Jesus seemed to talk about food a lot.

When tempted by the devil in Matthew 4 to turn stones into bread, when He had not eaten in 40 days, Jesus quotes Deuteronomy and says, “Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” So the word of God is more important, in fact, it is more valuable than food.

Jesus even says in John 6 that He is the bread of life. That essentially, we need Him more than we need food. And if we have Him, we will never hunger or thirst again.

Jesus said to those who were following Him in John 4, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent me and to accomplish His work.” His followers were trying to get Him to eat. They were concerned about Him. And Jesus makes a significant statement. The statement Jesus was making wasn’t that we shouldn’t eat. Jesus ate food and would recommend the same to you. He’s making a point. He tells them that doing the work that the Father has laid out for Him is more important than eating.

To own these statements would require a major heart shift for anyone. And really a shifting on what we treasure in this life.

These last few months for my family and I have really forced us to consider these statements and whether or not we really believe them. I mean, if you asked me if I believe them I would say of course. But really saying I believe something often times just means that I know something.

If you really believe something, it shapes you.

In this process of allowing God to speak into our lives and call us to leave Grant and plant a church here in this wonderful town has forced me to be confronted by these statements. We’re leaving the known, the at times comfortable, for the unknown and extremely uncomfortable. It’s not easy to leave. When we arrived here two years ago, we could never have seen this coming.

But we’re confronted with the statement of Jesus. Is doing God’s will and His work more important to us than even food? I hope our answer to this is always yes.

We’re excited about what lies ahead. We’re pumped at what God wants to do in this town, and we are praying that God uses Grant Avenue and this new church plant to really turn this town upside down for the glory of Jesus.

We really do hope that you will pray with us as we move forward in this mission. Please pray for my family, the Bruckers and the Armentanos. Pray that God would gather the right people with us to go out and form this church. And most of all, pray that God would be glorified as He continues to transform the people of Corvallis.

We hope that you will partner with us as we all want to see OSU’s campus transformed by the Gospel. We want to see other families and people a part of this community in awe of what God has done for them. And if we really want to see this happen, we will need to work together. Because it’s not about us. It’s about His Kingdom expanding and coming to this valley.

May the attitude of our hearts be that we desire more than dinner tonight, that His will would be done in this town.

Thank you so much for your encouragement and support already.

If you have any questions, or would like clarification on anything, please feel free to call, email me or pull me aside.

Love you guys and Merry Christmas!

Josh