Tea With Toni - Toni Lagaras

Jesus was born. It was the culmination of centuries of prophecies and eager anticipation of Messiah....and then what? Christmas didn't end at the birth. That was just the beginning. God had so much more in mind.

I love the Christmas story. I've read it hundreds of times. And it can get a little ho-hum. But I got stuck on one verse of Luke chapter two, and it inspired a poem and a whole message. Take a few minutes to recapture the wonder of Christmas with this podcast. Never lose the wonder!

What do you have in your hand? We may look at it and see very little, but little is much in the hand of God. He still does miracles today, and He uses what we have in our hand. How do you see what you have?

We live within limits. My checkbook has a limit. My energy has a limit. My car has a limit of how far it can go on one tank. It's hard to imagine life without limits, but that's the realm our God lives in. His power is limitless. His ability is limitless. What He can and will do for us knows no bounds. Let this inspired your faith today about what God is doing for you right now. There are no limits to His miracles.

I love the Christmas Story. Jesus. Born in a manger. Proclaimed in the heavens on a silent starry night. And Luke is my all-time favorite rendition of it. Luke Chapter 1 is like the prequel to the whole thing. I've read it hundrends and hundreds of times, but this year, I saw so much more in it than ever before. Take a listen and learn how we can live the Christmas Story in our lives every day.

We all have a purpose. A dream. A something. There's something each one of us can do to make an impact and change the world around us. Sometimes we can't see it. Sometimes it seems hidden. Sometimes what's in our hand to do seems so small and insignificant we dismiss it. But everything we do has value and can make a difference. What's Your Something?

Faith. It's a belief. It's a firm persuasion. We need it. But what does it look like? Take a listen to Go Get Your Own and see what faith looks like, what it does, and why we need it in these last days.

In this final lesson of Jesus Our Example, we see the key to how Jesus was able to live in rest. Live in peace. Living in such humility, stress-free and free from insecurities. By Abiding. I am in the Father and the Father is in Me. Take a look at just what it means to Abide and how that will help us find rest for our souls.

Stress. Yuck. It's a real peace killer. It can keep us up at night. It can make us sick. It steals our joy for life. In this message, we take a look at how Jesus handled stress and stressful situations to see how we can walk free of it too.

Hope drives prayer. And much of the church has lost hope where it comes to praying for our nation. We can't see HOW it can change, so instead of praying in faith we shrink back in fear. In Can These Bones Live? we look at fear, faith and what God has called the church to do in these last days.

Walk with Me. Work with Me. Watch how I do it. That's how Jesus told us we would find real rest for our souls. In my quest for rest, I've noticed something that was missing in Jesus' life but very present and causing unrest in ours. Insecurity. In this message we'll see how we can walk free from the unrest causing insecurities that try to plague our lives and find real rest for our souls.

Walk with Me. Work with Me. Watch how I do it. Jesus wanted us to follow Him. To watch Him. To be like Him. And humility was one of the key things that marked His life. Walk with me through the gospels and let's take a look at humility...what it is and what it should look like in our lives.

I love Matthew 11:28-30. Come to me if you're weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. The Message says, "Walk with Me, work with Me, watch how I do it." So, since I've been on a quest for rest, I took that to heart. In Walk Work Watch, we take a look at this and see what that means for our lives, for our rest, for our peace. Jesus was an amazing example.

We are busy these days, aren't we? And stress is never far behind. It lurks. What do you do when you feel overwhelmed? I share my story of being overwhelmed, depressed,and STRESSED! And when I cried out to God, I got the answer nobody wants to hear. Take a listen to see what to do when you're overwhelmed.

It's good to pray. To pray in the midst of crisis. To pray for current events. For things going on all around us. We need to release God's power into these situations. But in Genesis 18, we see another way. God says, "Shall I hide from Abraham what I'm about to do." God revealed to him what was about to happen, and Abraham interceded. And He still wants to do this today. In this lesson we see how we can also be used in prayer to pray out ahead of situations. God knows what's about to happen, and He is looking for someone to show so they can pray. Will you be that person?

God gave us His Word so we have something to look at when everything else in our lives looks opposite to it. In this lesson, we learn about how to contend for what God said between asking and receiving. When faith isn't immediately made sight, we need to learn how to contend. To stand. To fight for it. He is faithful. It will come to pass.

In part 4 of Prayer Life, we take a look at another layer in the foundation of a successful prayer life - The Word. His Word is the basis of our faith, it's what our prayers are founded on, and it carries power when we speak it. We also check out a few things outside of the prayer room that can hinder our prayers from being answered

Covenant is not usually a subject taught in conjunction with having a successful prayer life, but part 3 we'll see what covenant is, why we need one, and what in the world that has to do with answered prayer.

John 15:7 says, "If you abide in Me, and my Word abides in you, you can ask whatever you will and it will be done for you." Abiding is key to laying a foundation for an effectual prayer life, and we learn in this message just what it looks like to abide in the Vine.

In Prayer Life part 1, we take a unique look at the What and Why of prayer. What it is and why we need to pray. Prayer is so much more than something we do. It should be as natural to us as breathing. Join us as we take a fresh look at prayer and learn to develop not just a prayer time but a Prayer Life.