day no. 17,022: the sacred symbol of secularism

“The radical passiveness of mankind is the sacred symbol of the party that proclaims itself exclusively democratic.” — Frederic Bastiat, The Law

The doctrine of radical passivity is the premise for ordinary tyranny. The Democratic Party presupposes that people are so inherently lazy and stupid that they would rather live like prisoners with free room and board than live like free men who have to work for a living. They prove this theory time and time again through their policies. History lends credibility to their creed.

Except for where Christ reigns. Where Christendom has taken root, these kind of philosophies and policies have been confronted, condemned, and eradicated. In a Christian land, people prefer the dignity of freedom with work hard to the depravity of bondage with handouts. 

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.

Christian liberty is an active thing. It is not passively worked upon or worked over. It carries its own load; not because it has to, but because it wants to.

Galatians 6:4

But let every man prove his own work, and then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another.

Christian liberty does not need or want a license from the state to live however it wants. It already has a license from God to live according to His commands. He has provided all the essential rights. Christian liberty has what it wants. The only thing it wants from the state is for it to mind its own business and stay out of other peoples' (1 Tim. 2:2)

Slavery is the sacred symbol of secularism. It promotes the passivity of its people like a perverted Lord's Supper. It gives you daily bread, but not before it grinds your neighbor into flour. It gives you rights, but not without assuming itself to be the source of all rights.

day no. 17,021: a point worth revisiting

“Basil Gildersleeve pointed out, the Civil War was fought over a point of grammar. Shall we say ‘the United States is’ or ‘the United States are’? That is a point worth revisiting.” — Douglas Wilson

The Civil War was not fought over the issue of slavery and there was nothing civil about the aggression of the North. The federal government, formed by the agreement of the states, was employed by some of those states to attack the other states. The United States were divided and their child, the federal government, helped one of its parents attack the other. That is a point well worth revisiting. The states have authority over the federal government the way a parent has authority over a child. The parent owes certain responsibilities to the child, for sure, but obedience is not one of those things. In fact, a parent ought not submit to their child. If they do, they are being a bad parent. 

“The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” — The Tenth Amendment to United States Constitution 

The States voluntarily gave up certain powers in order to form a more perfect union. You cannot have a union unless everyone is unified on something. You cannot come to an agreement unless everyone agrees on something. That something was the creation of the federal government and those somethings were specified and codified in the constitution. As the tenth amendment points out, anything not specified is assumed to be retained by the states as sovereign or by their people as individuals.

"The religiously orthodox Old South, in contradistinction to the religiously liberal Northeast, stood on its prejudice in favor of a literal reading of the Bible's account of the monogenesis of the human race and rejected scientific racism." — Douglas Wilson, Black and Tan

The North thought some men were beneath them. Evolution had taught them that some men were a different race altogether. They believed that black men were not men, strictly speaking, but nevertheless believed that the monkeys should be better treated. The North was like PETA. It went to war with people over their treatment of animals. In other words, the North was wrong on race and wrong in practice.

The South put some men beneath them. The Bible had taught them that all men had a common origin as the sons of Adam made in the image of God Almighty. They believed that black men were men, but that white men had the right to treat black men differently, which is to say worse, because they were black. The South was prejudicial, but not racist, strictly speaking. However, they were "racist" in that they treated some men like animals even though they believed them to be men. In other words, the South was right on race and wrong in practice.

"So far from evolution lifting us above the idea of enslaving men, it was providing us at least with a logical and potential argument for eating them. In the case of the American negroes, it may be remarked, it does at any rate permit the preliminary course of roasting them. All this materialistic hardening, which replaced the remorse of Jefferson, was part of the growing evolutionary suspicion that savages were not a part of the human race, or rather that there was really no such thing as the human race. The South had begun by agreeing reluctantly to the enslavement of men. The South ended by agreeing equally reluctantly to the emancipation of monkeys." — G.K. Chesterton, What I Saw In America

The War of Northern Aggression was a power grab. It was the federal government convincing one of its parents to wage war with the other for the right to rule the entire home. In the end, the North won custody of the child and the home and leveraged that into a lifetime of subjugation, child support payments and spousal abuse.

"The North needed to repent of one kind of racism and the South needed to repent of another kind." — Douglas Wilson, Black and Tan

The South was forced to set men free, but only after they were forced to call them "monkeys," and to confess that they had kept them in cages. The truth is, however, that they did not consider them to be monkeys and they were not kept in cages. The North said it was not fair for some men to enslave other men, but attempted to solve the discrepancy by suggesting that all men should be slaves of the state. In other words, most men should be the slaves of the men elected to office. This move made monkeys of all men and put childishness in charge of the whole shebang.

Isaiah 3:12

As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. O my people, they which lead thee cause thee to err, and destroy the way of thy paths.

When mom won, she put her kid in charge and ever since toxic matriarchy and impetuous infantiarchy have held the home hostage through constant tantrums, unending demands, and unmitigated self-interest.

day no. 17,020: sin is stupid

“No sin is worse than the sin of self-pity, because it obliterates God and puts self-interest upon the throne. It opens our mouths to spit out murmurings and our lives become craving spiritual sponges, there is nothing lovely or generous about them.” — Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest 

Self-pity is satanic 

It is the desire to rule over ruins rather than serve under a Sovereign. It is impetuous and stupid. It does not merely hurt others to gain for itself, it hurts others without getting anything back. It sends itself to its room without any supper in order to punish its parents. It starves itself in order to send a message, but ends up cutting off its lines of communication.

day no. 17,019: the right to choose and the wrong who choose rights

“In an ethnic clash, you don’t have to choose sides. The other side does that for you.” — Douglas Wilson, The Woke Right, Real and Imagined

There is no neutrality. 

If you choose to stay out of things, someone else will drag you into them. You may not have preferred pronouns, but someone will prefer that you use theirs. You may not identify as something, but someone else may insist that you identify them as something or insist on identifying you as something of their choosing. You may choose to keep quiet, but someone else may consider your silence to be violence.

If you choose, you lose; and if you refuse to choose, someone else will choose for you. Either way, the grievance-mongers will find what they are looking for. Envy looks for any opportunity to feed and if it is ravenous, it will invent foibles off which to feast. It runs on accusation and can fabricate fuel out of thin air... especially when it is already insecure about its weight.

day no. 17,018: banned of brothers

"Tolerance will reach such a level that intelligent people will be banned from thinking so as not to offend the imbeciles.” — Fyodor Dostoevsky (attributed)

The one who accepts everything understands nothing. You cannot accept the law of non-contradiction without rejecting some things and you cannot reject the law of non-contradiction without rejecting something. 

“An open mind, in questions that are not ultimate, is useful. But an open mind about the ultimate foundations either of Theoretical or of Practical Reason is idiocy. If a man's mind is open on these things, let his mouth at least be shut.” ― C.S. Lewis, The Abolition of Man

Tolerance is peddled as putting up with stuff you do not agree with but enforced as having to accept the tenets of things you do not agree with. This distinction, however, only exists if and when you actually take the time to think about it. 

"An open mind is really a mark of foolishness, like an open mouth. Mouths and minds were made to shut; they were made to open only in order to shut." — G.K. Chesterton,  Illustrated London News (1908)

You can hold two contradictory notions in your head only as long as your head is merely a container for other people's ideas, each isolated to its own room. The moment your own mind attempts any organization, however, some things need to be round filed. If those ideas get into a common area, some of them will have to be seen to the door.

“Evil preaches tolerance until it is dominant, then it tries to silence good." — Charles Chaput

Chaos thrives in contradiction. It resists the authority of the inexorable and axiomatic. Definitions, as Chesterton once noted, fight fair and that is the last the chaos-mongers want. A fair fight with the King of the world is a lost cause even if it is the cause of the lost. So, in the meantime, evil often suggests cease fires and signs peace treaties, but only to buy itself more time to plan its next attack. A break in the action is for the wicked merely another attack. Neutrality is their weapon of choice. They crack down on prejudice with extreme prejudice... until the dissenters are all dissolved. Then the crack down really comes. Public good is promoted in order to kowtow the good. Totalitolerance takes no prisoners; it demands conversion.

day no. 17,017: straight facts and effeminate feels

Proverbs 28:1

The wicked flee when no man pursueth:

but the righteous are bold as a lion.

A man takes risks;

an effeminate makes excuses.

A man faces the facts; an effeminate projects his feelings.

1 Corinthians 6:9-10 Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God?

Be not deceived: the effeminate shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

A man repents before God:

an effeminate ripostes.

A man recognizes God's standard;

an effeminate measures by himself.

Jeremiah 51:30 The mighty men of Babylon have forborn to fight, they have remained in their holds: their might hath failed; they became as women: they have burned her dwelling places; her bars are broken.

A man overcomes the odds;

an effeminate "just can't even.” 

A man flexes for the benefit of others;

an effeminate for the selfie.

day no. 17,016: Christ is King and Christians are Israel

“Christ is king of Israel, and Christians are the Israelitic race.” — Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho (155-160 AD)

Insisting that Christ is King is not a new thing. This kind of language has been used ever since the earliest days of Christendom. These words were being used when the cost of saying them was much higher. They were said to kings who took offense to them. While the use of this phrase may be trending again, it is only because we are beginning to pick up something we had foolishly set down. Rest assured, the Church of God is the new Israel and the gates of Hell will not prevail against it. 

“The restoration of Israel that is frequently promised in the Old Testament is a restoration that is accomplished in the foundation of the New Israel, the Christian church. Put another way, the Church is Israel now. ‘And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd’ (John 10:16). ‘And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God’ Gal. 6:16). ‘For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh’ Phil. 3:3). ‘And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband’ (Rev. 21:2).” — Douglas Wilson, The Prophecy of Micah, pt. 4

The Church is Israel now. The Israel that you read about in your Old Testament, the one with promises being made to it, is now the Church and I believe in its holiness and catholicity, just like the Apostle's Creed taught me.

Galatians 6:14-16
Far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. And as for all who walk by this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God.

The resurrected Christ ushered into existence a new creation complete with a new day of worship. In this new creation, the old signs do not set apart. We no longer circumcise, we baptize. Baptism is a superior sign. It is bloodless and it is boundless. It relies on the shed blood of Christ and so requires no new blood to be shed. It points to the nations being saved, Jew and Gentile, men and women. 

Baptism is the sign of covenant entrance and the Lord's Supper is the sign of covenant renewal. These are the keys that Christ gave to His Church. And what do these keys unlock? The gates of Heaven. And what do these keys lock out? The gates of Hell.

day no. 17,015: antisocialism

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

You cannot have an economy based on abduction. You need productivity to have anything. Sure enough, if someone makes something, someone else may want to take it, but if the first guy doesn't make anything else, eventually everyone runs out of things to take or they kill each other until there's no one left to take it from them. Either way, you eventually run out of other stuff or other people, but rest assured, something will run out.

"Compromise used to mean that half a loaf was better than no bread. Among modern statesmen it really seems to mean that half a loaf is better than a whole loaf." — G.K. Chesterton, What's Wrong With The World: III. The New Hypocrite

Modern statesmen want you to be happy with half a loaf. Not because that means someone else will get the other half, but because it means that they can produce less bread without an uprising. They want you to consider your selflessness a higher virtue than your charity since your selflessness requires nothing from them while your charity requires them to leave your things alone so that you have something leftover which you can then give.

“If you asked twenty good men to-day what they thought the highest of the virtues, nineteen of them would reply, Unselfishness. But if you asked almost any of the great Christians of old he would have replied, Love - You see what has happened? A negative term has been substituted for a positive, and this is of more than philological importance. The negative ideal of Unselfishness carries with it the suggestion not primarily of securing good things for others, but of going without them ourselves, as if our abstinence and not their happiness was the important point.” ― C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory

Socialism is driven by scarcity. It promotes poverty over productivity. It penalizes self starters for embarrassing self-pitiers. It is moral and mathematic madness. It is the economic insanity of forcing a grocer to charge $1 for a loaf of bread that cost $2 to produce and expecting the grocer to stay in business or the bread maker to absorb the loss. It is the surrender of reason to the temptation of jealousy. It is the establishment of envy. It is the side hustle of those who refuse to hustle. It is the politics of power grabbing and bad math.

“Soap and Socialism are two hobbies of the upper middle class." — G. K. Chesterton, What's Wrong With The World

No one who has to work for a living could find the time to pass laws about how clean his hands need to be or how green his car must be. Only those ensconced in the upper echelons of power mongering have time for that brand of nonsense.

"This is the high road to communism; in other words, legislation will be—as it now is—the battlefield for everybody’s dreams and everybody’s covetousness." -- Frederic Bastiat, The Law

Passing laws is how some pass their time and rest assured, their laws mean more work for you and more bread for them.

"You can vote your way into socialism, but you will have to shoot your way out." -- Douglas Wilson

You can vote to give your vote away but you cannot get it back that way.

day no. 17,014: worldsmithing

“Naming is a function of dominion. In Scripture, naming is far more than a simply matter of attaching a label. Naming is an act of authority or, as it may be, an act of attempted authority.” — Douglas Wilson, The Woke Right, Real and Imagined

  

God gave Adam the privilege and responsibility of naming things. This is a authoritative function. Naming things is what an author does. He names His characters and gives names to their lands. He is the author. He has authority.

Ephesians 3:14

For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named,

Every family in heaven and earth is named after our Father in Heaven. Earthly fathers have authority because they have a Father in Heaven who has given it to them. This is why the family has his last name. This is why he and his bride get to name the fruit of their union. Naming is an authoritative act. It is more than just nicknaming. That too has a measure of authority to it, but nicknaming merely declares what we'd like to call something, while truly naming something states what that something truly is.

"The battle (for the dictionary) is over the right to define the world.” -— Douglas Wilson, Same Sex Mirage

Someone will dictate to someone else. Someone will speak and expect someone else to take notes. The only question is who will dictate and who will be dictated to. The dictionary is the dictation of the reigning authority. Dictators are those whose words must be obeyed. In the beginning, God said and it was so. The Word was with God and the Word was God. Words shape the world and they they shape how we see the world, whether it is in keeping with reality or not.

"The battle for the dictionary is the fight over who will be in charge of language and who will be in charge of our ability to describe the world as we see it." — Douglas Wilson, Plodcast Ep. 7

Control the narrative, control the world. 

The author is in charge of world building and gate keeping. He gets to decide what is canon and what is fan fiction. He gets the final word on what the details of the story mean and who the characters therein really are. That is the reality the world of unbelief is kicking back against. That is the button the unrepentant creatures want access to. They want to redefine what is and what is not, but the One who is, and was, and is to come has something to say about that and He calls it what it is: "Shenanigans!" 

day no. 17,013: a dead mackerel in the moonlight

“The kind of respectability we hanker after is like a dead mackerel on the beach by moonlight—it both shines and stinks.” — John Randolph

The human heart is hopelessly corrupt. (Jer. 17:9) It would often rather receive a reward for a job poorly done than a rebuke for being so slipshod. The same principle is also at play on the other end of the equation with respect to what we are willing to cheer. We prefer a shine that stinks to an ordinary odor. We click on stinky links as we scroll by the dry. Advertise a skunk and you will get clicks. Promote the plain and you will get ghosted. And that is why we do not recognize real brilliance when we see it. We reward others for doing what we do in order to receive something back in like, kind, and quality. 

John 5:44

How can ye believe, which receive honour one of another, and seek not the honour that cometh from God only?

Hypocrisy is the compliment vice pays to virtue. Those who excuse their own hypocrisy by rewarding the hypocrisy of others receive back the curse of being too readily impressed by hypocrisy. When you cash in your honest currency for corrupted coins, you begin to do commerce with those who pay you back in corrupted coin. You begin to deal in the currency of hypocrisy as a matter of course. One of the punishments for sin is becoming numb to it.  A moral callous begins to build up the more you rub against sin without recoiling from it. One of the penalties for pawning off counterfeit coins is a readiness to accept flattery in return for them. Fiat respectability is rewarded with flattery. Sycophants can't deal in real currency (and wouldn't want to if they could).

All that glitters is not gold and stink is no substitute for flavor. Better to be ignored for being good and boring than to be in the spotlight for being a fraud.

day no. 17,012: dirty politics and dirty diapers

“Politicians and diapers must be changed often, and for the same reason,” — anonymous

A dead fish is good for eating if you get to it right away, but a dead fish left in the kitchen does not take long to stink up the rest of the house. A good politician is one who gets things done or better yet, leaves things alone, because he has a life back at home. Once he has made politics his career, however, he often begins to get less done or worse yet, finds new things to tinker with. Running for office becomes part of the job and keeping your career becomes part of the campaign strategy. Getting things done or leaving things alone now takes a backseat to leaving things undone and getting back into office. After all, if things got done, what would be left to do? And if there was nothing left do, who would pay you to not do it? 

“I am a [proponent of democracy] because I believe in the Fall of Man. I think most people are democrats for the opposite reason. A great deal of democratic enthusiasm descends from the ideas of people like Rousseau, who believed in democracy because they thought mankind so wise and good that every one deserved a share in the government. The danger of defending democracy on those grounds is that they’re not true… I find that they’re not true without looking further than myself. I don’t deserve a share in governing a hen-roost. Much less a nation. . . . The real reason for democracy is just the reverse. Mankind is so fallen that no man can be trusted with unchecked power over his fellows. Aristotle said that some people were only fit to be slaves. I do not contradict him. But I reject slavery because I see no men fit to be masters.” — C.S. Lewis, Present Concerns

While the law of God does not forbid a people from keeping a governor until death do him part from office, it does provide a rationale for embedding an off ramp into the office by way of the doctrine of radical corruption (a.k.a. total depravity). People are stinkers and if left unchecked, their odor only grows more rancid. 

"It is hard to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it" — Thomas Sowell

Presbyterian governance provides the basic checks and balances of decentralized power, a principle picked up by our founding fathers in the construction of the American Constitutional Republic. But term limits also provide a great check and balance against individual corruption by keeping the politician keen to the idea that he will be back under someone else's governance soon enough and to do unto others as they will soon be able to do to you.

day no. 17,011: nothing and everything else

“He who has God and everything else has no more than he who has God only.” — C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory

Everything but God is nothing.

Whatever a man has, if he has not God, it is not his. He does not possess himself let alone his toys. He cannot keep himself. How could he keep baseball card collection.

Mark 8:36

For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?

You can spend your life willfully ignoring this reality, but you cannot keep your life from being spent. The only question will be what did you purchase with it? If you give your life to getting things, you will lose your life and your things along with it. If you give your life to Christ, you get your life back and everything else along with it.

Matthew 6:33

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

If you seek God first, you get everything else.

If you seek anything else first, you get nothing.

2 Samuel 14:14

For we must needs die, and are as water spilt on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again.

Your life will be poured out into something and wherever that is, there it shall be.

day no. 17,010: the light of the world

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

We live in a world where a man has risen from the dead and ascended to the right hand of the Father.  We cannot undo that. We cannot rewind the movie. There is no such thing as a post-Christian anything because Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever and He, being both Lord and Savior, does not change (Heb. 13:8, Mal 3:6). 

“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

As everything becomes more like itself, the light grows brighter and the darkness gets darker. This requires a great deal of creativity and increasingly so as the light floods the world. What it amounts to is finding the deepest, darkest corners and crevices of existence to retreat to in order to avoid the warm glow of encroaching godliness.

“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

Those cowering in the corners have tried to convince Christianity that their mere presence, even if it is diminishing, spells certain doom for the kingdom of God and too many Christians have taken their threats seriously. They have allowed themselves to be bullied by the scum circling the drain. But anyone with eyes in their head knows it is just a matter of time. The swirl will sink down until it is no more.

In the meantime, the greater the diameter of light, the greater the circumference of darkness. The touch points are increasing to be sure, but their surface area is retreating in the process. The corners of the box are congregating with the worst this world has to offer, but they have painted themselves into those corners. The only way out is to come into the light and confess their sins or to hunker down and be dispelled by the light of the world shining upon where they used to haunt.

John 1:4-5 (ESV)

In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

The darkness is making its last stand. It will either be consumed by Christ or it will fall at His feet in repentance, but either way, that kind of thing will not stand in the kingdom of God.

day no. 17,009: the twins turn ONE

Happy Birthdays, Knox and Eulalei!!!

It is hard to wrap my head around the fact that it has been a full year since you were born. It is still hard to wrap my head around the fact that there are two of you. What a blessing you both are! We knew we were expecting our ninth child, but we did not expect a tenth. We knew what to expect for labor and delivery, but did not expect to do it all twice in the same day. God is kind and has good things in store for us. You both are living proof of that. He gives more than we can ask for and lavishes grace upon grace. That is you two: grace upon grace.

Knox, you are the butteriest boy. You were the firstborn. You came out soft and quiet and you've stayed the same ever since. You are the happy donut. You were the first to sit up, but will be the second to crawl. You like to do Tarzan and ET phone home, but you also like to just sit and watch people. You eat right handed and use your hand like a paw to shovel scraps into your mouth. You like shaking your head back n forth. You have the sweetest smile and big dimples on your cheeks. You don't talk a ton, but when you do, you have a sweet little voice. You are a sweet boy and I love you so much. You are so fun to cuddle. You don't fight it and you are so soft and warm and fuzzy.

Eulalie, you are the beaniest babe. You were the surprise sister. You came second and have held your legs in a state of constant shock ever since. You may have the silver medal in birth order, but you have the gold medal for leg flexing. You are always moving and usually smiling. You were the second to sit up, but the first to crawl around. You like to boot scoot and boogie around. You like it when people say, "winner, winner, chicken, dinner" and bob your head when the dinner music drops. You eat left-handed and get most of your dinner down your shirt or in your highchair. When you grin, whch is often, it is from ear to ear. You like to milk the cow as your way of saying "Hi" or "Bye." You don't like to cuddle as much as you like to stand. You are so much fun and I love you so much.

You are both well-loved and well-liked. Your siblings are always fighting over who gets to hold you. You will never know a time where you were not VERY loved from every angle. We have had you surrounded since day one. I am excited to watch you both grow up and into the people God has made you to be. 

Happy Birthday bubs and beans, 

Love,

Dad 

day no. 17,008: exclusive content

John 14:6
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."

By the grace of God, there is a way, a truth, and a life; but there is only one of each and it is only in Christ.

Unbelief cries out, “Only one? How restrictive!"

Belief cries out, “Even one? How gracious!"

day no. 17,007: do not fear Hell... defy it

“We do not fear Hell; we defy it.” — Douglas Wilson, Inescapable Fear

Hell hath no fury. There is no fire the shield of faith cannot quench.

Matthew 10:28

And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

We must fear the disapproval of God more than we fear the disapproval of men. The world and its ways are growing dim. Don't sweat their heat or shiver at their shade.

Matthew 16:18

I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

The gates of Hell cannot stand against the advance of the kingdom. Its hinges will buckle and burst before the bride of Christ as she walks down the aisle of eternity.

1 John 3:8

For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.

Do not fear the death cult, defy it. Do not dwell on Hell, destroy it.

Mark 3:27

But no one can enter a strong man's house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man. Then indeed he may plunder his house.

Jesus has bound the strong man. The one who had broken in and entered has been apprehended and pinned to the ground beneath Jesus' feet. Satan's sinful claws have been cuffed.

Hebrews 2:14-15

Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death He might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.

So, go out and spread the news. The black parade has been shut down. Let those in darkness know that it is safe in Christ to come into the light.

"The culture of life we represent stands against this anti-culture, this culture of death, at every point... There is no compromise here." — New Saints Andrews College, Thirty Theses on Culture Building

You can dim the lights or turn them off, but you cannot turn the dark on. Wherever light is, dark isn't. The sun is rising as the Son has risen. 

"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. 

“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. 17,006: a dog's ass some days

“Even the sun shines on a dog’s ass some days.” — unknown

God does not treat us as our sins deserve, but sends His sun to shed light on our darkest parts and give warmth to our coldest crevices.

Matthew 5:45

He maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.

The sun shines down on the downcast and the clouds send showers upon the outcast. 

Ecclesiastes 9:4

A living dog is better than a dead lion.

Better to be a dog's behind with the Son on your side than the king of jungle lying lifeless in the forest.

day no. 17,005: the six day work week

Exodus 20:9

Six days you shall labor, and do all your work.

If you are working for the weekend, you are trying to have two Lord’s Days; which is to say, you do not want one Lord.

You cannot gain more free time by taking two days off, but you can lose your freedom that way.  He who is not content with one day off will find one day in the courts of the Lord too many, and one thousand days elsewhere too few.

"God planned for normal fatigue when He put the lights out on earth every night. He also set one day aside out of every seven for additional rest." -- Jim Wilson, Weapon and Tactics: A Handbook on Personal Evangelism

Work is good and we need to sleep each day to recover from the last and to prepare for the next. We have one day in seven on which to focus our efforts on worshiping our God with our people. We then work from rest.

While the world works five days to rest for two, the Christians rests one day in order to work for six.

day no. 17,004: sons of serpents

“The serpent, in the person of Christ, was impaled on the tree. The wrath of God against all of our vindictive and irrational hatreds was poured over His head and shoulders, and He took all of it to Himself, and then died. He who knew no sin became sin on our behalf. And why? So that we might become the righteousness of God in Him (2 Cor. 5:21). The moment He died, His arms were free and so He gathered up all the sin that had been poured over them, took it to His chest, and sank into the grave. And when He rose, three days later, all the sin was gone.” — Douglas Wilson, Anxiety Storms and the Empathy Wars

God turned the Son into a snake so that He could turn the snakes into sons. 

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.

The sons of serpents are saved because the Son of God was stuck to a tree.

John 3:15

And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up.

The Son of Man was lifted up like a snake on a cross outside the city just like Moses lifted up a snake on a stick in the wilderness.

Numbers 21:8-9

And the Lord said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live. And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived.

Those with snake venom coursing through their veins could only be saved by staring at the serpent on the stick. They had to stare their sin in the face. By casting their eyes upon the pierced serpent its venom was counteracted. The only antidote was on that pole. Look anywhere else and the venom would stop your heart. The only anti-venom was doing what God had said.

Genesis 3:15

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

By God's grace, the Seed of Eve and the seed of the serpent were set against one another. The Seed of Eve would be bit, but only as a result of stomping on the serpent's skull. The Son of God would break fangs and take names.

2 Kings 18:4

He removed the high places, and brake the images, and cut down the groves, and brake in pieces the brasen serpent that Moses had made: for unto those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it: and he called it Nehushtan.

We do not worship the Cross, we worship the man who hung there. We do not cherish the tree, but the blood that was spilled there. Hezekiah had to destroy the snake of Moses because the people turned their backs on the substance and began to stare at the shadow. 

Isaiah 45:22

Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth:

for I am God, and there is none else.