More Than Bread

To turn the world upside down, we must get real with our sin.  We have to take off our masks and get real with our sin. When we get real with our sin, grace happens and life is  transformed.  If you grew up in the church, and you are wearing a mask of spirituality that hides the sin in your heart, then you don't like the story of Annanias and Sapphira, in Acts 5. You hear the story and you think, "God that was a little ov...

This episode is about stuff and our masks and getting real with each other and God. And a little bit about what sometimes happens when God gets real with us!

One of the amazing things about people giving up their stuff is that stuff is one of the most secure and effective masks we wear. Right? Because if we have stuff on the outside, then people assume that we are good on the inside. But here's the deal. Stuff means n...

Some of you think that there is simply no way God can do anything of significance  through you.  You beg off every time He extends His hand of partnership, because  you are just an ordinary nobody, a common anybody. You don't have the training for this or the experience for that. But  the most important question is, "Are you willing to be with Jesus."

The hearts of Peter and John were forever changed by spen...

When I read Acts 4, my first thought is this, "Before we turn the world upside-down, God may need to shake-up our church! In Acts 4, there's a prayer meeting that shook a building. We'll actually the Spirit of God did the shaking and I can’t help but ask, "God do you have it in you to do it one more time?  Would You shake us until we become the church that you can use to turn our world upside down?"

I want to dance, but even more I want to see those around me dance. When the crippled man of Acts 3 began to dance in the temple, do you understand his crippled place  become the glory bookmark in the chapter of the story entitled, "When the Spirit was  poured out." Where are the bookmarks in your life? What potential bookmarks are  there in the lives of people around you? Places of brokenness external or internal,  place...

As we dive into Acts 3, we encounter one of favorite early church moments, a truly  iconic miracle, the story of a lame beggar who became a dancing cripple. In fact, I’ve  used that as my user name on more than occasion, because in the end, aren’t we all just  dancing cripples?  And I don't know if you've noticed it or not, but when a cripple dances, a crowd begins to form and the church begins to matter.

See I b...

"Wait for the Spirit," Jesus said. Then the Spirit came and the church was birthed.  It was a church of humble power and courageous generosity, a church that lived against the grain of society but loved so deeply many in that culture were compelled to join them. It became a church that beat down the gates of hell to rescue neighbors from darkness. This was the church birthed and empowered by the very Spirit of Christ.

I want to live the uncommon life that comes from an uncommon encounter with the living God.  And as much as I want to see signs and wonders like the healing of bodies; even more I hunger to see the healing and renovation of hearts. I hunger to see the healing of 10's of 1000's of hearts; the kind of wholesale renovation that would lead God to be pleased to pour out a blessing on central PA that cannot be contained in one<...

Acts 2:42-47 is the original destination for the church. Don't get me wrong, the Acts 2 church was just as full of imperfect people as we are today.  The Acts 2 church would make mistakes just like we do today. But there was a freshness of Spirit and when that Spirit is let loose in the church, I believe the church is the hope of the world. 

I don't mean a building or a Sunday morning gathering. I mean followers ...

What if it's true that God offers us His presence in the same the same way, he offered it at Pentecost? What if a group of people could be so filled with the Spirit that the world was changed...turned upside down? What if what happened in Acts 2, could happen today? Would we want it?

That day in the upper room as the Spirit came, tongues of fire sat upon each head. Fire is a dominant metaphor when talking about the wo...

We can be filled with many different things...good and bad. What are you filled with today?  It's an uncommon call to be filled with the Spirit of God. We're not exactly sure what it means, but we do know what it's like to be filled with something. If someone says that they are filled with grief, or filled with fear, despair, anger, ambition or joy...of filled with love, we understand. We know that what fills us domi...

Imagine you had a chance to be there in the upper room on Pentecost when the Spirit of God came...but you missed it.  Imagine you missed it. You weren't there. You didn't join the group. Got distracted. Got scared. Other things were more important. You missed it. What did they have to do in order to receive the promise? Just wait. Be there. 120 men and women waited. They prayed. They didn't have to earn it. They just...

When God asks us to wait, it's always a word of hope. 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 is still more to come.

Some of you have been waiting on promises you believe God gave you years ago, maybe decades ago. God put something in your heart and then you waited. And as you waited, an...

"The Holy Spirit will come upon you," Jesus said.  "And you will be baptized, immersed in the Holy Spirit.  You will receive power and you will be my witnesses everywhere you go." I love my church. I see God at work here. But if there's anything that I know we need more of, it is the power of God.  So if we want to turn the world upside down, we have to change the preposition.  Change the preposition and yo...

Before I recorded this episode, I was listening to a playlist that I put together and the title of the playlist is simply "Jesus." The song that was playing before I recorded is a song by Terrian entitled, "Honestly We Just Need Jesus." I would add it to the episode if I was better at editing. But instead, click the song and listen to it. It will set up this episode better than the words I had planned to write.<...

We want to live in an upside down world because what we have come to experience as right-side-up is all wrong. So let's start with that moment when we were first called, "those who turned the world upside down." It happened a few years after the resurrection, and it's recorded in Acts 17:1-6. That's why every time I read the book of Acts, I'm praying, "Lord would you do it again?"

Bu...

This is an utterly simple reality. Jesus does not have my heart if  He does not get my time. I am not an apprentice of Jesus loving like Jesus, and sent like Jesus if I do not long to be with Jesus. And it’s a journey, not a curriculum; it’s a journey. 

This journey you are on, of apprenticing Jesus, is a life-long journey. It’s not a two-day retreat, or a semester long curriculum or even a one-year course, it’s a life-lon...

The ascension tells us who Jesus is today and where Jesus is today.  The ascension tells us what Jesus is doing today.  Who is he? He is the Lord of heaven & earth; ruler of all the nations, King of the Universe, and the Head of the Church.  Where is he?  Jesus is seated at the right hand of the throne of God, a position of authority and power.  What is he doing?  Besides ruling, Paul in Romans and the author of Hebrews both sa...

This may be a difficult episode for some of us to love. It's all about the ascension of Jesus. The ascension is that moment described in the gospels and the book of Acts when Jesus went up to heaven. But the language of ascension is not just a “going up” language. That language is used, Jesus going up, coming up, ascending. But it’s not just directional, it’s primarily positional.  Ascension is the language of Jesus becoming K...