More Than Bread

Send me a Text Message! In Matthew 14, we are told the story of a storm, a storm where Jesus walked on the water and for a time, so did Peter. Like Peter getting out of the boat, the primary issue of surrender is control. Getting out of the boat, Peter surrendered control. Listen, your desire for control is ruining yr life. It's shriveling up your heart and driving a wedge in your marriage. I...

Send me a Text Message! There is a prayer for more in Isaiah 64, that contains the statement, "We are the clay. You (God) are the potter; we are all the work of your hand." We are the clay. You are the potter. We are all the work of your hand. That’s full-on, all-in 100% surrender. This is not really a God bless me, God protect me, God help and heal me, give me comfort and prosperity kin...

Send me a Text Message! Do you have a be-still space? When God says, "Be still." He's asking, will you trust me?  Will  you stop clenching your hands to hang onto things that don't matter. If we let our arms fall and our hands grow slack, if we stop striving, we are saying to God, "I trust you." In this episode and I want to give us something very practical to do. Fin...

Send me a Text Message! With this episode we start a section in our Lent series on the spiritual practices of "giving-in." One of the most powerful practices connected with giving-in is surrender. And of my favorite scriptures on surrender is Psalm 46. It is a compelling, heart-stirring description of God, but we won't know Him as this God if we don't practice surrender.   The...

Send me a Text Message! The word of God brings renewal and revival; new energy and new love to redeem old hurts. Is that the something more you need? I could give you a hundred different life-giving principles but ultimately those who thrive in life and find the more of God are those who know God, those who experience His presence, those who get rid of the clutter and give up control. Those who th...

Send me a Text Message! There is something very close to the heart of  Jesus in Isaiah 58.  Jesus announced his own calling with similar words, "The Spirit of God has anointed me to preach good news to the poor, to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim deliverance to the captives..." Isaiah 58 is a beautiful portrait of the "more" we are preparing for during this season of Lent....

Send me a Text Message! Fasting is a way of saying, "God I need your gracious hand upon me." What if part of preparing for more requires trying to do less? What if we need to fast and pray for more, more than we need to strive to try harder to do more. Maybe we need to stop striving and start surrendering.  You know in the last decades, there have been revivals of worship and movements o...

Send me a Text Message! The best is yet to come. The glory that is coming is greater than the suffering that is here. In fact, maybe now, all we'll ever get is a taste of glory. It's like when you go into a really good ice cream shop. You stand at the counter, looking through the glass at all the choices and you see one that beckons you. So you look across the counter and ask, "Coul...

Send me a Text Message! So often we talk about the battle in our lives between what's urgent and what's important. But in the 40Day story of Jonah, we find that what's important has suddenly become very urgent. Fasting brings a sense of urgency to our giving up.  Listen fasting is not a weight loss program. If you use it to gain followers on instagram, you might as well eat. Fasting...

Send me a Text Message! There are many Biblical, historical and contemporary examples of what God has  done in response to fasting and prayer. Down through the years when people have longed for more, more of God, more of His presence and power, they have fasted.  At critical junctures they have fasted and prayed; crying out to God, "O God, this much, we need you, this much we want you. It&apo...

Send me a Text Message! We need to stop pretending that the goal of this life is comfort and that faith makes it easier to be comfortable. God isn't dreaming about giving us a way out of our pain. God dreams about giving us the strength to go through it, and discover His dream. What if our lack of capacity is a gps signal to His dream for our life? If that's the case then few things are...

Send me a Text Message! Almost every time the Bible talks about "the wilderness," it's not good. But it can become good, if we have the Spirit of God. It's one thing to be filled with the Spirit and even led by the Spirit, but when we go through the wilderness with the Spirit we come out the other side, empowered by the Spirit.  When do I need the power of the Spirit? I need th...

Send me a Text Message! The Spirit of God is the treasure of God that fills the people of God.  Too often we talk more about the gifts of the Spirit than we do the gift of the Spirit. The treasure is the Spirit. The gift of Christ is the Spirit of Christ. There is no greater gift.  Our life is a jar. Think about that for a moment...what is a jar? It's just a container right? Most jars are def...

Send me a Text Message! Through the word of God, we hear the voice of God and His voice speaks life and courage and perseverance into our hearts. We listen to the Word, we learn the principles and truths of scripture and we lean into His instructions. But there is something else here, something of great beauty and power that we so desperately need in our wilderness. We need more than words of life...

Send me a Text Message! A few years ago I had the opportunity to be on the sidelines for the Blue/White Game. Coach Franklin asked Harold and I if we would be chaplains, so we came and said a prayer before the game. I'd been on the sidelines once before, but I'd never run out with the team. It was pretty amazing...running out in the midst of 70,000 people cheering. This is what I imagine...

Send me a Text Message! Lent is often experienced as a time of preparation, and as we make our way to the resurrection it becomes more and more obvious that what we are preparing for is more; more resurrection power, more peace and joy in hard days, and most importantly more of the presence of Jesus in our lives.   In the last episode we focused in on the reality of suffering. No one likes to suff...

Send me a Text Message! The apostles Paul and Peter said that we are born again to a living hope so that we can abound in hope. In good and hard times, we can abound in hope. And so we prepare for more…that’s our overarching theme for our LENT series; preparing for more. So my desire in these first few episodes is to simply lay out that theme, set up the theme of preparation. As we head to Easter,...

Send me a Text Message! In John 17, Jesus knowing that the cross is near, prays one final time...one final time he lifts his dreams upward as a prayer.  Notice what his dream for us is: He didn't pray for our success; He didn't pray for lives of comfort and safety; He didn't even pray for our happiness. The dream in the heart of Jesus was that we would be one heart. He prayed we wou...

Send me a Text Message! It's not enough to be a people with the book, we need to be a people of the book. Listening to, learning from, and leaning into the Words of God. My goal and prayer for this podcast, "More than Bread" is simply that we would get into the book, listen, learn and lean into it with all our might. That's all.  It's that simple.  Read the book, or listen...

Send me a Text Message! The book of Philemon reminds us that when we encounter the gospel of grace, everything changes. Everything that was past is long gone. We are created anew, given a new name and a new identity. And as a new creation, a people of grace, we forgive. The forgiven forgive. It’s what we do. The dead are brought to life. The useless become useful in helping others find grace. We a...

Send me a Text Message! Let me ask you a question, “What is your name for God?” Hmm, you mean like a  nickname? Like big daddy in the sky? No. You may not be aware of this, but in the Old Testament, the one true name of God (sometimes pronounced Jehovah or YHWH) was too holy for people to speak out loud.  But even though they would not say the one true name of God, they did call him by other names...

Send me a Text Message! What is your name for God? A basic idea that underlies the entire Old Testament is that God can be known by His actions in the world. This thought goes all the way back to the exodus experience, when God delivered His people from slavery. During the exodus, the Hebrews came into relationship with God, they knew God because He had acted in history to deliver them from slaver...

Send me a Text Message! Epaphras wrestled in prayer. That was Paul's description of this man. He was always wrestling prayer for his friends. He was doing the hard work of travailing on their behalf. Like Jacob in the Old Testament wrestled with God; he would not let go until God blessed him. For whom are you wrestling? I'm not saying there's something wrong with casual normal praye...

Send me a Text Message! What does it look like if I am devoted to prayer? Well, being devoted to prayer, doesn't mean that prayer is the only thing you ever do; just like being devoted to a job, or a cause or a spouse, being devoted to Lynn doesn't mean all I ever do is hang out with Lynn. That wouldn't be good for Lynn! But if I am devoted, there isn't much in my life that my...

Send me a Text Message! In Colossians 3 as Paul is wrapping up this section of scripture, you will hear him say more than once, "Whatever you do, do it in the name of Jesus." That's so comprehensive. Anything that you do; everything that you do; whatever do or say, do it for Jesus, like Jesus. What does it mean to live in Jesus name? .Today we understand that idea of doing something...