Caroling, Caroling

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I did something I haven’t done in a long, long time. Not since college. Maybe even high school. I went caroling, complete with printed sheets of lyrics and everything. Just like it was back in the late 1900s.

It’s been that long.

Back in the day, we’d all gather together and carpool from place to place with our arsenal of festive seasonal classics. I’m sure we were joyful and triumphant in our attempts to pull off the carols and jingles. We probably came closer to making a joyful noise than anything else. I couldn’t tell if the guy next to me was trying to harmonize or was just really off-key, but it didn’t really matter in the end. A good time was had by all.

Tonight, we started off visiting the house of a deacon who very recently had been fighting for his life. It was heartwarming to see him standing in the doorway, a sort of miracle in itself, with his wife wiping away tears of gratitude as we sang loudly and zestily (if not always in tune or in the same key).

Then we headed over to my pastor’s parent’s to do more yuletide crooning. They’ve both had health issues and have had a rough 2022, but they were both pleased and grateful to see us gathered in their front yard, singing about those herald angels.

The last stop was the next-door neighbor who was a founding member of Brentwood Baptist Church along with her late husband. She lost him around this time last year, and I’m sure she was thankful for the company. Christmas is a beautiful time, but sometimes I forget that it’s not the easiest season if you’re missing a loved one.

I snapped a picture of this forlorn little reindeer in one of the yards. Hopefully, someone got a good snapshot of all of us singing in different keys and sometimes different verses at the same time. The Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir we were not.

But I’d do it all again tomorrow night if I could. In fact, I hope this caroling thing becomes another tradition that I can look forward to through the spring, summer and fall.

The Most Reluctant Convert

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I did something that I rarely do these days — I went to an actual movie in an actual movie theater. It’s been a while.

Normally, I like to wait for it to hit streaming services because few films are worth paying the current price of movie tickets. But in this case, I made an exception. I wanted to support a faith-based film from a group that I’ve grown to respect as I’ve gotten to know about them, the Fellowship for Performing Arts, led by one Max McLean.

The film is centered around the story of C. S. Lewis’ 10-year journey from atheism to Christianity. Without giving away too much, the narrative device they use to tell the story is unique and compelling. I feel like Mr. McLean masterfully portrayed the title character and the filming locations gave the production a note of authenticity.

But what captivated me most was the way the movie used Lewis’ own words. I believe a lot of the narrative came directly from his autobiography Surprised by Joy. For once, it’s a faith-based film that actually succeeds at being a good film first, and without being preachy or didactic.

It will make you want to dive deep into the writings of C. S. Lewis, both apologetic and fiction, as well as possibly leading you to check out some of writers who inspired him such as George MacDonald and G. K. Chesterton. I can’t recommend it highly enough for anyone who wants a quality movie about the nuances of faith and intellect.

Do Thou for Me

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“Do Thou for me, O God the Lord,
Do Thou for me.
I need not toil to find the word
That carefully
Unfolds my prayer and offers it,
My God, to Thee.

It is enough that Thou wilt do,
And wilt not tire,
Wilt lead by cloud, all the night through
By light of fire,
Till Thou has perfected in me
Thy heart’s desire.

For my beloved I will not fear,
Love knows to do
For him, for her, from year to year,
As hitherto.
Whom my heart cherishes are dear
To Thy heart too.

O blessèd be the love that bears
The burden now,
The love that frames our very prayers,
Well knowing how
To coin our gold.  O God the Lord,
Do Thou, Do Thou” (Amy Carmichael).

There are times when we simply don’t know how to pray for a circumstance or a loved one. Try as we may, the words will not come.

I think even then God hears the groans and sighs of our petitions and knows what they mean. He hears the deepest desires of our hearts and knows best how to grant them.

Even when we have words, they aren’t always the best ones. Sometimes, we ask without such a limited point of view. Sometimes we ask selfishly. Sometimes we have too small a view of God and ask too little.

In Jan Karon’s Mitford series, Father Tim Kavanaugh always has his go-to prayer, or “the prayer that never fails,” as he calls it. The prayer goes “Thy will be done.”

You can never go wrong with leaving the matter in God’s hands.

Sweaty Season

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I just saw the forecast for the next few days. The high for tomorrow is 96, followed by 97 on Saturday and 98 on Sunday. To quote the famous theologian Paris Hilton, “That’s hot.”

In Tennessee, we have more than four seasons. I believe this season is called the Front Porch of Hell where you step outside and immediately feel like you’ve stepped into an oven — or with the high humidity, into a sauna.

I’m not a huge fan of super hot weather, especially when it’s humid. My sweat glands go into overdrive, so I’m sure the people around me don’t appreciate summer as long as they can stil smell me.

But I keep reminding myself that all this steamy weather will help me to appreciate the cooler temperatures of fall. I will cherish those pumpkin spice beverages. I will once again be ready in my heart for spooky season.

At this point, I’ll take a day or two with low humidity and a good breeze. Just sayin’.

Singing in Every Season

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“I will sing for joy in God, explode in praise from deep in my soul! He dressed me up in a suit of salvation, he outfitted me in a robe of righteousness, As a bridegroom who puts on a tuxedo and a bride a jeweled tiara. For as the earth bursts with spring wildflowers, and as a garden cascades with blossoms, so the Master, God, brings righteousness into full bloom and puts praise on display before the nations” (Isaiah 61:10-11, The Message).

If you stop and think about it, you have way more reasons to sing from a heart of gratitude than to complain. Just like it takes more muscles to frown than to smile, it takes more effort to see the glass as half empty. Especially when you’re God’s child.

If you’ve truly been born again, how can you not help from singing? How can you not help but be thankful? How can you not see that the blessings far outweigh the bad, more so when you consider the future that awaits every saint.

Besides, there are so many commands and admonitions to sing and to praise all through out the Bible. Note that it does not say that you have to have an operatic voice to sing praises. You don’t even have to be able to carry a tune in a bucket. The Bible says to make a joyful noise, even if you sound like an orchestra of scorched cats and dogs.

Even if singing is absolutely not your thing, you can still express thanksgiving and gratitude toward God in any number of ways. I do think it helps to express your thanks out loud in some way, even if it’s only you in the room. But whatever you do, make sure you err on the side of joy rather than gloom.

God Never Hurries

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“God never hurries. There are no deadlines against which he must work. Only to know this is to quiet our spirits and relax our nerves” (A.W. Tozer).

It’s a good reminder that God is never in a hurry, even though we are. It seems like all the voice of anxiety ever says is, “Hurry! Hurry! It must be now or never!”

But that’s not the way God works, thankfully. I’ve learned that being in a hurry leaves everything either half done or poorly done. Almost no great works of art or deeds of history came from being in a hurry.

God is never in a hurry because God isn’t bound by time. He sees it all from beginning to end, from start to finish. He sees what we finite humans can’t, so maybe hurry comes from being short-sighted and short-minded.

Sometimes, the best thing you can do is to take a deep breath and trust God. Relax and pray. Stop for a moment and remember that He is God. Psalm 46:10 says to cease striving — stop trying to earn what God has already provided in His grace or to work for what God gives freely.

I’m not saying that no one should ever be busy, but there’s a difference, isn’t there? Busyness doesn’t have to mean hurried or flustered or out of control.

Lord, help us to be still and know that You are never in a hurry. Your timing is still perfect, and Your ways are still best. Help us learn to wait on Your will and not rush frantically after what only You can provide. Amen.

We Need to be Needy

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“The disciples are needy in every way. They are simply ‘poor’ (Luke 6:20). They have no security, no property to call their own, no piece of earth they could call their home, no earthly community to which they might fully belong. But they also have neither spiritual power of their own, nor experience or knowledge they can refer to and which could comfort them. For his sake they have lost all that. When they followed him, they lost themselves and everything else which could have made them rich. Now they are so poor, so inexperienced, so foolish that they cannot hope for anything except him who called them” (Dietrich Bonhoeffer).

We need to be needy. I think American Christianity has made it to where the idea of a life of faith is one where you gradually become more and more self-sufficient, where God is great in theory but you get to where you can handle just about anything on your own.

Then I look at those ragtag disciples of Jesus. I remember how the religious leaders who tried to shut them up recognized two things right away about these men: 1) they were unlearned and ignorant about a lot of things, probably uncouth and uncivilized, and 2) they had been with Jesus.

That was what being a disciple meant back then. Your whole life revolved around your rabbi. You ate when he ate, slept when he slept, moved when he moved. You learned to quote the rabbi in all matters of conversation. You eventually got to where you spoke and acted just like your rabbi.

We’ve made discipleship into head knowledge where having a head full of Bible facts means that you’re mature. But then why are so many older believers still acting like spiritual infants and still ignorant when it comes to what they believe and how to live it out? Why do so many Christians not look very much like their Christ?

The key is obedience. We don’t need new information as much as we need to live what we’ve already learned and obey what we already know. We need to get back to being children when it comes to faith (as opposed to being childish) and be willing to look foolish and needy in the sight of others so they can see how much we rely on Jesus for everything.

Lord, help us to be wise and childlike, willing to appear ignorant in the eyes of the world but identified as those who have been around Jesus a whole lot. Amen.

We Wrestle Not

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I’ve been thinking a lot about what the late John MacArthur said. When it comes to those who are holding views that don’t align with the Bible, we must not view them as enemies but as our mission field.

Ephesians 6:12 says, “For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places (Eph, 6:12. NLT).

In other words, people are not the enemy. The real enemy is the spiritual deception behind the lies. The prince of the power of the air is the enemy. And he is a defeated foe.

The best way to deal with those who wish to undermine biblical principles is to pray for their salvation. Pray that God leads them to the truth — not my truth or their truth or anyone else’s truth but THE truth that is personified in Jesus Christ.

Perhaps the best example of someone being loved into truth is the Apostle Paul. He was an enemy of the Church. He persecuted and hated everything that the early believers stood for. Yet it was their prayers and an encounter with Jesus that led him to the light — in this case a literal blinding light on the road to Damascus. From there, this Paul became the most stout defender and proponent of the faith.

How cool would it be if some of the people who currently malign or twist Scripture eventually became the biggest apologists for the Bible? How amazing would it be if they were the ones pointing people to Jesus instead of to false doctrine or false worldviews?

Obviously, we should defend gospel truth. We should never stand by when people are being lied to and deceived. But we should also remember that those on the other side are just as much people that Christ died for as we were. They’re not the enemy. They’re the mission field, as we once were.

Another Devotional for 2027

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I believe in being prepared. At least when it comes to my future books I’ll be reading.

After reading through Charles Spurgeon’s Cheque Book of the Bank of Faith this year, I plan on reading through another of Spurgeon’s books . . . Faith’s Checkbook.

If it sounds similar, it is. Basically, it’s an updated version of the same devotional. Gone are words like thee and thou and goest. Hopefully, it will be slightly more readable and quotable.

But again, you can’t go wrong with some Spurgeon in your life. There’s a good reason why he was called the Prince of Preachers back in the 1800s and why just about every single one of his sermons are available to read 130 years after he died.

I’d love to hear what your favorite devotionals are. Maybe you know about one that I have yet to discover. Please feel free to comment which ones you are currently reading or plan to read at some point in the near future.

As always, thanks for reading my posts. May the Lord’s blessings be yours for the rest of 2026 and into 2027 and beyond!

Dangerous Answers

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One of the most dangerous prayers you can pray is “Lord, lead me.” One of the most dangerous answers is “Yes, I will follow.” If you say, “Jesus, take the wheel,” it means you are okay with wherever Jesus is driving. He will take you to places you don’t want to go– to the broken places inside you and inside the world. You may not have chosen where you end up, but when you get there you wouldn’t trade it for anything, because it’s where God is and where He’s at work. That’s the promised land, wherever God is making His promises come true.

That’s something I wrote a long time ago. I’d probably say that the most dangerous prayer these days is “Thy will be done” because you never know where it will lead you. You never know where you’ll end up or what you’ll be doing. But in one sense, it’s not dangerous at all. Wherever God has you is always the best place for you because He made you and knows what’s best for you.

The most dangerous answer is “Yes, Lord” even before you know what the question is. It’s yes to whatever He asks of you or wherever He sends you or whenever He tells you to go. It helps to bear in mind that God will never call you to where He has not already gone or where He will not go with you.

Maybe the most dangerous answer is “No thanks, Lord. I’ll do it my own way.”

Getting Hold of God

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“Whenever the insistence is on the point that God answers prayer, we are off the track. The meaning of prayer is that we get hold of God, not of the answer” (Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest).

If I’m not careful, prayer can become like my childhood letterd to Santa. Those typically started off with me stating how I’d been good all year and thus was worthy of all the loot I had coming to me. The specifics of those letters escapes me, but I’m sure that I was like every other kid back in the day who mailed actual letters in envelopes to an address somewhere at the North Pole.

We do the same with God. It’s like, “God, thanks for being God. Here’s what I want from You” and then the list of wants and needs begins. Sometimes, we even have a list of people we’re praying for (which is by no means a bad thing to do).

But prayer isn’t as much getting things from God as it is getting to know God. The more you know God, the more your wants and needs change. By the end, I suspect we’re praying God’s prayers back to Him. That means we’re asking God for what God wants for us and in us. We want the same things He does.

In the mean time, it is perfectly acceptable to come to God in prayer without asking for anything but simply to adore Him and thank Him for who He is. I think the less we’re concerned about getting answers, the more we’ll see God at work because our focus won’t be so narrowly limited to His hand.

The good news is that even if you feel you’ve been doing it all wrong in prayer and treating Him as Cosmic Santa, you can always start over in a sense. You can spend at least part of your prayer time in adoration and thanksgiving before processing to petitions. You can look for opportunities throughout the day to thank God for what He’s doing, even if you can’t always see what that is.

Again, the point as always is to pray. The best way to get better at praying isn’t listening to more sermons or reading more books about prayer but praying — and being around people who pray often and pray well. That has helped me a lot. I still think reading books of prayers is good, like the Book of Common Prayer or The Valley of Vision. But mostly just pray.

Welcome, August

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“The first week of August hangs at the very top of summer… like the highest seat of a Ferris wheel when it pauses in its turning” (Natalie Babbitt, Tuck Everlasting).

Typically, June and July lasted a grand total of five minutes. Now on to August.

August is a strange month. It’s the apex of summer, but it’s also when school and regular activities start back up again, so in a way it feels like the beginning of the end of summer.

At this point, I’m usually ready for summer to be over with all it’s sticky hot humidity. But there is a certain kind of freedom that only exists in summer that I miss once fall arrives.

I’m aware that on the calendar, September 21 marks the official end of summer, but I suppose you could make a case for Labor Day when most of the swimming pools close. School starting back marks the end of most of the summer vacationing for sure.

These day, I love each season because God made each season for a purpose. They all play a part in God’s cycle of life and death and regrowth. Each of them has its own special days and holiday, though I’d argue that fall has the best — even not counting Christmas, which technically falls into winter.

Still, I know I’m getting closer to flannel weather and pumpkins and all things pumpkin spice. I can’t say I’ll be too sad when that happens.

Grieving a Pet

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“I will never laugh at anyone for grieving over a loved beast. I think God wants us to love Him more, not to love creatures (even animals) less. We love everything in one way too much (i.e., at the expense of our love for Him), but in another way we love everything too little.

No person, animal, flower, or even pebble has ever been loved too much—i.e., more than every one of God’s works deserves” (C. S. Lewis, The Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis, Volume III),

Thankfully, I haven’t lost a pet in a while, but I remember how much I grieved. My first cat Lucy was such a steady little presence in my life, and it broke my heart when she wasn’t there anymore.

No, I don’t think there’s any shame in grieving the loss of a pet. Absolutely not. There’s not a scale of acceptability over what kinds of loss are okay to cry over. It’s loss. It hurts.

Yout pets are constants in your life. They love you without conditions and without reserve. Even when you accidentally step on a tail or knock them on the noggin, they still love you. Even when you’re gone for days, they’re still just as happy to see you the next time.

And there’s a noticeable absence when they’re gone — a kind of void. The best way to celebrate the life of aa pet you’ve lost is to find another to love, preferably from a shelter or a place that rescues animals. Those are the kinds that need your love the most and will love you back the most.

But it’s okay to cry for a cat or a dog . . . or even a hamster or a parakeet. It doesn’t matter as long as they brought joy into your life and made your world better.