day no. 17,064: see something, say something

“Math will hurt their feelings, because math reminds everybody of the Last Judgment. The answer is right or wrong, and you can’t blow sunshine at it.” — Douglas Wilson, Keep Your Kids

The facts do not care about your feelings. Reality does not come with a "none of the above" option. It is a true or false question with one right answer. Experience is a rough teacher: it gives the test first and the lesson second. Those attempting to ignore reality must at some point deny all fixed realities because they follow you around and heckle you wherever you go. Up and down and right and wrong are constant reminders of the Reality hovering all too uncomfortably behind the realities.

"Think what a totally different morality would mean. Think of a country where people were admired for running away in battle, or where a man felt proud of double-crossing all the people who had been kindest to him. You might just as well try to imagine a country where two and two made five." — C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

Insanity is getting into a staring contest with reality and expecting it to blink. You can make believe that two and two make five, but you cannot make the extra unit ex nihilo. There is still only four in existence, even if you call it five. The only way to pay off the one you owe is to borrow it from another equation, but that would only create a deficit somewhere else. Math is ruthless and relentless in that way. The sums must square.

"Fires will be kindled to testify that two and two make four. Swords will be drawn to prove that leaves are green in summer." — G.K. Chesterton, Heretics

Yet, here we are in a world where some  outrageously insist that boys can get periods and that girls can have bulges and others even more outrageously insist that we must take the first people seriously, sometimes even at the threat of job loss.

"Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four.” — George Orwell, 1984

To be fair, reality can defend itself. It does not need us to hold it up. That said, it does not refuse its allies. When swords are drawn to fight over the greenness of grass, reality will outfit its defenders with sharp points while its attackers will be left to brandish dullness.

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

A land that accepts reality may endure a few crazies, but a land that condemns realities must affirm them. Freedom is the ability to say what you see with your eyeballs. Wherever people are forbidden to speak about what everyone sees, a warped way of seeing the world is being enforced.

day no. 16,864: to and fro go men and God's eyes

Daniel 12:4

But you, Daniel, shut up the words and seal the book, until the time of the end. Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase.

Men may go about to and fro, but he cannot escape the glance of God.

2 Chronicles 16:9

For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him.

Man can run, but he cannot hide; and a good one doesn't try to. A good man wants to be found by God and would rather fall into His hands than rise on the favors of fiends.

Psalms 139:7-8

Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence?

If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there.

No one gets away with anything. There is no path outside Providence. There is nowhere to go where God is not.

Proverbs 5:21

For the ways of man are before the eyes of the Lord,

And He ponders all his paths.

The ways of men are weighed by God.

While there are many paths that lead away from Him, there are none that can escape Him.

Psalm 139:9-12

If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me. Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee.

Everything will eventually come to light. Nothing is ever done in secret. Someone always sees. This is good news for quiet kindnesses and bad news for surreptitious sins.

Colossians 3:23-24

And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance; for you serve the Lord Christ

All labor for the Lord will be rewarded. The wages of Christ are life.

1 Corinthians 15:58

Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.

Just as the darkness cannot hide from God's light, so the fires of faith, even when barely burning, cannot escape His notice. No one does good for nothing.

Luke 12:2-3

For there is nothing covered that will not be revealed, nor hidden that will not be known. Therefore whatever you have spoken in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have spoken in the ear in inner rooms will be proclaimed on the housetops.

Men may go to and fro, but so does God's gaze.

All things will either be weighed, measured, and found wanting... or rewarded.

day no. 16,815: those who chase the wind catch hell

Ecclesiastes 6:9

Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of desire. This also is vanity and grasping for the wind

Those who chase the wind catch hell.

You cannot outrun the spirit of the age. You will wear yourself out and end up empty handed. The zeitgeist can haunt you, but it cannot be hunted down. It is unreality. It is the fever dream of fanatical unbelief. In the effort to overthrow the reality of God, reality itself is rejected. It is better to hold on to a little bit of horse sense than to graduate with honors from Sodom State University.

Ecclesiastes 1:14

I have seen all the works which have been done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and striving after wind.

Any and every thing done under the sun without reference to that which is beyond its brightness is simply a lesson in futility. The pursuit of wind is an empty promise. Clutching at sand castles cannot keep them. The harder you hold, the more they slip through your fingers. The wish fulfillment of unbelieving man is an empty hand and a head full of nonsense.

day no. 16,770: even so, come

"When is sin ripe? When it is impudent, when men grow bold in sin, making it their whole course and trade of life. When men’s wicked courses are their common lifestyle, and they don’t even know how to do otherwise . . . The more sin, the more danger. When men are secure in their sinning, it is as if they are daring the God of heaven to do his worst.” — Richard Sibbes, Refreshment for the Soul

When men are given over to their sin, they are tempting God to get involved. While the wrath of God is observed in His removing His hand, the further the sin goes, the more it invites Him to become more hands on.

Romans 1:24-28

Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen. For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient.

God does not impute vileness to men. They pursue it on their own. God does not dangle disaster before them, they court calamity on their own accord. When God lets go of the leash, the lemmings head for the cliff. The grace of God is not giving us what we want, but in regenerating us to want His will above our own.

James 1:14-15

Every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.

Sins do not get any cuter the more they grow up. In fact, they get grosser. To be clear, sins are never actually cute, but it is easier to construe them that way when they are still infantile. Tiny is cute. So, tiny sins committed by tiny people are discounted by the cuteness of the tiny offender. But grown up sins are gross. They corrupt their containers. Their skin cannot help but reflect the acidity within.

When sin becomes brazen, it begins to beg for a reckoning. It looks up, shakes it fist, and dares the lightning to strike. It mocks God and jaws at His judgment. It struts around asking to be struck down. That kind of cocksuredness cruises for its bruises and rides on its high horse without any worry of being knocked off. That kind of presumption, however, is often the final portent of what proverbially comes next:

Proverbs 16:18

Pride goeth before destruction,

and an haughty spirit before a fall.

“Consistent believers are not in that position. We do not want God to do His worst. We do, however, want God to do what it takes. Our prayer should be that God would do what it takes to bring us to the point of humble repentance. To want Him to do more than it takes would be vindictive, and we don’t want to be that. But we should want Him to do whatever it takes. As we watch the walls disintegrate around us, our prayer should be that this is judgment driving toward mercy, and not judgment as a harbinger of more judgment." — Douglas Wilson, Why Fox News Needs to Free Tucker. And Then a Word about the Gospel of Sovereign Grace

When God shakes, things begin to fall apart. The falling of things produces its own tremors. It is altogether unsettling. But the uneasiness of God's appearing is to be preferred to the ease of adjusting to His absence. 

Revelation 22:20

He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.

The future is Christian.

Whatever convulsions are required to cast the demons out, they are to be pursued and pleaded for rather than resigning ourselves to a regular roll in the fire. Christ will come and the correction might hurt, but it is better to be disciplined and spared than to be spared discipline and discarded. It is better to be parented by the rod than to be bastardized by God. Better to be His child with a sore backside than to be His enemy facing His wrath.

day no. 16,742: the grace of God is getting caught

Proverbs 5:21-23

For a man’s ways are before the eyes of the LORD, and he ponders all his paths. The iniquities of the wicked ensnare him, and he is held fast in the cords of his sin. He dies for lack of discipline, and because of his great folly he is led astray.

The grace of God is getting caught before it's too late. Everyone gets caught eventually. No one gets away with anything. It is the grace of God to catch us out. Discipline is being caught and corrected in sin. Folly is being caught up in the cords of sin and calling it freedom. Foolishness is being bound to unbelief and believing that you're getting away with it.

day no. 16,593: the punishment of a crime

"War is waged by men, not by beasts or Gods. It is a peculiarly human activity. To call it a crime against mankind is to miss at least half of its significance; it is also the punishment of a crime."

— Frederic Manning, The Middle Parts of Fortune

God has declared war on sin and set enmity between the seed of the serpent and the seed of Eve. War is therefore not a sin in itself unless it is waged directly against the seed of Eve or indirectly against the efforts of the seeds of Eve to fight the seeds of the serpent. As Manning points out, war does contain a crime, but only on one side of the battlefield. To be on the side of peace is to be at war with the side of war. God calls men to fight for the sake of ending all fighting. God calls men to peacemaking, not peacekeeping; the creation of calm comes at the cost of crushing the chaos. Peace can be made only by ruthlessly eradicating restlessness.

Galatians 5:17

The flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other.

It is not a crime to punish a crime. The officer lawfully breaks the speed limit in order to apprehend the one unlawfully breaking the speed limit. The executioner lawfully ends the life of the lawless one caught and convicted of murder. The officer speeds to put an end to speeding; the executioner kills to put an end to bloodshed. He isn't committing a crime, but condemning one. 

The love of God produces a hatred of evil and a desire for peace inspires the battle to end all battling.

day no. 16,584: hand shakes

Proverbs 11:21

Though hand join in hand,

the wicked shall not be unpunished:

but the seed of the righteous shall be delivered.

The handshakes of the wicked do not protect against the shaking of the Lord's hand. His shaking will be revelatory. It will make light work of the serious business of wickedness. The plans and plots of the diabolical will float away like dust off of a beaten rug. Like chaff separated from the substance, they will simply float away on the breeze. There is no legislation that can protect the wicked from the law of the Lord. There is no network that can navigate the rod of the risen Nazarene. There is no forum that can fend off the free will of the One called Faithful and True. You can shake the hand of the most powerful man and still be utterly powerless before the Man, Christ Jesus. You can hear the hands of applause from men of renown and yet be backhanded by the Name above every other. You can have as much cash and resources at hand as any man can and still be bankrupt before God. The seed of the righteous will survive the drought. The harvest of the faithful will endure the scorching heat and produce fruit for the Feast.

Hebrews 12:25-29

See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven: Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven. And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear: For our God is a consuming fire.

No earthly hardship can hold back the faithful.

No earthly friendship can hold off the judgment.

No heavenly work can be quenched.

No earthly endeavor can stay lit.

day no. 16,522: like the smell of warm bread

Psalm 12:7-8

You shall keep them, O Lord,

You shall preserve them from this generation forever.

The wicked prowl on every side,

When vileness is exalted among the sons of men.

A spotlight shining into the darkness can feel pretty isolated and a candle in a cave can feel rather conspicuous, but God has promised to preserve the light. Though the darkness surrounds, it cannot suffocate. It can feel like the gates of light shall not prevail against the onslaught of darkness, but the promise runs in the other direction (Mt 16:18). It is not the darkness crowding in on the light, it is the light pushing out the darkness. The contact points grow in number as the circumference of light grows, but the contact points are growing thinner. The center of light is increasing in glory and washing over the landscape like the smell of warm bread through a house. Though the wicked prowl on every side, their side is weakening. Though vileness be lifted up among the enemies of God, it is being struck down by the friends of God.

2 Corinthians 10:3-5

For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.

day no. 16,494: the floods that wash away whole worlds are not enough for God to wade in

Psalm 29:10

The LORD sitteth upon the flood;

yea, the LORD sitteth King for ever.

The floods that wash away whole worlds are not deep enough for God to wade in. He sits upon the flood. He hovers above it, unphased by its current. It cannot sweep Him up, or away. It is not deep enough for Him to soak His toes, not even roast beef or wee-wee-wee all the way home.

The Lord is King for ever. He sits in His throne. His throne and His place on it are established. They are indomitable facts. He cannot be unseated and His seat cannot be undermined. Nothing can shake what He has fixed and nothing can hold on to whatever He shakes lose. 

The Lord sat down after saying, "It is finished!" His work is perfect and complete and incorruptible.

Psalm 110:1

The LORD said to my Lord,

“Sit at My right hand,

Till I make Your enemies Your footstool.”

There He sits now as His enemies assemble like an ottoman. The floods that so disrupt our lives are but puddles over which He presides.

The Lord sitteth as King for ever. The floods are at His beck and call. Let us call upon Him.

day no. 16,446: the world washed by water and by fire

"Is all this admirable universe, sinless and perfect everywhere beyond the Moon, to perish at the last day? It seems not. When scripture says the stars will fall (Matt. xxiv. 29) this may be taken 'tropically'; it may mean that tyrants and magnates will be brought low. Or the stars that will fall may be only meteorites. And St Peter (II Pet. iii. 3 sq.) says only that the universe will be destroyed by fire as it once was destroyed by water. But no one thinks the flood rose to the translunary regions: neither, then, need the fire." — C.S. Lewis, The Discarded Image

When God destroyed the world by water, He did not do away with the world entirely. He wiped out every living thing with breath save eight and those with them on the boat, but the world was still there when the flood was over. God did not wash the world away per se, but washed the worldliness off of the world. He didn't throw the plate in the trash, He washed it and dried it and put it back onto the table for use.

2 Peter 3:6-7

Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished: But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.

We too often imagine God's cleansing fire as an incineration. We imagine the world reduced to ashes and the new earth being ex nihilo two point oh well. But Peter here says the world will perish by fire in similar fashion as to how it perished previously by water, which is to say that those outside of Christ will be washed away, but those inside Him will inherit the earth. Only this cleansing will be accompanied by a complete and total restoration of Edenic blessing where sin is absent and God is forever and fully present.

1 Corinthians 3:11-15

For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.

There is no foundation other than Christ which can support any work of any kind. But the work done on that foundation varies and the fire will test it. That which was good will be refined and purified by the fire like gold and will come out the better for the fire. That which was no good will be burned up entirely, but the foundation will hold the person who labored frivolously upon it.

1 Corinthians 15:58

Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.

Work done by, for, through and to the Lord will not be in vain. It will survive the refining fire and be better for having been exposed to it. The ark will save those inside it and the fire will save the goodness of any work He inspired through them.

day no. 16,345: to remember is to resurrect

To remember is to resurrect... either to eternal life or death. When you recall something, you call it back from the dead and either by grace thank God for it or by bitterness curse Him for it. Memories are either brought back to life as glorious opportunities of praise and gratitude or hideous occasions of anger and ingratitude.

Daniel 12:2-3

And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever.

Memories, like us, are resurrected either to everlasting life or everlasting contempt. And just like us, they can only be saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone or they will be destined to live the life of death which is paved with guilt, shame, and regret.

1 Corinthians 11:24-25

And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me. After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me.

Resurrection requires remembrance. We either remember through the resurrection or we remember without it and the difference is as stark as day and night, light and darkness, love and hate, joy and grief, gratitude and regret.

Gratitude and thanksgiving are gifts of the past being remembered through the resurrection of the Son of God for our justification. Envy and bitterness are the curses of the past being remembered without God to intercede for them.

day no. 16,331: one little word shall fell them

Genesis 1:1-3

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, "Let there be light:" and there was light.

Before the world,

there was nothing, but God;

and then by His Word,

the worlds were made.

God spoke;

and the nothing jumped to attention;

that must have been something!

Psalm 33:6

By the word of the LORD were the heavens made;

And all the host of them by the breath of his mouth. 

But the words of the Lord were more than mere words.

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.

The world was made not just by words, but by the Word.

Hebrews 11:3

By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible.

What we see is held together by what we don't.

That world that is would not exist without the word of I Am.

Romans 4:17

God gives life to the dead and calls into being that which does not exist.

Nothing plus God's Word equals everything. 

Communication holds things together and a breakdown in communication breaks things down.

Genesis 11:4-9

And they said, "Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth." And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded. And the LORD said, "Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech." So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city. Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.

The Tower of Babel was under construction until communication broke down; that moment, the tower too broke down and was abandoned. Communication keeps things copacetic. The Word holds things together. If He breaks off communications, the world would break apart: mountains once immovable evaporate and gravity previously fixed floats away.

2 Thessalonians 2:8

The lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth and bring to nothing by the appearance of his coming.

The inventions of men fall before a full sentence is said. The sentence is passed by the breath of God. One word from the Lord and the majesty of man falls apart. 

And though this world, with devils filled,

Should threaten to undo us,

We will not fear, for God hath willed

His truth to triumph through us:

The Prince of Darkness grim,

We tremble not for him;

His rage we can endure,

For lo! his doom is sure,

One little word shall fell him

-- Martin Luther, A Mighty Fortress

There is nothing new under the sun and the world is no stranger to men uniting together to blatantly disobey God's clear Word. Those who re-inhabited the world post-flood pooled together rather than fan out according to God's command. They, instead, stayed put and began the tireless work of making a name for themselves. Instead of increasing the glory of God, they choose to see if they could increase their own stock. So they worked together to build something spectacular. They set themselves to make a world in their own image, a reality outside of God's, where towers tell the tales of great men doing great things.

And then God changed their language and the entire project was abandoned. The tower was left to the rule of rust and decay and gradually succumb to the inexorable realities of God. It returned to dust, just as those whom He dispersed did. The pride of man was laid low and all because He made it impossible for them to understand each other. They could have taken time to learn each other's languages. All languages have structure which can be taught and caught. But their impatience got the best of them. Revolutionaries don't have time for things like grammar. Studying syntax tends to take the edge off of the urgency. Diagramming sentences has a sobering effect and rioters prefer the wisdom of whiskey to the sobriety of Spanish 101.

Listening to the Cross Politic Daily Newsbrief yesterday (12/9/21), there was a story about a recent blackout of Amazon due to a server going down. It was restored and order was regained, but during the outage, peeps be cray. The same thing happened when a few months ago Facebook and Instagram went out for a few hours. A few hours... All it takes is a small miscommunication and everything can fall apart.

The curse of Babel could be applied easily enough by God to internet systems. If He merely confused their language, imagine how much would/could go down. All the force of those you fear could evaporate in the face of a miscommunication. You may scoff at the fall of Babel, but you may see it again. And you will see just how small our towers are and how great our God is. With the flick of a tongue the whole project can collapse. The programs in which we place our trust rely on the ability to send, receive, understand, and execute commands. Something as simple as an inability to communicate can destroy the greatest achievements of wicked men.

C.S. Lewis employed the same strategy for dealing with and disabling the entire N.I.C.E. The deus ex machina of a simple language barrier can bring the whole thing down.

“Qui Verbum Dei contempserunt, eis auferetur etiam verbum hominis.” -- Merlinus Ambrosius in C.S. Lewis' That Hideous Strength

(They that have despised the word of God, from them shall the word of man also be taken away.)

Praise God. 

Amen and Maranatha!

day no. 16,319: edict-ionary

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

Definitions carry with them the force of law. An edict, which is an order, is literally ex + dicere or "out of what is said/proclaimed." We get the word dictionary from the same root along with dictate, dictation, and more to our purposes, dictator.

The dictionary then can be said to be an edictionary in that whoever holds the authority to say what is and isn't an "official" definition holds the authority to define the world. The question is always "official" according to whom? Or more proverbially, "official" by what standard? Is there someone in charge of the definitions or do words become what the majority say they mean? Can a vocal minority massage the definition in a different direction? Who decides?

In a democracy, Demos gets to decide. Vox populi vox Dei, the voice of the people is the voice of God. But we don't live in the people's world, we live in God's world. People can no more decide what a word means than they can decide what can exist. It doesn't work that way, whatever way you define "way," or "work."

Isaiah 5:20-21

Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil;

that put darkness for light, and light for darkness;

that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!

Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes,

and prudent in their own sight!

This craven desire to redefine the world is not a modern manifestation. Isaiah heard it from his contemporaries and Eve heard it first hand when the serpent suggested that death meant life and forbidden meant felicity. Contradiction, then, is the oldest mode of combat. In the beginning, God made the world by His Word and shortly thereafter sin was introduced by believing another word could remake it. Contradict literally means to go against what they have said, contra (against) + dict (someone's words). Contradiction presupposes a dictator. Someone's words will rule the world. To contradict the Duke of Dictionary is to declare war on his world or at the very least to war with his hold on the world. Dictation is inescapable. We will have a dictator. The question isn't IF, but WHO and WHAT have they said?

Sin is essentially attempting to redefine reality according to one's own fancies.  Damnation is the natural outcome of refusing the world that is. You cannot inherit a world you hate... nor would you want to. 

Salvation is repenting of your own definitions and confessing God’s realities. The word for confess in Greek is homologeo which means homo (same) + logeo (words). When you confess, you are saying what God has already said. You are forcing your words to line up with His Word. Instead of contradicting Him, you are confessing Him. You are agreeing to the world as it is, not as you wish it was. You are submitting yourself to His definition of reality: right and wrong, up and down, progress and regress, sin and salvation, freedom and slavery.

God's Word carries with it the force of law. His Words carry in them their own definitions. He is the Definer. He owns the dictionary.

Psalm 119:89

For ever, O LORD, thy word is settled in heaven.

His Words are settled facts.

1 Peter 1:25

The word of the Lord remains forever. And this word is the good news that was preached to you.

God's words are not altered by assaults to redefine them. The reason God pronounces woe on those who call things by the wrong name is that by doing so they are defining themselves out of His kingdom. Notice, they don't redefine "good" as "yellow" or "light" as "loud," they redefine themselves according to God's opposites. Thus, even in their attempts to redefine the world, they submit to God's assigned polarities. They call good "bad" and bad "good." They call up "down" and down "up." They profess to be ignorant of what they clearly know. They willfully close their eyes to what they clearly see.

Words matter and everyone knows it. The battle for the dictionary is not some random side skirmish. It's the front line. Definitions determine salvation and damnation. Confession is the means of forgiveness. Contradiction is the definition of condemnation.

John 3:19

This is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.

day no. 16,233: the moxie to be contentedly milquetoast

Isaiah 3:1-4

For behold, the Lord GOD of hosts

is taking away from Jerusalem and from Judah

support and supply,

all support of bread,

and all support of water; 

the mighty man and the soldier,

the judge and the prophet,

the diviner and the elder, 

the captain of fifty

and the man of rank,

the counselor and the skillful magician

and the expert in charms. 

And I will make boys their princes,

and infants shall rule over them.

A clear sign of God's judgment is the evaporation of masculine authority. If the heat of the day causes men to fade rather than fight, it is an indication that God is working against a people, not for them; or that He is working for them by giving them what they deserve so that they might observe and openly repent.

Calvin in commenting on these verse had this to say, 

“The strong man, and the man of war He mentions other ends which contribute to the safety and good order either of nations or of cities. Of these he threatens that the Jews will be wholly deprived, so that they will neither have wisdom or bravery at battle, nor military forces abroad. He is not careful to attend to order, but is satisfied with giving a short abridgement, and mixes one subject with another. He begins with men of war, into whose hands was committed the defense of the country. God sometimes takes them away by death, and sometimes by making them soft and effeminate. The latter is more frequent, so that posterity degenerates from the bravery of ancestors, and those who were formerly courageous become, in process of time, cowardly and unfit for war. But we see also that the former sometimes happens, in consequence of which the boldest men suddenly lose heart.”

Boldness is inescapable. There will either be boldness for righteousness or against it. The one who runs from the battle may lack boldness on the battlefield, but he has it in aces when it comes to his cowardice. He may not have the courage to do the right thing, but he finds the courage to do the wrong thing. Cowardice is courage in lesser things. It is boldly departing from the straight and true. It takes a particular type of moxie to be contentedly milquetoast. When God gives men over, they do not cease going somewhere, but rather go boldly where they ought not to go. Without God's help, men cannot be courageous in that which is Christlike. A sure sign of His passive wrath is a feast of effeminacy and a famine of virtue.

day no. 16,217: the eternal Fact will keep the cancelers in check

James 4:11-12

Speak not evil one of another, brethren. He that speaketh evil of his brother, and judgeth his brother, speaketh evil of the law, and judgeth the law: but if thou judge the law, thou art not a doer of the law, but a judge. There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy: who art thou that judgest another?

Hell is full of fact checkers forever revisiting and re-registering their complaints.They will spend their respective forevers with clenched jaws and fingers feverishly resurrecting and correcting every perceived grievance they ever imagined experiencing. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth as they relive every intuited injustice. There will be hell to pay for making life a living hell. There will be everlasting judgment for those who set themselves above the law. There is one Lawgiver and one Judge who will in the end check the facts. The eternal Fact will keep the cancelers in check. He will cancel the cancelers and establish what they have concealed.

day no. 16,199: we are watching the wrath of God, not the winning of the wicked

We are not watching wickedness win, we are witnessing the wrath of God.

Romans 1:18-24

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things. Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves.

Out of control evil is not in the process of dominating, but of being dominated. Wickedness without brakes cannot avoid a collision. Unrestricted rebellion is an unraveling, not an arriving. There is no such thing as freedom from God. Those whom He lets go are not free, but forever enslaved. 

The fattened calf may fancy himself the guest of honor at the upcoming feast, but he is misreading his situation. Don't you go and do the same by giving a second thought to any of his boasts. Keep your eyes in your head. He isn't going to be on the guest list, he is going to be on the menu.

So fear not, we are not witnessing the rise of rebellion, but the reckoning of God. They are not accumulating trophies, but rather wrath for themselves. Wickedness is not winning ribbons, it is racking up fines. God is giving them over to themselves and all of their end zone dancing is merely wracking up excessive celebration penalties to be applied at kickoff when God in the end takes the ball back.

day no. 16,148: God does not paint over dirt

Amos 2:9

Yet it was I who destroyed the Amorite before them,

whose height was like the height of the cedars

and who was as strong as the oaks;

I destroyed his fruit above

and his roots beneath.

God does not paint over dirt. He is not satisfied by simply making things look better, He won't be content until everything actually is better, from the fruit to the root.

He does not merely wipe the nose, He treats the cold. He does not merely nick the tip of the dandelion off, He digs out its root. God is not content to address the effects of evil, but is bent on ending the source of evil itself. This applies both to our world and to our persons. The kingdom will not merely restrict evil by making it illegal to act wickedly, it will change the hearts of its citizens so that wickedness will no longer come so naturally. It won't rely on the force of law without for order, but upon a properly ordered heart within. The saint is not one who merely polishes the outside of the cup, but the one who scours the inside as well.

God's approach is robust. Holiness is holistic. When God deals with evil, He deals with all of it. When God deals with His people, He deals with all of them: that is, each and every; and completely and entirely. When God deals with the world, He deals with all of it from the fruit of its pride parades to the root of its rebellion.

day no. 16,147: where the mountains drip with wine

Amos 9:13-15

“Behold, the days are coming,” declares the LORD,

“when the plowman shall overtake the reaper

and the treader of grapes him who sows the seed;

the mountains shall drip sweet wine,

and all the hills shall flow with it.

I will restore the fortunes of my people Israel,

and they shall rebuild the ruined cities and inhabit them;

they shall plant vineyards and drink their wine,

and they shall make gardens and eat their fruit. 

I will plant them on their land,

and they shall never again be uprooted

out of the land that I have given them,”

says the LORD your God.

The meek shall inherit mountains that drip sweet wine. The faithful shall find themselves surrounded by hills that flow with fermented fluid. Christians will have their cities restored. Christians will have their best refined by fire for the better. Whatever good we retain will only be made better. Whatever bad we couldn't seem to vanquish will eventually be eliminated completely.

The future is Christian.

In that land, flowing with mountains of milk, hills of honey, and wine like water, we shall be planted and never removed. We will be rooted as permanent fixtures in the place of never-ending joy and pleasure.

All that to say, the future is a feast in a world without end. And Amen!

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

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

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

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

1 John 3:4-10

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

day no. 16,082: the green initiative

Psalm 69:4

More in number than the hairs of my head

are those who hate me without cause; 

mighty are those who would destroy me,

those who attack me with lies.

What I did not steal must I now restore?

The envy-driven, social justice grievance machine is not a new manifestation. Hating others without cause and demanding reparations from those who have taken nothing is nothing new.

This is the destructive power and presence of envy. It lies, cheats, accuses, demands, destroys, and doesn't apologize for any of it. It is built on covetousness. It refuses to be content with anything it possesses. It doesn't merely want what the other has, but wants them to be deprived of it. It doesn't want equal treatment, it demands equal results. It prefers to share destitution to unequal distribution. It nicks the tops off of any that end up a head above the rest and insists that the remaining stalks begin nicking themselves. It would rather have everyone equally destitute than allow any to prosper to different degrees.

It is evil, wicked, and depraved and it cannot go on forever. It is unsustainable (ironically enough). The green initiative fails every time. Envy is a pyrrhic achievement. If it wins, it loses. It is a snake eating its own tail. And as it devours, it disappears.