More Than Bread

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In this episode, I'll start with a question for you to ask yourself, "When I look around at a broken world, what grabs my heart? What is broken in the world, or who is broken in the world, that breaks my heart?" Another way to ask that question is, "What is my holy discontent?" Sometimes, some of us...myself  included...we want to medicate our hearts so that we don't feel the pain of a broken world. We put walls around our hearts. What we need are hearts without walls that reveal the heart of God to a world in need of love. 

At Calvary we say that we want to be living proof of a loving God! Perhaps that starts by asking the question, "What is my holy discontent?"

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Over and over again, through the years, I've prayed Tozer's prayer, "Lord make me a person to whom you can entrust your glory." But Nehemiah is a reminder that we probably won't see His glory without some of groaning on our part. Awhile back, while pondering where I see God's hand in my life, I felt like He said, "Dan I can't trust you with my glory, if I can't trust you with my cross." I won't let you see me in the glory if you can't see my hand in the cross, in your weakness, in your groaning and suffering, in your story. 

If your life isn't finished, your story isn't over...but we won't find the glory without going through some mess. So is there glory in your story?

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Vance Havner, a preacher and revivalist born in 1901 once wrote these words,

"The early Christians did not need a shot in the arm every Sunday to keep them going. They knew Jesus and they upset the world and worried the devil and gave wicked rulers insomnia and started something that jails couldn’t lock up, fire couldn’t burn, water couldn’t drown, and swords couldn’t kill. This world has never been moved by cold, calculating brass hats but by fools, with their facts on fire. We are suffering not from a lack of correct heads, but of consumed hearts."

125 years later, perhaps we need more consumed hearts? If so, join me in praying, "God stir up our spirits!"

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Your story is unfinished. Sometimes we look at certain chapters of our life and we think, "That’s the story of my life. We usually say those words in the midst of hard times. Sometimes we say them in despair and discouragement as we look at the broken rubble all around us. "That’s the story of my life." But it’s not.  If you are a Christ-follower, you have the very spirit of God in you. You are a citizen of the Kingdom of heaven with full access to the God who is  your Father. You're not just a citizen, you're family. 

If your life isn’t over, your story isn’t finished. Maybe the opportunity is gone, the dream is done, but your life is not. The story God is writing is unfinished. Sometimes the difference between a sad ending and the next chapter is nothing more than the turn of a page. 

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You are sent to love people all the way to Jesus. It's not enough to be like Jesus, and love like Jesus, on the Jesus Way we are sent to love others all the way to Jesus. That's our purpose. That's our "why." What if the most critical issue facing Chistians today is that we don't know what counts, so we settle for a lesser life.  

And in the process, we lose the wide-eyed wonder and awe of the radical Good News that we have as our Father God, an unstoppable force, a Dream-Releaser of "beyond imagination" power.  That we have in Jesus a, passionate Savior and Leader, who was willing to die to see God's story written in our lives. That we have
open access to the very Spirit of the Living, Creator God.  

When we forget what counts, we forget that we are sent to love others all the way to Jesus. That's our "why," our purpose!

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As we come to the end, I'll go back to the beginning to summarize. John 1. Jesus is the Word. Don’t miss this, the connection between Jesus and the Word. It's a connection that goes beyond metaphor into the land of mystical.  It goes beyond symbolic into the land of supernatural.  There is a connection between Jesus, who is called the Word, and the Word which we call our Bible. It's almost like God  speaks and every time he opens his mouth, Jesus comes out. 

We can't love Jesus, if we don't love the Word.

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This episode is another weekend message from Calvary as we continue on our "Homecoming" series. It just so happens to hit John 21. Yes if you have listened to all of the episodes on John 21. You will remember that story. But it's one of my favorites, a powerful story of redemption that led to Peter living life with an amazing sense of purpose. If you weren't with us at Calvary, I hope it gives you a great concluding look at John 21. In many ways, this is one of the most amazing things that Jesus did after his resurrection. He made breakfast on a beach for his friends.

After this episode, I'll do a summary episode or two on the gospel of John and then it's on to the Old Testament book of Nehemiah! Enjoy!

AND if you want to join us packing 300,000 meals for refugees, go to packhopepa.com and sign up!

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I know you are probably getting a bit tired of this story in John 21. Almost done. :) But in this episode, I want to challenge you to enter the story. I want to challenge you to live your life in such a way that it attracts people to the fire of God within you. And then to let your fire burn in your communities through prayer with great dreams of what God could do, if we follow Jesus. To let that fire transform your marriage, the place you work, the churches you serve. To let that fire lead you to love and serve people with living proof of a loving God. 

I want to challenge us to be people who will passionately stand for God and set our hearts to be the real-deal for Jesus. In this episode, I'll give us three starting points, three kindling points for a burning heart on the Jesus Way!

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 At Calvary we have a vision/mission to "build a church without walls." It's a CWOW vision. Part of our description of that puts it this way, "Envision a community so passionate about Jesus Christ and the glory of God that God doesn't just visit their community, He pitches His tent." And that's where it starts, such a passion for  Jesus and the glory of God that God doesn't just visit our community, He pitches a tent. He settles in for the long haul. It starts in an on-going encounter
with Jesus that leads to an overwhelming sense of the presence of God.

And it requires a passion revolution in our hearts. God we need a passion revolution for the things that really matter!

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What I hope you will get every time you come to "More than Bread" is something more than bread. With all my heart I believe God wants to speak to you through this time. And then if you have been with me for a bit, you know that it’s not enough to listen to His Words, we need to learn from them, and it’s not enough to just learn from them, we need to lean into them, we need to put them into practice, we need to do what it says. So I encourage you every time you listen take something away, think through an “I will..." statement. As a result of this time, "I will – fill in the blank."

And in this episode I hope your "I will" statement involves thinking through in some tangible how much you love Jesus.