day no. 17,000: we cannot outpace God's grace

“Regardless of how large, your vision is too small" — Thomas Chalmers

You cannot go bigger than God. You cannot ask for more than He can do and you cannot imagine something better than He has already planned to provide.

Ephesians 3:20-21

Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.

He withholds no good thing from those who love Him. 

Matthew 6:33

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

If you put God first, you eventually get everything else.

If you put anything else first, you end up getting nothing.

Keep the King, get the kingdom.

Horde His stuff, get evicted.

Psalm 84:11

For the Lord God is a sun and shield: the Lord will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.

There is nothing you need that you will not have.

Psalm 16:11

Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.

All the promises of God are "yes," and, "amen," in Jesus, who is the everlasting pleasure of God who sits at His right hand.

2 Corinthians 1:20

For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God 

So, dream big and work hard; you cannot outpace God's grace. You cannot outrun God's goodness. His grace goes with you wherever your feet will trod.

Mathew 28:20

Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

day no. 16,983: i don't care

“Be careful in choosing your carelessness.” — G.K. Chesterton, Platitudes Undone

We cannot care about everything. In fact, we shouldn't. We are commanded by Christ to discount certain cares and concerns and to cut others off altogether.

So what should we do when the world condemns us for not caring about it? Not care.

"What is the solution to all this? The solution is the divine gift of not caring what they think. But of course, not caring at all is apathy, and that is also a sin. Caring is another inescapable concept—not whether, but which. It is not whether your conduct will be approved, but rather which group will approve it. It is not whether you care if your conduct is approved, it is rather which group’s approval you care about." — Douglas Wilson, Real Offense and Not So Much

We cannot be careless across the board, of course, but we must not care what the world thinks about us not caring.

Mark 4:19

And the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful.

Being overly concerned about what the world cares about is a great way to choke out your concern for Christ. No one can take care to two master. Either you will love the one and hate the other or hate the one and love the other.

1 Peter 5:7

Casting all your care upon Him; for He careth for you.

The cares of the world should not concern us as much as the cares of Christ. He cares for us and for our cares and that is something we should care a great deal about.

day no. 16,947: a reference guide

"There was a man who dwelt in the east centuries ago, and now I cannot look at a sheep or a sparrow, a lily or a sunset, a vineyard or a mountain, without thinking of Him.” — G.K. Chesterton

The world is derivative. The Word is substantive. It came first.

Everything that is, at one time wasn't. Nothing that is remains on its own. 

John 1:1-3

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God.  All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.

Everything has a reference point and that reference point became flesh and dwelt among us.

John 1:14

And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.

God is glorious and generous. As such, we discover glories everywhere we go, but those glories are signs and symbols of the greater glory who is their Author.

Ephesians 4:4-6

There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; One Lord, one faith, one baptism, One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.

God is above all and through all, and in Chris,t He is in every Christian. The Christian can see the glory all around him because he has the Spirit within him and he cannot see anything without seeing the Glory behind it

day no. 16,844: history is the outworking of religious commitments

“Inescapably, history is the outworking of religious commitments.” — R.J. Rushdoony, Non-Interventionism as a Constitutional Principle

Whatever we see happening on the surface is a result of religious undercurrents. Worship is never without works. Faith is never void of follow through. The fingertips reveal the heart. What men push for is what pushes them.

"Culture is religion externalized. It is the form that religion takes in the lives of men." — Henry Van Til, The Calvinistic Concept of Culture

Pop culture is the product of pop religion. Popular religion has a "I'm proud of my culture" sticker on the back of its electric vehicle. The prevailing religion in the West is on display on our billboards. Our television screens are merely private billboards where we choose the advertisements we like best and play them on repeat.

Without revival there will be no reformation. We cannot rebuild Christendom with lukewarm bricks. The first place the kingdom needs to be made manifest is in the hearts of men. Where God is moving men, He will move them to build. Men made in the image of God and remade in the image of His Son are not consumers of someone else's culture, but creators of Christian culture beginning in their habits lived out in their homes and then extended out to their respective heritages.

day no. 16,842: men cannot honor a past that indicts their present failures

"Men cannot give a meaning to history that they themselves lack, nor can they honor a past which indicts them for their present failures." — Rousas John Rushdoony, The Biblical Philosophy of History

Man cannot create meaning. He cannot extend to history what he doesn't have. Man cannot manufacture and export existential value. He doesn't have the ability to produce it or the authority to confer it. He also cannot import the meaning of history into the present without being tongue-lashed by the past. He cannot be a prodigal who runs home unrepentant. He cannot return to the past without reforming his present behaviors. And since man has no intention of being humbled, he doubles down on his pride and invents religions as though they were meaning machines and ignores the past as though it were not meaningful.

Psalm 78:1-11

Give ear, O my people, to my law: incline your ears to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth in a parable: I will utter dark sayings of old: Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us. We will not hide them from their children, shewing to the generation to come the praises of the Lord, and his strength, and his wonderful works that he hath done. For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children: That the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born; who should arise and declare them to their children: That they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments: And might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation; a generation that set not their heart aright, and whose spirit was not stedfast with God. The children of Ephraim, being armed, and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle. They kept not the covenant of God, and refused to walk in his law; And forgat his works, and his wonders that he had shewed them.

History tells us of some fathers who forgot God and fell and others who lived to report it. Our faithful fathers differentiate themselves from our false fathers by living to tell the stories of God's faithfulness of our false father's unfaithfulness. Our covenant keeping kin have survived to relay the tales of our covenant breaking brothers.

“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.” — Thomas Babington Macaulay

We must honor our covenant keeping kindred while heeding their warning regarding our covenant breaking forebearers.

"Men who raise families that remain in fidelity to tradition will end up with descendants ruling the world.” – E.H. Looney (cf. Psalm 112:1-2)

We must not keep the traditions of our false fathers, but we must keep the traditions of the patriarchs who endured the disdain of our covenant breaking brothers in order to preserve for us the faith once for all delivered unto the saints.

day no. 16,830: both day to day and eternal life

Deuteronomy 4:39-40

Know therefore this day, and consider it in thine heart, that the Lord he is God in heaven above, and upon the earth beneath: there is none else. Thou shalt keep therefore his statutes, and his commandments, which I command thee this day, that it may go well with thee, and with thy children after thee, and that thou mayest prolong thy days upon the earth, which the Lord thy God giveth thee, for ever.

The Lord is God in Heaven above, and upon the earth beneath. There is no conflict between the visible and the invisible. Both are united in their submission to Him. There is no tension between the material and the immaterial. Both bow to God. There is no one else. There is not God the Father in His invisible heavens and then someone else as god of the visible earth. 

Since there is only one God and He rules over absolutely everything, we should keep His statutes and His commandments. He knows what is where we are and where He is. He understands all aspects of day to day life and eternal life. There is no place where He is not relevant. There is no detail outside of His control or notice. 

If we do what He says, it will go well for us, and for our children after us. Our kids will grow up watching their parents do the word that they hear. They will be blessed in seeing faith lived out and this will fuel their conquest of the future. The future is Christian.

day no. 16,803: forty-six

"The first fact about the celebration of a birthday is that it is a way of affirming defiantly, and even flamboyantly, that it is a good thing to be alive." — G. K. Chesterton

Today, by the grace of God, I turned forty-six years old. That's three hundred twenty-two in dog years, but even more in Todd years. I feel like I've been blessed to pack all kinds of life into these years. I have lived more years than times I've been around the sun. God has given me a rich, full life and it is more than forty-six trips through the calendar can account.

Psalm 46 was reportedly one of Luther's favorites. In it, we find these words.

"There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the most High. God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved: God shall help her, and that right early."

I have found that stream and can confirm that it fills to overflowing. The years come pouring out of me as I try to drink them all in. If this is the case at forty-six, what will the deluge be by ninety? I long to see that day and seek to hold on to as much as I can as I continue to receive more than I deserve.

I am reminded of Lewis, as I often am.

‘Are you not thirsty?’ said the Lion.

‘I’m dying of thirst,’ said Jill

‘Then drink,’ said the Lion.

‘May I—could I—would you mind going away while I do?’ said Jill.

The Lion answered this only by a look and a very low growl. And as Jill gazed at its motionless bulk, she realized that she might as well have asked the whole mountain to move aside for her convenience. The delicious rippling noise of the stream was driving her nearly frantic.

‘Will you promise not to—do anything to me, if I do come?’ said Jill.

‘I make no promise,’ said the Lion.

‘Do you eat girls?’ she said.

‘I have swallowed up girls and boys, women and men, kings and emperors, cities and realms,’ said the Lion. It didn’t say this as if it were boasting, nor as if it were sorry, nor as if it were angry. It just said it.

‘I daren’t come and drink,’ said Jill.

‘Then you will die of thirst,’ said the Lion.

‘Oh dear!’ said Jill, coming another step nearer. ‘I suppose I must go and look for another stream then.’

‘There is no other stream,’ said the Lion.”

— C.S. Lewis, The Silver Chair

day no. 16,802: our mother mirth

"I remember nothing about it except a philological fact. My mother said nothing about the dragon, but pointed out that one could not say 'a green great dragon', but had to say 'a great green dragon'. I wondered why, and still do. The fact that I remember this is possibly significant, as I do not think I ever tried to write a story again for many years, and was taken up with language." — J. R. R. Tolkien

Mothers pass along matters of great importance without even trying. An off hand comment made by Tolkien's mother led to his interest in language... and dragons. As a result, The Lord of the Rings eventually was born. In all the quiet moments and regular rigmarole of days under their care, our mothers put into motion more than they can imagine.

On this day my mother and the mother of my wife were both born. It was not the same year, but it was the same day of the year. As of a result of this day, two women were born. One gave birth to me and the other gave birth to my wife. Because they were born, we were born and because we were born and brought together by God, others were born. Much of who I am was shaped by comments from my mom and much of who my wife is was formed by her mother's mentions of various topics. Because of their nurture, my wife now has the opportunity to speak into my children's lives. 

Praise God for birthdays, mothers, and their myriad offhand comments.

day no. 16,783: pharaoh feared a family (FLF edition)

read online HERE

Fight Laugh Feast Magazine

Issue 4.2: American Marriage Sodomized

Written/Edited: May 8/June 27, 2023

Published: Summer 2023

…

Pharaoh Feared a Family

By: Todd H. Van Voorst

A NATION OF GENERATIONS

“‘Behold, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we: Come on, let us deal wisely with them; lest they multiply, and it come to pass, that, when there falleth out any war, they join also unto our enemies, and fight against us.’” – Exodus 1:9b-10

One family can make a difference. Before Israel was the bane of a nation, it was just Abraham and his one, true son. That one grew to two after he had twins and one of those two then turned into twelve. That dozen became seventy and several centuries later, scads became scores putting points on the board. One household had become a harbinger… Pharaoh feared a family.

NATIONS ARE BUILT ONE FAMILY AT A TIME

“Thy fathers went down into Egypt with threescore and ten persons; and now the Lord thy God hath made thee as the stars of heaven for multitude.” – Deuteronomy 10:22

As one family began flooding his phonebook, Pharaoh began to ask, “What can be done about all these Bar-Jacobs?” Imagine the White House losing sleep over your surname or worrying about the number of your nephews. Imagine legislation being drafted to address the growing problem of your people growing. That was the scene in Egypt. The king was anxious about one man’s family reunion and their prospective role in an upcoming election.

COVENANTAL CONTINUITY

"The people gathered themselves together as one man.” – Nehemiah 8:1

Concentration of force, however, is not a given. A lot of descendants does not necessarily a lot of panic produceth. A man can have a gaggle of grandkids without getting name-dropped in his governor’s group chats. That kind of racket only comes with a consensus of the census – many generations, under God, and indivisible. Covenantal continuity is concentration of force.

Covenantal continuity is more than merely keeping the customs of your father’s God, it is loving the God of your father’s customs. Tyrants take notice of that kind of buy-in because, as Chesterton once observed, the first rule of fight club is “you cannot love a thing without wanting to fight for it.”

COVENANTAL SUCCESSION

“Remember the Lord, which is great and terrible, and fight for your brethren, your sons, and your daughters, your wives, and your houses.” – Nehemiah 4:14

A man must fight for his God before he fights for anything else (cf. Matt 6:33). When he does so, however, one of the first things God commands him to do is fight for his wife and children. In fact, the man who fails to do so is said to have no love for God. (1 Tim. 5:8)

A father is charged with bringing up his children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord and one of the first instructions a son should receive is his duty to one day teach his own children (Deut 6:7, Eph. 6:4). In this way, God commands a man to preach to his great grandchildren by teaching his children to teach their children to teach their children.

RAISING GODLY SEED

“Train up a child in the way he should go: And when he is old, he will not depart from it.” – Proverbs 22:6

Raising godly seed is not sitting the battle out; it is the battlefield. A father training his children is not forsaking the frontlines; he’s refusing to abandon them. He is in the trenches, not on the sidelines. He begins by fighting for his children, transitions to fighting alongside them, and ends by fighting through them for generations.

"Men who raise families that remain in fidelity to tradition will end up with descendants ruling the world.” – E.H. Looney (cf. Psalm 112:1-2)

Pharaoh feared a family because their last name and their first priorities were inseparable. A family tree with firm roots is formidable. While a house divided cannot stand, a house united can. It withstands outside forces. Israel was a threat because Israel was one.

ONENESS AS A WEAPON

“The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened.” – Matthew 13:33

When leaven refuses to get lumpy, it will always leave an impression. To remain leaven, however, it must differentiate itself from the rest of the lump, and that does not happen by accident. Yeast mode is not a factory default. Oneness comes on purpose by purpose.

“All good things come to a point, swords for instance.” – G.K. Chesterton

Oneness is a weapon. Covenantal continuity can curb the ferocities of Pharaoh’s cities, but cognitive dissonance cannot do that; it cannot change anything except its mind. Disparate notions do not build nations. A common worldview, widely and intentionally held, however, can change the world.

COVENANTAL CUSSEDNESS

“Thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor with their gods.” – Exodus 23:32

Israel did not conform to the customs of Cairo. They kept their vows and their kids by remembering the Lord and their responsibilities. They did not walk like an Egyptian despite all the signage and songs that suggested it. They kept their covenants by avoiding other ones. It was this angularity that bent Egypt out of shape. If Israel had simply settled into Egyptian molds, Pharaoh would not have batted a mascaraed eye; but their covenantal cussedness required a response.

NUPTIAL NATIONALISM 

“A little one shall become a thousand, and a small one a strong nation: I the LORD will hasten it in his time.” – Isaiah 60:22

One marriage can make a world of difference; in fact, it can make a world. The histories of nations can be altered at one altar and the geopolitical landscape of an entire continent can be compelled to curtsy before the covenant children of one faithful family. Ceremonies can be the seeds of civilizations. Nuptials can build nations.

Kingdoms are built around common tables: families sitting down for dinner and congregations communing around the Lord’s Table. As these work their way through the rest of the lump, family trees become forests, local churches become city centers, and communities become kingdoms.

THE END OF THE WORLD

“This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.” – Ephesians 5:32

One marriage can make a difference. Church history is the bride of Christ walking down the aisle. That one marriage is moving the world, and our marriages should march in step.

"So fight the good fight. Go home, build a house, and if you do it in the right way, you will give the world a glimpse of things to come. There is nothing more terrifying to the principalities than this. Because in the end, the principalities will bow and confess the Lordship of Christ, and if your house is ordered well, it is a reminder of that glorious day.” – C.R. Wiley

MAKE PHARAOH FEAR AGAIN

“Be ye mindful always of His covenant; the word which He commanded to a thousand generations.” – 1 Chronicles 16:15

Imagine if those who bore your last name were someday such a large constituency of common belief and committed practice that they could move magistrates to madness. Imagine your descendants dancing in time to the glory of God and the good of their neighbors. A family like that could do serious damage to the darkness. That family tree would be a battering ram against the gates of hell.

Pharaoh once feared a family. Let’s make Pharaoh fear again.

day no. 16,782: every inch a king

“There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry, Mine!” — Abraham Kuyper

Every inch includes every inch of your heart, soul, mind, and strength.

“Have an ambition to be remembered, not as a great lawyer, doctor, merchant, scientist, manufacturer, or scholar, but as a great man, every inch a king." — Charles Sumner

No area of life is permitted to live in rebellion. Every inch is called to crucifixion and resurrection in Christ’s name.

Revelation 1:5-6

From Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood  and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

Christ has called men to be kings in His name. We are to rule and reign by His grace in His place over every single inch of our lives and land.

Revelation 5:9-10

And they sang a new song, saying, “Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.”

Christlikeness is required in all things: meditation, habitation, and reputation.

Luke 2:52

Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man.

Maturity is our modus operandi. 

Colossians 1:28

Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ.

Push it to the corners. All of Christ for all of life. No neglected nooks or crannies. Assiduity is the aim. 

Every inch a king.

day no. 16,776: converting Christians to Christianity

"It is an old story that, while we may need somebody like Dominic to convert the heathen to Christianity, we are in even greater need of somebody like Francis, to convert the Christians to Christianity."  — G.K. Chesterton, St. Thomas Aquinas 

Once upon a time, I was one in need of a Francis to save me from Christianity. Thankfully he came with the message of James in his mouth,

"You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder." (Jas. 2:19)

Too many Christians are now what I once was: ignorant of the Christian faith. I once claimed Christ, but could not articulate what that meant. I did not really know what I believed or what I believed it. I was blessed to be brought up around it, but cursed by the custom of assuming that being around it was enough. I realized that while I was happy to call myself a Christian, whatever that meant to me was not what God meant by it and He was not happy about it. I was a "Christian" in need of conversion to Christianity.

Titus 1:16

They profess to know God, but they deny him by their deeds.

This was me.

2 Timothy 3:5

Holding the form of religion but denying the power of it.

This too.

So, while I'm embarrassed to have been this person, I should not feel sheepish as having invented it. This kind of thing has been a thing for quite some time and by the grace of God we will see all those who call themselves "Christian" converted to genuine faith in Christ as their Lord and Savior.

While we need to engage the culture of the world with the commands of Christ, we must not neglect to teach all that He commanded to those who already consider themselves Christians in the church. All men everywhere are called to repent. Christians are merely those who take it upon themselves to do so with regularity.

"When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, 'Repent'' (Mt 4:17), he willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance." — Martin Luther, 95 Theses

Christianity is a top to bottom, front to back, all of Christ for all of life kind of proposition. There is no other kind or Christian. You either assiduously engage or you compartmentalize Christ. 

“Christ is either Lord of all, or is not Lord at all." — Hudson Taylor

day no. 16,766: the West will not survive without repentance

Jeremiah 18:7-10

If at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom, that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it, and if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I intended to do to it. And if at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will build and plant it, and if it does evil in my sight, not listening to my voice, then I will relent of the good that I had intended to do to it.

The West must either be renewed by God through its repentance or it will be removed by God through His vengeance.

“The penalty of sin is that gradually you get used to it and do not know that it is sin. No power save the incoming of the Holy Ghost can alter the inherent consequences of sin.” — Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest 

The West will not survive without repentance, and it will not repent but by the grace of God.

Luke 24:47

Repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His Name to all nations.

Every nation is called to repent before Jesus. It is not merely advised to consider Christ or to consider consulting Him on particular occasions, each nation is commanded to stand down before its Creator and to plant their people on the firm foundation of Christ crucified, died, and buried; risen on the third day; and ascended forty days later.

"True to the normal course followed by nations in decline, internal differences are not reconciled in an attempt to save the nation. On the contrary, internal rivalries become more acute, as the nation becomes weaker." — Sir John Glubb, The Fates of Empires and Search for Survival

Internal collaboration cannot save a nation. It can delay the decay, but it cannot prevent the rule of rust and rot. Calibration to Christ is the only way to save a nation. There is no other name given under Heaven by which any person or nation can be saved.

day no. 16,765: the jurisdiction of Jesus

“You cannot be a human of one piece, a person of character and intelligence, and still allow yourself to be tempted to split your conscience in two, professing your God in one half and in the other half bowing before laws that have nothing to do with Him.” — Abraham Kuyper, Our Program

Christianity is coherent. There is no cognitive dissonance in Christendom. It is all of Christ for all of life. As a result, anything but assiduity is asinine. It is intellectual and psychological insanity to imagine you can serve the one, true living God with part of your conscience and honor laws that dishonor Him with another part of your conscience.

Matthew 6:24

No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other.

You cannot have competing standards of appeal. That is, you cannot for very long. One of them will become the standard by which the other is evaluated. Hierarchy is inevitable. Two competing standards will find a flash point and at that point, one will impose upon the other. Something will dictate while the other takes notes. One law will have jurisdiction over the other. 

Matthew 28:18

And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, "All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.”

Jesus has ultimate jurisdiction. In other words, there is nowhere that Jesus does not have jurisdiction. His law rules and He gets to dictate it to others. He has jūrisdictiō, from jūris (jūs = "law") and dictio (the act of saying), that is to say, He has the right to "say" what "the law" is.

day no. 16,658: breeding farms for secularists

"With regard to men who have strong opinions about lotsa kids, and equally strong opinions about the need to contribute little after begetting them, I have seen some really unfortunate consequences of this attitude. Such men seem to want to be little more than breeding farms for the secularists." — Douglas Wilson

Inconsistent Christian homes with inattentive Christian dads are sometimes simply breeding farms for secularists. There is no blessing in simply having a lot of anything. Riches can rot and the more the murkier and kids can go bad if abandoned — instead of becoming arrows in one's hand, they can become thorns in everyone's sides.

The secularists cannot breed their own soldiers. They have embraced fruitlessness by being fruity. Two outlets can't make a charge and two nuts can't screw. Nothing they do works and cannot hold together. They cannot have children. But they are more than happy to take yours. 

So stop giving them to them.

If you have strong opinions about the number of children one should have without having strong convictions about the quality of those children, you are merely recruiting rioters. You cannot send your kids to secular boot camp and expect them to come back loyal sons of the Savior. 

The Bible says that children are a blessing. They are not, however, an automatic blessing.  All of your enemies are someone else's children. All the drag queen story hour alphabet mafiosos were begotten by somebody.

So…make more babies, but make them disciples.

Make more arrows.

Do not trust the twigs to sharpen themselves.

Do not send them to the general mill for shaping.

Do not let them become left wing lumber.

Form them at home.

Be sharp and sharpen them.

Ephesians 6:4

And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.

day no. 16,569: we do not need more men without mentors

1 Timothy 5:8

But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel.

Every person is not your person, but God does assign certain persons to us. In His providence, He gives us a father and a mother to honor. By His grace, He often provides a wife to love, lead, serve, provide, and protect or a husband to respect, follow, serve, and help. By even more grace, and a natural, normal outcome of the previous grace, He often provides children to love, discipline, instruct, and nourish in the Lord.

If you have any or all of these, they are your people. No question about it. Your father and mother, your spouse, your children, your elders, your employer, your employees, etc... These are your people. God has given your neighbor to you as a gift and has defined who those neighbors are by determining the time and boundary of your and their particular habitation. (Acts 17:26)

We must disciple our own children before we look to disciple others. Everyone is someone's son or daughter and you should not spend your time disciplining someone else's son or daughter before you have discipled your own. You merely create more young men without mentors when you ignore your own sons in order to disciple someone else’s. There is a way to do both, but that means that the other guy’s son gets the leftovers, not your own.

When God commanded us to make disciples (Matt. 28:18-20), He did not mean for us to make more children for someone else to disciple. He meant that we were to spread the Good News to the nations, who are full of sons and daughters who had never heard the Word of God and the Good News of Christ crucified, buried, resurrected, and ascended to reign. We should do our best to reach those who have not had fathers or mothers to teach them, but we should not create spiritual orphans in our own homes in order to father spiritual sons somewhere else.

Do not create more men without mentors in your zeal to mentor other men without mentors. If you abandon your son for the sake of someone else's, you merely make your son the project of another man with children of his own. Rather than discipling everyone else's children, let us begin with our own and free up resources for those who truly have no one else. Your children have you. Do not withhold what God has provided to them.

We do not need more men without mentors; we need more men who mentor the sons they've been given.

day no. 16,551: God is America's King

"'My country, ’tis of thee,

Sweet land of liberty,

Of thee I sing…

Long may our land be bright

With Freedom’s holy light.

Protect us by Thy might,

Great God, our King!'

And Laura had a thought. The Declaration and the song came together in her mind and she thought: God is America’s king. Americans are free. They have to obey their own consciences. This is what it means to be free. 'Our father’s God, author of liberty —' The laws of Nature and of Nature’s God endow you with a right to life and liberty. Then you have to keep the laws of God, for God’s law is the only thing that gives you a right to be free. Laura had no more time to think about it. The others were urging her on." — Laura Ingalls Wilder, Little Town on the Prairie

In America, the unwritten law of the land may be the separation of church and state, but that law was not codified or commanded by its King. If that law is held, it is held in treasonous defiance. America is not under her own authority. She exists for the glory of God. As such, she will either glorify her God by being a place for Him to rest His feet or she will reign with Him by reigning under His Law. She will be His footstool or His foot solider.

It is high time to remember what we used to know -- accountability is liberty. There is no freedom to be found in aimless frolicking. Because God is King, we are free. If He is not, we are not. To be free is to be bound by conscience and to be at liberty is to consider treason unconscionable.

day no. 16,504: friction is a given

Isaiah 42:25

Therefore he hath poured upon him the fury of his anger, and the strength of battle: and it hath set him on fire round about, yet he knew not; and it burned him, yet he laid it not to heart.

Adversity is unavoidable.

So, what will you be adverse to?

And what will be adverse to you?

As saints, we experience adversity from other sinners.

As sinners, we experience adversity from God's Sovereignty.

Enmity is inescapable.

So, what will you be at war with?

And what will be at war with you?

Who will be your enemies?

And who will count you one of theirs?

That is to say, one way or another, we are always at war!

Friction is a given.

So, what will you resist?

And where will the friction come from?

Galatians 5:17

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

There will always be heat. Either we will be under fire from without or fighting fires that are within. We may get burned by someone else or burned by our desires, but either way there will be fire. The flesh and the Spirit are at war. Those led by the Spirit will be at war with those led by the flesh and the parts of you still led by the flesh will be at war with the Spirit within you.

Friction is non-fiction and literal, not simply figurative. It is biographical and biological. In other words, friction is for real.

day no. 16,484: classwombs and consternation camps

Ephesians 6:4

Ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.

Christian fathers can incur the wrath of their children by pawning them off to godless authorities. Fathers are commanded by God to nurture and admonish their own children. If they delegate the mental/spiritual well-being of their children to government education eight hours a day, five days a week, nine months of the year, they will find their windows for nurture and admonition relatively small by comparison. 

Christians must do everything in their power to get their kids out of government schools. State education is openly hostile to Christianity and to the government of the family as established by God. Civil government is jealous of every other form of government: self, family, and church.

Government schools are, in some respects, voluntary concentration camps. Instead of having your children wrenched from your hands by the gestapo, parents play the vichy and voluntarily send beloved little ones into the hands of harm's way.

Government education is like a consternation camp for Christian kids. A Christian child is confounded by the combination of (1) looking to obey and (2) the looks of those overseeing their classrooms. This elixir can only produce frustration. To have your beliefs ignored or mocked all day while having views you adamantly oppose enforced under examination is a recipe for disaster. It sounds like a bad summer camp where instead of going away for a week in the summer, you go away for eight hours a day for nine to ten months. Christian kids, if they survive as Christians, can say that they've served their nickels and dimes in the government clink, but they can't thank their parents for imprisoning there or the scars their stint in the State pen produced. The end goal of a Christian kid in that kind of schooling is nothing short of liberation. Good grades are nothing compared to getting out. That is, unless the kid is converted to Caesarism and goes in for what they call good and striving to receive a 4.0 in heathenism.

The public school calendar is like a secular pregnancy. Since they can’t or won't have kids of their own, they co-opt yours and nourish them in their classwombs for nine months before releasing them to a lifetime of State-provided breastfeeding and co-dependence.

day no. 16,473: anyone can say, but everyone does

Matthew 23:3

Whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not.

Anyone can say what is important to them,

but everyone does what is important to them.

Someone can say things that go against what they actually believe, but they rarely do things that go against what they actually believe. In other words, it is easier to lie than it is to live. It is more difficult to lie to yourself than it is to lie to others. It is easier to lie about your living than it is for you to live what you think is a lie. It is hard to live in a way that goes against your priorities, but it is easy to talk about anything as a priority. Priorities are too expensive to be lived against, but cheap enough to be spoken of lightly. 

Generally speaking, people do what they want.  When they lie, it's because they want you to think something about them that isn't true. They want you to think that, but they don't want to do that. They know enough to know what you think their priorities should be. They may also know enough to know what they wish their priorities were, but nevertheless, they aren't, and so, they lie. At its worst, this can even mean lying to oneself.

James 1:22

Be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. 

Discontinuity between saying and doing always involves some kind of deception. Sometimes the hypocrite has deceived himself. Many times the hypocrite is trying to deceive you.The one who says that they value doing something that they are not doing is either lying to you or to themselves... but the smart money is usually on them trying to deceive you, even if by doing so, they are also kidding themselves.

day no. 16,469: never little where much is needed nor more where less is required

“Give not little to whom you should give much, nor much to whom little, nor nothing to whom something, nor something to whom nothing.” — Asser, The Life of King Alfred (attributed to Pope Gregory therein)

God is not a skinflint but neither is He a spendthrift; that is to say, He does not waste anything or withhold anything good. He provides for His people. He determines the portion appropriate and provides no less than necessary nor more than needful. He does not spoil or spurn His children. He never gives little where much is needed nor more where less is required.

Proverbs 3:27

Withhold not good from them to whom it is due, when it is in the power of thine hand to do it.

A good and godly man, like God, provides for his people. He works hard and procures the means necessary to bless them. He does not leave their welfare to chance or leave their nourishment to nuance. He makes his disciples his duty and his people the object of his piety. 

Romans 13:8

Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law.

A good king gives what he can, pays what he owes, and does his duty before God and man. He does not skimp or soil. He does not set a table of crumbs, but neither does He scold when a crumb falls to the floor. He gives something to all and all to some. He withholds nothing from anyone and gives everything to no ones. 

A man must know what needs to be given, where to give it, how much of it is needed, and how to get it. Like David, he must work hard to set aside the right amount of the right things in order to have the best amount of everything.

1 Chronicles 29:2

Now I have prepared with all my might for the house of my God the gold for things to be made of gold, and the silver for things of silver, and the brass for things of brass, the iron for things of iron, and wood for things of wood; onyx stones, and stones to be set, glistering stones, and of divers colours, and all manner of precious stones, and marble stones in abundance.