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Send me a Text Message! Here's what I think. I think that you don't know the whole story of your life.  Sometimes we look at chapters in our lives and we begin to think that’s my whole story.  Did you ever hear someone say, "That’s the story of my life?" Did you ever say it? It usually pops out after a failure or when circumstances are less than we had hoped.  We say it in the midst of the hard  chapters. Sometimes it’s said in despair.  But you don’t know the whole story, not even your own. Because you aren’t the author God is.  And here is what I know about God... God uses imperfect people and difficult circumstances to write his epic story. And you are part of that story. So, what's your story?

Send me a Text Message! In this episode, I want to talk about the rule of the first step. Sometimes God seeks to test and grow our faith all at the same time. It's called the rule of the first step. You find it all over the place in the Bible. I am sufficient for you, we hear God whisper.  I will be with you.  I will give you my power.  I will show you my glory.  I will cause others to be amazed by what I do in you and through you.  But I'm going to ask you to take the first step.  I'm going to ask you to take a risk. It's the rule of the first step.  Peter you can walk on the water, but first you need to step out of the boat.  The 5000 don't get fed until a young man first steps forward to give up his lunch.  God doesn't deliver his people till Esther risks her life by stepping forward to the King. Resurrection doesn't happen till Jesus sets his face to Jerusalem to walk up Golgotha with a cross on his back.  Sometimes you have to step into your miracle!

Send me a Text Message!  In Joshua 3, God leads the people of God to an uncrossable river? Most of the year this river was easily crossable, but He brought them to the river during harvest, which was a time when the river was impossible. Why did He do that? Well let me give the easy answer. He brought them to that river at that time, because He was getting ready to do a miracle.  I don't know if you have ever noticed this, but every miracle starts with a problem. No problem. No need for a miracle.   Did you ever notice how everyone wants a miracle but no one ever wants to need a miracle?  Why did God bring them to the river at this moment in time?  Perhaps because from God's perspective, that uncrossable river was an opportunity to seed an undaunted faith in their hearts. What is your uncrossable river?

Send me a Text Message! You have been chosen by Christ, the most amazing man to ever inhabit heaven and earth. He chose you for this mission. He picked you up and exchanged your existence for his life. And now you are part of the Kingdom that will never end. And it's more than just being on a team, you have been adopted into the family of the creator of the universe. Nothing taking place in the world today is beyond his leadership. He is first in everything. And you are on his team. And He's sovereignly placed you in circles where your gifts and abilities will make a difference. And one of those circles is the circle where you live. You don't have a neighbor who's beyond his love, beyond his redemptive ability. He is crazy in love with your neighbors. He's not annoyed by them; hasn't given up on them. In fact he's already working-future-wonders in their lives. And He's inviting you to join Him in your neighborhood! What if Jesus lived next door?

Send me a Text Message! Courage is simply what we do when we love someone or something more than we love ourselves. When we love someone or something more than we love ourselves we do courageous stuff! And courage is closely related to undaunted faith, right?  In this episode, I'm going to teach you a few Hebrew words, words like tiqvah and ezer. And in the end, I'll ask you if you are an ezer, a life-saver. Like Rahab, are you an ezer?

Send me a Text Message! Among the people of northern Natal in South Africa, the most common greeting, like hello in English, is the expression: Sawu Bona. It literally means,  I see you. You are seen. If I don't see you, far more importantly, God does. In fact, as I read this chapter, I kept sensing that God simply wanted me to tell you, he sees you. You are seen. Isn't that one of the results of that common promise, "I will be with you."  When we wonder, God do you see me? Isaiah 43:1-3 is God's answer, "Do not be afraid, for I have ransomed you. I have called you by name; you are mine. When you go through deep waters, I will be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown. When you walk through the fire of oppression, you will not be burned up; the flames will not consume you. For I am the Lord, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior." He sees you. He knows you. And He loves you. Let that grow your faith!

Send me a Text Message! Hey what voices are getting your ears right now? Or what influencers are getting your scrolling eyes right now? There are voices out there that some of you have listened to all your life. Some of them were bad voices; made you feel like you had nothing to offer the world, no one will ever love you and you can't be fixed. Some of you on the other hand, have had some great voices speaking into your life through the years; words of affirmation, words of courage, words of love, words of wisdom. Those words have made a significant difference in your life and sometime this week, you need to tell God and those people thank you.   But whether the voices of the people in your life have been good or bad. There is one voice above all others that we need to hear. That's the voice that will give you an undaunted faith! Who is getting your ears?

Send me a Text Message! 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!

Send me a Text Message! 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!

Send me a Text Message! 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!

Send me a Text Message! 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?

Send me a Text Message! 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!

Send me a Text Message! 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!

Send me a Text Message! 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?

Send me a Text Message! 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!