day no. 17,234: the end of the beginning (exhortation outline)

Christ Church Leavenworth

The End of the Year Exhortation

December 28, 2025

The End of the Beginning

THE TEXT

The text this morning is from Proverbs 27:1, these are the words of God.

Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring.

TOMORROW WORLD

It is that time of the year when we collectively agree to ignore the wisdom of this verse. Many are boasting about that time just around the corner where they will be a little bit thinner, a whole lot richer, and much better read. But saying, “This is gonna be my year,” is much easier to say than, “That was my year.” And that is because It is easier to be a better person in your imagination than it is to be one in your reflection. Imaginary weights are easier to lift and imaginary books are easier to read. Besides, future you can be your hero even if the current you is the villain who stands in his way. On days like today, however, we are more open to the idea of making a change instead of doing the same things again next year and hoping for a different result. That is because events like birthdays, funerals, and new years have a way of making us more contemplative and open to reform. So, since January 1st is just around the corner, let’s capitalize on that and look at three tools God has given us to evaluate our lives.

FIRST TOOL: YOUR AX

Ecclesiastes 10:10 “If the iron is blunt, and one does not sharpen the edge, he must use more strength, but wisdom helps one to succeed.” If your ax is dull and you do not take the time to sharpen it, you will have to swing harder, but sharpening your ax is a smarter solution. If you have been given the chore of chopping down a tree, a sharp ax is an asset, but a dull ax can drive you bonkers. It’s almost the right tool. And even if you happen to have a sharp ax, given enough time, you won’t. All work and no sharpening makes your ax dull, boy. Hard work wears things out. And when it does, you have two choices: you can stop chopping, take a break, and sharpen your ax or you can swing harder and sweat more. Translate that into your life. If you don’t like the way things are going, doing more of it is not going to change anything. Doing more of the same thing will not get you a different thing. It will only wear you out. Hard work can be good and godly, but it is not wise to make things harder than they have to be. Sometimes, hear me out, sometimes the answer is not work harder, sometimes it is work smarter. So, instead of working more IN your life, sometimes you need to take a step back and work ON your life. 

Imagine you are on a ship that is taking on water. For some of you, this is not hard to imagine. You might even say things like, “I feel like I’m drowning.” When that is the case, you are spending your time and energy pitching water overboard in order to keep the ship afloat. The goal is simple: don’t drown. A noble goal. But that means that the waves and the currents are in charge of where your ship is actually going. You aren’t putting any time or energy into navigation because you are spending all of your time on flotation. That is working IN your life, not ON it.

So, where are you working harder where you need to start working smarter? What things are you making harder for yourself by refusing to take a step back? When was the last time you reevaluated why you do what you do instead of just focusing on doing more of what you’re already doing? It is easy to get so busy in your life that you don’t take the time to work on it. But if you don’t know where you are going, getting there faster isn’t an improvement. If the progressive Left have taught us anything it’s that progressing toward a cliff is not progress; and if the conservative Right have taught us anything it’s that driving a little bit slower towards the same cliff will not actually conserve anything.

SECOND TOOL : YOUR OX

Proverbs 14:4 “Where there are no oxen, the manger is clean, but abundant crops come by the strength of the ox.” If you do not have an ox, you do not have to clean up after an ox, but you also have to pull everything yourself and oxen are better at pulling than you are. So, if you want a clean barn, you cannot have an ox, but if you want a large harvest, you have to have one, and the mess that comes with it.

You will have to feed it, water it, and clean up after it. This will require a shovel, a strong back, and a strong stomach. For all of the ox’s strengths, tidiness is not one of them. Oxen do not pull their weight when it comes to cleaning. They do, however, more than make up for it by the weight they pull in the field. If you don’t like the idea of cleaning up after an ox you will have to get used to the idea of an empty barn. Sure, it’s clean, but it is also barren… and kinda boring. Oxen, on the other hand, are an adventure. They are not great for short term comfort, but they are just the right thing for long term conquest, which is its own kind of comfort.

Everything costs something. You cannot have kids without the messes that come with them. You cannot have a spouse with the messes they make. You are not owed a nice, tidy life. If you want that, do that opposite of what Chocolate Knox advises: “Stay single, don’t get married, don’t have any kids, and don’t baptize anything.” That said, while messes may be a given, that is not an excuse to be messy. That said, there is nothing wrong with cleaning up after yourself and expecting others to do the same. In fact, there is something very right about that, just ask your mom. But babies do not come with that built in. They do not help clean up, they just make the messes. And teaching them to clean up after themselves takes time and teaching them to do it with a good attitude takes even more time because that means you have to show them how.

So, are you walking into the barn each morning shocked to see that the oxen have made another mess? The problem, friend, is not with the ox, it is with you. Stop getting upset at the ox for making your life more difficult and start thanking God for the harvest the ox is helping you produce. Get your eyes off of the mess in the stall and get them onto the field that is bursting with fruit.

THIRD TOOL: YOUR PATH

Proverbs 4:26 “Ponder the path of your feet; then all your ways will be sure.” Think about your feet and the tracks they leave. Which way are they going? What are they pointed at? If you point your feet in the direction you want to go and watch your step as you’re going, there is no reason to think you won’t end up where you are wanting to go. The best indicator of where you will be tomorrow is what you are pointed at today. So, what do your tracks say about you? Review the game film. What path are you on? Direction always determines destination.

You can say all day that you want to end up over there, but if your feet are pointed over here, you are not going to end up over there… no matter how fast or how carefully you walk. You can say you want well-behaved kids, but if you aren’t raising them in the discipline and instruction of the Lord, I can tell you what kind of kids you are going to end up with. If you want to know what your life will look like in five years, look at what you’re doing now and then add five years to it. 

So, where will you end up if nothing changes? Look back at your tracks. Which direction are your feet going? The future is not the place where we finally become the people we’ve always wanted to be. If we do not change who we are right now, we will not be different tomorrow. In fact, five more years of what you’re doing now will only make it harder and less likely to change then. It will never be easier to repent than it is today. It will never get any easier to change direction than it is right now. So,“look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.” Ephesians 5:15-16

CALL TO CONFESSION

Well, since we’d rather chug another Reign than get some sleep, and since we’d rather complain about our responsibilities than thank God for them, and since we’d rather assume the best about our worst habits than do the hard work of doing something about them, we are reminded of our need to regularly confess and repent of our sins. So, if you are able, please kneel with me and confess your sins, first privately and then corporately using the prayer found in your bulletin.

CORPORATE CONFESSION

Gracious Father, if You were to mark iniquities, who could stand? But with You is forgiveness, that You may be feared. Called by You to the throne of grace, and confident in our great High Priest, we bow before You and confess that we have sinned against You and been unfaithful to Your holy covenant. Our hearts are deceitful above all things and desperately sick, so that we often do what we hate, and neglect what we love. Out of our mouths we both praise You and curse our fellow men. You promised mercy to our fathers through the seed of the woman. Turn our hearts again, Father, to consider Jesus, who crushed the serpent’s head, and saved His people from their sins. Forgive, cleanse, and restore us for His sake. Amen.

DECLARATION OF PARDON

Arise and hear the Good News! The assurance of pardon today comes from 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 Hear the Word of the Lord “Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.” Such were some of you. At some point something changed. By the grace of God, you are not who you were. And by the grace of God, He will not leave you now. He will not stop short. I am sure of this, He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ, for in Him, your sins are forgiven… THANKS BE TO GOD!

Now let us ascend to the presence of God in all worship and praise.

day no. 17,233: warriors and thugs

“Marry, Sirs, if Merlin who was the Devil’s son was a true King’s man as ever ate bread, is it not a shame that you, being but the sons of bitches, must be rebels and regicides?” — C.S. Lewis, That Hideous Strength 

Merlin did not allow a questionable past to stand in the way of his future. He was true to the once and future King. How is it then that those of less shameful heritages have allowed them to become a stumbling block? Why is it that the sons of the Devil sometimes repent and the sons of bitches won't? Merlin was the King's man and he went to war for his sovereign. The rest are rebels and go to war with their King.

"A fight, by its very nature, is not delicate. This is true in spiritual warfare, and it is also true in the resultant political conflict. But at the same time, we must make and maintain an important distinction. There is always a great difference between a warrior and a thug. A knight and a terrorist both kill, and they both kill for political ends. But a vast distance still separates them." —Douglas Wilson, Warriors Not Thugs

Violence is not anathema, but pacifism is. There are few things more verboten than principled non-violence. Antithesis is inescapable. You cannot outmaneuver it by refusing to fight. The fight will find you.

Matthew 11:12

From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force.

The kingdom is not a cake walk. There is nothing easy or passive about it. It is living and active. It is a fight. Passive-aggression is not aggressive enough. It is effeminate and impotent. 

"Every baptized churchman is by his profession a soldier of Jesus Christ, and is pledged to fight under His banner against sin, the world and the devil... Christian warfare is a great reality and a subject of vast importance. It is not a matter like church government and ceremonial, about which men may differ, and yet reach heaven at last. Necessity is laid upon us. We must fight. There are no promises in the Lord Jesus Christ’s epistles to the seven churches, except to those who 'overcome.' Where there is grace there will be conflict. The believer is a soldier. There is no holiness without a warfare. Saved souls will always be found to have fought a fight.

It is a fight of absolute necessity. Let us not think that in this war we can remain neutral and sit still. Such a line of action may be possible in the strife of nations, but it is utterly impossible in that conflict which concerns the soul. The boasted policy of non–interference, the 'masterly inactivity' which pleases so many statesmen, the plan of keeping quiet and letting things alone—all this will never do in the Christian warfare. Here at any rate no one can escape serving under the plea that he is 'a man of peace.' To be at peace with the world, the flesh and the devil, is to be at enmity with God and in the broad way that leads to destruction. We have no choice or option. We must either fight or be lost." — J.C. Ryle, Holiness

If you do not fight, you cannot win. If you will not fight, you will be defeated by those that will.

“The full value of this life can only be got by fighting; the violent take it by storm. And if we have accepted everything we have missed something – war. This life of ours is a very enjoyable fight, but a very miserable truce.” — G.K. Chesterton

Compromise is for cowards. Standing for something and fighting for it are the élan vital. The essence of life is fighting to stay alive and for what's worth living for.

"Some men fight because they love fighting. Others fight because they love what they are defending. With the former, we find malice and cruelty. With the latter, the attitude is chivalric. But chivalry in conflict is not pacifism, and it is not weak sisterism. The Christian faith does not require us to send off Little Bo Peep to slay the dragon. At the same time, the need for fighters does not ever justify thuggery, and the fact that Christian gentlemen must sometimes fight should not keep them from hitting hard. But how they hit is important." —Douglas Wilson, Warriors Not Thugs

Sometimes you must hit and when you do, it must be as hard as you can. If you never hit, you will miss out on good works which God prepared beforehand that you should fight int hem. If you never hit hard, you will miss out on the peace of having decided to try to win. You may lose, but you hit like you're trying to win and there is a peace in that which only a violent resolve can produce.

"Nine times out of ten, the coarse word is the word that condemns an evil and the refined word the word that excuses it." — G. K. Chesterton 

Some are more offended by the term "sons of bitches" than they are by actual sons of the Devil. They attempt to work things out with snakes while throwing shade at those willing to catch Hell as they stomp on them.

"Do not give fair names to foul sins; call them what you will, they will smell no sweeter." — Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Morning and Evening

Do not faint at foul words. The wicked call good evil which means if you are good, you are going to be called some names. And the more the merrier. Better to be called a bastard by those who reject our Father in Heaven than to be called blessed by those who are cursed by God.

"Soft teaching produces hard hearts and hard teaching produces soft hearts." — Jim Wilson 

This may come as a tough pill to swallow, but a tough pill that settles the stomach is better than a soft one that leaves you nauseous. Tough talk stiffens spines. Sweet nothings come to nothing.

day no. 17,232: feminism is the white flag of feminine

“Feminism often means the refusal to be feminine.” — G.K. Chesterton 

No one hates a woman like a group of women. 

“In all legends men have thought of women as sublime separately but horrible in a herd.” — G.K. Chesterton, What’s Wrong With the World

Women apparently agree. They like being who they are and doing what they like, but all of them as a group have begun to despise what women were made for. They resent their biology and envy the livelihood of the man. Feminism is the confession that femininity has failed. It is a concession speech. It is the white flag of domesticity. At least, it would be white if someone would have stayed home to bleach it. As it is, it is a rather dingy yellow and looks as though it would make things dirtier by touching them instead of cleaner. In that regard, it is a good metaphor for feminism, which only makes beauty uglier while contributing no added strength to masculinity.

"There has happened a strange and startling thing. Openly and to all appearance, this ancestral conflict has silently and abruptly ended; one of the two sexes has suddenly surrendered to the other... the woman has in public surrendered to the man. She has seriously and officially owned that the man has been right all along; that the public house is really more important than the private house." — G.K. Chesterton, What's Wrong With The World

Feminism has conceded that the workplace is the only thing that matters. While men used to work hard to provide for a wife and kids at home, the woman now insists on being next to him providing enough for them to pay some other woman to watch their kids.

"Feminism is a muddled idea that women are free when they serve their employers but slaves when they help their husbands." — G.K. Chesterton

Feminism has so elevated the ability to make money that it has abandoned the feminine ideal of making home.

“The Feminist, I think, is one who dislikes the chief feminine characteristics.” — G.K. Chesterton

By the woman attempting to join — or in some cases take — the place of the man, no one is left to take the place of the woman. In this, everyone is agreed that no one wants to be feminine or subscribe to the feminine ideals. If a man sees the need and attempts to fill the void with his effeminacy, he does not succeed. Effeminacy is not femininity. A man cannot be wife. He is excluded from doing so by definition. He can do the dishes, change the diapers, and stay home with the kids, but he isn't a mother. He is not a homemaker. He cannot be.

day no. 17,231: i smell a demonrat

“84 percent of Black Christians prefer the Democratic Party.” — Caleb E. Campbell, Disarming Leviathan

Campbell brings this up because he thinks this is a good thing in general and that it proves his point that Christians have a wide variety of political opinions in particular. The point he misses, however, is how unified Black Christians are in their political allegiances and willing they are to be accomplices in their own demise by doing so.

"All I can think about here is the way that these Black Christians have compromised in a terrible fashion and are under a fearsome judgment. It was an honest charge against ungodly white slave owners that they would separate slave families, selling children down the river. But these Black Christians of America have sold their children to the slaughterhouse—and there is no excuse for it. The Democratic Party is the party of dismembering children and selling the pieces, and these Black Christians have been entirely good with the fact that a disproportionate number of those pieces were black. Campbell appeals to that 84% as though it means something, but he is appealing to those who have been cooperating with the genocidal targeting of their own people. And traitors and quislings don’t get to speak with moral authority about anything." — Douglas Wilson, Immigrations, Mormons, and Demoncrats

No one has been more devastating to the black community than the Democratic Party. Look at any major American city where Democratic policies have been in place for decades. Consider Chicago, Baltimore, San Francisco, Seattle, East Saint Louis, etc... These are not safe places to visit because they are terrible places to live. They are terrible places to live because the policies under which they are governed are terrible. Their policies are terrible because their politicians are terrible.

“The abortion bus outside the DNC was one of the most macabre and grotesque displays of human perversity imaginable.” — Douglas Wilson, Why Your Vote Is No Sacrament

The Democrats are the death cult with ties and suits. They are the reputable face of disreputable practices.

day mo. 17,230: envasion

“At the core of liberalism is the spoiled child — miserable, as all spoiled children are, unsatisfied, demanding, ill-disciplined, despotic and useless. Liberalism is a philosophy of sniveling brats.” — P.J. O'Rourke, Give War a Chance: Eyewitness Accounts of Mankind's Struggle Against Tyranny, Injustice, and Alcohol-Free Beer

The more the spoiled child gets what they want they less satisfied they are with what they have. Discontent cannot be cured by the danegeld. It keeps coming back for more. Envy cannot assuaged by olive branches. It resents the peacemaker's privilege position.

Proverbs 27:4

Wrath is cruel, and anger is outrageous; 

but who is able to stand before envy?

Envy is more cruel than wrath and more outraged than rage. It is not merely zealous for itself, it is anxious for the destruction of others. It does not want to have as much as it wants to take away. It is less about self-promotion and more about the demolition of others.

"He would rather have the poor poorer provided the rich were less rich. That is the Liberal policy. Yes it came out. He didn’t intend it to but it did." — Margaret Thatcher

Envy does not want everyone to be rich, it wants no one else to have anything. It is not a matter of equity that drives its concerns, but a matter of disparity. It would prefer everyone to go without than any to go on. It rejoices when others weep and weeps when others rejoice.

Romans 12:15

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

Envy is an inversion of the law of Christ. It cannot stand seeing someone else prosper and it delights in seeing others deprived.

1 Clement 38:2

Let not the strong man despise the weak, and let the weak pay regard to the strong. Let him that is rich minister to him that is poor. Let him that is poor praise God that he hath given unto him one by whom his want may be supplied. 

In a God-fearing economy, the weak praise God for the productivity of the strong and the strong do not despise the inability of the weak. The weak are taken care of and the strong are honored. In a perverse society, the weak use their weakness to abuse the strong and the strong surrender their strength to the whims of the weak. It is an enversion. 

"When you elevate victimhood as virtue, you will create a culture in which people are tripping over themselves to be oppressed." — Allie Beth Stuckey

When being oppressed becomes the new medal of honor, you will find the honorable opting out and the dishonorable receiving awards. That is a world where envy has invaded. That is an envasion.

day no. 17,229: sweet and salty

“This tells us that the fundamental law/gospel divide is not to found in the text of Scripture. It is found in the difference between regenerate and unregenerate man. For the regenerate, everything from God is sweeter than the honeycomb. All of it is grace. For the unregenerate, the whole thing is the stench of death, including the good news of Christ on the cross. All of it is law and condemnation.” ― Douglas Wilson, Mere Christendom

The law is sweet to the those who love Jesus.

1 John 5:3

For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.

The commands of Christ are not a cause for complaining for those who love Him. His Law is honey even when it is hard and His grace is fixed and firm even when it is comforting. 

2 Corinthians 2:15-16

For we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish: To the one we are the savour of death unto death; and to the other the savour of life unto life. And who is sufficient for these things?

The best news in the world smells like death to those who hate Jesus and the worst news in the world smells like life to those who love Him. The death of God on the Cross is despised by those who hate Him and delighted in by those who love Him. The same story is received differently by different hearts. The old man hates the death of Christ, the new man hates the sin that killed Him.

day no. 17,228: bright dungeons and dark castles

“A dungeon with Christ is a throne. A throne without Christ is a hell.” — John Owen 

Eternal life is where Christ is. If allegiance to Him leads you to jail, it becomes the most celestial of cells. If denial of Christ leads you to prominence, it is the most infamous fame one can acquire.

"God can't give us peace and happiness apart from Himself because there is no such thing." — C. S. Lewis

It is better to be with Christ wherever faith leads you than without Christ wherever you preferred to go. Christ transforms the hardest times with Him into the most glorious refinement and He transforms the best times without Him into the most regrettable misery.

A Christless cross no refuge is for me; 

A Crossless Christ my Savior may not be;

But, O Christ crucified! I rest in thee.

— B B Warfield

If Christ is not crucified for you, no throne can provide you wotj rest. If Christ is crucified for you, no trial can rob you of comfort. A love of Jesus leads to bright dungeons and a hatred of Christ leads to dark castles.

day no. 17,227: keeping Christmas

“The great majority of people will go on observing forms that cannot be explained; they will keep Christmas Day with Christmas gifts and Christmas benedictions; they will continue to do it; and some day suddenly wake up and discover why.” — G.K. Chesterton, On Christmas

We know that every knee will one day bow and every tongue someday confess that Christ is King. This will be done from the heart and in earnest. Some will confess this reality as a concession and some will bow in reluctant deference, but none will stand in that court or declare his own acclaim on that day. Until then, many will sing songs that declare that He is the Lord of all. They will give gifts to friends and family on His birthday and they will have His name on their lips as they say, "Merry Christmas" to passers by. The grace of God is waking up as to why we are doing this. The reason for the season does not suddenly appear, it is realized all of a sudden because it has always been there. In that moment, the forms and functions are revealed for what they were and always have been. Christ does not need to be born again in Bethlehem or crucified again on a Roman cross. What He did, He did so perfectly and completely that it requires no sequel. When the reality of this dawns on a man, it is often accompanied by the sudden realization of how slow he was in realizing it.

"After every time of darkness, there comes a mixture of delight and humiliation. There is delight at finally hearing God, and humiliation at how long it took to listen. 'How slow I’ve been in understanding!' you’ll say. 'And yet, God has been saying it all these days and weeks.' If you feel only delight, it is doubtful you have heard him at all." — Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest

We are all a little bit slow. We have listened to things longer than we have heard them. We have celebrated Christmas in our homes before have celebrated them in our hearts, but rest assured, many who are keeping Christmas traditions today for cultural reasons will tomorrow be keeping them spiritual ones. Creeds come with the temptation to recite them without believing them, but they come with the benefit of giving one something to believe in when they realize what they have been so long in reciting.

Ephesians 5:14

Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, 

and Christ will shine on you.

Someday we all will wake up to what we have done. 

day no. 17,226: what does my diploma say?

"We have forgotten God. We have turned our backs on Him, and so He has left us to our own devices. Kids are graduated from high school not knowing how to read their own diplomas. They don’t know who they are, and they don’t know why they exist. Periodically one of these kids, hopped up on drugs prescribed by the school nurse, shoots up the school. These are drugs that are sourced from the respectable cartels, and not the icky cartels." ― Douglas Wilson, Narco Boats and the Barbary Pirates

State schools are secular boot camps. The goal is not to nourish individuals, but to mass produce soldiers. The future infantry of the Left are the recruited children of the Right. The Left are not having their own kids, but they have access to the children of the Right because they continue to send them, voluntarily, to the secular boot camps for an "education" or "socialization."

Feducation is giving diplomas to kids who ask, "What does this say?" That, in a nutshell, tells you everything you need to know about the racket that is mandatory, state run and funded education. 

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.

Free thinking men and women is a distinctly Christian value. The Christian faith can stand up to criticism and welcomes dialogue. Iron sharpens iron. If you want to be free, you need Christian men and women educated in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. The secular standard has not produced better science, it has produced "pregnant" men and women without chests.

"“We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honour and are shocked to find traitors in our midst. We castrate and bid the geldings be fruitful." ― C.S. Lewis

Once upon a time, we made men without chests by yanking dignity from them, not we make men without chests by cutting off a woman's breasts and calling her a "man." We castrate and call the geldings "women," and pretend that they can get pregnant. Only one catechized as a secular academic could concoct such a thing. That cauldron yields a corrosive that melts its containers. Whoever drinks that elixir is erased from the inside out.

day no. 17,225: sin rewards loyalty with betrayal

“He served his god so faithfully and well

That now he sees him face to face in hell.”

― Hilaire Belloc

We become what we behold.

Psalm 135:15-18

The idols of the nations are silver and gold, the work of human hands.

They have mouths, but do not speak; they have eyes, but do not see;

they have ears, but do not hear, nor is there any breath in their mouths.

Those who make them become like them, so do all who trust in them.

Those who worship idols become like the idols they worship, because we become what we behold.

2 Corinthians 3:18

But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

Those who worship God become like Him, because we become what we behold.

Everyone is becoming something and sooner or later they're going to be it. They will cease becoming and begin being. For those who worship idols, they will end as they are: dead, displaced, and under the never-ending wrath of God. For those who worship God, they will end as He does, unending in life, established, and under the never-ending waterfall of grace and mercy.

Isaiah 5:20

Woe unto them that call evil "good," and good "evil."

Sin is a cruel master. Demons do not reward "good" behavior. They can't and they wouldn't if they could. The devil does not have favorites. He hates his accomplices as much as they all hate God.

"In fighting those who serve devils one always has this on one’s side; their Masters hate them as much as they hate us. The moment we disable the human pawns enough to make them useless to Hell, their own Masters finish the work for us. They break their tools.” ― C.S. Lewis, That Hideous Strength

Faithfully following evil is rewarded with faithlessness and loyalty is rewarded with betrayal. In the end, we get what we want, but some get more than what they bargained for. Those who want a world without God get that, but it is not what they thought it would be.

"There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, 'Thy will be done,' and those to whom God says, in the end, 'Thy will be done. '" ― C.S. Lewis

Those who insist on their own way get way more than they wanted. Sin always Sin takes you further than you wanted to go faster than you wanted to get there and keeps you longer than you wanted to stay while costing you more than you wanted to pay.

Sin rewards loyalty with betrayal.

Down to Gehenna,

or up to the Throne,

He travels the fastest

who travels alone.

— Rudyard Kipling

A good way to go to Hell is to go it alone. Go to church, get some friends, and get back on track. You cannot serve two masters. If you are devoted to God, He will be devoted to you. If you are devoted to demons, they will divorce you.

If you align yourself with defiance, you will be crooked.

day no. 17,224: modern cosmology

"The Christian faith flat contradicts the truncated cosmology of moderns. Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve." ― Douglas Wilson, A Star From Jacob

The Heavens declare the glory of God not the majesty of man. A telescope does not testify to the ingenuity of man as much as it does to the genius of God. There are things to see because He made and because He made eyes. The medieval cosmology is far more consistent with an appreciation for the handiwork of God than the modern void that we call "space." We imagine a cold, dark nothingness that is as expansive as it is empty. But that is the universe the Lord created. He did not whisper, "Let there be light!" He spoke into the formless, empty, void and brought forth light, life, form, and function. The earth is the Lord's the fullness thereof, but so is the universe and the fullness there as well. There is no emptiness anywhere. All matter is infused with meaning. All the molecules matter and none of them has been orphaned or quarantined to cold, forgotten obscurity. The spheres do not have value because we found them, they had value before we saw them, and they will have value when we can see them no more.

“'In our world,' said Eustace, 'a star is a huge ball of flaming gas.' 'Even in your world, my son, that is not what a star is, but only what it is made of.'” ― C.S. Lewis, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

The Heavens are full of life, not death punctuated by a fire ball here an there. The night sky is full of twinkling reminders that the light of the world sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty an that in Him all things hold together and shine at their assigned times and seasons.

day no. 17,223: the means of production as the means of corruption

“The control of the production of wealth is the control of human life itself.” ― Hilaire Belloc

Property rights are human rights. A means of production and the ability to increase is an essential component of the rights God gave us summarized as life, liberty, and property. If a man does not possess the ability to produce something, he is being controlled by someone else.

“If we do not restore the Institution of Property we cannot escape restoring the Institution of Slavery; there is no third course.” ― Hilaire Belloc, The Servile State

If a man does not own his time and is prohibited from owning his home, he is a slave.

“Taxes reduce the production of what is taxed: industry, profitability, thrift, and investment. Subsidies increase the production of what is subsidized, and in the redistributive society that means idleness and parasitism.” — Herbert Schlossberg, Idols for Destruction

Communism does not produce anything other than lazy grifters on one end and lazy slaves on the other.

"Centering an economic worldview around consumption is man-focused in the most trite and simplistic of ways; but developing an entire ecosystem of thought and action around production, well that honors the human person, and opens the door to a sustainable, soul-giving eradication of poverty." — David L. Bahnsen, There's No Free Lunch: 250 Economic Truths

Free room and board sounds good until you consider the cell in which those are served. Prison gives a man a place to sleep and something to eat, but it does not give him much else.

"Properly understood, the case for capitalism is not a case for license or for laissez faire. It is a case for national wealth as a moral good; for the interest of the mass of consumers as the guide of policy; for clear and uniform rules of competition imposed upon all; for letting markets set prices, letting buyers make choices, and letting producers experiment, innovate, and make what they think they can sell -- all while protecting consumers and punishing abuses. It is a case for avoiding concentrations of power, for keeping business and government separate, and for letting those who can meet their own needs do so. It is a case for humility about our ability to know, and therefore about our capacity to do." — Yuval Levin

Allowing a man to make and spend his own money in order to feed, cloth, and house himself is the best for everyone in the world. A man in this position can make enough to take on a wife and kids. A man who cannot provide for himself cannot carry the load of another. He cannot be trusted to shoulder the weight of other's stomachs if he cannot meet the needs of his own.

"Each of the moral aspirations we hope for about our society, and each of the economic objectives we have in a free enterprise economy, are undermined by an overly cozy relationship with business and government, where the collective power of the state is allowed to pick winners and losers. Our case for a market economy is a noble one, but it is undermined from start to finish when we fail to condemn the insidious effects of crony capitalism." — David Bahnsen, There's No Free Lunch

Crony capitalism is the illusion of freedom. It high jacks the language of liberty in order to enslave men in a pseudo-socialist state of affairs.

“The trouble with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money.” — Margaret Thatcher

If men are not permitted to own the means of production, eventually you exhaust the means you have. Like the mongols or the locust, you can consume another society's production, but you cannot sustain a society. You leave the shell without planting the seed and you end up starving next winter or moving on to another productive place where you can rape and pillage its produce.

"Property rights are human rights." ― Douglas Wilson, 3 Reasons Why Socialism Should Not Be Considered As The Butterfly's Boots

Thou shalt not steal is not a suggestion, it's the law. Honoring another man's stuff, including his ability to make stuff, is how we honor our Father in Heaven and see His kingdom come here on earth as it is in Heaven.

"The reason why socialist governments have such an untrammeled record of abusing human beings is that they begin the entire process by denying one of the foundation stones of human rights, which is property. Pure and simple, without a deep respect for property that the government cannot touch, human rights declarations are nothing more than the flattering words that turkey farmers offer to the turkeys in the run up to Thanksgiving." ― Douglas Wilson, 3 Reasons Why Socialism Should Not Be Considered As The Butterfly's Boots

You cannot rob men of their right to own property without robbing that man's property. You cannot steal his dignity without stealing his productivity. Those who imagine themselves masters have no difficulty making slaves of their neighbors.

day no. 17,222: no child left behind is all children held back

"It has been discovered that with a dull urban population, all formed under a mechanical system of State education, a suggestion or command, however senseless and unreasoned, will be obeyed if it be sufficiently repeated.” ― Hilaire Belloc, An Essay on the Restoration of Property

Anyone still doubting this maxim after living through COVID-times it willfully ignored and double damnable. Not only should you have known better at the time, you have to know by now. If you don't, it is merely the result of strong-willed, self-imposed deception.

"Public education has not produced an educated public." — G. K. Chesterton

But that, to be fair, has always been the plan. Public education is not about producing free thinking free men, it has always been about producing wage slaves and consumers.

“Where the old (education) initiated, the new merely ‘conditions’. The old dealt with its pupils as grown birds deal with young birds when they teach them to fly; the new deals with them more as the poultry-keeper deals with young birds— making them thus or thus for purposes of which the birds know nothing. in a word, the old was a kind of propagation—men transmitting manhood to men; the new is merely propaganda.” — C.S. Lewis, The Abolition of Man

State education is secular boot camp. They are producing a particular kind of soldier for the particular kind of war they are waging. They are wanting to destroy the freedom loving, Christian West and so they first seek to destroy the free, Christian man.

“I don't want a nation of thinkers, I want a nation of workers.” — John D. Rockefeller

Those who are trained to think begin to question the system.  Those who have never been taught to think do not even have categories for imagining anything else. The dreams of the tyrants are the reality of the oppressed.

"In our dreams...people yield themselves with perfect docility to our molding hands. The present educational conventions fade from our minds, and unhampered by tradition, we work our own good will upon a grateful and responsive folk. We shall not try to make these people or any of their children into philosophers or men of learning or men of science. We have not to raise up from among them authors, educators, poets or men of letters. We shall not search for embryo great artists, painters, musicians, nor lawyers, doctors, preachers, politicians, statesmen, of whom we have ample supply. The task we set before ourselves is very simple...we will organize children...and teach them to do in a perfect way the things their fathers and mothers are doing in an imperfect way." — Rockefeller's General Education Board (1906)

The goal of public education is malleable public for the molders of modernity to manipulate as they see fit without any backchat from the clay.

"We want one class to have a liberal education. We want another class, a very much larger class of necessity, to forgo the privilege of a liberal education and fit themselves to perform specific difficult manual tasks." — Woodrow Wilson

A liberal education liberates. It frees the mind to creative endeavors. It frees the man to produce and secure property. It frees the soul to seek, ask, and knock that life may be found, its questions answered, and the way of life opened to image-bearers of God.

"The training which does not base duty on Christianity is, for us, practically immoral." — R.L. Dabney, On Secular Education

That which does not discipline and instruct in the way of the Lord disciplines and instructs in the way of the demons. That which is not of the Seed of Eve is of the seed of the serpent. The antithesis is everywhere and few subjects better bring this reality to the light than those of education and vocation. 

No child left behind is the same as all children held back. None of them are to allowed to advance. That way, none are excluded. They all are stunted together.

day no. 17,221: welcoming strangers without succumbing to strange ways

"We sit by and watch the barbarian. We tolerate him in the long stretches of peace, we are not afraid. We are tickled by his irreverence; his comic inversion of our old certitudes and our fixed creed refreshes us; we laugh. But as we laugh we are watched by large and awful faces from beyond, and on these faces there are no smiles.” — Hilaire Belloc

You get what you tolerate. What you tolerate eventually gains enough traction to become something you must accept. If you, in an effort to be hospitable, allow for differences of opinion at your table, you may convince some guests of the superiority of your position. But if you, in an effort to be open-minded, require differences of opinion at your table, you will lose the ability to invite anyone over because the lunatics will run the asylum. In similar fashion, if you take in refugees looking to leave their oppressive homelands behind, you may win them to the value of your land that was able to offer solace, but if you take in refugees looking to make conquest of your homeland, you will find out that can no offer asylum to any because your land is run by lunatics.

"We are indignant at the thought that our fathers, long since gone from the scene, could possibly have any kind of authority over us. We want to think that the placement of individuals in history is nothing more than a random number sequence, with no authority given to those who came before. But the Lord of all history placed them there, with the command that they leave an inheritance to us. Our duty is to receive that inheritance, build upon it, and become in turn a blessing to our covenantal grandchildren." — Douglas Wilson, Angels in the Architecture: A Protestant Vision for Middle Earth

We dishonor our fathers by allowing their names and ways to be disregarded by other people's children. We do no justice to our ancestors by giving other people's descendants the right to disregard them in our own backyards.

"No one should ever be allowed to tear down any fence unless they could explain why it had been erected in the first place." — G.K. Chesterton

Immigration is only wise when assimilation is a stated goal. If it is not, it is simply a matter of how much salt can be added to the sugar bowl until it is no longer a sugar bowl.

“Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead. Tradition refuses to submit to the small and arrogant oligarchy of those who merely happen to be walking about.” — G.K. Chesterton

Before we begin trying to give undocumented aliens the ability to vote in our elections, we should give our documented ancestors the ability to vote in our elections. The world they built for us should count for something. In order to preserve what they provided to us, we must remember how they built it. Why are some so eager to allow guests to vote on the menu? If we are having people over, we can give thought to the preferences and allergies of our guests, of course, but it would not be reasonable to think that we had to change the menu after the guests have left or even worse, because the guests would not go home or stay by conforming to the menu of the home in which they sought comfort.

"People who take no pride in the noble achievements of remote ancestors will never achieve 

anything worthy to be remembered with pride by remote descendants." — T.B. Macaulay

Those who ignore the past are not only doomed to repeat it, they are doomed to be despised by their descendants.  

"People will not look forward to posterity, who never look backward to their ancestors." — Edmund Burke

Those who make a habit out of rejecting their grandfathers will be rejected by their grandchildren.

"Tradition is not the worship of ashes but the preservation of fire." — Gustav Mahler

If we want to preserve the West, and we should, we will have to keep the fire of our fathers going. This means welcoming strangers without succumbing to strange ways.

day no. 17,220: ophelia is four

Ophelia is FOUR! She is O-four-lia. Nope. Nevermind. Sorry.

Oey, you are so much fun. You are full of energy, attitude, and personality. You like to tell jokes and you love being funny. The other day you were at the table singing, "The stu word, the stu word!" You are at that fun age where you say silly things, most of the time unintentionally, but every once in a while on purpose. Another time I overhead you singing, "I like marshmallows. They are good for my teeth." 

You like to say, "I'm scared" before bed so that I will respond by saying, "I will keep you safe" You like to say. "bum bum" at the end of singing Amazing Grace and you do not like it when anyone else joins in to say, "bum bum."

You like doing things for yourself except for when you don't and then you demand that other people do them for you. Typical threenager stuff, nothing new under the sun.

You like to talk about Dreesuz. You've heard enough churchianity and Christianese in your young life to say some really profound things... when you're not accidentally promoting outright heresy. You like to pray and you like to talk about God. You are a little Christian lady. You are the first Van Voorst to be raised entirely within the world of Presbyterianism. This is the air you breathe. You will never know a time where we didn't sing psalms.

You love your sisters and like playing with them, until you don't. And then you like playing by yourself in the back room, especially if trains are involved. If you have your trains, you can easily be on your own in there for hours without needing anything. You also disappear to play with Knox and Eulalie at times. You love your siblings.

You like building things with Duplos and just like trains, you can get lost in them and spend a morning making and playing in a world made out of colored blocks. 

You like Ninjago, especially Cole. He's the rock ninja.

You like being outside, especially without shoes. Speaking of shoes, where are your shoes? Why am I asking you? You don't know. :)

If you say, "Pwease" like three times, you expect to get what you asked for. 

You like to play games. In fact, sometimes, you just start playing them and expect other people to realize that they are now part of whatever game you are playing. Sometimes we discover we've been playing a game with you and we didn't even know it.

You know how to stay dry in your diaper, you just don't care enough to consistently stay dry in it. Sometimes you do, sometimes you do do.

You have a lot of chutzpah to harness and by the grace of God, when it is someday, you're going to wreak havoc on the heathen. You were born to be a handful. May your enemies' hands always be incapable of handling you and may their minds never know what to do with you.

All things considered, you are a delight, Oey. You are cute, smart, funny, and fiesty. I love being your dad and I'm glad I get to spend my days getting to know you.

So, here's to Oey!

Happy Birthday!

Love,

Dad

day no. 17,219: suburbarianism

“The Barbarian hopes — and that is the mark of him, that he can have his cake and eat it too. He will consume what civilization has slowly produced after generations of selection and effort, but he will not be at pains to replace such goods, nor indeed has he a comprehension of the virtue that has brought them into being. Discipline seems to him irrational, on which account he is ever marvelling that civilization, should have offended him with priests and soldiers.... In a word, the Barbarian is discoverable everywhere in this, that he cannot make: that he can befog and destroy but that he cannot sustain; and of every Barbarian in the decline or peril of every civilization exactly that has been true." — Hilaire Belloc

The locust can eat the produce of others, but cannot plant a crop. He has not interest in building anything, but only in consuming something. He does not plant where he is, he goes where others have sowed. He does not add value to anything, he subtracts value from everything. He has no stake in the future of where is, only in the table of the present. He does not own the means of production and he has no interest in developing any. His only interest is in the the means of productions of others and those he consumes and eventually destroys. His self-interest feeds on the selflessness of others. His hunger feeds on the hard work of others. If he gets his way, no one gets anything. He gluttonously devours more than he needs and everyone starves. 

Unless... the barbarian is opposed, confronted, and defeated; even when it shows up in the suburbs. Let's call it suburbarianism.

“If you are not prepared to use force to defend civilization, then be prepared to accept barbarism.” — Thomas Sowell

Christian civilization will conquer heathen paganism. The Lord has promised that the gates of Hell will not prevail against the kingdom of Christ. The increase of His kingdom will have no end. The question is not "Will Christendom survive?" the question is "Will we defend Christendom?"

"It is common enough to blame Rome for not making peace. But it was a true popular instinct that there could be no peace with that sort of people. It is common enough to blame the Roman for his Delenda est Carthago; Carthage must be destroyed...  but Carthage fell because she was faithful to her own philosophy and had followed out to its logical conclusion her own vision of the universe. Moloch had eaten his children. " — G.K. Chesterton, The Everlasting Man

Barbarianism will consume itself. Moloch will run out of sons and daughters to devour. It is inevitable. Anything that cannot go on forever... won't. Sin is not a long term strategy. It may "work" for a minute, but it cannot last.

"Alfred has come down to us in the best way (that is, by national legends) solely for the same reason as Arthur and Roland and the other giants of that darkness, because he fought for the Christian civilization against the heathen nihilism." — G.K. Chesterton, The Ballad of the White Horse

May we join the ranks of Alfred by fighting the disciples of darkness. The sun is already risen. There is no stopping the day from breaking. Day breaks. Night falls... never to recover.

"Do not, I beseech you, be troubled about the increase of forces already in dissolution. You have mistaken the hour of the night; it is already morning." — Hilaire Belloc

So, don't worry about the dissipating darkness coming back, it is down for the count. The night is knocked out.

“The sun has risen. Christ has come. He is the king. The light covers the world. A return to heathen midnight is an impossibility. Those who walk in darkness now are doing so in a world suffused with light. This is hard to do — you have to remain blind, or hide in root cellars. There are ways to stay out of the sunlight, but they are difficult to accomplish. Not only so, but as the day passes, they will get increasingly difficult.” — Douglas Wilson, God Rest Ye Merry

Midnight is over and the morning is forever.

day no. 17,218: drunk on abstention

"Abstainer, n. A weak person who yields to the temptation of denying himself a pleasure. A total abstainer is one who abstains from everything but abstention, and especially from inactivity in the affairs of others." — Ambrose Bierce, The Devil’s Dictionary 

There is often just as much danger in swearing something off as there is in being obsessed with it. Alcohol is one of those things. Those who drink too much are in the same boat with those who refuse to drink a sip. They are both out of their right minds.

"Rum, n. A substance that causes madness in total abstainers." — Ambrose Bierce, The Devil’s Dictionary 

Tyranny is often fueled by those who want to indulge or by those who want to abstain. Those who want to drink as much as they can pass laws to ensure the tap stays on and those who don't want to drink at all pass laws to keep others from drinking as well. So, whether it be the gluttony one of the scrutiny of the other, both end with everyone else being whipped by the laws of the consciences (or lackthereof) of others.

The godless get drunk on drink or on power. Prohibition was the product of those drunk on abstention.

"This madness goes both ways: if you drink it, it makes you mad, and if you don’t drink it, it makes you mad."  — Douglas Wilson, The Seven Deadlies

Too much alcohol will cause you to lose your head, but so will too little.

Colossians 2:20-23

If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations— “Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch” (referring to things that all perish as they are used)—according to human precepts and teachings? These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh. 

Those who go without seem to have a handle on things, but it only seems that way. They can say, "No" to certain things, but they cannot say, "No" to themselves wanting to say, "No" to those same things. And many times a feigned allergy to certain things is merely the mask someone wears to keep you from discovering how obsessed they are with it. They spend all day thinking about drinking, for example, which is more hours in the day the drunkard does.

On the other hand, those who indulge in gluttonous behavior aren't exactly thrilled by the presence of those who partake responsibly.

1 Peter 4:3-6

For the time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do, living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry. With respect to this they are surprised when you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery, and they malign you; but they will give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. For this is why the gospel was preached even to those who are dead, that though judged in the flesh the way people are, they might live in the spirit the way God does.

So, eat the fat and drink the sweet and demonstrated self-controlled gratitude in what you enjoy.

Ecclesiastes 9:7

Go thy way, eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine with a merry heart; for God now accepteth thy works.

day no. 17,217: when the legalism is applied liberally

“While there is real legalism out there, we want to make sure that we don’t define a legalist as someone who loves Jesus more than we do.” — Douglas Wilson, Mere Christendom

Legalism exists, but not in the form of loving your neighbor lawfully from the heart. That is not te kind of thing that conspired to crucify Christ. Legalism is either inventing new rules for the sake of seeming neat and tidy or inventing new ways to apply old rules in order to keep your thumb on the scale. All that said, legalism is not merely someone who loves Jesus more than you do.

"Legalism is a word that is thrown around liberally." — K.P. Yohannan, Head Coverings

People who like to live liberally also like to apply the word "legalism" liberally. Because every Bible-believing, Bible-reading Christian wants to keep God's laws in earnest, but also wants to avoid becoming a Pharisee, it is easy for the licentiousness to make them feel anxious by accusing them of legalism.

“Application is not legalism. Obedience is not legalism. Legalism is inventing your own standard. But doing what God said to do the way that God said to do it is not legalism at all: ‘hear therefore, O Israel, and observe to do it; that it may be well with thee.’” — Douglas Wilson, Keep Your Kids

Doing what God says is not being legalistic. That is being faithful.

Deuteronomy 4:2

Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you.

Doing more than what God says is not necessarily wrong, but it is wrong to try to make others do more than what God has said or make them feel unfaithful for not doing the extras your conscience has compelled you to do.

"Legalism is not when someone loves God more than I do." — Douglas Wilson, Blog and Mablog

If you love God, obey Him and cheer for those who are further along than you. Learn from them and honor them. They are not legalists merely because they know and follow His laws better than you do. Loving the standard is not legalism. That is simple faith and obedience.

day no. 17,216: catholicity, Trinity, infallibility, ecclesiology

Ephesians 2:17-22

And came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh. For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father. Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God; And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.

This short passage from Ephesians 2 is pregnant with doctrinal import.

:17 — Catholicity

And came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh.

Jesus was sent to the Jews first and then the Gentiles. He went to His own people and then to those He was inviting to become His people. In the end, He made one new man out of the two. When He ascended into Heaven there was no longer us and them in the ethnicities of men. That is not to say that the nations went away, but it is to say that the nations were now able to unite. The world could be one without surrendering their distinctions. The same way that the gift of marriage makes men and women one without erasing their distinctions, the Gospel has made the world one without erasing the nations.

:18 — Trinity

For through Him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father. 

Through Jesus we all have access by the one Holy Spirit to God the Father Almighty. The entire Trinity is present in this one short verse. Jesus Christ is the Way, the Truth, and the Life and no one comes to the Father except through Him. (Jn. 14:6) The Spirit of God regenerates those He is calling to repent and believe the Good News of Jesus Christ. The Spirit of Christ confesses that, "Jesus is Lord." This is the only way to be received by the Father. He who knew no sin, the Son of God, because sin for us as the Son of Man, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. Salvation is a Trinitarian work. We need the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost in order to be saved. We cannot confess that "Christ is King" except by the Spirit. A Spirit of adoption does not make us part of God's family without the Son's sacrifice. And the Father remains unapproachable and unreachable outside of the ladder of Christ and the strength of the Spirit.

:20 — Infallibility

And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone.

God has left us His perfect Word to guide us. This Word is built on the foundation of the prophets and the apostles. The Old and New Testaments are the work of the Spirit inspiring men to bear witness to the Word of God. The Bible is the only infallible guide to God. Jesus is the Word who was in the beginning, the Word who was with God, and the Word who was God. He was the first Word and He will be the final Word. He is the cornerstone of the entire project. Every promise of God ever uttered by any of the apostles or prophets is "Yes" and "Amen" in Him alone. 

:21-22 — Ecclesiology

In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord. In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.

The Church is the building erected on God's Word. God's Word being oriented entirely around its cornerstone, Christ, and rounded out by the writings of the prophets and apostles. This is the foundation. On it the Church is being built brick by brick, soul by soul. This is where the Spirit of God calls home. He goes out to gather more in, but He resides in a special way in the people of the Lord gathered together on the Lord's Day in worship. 

So, in summary, God is building His Church and the gates of Hell will not be able to prevail in keeping it from advancing. The Trinity is involved from beginning to end in every aspect of this. From the saving of individual souls, to the joining of the souls in a body catholic, to the writing and preserving of the sacred texts needed to confirm their faith, and to the establishment of church as part of His everlasting kingdom. The Church is not the kingdom, but it is its centerpiece. It is the center of the own and its bells will ring for all to hear.

day no. 17,215: outliving your murderer

“The Church is a perpetually defeated thing that always outlives her conquerers.” ― Hilaire Belloc

Those who seek to bury the Church always fail to understand the power of the resurrection. The Church is a seed. If you bury it, it grows and produces more fruit with more seeds. You can bury the seed, but your cannot bury the orchard. You can cut down the tree, but you cannot keep the ground from producing more trees. The gates of Hell will not prevail. The Church is built by Christ and it will never stay down even if it appears to have gone down. 

"The one perfectly divine thing, the one glimpse of God's paradise given on earth, is to fight a losing battle - and not lose it." — G.K. Chesterton

The Church always appears to be on the defensive. It always seems to have been reduced to a ghetto somewhere, but it only seems that way. It is, like leaven through a lump, growing and spreading. The gates of Hell are not offensive. They are defensive. Gates don't go anywhere. They stay still and try to keep other things out. The Church is the battering ram of God. It will never stop banging on that door and for those who bang, the door will be broken. Hell will be pillaged of all its good and many souls will be rescued and saved.

"The Christian faith lives in the light of eternity, and can afford to be patient." — Christopher Dawson

This will not happen overnight. The Bride of Christ is anxious to get to the end of the aisle so that the wedding can be completed, but she has too much dignity and decorum to rush down the aisle. Slow and steady with dignified grace he walks down the aisle. This is the history of the world: a patient, poised, persevering bridal processional.

“Men have spoken too soon in claiming that the world has now entered a post-Christian era and we have been fools to believe them.” — Iain Murray, The Puritan Hope

The coroners of the world are always too quick to pronounce the body of Christ to be dead. They want a shot gun funeral where the Church is buried alive. But Christ is risen. We live in a world where a man has risen from the dead. There is no going back. Nothing will ever be post-Christ because He is not only the beginning of all things, but their end.

“Strictly speaking, there will never be a post-Christian era, because there will never be an era post-Christ.“ — Toby Sumpter

If Jesus were just the Alpha, the world could try to find a different Omega, but He is both the first and the last, the beginning and the end, the First Word and the Last Word.

“Christendom has had a series of revolutions and in each one of them Christianity has died. Christianity has died many times and risen again; for it had a God who knew the way out of the grave.” — G.K. Chesterton, The Everlasting Man

As Johnny Cash proclaimed, "There ain't no grave can hold my body down." The world imagines that it is a better executioner than it really is. It boasts of kills it cannot keep down. Christ is risen and out of its reach at the right hand of God the Father Almighty. His Church will not trip on her way down the aisle. She may have to step over the bodies of endless egalitarians isms like feminism, socialism, and secularism, but she will keep marching and the bride will reach the altar and fulfill her vows to her Husband there.

The Church will always outlive her murderers.