More Than Bread

Send me a Text Message! Nehemiah 9 contains the longest recorded prayer in the Bible. And we can learn a lot about prayer from this prayer. For example, prayer must be radically God-centered. This prayer of Nehemiah is saturated with God. He is our Creator, Redeemer, Grace-Giving, Wonder-Working, Lavishly Loving, Great and Almighty, Chastizer and Forgiver of our Sins. I wonder what people might le...

Send me a Text Message! Nehemiah is experiencing a great life, great success, influence and power in Susa, but then one day he gets a report of the difficult, discourarging, even tragic circumstances in Jesusalem and God places a holy discontent in his heart. So it says in vs 4, that Nehemiah sat down and wept. He mourned, fasted and prayed to the God of heaven. This is travailing prayer. Travaili...

Send me a Text Message! The name Jabez in Hebrew, literally means "pain" or even worse, "bringer of pain." Can you imagine being given that name? Every time someone called his name, it was a reminder of pain. A reminder that his life was a disappointment or a hardship to someone else. Some of you know what that's like, maybe it's not in your name, but it was what you...

Send me a Text Message! Samuel the prophet was a man of great conviction who made a difference in his world at an early age. We might ask ourselves where have the Samuels of the  church gone?  Where are those people who will stand unmoveable upon the convictions of God. Where are the people who will listen for HIs voice?  Where are the people who will not let a single one of His words drop to the...

Send me a Text Message! In this episode, I'm going to talk a little bit about disappointment and a little bit about blessing. Why am I talking about disappointment in the context of blessing? Well where does disappointment come from?  A common answer in our day is that it comes from a lack of self-esteem or a failure to accept ourselves as we are.  Maybe, but I'm convinced that the wiser...

Send me a Text Message! The prayer of Moses in Exodus 33 is "God we need your presence." And God responds, "You have found favor with me for you are my friend." If you know me, you know that few things having driven my life more than the desire to be used by God.  But in the last few years God's been refocusing my passion, so nothing would drive me more than being loved by...

Send me a Text Message! Genesis 4:26 is the first time prayer is mentioned in the Bible. "At that time people began to call upon the name of the LORD." People who pray, people who call upon the name of the Lord are people who are willing to take a posture of brokenness. They are people who are willing to admit that the very best thing I bring to the table is my desperate dependency on Go...

Send me a Text Message! The connection between the Spirit of God and the Word of God and the prayers of God’s people is profound. In fact, my favorite metaphor for this three-way connection is breathing deeply.  The Spirit of God is the breath of God. So we breathe in the Word; and we breathe out prayer. Soak your soul in the Word and then lift up your heart to God in prayer, all shaped by the Spi...

Send me a Text Message! The people in Acts were devoted to prayer, not just as a means to an end, but they were devoted to being with God, with Jesus in prayer. The early church prayed like prayer really mattered. They saw prayer as a necessary preparation for God's Work. (In fact you might argue that they saw prayer as the work, not just preparation for work.) They were constantly together a...

Send me a Text Message! You could say that the book of Acts is the story of a people standing at a crossroads of decision. Their next step would set the direction of their lives. They had to make a decision. It was a decision of devotion. To what or whom would their first devotion be given? They had a conviction that they needed to give their hearts to Jesus, all-in. That kind of conviction only c...

Send me a Text Message! Don't miss this, though the book of Acts has been shown time and time again to contain an accurate historical survey, this is not an historical dissertation for Dr. Luke.  He's writing to a person, possibly a friend and I want you to picture, his hand shaking with emotion, with excitement, joy, and deep longing as he writes. Because more than anything, he simply w...

Send me a Text Message! When you read Paul's story in the book of Acts, you find that he had a dream, a  compelling vision.  He wanted to live for Christ.  He wanted to bring Jesus to the whole world and for Paul the whole world was at Rome. He wanted to witness to Caesar. So God brought him to Rome. Probably not the way Paul envisioned. no mass-crusade in the Coliseum, no miraculous signs an...

Send me a Text Message! In Acts 27, we see that Paul had a deep, deep confidence in God’s power to accomplish God’s purpose through God’s plan. God's power, purposes and plan. What is God's purpose? He's taking the gospel global. The Kingdom of God and the good news of Jesus is going global. That’s always been God’s plan, and can I tell you something? In spite of what we think we se...

Send me a Text Message! Acts 26 is the culmination of the love story that started in Acts 25, the love story between God and the family of Herod Agrippa. It’s also about evangelism. And let’s be honest, many of us have a love/hate/worry/guilt relationship with evangelism. Maybe that's because we've defined evangelism as, "Getting the hard sell from someone who acts like they're...

Send me a Text Message! I want to talk to you about seed-planters and soul revolutions. Seed-planters are people with vision.  They are people with the patience, the faith and the courage necessary to strive hard for a future they may or may not see.  Without seed-planters there is no fruit, no life.  Seed-planters are people who love to serve.  Seed-planters are people who will leave a legacy by...

Send me a Text Message! Acts 25 contains one of my favorite love stories in all of scripture. I’ll never forget the first time it hit me, it settled into my heart. The passionate relentless love of God is so great. The love of Christ is so great, His pursuit so relentless that he would throw his #1 spokesman in jail for two years so that his #1 enemy might have one more chance to know that love? ...

Send me a Text Message! ACTS 24 is a beautiful description of Paul being faithful. Embracing opportunities to share his faith, to talk about Jesus, even when it might make his life miserable.  Not watering down the message to someone who has the power of life and death in his hands. Giving the full truth even if it might be controversial. Paul was faithful over and over again. Over two years, he c...

Send me a Text Message! There is a moment of a scene in Acts 23, a short description in verse, and here's what it says, "The following night, the Lord (Jesus) stood near Paul and said, "Take courage..."  Who doesn't need more courage, but rather than focusing on the courage…here’s what I love. The following night, Jesus stood near Paul and spoke. Jesus stood near Paul and...

Send me a Text Message! Bob Buford talks about one of the most significant questions anyone ever asked him. The question was, "What's in your box?" It was a question asked in the midst of some life-coaching and the purpose of the question was to bring about a discussion of the central purpose of Bob's life. The consultant finally said to him, "Bob, you have to be real clea...

Send me a Text Message! I think every Christian in America should be required to memorize Philippians 1:21. This was Paul’s dream, "For me to live is Christ and to die is gain." That's the creed he lived by.  "For me to live is Christ and to die is gain." Is that our creed?  For most of us, who have the label American Christian, Paul's words are close to our dream/cre...

Send me a Text Message! If you had to summarize your life in six words, what would they be? How would you describe your life in six words? "Penn State wins again. Heart full." "If I don't graduate, I'll die." "I am seeking comfort and control." The challenge of the six-words is that it causes us to focus on what matters most, to capture briefly something of...

Send me a Text Message! What does it take to finish well? Or let me make that even more specific, what does it take for a follower of Jesus, a Jesus-apprentice to finish well? Because I think in order to finish well, we need to have some sense of who is determining the finish line, our course. Who is writing our story? For Paul that goes all the way back to his experience on the Damascus road? It...

Send me a Text Message! The time comes when we all need a word of encouragement. And isn't that what church is all about. Paul says that the church is God's fields and we are partners in the Harvest, that the church is God's building and we are partners in it's construction...none of us stand alone. And one of the best things we can do together...is to encourage one another! In...

Send me a Text Message! Somewhere along the journey every heart ablaze for God, begins with a growing heart-conviction that God actually wants to be with us.  This is his great promise.  I will be with you.  I want to be with you.  But somewhere along the way, we gain this idea that God is love so God has to love us. He has to love us because he's God.  But we aren't so sure He likes us....

Send me a Text Message! The Word of God is vital to spiritual life, but it's not enough.  It's necessary but not sufficient.  There's more. When we go through bone-drying, hope draining times, we  need more than knowledge about God.  We desperately need the Spirit, the breath of God. In Ezekiel 37, God says I'll put my breath into you. The word for breath is the Hebrew word, Ru...