day no. 15,303: you are now free to roam about the cabin

Psalm 12:8
The wicked walk on every side, when the vilest men are exalted.

In a world where the most wicked received promotion, it is not surprising to find their junior level executives walking freely about wherever they please. However, in a land where the most wicked are publicly tried and found wanting, the less wicked don't presume the freedom to roam about the cabin unencumbered.

You will always cultivate what you celebrate. You produce what you promote. You increase what you incentivize.

When you exalt folly, you should not be shocked to find fools fumbling around. But when wisdom is exalted, you find that the foolish paths are clearly marked and more people doing their best to avoid them.

day no. 15,302: bargain-bin building blocks and second-rate slapdashery

Psalm 11:3
If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?

Not rhetorical. Seriously, what should the righteous do when the foundations are being destroyed beneath their feet? Rebuild them. But NOT in our own image and NOT as though the problem with them was their construction and not our jackhammers.

God has provided us all certain orienting principles upon which decisions, lives, marriages, families, communities, churches, and nations can be faithfully built. He has given these to us in order to show us what to build and how to build them. When we begin trying to use these principles to build out of step with their purpose, it is not surprising that the structures wobble and not only do structural damage to what we built, but also foundational damage to where we built it.

It is also not shocking when our towers topple when they are constructed using bargain-bin building blocks and second-rate slapdashery. You cannot build nobility out of ignoble efforts. You cannot create a heritage out of hash. You cannot leave a legacy out of loose living. Rather, I should say, you can leave a legacy and an inheritance, but it can only be legacy of ignoring legacy and a heritage of devouring inheritances in advance.

So what can the righteous do? Be righteous. Worship the One who is righteous and begin to rebuild our lives, our homes, our churches, our communities, our nations on Him alone. 

1 Corinthians 3:10-11
According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it. For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

day no. 15,301 continued... let's all be socially responsible

1 Thessalonians 4:11
Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life and attend to your own business and work with your hands, just as we commanded you,

2 Thessalonians 3:10
When we were with you, we would give you this command: If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat.

The Christian social contract is in essence, "Mind your own business."
The Progressive socialist concept is, "Mind ours."

Christians largely desire to be left alone.
Socialists desire to be attended to.

Christians require you to do nothing so that we can do what we desire.
Socialists require you to do everything so that they can do whatever they desire.

Christians are to attend to their own responsibilities. This comes from honoring God's commands. When you are responsible for your soul, your property,  your family, your business, your hunger, your fulfillment, your production and your distribution, you live simply, heartily, responsibly.... or you don't. You perish. You reap what you have sown. You eat the bounty of your productivity. This means you will either have your fill of plenty or you will have plenty of emptiness. The only exceptions to this are those who are unable to be responsible for themselves: the mentally or physically disabled for example. This does not include those unwilling to be responsible for themselves. Those should be allowed to be hungry. We should let them have their fill... even if what they desire is emptiness. 

Christians desire to mind their own business in order to have the privilege and opportunity to help others who are struggling under their own loads. But those struggling under their heavy burdens are not to be understood as those struggling with the struggle of having to have any burden at all. Those who are unwilling or unable to come to grips with what is their responsibility to grasp are not to objects of our charity. We should give them instruction, exhortation, encouragement and discipline, but we cannot give them a free pass from their obligations. The love of God does not compel us to let someone hate His designs.

Galatians 6:1-10
Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ. For if a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself. But let every man prove his own work, and then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another. For every man shall bear his own burden. Let him that is taught in the word communicate unto him that teacheth in all good things. Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not. As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith.

Christianity advocates for everyone doing their part with "everyone" being defined as every single one.

Socialism advocates for everyone else doing my part with "my" being defined by a very small number of elites claiming diplomatic immunity from the personal responsibility to provide for themselves.

If only their social distancing required them to stay out of our business. That'd be a distancing I could get behind. As it is, their dogmatic insistence on minding your business for you is forcing everyone to go out of business. The socialist element wants to force us to keep our distance in public so that they can draw closer to us in private. Their only interest in keeping us apart in public is to keep us apart from our private liberties.

They will never be content to live and let live. They cannot sleep unless someone else is forced to be awake. They will not rest until everyone else is interested in their interests. They are egalitarian, uninteresting, and narrow-minded. Their ideology flies in the face of God and seeks to erect a middle finger large enough to be seen from space. 

But it cannot and will not succeed. Sin is insanity and it doesn't work. It can't. It won't. It refused to. You cannot eat the wind and anything that can't go on forever... won't.

Praise God who is from everlasting to everlasting. He has no end and no beginning. He is forever and His world is without end and His Kingdom is forever.... Amen.

day no. 15,301: we are taken away by that with which we are taken

Psalm 10:2-4 (KJV)
The wicked in his pride doth persecute the poor: let them be taken in the devices that they have imagined. For the wicked boasteth of his heart's desire, and blesseth the covetous, whom the Lord abhorreth. The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts.

We become like what we worship. This can happen in either direction. We can devolve into idolatry or aspire to the divine. Either way, we are all well on our way to becoming something and sooner or later we're all going to get there. We are taken in by that which we invite to take us and we are taken away by that with which we are taken.

The devices we take are taking us somewhere. 

2 Corinthians 3:18
And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

Psalm 115:4-8, Psalm 135:15-18
Their idols are silver and gold,
the work of human hands.
They have mouths, but do not speak;
eyes, but do not see.
They have ears, but do not hear;
noses, but do not smell.
They have hands, but do not feel;
feet, but do not walk;
and they do not make a sound in their throat.
Those who make them become like them;
so do all who trust in them.

Those whose hearts constantly behold the Lord are becoming more and more, by one degree or another, like Him in glory. This is God's doing in us, His glory at work in conforming us to the image of His Son.

Romans 8:28-29
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose. For those whom He foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son.

day no. 15,300: "yes!" and "amen!" to God's earth

"Our marriage shall be a yes to God's earth; it shall strengthen our courage to act and accomplish something on the earth. I fear that Christians who stand with only one leg upon earth also stand with only one leg in heaven " - Dietrich Bonhoeffer, A Testament to Freedom 

This really captures what has developed as a mission statement of sorts for my family in the last year or so. Particularly in light of the recent adoption of postmillennial, optimistic, legacy-minded, Christian conquest married to a commitment to create more delight and enjoyment of earthly life here and now in an effort to practice for eternal life there and then. 

We feast now in order to prepare for that feast then. We rehearse so that we show up in proper shape. We practice to better play the game later. We work to build for God's glory here and now knowing that whatever survives the refining fire of Christ's return will only improve upon what we're already doing, not demolish it entirely.

So, as much as possible, we seek to enjoy God's world in proportion to His enjoyment in creating and sustaining it all.

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

We marry and say, "Yes" to God's green earth in doing so. We are grateful for the flesh in which He has chosen to cloth each and everything, the skin on which He places sentiments in order to make visible His invisible qualities of grace, generosity, creativity and power. 

Romans 1:19-20
For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For His invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made.

What God has made is good because its origin is located in Him and His goodness. Sin has corrupted good things, but nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving and a heart full of gratitude that looks up and gladly says, "Thank You!"

1 Timothy 4:1-5
Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared, who forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. 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.

day no. 15,299: the problem with our problem

C. H. Spurgeon was once asked how he reconciled the Sovereignty of God with the responsibility of man. “I don't,” he replied; “I never reconcile friends.”

Last night (1/16/20) the Van Voorst family watched episode 1 of Reformed Basics by Doug Wilson on Amazon Prime. 

The quote from Spurgeon helped springboard the conversation about God's sovereignty and man's responsibility. If God is in control and knows a thing from the beginning to the end and chooses what ending He wants to come to pass, how is it that man can be held accountable or responsible for anything that ends up happening?

The question is a natural and normal response to this kind of assertion and we know that because the Bible assumes that will be the natural, normal person's response to it.

Romans 9:19
You will say to me then, “Why does He still find fault? For who can resist His will?”

Wilson's explanation of our issue and our predictable response is illustrated by thinking of it as a character in a book and an author of that book. Who is responsible for what the character says? Is he 100% responsible and the author is off the hook? Is the author 100% responsible and the character is off the hook? What about if we divide it up 50/50? Our difficulty with this illustration is that we don't like being thought of as a character in someone else's story and we don't like imagining that all of our words are like a dialogue being penned down by someone else. In short, we imagine ourselves as something more than merely a two-dimensional character, simply parroting whatever words are being piped through our vocal chords from an off-stage ventriloquist. 

But our problem is highlighted by the problem we have with that illustration. We immediately rush to defending ourselves as being more than just a mere character. We see that flaw in the logic immediately and we don't take too kindly to it.

Here is the problem with our problem: we don't have a problem with God being merely an author of stories. We don't rush to explain that He is much more than a two dimensional author writing what sometimes appears to be poorly written dialogue. We don't immediately attempt to elevate His position within that particular allegory. 

But the explanation of God's sovereignty and our responsibility is located not in elevating ourselves within the story, but recognizing that He is outside of all stories and is much more than a two-dimensional story teller. He is an another dimension altogether. A dimension in which He alone lives, moves and has His being. He lives in that world, that plane, that realm and we live in ours. He is outside our space and time and yet able to interact and determine our space and time (Acts 17:26). In fact, not only able, but perfectly so, uniquely so.

So, all that to say, the solution to "the problem" of free will and predestination is not found in freer people but a freer God.

day no. 15,298: feelings farmers

"The chief aim of order is to give room for good things to run wild." – G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy

Everything in its right place makes everything right in its place. 

Colossians 3:5 (KJV)
Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry:

Tell your feelings to fall into formation. Teach them their place. Make them march in line and in step with their Commander's intent.

When our affections are out of order, the result is inevitably disorder and chaotic affections topple everything over. Even the best of affections, if assembled incorrectly, eventually collapse.

Matthew 22:34-40
But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

Our highest affections ought to be reserved for God. He is our chief aim and of the highest order. We cannot place too much value on Him. We cannot conjure too much affection for Him. There is nothing disproportionately possible when it comes to throwing praise upward when He occupies the highest place. When we worship Him with our first and best because we recognize Him as the first and best in everything we do, it makes room for everything else to fall into place.

Certain things must follow from placing God first, like loving your neighbor, leading your family, raising your kids, honoring your elders, etc... but they can only be done properly if they follow feelings submitted primarily to God. In other words, there must be second things, but they can only be properly done when they don't come first. We do violence to ourselves, God and others when we conjure feelings for them that rival those we ought to have first found in Him. We do a disservice to those we attempt to love by focusing our feelings on them in disproportion to their place in the universe.

We are responsible for the ordering our of affections. If we have feelings for second things that rival our affections for God and diminish His place of priority in our heart, it is our duty to feed our affections proportionate to where they should be placed. It is our responsibility to feed our flagging affections for God, even when -- especially when -- we don't feel like it. In fact, that is the time we must do it most. If we find in ourselves feelings for second things that are inordinate, it is our duty to withhold from them or force them further back in the feeding line.

We must manage the intensity of our feelings. God has made us feelings farmers. We have a crop to monitor and a garden to which we must attend. We must fertilize what we want to grow, prune what we want to see grow more, cut back that which we desire to see only at certain levels, and cut off that which we never want to see again. If we want to complete a picture of layer and texture and depth, some plants will need to be kept smaller, while others will need to be promoted higher. We must tend to the gardens of our emotions and resist the temptation to believe that we have no say in what or how much we feel anything. If we feel something too much, it is our duty to resist it. We are obligated to turn a cold shoulder to our own internal pleadings if they aspire disproportionate to their designated stations.