More Than Bread

Send me a Text Message! When I read Acts 13, I'm reminded that whenever we go on the mission of God, we step into a spiritual battle. There is darkness in this battle. It may be the darkness that comes in the bitterness of anger, the darkness that comes from depression, the darkness that descends upon a relationship when we just can't seem to find a way to forgive. It's the darkness...

Send me a Text Message! In Acts 12, after all the difficulty, all the persecution, and all the battle that was thrown at the early church, in the end the WORD of God flourished and continued to spread. Why? Well at least in part because of prayer. That was our focus in the last episode. We said you could chart the growth of the early church by their prayer meetings. In this episode we’re going to...

Send me a Text Message! You can chart the growth of the early church by it's prayer meetings. Something bad would happen, but they they prayed. It looked like they were down and out, but then their prayers went up and in. I bet 80% of us say we believe in prayer. We believe it's important, so why don't we pray? Of course, almost everyone sends up a brief prayer from time to time, bu...

Send me a Text Message! Memorial Day is a day to remember those who gave their lives defending our freedom. So how do we honor their sacrifice? I wonder if the best way to honor their sacrifice is found in Matthew 5 and Isaiah 58 both of which contain a call to shine. You are the light of the world, so shine! You are the light of the world, so shine. Bring light to the darkness, shine! You may fee...

Send me a Text Message! Acts 12:1-5 is a good reminder that when we become part of the mission of Jesus, we enter into a spiritual battle. Don't be discouraged when we face defeat and darkness in our spiritual lives...it's a battle. When relationships tank...don't be caught off guard, it's the enemy's strategy to divide and conquer. The gospel is a real-life, epic story an...

Send me a Text Message! There is a surprising amount of research on this. Gender  has no impact on happiness.  Weather has no impact on happiness. You have just as much potential for happiness under the cloudy skies of State College as you do in the sun of San Diego! Research suggests that happiness has its source in things like, volunteering, giving blood, serving others, helping your neighbors,...

Send me a Text Message! You can use a hand for many things; fight, discipline, shake hands, or hug. You can hold someone up. You can bless them. But nothing will empower us and change us and help us turn the world upside down like having the gracious hand of God upon us. The gracious hand of God is nitro fuel for our tank. It's the hand that takes the wheel when we can't see the way and...

Send me a Text Message! In this episode as we look at Luke 11, we will pause to ponder two things that we can do,  every single one of us can do these two things and they will make a huge difference in our life and the lives of others. The more we do these two things, the more the gracious hand of God will be upon us! What two things? Repentance and Encouragement.

Send me a Text Message! In Acts 10:31, there is this simple, yet convicting description of Jesus. "God anointed Jesus with the Holy Spirit and power and Jesus went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of Satan, because God was with Him." I read those words and can't help but think, "Isn't our goal to be more like Jesus? Even do more like Jesus? It&apo...

Send me a Text Message! So "More Than Bread," is a podcast that is seriously convicted that there are no words we need to hear more than we need to hear the Words of God. Because the stuff of life  is not enough to give us life. We need more than relational stuff or vocational stuff…we  definitely need more than luxury, comfort and control stuff. We need every word that  comes from the m...

Send me a Text Message! Today as we finish up Acts 9, we get another look at the impact of the early church and the transformation of people! But in the midst of all the amazing stories, we will pay special attention to verse 31, which offers a glimpse into how the early church found life and helped others find life in between the two tensions of two walks. The verse reads, "Then the church t...

Send me a Text Message! In this episode, we will focus on one small statement in Acts 9. It is a small statement with great significance.  Are you ready? Here it is... "You have been chosen." What  comes to mind when you hear those words? "You have been chosen." Well you might say, it depends. Chosen for what? If you get a registered letter from the Government, that begins with...

Send me a Text Message! Lost people matter to God. Your neighbors, coworkers, classmates and friends matter to God. Your enemies matter to God. Acts 8 is a reminder that not only did Jesus go the cross because lost people matter to God, even after the cross he will do everything he can to bring people to Jesus to find life in the Kingdom of God. Lost people matter to God in ways that sometimes it...

Send me a Text Message! Acts 7-8 describe a defining moment for the church.  Stephen's moment of sacrifice defined our movement as a movement of people who were full of faith, and full of the Spirit, full of grace, and full of power. Stephen's ending moments defined our movement as a movement of people who were fully joyfully surrendered to their King, a movement of courageously generous...

Send me a Text Message! One reason why reading the book of Acts is so important, is because it's a reminder of something significant. We read Acts and we can hear, maybe ever so faintly hear, this call that echoes down through the centuries...  "There is a cause, there is a story being written that is worthy of your life." As I read the ending of Stephen's story, I realize that...

Send me a Text Message! If I lay it all on the line, God’s gonna waste my life. That's the thought that comes to mind when I read Stephen's sermon in Acts 7. Sure Stephen was filled with passionate courage and preached it straight to the Jewish religious leaders. But then look at what happened. And we think, "If I say yes to God, he's going to send me to the last place in the w...

Send me a Text Message! Acts chapter 6 is a turning point in our movement. Up until Acts 6, the only names you ever hear about is Peter and John, once in awhile James. Everyone else is part of a group, or just a number. But after Acts 6 it changes. After Acts 6, everyone has a  mission. Ministry is handed off from a few leaders to everyone. In chapter 6, it's Stephen. He's preaching, hea...

Send me a Text Message! As we dig into Acts 6, here is the first thought that comes to my mind.  Sometimes the church is both an unstoppable force and an unspeakable mess. The church in Acts was an amazing movement, full of power and courage,  a joy and generosity that would just knock the spiritual socks off your feet. But it wasn't pure. It wasn't perfect. Don't forget the deceit...

Send me a Text Message! In Acts chapter 5, we find the early church experiencing intense persecution from the religious authorities. The apostles have been arrested, flogged, and commanded to stop speaking about Jesus. But instead of being silenced and scared, they rejoiced that they were counted worthy to suffer disgrace for the Name.   Can you imagine that mindset today? How many of us would con...

Send me a Text Message! In Acts 5, a religious leader by the name of Gamliel, let loose with some wisdom on the  Jewish religious leaders. He warned them to leave Peter and John alone because if this movement was not of God, it would die out. But if it was of God...they would find themselves fighting against God!  The church in Acts was of God. It was filled with people who were experiencing the f...

Send me a Text Message! To turn the world upside down, we must get real with our sin.  We have to take off our masks and get real with our sin. When we get real with our sin, grace happens and life is  transformed.  If you grew up in the church, and you are wearing a mask of spirituality that hides the sin in your heart, then you don't like the story of Annanias and Sapphira, in Acts 5. You h...

Send me a Text Message! This episode is about stuff and our masks and getting real with each other and God. And a little bit about what sometimes happens when God gets real with us! One of the amazing things about people giving up their stuff is that stuff is one of the most secure and effective masks we wear. Right? Because if we have stuff on the outside, then people assume that we are good on t...

Send me a Text Message! Some of you think that there is simply no way God can do anything of significance  through you.  You beg off every time He extends His hand of partnership, because  you are just an ordinary nobody, a common anybody. You don't have the training for this or the experience for that. But  the most important question is, "Are you willing to be with Jesus." The hea...

Send me a Text Message! When I read Acts 4, my first thought is this, "Before we turn the world upside-down, God may need to shake-up our church! In Acts 4, there's a prayer meeting that shook a building. We'll actually the Spirit of God did the shaking and I can’t help but ask, "God do you have it in you to do it one more time?  Would You shake us until we become the church th...

Send me a Text Message! I want to dance, but even more I want to see those around me dance. When the crippled man of Acts 3 began to dance in the temple, do you understand his crippled place  become the glory bookmark in the chapter of the story entitled, "When the Spirit was  poured out." Where are the bookmarks in your life? What potential bookmarks are  there in the lives of people ar...