Radically Happy

  • Day 4: We’re Compelled to Love God’s Family – Because It Shows We Are Saved

    Verse: “We know that we have passed from death to life because we love other believers.” — I John 3:14 (GW) Theme: Loving other believers is evidence we belong to God’s family [Read More] thoughts on Day 4 of Rick Warren’s 40 Days of Community.

  • Day 3: We’re Compelled to Love God’s Family – Because It Is How We Love God

    Verse: “People who do not love other believers, whom they have seen, can’t love God, whom they have not seen.” — I John 4:20b (GW) Theme: We love God by loving others [Read More] thoughts on Day 3 of Rick Warren’s 40 Days of Community.

  • Day 2: We’re Compelled to Love God’s Family – Because God Commands It

    Verse: “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” –John 13:34 (NIV) Theme: Love is an act of the will [Read More] thoughts on Day 2 of Rick Warren’s 40 Days of Community.

  • Day 1: We’re Compelled to Love God’s Family – Because God Loved Us

    Verse: “Since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.” — I John 4:11 (NIV) Theme: Life is about learning to love. [Read More] thoughts on Day 1 of Rick Warren’s 40 Days of Community.

  • 40 Days of Community by Rick Warren: Better Together

    At long last, I’ve decided to restart my (online) devotional time. I think the reason I didn’t feel “released” to do this is that my prior attempt was very Left Brain, and I needed to do something from the Heart. As it happens, our church has just started Rick Warren’s…

  • Calling Up (Rite of Passage 2/2)

    [Continued from Part 1] I wake up, not quite able to remember how I got here, or how long I’d been asleep. I’m not even sure I’m awake now — it is pitch dark, and I have that drowsy, warm feeling I have right when I’m on the edge of…

  • Calling Out (Rite of Passage 1/2)

    March 20, 2005 [Inspired by Chapter 3 of Healing the Masculine Soul] As usual, I’m lying on the couch reading, with our dog Rajee by my side.  Probably a Hardy Boys or Tom Swift Jr. novel; maybe an Isaac Asimov sci-fi story.  I rarely play outside or have friends over.…

  • Christian Blogging Conference in CA in October

    [Read More] for a link to GodBlogCon2005 in California, Oct 13th-15th.

  • Ernie’s Lenten Prayer Requests

    We got a late start on Lent since we were in India, but Sandhya and both fasting (as we started doing during our time at what’s now Kingsway Community Church). On the plane flight back, I felt that God wanted us to use Lent ask for specific blessings from Him,…

  • A Transformational Take on the Lord’s Prayer

    I’ve spent the last two weeks offline, mostly visiting my wife’s family in India. On February 13th, I had the privilege of sharing briefly at a small church in Kollam, India. I originally planned to talk about Fatherhood in the Lord’s Prayer in turned into a fairly concise summary of…

  • Transformational Husbandry

    The acid test of transformation is how it impacts our family relationships — none more so than that of a husband with his wife. The idea of husbandry, while not a popular term these days, spans everything from a farmer with his crops and cattle to Christ (or a pastor)…

  • Transformational Mindset

    Our prior church in San Jose (formerly known as South Bay Covenant, now Kingsway Community) is refocusing itself around the idea of Transformation. Here [Read More] is their definition of a Transformational Mindset.

  • Law Grace

    Somehow it seems most Christian movements either: i) love the Law and fear (cheap) Grace ii) love Grace and fear (legalistic) Law Is there a third way [Read More] that embraces both?

  • Our Father, Part Punk

    I’ve been experimenting with paraphrasing the Lord’s prayer to capture various perspectives. Today, somewhat unintentionally, I used the Lord’s prayer to help me cope with unmitigated rage. The result came out rather like a punk rock song. A bit unorthodox, but somehow I think the Psalmist would approve. [Read more]…

  • Evangelical-Charismatic-Lutheran?

    After a difficult process lat year, we’ve decided to give up on our church plant and find a new church home. Our first visit today was to a rather unusual Lutheran church. Details below [Read more].

  • Transformation a la Dilbert

    I actually do think transformational change is my strategy for adding value, and a key differentiator of this weblog, but this “validation” of that concept [Read More] does worry me…

  • Becoming A Transformationalist

    I didn’t invent Transformational Christianity, but I was probably the first person to conceptualize it as an alternative to (and integration of) Evangelicalism, Pentecostalism & Ecumenicalism. This [Read More] is my story.

  • The Waters of Happiness

    What does it mean to be happy? How does that relate to joy? And differ from peace? Here [see Read More] are some holiday musings on positive emotional states, inspired by my Apothegmary of Happiness on RadicalCentrism.org.

  • Understanding Prayer As Transformation

    Why do we pray? Yeah, I “know” all the usual answers, but that doesn’t mean I understand it. As I’m reconnecting with my father (and my Father), I’m starting to understand prayer in the context of relational empowerment. There’s probably more to it than that, but here at least [Read…

  • Our Father, Part III

    Yet another take on the Lord’s Prayer, this one from the first person volitional perspective of “I want.”