More Than Bread

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This prayer is not only a favorite prayer, one of my core prayers, it's prayed by my biblical mentor, Moses. "God I want to be your friend." What would happen, how would your life change, if you prayed that prayer and God answered it? 

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This five episode series will give me a bit of a break before we start the next MTB series on the Old Testament book of Joshua. We'll go chapter by chapter, story by story to see what "undaunted faith" looks like! But for now, we are looking at some of my favorite prayers in scripture.  It's actually a reposting from a longer series that I did a few years ago.

 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 Spirit. This might be the most important rhythm of life. Prayer gets all the press when it comes to God at work, but it always begins with listening. This episode brings a focus to part of prayer that begins in listening... God give us ears to hear!

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No teaching of Jesus was any more outlandish and theologically incorrect (in Jesus day) than the teaching that God is our Father. In Luke 11, when Jesus was asked by his disciples to teach them to pray, He gave them a model, an outline of sorts, but even more importantly he gave them a new truth about God.

God is your Father and that's why prayer matters!

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One last look at this mountain top encounter that leads to deep valley impact. So the crowd watches in awe and then we have that church fight and then Jesus heals a young boy brought by his father. His father brought him to Jesus.  Why do people come?  Because they have a need. Who are the looking for? Jesus. Why are they looking for Jesus?  Because nothing else worked. He came with a need, A parent who found the child of his heart beaten up and locked down by some force beyond his control. He had tried everything else and nothing worked, but  then he heard about Jesus, and even though he's a sensible man, he's a needy man. And God's his last hope.

But when he came looking, Jesus wasn't there. It would be good for us to realize what a disappointment it can be when people come looking for Jesus but only find us. Jesus wasn't there, so he went to Jesus' friends, but they couldn't help. You know why?  Because something was missing. What's missing in the valley? Jesus.

What's missing in your valley?

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You have a purpose, a calling, a mission. God created you for a purpose and we see it here in this story of a mountain top experience that has a limited duration and ends with Jesus leading the way back into the valley.  Why?  Because we live out our purpose in the valley. Remember: On the Mountain-Top we get marked.  In the valley we leave a mark. I often say that our mission is to love people all the way to Jesus. Our purpose is to be living proof of a loving God.

And if you have a God-given purpose, a mission, a calling, then listen to me. Prayer matters!

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It wasn't necessarily my plan. I don't plan ahead that well. But this episode and the last one on Colossians, really go hand in hand. So let me ask you, "Have you lost your wonder of Jesus? Has He just become ho-hum, just Jesus?" If so, I hope that the last episode and this one reawaken your heart to the wonder of Jesus and I hope that you begin or continue to pray that simple prayer...

"Jesus would you please amaze me?"

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In this episode I'm asking a question that I sensed Jesus asking me as I pondered Paul's words in Colossians 1. The question was, "Dan, have you lost the wonder?" How about you? Have you lost your wonder of Jesus? Maybe you grew up with
Jesus. Do you know what I mean? We've gone to church since we were little. Sunday School, Christmas programs, confirmation, baptism. We did the youth group thing; heard the stories, never saw the miracles, but heard the stories; went thru the whole WWJD phase. We've grown up with Jesus. Have you lost your wonder?

Out of all the issues that might worry us, what if the most critical issue facing Christians today is that we are no longer amazed by Christ? Jesus has become familiar. The holy has become ho-hum. The majestic has become mundane. We've lost our wonder. It's just Jesus. So I'm giving us a simple prayer in this episode, "Jesus would you amaze me?" Let me encourage you to pray that prayer this week!

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Some of my very best, in fact I think I could say that many of my best mountain-top experiences have involved prayer. Prayer matters. In this episode and the next one or two, we are looking at a moment in Jesus' life called "The Transfiguration." Sounds like a sci-fi movie, right? It's a mountain-top experience that Jesus shared with Peter, James and John. And it's a reminder that prayer matters, if we want a mountain-top experience.

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In Mark 11, we hear Jesus say, (or maybe Jesus yell) "My house shall be called a House of Prayer." He could have also said, "My people will be called a people of prayer." Is worship important? Yes, but he didn't say my house will be a house of music. Is preaching and teaching important?  Yes, but he didn't say my house will be called a house of teaching. My house will be called a house of prayer.

In Hebrews 4:16, the Bible says, "Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need." Not, let us come to the sermon, so that we can find teaching in our time of need. We have made the sermon the centerpiece of our gatherings, it is not.

God is looking for a house of prayer, filled with people and prayer and when He finds it...amazing stuff will happen!

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Over the years, millions and millions of people have gone on a pilgrimage to Israel. A pilgrimage is just a journey to a sacred place.  Before Lynn and I were given the opportunity to go, (we actually have gone twice) I used to joke that I was more  interested in being a resident where God is, than in being a tourist where God used to be. But to drive through the hills of Bethlehem and wonder which one was the site where shepherds saw angels and found out about Jesus' birth; to sit by a pool where Jesus touched and healed a lame man; to touch a rock and wonder if it was the rock that held a cross that held Jesus; I found that going on a pilgrimage to a sacred place can be a profound experience.

Do you have any sacred places? And what does that have to do with prayer? We start to dig into that in this episode!