day no. 16,622: obedience is faith incarnate

"Obedience is faith incarnate. It is the test of real discipleship among the Lord's people. 'You are My friends if you do whatever I command you' (John xv. 14). It ought to be the mark of well-trained children, that they do whatever their parents command them. Where, in deed, is the honor which the fifth commandment enjoins, if fathers and mothers are not obeyed cheerfully, willingly, and at once?" — J.C. Ryle, The Duties of Parents

Obedience is faith incarnate. We do what we believe. Children ought to obey their parents. Parents ought to be believable. Husband and wife must be united in faith and faithfulness so that their children are not forced to say, "Which one?" when commanded to honor their father and mother. Obedience is hard enough without making it impossible. If mom and dad demand different things, children are left incapable of obeying God's command,

We are saved by grace through faith in Christ alone, not by works, lest we should boast and true faith is manifest in increasing faithfulness to Christ's commands. Paul's manifesto on faith alone is book-ended by this desire:

Romans 1:5

We have received grace and apostleship, for obedience to the faith among all nations, for his name.

Romans 16:25-26

Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began, but now is made manifest, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith.

The faith once for all delivered to the saints is to be obeyed. The Bible makes no bones about it. We are to teach our children to obey us because our Father commands this of us, respectively. We are commanded to teach them. We are commanded to teach them to teach their children the same. They are commanded to obey us and will one day be expected to obey God in asking their children to obey them.

"Early obedience has all Scripture on its side. It is in Abraham's praise, not merely he will train his family, but 'he will command his children, and his household after him' (Gen. xviii. 19)." — J.C. Ryle, The Duties of Parents

Abraham trained the men of household for war (Gen. 14:14) and commanded his children to be the kind of men who would someday do the same. Abraham is our father in the faith and we ought to listen to him. God commanded him to command his children to obey him. This was not merely him training them to obey him, but training them to obey his God.

day no. 16,621: give 'em Watts, boys!

Lord, crush the serpent in the dust,

And all his plots destroy;

While those that in thy mercy trust,

For ever shout for joy.

The men that love and fear thy name

Shall see their hopes fulfilled;

The mighty God will compass them

With favor as a shield.

— Isaac Watts, Psalm 5: Lord, in the Morning Thou Shalt Hear

Christians are a race of giant-slaying dragon-stampers. Our Chief and Lord only bruised His heel in order to smash the Heel of all history. If we are to follow the footsteps of Christ, we ought to look for the blood. If we are to walk in His ways, we must prepare our feet for battle. Strongholds must come down. Thoughts must be taken captive. We walk behind the serpent-smasher who has shown us the way.

Isaac Watts made munitions out of music. He waged war with his words. His hymns call the flock to the fight. In fact, the story goes that his songs went so far as aid the colonial shooters in the American War for Independence. James Caldwell needed more wadding for the Americans during the battle, but the only paper he could find to cram around their musket balls was in hymnals loaded with the songs of Isaac Watts. When he arrived back on the field of battle, hymnals in hands, he reportedly yelled, “Give ‘em Watts, boys!”

day no.16.620: education is...

"Grace is the strongest of all principles... Nature, too, is very strong. But after nature and grace, undoubtedly, there is nothing more powerful than education. Early habits (if I may so speak) are everything with us, under God. We are made what we are by training. Our character takes the form of that mold into which our first years are cast." — J.C. Ryle, The Duties of Parents

Few forces are more formative than the family into which you were born. The culture of that clan imposes itself upon its citizens. Education is an eschatology. It presupposes a place and takes the initiative to lead there. Training assumes a destination and works the clay into a particular shape.

Ryle goes on to quote Cecil, "He has seen but little of life who does not discern everywhere the effect of education on men's opinions and habits of thinking. The children bring out of the nursery that which displays itself throughout their lives."

We are what we read. All opinions are borrowed. All habits are hereditary. Education is an act of war. It sets the mind up for some things by setting it against other. It is enmity enfleshed. It identifies the targets and the tactics.

"We depend, in a vast measure, on those who bring us up. We get from them a color, a taste, a bias which cling to us more or less all our lives. We catch the language of our nurses and mothers, and learn to speak it almost insensibly, and unquestionably we catch something of their manners, ways, and mind at the same time." — J.C. Ryle, The Duties of Parents

We grow up breathing in the atmosphere of our homes before we know what to call it. In other words, we breath in oxygen before we learn the word "oxygen." We are caught up in a culture before we are taught the particulars of that culture. We learn to love the taste before we understand the ingredients. We ask our mothers for the recipe. She eagerly shows us the index card.

"A very learned Englishman, Mr. Locke, has gone so far as to say: 'That of all the men we meet with, nine parts out of ten are what they are, good or bad, useful or not, according to their education.'" — J.C. Ryle, The Duties of Parents

Education is people farming. It is intellectual husbandry. It feeds the imagination and the mind. It aims to marry ideas and to propagate the best ones. It is fruitful and it multiplies. This is why a Christian education commanded by Christ and essential for every Christian child (Eph. 6:4). Children will be nourished and admonished to some end. If not for Christ, then to something less. Christians cannot forfeit the God-given window of influence they have been given. Along with the gift of the child, God gives the responsibility to raise that child. It comes in the package like scoop that comes inside the laundry detergent. Each box comes with its own scoop just as each child with his or her own obligation.

"And all this is one of God's merciful arrangements. He gives your children a mind that will receive impressions like moist clay. He gives them a disposition at the starting-point of life to believe what you tell them, and to take for granted what you advise them, and to trust your word rather than a stranger's. He gives you, in short, a golden opportunity of doing them good. See that the opportunity do not be neglected, and thrown away. Once let slip, it is gone forever. Beware of that miserable delusion into which some have fallen — that parents can do nothing for their children, that you must leave them alone, wait for grace, and sit still... the devil rejoices to see such reasoning, just as he always does over anything which seems to excuse indolence, or to encourage neglect of means." — J.C. Ryle, The Duties of Parents

Salvation is by grace through faith in Christ alone, but the the Word of Christ comes to us by the obedience of someone else. Someone's blessed feet share the Good News. Someone else is sent to declare to us the glories of God and the goodness of His mercy. For children, these people are their parents. Of course, a parent cannot save their child per se, but they are most assuredly the means by which God intends to save their children. Do not miss the window God has given to you by insisting that grace requires your negligence. Do not throw up your hands and say, "But what can I do?" rather, throw your hands in to the work of making disciples of your children by teaching them all that Jesus has commanded of them by first doing what He has commanded of you, their parent, in teaching them.

day no. 16,619: one fate for all men

Ecclesiastes 9:3

There is one fate for all men.

All fates do not befall every man, but one particular fate does.

Hebrews 9:27

It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:

Every one dies but once. Some try to reschedule, but none avoid the appointment.

Romans 3:23

For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.

The soul that sins shall die. Since all have sinned all will die.

Romans 6:23

For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

God will faithfully sign and send every paycheck. He will not withhold anyone's wages. Death is the dues of every life lived. But God has provided a gift for those discontent with their wages. He has made a way for the poor in spirit to avoid getting paid. He has cashed the check of sin on the cross and has left a will leaving His righteous life to those who confess their own as unrighteous.

There is one fate for all men. Every flower and forest will fall, but those who previously died to themselves are seed that will spring up again and pull off the ultimate fate and switch.

day no. 16,618: heat vents

Ecclesiastes 7:9

Be not hasty in thy spirit to be angry: for anger resteth in the bosom of fools.

Be angry, but not hasty.

Anyone can lose their temper.

Hot nostrils are not the unique possession of the righteous.

Ephesians 4:26

Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath.

Be angry, but be careful.

Be angry, but stay in control.

Do not let your wrath get on top of you. Do not take orders from your temper. If you cannot direct your heat, you should not vent it. 

Do not spend your fury on fifth rate annoyances, save it for sins against the Lord God and see to it that you hop to it before the day is done.

day no. 16,617: give the state the faints; say, "no, thanks!"

1 Timothy 2:1-2

I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.

We ought to pray for the State. It cannot resist the urge to overreach without intercession. When we pray for our authorities, we ought to pray for them to exercise authority only where called upon by God to do so; that is, punishing evil doers, defending the innocent, and acknowledging the righteous. That is a healthy state for the State to be in.

When the State is in a bad state of mind, however, it needs to be needed. It passes laws for the sake of job security. It executes its office by running for office.

Give the State the faints; say, "No, thanks!"

It has no category for a free man or woman. It imagines it has all but eliminated that possibility by so incentivizing dependency as to make liberty unattractive. It cannot imagine anyone still going in for all that self-governance hullabaloo.

But some still do. And our quiet, peaceable lives of godly, honest, integrity are like cannon blasts in their ears. So, raise a righteous racket. Be at peace with God and wage war on magisterial overreach by simply saying, "No, thank you."

day no. 16,616: story always wins

"Lewis explains, 'Most of us know what we should expect to find in a dragon's lair, but, as I said before, Eustace had read only the wrong books. They had a lot to say about exports and imports and governments and drains, but they were weak on dragons.' Eustace had subsisted on the wrong stories... His imaginative training had not prepared him to deal with dragons -- and so he becomes one." — Christiana Hale, Deeper Heaven

Story always wins and a hard heart is no defense against a soft head. A starved imagination will be revenged. You cannot keep narrative at arm's length. If you try, you only succeed in being an unlikable character. You cannot cram facts into your skull in order to keep story out. Your mental closet cannot be so packed full of material and moth balls as to keep the magic out. In fact, Edmund only discovered more magic in that wardrobe upon further inspection, not less.

If you ignore dragons, you become one. If you avoid thinking about your sin, your thoughts will be sinful. You cannot keep the plot at bay. There is no such thing as a narrative-less existence. You cannot crawl off the page. You are a printed word. You can either be emboldened or struck through, but you cannot blot yourself out. You were printed at a price and the ink of your existence does not belong to you.