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Of all the acheivements and accolades in his life, Paul considered knowing Jesus, his greatest treasure. He placed his confidence for all good things in Jesus. He was counting on Jesus. So I want to invite you to come and see this Jesus who is worthy of your life and who thought that your life was worth his death. Come and see this man who knows you intimately and loves you insanely; the man who wrestled death to the mat and sent his Spirit to give us joy and life in the midst of the darkness. Come and see this man who shaped history and invites you into his story. Come and see. That's how it starts with those who follow Christ. 

And when you follow Him, you will stop counting on anything or anyone else. What are you counting on?

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For this episode I simply want to give you the words of the prayer I close with. It's a prayer from A. W. Tozer and is the response of a heart with a deep longing for God. I hope you will listen to this episode and make this prayer your own today.

O God, I have tasted Your goodness, and it has both satisfied me and made me thirsty for more. I am painfully conscious of my need of further grace. I am ashamed of my lack of desire. O God, the Triune God, I want to want you. I long to be filled with longing; I thirst to be made more thirsty still. Show me Your glory, I pray that I may know You indeed. Begin in mercy a new work of love within me.  Say to my soul ‘Rise up my love and come away.’ Then give me the grace to rise and follow You, up from this misty lowland where I have wandered so long. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

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Christ is the treasure of God, the gift of God too often unrecognized and reject. A lot of people missed God's treasure because it came wrapped in such a plain package.  If we were to journey back in time to Bethelhem, ready to chronicle that starry, special night of his birth. I'm not sure that the video would go viral. We'd have a youtube video of two low-income, homeless people, unmarried, spending the night in a lean-to shed attached to the back of an adobe house; the agony and mess of childbirth. Later we might catch a visit to this lowly scene by a group of crude, and common sheep herders.  Think about it. It's so common. God in dirty diapers.  

A lot of people did not come to see Jesus, because they missed the treasure in such a plain package. And still today, so many miss the treasure. Look back over your week, have you missed the treasure?

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If you’ve been hanging out with me for long, you know that More Than Bread is passionate about the Word of God. The title comes from something Jesus once said, basically, “we cannot live bread alone, we need every word that comes from the mouth of God.” Thriving requires more than comfort stuff and family stuff and vocation stuff, we need God’s words. We need to listen to, learn from and lean into God’s Word.  

BUT...when we dive into the Word, we find that there is this amazing, unique connection between Jesus and the Word. In fact when John describes Jesus, he starts with this statement, "And the Word become flesh." So can I say this? We can't value Christ, if we don't value the Word. And it's also true that we've missed the value of the Word if it doesn't draw us to Christ.

 So, are we a people of the Book?

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  John 14-16 is filled with some amazing prayer-promises. A lot of "whatever" promises, like "whatever you ask for I'll do." So why don't we pray like prayer is essential? I think most of us think prayer is important, but do we pray like prayer is essential? Listen, no matter how ruined you are...or how broken your city is...there is always a place to start.  Sometimes we hesitate to start because we want to know where we will end. I can't tell you how your broken story is going to end, but I can tell you where we have to start. 

We have to start with prayer. We have to P.U.S.H. in prayer!

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There r moments in time --the Bible calls them kairos moments-- moments in time  that are spiritually historic. In the moment, it doesn't always seem historic, but the  moments gather, and build, and something happens. I believe globally and locally we are in one of those moments. I believe that history will record these days as a kairos moment for the Kingdom of God; a season when a new chapter was  birthed. If. If. Only if we will travail. The time for casual and common prayer is past.
It's time for extraordinary prayer, a desperation woven through with expectancy that lays hold of God for our good and his glory.

Will you be one of the people who pray like that?

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Luke's gospel is filled with seekers? Are you a seeker? Probably at heart we're all seekers.  We're all on a quest.  We may each give the quest a different name.  The quest for meaning, the quest for purpose, the quest for knowledge, the quest for security, the quest for success, the quest for pleasure. But  I want to suggest that the longing behind every quest is the same.

C.S. Lewis speaks about this longing in his book Mere Christianity, "If I find in myself a desire for which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most  probable explanation is that I was made for another world." You were made for another world, and our hearts won't be satisifed till we find Jesus! 

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Some sociologists suggest that we are in a season where disappointment is the primary American emotion. We expected life to be always up and to the right, and then it wasn't. And even if it is, social media reminds us every day that it's not as far up and to the right as someone elses. But what if disappointment is a good thing? What if dasappointment is a signal from our soul that our hope is misplaced? What if our disappointment is the gentle whisper of the Spirit of God inviting us to reset our hope? 

What if the next chapter of God's story requires a resetting of our hope? Not putting our hope in progress; or the economy; politics or education, or even good ol' American ingenuity; a full reset. 

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Can I tell you something?  It's not just the birth of Jesus that draws our hearts at Christmas.  It's not just that Jesus lived and died; it's how he lived and why he died, that draws a life-weary world to celebrate Christmas.  The greatest gift ever given, the most uncommon Christmas gift ever given was not found under a tree, it was found on a tree. Jesus was born to die. 

But it was not a tragedy. It was His gift. It was His uncommon Christmas gift...of life to us. It was the greatest gift ever given!

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In Luke 22, we experience a difficult moment between Peter and Jesus. Peter was a guy who experienced as much breakthrough as anyone in the Bible, but he was also a guy who experienced failure. Broken fragments of life, crippled heart, feeling like he would never be enough, all moments that Peter experienced. Think about this. He walked on water, was in Jesus' inner circle, and one night promised Jesus to follow him to prison or death. "Where you go, I go." Jesus answered, "Peter before the rooster crows tomorrow morning, three times, you will deny  that you even know me." 

And he did. But don't miss this, Jesus knew. Jesus knew that Peter would fail. He
knows I'm gonna fail. Christmas is not reserved for those who never fail. Because He still gives hope to the broken.