day no. 15,956: straighter spines on straighter paths

Luke 21:19

By your endurance you will gain your lives.

We gain our lives as we live by faith as long as we're called. We walk by faith and not by sight and someday, when Christ returns or He calls us home, we will see Him as He is. Faith will be become reality. Believing and seeing will be married. Until then, we gain our lives by looking to Him we cannot for the moment, but for eternity shall always look.

Luke 21:28

Now when these things begin to take place, straighten up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.

Christians need straighter spines for straight paths. God has given us a heads up so that we might go ahead with heads uplifted. We cannot look up if we're looking down and we cannot march ahead if we're bent over. Don't lose heart! Our redemption is drawing near — nearer every minute, nearer every moment. Every footstep is one step closer to the finish line. 

Don't give up. Endure. To the end.

day no. 15,955: history and pedigree

“The West is about to repudiate its historical heritage. It is becoming hostile to Christ This is the unique situation of our time, and it is actual decay. The Christian churches stand in the middle of the dissolution of all that exists, as protectors of the heritage of the Middle Ages and the Reformation, but above all as witnesses to the miracle of God in Jesus Christ ‘yesterday, today, and forever’ (Heb. 13:8). Next to the churches, however, stands ‘the restraining power’ [das Aufhaltende] [2 Thess. 2:7], the remnant of ordering power, that still effectively resists decay. The church has a unique task. The corpus christianum has broken apart. The corpus Christi stands over against a hostile world. The church must bear witness to Jesus Christ as living lord, and it must do so in a world that has turned away from Christ after knowing him. As bearer of a historical heritage, the church, while waiting for Judgment Day, has an obligation to the historical future.” -- Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Ethics

Christians are not allowed to repudiate their history or heritage. Christianity, uniquely among other religions, stakes its case on tangible historical events and makes its case for tangible hereditary eventuality. The meek shall inherit the earth and Christians are required to believe this. Christians must believe it was said at a particular time about a particular place by a particular Man. Christianity is based on that Man being who He said He was.... God incarnate come to die for the sins of those made in His image by Him. 

"Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past." -- George Orwell

Christians are not trying to rewrite history in order to control the future. They are called to safeguard the past in order to inform our conduct in the present and our hopes in His future. Changing the facts in order to change the future is not a Christian's business. Our hope is not in managing the facts, but in preserving them and letting them speak for themselves.

“History doesn't repeat itself, but it often rhymes." -- Mark Twain

We should not expect to find the exact same thing taking place tomorrow that took place once before per se, but if we know the past, we should be able to predict, the kind of thing that is coming, like the next line of a nursery rhyme, the first verse wants you to see what is coming. At the very least, we can limit our number of guesses when we have an ear for poetry.

day no. 15,954: triumphal procession

2 Corinthians 2:14

But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere.

Jesus conquers men and turns them into conquerors. He gifts and equips them to triumph like Him.

Ephesians 4:8

Therefore it says, "When he ascended on high he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men."

Jesus' victory over sin, Satan and death was the original climate control. It permeates the atmosphere as far as the curse is found. Christ's vicarious life, sacrificial death, triumphant resurrection and glorious ascension confirm His victory and inform our gratitude.

day no. 15,953: formed to be inhabited

Isaiah 45:17-18

But Israel shall be saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation: ye shall not be ashamed nor confounded world without end. For thus saith the Lord that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the Lord; and there is none else.

God made the world to be inhabited. Heaven and earth were not made to be the kind of room where kids were not allowed. The world and everything in it are not His cover photo where things are pristine because nobody lives there. God made the world to get messy. He made dirt and water and meant for them to sometimes meet to make mud. He made men and women to mix it up and have some fun... even if it makes a mess. God made a world where the scent of fresh baked cookies can fill an entire home and He wants gooey chocolate on our fingers from enjoying them fresh out of the oven. God made the world and established it. He won't let it remain vacant. He will not let it go unappreciated or uninhabited. He will give the sod to the meek whose feet are familiar with its textures. He will give the sun and the moon to those who have a habit of looking up at them with gratitude. The world will forever belong to those who loved it well by loving it second: Creator before creature.

Matthew 6:33

But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

day no. 15,952: Callista Janelle is FIVE!!!

Happy 5th Birthday Lissa Lou!

You are full of everything you have. You aren’t a little of anything. Whatever it is you are doing, at any given moment, you are VERY doing it. Be it: singing, dancing, playing, yelling, running, laughing, crying, caring for others, combing hair, painting faces, eating food, going poop, etc.. There is nothing you don't give your everything to.

Like your brother, Finneas, God has given you the privilege and the responsibility of possessing an eleven. This means that you can take any party to the next level and that you always have a cherry to place on top of the awesome. The first rule of having an eleven, however, is realizing that NOT.EVERYTHING.IS.AN.ELEVEN. A sense of proportion is an eleven’s best friend. In other words, not everything is improved by putting a cherry on top it.

Your eleven allows you to give your everything to your anything. God surely had you in mind when He inspired Solomon to write, "Whatever you find to do with your hands, do it with all your might." (Ecc. 9:10) I imagine you someday underlining this verse in your Bible and writing, "DONE!" in all CAPS next to it in the margin thinking to yourself, “Well, that was easy!” Going all out has always come quite naturally to you. Knowing when not to has always required instruction.

Speaking of going all out, your eyes are big. Like giant squid big. Like Japanese cartoon character big. Baby owls see you and be like, "Hey, girl! Them some big eyes!" If it weren’t for Ophelia, you have the blue ribbon all wrapped up, but she may give you a run for your money.

But as big as your eyes are, your personality is somehow even bigger. You are like a little stick of dynamite. You pack a lot of punch into a tiny parcel. I love it! One of my favorite Callista moments punctuates this point. The story goes you punched your fist into your hand in an effort to intimidate your big brother, Atticus, years back to show that you weren't messing around. That, in a microcosm, tells your whole story. You are a fantastic character and I'm glad God wrote you into our story. You can turn any anecdote into a page turner.

You are very sweet and attentive to others who are sad or in pain. You like to care for people and enjoy the opportunity to tend to others. You like combing mom's hair or pretending to do people's nails. You like to hover over Ophelia and entertain her when she is getting fussy.

You like to cuddle and often fight Juni for the privilege of sitting on my lap. You like to dance downstairs when we're playing music and you like to go on walks... until you're out walking... and then you DO NOT LIKE WALKING. :) 

You are a good eater. Next to Atticus, you eat more than any other kid. You regularly get seconds and sometimes even thirds on dinner. Those eye balls, I suppose, require lots of fuel to keep going. I hear they’re threatening to invade of Poland. But then again, who hasn’t at this point?

You call Ukuleles "chu-le-les" and I have like zero motivation to correct you. It's the cutest. Never stop chu-le-leing, sister friend. NEVER!

Sunday mornings are your favorite. You look forward to singing Psalm 134, "Behold, bless the Lord..." and ask nearly every night if tomorrow is "Behold, bless the Lord" day. This means you are VERY happy one morning out of every seven and VERY disappointed six evenings a week. :)

Speaking of sleep... what's that? Whatever it is, you don't like it... accept for when you're sleeping, that is. You sleep hard…  once you get there. Until then, you work hard… to avoid it. You are working on being more cheerful when going to nap, but the struggle is real. You miss your siblings and don't want to spend your afternoons alone in bed. At night you are often up late chatting and keeping your sisters awake and in the morning, once you're awake, you're ready to rock n' roll. You like to come out to the table where I'm reading my Bible before work in the morning and draw or color quietly. I like spending that time with you.

As bold as you are about most things, you are as unbold about aches and pains. You apply your eleven to the theater of the injury rather than to the bearing up under it. For example, you got a bee sting in your hand the other day and limped all the way to couch to have the stinger pulled out. You got a blister on your big toe and acted like you needed crutches.

You are a blast, Lissy Lou. What would we do without you? Sure, we'd save a ton of money on band-aids, but what’s a few bandaids compared to you? I'd rather be out a box of band-aids than to be without you.

I like playing Go Fish with you. You are so cute when you get a match. You squint and giggle to yourself and cover your mouth with your hands as you struggle to contain your joy. It makes losing to you one of my favorite things.

Ending where we began, you are VERY Lissa Lou. You are a distinct character. What you are, you REALLY are and I love everything about you. God has been kind to us in giving us the chance to share these days with you. You are the kind of character in the story that everyone looks forward to hearing about. You are always about to do or say something awesome. 

It is fun watching you grow up and getting to know you more and more as God grows you into a young lady. You are beautiful, funny, smart, and sassy. I often pray for God uses me to help corral your charisma without squashing it or letting it run wild. You have a lot of chutzpah and I don't want any of it to go to waste. Your personality is too big to be squandered on selfish pursuits. I see you growing through instruction and training and I catch glimpses every once in a while of the woman you will one day be.

All that to say, I love you, Lissa Lou. Always have. Always will. No matter what. Forever and ever. Amen.

Love,

Dad

day no. 15,951: accomplicity

“In any successful attack on freedom the state can only be an accomplice. The chief culprit is the citizen who forgets his duty, wastes away his strength in the sleep of sin and sensual pleasure, and so loses the power of his own initiative.” - Abraham Kuyper

The best attacks on freedom begin with the free forfeiting their own rights. The state encourages its citizens to vote their rights away or to surrender them without a vote.

When sin is most active, those marinated in it are least active.

Sin is slavery.

The state can aid and abet, but it cannot initiate; it can capitalize off of our lack of initiative, but it has no capital of its own. It cannot print its own inertia, but it can harness a populace who has been broken.

Galatians 5:1

Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.

day no. 15,950: the three branches

Isaiah 33:22

For the LORD is our judge;

the LORD is our lawgiver;

the LORD is our king; He will save us.

Americans have a judicial branch, a legislative branch, and an executive branch of their government. Power is distributed. Checks and balances are in place to protect sinful men from other sinful men. The system safeguards liberty from men bent toward slavery.

God the Father through Jesus Christ, His Son, by the power of His Holy Spirit judges perfectly in concert with His perfect Law from His perfect throne of His perfect reign over His perfect kingdom — and this is our salvation.

While a division of earthy power protects us, it cannot save us. Done well, it can uphold justice and protect life, but it must always borrow its capital from God in order to do so. It is powerful because it has received power. 

God requires no checks or balances. He is all powerful and completely incorruptible. As such, He is our salvation. He leverages His power to save us. Absolute power does not Him corrupt even in the least. The indomitable God uses His power to serve, provide, protect, and deliver those who’ve used their limited powers to corrupt themselves. 

day no. 15,949: hardly enough inducement

"When someone says there is a lion in the way, the real Christian promptly replies, 'That's hardly enough inducement for me; I want a bear or two besides to make it worth my while to go.'" -- C.T. Studd

Proverbs 28:1

The wicked flee when no one pursues,

but the righteous are bold as a lion.

The faithful are not forlorn over what the wicked find worrisome. They do not respond to panic with panic. Instead, they face adversity in faith. While the wicked enjoy any excuse to make timidity appear acceptable, the righteous embrace the responsibility to clear the path when lions, tigers, and bears block to way.

day no. 15,948: heads will roll

Isaiah 28:15-18

Because you have said, "We have made a covenant with death, and with Sheol we have an agreement, when the overwhelming whip passes through it will not come to us, for we have made lies our refuge, and in falsehood we have taken shelter"; therefore thus says the Lord GOD, "Behold, I am the one who has laid as a foundation in Zion, a stone, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone, of a sure foundation: 'Whoever believes will not be in haste.' And I will make justice the line, and righteousness the plumb line; and hail will sweep away the refuge of lies, and waters will overwhelm the shelter." Then your covenant with death will be annulled, and your agreement with Sheol will not stand; when the overwhelming scourge passes through, you will be beaten down by it.

We made a covenant with death, but because our Husband vetoed it, that covenant, in Him, no longer remains. Covenant Heads are ultimately responsible for any covenants made by them or by anyone for whom they are responsible. If anyone under the Head's authority makes a covenant, the Head is ultimately responsible. That is why the Head can revoke or annul a covenant made by anyone under His care. In response to a covenant made by one under His care, He can: (1) do nothing and leave it in place, (2) agree with it and leave it in place, (3) disagree with it and make null and void the promise or deal made by the one for whom He has taken responsibility.

This can seem antiquated and perhaps even ring a bit chauvinistic to the modern mind unless you understand how covenants work and how blessed we are to be freed from of the covenants we entered into. If we assume ourselves wise, we will bristle at the thought of being second-guessed, but when we realize ourselves foolish, we are grateful for being guided. We chose to make a deal with death when we choose sin over our Sovereign. By His grace, our decision has been overruled and His decision for us stands in its place.

This same principle of covenant headship is on display in the following passage:

Numbers 30:3-5

If a woman vows a vow to the LORD and binds herself by a pledge, while within her father's house in her youth, and her father hears of her vow and of her pledge by which she has bound herself and says nothing to her, then all her vows shall stand, and every pledge by which she has bound herself shall stand. But if her father opposes her on the day that he hears of it, no vow of hers, no pledge by which she has bound herself shall stand. And the LORD will forgive her, because her father opposed her.

Since the father must answer for the daughter, he can veto or overturn any promise she makes. Again, to modern individualistic ears, this sounds like a lethal dose of toxic masculinity in all its wickedness, but it is actually the grace of God working through responsible heads to protect those for whom they are committed to protect.

It is by rule of this principle that we are free from sin. It is by God's insistence on this that we are saved. If not for covenant representative headship, we would all be bound to our deal with death and we would get what we deserve. Because of God's grace and His willingness to absorb the penalty of reneging on our promises, we are saved.

To reject this kind of thing is to reject the kindness of God.

day no. 15,947: good-for-nothing loudmouths

"I should live chastely, decently, and modestly, both in thought, word, and deed, making sure that wife, daughter, and those in my household remain undefiled. Indeed, I am to help, save, and protect them and do everything that serves to maintain their honor and discipline. I am also to help make good-for-nothing loudmouths, who would rob them of their honor, remain silent. I am obligated to do all of this, God expects it of me." -- Martin Luther, A Simple Way to Pray

A dad is given the duty and honor of protecting the purity of his wife and children. And if some good-for-nothing loudmouth has anything to say about it, he should gladly help him shut his worthless pie-hole. This isn't just something fun for a dad to say in passing, but something for a dad to do in person. It is part of his sacred duty to manifest this sentiment. God expects a father to protect his household's purity. The duty to shield them from danger and to attack whatever endangers them is the glory and obligation of the patriarch.

day no. 15,946: personality and pelagianism

"I have been anxious to bring out two points. I have wanted to try to expel that quite unchristian worship of the human individual simply as such which is so rampant in modern thought side by side with our collectivism; for one error begets the opposite error and, far from neutralizing, they aggravate each other. I mean the pestilent notion (one sees it in literary criticism) that each of us starts with a treasure called 'Personality' locked up inside him, and that to expand and express this, to guard it from interference, to be 'original', is the main end of life. This is Pelagian, or worse, and it defeats even itself. No man who values originality will ever be original. But try to tell the truth as you see it, try to do any bit of work as well as it can be done for the work’s sake, and what men call originality will come unsought. Even on that level, the submission of the individual to the function is already beginning to bring true Personality to birth. And secondly, I have wanted to show that Christianity is not, in the long run, concerned either with individuals or communities. Neither the individual nor the community as popular thought understands them can inherit eternal life: neither the natural self, nor the collective mass, but a new creature." -- C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory, Membership

Personality, as defined by many Christians, is Pelagian.

Pelagianism maintains that people are not radically corrupted by sin, that they retain a will that is free to choose to pursue Him, and that they have the ability to secure His favor, if they so choose. It is an unfounded faith in an inner light. Many place this kind of faith in their personality. They work hard and take countless inventories and read endless articles trying to isolate the exact ingredients of their personality. The idea is that whoever that turns out to be, is true, good, and beautiful, because it's you... the REAL you and “God don’t make no junk.”

For many, their personality is a sacred object of intense interest and devotion. It demands sacrifices and it vents its wrath on those who refuse to acknowledge it. Personality dwells in unapproachable light and is immutable. It rewards those who seek it earnestly. It justifies those who find it. It defines the individual and insists that everyone else use the same dictionary.

Personality, for many, is a place of refuge. It never judges, unless that's your personality, in which case, that's just who you are and what you do. It excuses all sin and provides alibis for any attitude.

What many of us call our individualism or our personality needs to be repented of. It needs to die if it is going to be saved. It cannot be redeemed by worshiping it. If it is served, it falls down like Dagon. For many of us, what we like most about ourselves will not survive the Refiner's fire and won't unless we turn our backs on it and lift our naked souls up to God. If we side with our personality, we side with Pelagianism, and it along with us will be cast out of God's good presence and into the hell of being left alone with our "real" selves for eternity.

Hebrews 4:13

Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in His sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.

It is only in turning to God that we become who we truly are. It is in dying that we live and in the resurrection that we become. We do not find signs of life the harder we look inside. Personality when sought as an end is a dead end. Personality is received by looking somewhere else. The most creative, dynamic persons are those not trying to be creative or dynamic for it's own sake. They are free to be who they were created to be because they aren't obsessed with who or what they are, but focused on the One who created them.

day no. 15,945: one of the last bastions

"I do not believe that God created an egalitarian world. I believe the authority of parent over child, husband over wife, learned over simple, to have been as much a part of the original plan as the authority of man over beast. I believe that if we had not fallen Filmer would be right, and patriarchal monarchy would be the sole lawful government." -- C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory, Membership

Hierarchy is not inherently sinful. It is not an accident of the Fall, but the essence of Creation. Authority is not a consequence of rebellion, but a precondition of reflection. The creation bears the marks of its Creator and none more than the one created in His own image, man. In other words, patriarchy is not a bug of an imperfect system, but one of the last bastions of the perfect one.

day no. 15,944: warfare and worship

Joshua 14:10-11
And now, behold, the LORD has kept me alive, just as he said, these forty-five years since the time that the LORD spoke this word to Moses, while Israel walked in the wilderness. And now, behold, I am this day eighty-five years old. I am still as strong today as I was in the day that Moses sent me; my strength now is as my strength was then, for war and for going and coming.

God grant His sons the faith and strength of Caleb to finish strong and to fight giants right up until He returns or calls them home. May many men, like Caleb, not waste their strength, but retain it for warfare and worship. May strength spent wisely be strength stored up so as to fight until the very end.

day no. 15,943: commendation or condemnation?

Proverbs 25:27
It is not good to eat much honey:
so for men to search their own glory is not glory.

Honey makes things sweeter until it doesn't. Honey has diminishing returns. There comes a point where more honey does not make sweeter, but intolerable. There is a sweetness that is more akin to sickness. Treacle is not extra sweet, it's too sweet.

Such is a man searching for his own glory. Seeking more glory does not more glorious one make. It is a man's glory to pursue his glory in proportion to its priority. God has told us how and where to seek glory and when man seeks glory anywhere else or with more tenacity than God commands, it ends, not in something more glorious, but in something horrendous.

Vainglory does not end in increased commendation, but in condemnation. 

day no. 15,942: no fear of flame

"Gilt is afraid of fire, but gold is not.” — C.H. Spurgeon, Morning and Evening

Fire reveals what is gold and what is not, what is only a thin layer of gold on the surface and that which is golden all the way through. That which is merely painted gold will be burnt up. That which is  gold, but impure within is burned off. Fire refines and purifies. It destroys that which merely appeared to be gold. Posers are cremated and impurities are separated out. 

Malachi 3:2-3
But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner's fire and like fullers' soap. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, and they will bring offerings in righteousness to the LORD.
 
Gold has no reason to fear fire. Fire does not threaten it. It only reveals it. It removes anything not gold by sifting it out or by sorting it out. Fakers and foreign fragments both end in flames until all that is left is fire and pure gold.

1 Corinthians 3:12-13
Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw- each one's work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done.

Faith has no fear of flame. Faith cannot be extinguished by fire. It is purified by it. And all false professions become ashes. Fire does not burn up faith, it fuels it.

2 Timothy 1:6 (HCSB)

Therefore, I remind you to keep ablaze the gift of God that is in you.

day no. 15,941: at any given point in time, in every single thing we do

"'There are always plenty of rivals to our work. We are always falling in love or quarreling, looking for jobs or fearing to lose them, getting ill and recovering, following public affairs. If we let ourselves, we shall always be waiting for some distraction or other to end before we can really get down to our work. The only people who achieve much are those who want knowledge so badly that they seek it while the conditions are still unfavorable. Favorable conditions never come." -- C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory, Learning in War-Time

There will never be a time where someone else does not want you to be doing something else. The only people who successfully live their priorities are those who want what they want badly enough to endure the disappointment of not doing what others wanted them to be doing. If you don't live your priorities, you will live someone else's. We are, at any given point in time, in every single thing we do, living someone's priorities. The only question is whose?

If you wait for better weather to do what you want, you will always be doing what you don't want... and in the rain to boot. You cannot wait to do what you've been called to do. You must receive your priorities from God and then exert your will, inasmuch as you are able, to live according to them.

day no. 15,940: what used to be up?

"Most of all, perhaps we need intimate knowledge of the past. Not that the past has any magic about it, but because we cannot study the future, and yet need something to set against the present, to remind us that periods and that much which seems certain to the uneducated is merely temporary fashion. A man who has lived in many place is not likely to be deceived by the local errors of his native village: the scholar has lived in many times and is therefore in some degree immune form the great cataract of nonsense that pours from the press and the microphone of his own age." -- C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory, Learning in War-Time

Those who have no interest in history, or even worse, a dismissive disposition towards all things historical, will be overly interested in the spirit of their own age and suffer a similar fate as the fashions. The best way to understand your times is to study times past. In order to know what's going on, you have to be well-versed in what's gone before. In other words, to really know what's up, you must also know what’s gone down.

1 Chronicles 12:32
And of the children of Issachar, which were men that had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do.

day no. 15,939: against the ceiling and against the floor

Douglas Wilson, commenting on Blaise Paschal's Pensées points out that,

"Mankind has two problems: pride and lust. Pride repels us from heaven and lust binds us to the earth."

Our pride keeps us from receiving Heaven's condescension and our lusts keep us busy trying to mine happiness from the earth. We lift ourselves up which is why we can't reach Heaven and we dig ourselves in deep which is why we don't look up. We cannot reach Heaven on tippy toe and cannot find buried treasure, regardless of how deep we dig the well. 

Pride pushes against the ceiling and lust pushes itself against the floor.

We have a default of resisting that which is above and being drawn to that which is below. We don’t like the sound of wisdom revealed from above and we love the tune of wisdom bubbling up from below. 

Pride makes the divine repulsive and lust makes the demonic alluring. 

James 3:13-18
Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? let him shew out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom. But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth. This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace.

That which comes from above, if received, is planted in us and draws up out of us faithful fruit that leads to righteousness. That which is from below, already at work in us, is rooting us down to the ground.

Pride throws shade at the light and lust throws a spotlight on the shady.

Lust is the sin of being magnetically drawn to baser things. Pride is the sin of being allergic to the things above. Salvation is a new heart which now longs for things above and rejects those things below. Sanctification is mortifying the flesh that's left and vivifying the spirit provided by God. We must die to our lusts and pride and live to God's joy and faith in resurrection.

Colossians 3:1-10
If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry: for which things’ sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience: in the which ye also walked some time, when ye lived in them. But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth. Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds; and have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him.

day no. 15,938: untimely

Hebrews 12:15
Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled.

They say that, "time heals all wounds," but they, admittedly, say all kinds of silly things, don't they?

Saying that time heals all wounds is like saying that ounces makes all things heavy or that decibels make all things loud. 

Time is merely a measurement. Time does as much to wounds as inches does to make things long or degrees do to make things hot. These are measurements of movements, not the catalysts. They don't cause anything to happen. They merely measure how much or how little of something is or isn't happening.

Grace and sin do things. Grace over time can grow good things and produce fruit in keeping with goodness. Sin over time can grow evil things and produce fruit in keeping in rottenness.

Time will either count the days of growing bitterness or of growing grace and gratitude. But time will not do either of these. Time will simply sit back contented to count the days — days either of grace working through faith that grow you in godliness or days of sin working through unbelief that checks grow you in godlessness.

All that to say, if you are counting on time to assist you, you might as well count on becoming embittered, not better, for time is powerless to do anything for you. It will only record the days you frittered away in ill-advised faith in it to do anything.

day no. 15,937: all things in every way and everything all the way

"We must stop being experts in only seeing these things in bits and pieces. We have to understand that it is one total entity opposed to the other total entity. It concerns truth in regard to final and total reality -- not just religious reality, but total reality. And our view of final reality -- whether it is material-energy, shape by impersonal chance, or the living God and Creator -- will determine our position, on every crucial issue we face today. It will determine our views on the value and dignity of people, the base for the kind of life the individual and society lives, the direction law will take, and whether there will be freedom or some form of authoritarian dominance." -- Frances A. Schaeffer, A Christian Manifesto, chapter 3: The Destruction of Freedom and Faith

The doctrine of the anti-thesis is without exception.

Genesis 3:15
I will put enmity between thee and the woman,
and between thy seed and her seed;
it shall bruise thy head,
and thou shalt bruise His heel.

There can be nothing but enmity between the seed of the serpent and the seed of Eve. Where there are appear to be agreements, there are only compromises being made by those who should know better. The serpent never forgets his hatred. He never forgets what's at stake and what's being fought over. He is not content to occupy a small patch of land, even if we are. He wants the whole thing and knows that everything counts, when the aim is everything.

"We conclude then that when both parties, the believer and the non-believer, are epistemologically self-conscious and as such engaged in the interpretative enterprise, they cannot be said to have any fact in common. On the other hand, it must be asserted that they have every fact in common. Both deal with the same God and with the same universe created by God. Both are made in the image of God. In short, they have the metaphysical situation in common. Metaphysically, both parties have all things in common, while epistemologically they have nothing in common. Christians and non-Christians have opposing philosophies of fact. They also have opposing philosophies of law. They differ on the nature of diversity; they also differ on the nature of unity." -- Cornelius Van Til, Common Grace and the Gospel

Christians need to recover a vision of world conquest. An etiolated enthusiasm has produced surrender and compromise in abundance. But if grace once built a civilization, it can do it again... if only we remember and return to it as fuel for completing the final command of our Lord Jesus Christ who said, "make disciples of ALL nations."

"Oh, no single piece of our mental world is to be hermetically sealed off from the rest, and there is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry: 'Mine!'" -- Abraham Kuyper

Christians must again begin to think things all the way through -- all things in every way and everything all the way.

day no. 15,936: fall and rise or rise and fall?

"There are only two ways for this to go. They are fall and rise, or rise and fall. It is either death, resurrection, and glory, or it is glory, pride, and death." -- Douglas Wilson, God Rest Ye Merry

Everyone's story will be fall and rise or rise and fall. Everyone will live under the story arc of death, resurrection, and glory or glory, pride, and death. If you die to yourself by grace through faith in Christ alone, you will be resurrected and you will receive glory. If you live for yourself, you will grow in pride and conceit and you will have it all taken away from you by death. Death will either be the gateway through which you receive life or it will be the finish line over which you will have your life taken from you.

Every story is either fall and rise or rise and fall. There will be humility before God. God humbles the proud and gives grace to the humble, but either way, before Him, humility abounds. He lifts up those who lower themselves and strikes down those who lift themselves up. He promotes those who take the lower place and demotes those who strive for the seat of honor.

day no. 15,935: cealum et terra

"Earthiness is not the gospel, but the gospel did come to earth. Earthiness is no savior, but earthiness is saved." -- Douglas Wilson, God Rest Ye Merry

You cannot be saved by making much of your station, but you also cannot be saved and then make little of it. God has put us here in this world. The love of this world cannot save you, but God's love for this world can (John 3:16). Material pursuits and blessings are not the Gospel, but the Gospel did come down to visit our material pursuits and bless us. Health, wealth, and prosperity cannot save you, but they can be saved. The Christian life is not some detached spiritual reality that tolerates the dirt beneath our feet only for the sake of the angels above the clouds; it is grounded — attaching spiritual significance to the soil because it remembers the feel of it's Creator's feet.

day no. 15,934: one combination

One wiseacre once reportedly inquired as to why there were five solas reasoning that if they're so sola, why the need for more than one? Fair enough. 

A good safe opens to only one combination. If it responded to any combination of any numbers in any particular order, it would not be a safe. It would be an unsafe. You could not trust anything valuable to it. A safe that opens to any combination is just a junk drawer with thicker walls. 

But a combination is not made up of one number. It is several numbers coordinated in a certain order. So there is only one combination, but that combination is made up of several different numbers. Yet each number is unique to its station. If a combination was, for example, 10-31-15-17-1, each number works only in its assigned place. So one could say the safe is opened by 10 alone, 31 alone, 15 alone, 17 alone and 1 alone. The wiseacre from before could point out that if these numbers alone can open the safe, why do we need so many of them? But wisdom reveals that each of these numbers alone opens the safe as part of the one combination that gives one access to the treasure inside. The numbers are important and their order is important. 10 alone in the first slot opens the safe. 17 alone in the fourth slot opens the safe. 

So you can see how five numbers are one combination and how each alone opens the safe.

So too the five solas are one combination that provides access to the riches of His grace; wherein He hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence (Eph 1:7-8)

day no. 15,933: sin-icism

"Cynicism (is) the ability to point—as the fellow said—to the price of everything and the value of nothing" -- Douglas Wilson, God Rest Ye Merry

Cynicism can rightly see that everything costs something, but it cannot see anything being worth the price. It prides itself on sales resistance. It won't be anyone's sucker. So it opts to mock other's values at the expense of being unable to value anything. The only joy it has is mocking the joys of others.

day no. 15,932: sister soldier

"Mary overcame in the way women are called to conquer—by giving birth to conquerors, or by giving birth to daughters who will give birth to conquerors. And this explains how the Magnificat can have been composed by a woman and still be so gloriously militant. Godly child-bearing is militant. The seed of the woman has crushed the dragon’s head." -- Douglas Wilson, God Rest Ye Merry

David's mother, Nitzevet, raised a lion-taming, bear-besting, giant-slaying son. She had courage and faith to let him learn and practice those skills by being placed in those types of situations. She raised a boy beloved by God and by his people. She reared a young man who had faith in God and no fear of beasts.

Genesis 3:15
I will put enmity between thee and the woman,
and between thy seed and her seed;
it shall bruise thy head,
and thou shalt bruise his heel.

Satan is at war with mankind and women have a recruiting center at their center. They supply the infantry in this ground war. 

1 Timothy 2:15

[Women] shall be saved in childbearing, if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety.

God's plan of redemption requires women to remain faithful to their post. They have been assigned the task of munition manufacturing. They cultivate beauty, nurture life, and make home by giving themselves body and soul to be a home for others.

1 Corinthians 11:12
For as the woman is of the man, even so is the man also by the woman; but all things of God.

Woman was made from man, but all men have been born by women ever since.

Romans 16:20
The God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen.

We are Jesus' hands and feet and one particular task He has called us to continue is the grinding of the serpent's skull by grace through faith in Him alone. God's peace is at war with Satan's chaos and through His church Christ will reclaim His earth.

day no. 15,931: Christus vincit. Christus regnat. Christus imperat.

“There are so many Russians, and our country so small, where will we find room to bury them all?” -- Anonymous Finnish soldier commenting in 1939 on the Winter War

This is the kind of mindset Christians are called to carry internally and exhibit externally. Though we appear to be surrounded by ever increasing darkness, we remember its circumference increases only as a result of an ever expanding diameter of light.

“Canaan was full of giants, and so is the unbelieving world today. The greatness of the opposition is part of the point. This must never be used as an excuse on our part for whining about how big they are. They are supposed to be big. They are giants. Instead of worrying about how big they are—too big to fight—we should be rejoicing in the fact that they are too big to miss.“ — Douglas Wilson 

If the darkness can be felt in every direction, there is no direction in which our light cannot triumph.

"They are in front of us, behind us, and we are flanked on both sides by an enemy that outnumbers us 29:1. They can’t get away from us now! Now we can shoot at them from every direction.'” -- Chesty Puller

When surrounded by enemies, we can rejoice that we don't have to expend any of our resources attempting to hunt them down. They have all come to us. We are free to use all our energy on attacking them like Galaga.

Chesty Puller refused to call falling back a "retreat," preferring rather to call it, “attacking in a different direction."

We have been assured that the gates of hell cannot prevail against us. As such, we should employ Mad Eye Moody's "constant vigilance." Every move is part of an attack strategy. We are not retreating or cloistering away and leaving the world to itself. God has not placed us here to leave the world alone. We are to manifest His Kingdom by moving in grace through faith expecting to see His Kingdom come and His will be done on His earth as it is in His Heaven.

Matthew 16:18
I will build My church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

Some want to live within the sound
Of church or chapel bell;
I want to run a rescue shop,
Within a yard of hell.
― C.T. Studd

By all hell's host withstood;
We all hell's host o'erthrow;
And conquering them,
Through Jesus' blood;
We still to conquer go.
-- Charles Wesley

...

Christus vincit.
Christus regnant.
Christus imperat.
Saecula Saeculorum.
Amen.

Christ conquers.
Christ reigns.
Christ rules.
World without end.
Amen.

day no. 15,930: a good ol' fashion feast fight

"The most significant thing about any citizen is his artistic attitude towards a holiday and his moral attitude towards a fight -- that is, his way of accepting life and his way of accepting death." -- G.K. Chesterton, Heretics

Feast. Fight. Laugh. Live.

With whom and how we feast and with whom and how we fight are the most important things about us. They reveal the order of our affections and their respective intensities. How we have a ball and how we have a brawl shed light on these. Properly ordered affections are, according to Augustine, the essence of all virtue. Just sentiments are good living. It is unjust when we either withhold affections owed or waste affections out of proportion.

The good, the true, and the lovely determine how we live and what we live for, how we fight, and what we die for. How we throw a party and how we throw a punch reveals our priorities. What we call a good night and what we call a good fight speak volumes about us.

day no. 15,929: burden or burdener?

“Jesus does not take from us the burden God has laid upon us. But He makes the burden easier for us by showing us how we must carry it... A yoke is a burden itself, a burden in addition to all other burdens, and yet it has a peculiar way of making other burdens easier... We are well acquainted with the yoke of the draft animals. The yoke alone enables them to pull the heavy burden without feeling pain or torment in the process, and without getting sore skin from pulling it. Jesus wants to put us human beings under such a yoke so that our burden does not become too heavy for us.” — Dietrich Bonhoeffer, A Testament to Freedom

Burdens are inescapable. You will have one. The question is what kind will you have? The yoke of Jesus is a burden. But it is the kind of burden that makes other burdens more bearable. It means being bound to Jesus, but it means being released from your sins. It ties you up in one respect and loosens the cords in another. The yoke of Jesus sets you free from frivolous work and sets your sights on the labor God has prepared for you beforehand.

Matthew 11:28-30
Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

You will have a burden. Will it be light because it is being broad shouldered by Jesus on your behalf or will it be heavy because you're bearing it all by yourself?

day no. 15,928: treacle matters

Treacle
n. cloying sentimentality or flattery.

Few things pose more of a potential stumbling block to us than our virtues. No one is proud of their vices. They may be proud of things you call vices, but they aren't proud of them if they agree with you. Whatever is considered a vice is not something which can considered a source of pride. But our virtues, those are our favorite things about ourselves. When another likes what they see, they're merely agreeing with what we've already decided. When they want to put their approval on us, they have to stand in line.

No one can flatter our faults. We wouldn't tolerate it. They can flatter our favorite parts, but sickly sweet sentimentality doesn't work on vices.

“The Christian life is not an exodus from vice to virtue, but rather from virtue to grace.” ~ Gerhard Forde

Salvation is seeing even your best as something of which to repent. It is scrapping your souvenirs and renouncing every sickly sweet sentimentality and flattery that excuses your depravity. It is calling treacle matters fecal matter and turning away from them entirely.

Philippians 3:7-8
But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ,

Faith is counting that which could be credited to your account as loss so that you have room to inherit all that Christ has done on your account.

day no. 15,927: harmonious hospitality

"Once men sang together around a table in chorus; now one man sings alone, for the absurd reason that he can sing better." -- G.K. Chesterton, Heretics

Singing is participatory. Choruses and harmonies are hospitable. They invite voices in. Listening to a specialist sing only makes you want to sing along. Some would urge you to be quiet in order to keep you from ruining it, but joy demands you sing along to keep from ruining it. One expert professional singing solo may delight the listener's heart, but the gratitude it produces desires to express itself by entering into the song.

Just because someone is better at something, doesn't mean that they should be the only one allowed to do it, it means that they are the best equipped to inspire others to join in despite their reservations and inadequacies.