DAVE’S NEW BLOG. Wanted you to know that the Manna Man site is being changed to  David K. Lewis, Ph.D. Blog. You can continue to receive my daily post by going to my website and clicking on Blog Tab and signing up again.  Would love to continue being connected with you.

LIFE GET ON WITH IT. Wanted you all to know that I have published my first eBook for those looking for resources to help you live life to the full. I would love for you to have a copy of what I believe to be the best of the years from THE MANNA MAN Devotional. Please accept this as my gift of thanks for all that you have meant in my life. Go to my site for your free copy.

That’s My Story And I’m Sticking To It

There have been times….

The road I’ve traveled is marked by disastrous victories and magnificent defeats, soul-diminishing successes and life-enhancing failures.   Seasons of fidelity and betrayal, periods of consolation and desolation, zeal and apathy are not unknown to me.  And there have been times…

when the felt presence of God was more real to me than the chair I am sitting on;

when the Word ricocheted like broken-backed lightning in every corner of my soul;

when a storm of desire carried me to a place I swore I’d never go.

And there have been other times….

when I identified with the words of Mae West: “I used to be Snow White–but I drifted”;

when the Word was as stale as old ice cream and as bland as tame sausage;

when the fire in my belly flickered and died;

when I mistook dried-up enthusiasm for gray-haired wisdom;

when I dismissed youthful idealism as mere naivete;

when I preferred cheap slivers of glass to the pearl of great price. 

(Brennan Manning)

This too is my story in its most raw and honest form which is perhaps why throughout this year no one has more powerfully influenced my writing than Brennan.  In the same way, I hope that I have been able to touch you with the silent wonder, radical amazement and affectionate awe at the infinite goodness God.

And I ask him that with both feet planted firmly on love, you’ll be able to take in with all followers of Jesus the extravagant dimensions of Christ’s love. Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! Live full lives, full in the fullness of God.  Eph. 3:18-19

I love you guys,

dave

Slow Down, You Move Too Fast

“Slow me down, Lord!  Ease the pounding of my heart by the quieting of my mind.  Steady my hurried pace with a vision of the eternal reach of time.  Give me, amidst the confusion of my day, the calmness of the everlasting hills.  Break the tensions of my nerves and muscles with the music of the singing streams that live in my memory.  Help me to know the magic restoring power of sleep;  that there is more to life than increasing its speed.  Slow me down, Lord, and inspire me to send my roots deep into the soil of life’s enduring values that I may grow toward the stars of my greater destiny.”  (Wilfred Peterson)

Be still and know that I am God.  Psalm 46:10

I love you guys,

dave

Be Careful What You Pray For

A confederate soldier once wrote: “I asked for health that I might do greater things, I was given infirmity that I do might do better things…I asked for riches that I might be happy, I was given poverty that I might be wise… I asked for power that I might have the praise of men, I was given weakness that I might feel the need of God…. I asked for all things that I might enjoy life, I was given life that I might enjoy all things… I got nothing that I asked for, but everything that I hoped for.   Almost despite myself, my unspoken prayers were answered.  I am among all men most richly blessed.”

When we find ourselves pushed to our knees by the enemy, may we remember that  is where God’s glory shines the brightest through us.  Maybe that’s why Jesus was so drawn to the humble and broken, because He knew that it was in their weakness that His Father would be glorified.

Because of the extravagance of the visions and revelations God gave me, and so I wouldn’t get the big head, I was given a handicap to keep me in constant touch with my limitations.  Satan’s angels did his best to get me down; what he in fact did was push me to my knees.  Now there is no danger of me being high and mighty.  At first I didn’t consider this handicap a gift and begged God to remove it.  Three times I cried out to him and each time he said, “My grace is enough.  My strength comes into its own in your weakness.”   2 Corinthians 12:8-9

I love you guys,

dave

Small Town Magic

O Little Town of Bethlehem

O little town of Bethlehem, how still we see thee lie!
Above thy deep and dreamless sleep, the silent stars go by;
Yet in thy dark streets shineth, the everlasting Light;
The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee to-night.

How silently, how silently, the wondrous gift is given!
So God imparts to human hearts the blessings of his heaven.
No ear may hear his coming, but in this world of sin,
Where meek souls will receive him, still the dear Christ enters in.

Where children pure and happy pray to the blessed Child,
Where misery cries out to thee, Son of the mother mild;
Where charity stands watching and faith holds wide the door,
The dark night wakes, the glory breaks, and Christmas comes once more.

O holy Child of Bethlehem! Descend to us, we pray;
Cast out our sin and enter in, be born in us to-day.
We hear the Christmas angels the great glad tidings tell;
O come to us, abide with us, Our Lord Emmanuel! 

(Phillip Brooks)

I have heard that near the North Pole, the night lasting for months and months, when the people expect the day is about to dawn, some messengers go up on the highest point to watch; and when they see the first streak of day they put on their brightest possible apparel, and embrace each other and cry, “Behold the sun!” and the cry goes through all the land, “Behold the sun!” The light from the manger has encircled the world, setting free those who sat in darkness and giving hope to those who could not find their way home.

On the first Christmas morning the sun began to shine in Bethlehem. And from that sunrise, the light still shines today. 

“Behold the sun!”
“Behold the Son!”

Let us go over to Bethlehem as fast as we can and see for ourselves what God has revealed to us.  Luke 2:15

Merry Christmas!

I sure love you guys,

dave

Re-Enchanting Christmas

There is a beautiful story recounted every Christmas in the forests of Provence in southern France.  It’s about the four shepherds who came to Bethlehem to see the child.  One brought eggs, another bread and cheese, the third brought wine.  And the fourth brought nothing at all.  People called him L’Enchanté.  The first three shepherds chatted with Mary and Joseph, commenting on how well Mary looked, how cozy was the cave and how handsomely Joseph had appointed it, what a beautiful starlit night it was. They congratulated the proud parents, presented them with their gifts and assured them that if they needed anything else, they had only to ask.  Finally someone asked, “Where is L’Enchanté?”  They searched high and low, up and down, inside and out.  Finally, someone peeked through the blanket hung against the draft, into the manger.  There, kneeling at the crib, was L’Enchanté – the Enchanted One.  Like a flag or a flame taking the direction of the wind, he had taken the direction of love.  Throughout the entire night, he stayed in adoration, whispering, “Jesu, Jesu, Jesu – Jesus, Jesus, Jesus.”

Father, as we celebrate your Son’s birthday, fill us with the same passion and singleness of heart that we saw in the Enchanted One. 

To whom, then, will you compare God?  What image will you compare him to?  Isaiah 40:18

I love you guys,

dave

How One Man Triumphed Over Great Tragedy

Henry’s wife, Francis, had just finished trimming some of her seven year old, Edith’s, beautiful curls when she decided to preserve the clippings.  While melting a bar of sealing wax with a candle, a few drops fell unnoticed on her dress.  A longed for sea breeze gusted through the window, igniting her dress and immediately wrapping her in flames.  In her attempt to protect her two children, she ran to Henry’s study, where he frantically tried to extinguish the flames with a rug.  Failing to stop the fire with the undersized rug, he tried to smother the flames by throwing his arms around her; severely burning his face, arms and hands.  Sadly, she died the next morning.  Too ill from his burns and grief, he did not attend her funeral.

One year later, his son Charles was severely wounded in the battle of Gettysburg.  On December 25, 1863, as the church bells rang out from the steeples announcing the annual celebration of the birth of the Christ, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow sat down and wrote these words:

“I heard the bells on Christmas Day, their old familiar carols play.  And wild and sweet the words repeat of peace on earth, good will to men.  And in despair I bowed my head, there is no peace on earth I said, for hate is strong and mocks the song of peace on earth, good will to men.  Then pealed the bells more loud and deep, God is not dead, nor doth he sleep.  The wrong shall fail; the right prevail with peace on earth, good will to men.”

The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light.  For those who lived in a land of deep shadows— light!  Sunbursts of light!  For a child has been born—the gift of a son—for us!  Isaiah 9:2-7

I love you guys,

dave

Can You Believe This?

“The conversation took place while Heaven’s Senior Angel was showing a very young angel the splendors of the universe.  Together they observed the majestic galaxies and blazing suns, and then together they entered one galaxy of 500 billion stars.  As the two of them drew near to the star called the sun and its circling planets, the senior angel pointed to a small and rather insignificant sphere turning very slowly on its axis.  It was anything but impressive to the little angel, whose mind was filled with the size and glory of what he had seen.  ‘I want you to watch that one particularly,’ said the senior angel, ‘for that planet was visited by God almighty.’  Stunned and confused he asked, ‘Why would he do a thing like that?  Do you really mean to tell me that He stooped so low as to become one of those creeping, crawling creatures of that floating ball?’  ‘I do, and I don’t think He would like you to call them ‘creeping, crawling creatures’ for, strange as it may seem to us, He loved them and He went down to visit them so that He could lift them up to become like Him.’  The little angel looked blank.  Such a thought was almost beyond his comprehension.”  (The Jesus I Never Knew, Yancy)

And it is almost beyond our comprehension too and yet this Bethlehem story is the bedrock of our faith. Little wonder a choir of angels broke out in spontaneous song, disturbing not only a few shepherds, but the entire universe.

Since before time began, no one has ever imagined, no ear heard, no eye seen, a God like you.  Isaiah 64:4

I love you guys,

dave

In Your Wildest Dreams

“That night when in the Judean skies the mystic star dispensed its light,

A blind man moved in his sleep and dreamed that he had sight.

 That night when shepherds heard the song of hosts angelic choiring near,

 A deaf man stirred in slumber’s spell and dreamed that he could hear.

That night when o’er the new-born babe the tender Mary rose to lean,

A loathsome leper smiled in sleep, and dreamed that he was clean.

 That night when in the manger lay the Sanctified who came to save,

A man moved in the sleep of death, and dreamed there was no grave.”

 [What A Night, Author Unknown]

The hinge of our history and our future is on the door of a Bethlehem stable.

Don’t be afraid.  I’m here to announce a great and joyful event that is meant for everybody, worldwide: A Savior has just been born in David’s town, a Savior who is Messiah and Master. This is what you’re to look for: a baby wrapped in a blanket and lying in a manger.  Luke 2:10-12

I love you guys,

dave

 

Best Gift EVER

Ron Mehl shares the story of Judy Rogers, whose father was laid off work for an entire year. Months passed and still there were no job openings.  Christmas was quickly approaching, and it looked like there would be few, if any, gifts under the tree this year.  Now—prior to his lay-off, Judy’s father had promised to buy his wife a dishwasher for Christmas for she had been recuperating from breast cancer surgery, making it painful for her to do her usual household chores.  Judy remembered her father brooding in the days leading up to Christmas—staring out the window at the gray winter skies with his hands in his pockets.  He was always a capable, resourceful man, but this “mountain” seemed too large for even him to climb.  In her account of this experience Judy shared another thing about her father—he hated the thought of even touching dirty dishes.  He was a man’s man—he had grown up in a world where men stayed out of the kitchen (except to occasionally raid the refrigerator).  Over the years he had often commented that he would rather tackle almost any outdoor chore than face a sink full of dirty dinnerware.

Christmas Day finally dawned and there were no mysterious deliveries.  No large box appeared next to the tree.  There was nothing but a few carefully wrapped gifts under the tree . . . and a small envelope addressed to Judy’s mother.  Inside the envelope was a note—a handwritten letter from her Dad.  It said: “For one year, I will wash all of the dirty dishes in this household . . . every one.”  And he did.

This season may we celebrate together the unfathomable love of a Father who also kept his promise.

When he hears the cries of his people he will send a Savior to rescue them, for the Lord is gracious, everlasting in His mercy; age after age, He is faithful to His promises still.   Isaiah 19:20; Psalm 100:5

I love you guys,

dave