“‘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.

“O Lord,

Life passes by swiftly. Events that a few years ago kept me totally preoccupied have now become vague memories; conflicts that a few months ago seemed so crucial in my life now seem futile and hardly worth the energy; inner turmoil that robbed me of my sleep only a few weeks ago has now become a strange emotion of the past; books that filled me with amazement a few days ago now do not seem as important; thoughts that kept my mind captive only a few hours ago have now lost their power and have been replaced by others. . . . Why am I continuously trapped in this sense of urgency and emergency? Why do I not see that you are eternal, that your kingdom lasts forever, and that for you a thousand years are like one day? O Lord, let me enter into your presence and there taste the eternal, timeless, everlasting love with which you invite me to let go of my time-bound anxieties, fears, preoccupations, and worries. . . . Lord, teach me your ways and give me the courage to follow them.

Amen” (Henri Nouwen).

As C. S. Lewis once said, all that is not eternal is eternally out of date. So why do I waste so much of my precious time worrying about what will not matter in five months or even five weeks, much less eternity?

Lord, keep my mind stayed on You that Your perfect peace may abide in me. Help me keep my eyes fixed on Jesus instead of all those things that I give so much of my time and energy to instead of You. Amen.

“Blessed be thy mercy that laid help on one that is mighty and willing, one that is able to save to that uttermost. Make us deeply sensible of our need of his saving grace, of the blood that cleanses, of the rest he has promised, And impute to us that righteousness which justifies the guilty, gives them a title to eternal life, and posession of the Spirit.”

This morning, one of my tires gave up the ghost in spectacular fashion, blowing into shreds on Nolensville Pike a block or two before the Wal-Mart parking lot. Thankfully, I was able to limp into the parking lot and assess the damage.

Said tire is definitely in Michelin heaven and I am sporting a new tire. I am also on the far side of that stressful situation, which is by far my preference. I don’t want to go through that ordeal for a very, very long time (if ever).

I probably should have paid more attention to my tires. I probably should have noticed something was off sooner. I could go on and on and beat myself up for days and it won’t resurrect my late lamented tire. And it won’t help me much.

Or I could remember that while my tire is deceased, I am not. I am still sans toe tag. For that, I am thankful.

Everything good in my life is due to grace and mercy. Anything that I have or that I do that is remotely decent is because of God’s goodness. Even my next breath is God’s gift to me that I don’t deserve.

My stomach still hasn’t quite recovered from being in knots the whole day due to worrying about my old Jeep. I thought I had really screwed up this time. Thankfully, it was only the tire and some minor cosmetic damage to my car that can be easily fixed.

Even when I choose worry over faith, God is still faithful. It’s probably a small miracle that I didn’t damage the wheel rim. It could have been on the interstate, which would have most likely been way worse to both me and my car.

I can learn my lesson about being more diligent with taking car of things like checking my tire pressure more often. Better yet, I can breathe a deep sigh of relief for another reminder of God’s never-ending lovingkindness toward me.

“The Gospel is bad news before it is good news. It is the news that man is a sinner, to use the old word, that he is evil in the imagination of his heart, that when he looks in the mirror all in a lather what he sees is at least eight parts chicken, phony, slob. That is the tragedy. But it is also the news that he is loved anyway, cherished, forgiven, bleeding to be sure, but also bled for. That is the comedy. And yet, so what? So what if even in his sin the slob is loved and forgiven when the very mark and substance of his sin and of his slobbery is that he keeps turning down the love and forgiveness because he either doesn’t believe them or doesn’t want them or just doesn’t give a damn? In answer, the news of the Gospel is that extraordinary things happen. . . .Zaccheus climbs up a sycamore tree a crook and climbs down a saint. Paul sets out a hatchet man for the Pharisees and comes back a fool for Christ. It is impossible for anybody to leave behind the darkness of the world he carries on his back like a snail, but for God all things are possible. That is the fairy tale. All together they are the truth (Frederick Buechner, Telling the Truth: The Gospel as Tragedy, Comedy & Fairy Tale).

Something I was reminded of again is that we never outgrow our need of the gospel that first saved us. We never get beyond it. We never grow past it. We only deepen in our understanding of it as it reaches deeper into our lives and hearts.

When we neglect the gospel, we tend to forget it. We will slip away from it into error. As the old saying goes, no one drifts into holiness. If anything, we will drift into worldliness and bad doctrine. We will drift into thinking that actions and lifestyles are are acceptable when the Bible calls them sin. We will commend what the Bible condemns.

But when we keep the gospel first, we never get past our need of God. We will not only grow in the gospel and in grace but also in humility. We will never forget the wonder of when we first believed and the biggest desire of our hearts will be for others to know the joy we know.

The good news is still the best news ever. May we never get tired of it or get past it or get to where we don’t want or think we need it.

I think that just about says it all.

I can’t think of too many more powerful examples of the transformative grace of God than Rahab. She literally was a prostitute who chose the promises of God over her own people.

Then there’s Saul, religious henchman and persecutor of God’s people who later became one of the foremost preachers of the gospel that he formerly tried to destroy..

So many stories throughout the Bible showcase God’s ability to change lives and purposes for His glory. As I heard before, the sin and scars that served shame now serve a purpose — testifying to the goodness of God.

No matter how lost or hopeless you feel, there’s always a hope for a new start and a new story. Let God write yours and you will be the most amazed at all people at what God can do.

All of these are worship. It’s not about how well or how loud you can sing songs of praise. It’s about presenting your bodies asan acceptable offering for God to use however He chooses. It’s about being renewed and transformed by the power of God.

Worship is declaring the ultimate and infinite worth of God, whether it’s in a church service or in an office building or even cleaning toilets.

I would give credit for these images, but I can’t remember who first posted them or who created them. It wasn’t me.

“So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.”
‭‭Romans‬ ‭12‬:‭1‬-‭2‬ ‭MSG‬‬
https://bible.com/bible/97/rom.12.1-2.MSG

First, a disclaimer. It’s technically not spooky season just yet, though I am all for all the Halloween decorations at this point. It feels too hot to adequately celebrate spooky things.

I do love that I get another opportunity to take care of my favorite pups ever. At this point, they’re both super chill and just want all the pets and all the naps. I can relate.

I don’t take things like this for granted. I know how changeable and fleeting life is. I appreciate more and more how much of a gift each day is and how no one, including me, is promised a tomorrow.

So my plan is to pet all the dogs and be thankful. I think that’s a good plan, don’t you?

I have to confess that I am a fan of change . . . until it actually happens. Then I really like the way it used to be and want to go back.

I’m still getting used to the new rhythm of having Kairos once a month. Or more accurately, the Nights of Worship Formerly Known as Kairos. Hopefully, someone will come up with something more catchy or at least shorter.

But something magical always happens when people gather together in worship. It’s something where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. We could each all individually worship in separate places, but it would be nowhere near as powerful as all those voices raised as one.

I was reminded again tonight that worship is about more than singing. It’s about a surrender that leads to transformation. It’s about not conforming or allowing the world around you to shape you into its image, but allowing God to transform you and shape you into His image.

Real worship isn’t pretty. It’s messy and broken, because we who offer up our worship to God are messy and broken. Sometimes, authentic worship looks and sounds like a broken hallelujah. Sometimes, there are no words but only tears.

Richard Foster once said, “If worship does not propel us into greater obedience, it has not been worship. To stand before the Holy One of eternity is to change.”

I can’t worship God in spirit and truth and remain the same. If I have the greatest emotional catharsis and the most moving experience, but am no different when I leave, then it has not been worship. If I can continue in my own sinful lifestyle and not feel the need to repent over my sin afterward, then it has not been worship.

True revival isn’t about miracles and being emotionally overwhelmed. It’s about repentance that leads to renewal that becomes revival. And it starts not with singing but with surrender.