Why Are You Still Here?

See? I told you the blog was moving! Zip over to michaelkelleyministries.com to get fresh daily content.

If you’re interested, you can get the RSS feed of the blog by clicking here.

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The Blog is Moving!

I’m moving my blog from this current site to michaelkelleyministries.com.

You’ll want to go there and update your RSS feed to continue receiving Forward Progress posts. I’m not going to post any new content to this address. so go ahead and make the switch!

Thanks for reading.

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Weekends Are For Kids

Dear Andi:

First of all, let me apologize for being late on your birthday letter. Do you remember you had a birthday? Your party was supposed to be about 3 weeks ago; but right about the time it was supposed to start there was an inch of water in our basement, and it was rising.

But that’s the thing about you, little girl – you didn’t care. You had just one of your friends show up to your party and that was by accident. You didn’t cry; you didn’t complain; you found the good in your 3-year-old way and had an awesome time making Strawberry Shortcake cutouts.

This is the way it’s been for much of your life, sweetie. You were born when your older brother had a bald head because of his chemotherapy. Your first year of life was spent being shuttled back and forth to the hospital, a passive observer to his treatments. And during all that time, just like with the flood, your beautiful disposition and heart-stopping smiles have served to remind us time and time again: everything’s going to be okay.

Andi, you are learning so many things right now. You’re learning to use your manners. You’re learning your letters. And you’re learning new verses from the Bible every week.

I’m so proud right now that you are learning right now the right kind of voice and attitude to have with me and Mommy and other people. You are learning how to share with others and to treat them with respect, too. And you are learning, in small ways, how to direct your passion for things that matter.

This, Andi, is what I pray often for you about. That since you are such a high-spirited and exciting little girl, that over time God would redeem your strength for His glory. That you would learn there is no better place to direct your passion than in pursuit of Jesus, and you will find in Him a great, great joy the likes of which you haven’t yet known.

I’m thankful every single day for the privilege of being your daddy. Thank you for being you.

Daddy

P.S. I know you’re joking, but please don’t start calling me “Dad” quite yet. You’re breaking my heart, little girl.

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It Rained This Weekend… ALOT.

15 inches at our house in 2 days, to be exact. On Saturday afternoon about 2:30, our house sprung a leak. Er… uh… leaks. Our basement has a living area and our master bed and bathroom. By 6 pm, all the carpet was soaking wet with 2 inches of water in some places. So we fought the water all day Saturday, and started again early on Sunday. When it was all said and done, we had all the carpet ripped out yesterday, a hole cut in our back wall to let the water drain out, and all the flooring and probably much of the walls ruined downstairs.

But we’re all fine; the kids thought it was awesome that we had a wading pool in the basement (nobody call CPS, they were also very mad that we didn’t let them swim in it.) Hopefully we’ll have an appointment with somebody today who can help us get started on getting it fixed.

I also get the sense that our damage is pretty minor compared to a whole lot of people in the area. We literally saw houses on the news floating down the interstate.

Wow. In our family, we’ve done the major sickness thing. We’ve done the “hiding from the tornado” thing. We’ve done the impoverished grad student thing. But this is the first time to do the water thing.

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Holy Vocabulary Video Shoot

Today I’ll be shooting the teaching videos for my upcoming Bible study release called Holy Vocabulary: Rescuing the Language of Faith.

The study examines 35 key words of faith that have been used and abused by the Christian sub-culture, and is an effort to reclaim these key words to understanding the faith.

It’s divided into 7 sections, each containing 5 of these terms: God, Humanity, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, Church, End Times, and Scripture. In addition to the study book, there is a leader kit which will include:

– A leader’s small group discussion guide

– 3 Teaching videos from me

– 2 concept videos to spur discussion

– Sermon outlines for any church who wants their entire congregation to go through the study

Think about Holy Vocabulary as you consider what you will be studying in the fall. If you’re a church leader, love for you to think about your entire congregation or a few small groups walking through the study. By God’s grace, it will be a great tool to firmly establish people in an understanding of their faith, and help us “church-kids” rediscover the meaning behind the language we throw around so casually.

Just to whet the appetite, here are the first few lines from the teaching videos:

The Holy Spirit:

Pronouns are useful devices. Think about how dumb we would sound if we had to use a proper name every time we talk about a noun…

The Church:

The church is in the midst of a movement to change how people perceive it. Church has become synonymous with the buildings people gather in on Sunday mornings and Wednesday nights…

Jesus:

There are no heroes in the Bible. Have you ever noticed that?

**Holy Vocabulary drops on July 1. More information to follow…

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Fridays Are For One Question

Hopefully you’re still riding the high from Easter last week. We had a great weekend, too. Lots of memories and images in my mind to help me remember. Here’s a picture of us on Sunday morning:

How about you? That’s today’s question:

“What image will you remember from Easter this year?”

**The goal of “One Question Friday” is simple: To show that everyone has something funny, engaging, creative, and worthwhile to say. So comment away! Be real. Be creative. Think hard. And check back to see how others answered the question.

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