day no. 15,274 continued... shake it off

Hebrews 12:28-29

Let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.

We are experiencing a whole lot of shakin' going on lately. Everywhere we look, it seems like the snow globe has been stirred up by a whirlwind of uncertainty that circles around us like a wake of vultures in a bad mood after missing their breakfast. But it only feels that way. It only seems like everything is falling apart. Many things are, of course, but everything isn't. When things are shaken up, it feels like the foundation itself is unstable. When the portraits are falling off the walls it makes us believe the concrete underneath our feet is faltering. But the Founder holds firm while the fluff falls off. The chaff is carried along by the wind, but the Cornerstone holds and that which holds to Him along with it. 

Let us therefore worship our indomitable God. Let us rejoice in Him all the more as we watch our idols crack. As the false gods topple, may our gratitude for the true God grow. If they were our oppressors, may we delight in their destruction; if they were our secret delight, may we be grateful for God's intervention. Our God is a consuming fire. This is Good News for those He has dedicated to purification and bad news for those committed to those making the messes.

Do not fear. The world as we knew it is not the world that is going to be and what we inherit will be better than what we have lost. The refining fire is making all things new by shaking things up and dusting this bad boy off for better use. The world to come, the one without end, will be all the better for having been beat up a bit.

Luke 12:32

Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.

day no. 15,274: my marriage is a teenager

Pretty soon my marriage will be old enough to get it's driver's permit. But for now, it's merely entering the teens for the first time. It's voice is changing. It's becoming who it will be. Infants spend their earliest years changing rapidly from day to day, month to month and year to year. The changes are constant and the photographs taken only weeks apart reveal very different children than the ones staring back in the picture. Then changes become less often in their frequency, but more intense in their potency. The differences between an 11 year old and a 13 year old are not as severe as those between a 1 year old and a 3 year old, but the depth of the change in the teenager is intense. These changes are making the child into who they will be, what form they will take and largely retain.

My marriage is similar. It survived the frequent changes of infancy and is now beginning to get some solid legs underneath it, giving way to the shape of what it is more likely to be and the form it will more closely retain for years to come. I like where it's been, love where it is and look forward to where it's going. I love where God has my wife and me in relation to Him and in relation to each other. We are both growing and stretching and unifying and solidifying around the changes He has introduced that have potency in projecting the future course of our family. 

The Van Voorst family was established 13 years ago this day and it is more firmly established now than it was then. What it is and what it will be and what it will do and where it's all going is clearer now than it was then. I love what God has given us and where He is taking us. I love being a Van Voorst and am excited by the opportunity to minister to my great-great-great grandchildren by living my life now by faith in God. I am preaching to descendants I will never meet by loving the children I see every day. What it means to be a Van Voorst in 2020 will mean something for what it means to be a Van Voorst in 2120 if the Lord's return should still at that time be pending. 

God uses marriage as a microcosm of what the macrocosm should be. In the opportunity to serve my family as Head, I am seeing a preview of what it looks like to live in the world where everything is brought under its rightful Head, Jesus.

I love being married. It's just the best and I love the partner God has given me to experience it with. She is my best friend and my favorite person in the entire world. 13 years ago today I watched her walk down the aisle and through tears and snot, I received her as a gift. We both made our vows before God, family and friends and have been increasingly blessed ever since. She is my family. 

We nearly set our reception hall on fire that night little knowing that God would be using us to set the world ablaze for years to come. May the world feel the heat of what we are doing under our roof as we send flaming arrows flying from our home and may the light being cultivated in our midst shine brightly for years to come for His glory, our neighbor's good and our gratitude.

day no. 15,273: Christian culture is the Gospel in bodily form

"Adoration bursts out in song and feast. Incarnations. We might say, then, that Christian culture is the Gospel in bodily form. It is what happens when we live the Gospel." - Douglas Wilson, Angels in the Architecture: A Protestant Vision for Middle Earth

Over the years, the Van Voorst family has steadily advanced in this by inches, but recently, it seems, we've leapt ahead by miles. God has been moving us more intentionally in this direction through liturgical calendars, feast days, assiduity, legacy-mindedness (legacity), generationality, postmillennialism, culture creation and building, Chestertonian Calvinism, story club, hygge, candles, "blood on three!," re:treat, popcorn parties, family movie nights, Sabbaths, family lunches at Shelter Gardens, Friday Family Feast night, Friday night pizza night, Friday night movie night with Paige, "Friday" by Rebecca Black, Operation: Keep the Party Alive, Saturday Dadurday, breakast burritos, coffee & Cash, army ants on a log, Saturday Family Adventure night, "Saturday Night" by the Bay City Rollers, Sunday Funday, Sabbath Siblings Sunday lunch devotional, family naps, etc.... I love being a Van Voorst. I love being a Christian in God's economy, a citizen in His family, the head of the family He's given me and the life I get to live in light of His provision.

Ephesians 3:14-21
For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man; That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God. 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.

day no. 15,272 continued... once upon a time

"When in the Course of human Events, it becomes necessary for one People to dissolve the Political Bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the Powers of the Earth, the separate and equal Station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent Respect to the Opinions of Mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the Separation.

We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness—That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed, that whenever any form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its Foundation on such Principles, and organizing its Powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient Causes; and accordingly all Experience hath shewn, that Mankind are more disposed to suffer, while Evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long Train of Abuses and Usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a Design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their Right, it is their Duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future Security." -- The Declaration of Independence, Action of Second Continental Congress, July 4, 1776

day no. 15,272: abounding in the above and the below

This morning, (12/30/19) while reading, Angels in the Architecture: A Protestant Vision for Middle Earth by Douglas Wilson, I came across the following quote...

"The goodness, happiness, and dignity of every being consists in obeying its natural superior and ruling its natural inferiors." - C.S. Lewis

Hierarchy is inescapable. Attempting to smash the hierarchy is a lesson in futility. Any time and energy spent in that direction will not end at its intended destination and will have robbed from the time and energy required to get where you should have been going all along. To shake your first at the ordained order is to be out of order. It is to reject your superiors and neglect your inferiors. Revolution is a sin of twins. 

"When we revolt against God's world, we must not be surprised when His world wins. Our efforts are futile and will not change the way things are. We may hurt ourselves in the attempt, but the attempt will not achieve its end. We may tire ourselves out throwing snowballs at the sun. As we lie there exhausted, perhaps we will reflect, and learn wisdom." -- Douglas Wilson, Angels in the Architecture

The goodness, happiness and dignity of each and every person who has ever existed is found first, foremost and only in submitting your heart, soul, mind and strength to the station you were assigned. This station includes attendant responsibilities and duties. Responsibilities to lead and hold your office and duties to obey and attend to those in rank above yours. This includes your gender,  time, country, privileges, passions, etc... Wherever you are placed you are indebted. You owe those above you allegiance. You owe those below you service and lordship. We are all debtors. You do no service to anyone by paying your debts in only one direction. We are indebted to our superiors and to our inferiors to be who God made us to be for them.

We are closest to God when we are most devoted to our assigned posts.

Acts 17:24-27
God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that He is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands; neither is worshipped with men’s hands, as though He needed any thing, seeing He giveth to all life, and breath, and all things; and hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; that they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after Him, and find Him, though He be not far from every one of us

day no. 15,271: representative (federal/covenantal) government

"The word federal comes from the Latin word foedus, which means 'covenant.'" - Douglas Wilson, Angels in the Architecture

God has given us four areas of federal government: personal, familial, ecclesiastical, and civil. Federal here not referring to things national, but covenantal -- bound to a head or representative on our behalf. Government here not referring to piles of paperwork and the passing of bills, but duties, obligations, and responsibilities associated with and corresponding to a subsequent jurisdiction.

SELF GOVERNMENT

"Every man must do two things alone; he must do his own believing and his own dying." - Martin Luther.

God has given us ourselves to govern. We must do our own living and our own dying. Our own believing and denying. But we do not represent ourselves entirely. Even at the most fundamental, individual level we discover a federal representation in of our government. We are without exception either in Adam or in Jesus. We are all born under the jurisdiction of Adam. He is our covenant head. In him, we all fell. We are fallen because he fell. He is our representative and as he does, so go we. Only by being reborn can we experience different representation and this can only take place by adoption which requires the grace of God and faith in His one and only begotten Son, Jesus Christ. Everyone in Adam will die after they live. Everyone in Christ will live after they die. The same rules apply to Christ that did to Adam. As Jesus goes, we go. As He lives, we live. As He rose, so shall we, indeed.

FAMILY GOVERNMENT

"Every family of the pious ought to be a church." -- John Calvin

"Each home is to be a small republic, with a representative head who represents that family, and who in a covenantal sense is that family. " - Douglas Wilson, Angels in the Architecture

God has given us families. Everyone is born into or as an extension of an existing one. When a man leaves his father and mother and becomes one flesh with a woman, he lays the foundations of a new family. He is responsible to govern its well-being and it stands or falls under his headship. He is the representative of that family. He is either a good representative or a bad one, but he can't not be one. He is THE representative without question. He is to gladly assume the sacrificial responsibilities of service, provision, protection, and procreation. He is to conquer to the cultivate his homestead. He is to expand its borders and improve its bounty, to seek its fruitfulness and mend its fences to the best of his ability. He is to look to Jesus, his Head, as the Father of all fathers, Husband of all husbands and Lover of all those responsible to love others.

CHURCH GOVERNMENT

"By definition, the elder structure of government is a collective form of leadership in which each elder shares equally the position, authority, and responsibility of the office" - Alexander Strauch

God has given us the church. Every believer is part of the universal capital "C" Church and should belong and be enrolled in a lower case "c" local church. You cannot be a body part disconnected from the rest of the body without becoming a crime scene. The local church is governed by God's Word and sacraments under the headship of local leadership in the form of Elders. The local church's government is by a plurality of qualified men of character, competence and chemistry striving together to honor their Chief Shepherd, the Head of the Church universal, Jesus Christ.

STATE GOVERNMENT

“Arbitrary governing hath no alliance with God.” -- Samuel Rutherford

God has given us the state. Every person is born into a kingdom. Every person is a citizen of somewhere. That somewhere is governed by something and someone. A head can interact with or declare war on the people or representatives of other states and nations on behalf of his people. A representative Head of a people is defined by their borders. If one lives and moves and has their being within a particular geographical space, they are under the Headship of the One assigned to represent the citizens of that space. The state would do well to remember that the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein. The land is God's land. The people are God's people. And the governing of a King, president, Head, etc... is under the scrutiny of THE Head whose named on the deed of every inch of square land and on the birth certification of each and every citizen. The Head to whom all heads must give an account of their headship.

day no. 15,270: not a man of blood, but a mind of battle

My son, Atticus, wrote a short biography of Ulysses S. Grant for me and Paige last Christmas and this line stood out to me when reading it the day after, 12/26/19.

"Grant was not a man of blood but he had a mind of battle." - Atticus Van Voorst in Ulysses S. Grant

The chivalrous man is not one driven by bloodlust. He doesn't need blood in order to feel purpose, but he doesn't skip around blood in order to chase around a higher purpose. He thinks about battle and engages in the ones in front of him. He doesn't orchestrate friction in order to have something to fight about, he dwells upon strategies that allow his purposes to prevail without causing any more bloodshed than necessary. He understands that bloodshed is often necessary and does not recoil from it, but neither does he pursue it without forethought.