day no. 14,533: the tribute vice pays to virtue

"Hypocrisy is the tribute vice pays to virtue." - Doug Wilson, Plodcast, episode 13

You cannot have public virtue without private virtue. No one can be virtuous in public if they are not virtuous in private. If your private wickedness becomes public, your previous public virtue will be discredited. No one can be virtuous in private without Gospel. One can be virtuous in public without the Gospel, but left alone, with no one watching, with no Holy Spirit, no one is virtuous. 

day no. 14,532: new beginnings

80 years of life. Hats off to Teunis Van Voorst. Well done, Dad! Happy Birthday!!!

41 years of marriage. Hats off to Teunis and Jacqi Van Voorst. Well done, parents! Happy Anniversary!!!

day no. 14,531: the darkness has not overcome it

Psalm 97

Light hates darkness. Anywhere light shines it destroys the darkness it touches. Light has no tolerance for darkness. It either withholds itself from the darkness or it overwhelms it with its presence. To love the Lord is to hate evil. You cannot be for God and for sin. It is a forced choice situation and there can only be one. 

day no. 14,530: no earthly authority is absolute

Numbers 12
No earthly authority is absolute, but all earthly authority is still authoritative because it is initiated by God. God has all authority and gives husbands, parents, employers, kings, elders real authority. It is authoritative because it comes from Him. But it is limited because it comes from Him. Any authority on earth is heavenly authority come down. Because it is heavenly, it has jurisdiction on earth. Because it is earthly, it can never overrule heaven.

day no. 14,529: love and justice

Psalm 96

Modern minds assume a tension where the psalmist assumes a harmony. If God loves the world and the people He has made, how could He ever judge them or find fault in them? Modern minds wrestle to understand how a loving Creator could sentence His creation to hell. Ancient minds understood that a loving Creator MUST judge His creation. It is a necessary and natural conclusion. Love demands justice and justice assumes love. If one loves, one must seek to stop anything that comes against its love. And if one is just, it is only because it loves something.

day no. 14,528: a generous Spirit

Numbers 11:27-29
And a young man ran and told Moses, “Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.” 28 And Joshua the son of Nun, the assistant of Moses from his youth, said, “My lord Moses, stop them.”29 But Moses said to him, “Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the Lord's people were prophets, that the Lord would put his Spirit on them!”

Moses was more jealous for God's name than he was his own.

day no. 14,527: today and tomorrow

Psalm 95

What God deserves, He rarely receives. What God gives, He never owes. All things are His things and all earthly glories are rented. Today, if you are given the grace to hear His voice, do not muffle its volume. Do not tune it out. The still small voice is still small. It is patient and persevering. It is smaller than you'd expect and more profound than you'd imagine. It is constant though we are intermittent. So if today is a day by God's grace that the white noise of life is muted enough for you to hear His voice above it all, do not take it for granted. Do not assume you will simply pay better attention tomorrow. We often put our faith in tomorrow and hope in today when we should have faith today and hope for tomorrow.