day no. 16,140: all the amusement without the park

“The nature of Christ’s salvation is woefully misrepresented by the present-day evangelist. He announces a Savior from hell rather than a Savior from sin. And that is why so many are fatally deceived, for there are multitudes who wish to escape the Lake of fire who have no desire to be delivered from their carnality and worldliness.” – A.W. Pink

Unbelief wants to be saved from the consequences of sin without being parted from the presence of sin. There are those who want to avoid hell while pursuing sin. They want to walk all the way down that road without having to walk through the door at the end of it. But salvation is not merely about locking the gate so that you don't have to walk into the hell you've aimed your life at, salvation is about saving you from wanting to walk down that path in the first place. 

Our biggest problem is not hell. Hell is the consequence of serving sin. Our problem is sin. Hell is the effect, not the cause. So to be saved is to be free from sin and hell along with it, but there is not a salvation from hell that permits one to continue to purchase tickets without requiring you to go on the rides. You cannot keep the amusement without going to the park. Salvation is finding satisfaction somewhere else and abandoning petty carnival prizes.

1 John 3:4-10

Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. You know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him. Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous. Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him; and he cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of God. By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.

day no. 16,139: nation building

Deuteronomy 10:22

Your fathers went down to Egypt seventy persons, and now the LORD your God has made you as numerous as the stars of heaven.

Pharaoh feared a family... but not at first.

When Israel went to Egypt initially, it was seventy persons strong. This itself was a significant increase. Jacob was just one of two sons and God multiplied him into a small village. But that small village kept on in the tradition of their father and grew into a nation of millions. Nations are built one family at a time. Cultures are cultivated one generation at a time and inherited through diligent story-telling and celebrating.

Honored ancestors make way for blessed descendants.

Set your sights on being a patriarch. Be the father of a nation that has its settlers sitting at your dining room table. May your daughters become the mothers of millions and your sons the fathers of generations of faithful covenant keepers. May our families be unified by grace through faith in Christ alone and in His Name disciple other nations by becoming one ourselves and showing them how it's done.

day no. 16,138: child's play

1 Corinthians 16:13

Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong.

Whatever a man would do, do that. However he would act, act that way. Play the man since as C.S. Lewis once observed, “All mortals tend to turn into the thing they are pretending to be. This is elementary.” (Screwtape)

In other words, we become what we behold.

2 Corinthians 3:18

We all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

day no. 16,137: your kids get dibs: opportunity costs (and benefits)

"The question for you is not so much how you could match the productivity of those who are in a different stage of life, but rather whether you could start on the same course. When my kids were little, I was not doing anything close to what I am doing now. What I was doing was investing in them, paying my dues, and establishing my qualifications for doing what I am doing now. I didn’t publish my first book until I was almost forty. Don’t compare yourself to people who have rounded into the straight." -- Douglas Wilson, Blog and Mablog

If you do not take the time to raise your children rightly, it won't matter what brand you've built in the meantime by abandoning them since it will have simultaneously destroyed your credibility as a Christian authority. You prepare yourself for future opportunities by taking full advantage of the current responsibilities God has given you; and if you have young children, your time and energy have already been allocated.

Your kids get dibs.

Whatever creative energies or entrepreneurial excitements you think you may have, you must first exercise them in establishing a covenantal culture in your home. Fail there and it won't matter what might have been, because you will have disqualified yourself. You can't borrow from the future. If you renege on your responsibilities with respect to those you're called to rear, you won't be given any authority once that opportunity has been squandered. So, all that to say, work hard now and raise your kids and perhaps one day if God provides opportunity, you will be qualified to pursue it. But you can't pursue those opportunities in bypassing your current responsibilities.

"Authority flows to those who take responsibility." -- Douglas Wilson

day no. 16,136: a time of unorthodox obedience

Psalm 106:30-31

Then stood up Phinehas, and executed judgment: and so the plague was stayed. And that was counted unto him for righteousness unto all generations for evermore.

Honoring God increasingly appears radical when those around you are laying down in complacency. Being moved by the world requires nothing more than drifting along. And nothing is easier to do than nothing. So, compared to those around us geographically and historically, the faithful will often appear unorthodox or out of sync, and so much so, the better! Our physical and temporal neighbors may find our faith too much, but our descendants will honor our zeal as they honor the stars in the skies that stand out against the black backdrop.

Philippians 2:14-18

Do all things without murmurings and disputings: That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world; Holding forth the word of life; that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither laboured in vain. Yea, and if I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy, and rejoice with you all. For the same cause also do ye joy, and rejoice with me.

The following did not labor or stand up and stand out in vain: Phinehas, the Egyptian midwives, Ehud, Jael, ,Jehoiada, Azariah, Rahab, John Knox, Jenny Geddes, Hellen Stirk, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Artur Pawlowski, etc…

There are, of course, many other stars in the heavens, so much so, that Abraham could not count them, but stand up in the midst of this crooked generation and you will join them in standing out and you too will shine forever with the glory of Christ and be counted by Him who never loses count.

day no. 16,135: est.

Psalm 90:16-17

Let your work be shown to your servants, and your glorious power to their children. Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands upon us; yes, establish the work of our hands!

We need God to establish our traditions and habits. We need Him to inform and invigorate the patterns that permeate our lives and the culture we cultivate under our roofs.

We need God to establish in us the traditions and habits He has established. We need Him to cement them and secure them so that they live beyond our lifetime and influence generations of descendants for the glory of God and the kingdom of His Son.

We need God to create a culture worth keeping and we need God to secure what He's inspired. He need Him to initiate and to insulate our efforts. He is the genesis of anything worth perpetuating and the guarantor of our best curations and cultivations.

Lord, show us what to do that we might do it; and having done it, may it do what You have promised it will do. Guide our hands to establish the kind of culture and corresponding traditions that honor Your Name; and as we obey, establish a culture that honors Your Name from generation to generation, world without end, amen!

day no. 16,134: an open Bible at hand and an open mouth at will

“In this quarrelle, I present myself againste all the Papistes within the realme, desireing none other armore but Goddis holie word, and libertie of my tonge.” -- John Knox

Our best armor is an open Bible in our hands and the freedom to open our mouths. What more could we long for? God's Word speaking to us and the liberty to repeat what He has said to others. That should be the longing of every Christian heart. God opening His mouth and the liberty to open ours in response, to say, "Thank You!" out loud and in the presence of others when and wherever we might be. That is what Paul admonished us to pray for.

1 Timothy 2:1-3

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. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour.

If we again are granted such privilege as that, may we not squander it by choosing to listen to other voices or by choosing to be silent. May God forgive us for stopping our ears and shutting our mouths. May God grant us a hunger for His Word and a generosity in serving it up for others.

Amen!

day no. 16,133: whether you want to stay or go

"Pray that you would stay as long as you want to stay, and that God would open a door as soon as you want to go.” -- Douglas Wilson

God commands us to obey and Christ commanded us to live in light of His commandments, one of which is teaching the nations what He requires and showing them what that looks like. When the tensions of living according to Christ's rule become increasingly difficult, however; this advice from Doug Wilson should be considered. Pray that you are able to be where you believe God has placed you for as long as you want to stay there and that God would provide a way of escape should the difficulties associated with that place become more than you're able to endure.

1 Corinthians 6:18,2 Timothy 2:22

Flee sexual immorality; flee also youthful lusts; but pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.

May our wants and our willingnesses always be in perfect, faithful submission to Christ, our Lord and Savior and find us flocking towards those who pursue righteousness and fleeing from those who pursue open rebellion.

Amen.

day no. 16,132: getting along to go along is a good way to get where they’re going.

Daniel 3:16-18

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up."

When you get along to go along, you never get to set the GPS. You are always at the mercy of someone else's drive. You may call, "shotgun!" but you never get to call the shots. You can choose to recline, but you cannot choose the destination, or the speed at which you get there for that matter.

All that to say, you become what you tolerate.

day no. 16,131: a married man's bishopric

“In his discussion on family worship, Knox delivered a solemn charge, ‘No, brethren, you are ordained of God to rule your own houses in His true fear, and according to His Word. Within your houses, I say, in some cases, you are bishops and kings; your wife, children, servants, and family are your bishopric and charge.'” -- Douglas Wilson, John Knox: Stalwart Courage

A married man is a pastor. A father is a pastor. God ordains a man to serve as the spiritual head of his home. He is commissioned by the Father to be a dad and by the Bridegroom to be a husband. 

1 Corinthians 11:3

But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God.

Wives are to obey and submit to their own husbands. Not men in general nor the husbands of others, but their own husband specifically. Children are to obey and submit to their fathers. Not fathers in general or those who happen to be the fathers of others, but their own father specifically.

There are, of course, things about men in general which should be respected, but submission and obedience are not owed to anyone simply because they happen to have a Y chromosome. The one who is your husband or your father, however, he is owed something; and to Knox's point, they owe you something in return.

1 Corinthians 14:35

And if they will learn any thing, let them ask their husbands at home: for it is a shame for women to speak in the church.

A man must be prepared for his wife to obey this verse. If she obeys God, who is she instructed to ask? A: Her husband. This presupposes that he should be prepared to answer theological questions and to lead his family in obeying God's Word. This assumes his bishopric and his attention to his duties thereof.

day no. 16,130: freedom from futility

“God does not promise us freedom from suffering, but rather freedom from pointless suffering.” -- Douglas Wilson

John 16:33

These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.

Jesus gave us fair warning that tribulation awaits those who leave the world's army in favor of fighting for the other side. And His disciples reiterated the same.

Acts 14:22

Confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.

You cannot enter the kingdom of God without exiting the kingdom of the world and the world does not stop laying claim on you simply because you've walked away. You do not find peace with the world by laying claim to peace with God. The two are at war and the flesh and the Spirit are in opposition to each other. To fight for the one is to fight against the other. To have peace with one is to be at war with the other.

James 4:4

Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.

Friendships and enmities are both inescapable. Any attempt to avoid this reality is merely evidence of being enlisted in world's boot camp. It is one of their catechism questions.

Galatians 5:17

For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.

So, suffering and tribulation should not shock us. Tension is a given. God promised nothing less. But He also promised that all of it would be meaningful. None of it would be senseless or without purpose. You cannot guarantee a life without suffering, but you can guarantee a life full of meaning regardless of what happens.

Romans 8:18

For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

God does not guarantee freedom from the ubiquity of suffering, but He does promise freedom from the futility of it.

day no. 16,129: fill your home with high fives and low prides

Proverbs 27:2

Let another man praise thee, and not thine own mouth;

a stranger, and not thine own lips

Praise is important, but it is also important that you aren't the drum major of your own personal praise parade.

2 Corinthians 10:18

For not he that commendeth himself is approved, but whom the Lord commendeth.

Anyone can say what they want about themselves and no one can force anyone else to compliment them, but godly character never goes entirely unnoticed. The Lord, who sees in secret, never misses a thing. And furthermore, He typically makes sure that other godly people get the heads up without you having to draw any attention to it.

1 Timothy 5:24-25

Some men's sins are open beforehand, going before to judgment; and some men they follow after. Likewise also the good works of some are manifest beforehand; and they that are otherwise cannot be hid.

If you make it your aim to advertise yourself, you may have the devotion of one motivated marketer, but it's just the one, and most are rightfully wary of a one-man promotion show. However, if you make it your aim to promote others and they end up reciprocating, you have a crowd of people working to applaud your efforts. So, in summary, doing things God's way actually provides you with more commendation without having to be conceited or selfish in acquiring it; and you get the fun of promoting others to boot.

Fill your home with high fives and low prides by taking the time to commend the good works God is helping others to complete. Conceit will be low and sanctified confidence will be as high as the fives that are so generously and regularly distributed.

day no. 16,128: we worship the highest authority that we recognize

“Once abolish the God and the government becomes the God.” - G.K. Chesterton

John 19:10-11

So Pilate said to him, “You will not speak to me? Do you not know that I have authority to release you and authority to crucify you?” Jesus answered him, “You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above. Therefore he who delivered me over to you has the greater sin.”

If we imagine the State as the most authoritative agency in the world, we will look to the State to save us, provide for us, protect us, and be there for us. But if there is a God, we look to Him for those things and leave the State to serve Him by serving us in the limited capacities He has assigned to it. We do not honor the State when we assign to it agency that only God possesses. We do not honor Christ by honoring the State as our Lord Protector.

Whenever we break the first commandment, we necessarily break the second. In other words, the throne is inescapable, a matter of which? not if? What will sit on the throne? Not if there is one. If we refuse to acknowledge God, the throne does not remain vacant. Something takes His place. An idol of our creation in place of the Creator. That said, we cannot forcibly remove Christ from His throne anymore than a lunatic can blot out the sun by tattooing the word "darkness" on his eyelids. But that point remains. Something will hold sway. Something will reign. The God-hater cannot usurp the throne. He will be ruled by something. He can pretend that the one, true God is not real, but he cannot live like there is no god. He can refuse to worship God, but he cannot refuse to worship.

Romans 1:21-25

For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

day no. 16,127: merrier

Ecclesiastes 9:7

Go, eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart, for God has already approved what you do.

Make merrier your aim. Make today more merry than yesterday. Make merry with all your might. Make merry as militaristic mirth that fights the good fight of the faith and fun. Compete with yesterday’s merriment, Make merry and make even merrier.

day no. 16,126: the family is the original unversity

"I am afraid that when we describe a man as "a member of the Church" we usually mean nothing Pauline: we mean only that he is a unit--that he is one more specimen of the some kind of thing as X and Y and Z. How true membership in a body differs from inclusion in a collective may be seen in the structure of a family. The grandfather, the parents, the grown-up son, the child, the dog, and the cat are true members (in the organic sense) precisely because they are not members or units of a homogeneous class. They are not interchangeable. Each person is almost a species in himself. The mother is not simply a different person from the daughter, she is a different kind of person. The grown-up brother is not simply one unit in the class children, he is a separate estate of the realm. The father and grandfather are almost as different as the cat and the dog. If you subtract any one member you have not simply reduced the family in number, you have inflicted an injury on its structure. Its unity is a unity of unlikes, almost of incommensurables." — C.S. Lewis, Membership (The Weight of Glory and Other Essays)

The university was designed with the intention of fostering interdisciplinary attention to a solitary question: "What holds everything together?" The presupposition was that something did. But the question that remained was, "What is that thing? What is the unifying principle behind, underneath, inside, or surrounding every other thing?"

The family is a unity of diversity. Members of a family are not merely like a pocket full of pennies. They aren't made up of units the same in shape, size, or value in one sense. A father may tell his son that he is the man of the house while dad is gone on a trip, but that isn't precisely true. If the dad were to perish while away and never return home, his absence could not simply be substituted. The son would step up and fill the roles of the father to the best of his ability or the widowed mother might someday remarry, but the father, strictly speaking could not be replaced. He is not merely a placeholder. And neither is any other member of a family.

In this, God has given us a preview of His family, the Church. Members of a church are alike in their singular devotion to Jesus just as family members are alike in their single last name and table at which they share meals, but they are not alike in many other ways. A brother is a very different organ of the body than a mother. They exist in the same body and share the same fate of it, but they are unique in role, function, placement, etc...  Their particular commitment and ability to fulfill their respective obligations has an immediate impact on the vitality and vivacity of the other, but the heart cannot replace the kidney if it is damaged and removed. The eye cannot do the fingers work, yet neither is more or less the body. If you lose a finger, you remain you, but the loss of it cannot be simply accounted for by growing more hair or longer nails on the remaining fingers. In other words, you are still you, but you are a little less you than you used to be in some respects.

The family is a beautiful picture of the Church in that it is built upon a unity of diversity. The family is a place of appreciating nativity, fidelity, creativity, and fecundity. The Christian family produces an appreciation of lock and key, bow and string, feather and arrow, target and bull's eye. It prepares its members to belong to a church where cooks and decorators, musicians and millers, preachers and partakers, and the like are all essential party planning personnel.

day no. 16,125: a parable of being in deep doo-doo

Philippians 3:7-11

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, and be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith: that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death; if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.

Imagine your clean world is covered in dirt. Where would you go to get clean? You feel dirty and despair that you and your world always will be, no matter what anyone does, dirty, dirty, dirty — disgusting, disreputable, and destined to stay that way. In other words, not just dirty, but dirty with no hope of ever being clean again.

This is how I felt the other morning. I awoke at 6 am to Finneas and Rocco in my bedroom doorway saying Atticus had gotten sick. I jumped out of bed and as Paige and I walked down the stairs, the stench hit my nostrils. What I saw when I got downstairs and turned the lights on was liquid poop all over our carpet. A large deposit was in the boys' bedroom and another smaller pile was between the bedroom and the bathroom and in between and up the stairs were poop coated footprints of the morning's activities. I didn't even know where to begin. Paige immediately went and got towels and I grabbed the two little boys and carried them up to the bathtub. I got them cleaned off respectively and then laid them down on the sectional as I joined Paige in using soapy water soaked rags to begin cleaning the carpet. On my hands and knees cleaning up excrement, I felt dirty. I felt like I would never be clean ever again. Where hadn't poop-covered feet walked. They had attempted to clean up their feet which meant the toilet paper roll had poop on it and the door handles and the walls and the.... what didn't have a poop on it at this point? In that moment, I felt helplessly, hopelessly dirty and gross.

It reminded me of my moments before confessing my sin before God. Back then, I too had reached a point of seeing my filth for the filth that it was -- not just dirty and gross, but irrevocably so. The hands I had been using my whole life to wash my feet were themselves covered in grime. How can dirty objects clean up dirt without just getting them dirtier? How can crooked sticks in crooked hands draw straight lines?

Praise God for the gift of His Son. Thank God for purity from outside myself. A purity which is not defiled by touching me. A cleanliness that leaves me clean after contact. But the shower is dirty because it gets you clean and so the instrument God used to clean me up got dirty in the process. Jesus was nailed to the cross because He took my place. He became sin that I might become the righteousness of God. This required Him to possess cleanliness and a willingness trade. On the Cross, He gave me His purity and disposed of my depravity. And when He rose on the third day afterwards, He left those dirty rags in the grave and rose again in the purity in which He will rule and reign all of His laundered beloveds.

2 Corinthians 5:21

For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him

Praise God for His work in my life in showing me this as a young man and reminding me of this as an adult man with children of his own. His love endures forever!

*based on events which took place on Sunday, August 8th, 2020

day no. 16,124 continued... a man without walls

Proverbs 25:28

He that hath no rule over his own spirit

is like a city that is broken down,

and without walls.

A city without walls is incapable of defending itself. A country without border control is incapable of remaining a country. To free the boards from the frame is to destroy the home. You do not liberate the pool by poking holes in its walls. To deliver the maze from its walls is to destroy the maze. 

A city is defined by its city limits. A country is defined by its borders. To remove either is to destroy both.

So too a person must be able to defend his borders. He must be given the freedom to discern what gets in and what gets out. If a person is not permitted to have security in his physical person, he is not free.

2 Chronicles 32:5

Also he strengthened himself, and built up all the wall that was broken, and raised it up to the towers, and another wall without, and repaired Millo in the city of David, and made darts and shields in abundance.

Broken down walls must be rebuilt in order to have a city. Without a system of defense, you do not have a defined place. A city without walls is no longer a city. It is indistinguishable from the wilderness to the east.

Nehemiah 1:3

And they said unto me, The remnant that are left of the captivity there in the province are in great affliction and reproach: the wall of Jerusalem also is broken down, and the gates thereof are burned with fire.

Walls define cities, nations, and persons. 

A man must be permitted to exercise self-control. If you take away his walls, he is vulnerable to penetration by whoever or whatever comes along. My skin is my outer limit and I must be permitted to decide who and what gets into me and what is extracted from me. If I am not allowed to decide for myself what goes into me and what is taken out of me, there is no "me" left. I am whatever someone else wants me to be. But that's just another way of saying, "you."If I can be added to our subtracted from without my permission, I am merely clay in their hands, but no man has permission to place others on the wheel of his imagined moral superiority. Only God can sit in the place of the Potter. In His hands alone is clay safe.

day no. 16,124: a first for Ophelia

Happy FIRST Birthday, Ophelia Belle Van Voorst!

You were born for such a time as this, which is saying something when you consider the times in which we live. I am excited to see all that God has in store for you and all that He has in store for the world through you.

You are very funny. The proverbial woman of women laughs at the days to come and you are well on your way to showing yourself one of her kin. You have a toothy grin that you love to show off. You like locking eyes with others and exchanging smiles with them. You have a very cheerful disposition.

You love music. You like to bob your head and move your groove when you hear music. You like singing along and often raise your voice and your little arms with those around you. You love singing at church and you love singing at the dinner table during our pre-dinner ditties. You like to have fun and you are good at having it.

You can sit up and crawl, but only weeks ago you were content to scoot and swim. You've begun pulling yourself up to standing and have gained access to whole new level of things to grab and stick in your mouth.

You like to graze. No crumb is too old for you to give a whirl. You are an adventurous eater when it comes to crumbs, but once you're in your seat, you prefer chicken. You use your little pincers to pick up piece after piece until mom cuts you off.

You like to growl and make funny noises with your voice. You like smacking your lips and sticking out your tongue. You can say, "Da-da," but don't often. You know that less is more and know how to keep us on our toes.

You like to point with your dainty finger and use your little digits to gather lunchtime detritus for quick pick-me-ups throughout the day.

You are beloved by your siblings. They all love flocking to you to say, "HI" when you first get up from a nap and being the last to say, "BYE" to you anytime you're about to go down for a nap. They all love hugging you and holding you. 

I love being your dad and I am looking forward to getting to know you more and more as you get older and begin to articulate even more of your God-given personality.

Happy FIRST birthday, Pheedy Bell. 

Here's to MANY, many more.

Love,

Dad

day no. 16,123: honey from hard places

Psalm 81:8-16

Hear, O my people, while I admonish you!

O Israel, if you would but listen to me! 

There shall be no strange god among you;

you shall not bow down to a foreign god. 

I am the LORD your God,

who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.

Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it.

But my people did not listen to my voice;

Israel would not submit to me. 

So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts,

to follow their own counsels. 

Oh, that my people would listen to me,

that Israel would walk in my ways! 

I would soon subdue their enemies

and turn my hand against their foes. 

Those who hate the LORD would cringe toward him,

and their fate would last forever. 

But he would feed you with the finest of the wheat,

and with honey from the rock I would satisfy you.

Strange gods promise sweetness from obvious places, but cannot produce it.

The one, true God promises honey from hard places and produces more than you can eat.

day no. 16,122: a good way to fall down

"Nothing wilts faster than laurels that have been rested upon." -- Percy Bysshe Shelley

Resting on your laurels is a good way to fall down. Relying on yesterday's victories in today's battles is a sure way to experience defeat. Leaning entirely on previous achievement in the moment is like leaning on a sharp stick, the harder you lean, the more you get stuck.

Romans 3:20

Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.

day no. 16,121: open wide

Psalm 81:10

I am the Lord thy God,

which brought thee out of the land of Egypt: 

open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it.

But my people would not hearken to my voice;

and Israel would none of me.

The child in the high chair needs to be commanded to open wide. He sits there defiantly unaware of what's good for him. He tightens his lips and turns his head. He shakes and moves and avoids. He does not want any of what is offered to him. He does not know what is best for him, but he is not open to suggestion. If only he would open his mouth to receive the ice cream. If he would open wide, he would receive a heaping spoonful for sugary, sweet goodness. And the wider he opened, the larger the spoonful his Dad would provide... but some will have none of Him. They are not merely stingy with their openness, they are stubbornly committed to it. They refuse not only some goodness, but all goodness in refusing any of Him. They miss out on a mouth full of sweet, a lifetime of joy, and an eternity of pleasure forevermore.

The wider you open yourself up to Him, the more you will be filled by Him.

Open wide and He will fill you up.

Psalm 16:11

Thou wilt shew me the path of life:

in thy presence is fulness of joy;

at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.

day no. 16,120: materialism

Genesis 1:1

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

Materialism is as destructive as an epistemology as it is as an eschatology.

When you begin with a materialistic concept of origin, you treat people like matter which is to say like they do not matter. If every person you meet is nothing more than animated atoms, it makes no difference whether you hold the door open for them or hold them up with a pistol. Materialism cannot justify morality.

Psalm 66:4

All the earth shall worship thee, and shall sing unto thee; they shall sing to thy name. Selah.

When you end with a materialistic concept of meaning, you treat people like means to an end which is to say like they do not mean anything to you. If every person you meet is nothing more than a step or a stumbling block to your goals, it makes no difference whether you regale them for popularity or rape them for pleasure. Materialism cannot avoid immorality.

Hebrews 11:3

Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.

day no. 16,119: the Lamb wins

Revelation 17:14

They will make war on the Lamb, and the Lamb will conquer them, for he is Lord of lords and King of kings, and those with him are called and chosen and faithful.

The world wages war and the Lamb gives them their wages. The godless bite the body of Christ, but the Head of the body smashed the head of the godless like a mosquito. The Lamb conquers the world. He is the Lord of all earthly lords and the King of all earthly kings and those who are with Him will enjoy His Kingdom forevermore.

day no. 16,118: the present difficulty of having died in the past

Luke 9:23

And He said to them all, If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.

"But I've already done that!" is always today's excuse. 

One of the biggest obstacles to dying daily is having died yesterday.

One of your greatest hurdles to dying today is remembering how hard it was to die yesterday. 

The present difficulty may be having died in the past.

Yesterday's death can be today's delay.

Never let past obedience excuse present disobedience.

Never allow past accomplishment to color current compromise.

Die daily.

Die again. 

Live forever.

day no. 16,117: the grape juice Gospel

"A little learning is a dangerous thing ;

Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring :

There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain,

And drinking largely sobers us again."

- Alexander Pope, A Little Learning

Education should be like wine, not a juice box.

An education should be complex and change the way that you think. It should embody a sense of culture, refinement, and the patient pursuit of transformation. Wine is not merely hard grape juice, it is something entirely different. It is the product of a process, not mere processing. Grape juice may be sweet and produce a sugar rush of activity, but soon thereafter the crash comes. Education should make glad the heart of man, not make sad the state of his docility.

Psalm 104:14-15

He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle, and herb for the service of man: that he may bring forth food out of the earth; And wine that maketh glad the heart of man, and oil to make his face to shine, and bread which strengtheneth man's heart

Besides, wine is a better symbol of life and death and the power of the Gospel than juice. The joy of life and the pain of sorrow are better embodied by a substance like wine. Nothing complements the delight of a wedding or the grief of a funeral better than wine.

Wine is dangerous. It requires maturity to enjoy without abuse. A Christian education should also be dangerous. That's the point. It should change things. But because of this danger, the safetymarms prefer to prohibit it. They prefer an education that cannot offend or lead to the faithful activity of free men and women. They would protest that it's too dangerous and warn that whatever good can be gained by it, it should be abandoned as too risky. But too risky according to whom? By what standard do they arrive at their conclusion? The one that begins by assuming that danger and trouble are to be avoided at all costs and that juice boxes are to be preferred to wine glasses.

"The wine we use in communion should be like the gospel—and that is potent. As with anything potent, abuses are possible (e.g. “shall we sin that grace may abound?”), but the possibility of abuse should not be allowed to replace the authority of Scripture. We want in the first place to be biblical people. This means we do not want a grape juice gospel, but rather a gospel with a kick." -- Douglas Wilson, Wine in Communion

day no. 16,116: think about what you care about

Proverbs 4:23

Keep your heart with all vigilance,

for from it flow the springs of life.

Think about what you care about.

What you care about shapes you and flavors what flows out of you. Ideas have consequences and affections find their way out our fingertips. What we love affects what we do and when and where we do it. It influences why we do anything and informs how we go about doing it. If you allow poison into your drinking water, you can expect it to show up in your body. You export what you produce. You import what you value. Guard the gates of your heart well. Keep tabs on who gets in and what gets out. For from the town hall of the city center, all the loves and laws of living are proclaimed to the rest of the kingdom.

day no. 16,115: envy is the foundation of all instability

Proverbs 27:4

Wrath is cruel, and anger is outrageous; but who is able to stand before envy?

Envy is the foundation of all instability. It violently shakes any and every thing that attempts to stand upon it.

1 Corinthians 3:11

For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

Envy is the photo negative of Christ. He is a firm foundation upon which all civilization has been, is being, and will be built. Nothing can stand that does not stand on Him. Christ does not support envy. Envy, therefore, cannot stand, nor can anything else that attempts to rest upon it.

Romans 12:15

Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.

Envy flips the script. It rejoices when others weep and weeps when others rejoice. It attempts to reason from an unreasonable premise. It tries to build with sticks of lit dynamite. It wants to make sense out of nonsense. But insanity does not work. It cannot work. And it won't. Anything that cannot go on forever... won't. 

In other words, it is only a matter of time before what matters takes its vengeance and asserts itself as a matter of fact.

day no. 16,114: Atticus is FOURTEEN!

Happy FOURTEENTH Birthday, Atticus!

Let me begin by reminding you how proud of you I am. I am grateful to God for you and thank Him for you in my prayers. You are a good son and good brother in Christ. I like being your dad. I like that you are my son. I love you and I like you. I always have and I always will. No matter what. Forever and ever. Amen.

But that's just the beginning... I'm grateful for a son who looks up to me, but I realize that by this time next year, in order to look up to me, you'll probably have to look down on me. You are shooting up like a plant full grown. All those prayers from Psalm 144 are being answered right before my eyes and I have the outgrown shoes to prove it. You have always had man hands. It was funny when you were a toddler, but now they just match the rest of the man. You have always had big feet, which again were funny on a little guy, but now match the rest of the man. Your shoulders are getting broader, your jaw stronger, your voice deeper, and your wingspan wider. You are growing up. Of course, that's always been true in one form or another, but lately it's been a whole lot of the form. You have shot up over the last year and there's good reason to believe you aren't done shooting yet.

Especially when you eat like you do. I mean, just... wow! You eat and eat and eat... and then you draw something... and then you eat again; and then to top it all off, you eat some more! Hey bro, I heard you like eating, how about putting some food on your food so you can eat while you eat! The tacos never stood a chance. The breakfast burritos? goners. The pizza slices? better get your house in order. You love to eat and enjoy good food. You like coffee and wine and steak and mac n beef broc. You appreciate your mom's cooking and are learning to fix yourself snacks midday and before bed. Eaters gonna eat.

You like physical labor and like being put to work. You like mowing the yard and have even had the opportunity to make some extra cash mowing other people's yards. This parlayed into the opportunity to rake the neighbor's leaves. When you do good work, the reward is often more work. While being one of the only boys your age around does have its downsides, one of the upsides is that all the mowing/raking/snow shoveling opportunities end up falling into your lap and provide you the opportunity to pad your wallet. Our neighbors have commented that you work hard and try to do a good job. Hard work is always noticed and often appreciated. As I mentioned, one of the rewards God gives to those who work hard is more work. This may not sound like a reward sometimes until you consider the increased wages that come along with it and the honor and respect that accompany someone who is trusted with meaningful business. It is a high privilege to be depended upon. What you sow, you will reap. Hard work sowing means more to reap, but the hard work on the back end is the hard work of trying to figure out where to put all the harvest when your previous hard work pays out and you can't keep up with all the thank you cards you're getting.

You still love your Joe's. You love making stop motions and thinking through story lines and scenarios for your men to participate in. You have your favorites and you care about your characters. A good author always does. Sometimes favorite characters have to die, as we know, but sometimes that is what cements their status as our favorite characters for all time.

In keeping with that, you continue to develop your graphic novel skills, both in creating storylines and in developing your craft competency. You are really good at capturing movement. You always have been. And you are only getting better at it the more that you do it and play with it and try new ways to tell your stories. Your first full graphic novel, Skeeter Wars, is done, and the sequel is under way. I'm excited to see it and look forward to all the others you will complete, especially now that you have all those blank books from the Days.

You love riding bikes. You look for every opportunity you can find to get out and get up and down the street. One of the blessings of this neighborhood has been the quiet street that makes for plenty of opportunity to bike. Your new bike is an adult bike. It fits you well. A man's bike for a young man. Play adult games, ride adult bikes... or something like that :) You've got the "look Ma no hands" move down pat and enjoy racing others up and down the sidewalks.

You have been keeping up with the To The Word Bible Read-Through Challenge. You diligently read your Bible and proactively set aside time to sit down with God to hear from Him. I am very encouraged by your growth and discipline in deciding to do this and following through with doing it. I'm very impressed. Keep it up! As you noted, Dr. Bray mentioned a few weeks back, that the world needs more men who know their Bibles and are ready to teach other men. May God give you faith to understand and courage to proclaim what you know.

Every night you copy the Proverb of the day into your notebook. You like capturing all the nuances and stylistic marks I put into them for you and enjoy making notes about any important events or milestones at the bottom of each drawing. You also have been reading the Ray Comfort daily devotion every morning and often will mention to me what you read about earlier that morning. All that to say, your world is immersed in the Word and war. You love the good fight in whatever form it takes. May God continue to equip and grow you to take your place in the only war to end all wars, the war Jesus already won, and the one we have the privilege of pushing to every corner.

You are a great big brother. You love your little siblings and often ask to hold Ophelia. You sometimes even fight Penelope over who gets to hold her. Ophelia adores you and often looks for you. You look out for your brothers and sisters and like leading them when left to it. You naturally take on the father role in taking responsibility for others in looking out for them. We did not name you Atticus for nothing. The fatherly instincts are strong with this one.

You are growing in wisdom, in stature, and in favor with both God and men. You are getting wiser as you grow and beginning to appreciate watching formal logic on display in things like: Doug Responds or Jeff Durbin street evangelizing. You like watching the lunacy get a licking. You are growing in height and weight and like working your body to exhaustion. You are earning a good reputation with those at church and in our neighborhood as a reliable, faithful, young man. God sees it all and so do we. You are a good man and I am very proud to be your dad.

Happy birthday, Atticus Jacob Rhyne Van Voorst.

I love you,

Dad

day no. 16,113: take root downward. bear fruit upward.

2 Kings 19:30

And the surviving remnant of the house of Judah shall again take root downward and bear fruit upward.

Take root downward;

bear fruit upward.

That is the Christian life. Growing deeper and more mature in the faith and growing more fruitful in faithfulness.

We are charged with the dual responsibilities of drawing deeper water and bearing fuller fruit. We cannot do one without the other. If you go deeper, you grow fuller. If you say you're going deeper, but not growing fuller, you are deceiving yourself. You are not getting deeper... at least as far as the fear of the Lord is concerned. If you are growing fuller and more fruitful, it is coming from a deep well of grace through faith in God. If you say you're more productive than ever before, but not drawing your nourishment from a growing knowledge or intimacy with God, than the flurry of activity or diligence happening above the surface is not a sign of sanctification, but of self-righteousness... or at least an attempt thereof.

day no. 16,112: the crash of cold, hard coasts

I will not walk with your progressive apes,

erect and sapient. Before them gapes

the dark abyss to which their progress tends -

if by God's mercy progress ever ends,

and does not ceaselessly revolve the same

unfruitful course with changing of a name.

I will not treat your dusty path and flat,

denoting this and that by this and that,

your world immutable wherein no part 

the little maker has with maker's art.

I bow not yet before the Iron Crown,

nor cast my own small golden sceptre down.

- J.R.R. Tolkien, Mythopeia

If the end of the road is an abyss, perhaps progress isn't as positive as it sounds. It is always worth asking, "by what standard?" In the case concerning "progress," one must ask, "Progressing towards what?" or "Going where exactly?"

Progressives attempt to import all the positive sentimentality associated with going forward without clarifying what it is they are reaching for. Thus they ride the wave of an assumed enthusiasm without being held accountable to the crash of cold, hard coasts. Tolkien rightly points out that the kind of progress that finds you closer to the cliff's edge today than you were yesterday is the kind of progress we can all do without and must not merely be refused, but resisted. We cannot only decline to accept it, but must actively, ardently reject it. We must not merely pout in the backseat about the destination, but neutralize the driver, take hold of the wheel, and keep the car from going over.

So when Tolkien says, "I will not walk with the progressive apes," I nod and add a hardy, "Me neither!"

day no. 16,111: watch your words

"Two things to remember in life. Take care of your thoughts when you are alone, and take care of your words when you are with people." -- Anonymous

We always should be watching our mouths. When we're alone, it's the words of our thoughts; when we're with others, it's the word out of our mouths.

Proverbs 10:19

In the multitude of words there wanteth not sin:

but he that refraineth his lips is wise.

This is true of internal and external dialogues.

When we are on our own, we don't tend to think about this, but our internal dialogue sometimes needs to be shut down or redirected. We need to know what to do when our internal tongue wags. We need to watch our internal mouths and turn our unspoken words to God.

Philippians 4:4-9

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.

When we are with others, we are more aware of what we are saying. That said, we have all said things we wish we hadn't. 

James 3:1-2

My brethren, be not many masters, knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation. Same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body.

So, all that to say, be slower to run your mouth or to let your thoughts run wild. Do not subject others to thoughtless words and do not subject yourself to the tyranny of endless, wordless thoughts. Do the hard work of watching your words, wherever they are.

James 1:19

Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak.

Be less quick to listen to yourself and quicker to listen to others. Be slower to speak to others and quicker to speak back to your thoughts and you will be blessed.

Proverbs 21:23-31

Whoso keepeth his mouth and his tongue keepeth his soul from troubles.

day no. 16,110: as their fathers did, so they do

2 Kings 17:41

As their fathers did, so they do.

Apples do not fall far from the tree; they do, however, sometimes roll a ways away. But even then, their stems bear the marks of where they were once attached to the branch.

Exodus 20:5-7

Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.

Fathers are not merely influential, they are covenantal, What they do, or don't do, affects their children. The way in which they bring them up, or refuse to raise them, affects the path their children take when they grow up. Now this can apply inversely. Take the cases of a drunk who raises a teetotaler, a pacifist who raises a solider, or an abandoned child who is fiercely loyal to his own children; but even then, it is the one's drunkenness, the other's pacifism, and the last's absence that is the key ingredient in the child's rebellious stew. The child's disposition is reactionary, defined by his distance from the source; but nevertheless, it is inextricably tied and bound to that source by definition. In other words, every child either desires to be like their dad or to be nothing like their dad, but the source of reference is always the same. Children are defined by their dads. Success is either defined by closeness to or distance from that mark, but dad is always the reference point.

Ezekiel 18:19-21

Yet say ye, Why? doth not the son bear the iniquity of the father? When the son hath done that which is lawful and right, and hath kept all my statutes, and hath done them, he shall surely live. The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him.

A father is responsible as the covenant head of his home for all that happens under it. That is not the same thing as being at fault for it. The father is not necessarily at fault for his son's sins, but he is responsible for seeing to them. In like fashion, the son is not necessarily at fault for his father's faults, but he is responsible to honor the man behind them. The soul that sins shall die for the sins that soul committed, not for the sins of someone else. The only soul that ever died for someone else's sins was Jesus.

Deuteronomy 7:9-10

Know therefore that the Lord thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations; And repayeth them that hate him to their face, to destroy them: he will not be slack to him that hateth him, he will repay him to his face.

The strength of covenantal promises are exponentially more potent than those of covenantal curses. God limits curses to three, perhaps four generations; whereas promises permeate for thousands of generations. Consider the weight of that promise. Please it into its historical contest. In this, the year of our Lord 2022, the world has not yet seen a thousand generations of mankind since its inception. We'have certainly seen more generations than Moses, yet even we do not have a thousand generations of ancestors. How much more ought we to imagine and look forward to thousands of generations of faithful descendants? The goodness of God going forward will be observed in the faith of fathers manifested in millions of faithful descendants yet to come.