day no. 16,205: finneas is eleven!

Happy Birthday, Finneas!!!

Today you become what you always have been... an eleven. You now have the number of years to match your level of intensity. Eleven, you just met your match! Look out world, Finneas Haddon Foxe, the eleven of all elevens, is now eleven years old. Never before have so many elevens congregated in one place, than today, in this young man. It's going to be a fun ride. I'm glad I’ve got a front row seat.

You are growing in wisdom, stature, and favor with God and people. You are always a fan favorite wherever we go. People like you. Can't blame them. You're easy to like. 

You have great comedic timing and a willingness to be silly in order to make others smile. You don't mind being the center of attention, but don't need to be either. 

You proactively look to the interests of others. When you're given the chance to pick a meal, you are often quick to consider what others would want. You like to dominate, but you feel the weight of responsibility for your decisions. That is exactly what a man should do. A man who dominates without care for others is a tyrant. May God help you continue to be more and more like your namesake, Phinehas, who knew how to leverage his strength for the sake of others, but also had the self-control and strength to hold back for the sake of others.

Remember how you were really into tank tops for a while? I do. That was awesome.

You and Rocco are best buds. Rocco looks up to you and likes doing what you do. This is a great honor and a great responsibility. It is also a good opportunity to practice being a dad. A father sets the example for his kids to follow. A good father leads his children well so that the more they follow in his footsteps, the more like Jesus they become.

You are a natural disciple-maker. You ride your own melt and people naturally gravitate to you and want to get caught up in your current. May you continue to use that privilege to lead others for their good and the glory of God.

You still care a great deal about lost people. You worry about the people you know who don't know Jesus or don't act like they do. It bothers you to think of people dying in their sins. You are not ashamed to share the Good News or to ask people about their spiritual beliefs. May God continue to bless you with this boldness and give you increased wisdom and understanding in your own faith so that you can respond well to your questions.

You insist on giving me a hug every night after I tuck you in. You like to have the last word, or the last whistle, I should say, as I walk up the stairs. You like to say, "Goodbye" before I go on walks and you like to greet me once I'm home. You are aware of peoples comings and goings and like to let people know that you care about their comings and goings.

You are a great cartoonist. You have developed your own style of drawing characters. You also write funny poems like your “Brains! It's the End” series. You are a creative kid.

You also love music. You really like P.O.D., Red, and Showbread. You rock out on your headphones on Sunday afternoons in the conservatory while you play with your Joes. You are always banging a beat on something. You seem like you need a set of drums. Maybe someday?

I am proud of you, my son. You are strong, brave, fun, smart, caring, and cool. 

I can't wait to see what 11 holds for you. Many people have often predicted that God has something special assigned for you. You were born for such a time as this and I can't wait to see how you take on such a time as this with all the gifts God has given to you.

I love you, Finneas and I like being your dad,

Happy Birthday, brother.

Love,

Dad

day no. 16,204: the marriage bed as metanarrative and mircocosm

"Do you not know how it is with love? First comes delight: then pain: then fruit. And then there is joy of the fruit, but that is different again from the first delight. And mortal lovers must not try to remain at the first step: for lasting passion is the dream of a harlot and from it we wake in despair. You must not try to keep the raptures: they have done their work. Manna kept, is worms."  -- C.S Lewis, The Pilgrim's Regress

The marriage bed is a metanarrative. It captures the expansive abstract of what we call life in the specific particulars of how life is reproduced. Marriage is a microcosm and a pattern of all fruitful living. The marriage bed is a portent of the grander picture and an entire novel summarized in a single chapter.

Hebrews 13:4

Marriage is to be held in honor among all.

The marriage bed begins with delight. That delight leads to new life. That new life causes discomfort in the carrying and pain in the delivery. The newborn is then a new delight who sleeps in or near the marriage bed. Such is the way of fruit and fruitfulness. Delight gives way to pain that then produces fruit which is a new source of delight.  Delight gives way to new delight. The fruitful bed has more delight than the unfruitful one. Attempting to indulge the first delight without experiencing the pain of fruitfulness cuts one off from deeper delights and eventually even robs the possessor of the initial one.

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. 16,202: beware of Baalfare and Feducation

"The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: 'I'm from the Government, and I'm here to help.'" -- Ronald Reagan

Family is a form of government under God. Health, welfare, and education are, according to God, the responsibility of the Family. As such, it has been given jurisdiction over what does or does not go into a child's body and mind. The family is free to seek outside help in fulfilling these responsibilities, but they cannot delegate them. The responsibility, in other words, is non-transferable. 

Ephesians 6:4

And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.

Nurture and admonition are the responsibility of the parent. Nurture includes nourishment of body, soul, mind, and strength. It is a parent's duty to consider carefully what goes into and what does not go into their child's head and heart and what gets placed into their hands. Health, welfare, and education are here placed primarily on the plate of a child's parent. God has assigned them this post and they are not free to loan it to someone else or abandon it altogether.

1 Timothy 5:8

But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel.

God has made it clear. You are responsible for your own. He assigns you those who are your own by making them your family. In other words, simply stated: your family is your responsibility.

The State has no jurisdiction over our bodies or our minds. It has no say in what our children eat or read. God has not given it to them and we are not free to hand it over to them. Baalfare is the State's attempt to take over health and welfare. Feducation is the State's attempt to take over education. The State wants to absorb the jurisdiction of the Family in order to eliminate its authoritative structure. If the State can offer to serve, provide, and protect you, you can functionally eliminate fathers and mothers. But not because they don't think fathers and mothers don't matter, but because they know that they DO. That's why they want to PLAY father and mother for you and make your health, welfare and educational decisions. They don't want to eliminate the concept of one person making health and education decisions on behalf of someone else, they want TO BE the ONE person making ALL health and education related decisions for everyone else.

So Christians, let us take our lumps as pariahs, but not as participants. Let us suffer as Christians honoring our responsibilities before God, not as appeasers trying to win favor with the world. Let us hold the line, not our abuser's whips. Why make it easier for them? Why help them rob you of your God-given responsibility? Why support Caesar's power grab for that which does not belong to Caesar? 

The State is not God. The State has a God and will answer to Him, whether they pass a law or not. They do not have standing in His presence, so let us not bow down in theirs.

----

Baalfare: a system of distribution predicated upon the notion that the State not only has the authority to dispense the rain, but the ability to produce it.

Feducation: a system of indoctrination predicated upon the notion that the State not only owns the trademark on truth, but also the means of production and distribution.

day no. 16,201: in umbra, igitur, pugnabimus

Xerxes’ massive forces attempted to intimidate Leonidas and his 300 by threatening, “Our arrows will blot out the sun,” to which the 300, undaunted, replied, “Then we will fight in the shade.” (in umbra, igitur, pugnabimus)

We, too, are being threatened and bullied by the benighted. They, too, have placed their confidence in their ability to veil the sun. But their darkness will evaporate soon enough and the light will outlast their darkness. It will shine brighter than ever when their darkness eventually goes out.

John 1:5

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

And in the meantime, we fight like soldiers of light, illuminating the landscape like cities on a hill even if shoved underground or into a basket. We burn through the blanket. The light never goes out. The darkness dies with the coming day.

Ephesians 6:12

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

This present darkness is doomed. It is passing away. Death is on life support. Darkness is on death row. Resurrection is the new Rule.

1 John 2:8

The darkness is passing away, and the true light is already shining.

day no 16,200 continued... Jude Doxology (original, metrical rendering)

Now unto Him

That is able

To keep you from falling

And to present

You faultless ‘fore

The presence of His Gl’ry

With exceeding joy

With exceeding joy

To the only

God of wisdom,

Glory to our Saviour,

Pow’r, dominion,

Majesty be

Both now and forever

With exceeding joy

With exceeding joy 

Amen.

— Jude Doxology

Postmillitant original rendering

..

*original second stanza

To the only

God our Saviour

Wise in all His glory

Pow’r, dominion,

Majesty be

Both now and forever

With exceeding joy

With exceeding joy 

day no. 16,200: clamoring for the curse it didn't get

"Eve's curse isn't good enough, they want to share Adam's too" -- Voddie Baucham

Feminism multiplies curses.

Rather than multiplying disciples by faithful, fruitful child-rearing and evangelism, feminism seeks to multiply mayhem by clamoring for the curse it didn't get.

Feminists would rather work for someone else's husband than serve their own. They would rather watch someone else's children for a paycheck than watch their own for posterity. They would rather take care of someone else's sick relatives for the sake of revenue than comfort and care for their own sick at home for the sake of relationship. They would rather be in charge of the spreadsheets at the office for prestige than those in their own kitchens for productivity. They would rather balance the budgets of someone else's money in order to earn some of it  for their efforts than spend their days balancing their own in order to manage their household.

Feminism believes that the thorns and thistles of the workplace perfectly complement the pain and discomfort of being a female. Feminism multiplies sorrow and does not lift even a finger to help a woman carry it. Feminism assumes masculinity as the center and harangues women into aspiring for it. Feminism despises men because they are naturally better at being masculine than it is.

Feminism is envy in a pantsuit. It cannot have what it wants or ever be content with what it currently has. It would rather attempt to have a double-portion of bad news than to be content with the blessing of only having its own curses to deal with. It demands, "Ladies first!" whether it be the front of the lunch line or the first for the firing squad.