“Why is it that it is often easier for us to confess our sins to God than to a brother? God is holy and sinless, He is a just judge of evil and the enemy of all disobedience. But a brother is sinful as we are. He knows from his own experience the dark night of secret sin. Why should we not find it easier to go to a brother than to the holy God? But if we do, we must ask ourselves whether we have not often been deceiving ourselves with our confession of sin to God, whether we have not rather been confessing our sins to ourselves and also granting ourselves absolution...Who can give us the certainty that, in the confession and the forgiveness of our sins, we are not dealing with ourselves but with the living God? God gives us this certainty through our brother. Our brother breaks the circle of self-deception. A man who confesses his sins in the presence of a brother knows that he is no longer alone with himself; he experiences the presence of God in the reality of the other person.”
― Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together
We regularly flip the script. We find it easy to confess our sins to God and difficult to confess them to our family and friends. This reveals that we do not understand the seriousness of sin or the holiness of God. God is the last place we should feel safe being laid bare. No one hates sin more than God and no one has more authority to judge it than Him. Our neighbor is the first place we should feel safe confessing our sins. No one can relate better to our depravity than our friends and no one has less reason or authority to judge us than them. But in Christ, we can approach the throne of grace with boldness and our neighbor in humility. We have no reason to fear either because we are free from all condemnation in Christ.
Tuesday, September 7, 2021
Monday, September 6, 2021
day no. 15,659: a second saved is a second burned
In reading The Art of Manliness, Manvotionals: Timeless Wisdom and Advice on Living the 7 Manly Virtues by Brett McKay, I came across the following quote,
"Time: with it, all is possible; without it, nothing. The supply of time is truly a daily miracle, an affair genuinely astonishing when one examines it. You wake up in the morning, and lo! your purse is magically filled with twenty-four hours! It is yours.... No one can take it from you. It is unstealable. And no one receives either more or less than you receive.... You cannot draw on the future. Impossible to get into debt! You can only waste the passing moment. You cannot waste tomorrow; it is kept for you. If one can't contrive to live on a certain income of money, one earns a little more --- or steals it. One doesn't necessarily muddle one's life because one can't quite manage on a thousand pounds a year. But if one cannot arrange that an income of twenty-four hours a day shall exactly cover all proper items of expenditure, one does muddle one's life definitely." — Arnold Bennet, How to Live on 24 Hours a Day
My wife often says, "Live your priorities" in referring to this principle. You must budget your hours. Just like you must tell your money where you want it to go, so you must tell your time where to be spent. If you don't, it will still be spent. You can't save some for later. You can't borrow against tomorrow. You can't make more of it, but you can make the most of it.
"Time: with it, all is possible; without it, nothing. The supply of time is truly a daily miracle, an affair genuinely astonishing when one examines it. You wake up in the morning, and lo! your purse is magically filled with twenty-four hours! It is yours.... No one can take it from you. It is unstealable. And no one receives either more or less than you receive.... You cannot draw on the future. Impossible to get into debt! You can only waste the passing moment. You cannot waste tomorrow; it is kept for you. If one can't contrive to live on a certain income of money, one earns a little more --- or steals it. One doesn't necessarily muddle one's life because one can't quite manage on a thousand pounds a year. But if one cannot arrange that an income of twenty-four hours a day shall exactly cover all proper items of expenditure, one does muddle one's life definitely." — Arnold Bennet, How to Live on 24 Hours a Day
My wife often says, "Live your priorities" in referring to this principle. You must budget your hours. Just like you must tell your money where you want it to go, so you must tell your time where to be spent. If you don't, it will still be spent. You can't save some for later. You can't borrow against tomorrow. You can't make more of it, but you can make the most of it.
Ephesians 5:15-17
Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.
You can turn a profit on your time, but it's fruit is not the same as its root. The reward of time well sown is not 30, 60 or 100 fold return. Time is spent at the exchange rate of sixty seconds per minute regardless of investment strategy. Some will get more out of their time, but no one gets more time per day as their reward. A penny saved may be a penny earned, but a second saved is merely a second burned.
Ecclesiastes 9:11
Time and chance happens to them all.
Matthew 6:27
Which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?
Ecclesiastes 9:11
Time and chance happens to them all.
Matthew 6:27
Which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?
Sunday, September 5, 2021
day no. 15,658: feelings don't do anything
Be instant in season, out of season. — 2 Timothy 4:2
"Many of us suffer from the morbid tendency to be instant ‘out of season.’ The season does not refer to time, but to us. ‘Be instant in season, out of season,’ whether we feel like it or not. If we do only what we feel inclined to do, some of us would do nothing for ever and ever. There are unemployables in the spiritual domain, spiritually decrepit people, who refuse to do anything unless they are supernaturally inspired. The proof that we are rightly related to God is that we do our best whether we feel inspired or not.
One of the great snares of the Christian worker is to make a fetish of his rare moments. When the Spirit of God gives you a time of inspiration and insight, you say — ‘Now I will always be like this for God.’ No, you will not, God will take care you are not. Those times are the gift of God entirely. You cannot give them to yourself when you choose. If you say you will only be at your best, you become an intolerable drag on God; you will never do anything unless God keeps you consciously inspired. If you make a god of your best moments, you will find that God will fade out of your life and never come back until you do the duty that lies nearest, and have learned not to make a fetish of your rare moments." -- Oswald Chamber, My Utmost for His Highest
When we are riding a spiritual high, we feel like we could and would do anything for Jesus, but when we are feeling that way we typically sit back and just enjoy soaking in the feeling. When we are experiencing a spiritual low, we long for the days where we felt like we could or would do anything for Jesus. Either way, if we orient our spirituality around highs and lows, nothing gets done for Jesus - whether we feel like it or not.
"Many of us suffer from the morbid tendency to be instant ‘out of season.’ The season does not refer to time, but to us. ‘Be instant in season, out of season,’ whether we feel like it or not. If we do only what we feel inclined to do, some of us would do nothing for ever and ever. There are unemployables in the spiritual domain, spiritually decrepit people, who refuse to do anything unless they are supernaturally inspired. The proof that we are rightly related to God is that we do our best whether we feel inspired or not.
One of the great snares of the Christian worker is to make a fetish of his rare moments. When the Spirit of God gives you a time of inspiration and insight, you say — ‘Now I will always be like this for God.’ No, you will not, God will take care you are not. Those times are the gift of God entirely. You cannot give them to yourself when you choose. If you say you will only be at your best, you become an intolerable drag on God; you will never do anything unless God keeps you consciously inspired. If you make a god of your best moments, you will find that God will fade out of your life and never come back until you do the duty that lies nearest, and have learned not to make a fetish of your rare moments." -- Oswald Chamber, My Utmost for His Highest
When we are riding a spiritual high, we feel like we could and would do anything for Jesus, but when we are feeling that way we typically sit back and just enjoy soaking in the feeling. When we are experiencing a spiritual low, we long for the days where we felt like we could or would do anything for Jesus. Either way, if we orient our spirituality around highs and lows, nothing gets done for Jesus - whether we feel like it or not.
At our best, we only imagine we could or would do anything; and at our worst, we can't imagine wanting to do anything ever again. Feelings-based, experientially-emphasized spirituality never amounts to anything. It can't... and it doesn't really want to. It just wants the experience of inspiration back without ever actually aspiring to do anything more than that with it.
Saturday, September 4, 2021
day no. 15,657: the joy of the elect
Matthew 16:13-17
When Jesus came into the coasts of Cæsarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, “Whom do men say that I the Son of man am?” And they said, “Some say that thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets.” He saith unto them, “But whom say ye that I am?” And Simon Peter answered and said, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus answered and said unto him, “Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.”
"Thou art a happy man, that thou art not ignorant of this, that I am Christ, the Son of the Living God. Thou art distinguishingly happy. Others are blinded, and have dark and deluded apprehensions, as you have now given an account, some thinking that I am Elias, and some that I am Jeremais, and some one thing, and some another; but none of them thinking right, all of them misled. Happy art thou, that art so distinguished as to know the truth in this matter." -- Jonathan Edwards, Divine and Supernatural Light, Immediately Imparted to the Soul by the Spirit of God, Shown to be both a Scriptural and Rational Doctrine from Selected Sermons of Jonathan Edwards edited by H. Norman Gardiner
When Jesus came into the coasts of Cæsarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, “Whom do men say that I the Son of man am?” And they said, “Some say that thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets.” He saith unto them, “But whom say ye that I am?” And Simon Peter answered and said, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus answered and said unto him, “Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.”
"Thou art a happy man, that thou art not ignorant of this, that I am Christ, the Son of the Living God. Thou art distinguishingly happy. Others are blinded, and have dark and deluded apprehensions, as you have now given an account, some thinking that I am Elias, and some that I am Jeremais, and some one thing, and some another; but none of them thinking right, all of them misled. Happy art thou, that art so distinguished as to know the truth in this matter." -- Jonathan Edwards, Divine and Supernatural Light, Immediately Imparted to the Soul by the Spirit of God, Shown to be both a Scriptural and Rational Doctrine from Selected Sermons of Jonathan Edwards edited by H. Norman Gardiner
There is knowledge that can only be given by God. There are things that cannot be known in any other way than if God should instruct. God has given man much to know and much that can be communicated from one to the next; but knowledge of this sort, that Jesus is the Christ and the Son of the Living God, can only be revealed to a soul below by God above. Flesh and blood cannot decipher this. True happiness is in knowing what only God can teach and believing in what only God could reveal and receiving what only God could give, Jesus Christ.
"There is a difference between having an opinion that God is holy and gracious, and having a sense of the loveliness and beauty of that holiness and grace. There is a difference between having a rational judgment that honey is sweet, and having a sense of its sweetness. A man may have the former, that knows not how honey tastes; but a man can't have the latter unless he has an idea of the taste of honey in his mind." -- Jonathan Edwards, Divine and Supernatural Light, Immediately Imparted to the Soul by the Spirit of God, Shown to be both a Scriptural and Rational Doctrine from Selected Sermons of Jonathan Edwards edited by H. Norman Gardiner
"There is a difference between having an opinion that God is holy and gracious, and having a sense of the loveliness and beauty of that holiness and grace. There is a difference between having a rational judgment that honey is sweet, and having a sense of its sweetness. A man may have the former, that knows not how honey tastes; but a man can't have the latter unless he has an idea of the taste of honey in his mind." -- Jonathan Edwards, Divine and Supernatural Light, Immediately Imparted to the Soul by the Spirit of God, Shown to be both a Scriptural and Rational Doctrine from Selected Sermons of Jonathan Edwards edited by H. Norman Gardiner
Friday, September 3, 2021
day no. 15,656 continued... Chesterton on point and decades ahead of the game as per usual
"In America some educational enthusiasts did really announce with pride that the children in particular school were 'all health-mad.' This meant, it really and truly meant, that the infants are in an intense state of vigilance and concentrated excitement on the problem of the preservation of their own bodily health; on how to for see indigestion or mark the stages of cold. And the man meant, he really and truly meant,that this was a condition on which they were to be congratulated. So that, instead of toy helmets or toy swords, they would have toy goggles and toy respirators; possibly little toy bottles of disinfectant or even toy hypodermic syringe. That anybody should be mad on anything is not exactly the goal and ideal of all mental science. That anybody should be mad on health is always of all things the most unhealthy. That children should be mad on health is something so horrible that one would hardly dream of it, outside some such torture-chamber as the tale called 'The Turn of the Screw'; where children are possessed of devils. Yet I repeat that I read the boast with my own eyes in an American paper, as a report of the success of a hygienic educational campaign. It was some silly stuff about sending a clown round to give serious advice on hygiene, enlivened with jokes; I bet the jokes were not so amusing as the serious remarks." -- G.K. Chesterton, The Madhouse and the Nursery, 1921
day no. 15,656: one more party
Luke 15:11-14
And he said, “There was a man who had two sons. And the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of property that is coming to me.’ And he divided his property between them. Not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had and took a journey into a far country, and there he squandered his property in reckless living. And when he had spent everything, a severe famine arose in that country, and he began to be in need.
The younger son did not have a problem finding parties. He knew where to find them and what made for fun ones. He spent a lot of money and had a lot of fun. He lived it up in riotous, reckless revelry. And then... the money ran out. Lavish living can only last for so long without a means to support it. The young man then was forced to finally sober up because the the storehouse wore out. He woke up dry one day because his means had all dried up.
Luke 15:17-20
But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father's hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants.”’ And he arose and came to his father.
Having partied hard left this young man on hard times and so... with head hung low, he headed home. He learned his lesson. The harder they party, they harder they fall. The higher the high, the harder the crash. Certainly his father would agree, right?
Luke 15:22-24
But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to celebrate.
Who would have guessed that what this young man needed was one more party? Who would have imagined that another feast was in order? Wasn't partying the problem in the first place? Wasn't feasting what got him into so much trouble?
What Jesus reveals to us here is that we have all longed for the wrong kind of party. We have set our hearts on riotous living, imaging it as the pinnacle of delight, but what Jesus reveals here is that we've desired a backyard balloon artist when a circus tent of celebration is being offered. We have preferred watered down whiskey to the hard stuff. So our solution is not less parties, but better ones. Not "no more partying," but "one more good one!"
God's grace is to throw a party for a son who comes to his senses after discovering that his parties couldn't last forever. When God throws a party, the wine is sweeter, the food is fatter and the lights never go out; the senses are never dulled by drunken insatiability, but elevated by sober gratitude.
The young man looked for life in being the life of the party, but discovered life in being invited to a party thrown by someone else.
The seed form of this thought came from a comment Doug Wilson made in passing HERE.
And he said, “There was a man who had two sons. And the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of property that is coming to me.’ And he divided his property between them. Not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had and took a journey into a far country, and there he squandered his property in reckless living. And when he had spent everything, a severe famine arose in that country, and he began to be in need.
The younger son did not have a problem finding parties. He knew where to find them and what made for fun ones. He spent a lot of money and had a lot of fun. He lived it up in riotous, reckless revelry. And then... the money ran out. Lavish living can only last for so long without a means to support it. The young man then was forced to finally sober up because the the storehouse wore out. He woke up dry one day because his means had all dried up.
Luke 15:17-20
But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father's hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants.”’ And he arose and came to his father.
Having partied hard left this young man on hard times and so... with head hung low, he headed home. He learned his lesson. The harder they party, they harder they fall. The higher the high, the harder the crash. Certainly his father would agree, right?
Luke 15:22-24
But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to celebrate.
Who would have guessed that what this young man needed was one more party? Who would have imagined that another feast was in order? Wasn't partying the problem in the first place? Wasn't feasting what got him into so much trouble?
What Jesus reveals to us here is that we have all longed for the wrong kind of party. We have set our hearts on riotous living, imaging it as the pinnacle of delight, but what Jesus reveals here is that we've desired a backyard balloon artist when a circus tent of celebration is being offered. We have preferred watered down whiskey to the hard stuff. So our solution is not less parties, but better ones. Not "no more partying," but "one more good one!"
God's grace is to throw a party for a son who comes to his senses after discovering that his parties couldn't last forever. When God throws a party, the wine is sweeter, the food is fatter and the lights never go out; the senses are never dulled by drunken insatiability, but elevated by sober gratitude.
The young man looked for life in being the life of the party, but discovered life in being invited to a party thrown by someone else.
The seed form of this thought came from a comment Doug Wilson made in passing HERE.
Thursday, September 2, 2021
day no. 15,655: the harmony of the spheres
2 Chronicles 26:16-20
But when he was strong, he grew proud, to his destruction. For he was unfaithful to the LORD his God and entered the temple of the LORD to burn incense on the altar of incense. But Azariah the priest went in after him, with eighty priests of the LORD who were men of valor, and they withstood King Uzziah and said to him, "It is not for you, Uzziah, to burn incense to the LORD, but for the priests, the sons of Aaron, who are consecrated to burn incense. Go out of the sanctuary, for you have done wrong, and it will bring you no honor from the LORD God." Then Uzziah was angry. Now he had a censer in his hand to burn incense, and when he became angry with the priests, leprosy broke out on his forehead in the presence of the priests in the house of the LORD, by the altar of incense. And Azariah the chief priest and all the priests looked at him, and behold, he was leprous in his forehead! And they rushed him out quickly, and he himself hurried to go out, because the LORD had struck him.
Uzziah was the King, but not every square inch of his Kingdom was his per se. The real estate on which the temple was built fell within his boundaries, but the responsibilities and authority within its wall were not within his jurisdiction. The King was not a priest and as such was not permitted to act in that capacity. While the priest would fall under the king's dominion as a citizen of his kingdom, the king was under his jurisdiction when in the temple as a member of his congregation. There, the priests were the king's superiors. The king was their charge and they were his champion.
But when he was strong, he grew proud, to his destruction. For he was unfaithful to the LORD his God and entered the temple of the LORD to burn incense on the altar of incense. But Azariah the priest went in after him, with eighty priests of the LORD who were men of valor, and they withstood King Uzziah and said to him, "It is not for you, Uzziah, to burn incense to the LORD, but for the priests, the sons of Aaron, who are consecrated to burn incense. Go out of the sanctuary, for you have done wrong, and it will bring you no honor from the LORD God." Then Uzziah was angry. Now he had a censer in his hand to burn incense, and when he became angry with the priests, leprosy broke out on his forehead in the presence of the priests in the house of the LORD, by the altar of incense. And Azariah the chief priest and all the priests looked at him, and behold, he was leprous in his forehead! And they rushed him out quickly, and he himself hurried to go out, because the LORD had struck him.
Uzziah was the King, but not every square inch of his Kingdom was his per se. The real estate on which the temple was built fell within his boundaries, but the responsibilities and authority within its wall were not within his jurisdiction. The King was not a priest and as such was not permitted to act in that capacity. While the priest would fall under the king's dominion as a citizen of his kingdom, the king was under his jurisdiction when in the temple as a member of his congregation. There, the priests were the king's superiors. The king was their charge and they were his champion.
Uzziah made the mistake of assuming his sway in one sphere of governance granted him access to the same sway in another. Rather than acknowledging the harmony of the spheres God created, he attempted to create for himself a world played on one string -- presuming, of course, that he was to be the one pulling and plucking it.
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