the Desperation Band online.

…But I Won’t Do That

// July 23rd, 2009 // No Comments » // Just for Fun, TV

Funny McDonald’s ad from Egypt…

Tears of the Saints

// May 21st, 2009 // No Comments » // Music, Spiritual

One of my all-time favorite songs (via Leeland) coupled with heartbreaking imagery and a stirring challenge to “get up and GO”.

video enclosure: “Tears of the Saints“

ht @living3368

The Princess Bike

// April 24th, 2009 // No Comments » // Family Life, Spiritual

My four-year-old daughter, Kella, got a new/used bike from her Grandma Pearl the last time she was here.  This week was the first time the weather was warm enough to get out and actually drive around with it.

This was Kella’s first time riding a bicycle and with this being the first time, there were a lot of Daddy-bending-over and balancing the bike moments — bending way over, as this is a small, small bike and I am a somewhat tall man.  OUCH!

The end result?  Daddy decided pretty quickly that a trip to the bike store down the road was in order.  We needed to get training wheels on this bike and let Kella go free with this thing!  She was very excited.

We got in the van, packed up the bike, and went down to the Two Wheeler Dealer.  When the guy at the counter asked what kind of bike it was, before I had the chance to respond, Kella said quite matter-of-factly, “It’s a princess bike.”  The bike technician wrote down “princess bike” and told us he’d give us a call when it was done.

It was the next evening that I got the call from the store telling me that my “er…. princess bike” was done and that we could come and pick it up.  The store was closed that evening, so Kella would have to wait another day.

The anticipation was growing more and more for Kella.  She kept asking me about when we’d get to go on the first ride (about every ten minutes). I knew if I didn’t grab the video camera to catch this moment I’d be kicking myself later.  Bear with me as I tear up and watch my littlest one grow up before my eyes…


video enclosure “The Princess Bike”

As Kella’s father, it brings me so much joy to see her growing up and transforming into the young lady that she will one day become.  I can see all of the life, giftings, and great potential in her and it brings me to tears — I love her so much and am so proud of her.

I used this story as an illustration at our student rally service this past Wednesday night.  We were on the last night of a message series we titled “The Calling” on the life-story of Abraham.  The series was ending with a discussion of how we have been created by a God who has blessed us with different gifts and abilities to be used to make an imprint in our world.

My thoughts went to Kella, who didn’t even know what the experience of riding a bicycle would be like, but she was so excited to try!  She wanted so much to “exercise the gift” that she knew was in her four-year-old legs.  And, let me tell you, when she started to get the hang of it, it wasn’t long before she was flying!

It’s a prayer for my life that I would be as excited about the purposes and plans that God has placed in my life.  That I would be bold and brave enough to just “go do it” when Father God places opportunities in my life.  And, maybe, just maybe in the process He even tears up when He begins to see me fly…

I might crash a few times — Kella did on her first run, too.  But that’s okay because Daddy-God is there to hug me, wipe off my tears, and cheer me on over and over again.

So, what’s that gift or calling that’s been churning inside of you?  It’s time to take it for a test-drive.

Snow Shovels and Palm Branches

// April 5th, 2009 // No Comments » // Elevate Update, Spiritual

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Here in Rapid City, we’ve had six snow days in the past couple weeks.  Lots and lots of snow and blizzard after blizzard have got people stuck in their houses with serious cases of cabin fever!

Yesterday — Saturday — the snow just kept falling (and the wind blowing) all day long.  By the time we finally decided that it was time to go out and shovel, regardless of the continuing unpleasant conditions, it was time to start getting the littles ones in the bath and cleaned up for church (even though the 1st AM service had already been cancelled and, the next morning we would find out, the 2nd AM service would eventually be cancelled, too).  We had made chili for supper and Deanna had taken the leftovers over to our neighbor’s house as a kind gesture.  It turned out that our neighbor had just left town for a three-month-long contract job down south and a young man, one of his employees — a concrete worker, is now staying at his house and keeping watch.  He happily accepted the chili and went back inside.

Back to the piles of snow needing to be shoveled… Autumn, Deanna, and I got all bundled up and started working on clearing a path to our backyard garage and also clearing the space behind our gargage to get our vehicles out.  Long story short: lots of 3-to-4 foot drifts, took an hour and a half, van got out of the alley okay, the car did not (we had to shovel to get it unstuck and push it free), and then we moved to the front yard to start shoveling the front walk ways.

The front yard was a whole other project in itself.  The drifts were huge and it was apparent that it wasn’t going to be a quick job.  But… before we had hardly even put a shovels in the snow, the young man who we had just given the chili to was over helping us dig through the snow.  He insisted.  Again, long story short: he’s home alone, out of work (because he’s a concrete contractor and the weather isn’t agreeing), just bought a pick-up truck, is lonely, and is a recovering alcoholic.  He’s also a really friendly guy and we had some good conversation as we finishing shoveling out our front walk.  palm-sunday

After he found out that I’m a pastor (which, for whatever reason, always seems awkward for me to share), we talked about Jesus a bit and I invited him to church sometime to check it out.  For an introvert like me, who really likes to build relationship with people before bringing Jesus into the conversation, the whole thing was rather quick and overwhelming (in a good way).  I guess I was just awestruck by how God orchestrated the whole thing and am happy about the new friend I have that I plan on lifting up every day during my time with God for the next few weeks — praying for good things to happen in his life.

Now on to today… today was Palm Sunday and churches all throughout the region were having to cancel their Palm Sunday celebrations because of the storm and poor road conditions (the police had a “no travel advisory” out for the Rapid City area).  This is especially sad for “Destinoids” (as we like to call ourselves) because Palm Sunday is a big celebration at Destiny.  We have palm branches for everyone and we go crazy with waving them around everywhere during our worship time.  The kids love it!  We also had a Jewish dance worked up and a bunch of “Hosanna songs” on the worship set-list to get everyone in the mood.  It’s always a great time.

Well, the morning services were cancelled but the city plowed through our roads in time for everyone to get to the evening service at 6:30 PM.  There was a pretty good crowd there for a Sunday night, including about 10-to-12 first-timers.  We had an awesome time of worship, which ended with a prophetic word that the pastors had for one of the guests.  They didn’t realize it until later, but it turned out that the gentleman that they had given the word to was Pastor Tani’s pastor twenty years ago when she first became a Christian.  Pretty cool!

When the students split off for Catalyst Discipleship, we probably had our largest group ever (thanks to five new visitors and the cancelation of the morning services).  We started off by asking God to speak into the lives of two young men that God had put on my heart.  We prayed for a couple of minutes and then started speaking over their lives.  Several students came up and starting sharing what God had given them, too.  Such a great picture of the body of Christ ministering to each other!

After that we went into a discussion on the “Cards We’ve Been Dealt” stemming from a Skit Guys video clip.  Good stuff!  Great night!  God is good!

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