“Everything about which we are tempted to complain may be the very instrument whereby the Potter intends to shape His clay into the image of His Son–a headache, an insult, a long line at the check-out, someone’s rudeness or failure to say thank you, misunderstanding, disappointment, interruption. As Amy Carmichael said, ‘See in it a chance to die,’ meaning a chance to leave self behind…”(Elisabeth Elliot)

Dying to self is not a popular sermon topic these days. I imagine your typical American church won’t really emphasize the whole taking up your cross aspect of following Jesus. More than likely, they’ll focus on the part about Jesus telling people to come to Him when they are weary for His yoke is easy and His burden is light.

Which is true. But so is the part about taking up your cross daily and dying to self. So is the part about confessing your sins to one another.

In a culture where we are easily offended — where we look for reasons to be offended — it’s decidedly counter cultural to see things like insults and interruptions as means of shaping my own character. The popular motto is to life your best life now and be your best self — not to die to self and to lay down your life for the sake of the gospel.

I confess that in my flesh I am deeply offended. I want to be proven right, and I want those who upset me to know how they upset me and to do the appropriate amount of groveling and begging for forgiveness.

But Jesus suffered silently. He forgave those as they were in the very act of murdering Him. Then He died for their sins.

And He asks me to take up my cross, die to self, and follow Him, not because He wants me to be miserable, but because He knows best that that is the way that leads to true joy and real peace and abundant life.

Today, I went to Target with the sole purpose of purchasing a new toothbrush. My old ones were probably way past the point where I should have tossed them and moved on with my life, but I just couldn’t bring myself to part with them. They were almost like family. Almost.

So I bought a 2-pack of toothbrushes because I thought I’d be all sensible and thrifty.

Do you know how much 2 Oral B toothbrushes cost these days? $10!

I thought that price was for the 4-pack sitting next to the 2-pack, but no. That was for 2 toothbrushes. For those who are good with the maths, that comes out to $5 per toothbrush. And like 50 cents per bristle.

I told someone I work with that for those prices, I want to be buried with those toothbrushes laid out next to me in my coffin. One on my right, one on my left. I am most definitely taking those with me when I shed this mortal coil.

I’m also sure my teeth brushing will be taken to the next level. For that amount of money, I should never ever have another cavity for as long as I live. I should probably be able to skip out of one dental visit in the next year, kinda like a Get out of Jail Free card in Monopoly, only for teeth cleaning.

For me, inflation has been a bit of a theoretical concept lately. I understood prices were going up but I didn’t see how it affected me. Until today. I suddenly realized that to complain about the price of dental hygiene means that I am officially old. Welcome to the geezer club!

This is a fun and humorous look at all the major translations of the Bible that are available in physical and digital formats. That’s not exhaustive by any means. There are so many new and revised translations popping up that it’s hard to keep track.

If you’re one of the ones overwhelmed by all the choices, I personally can recommend a few. If you want the more formal and poetic translations, I’d go with English Standard Version (ESV) or New American Standard Bible (NASB). If you want readable and easy to understand, you’d like the New Living Translation (NLT) or the New International Version (NIV). A good in-between for literal faithfulness and readability is the Christian Standard Bible (CSB). If you want a modern paraphrase to go with a more traditional translation, I’d recommend The Message (although I wouldn’t use that one by itself).

The key is to pick one and read it. There’s really no one size fits all Bible. It’s which ever helps you read God’s Word most effectively. Of course, the most important part is not just reading the Word and hearing the Word, but doing what it says. Obedience leads to understanding. I confess that I’m not always the best at putting the Bible into practice, but that’s the way to go deeper — you obey what you know to do and what you understand, and God will reveal more as you are faithful in small ways.

Also, it helps to ready and study the Bible in community. Just as with every other part of the faith process, we’re not meant to live out what we believe in isolation. That’s why God gave us the institution of the Church and the more immediate representation of the local church. You grow best in context of fellowship and community with other believers. By yourself, you’re prone to fall away or fall into error and heresy.

All that to say this: find a Bible that you like that is readable and reliable. Then read it! The end.

I don’t know if you’ve ever had that slightly depressed feeling after finishing a really good book or book series. It almost feels like “What now?”

I’ve heard that a good book is one where you choose to step inside the author’s shoes and live in their world. A great book gives you no choice. Almost without warning, you find yourself instantly teleported into a new universe, meeting new people, experiencing new things.

I’ve been listening to all the Charles Martin novels in chronological order on Audible. Recently, I started on the most current one. The sad part is that there are no more, but the good news is that hopefully sooner than later there will be more.

I appreciate good stories. I like the kinds of book that make you want to live in the places and meet the people in the pages. I like books that I can visualize and see locations and faces. The reason that movies based on books are typically not as good is because they fail to live up to the images I’ve created in my mind based on the plot, dialogue, characters, etc.

But fret not. I have a plan.

My next dive will be into the world of Tolkien. I’m planning on starting with the Silmarillion and going into The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. After that, who knows?

“Martin Luther once wrote that evil thoughts come like birds flying over our heads. We cannot help that. But if we allow them to build nests on our heads, then we are responsible for them. We will never be completely free of temptation; we should not even expect it. Even Jesus was tempted. At one time the idea of Jesus being tempted like an ordinary human being seemed blasphemous to me. Yet there is no question: he was, although he never sinned” (J. Henrich Arnold).

I believe the Bible speaks to that. It talks about taking every thought captive. I know it’s easier said than done, but part of the discipline of self-control (which is one of the fruits of the Spirit) is to not let your thoughts run away and control you. Sin happens when you let thoughts of temptation take hold instead of capturing them. Then you’re in trouble.

It does help to have something to fill your mind to combat those evil thoughts — listening praise music, sermons, biblical podcasts, faith-based novels . . . the list goes on. It’s not only about getting rid of bad thoughts but filling that space with good thoughts.

“Summing it all up, friends, I’d say you’ll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse” (Philippians 4:8, The Message).

“The battle is the Lord’s, but God says you’re going to have a part. What was Jehoshaphat’s part in 2 Chronicles 20? Praise. God says, ‘The battle is mine, but I’m not going to do one thing until you praise.’ What if they said, ‘Well, Lord, as soon as You give us the victory, we’re going to sing’? God says, ‘No, I’m not going to give you any victory until you start singing.’ Are you willing to praise God during your problems? Can you praise in the face of your enemy when you don’t have anything but the promise of God? He says, ‘I will not leave you or forsake you. The battle is not yours; it’s Mine.’ Now get out there and praise the Lord!

You see, a lack of praise is really unbelief. The Bible teaches that when we praise the Lord, we’re really expressing faith in God. Prayer and praise go together. Prayer and praise are the two wings of spiritual power. Prayer infuses us with the energy of God, and praise confuses the enemies of God. The devil is allergic to praise. When we praise God, He sends confusion into the camp of our enemies” (Dr. Adrian Rogers).

There’s something powerful about declaring God’s goodness out loud. There’s something even more powerful when you can sing the love and mercy of God. It’s not about perfect pitch but a premeditated confidence that God is able. It’s not about hitting all the notes as much as it is trusting in all the promises of God.

It’s one thing to sing from the shores of victory. It’s another when the storm is still surrounding you and all you have are the words of God to hold on to and to guide you through.

God isn’t due all of your prayer and praise because of the promise of life getting easier but simply because He’s worth it. Regardless of whether you ever see another promise of God fulfilled or not, He’s worthy because of every single promise come to pass in the past. And on top of that, He’s promised to be with you to the end (and beyond).

That’s worth singing about, whether you sound like Whitney Houston or Elmer Fudd. He’s worth it!

Tonight’s selection is from one of my favorites, C. S. Lewis. I’m too tired for original thought, so I borrowed some wise words from one of the best:

As a great Christian writer (George MacDonald) pointed out, every father is pleased at the baby’s first attempt to walk: no father would be satisfied with anything less than a firm, free, manly walk in a grown-up son. In the same way, he said, ‘God is easy to please, but hard to satisfy.’ I think every one who has some vague belief in God, until he becomes a Christian, has the idea of an exam or of a bargain in his mind. The first result of real Christianity is to blow that idea into bits. When they find it blown into bits, some people think this means that Christianity is a failure and give up. They seem to imagine that God is very simple-minded! In fact, of course, He knows all about this. One of the very things Christianity was designed to do was to blow this idea to bits. God has been waiting for the moment at which you discover that there is no question of earning a pass mark in this exam or putting Him in your debt. Then comes another discovery. Every faculty you have, your power of thinking or of moving your limbs from moment to moment, is given you by God. If you devoted every moment of your whole life exclusively to His service you could not give Him anything that was not in a sense His own already. So that when we talk of a man doing anything for God or giving anything to God, I will tell you what it is really like. It is like a small child going to his father and saying, ‘Daddy, give me sixpence to buy you a birthday present.’ Of course, the father does, and he is pleased with the child’s present. It is all very nice and proper, but only an idiot would think that the father is sixpence to the good on the transaction. When a man has made these two discoveries God can really get to work. It is after this that real life begins.”

Tonight, I participated in an art crawl in Franklin and I can testify to the fact that it’s finally beginning to feel like fall outside. I am of the opinion that it’s hard to get into the spirit of spooky season when it’s almost 90 degrees outside. Plus, pumpkin spice tastes much better when it’s colder.

I visited a haunted house — or technically, more like a haunted detached garage. This one lady goes all out to decorate for Halloween every year and it’s well worth visiting if you’re ever in the Franklin area.

But October is all about leaves turning colors, roasting marshmallows, and going to hayrides and bonfires. Again, that’s difficult when it’s hot outside.

But as I’ve mentioned before, fall weather is a kind of gateway to every happy childhood memory of mine. I can suddenly remember people long since gone and remember places I used to love.

I’m hankering to wear some flannel sooner rather than later. Some of you had already busted out the sweaters when it was still hot outside, but I have actual sweat glands, so I can’t do that.

Bring on fall, I say. Bring on Halloween, then Thanksgiving, and then my favorite, Christmas. I’m ready.

“‘I must keep praying’ ‘I feel like just giving up!’ How often has this thought passed through our minds (both yours and mine) in recent months? If I am honest, then I must admit it’s been quite often. I find myself so often in hopeless situations where I know full well that only God can deliver me but God doesn’t seem to have the same urgency as I do. Impatience and unbelief are at least a root o…(tharr be more)f all my problems, and pride isn’t far behind, along with frustration (the fruit of my sin). Deep down I know that the Lord is working in my life and that I would be better off if I waited patiently for His time and His way of deliverance, but there seems to be a constant conflict between wanting to honour my God by doing His will and at the same time worrying myself sick over things which may never happen” (From Apples of Gold).

That’s just it. Nearly all of the energy I spend worrying usually revolves around scenarios that never happen. I go down a rabbit hole of anxiety about a course of events that I think is sure to take place but never even starts in the first place.

Worrying is me trusting in my own finite and limited perspective while faith means trusting in an infinite and all-knowing God. While it’s easy to look back with 20/20 hindsight, faith means trusting in advance what will only make sense in reverse (thanks, Philip Yancey).

Faith means to trust that God’s promises are certain and then to live and obey like they’re already fulfilled. Lord, help us to believe when worry is the more natural response. We believe. Help our unbelief!

“When Digory took a minute to get his breath, and then went softly into his Mother’s room. And there she lay, as he had seen her lie so many other times, propped up on the pillows, with a thin, pale face that would make you cry to look at it. Digory took the Apple of Life out of his pocket.

And just as the Witch Jadis had looked different when you saw her in our world instead of in her own, so the fruit of that mountain garden looked different too. There were of course all sorts of colored things in the bedroom; the colored counterpane on the bed, the wallpaper. . . . But the moment Digory took the Apple out of his pocket, all those things seemed to have scarcely any color at all. Every one of them, even the sun- light, looked faded and dingy. . . . Nothing else was worth looking at: you couldn’t look at anything else. And the smell of the Apple of Youth was as if there was a window in the room that opened on Heaven.

‘Oh, darling, how lovely,’ said Digory’s Mother. ‘You will eat it, won’t you? Please,’ said Digory. ‘I don’t know what the Doctor would say,’ she answered. ‘But really—I almost feel as if I could.’ He peeled it and cut it up and gave it to her piece by piece. And no sooner had she finished it than she smiled and her head sank back on the pillow and she was asleep: a real, natural, gentle sleep, without any of those nasty drugs, which was, as Digory knew, the thing in the whole world that she wanted most. . . . He bent down and kissed her very softly and stole out of the room with a beating heart, taking the core of the apple with him. For the rest of that day, whenever he looked at the things about him, and saw how ordinary and unmagical they were, he hardly dared to hope; but when he remembered the face of Aslan he did hope” (C. S. Lewis, The Magician’s Nephew).

Lately, I’ve wished I could give that apple of youth to some people I know. I’ve read the story, so I know the apple couldn’t grant eternal life in our world, but it could — and did — work a little healing magic.

Unfortunately, there are no such apples. But the hope they represent is very much real. I’ve been around long enough to know that hope is a precious commodity. I also know it’s never too late to give up hope.

The beautiful part is that hope is not an ideal. It’s not an abstract concept. Hope is a person, and that person has a name — Jesus. And Jesus is very much still alive.

Jesus said that in this world we would have trouble. That’s not hard to see if you’re not wearing blinders. But He also said for us to take heart because He has overcome the world. He’s overcome everything His children will ever face that could ultimately destroy them.

Hope means that we survive. We might have scars, but we survive. Because Jesus bears His own scars, we can know healing and victory. Those scars are a testimony to Jesus overcoming the world. Our scars can be a testimony of how He brought us from who we used to be to who we are now to who we will one day be.

So we have hope.