day no. 17,218: drunk on abstention

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Colossians 2:20-23

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

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

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

1 Peter 4:3-6

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

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

Ecclesiastes 9:7

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

day no. 16,643: the image of God lathered on like icing

God did not say, “Be fruitful, but be reasonable.” He did not command, "Fill the earth," but warn, "But don't get carried away!"

Genesis 1:28

God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

God blessed them by saying be fruitful and multiply. He charged them to fill the earth and to rule over it -- every inch of every other thing under the sun. God was over man and He commanded men to be over everything else. He did not merely spread man's authority over the earth, but commanded man to multiply in order to make his presence felt over the entire earth. There is no mud meant to be withheld from the squish of good men's toes.

Genesis 9:1, 7

And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth... Be fruitful and multiply; spread out across the earth and multiply upon it."

This command was not forfeited by the fall. God reiterated his charge to fill the globe after having filled it with water. Once the waters subsided, He reminded Noah of what He first told Adam, "Go and do to the world what I did with water -- fill it, subdue it, rule over it, and spread out everywhere to each nook and cranny.

Leviticus 26:9

I will turn toward you and make you fruitful and multiply you, and I will establish My covenant with you

The principle behind this pronouncement was not lost through the patriarchs or abandoned in Egypt. God told Moses that the plan was still, "Be fruitful and multiply." This command was part of the covenant. Go out and get after it everywhere there is to git and don't be stingy with the serving sizes. Slather the image of God on everything like icing on a hot cinnamon roll.

Matthew 28:18-20

And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.”

Finally, Jesus Christ in His farewell address to His disciples circled back to this command. Go out and flood the world with the presence of God. Baptize the entire globe in the Name of the Triune God. Do not, like Achilles’ mom, allow anything to remain dry. Make sure the water and the blood sprinkle everything.

From beginning to end, it has always been, "Be fruitful and multiply." Never has a hint of holding back been introduced. It has always been full send and spread thick. The plan has always included a positive view of production and posterity akin to "the more the merrier."

day no. 16,640: He was hung over our doorways

1 Corinthians 5:7

Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us; therefore let us keep the feast.

Jesus Christ stands in the gap. His blood covers our threshold. He hung over our doorways so that we might enter into the holy of holies. In Him we are safe and sound. He is our feast. He is the bread of heaven, the poured out wine, and the Lamb that was slain before the foundation of the world for the sins of it.

Therefore, do not neglect the feast, but keep it. No sacrifice remains except that of thanksgiving and praise.

Hebrews 13:15

By Him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to His name.

day no. 16,405: every grape grows closer

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.

If you sow, you know.

Those who sow shall reap.

Those who plant shall eat.

Those who die shall live.

Those who move shall never be moved.

Nothing is so ruined that God cannot rebuild.

Nothing is so buried that God cannot resurrect.

Every day marches closer to that day.

Every grape grows closer to that feast.

day no. 16,398: foundations for generations

Isaiah 58:11-14

And the Lord shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not. And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places: thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in. If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: Then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.

Those who put their hope in God lay foundations for many generations while enjoying the labors of the generations that have gone before them. They are watered so that they might water and filled that they might be poured like concrete. They repair the breach by building on the prophets and apostles. They restore the paths by walking constantly over God's promises. The well beaten path of the faithful will again reveal itself and provide direction for generations to come.

When the people of God look forward to His day and delight in it, they find the rest of their days filled with joyful expectation. When we delight in the Lord, we are lifted into the high places and grounded in our earthly ones. We feast on the faithfulness of our fathers and on the promised future of our grandchildren under God. 

day no. 16,220: Jesus turned the tables

Zechariah 8:19

Thus says the LORD of hosts: The fast of the fourth month and the fast of the fifth and the fast of the seventh and the fast of the tenth shall be to the house of Judah seasons of joy and gladness and cheerful feasts. Therefore love truth and peace.

Jesus turned the tables. He turned fasts into feasts. He changed seasons of lent into seasons of lavishness and made empty expectation give way to full realization.

God has everlasting pleasure at His right hand and those who love truth and peace will party like they believe it. Seasons of joy, gladness, and cheerful feasting are preparing us for eternity. We need to get fit for feasting. We are in sorry shape. We get tired of joy far too quickly. So, let's practice partying and get ourselves into feasting trim.

day no. 16,203: we say grace for our sake, not the food's

1 Timothy 4:4–5

For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, for it is made holy by the word of God and prayer.

Food is made holy by the word of God and prayer. The word of God has declared all foods good. The Bible says so. In the beginning He provided all kinds of vegetable life for food. After the Fall, He provided animals for clothing and required animals for sacrifice. After the flood, He declared that the menu now included animals and Jesus during His earthly ministry opened up the menu to all that is edible.

Mark 7:18-19

And Jesus said to them, "Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a man from outside cannot defile him, since it enters, not his heart but his stomach, and so passes on?" (Thus he declared all foods clean.)

So food is made holy by the Word of God. This has been declared prior to your plate. It has been served up before you sit down to table. The food has already been blessed by God before you add salt.

Given that, it is appropriate for us to bless it and those sitting around it by saying grace over it. The food is already blessed, but we add our agreement to it. We say a blessing not because without it the food would be tainted, but because without grateful hearts, we would be. We say grace before meals for our sake, not the meal's. The food would not ruin us, but it would be ruinous to receive such goodness without feeling and expressing gratitude for it.

So say grace over your food. Not because you have to, but because you get to. You get to eat. You have been given an expansive menu and every item on it has already been declared good by Someone who knows a little something about the subject. So enjoy. Count the blessings instead of the calories. Anytime you eat, you're eating food from holy foods. 

day no. 16,121: open wide

Psalm 81:10

I am the Lord thy God,

which brought thee out of the land of Egypt: 

open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it.

But my people would not hearken to my voice;

and Israel would none of me.

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

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

Open wide and He will fill you up.

Psalm 16:11

Thou wilt shew me the path of life:

in thy presence is fulness of joy;

at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.

day no. 16,079: the Founder of the feast

"The dinner party is a true proclamation of the abundance of being -- a rebuke to the thrifty little idolatries by which we lose sight of the lavish hand that made us." -- Robert Farrar Capon

Preparing a feast prepares us. Feasts require sacrifice. It takes effort and generosity to lavish a table with linens, fat, and sweet. But feasting reminds us of the abundance of our Father who made us. He is no skinflint. There is no stinginess in Him.

"It was largesse that made us all; we were not created to fast forever." -- Robert Farrar Capon

God set a table for us because He wanted to. He wasn't obligated to have us over. He didn't need the company. He invited us over because He wanted to and He prepares a feast for us that we might taste and see His goodness.

"Nourishment is necessary only for a while; what we shall need forever is taste."

-- Robert Farrar Capon

We need good food to keep us alive, but more importantly, we need it to keep us alive long enough to learn how to truly live. Food not only provides the fuel to keep going, but it provides more time to learn what's worth going on for. Nourishment is necessary for now because nourishment gives us enough time to develop taste.

Psalm 34:8

O taste and see that the Lord is good.

Food is grace, but taste is grace upon grace. It is good to be kept alive, but better to enjoy the life you're living. The meal is a gift, but the ability to appreciate it is an additional present.

Ecclesiastes 2:24

There is nothing better for a man, than that he should eat and drink, and that he should make his soul enjoy good in his labour. This also I saw, that it was from the hand of God.

day no. 16,065: him who orders his way aright

Psalm 50:23

He who brings thanksgiving as his sacrifice honors me;

to him who orders his way aright

I will show the salvation of God!

There are things to be done and an order in which to do them.

Ordo amoris, or ordered affections, are the prescription through which we can see the salvation of the Lord. If your ways are out of rank or your desires out of proportion, you will be blinded. You won't see salvation around you or in your future. 

“A well-ordered life, regulated by God’s Word alone, through Christ alone, by faith alone, for God’s glory alone, is the only answer to our anxiety.” — John Calvin

Order is inescapable. What we call disorder is simply the wrong order. The one who does not intentionally order their life will reap disorder in their lives. But there is also order that is intentional and yet still disordered.

2 Chronicles 27:6

So Jotham became mighty, because he ordered his ways before the LORD his God.

You can order your ways wrongly. It is one thing to fail to put things in any particular order, another to fail by accidentally ordering things incorrectly, and another to insist that your preferred disorder be respected and received as orderly.

Matthew 6:33

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

When we seek God first and order ourselves according to what He declares as righteous, we receive that which ranks lower. The lower things are retained by insisting on them remaining lower things. A properly ordered life is enabled to retain all of life.

Matthew 5:5

Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.

"Aim at Heaven and you will get Earth 'thrown in': aim at Earth and you will get neither." -- C.S. Lewis

If you aim at something other than Christ, you won't get to keep it. It isn't the case that we get to keep whatever we put in first place and that God just happens to be the best number one overall draft pick. No, if you don't pick God first, you don't get to keep anything. We aren't given one slot that we get to keep no matter what. If God makes the list, but isn't #1, you don't get Him or whatever idol you put before Him. But if you make God and His righteousness your top priorities, you will get to keep everything else.

Psalm 24:1

The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.

There is no square inch of any good thing that God is not prepared to give away to those who love Him aright.

Psalm 84:11

The Lord will give grace and glory:

no good thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly.

day no. 15,567 continued... vespers

I was listening to a sermon last week and the pastor was speaking to the Biblical theme of "morning and evening." After pointing out several places where this rhythm is established and held, he then provided the anecdotal evidence of its observance in the church cadence of "lauds and vespers." Admittedly, I had to look that up. I was fascinated to discover the morning and evening prayers pattern that once was a staple of the Christian church. 

I bring this up because this past week I also floated the idea of beginning to pick up a pie at the Amish each week now that we've moved it to Saturdays and I get to participated. I thought it would be fun to add to our Sabbath liturgy. 

So we picked up a mixed berry and a pecan pie yesterday and today after having Wendy's frosties and fries for lunch, I decided to hold back the pies for a treat after dinner. So tonight we ate noodles for dinner as per usual, but then I busted out the pies and we had sort of a second Sabbath soiree. That led me to consider perhaps holding the pie back every week for dinner rather than adding it to our lunch liturgy. This connected me to the thought of vespers and the idea of an intentional Sabbath evening mini-liturgy.

While I was carving up the post-dinner pies, I led us in singing "All Glory Be To Christ" which I had originally attempted to include as part of our lunch liturgy, but it didn't work out as well as I had hoped as it delayed the feast longer than made sense. It's fun now to be able to include back in at a natural point and in anticipation of pie. I bought whipped cream earlier today in preparation and made funny designs on each kid's respective piece of pie. I then intuitively said, "Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good!" The kids took to it and just like that, we have a Sabbath supper liturgy. I look forward to rounding it out a bit, but for now, I'm thinking less is more: singing, pie and Psalm 34:8 to cap off our Sabbaths sounds like a great Sunday tradition in the making. Some traditions you enjoy the first time you do them looking ahead to the thousandth time you do it. I am flirting with perhaps rocking the a la mode some week and calling it, "pie-ce cream." God is good and it is so much fun looking for ways to invite my kids into a life of wonder, welcome, good gifts and a whole heaping of gratitude to go along with it.

Psalm 34:8

Oh taste and see that the Lord is good!

day no. 15,516: eat the fat. drink the sweet. make the merry.

Nehemiah 8:10
Then he said unto them, Go your way, eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared: for this day is holy unto our Lord: neither be ye sorry; for the joy of the Lord is your strength.

Eat the fat.
Drink the sweet.
The joy of the LORD is our strength.

Low calorie, fat-free faith has no meat on its bones.
Teetotalers do not have any fun.

Psalm 24:1
The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.

Fat and sweet were made by God. They nourish. They sustain life and livelihood. They keep things alive and make alive things more lively.

1 Timothy 4:1-6
Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron; Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth. For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving: For it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer. If thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things, thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine, whereunto thou hast attained.

Nehemiah 8:12
And all the people went their way to eat, and to drink, and to send portions, and to make great mirth, because they had understood the words that were declared unto them.

Great mirth is what God desires for His people.

Eat the fat.

Drink the sweet.

Make the merry.

Make much of His glory for when you understand God's goodness, life is good.