More Than Bread

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In this episode, we are going to talk about the most common command in the Bible and the most common promise. The two of them go together, (God's most common command and God's most common promise) to give birth to an undaunted faith. If you are interested in knowing what either one is...give a listen!

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Can I tell you what I believe, what I've experienced... there's a desire, a deep desire in each of us, it goes deeper than our hearts, it's woven into the very fabric of our souls. We were born with it, created for it. On this side of heaven, it's never fully
satisfied and it will never die. In fact, our identity, our purpose for living is wrapped up in this desire, our desire for life. Real life.  Sometimes we miss it, sometimes we  ignore it, sometimes we grow weary and wonder if it is time to abandon the journey. But that nagging desire, St. Augustine called it a "holy longing" never quite goes away.

I think that every heart-longing we have, is actually the longing of our soul for Jesus. And no one else can bring you life like Jesus!

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When Joshua and Caleb came back from the land of promise with 10 others, having spied out the land, one thing they all agreed upon was that there giants in the land. But where they differed was that 10 thought the giants were too much for them, but two thought God with them was greater than the giants in the land.

It made me start thinking about the giants in my life. What are the giants in your life? Whatever they are, God is greater than your giants!

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In Hebrews chapter 11, the author is describing a faith, hall of fame and he writes these words in verse 6: "And without faith it is impossible to please God, because   anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek Him."

I know there are many reasons why people don't come to God and I know that there are those who do not believe there is a God. But over the course of my life, I have developed a growing conviction that when it comes to faith, most of us
falter in the second arena of faith.  We don't believe that God rewards those who earnestly seek Him.  We don't believe that seeking God, and following Christ, will bring us our best life.

But what if all it takes is another step or two in His direction? What is your step of faith?

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Isaiah 64:1-8 is a corporate prayer. It's a corporate lament for the presence of God from a people who were missing God.  They want more God. But that corporate lament ends with hope, when Isaiah prays, "And yet, O Lord, you are our Father. We are the clay, and you are the potter.  We all are formed by your hand." Do you hear the shift?  Isaiah goes from asking the nation-scaring God to rend the heavens with fearsome fireworks to asking the Father God to put his hands on our hearts and shape us there.
          
The picture of the Father as potter and his people as the clay breaks this lament wide-open.  It's the New Covenant leaking into the Old Testament.  It's  relationship.  Rather than God bursting forth, God is invited in.  Rather than nations trembling and mountains quaking the Father is shaping our hearts. You are not alone nor are you left alone.  The Fingerprints of God Are All Over You.

It's not so bad to be clay, if God is the potter!

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In this episode we are making our way to the Old Testament book of Joshua for a series on faith, a faith that is undaunted! And as we make our way to Joshua, we are going to ponder the call to wait but the call to wait is in a prayer that is addressed to the God who amazes us.

And that's the prayer of Isaiah 64:4...we need to make it our prayer: "God would you amaze me. Do you understand that when God says, WAIT.  He's promising you that there will be a tomorrow. Wait is a word of hope.  God's Wait is always tied to a promise, which simply means there's more amazement to come. I'm not saying we don't go thru tough times, we live in a broken world, filled with hard times. But we live for an amazing God, a good, joy-filled amazing creator. 

And when he says, "Just wait." There's something good coming!

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This is episode #4, of my current teaching series at Calvary. We are going through the book of Colossians. In this episode, I'll ask some questions. Like, "Who do you say that Jesus is?" and "Who does your life say that Jesus is?" and "Am I all-in for Jesus?" And then based on your answer to those questions, the next question would simply be, "What is my next step?"

Jesus is nothing less than all-in for us, are we willing/ready to go all-in for Him?

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In this episode we are looking at a prayer from Paul in the book of Philippians. I’ve called it a finishing prayer. It’s a prayer to finish life well. In Bobby Clinton’s research on leaders, he found that about 1/3 of Christian leaders finish well. He defined finishing well as having a sense of purpose and calling accomplished, ending up more in love with Jesus at the end than the beginning, and not flaming out or burning out; only one out of three! We can do better! 

This prayer as a prayer to finish well and a reminder of what it takes! And it finishes this "give me a break" series! Next up will be the next in our Colossians series, "MORE." Then Joshua's undaunted faith!

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Be honest, there is at least a bit of our heart that sees the title, "I surrender..." and thinks, maybe I'll just pass this prayer by...get back into it tomorrow. I have t admit, it's not easy calling this one of my favorite prayers. But it has led to some of my favorite answers.

Matthew 26 contains a prayer of surrender made by Jesus before he went to the cross. "Not my will, but your will be done." That was his prayer. But I love what the writer of Hebrews would later write, "For the joy set before him, Jesus endured the cross." For the joy set before him, Jesus surrendered control. Jesus surrendered his plan. Jesus surrendered his will. What if the greatest joy we can imagine begins with the prayer, "I surrender." 

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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 were called...it's how someone spoke to you, about you. It was how you began to think about yourself. But at some point Jabez decided that his past would no longer rob his future.

So he prayed this prayer of breakthrough, "O Lord would you bless me and expand my boundaries. Please be with me in all that I do and keep me from being a pain to others." And God granted his request. It's one of my favorite prayers!