day no. 16,237: the glory of sacrifice outlives the gain of self interest

“There does not appear to be any doubt that money is the agent which causes the decline of this strong, brave, and self-confident people. The decline in courage, enterprise, and a sense of duty is, however, gradual. The first direction in which wealth injures the nation is a moral one. Money replaces honour and adventure as the objective of the best young men. Moreover, men do not normally seek to make money for their country or their community, but for themselves. Gradually, and almost imperceptibly the Age of Affluence silences the voice of duty. The object of the young and the ambitious is no longer fame, honour or service, but cash." -- Sir John Glubb, The Fates of Empires

Men seek honor and glory for their God, for their nation, for their people, or for their family; but men, more often than not, seek money only or themselves. Men seek security for their community through sacrifice, duty, and obligation. Men seek security for themselves through their indulgence, self-interest, or fear.

The glory of sacrifice outlives the gain of self interest.

A man working for the glory and honor of another works harder than if he were only working for his own while the man working for the financial stability of another works less enthusiastically. If his labors are to be used to fill someone else's pockets, his esprit de corps diminishes. So, a man will work hard for money for himself, but will struggle to work as hard to make money for someone else. But a man attempting to gain honor and glory for his people, his flag, his family, his coat of arms, etc... will go as hard, if not harder, than if he were only attempting to gain personal glory. 

Glory presupposes sacrifice. It counts it as part of the pursuit. Financial gain and accrual does not factor sacrifice into its game plan. Generosity is not inherently part of filling your own pockets. Sacrifice, however, is built into the pursuit of honor and glory.  Heroes are remembered for their courage and sacrifice in the face of adversity. You can't gain glory without a sacrificial spirit. Nobility is not in serving your self, but in giving yourself for something noble.

Isaiah 32:8

He who is noble plans noble things, and on noble things he stands.

day no. 16,236: societies deserve their celebrities

"Frivolity is the frequent companion of pessimism. Let us eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die. The resemblance between various declining nations in this respect is truly surprising." -- Sir John Glubb, The Fates of Empires

Decadence begets disillusion. Indulgence dries the well. Nations that abandon diligence for decadence decline into frivolous entertainments. Their whole lives become hobbies while their labors and hard work are avoided.

"The heroes of declining nations are always the same—the athlete, the singer or the actor. The word ‘celebrity’ today is used to designate a comedian or a football player, not a statesman, a general, or a literary genius." -- Sir John Glubb, The Fates of Empires

When a society is obsessed with athletes, singers, and thespians, it is in bad shape. You cultivate what you celebrate and societies deserve their celebrities. You get what you glorify. Glory is inescapable. A culture will glory in something. If not honor and sacrifice, then indulgence and few things exemplify this more than celebrities whose primary occupation is being and staying famous. Their job is to be self-interested. They sing songs about what they think about and submit only to photo shoots and articles that make them the center of attention. They are cheered on for being self-absorbed by people whose primary dream in life is to be the one on the magazine cover instead on the one buying the magazine.

"Religion begat prosperity and the daughter devoured the mother.” - Cotton Mather

Jeshurun does not have to kick after he waxes fat, but he often does (Deut 32:15).

Gratitude is the only solution to the problem of prosperity.

day no. 16,235: societies are saved by sacrifice

"Perhaps the most dangerous by-product of the Age of Intellect is the unconscious growth of the idea that the human brain can solve the problems of the world. Even on the low level of practical affairs this is patently untrue. Any small human activity, the local bowls club or the ladies’ luncheon club, requires for its survival a measure of self-sacrifice and service on the part of the members. In a wider national sphere, the survival of the nation depends basically on the loyalty and self-sacrifice of the citizens. The impression that the situation can be saved by mental cleverness, without unselfishness or human self-dedication, can only lead to collapse." -- Sir John Glubb, The Fates of Empires

Societies are saved by sacrifice. Knowledge puffs up if it is not poured out. It inflates the skull if it doesn't infiltrate it's fingers. God has so woven the Gospel into every aspect of the world, that nothing can be accomplished outside of sacrifice and resurrection. This power is foreshadowed and revealed in everything. In other words, many of our problems are not the result of ignorance, but arrogance. Our issues, therefore, cannot be solved by academics. Cleverness cannot help us out of the crisis it caused. Our faith in our intellect causes suffering and our faith in our intellect to relieve our sufferings only compounds them.

"Perhaps it is not the intellectualism which destroys the spirit of self-sacrifice—the least we can say is that the two, intellectualism and the loss of a sense of duty, appear simultaneously in the life-story of the nation.  Indeed it often appears in individuals, that the head and the heart are natural rivals. The brilliant but cynical intellectual appears at the opposite end of the spectrum from the emotional self-sacrifice of the hero or the martyr. Yet there are times when the perhaps unsophisticated self-dedication of the hero is more essential than the sarcasms of the clever." -- Sir John Glubb, The Fates of Empires

The smarter we are the less loyal we often become. As our intellectual muscles grow our spiritual muscles often atrophy. It doesn't have to be this way, but it often is this way. The confidence obtained by scienticism corrodes the sense of obligation. The more you feel like you know, the less you will feel duty-bound to do anything about it. And on the rare occasions that you do, it will likely only be motivated by a prideful assertion that the world needs to be exposed to your insights, not for their sake mind you, but to prevent yourself from being robbed of the glory you deserve.

day no. 16,234: when money is in better supply than courage

"Money being in better supply than courage, subsidies instead of weapons are employed to buy off enemies. To justify this departure from ancient tradition, the human mind easily devises its own justification. Military readiness, or aggressiveness, is denounced as primitive and immoral. Civilised peoples are too proud to fight. The conquest of one nation by another is declared to be immoral. Empires are wicked. This intellectual device enables us to suppress our feeling of inferiority, when we read of the heroism of our ancestors, and then ruefully contemplate our position today. ‘It is not that we are afraid to fight,’ we say, ‘but we should consider it immoral.’ This even enables us to assume an attitude of moral superiority." -- Sir John Glubb, The Fates of Empires

When a people pass from pioneering to prosperity they get soft as a society. They get used to conveniences and are less likely to willfully suffer the shenanigans associated with trailblazing and conquest. They also shift from production to service. In so doing, their tenacity atrophies as their bank accounts burst.

However, the world around you does not settle in just because you have. A country giving itself over to effeminacy is ripe to be plucked by one flexing its masculinity. Effeminacy can never rule the roost. It can nag and coddle, but only its own. Those outside the flock do not fall for any of their fakakta claptrap. Foreigners care nothing for their temper tantrums and sweep them off the floor where they're still red in the face from kicking and flailing.

At first, the affluence of the effeminate can buy off the aggression of the masculine. It can hire other warriors to defend them. It can bribe the barbarous with delicacies. But eventually the barns go bare or the men at the borders get restless and there is nothing the effeminate can do to resist the initiative of stronger, better men. Dainties cannot keep back the devourers indefinitely. Sweets cannot stall the salty forever.

While the effeminate are busy congratulating themselves for their refinement, they are, all of a sudden, swept up and made to serve in another man's kingdom.

Imposition is inescapable and where gold is more abundant than grit both are taken away by the gumption of another group.

For example:

Daniel 5:1, 4-6, 8-9, 13, 17-18, 22-23, 26-28, 30-31

King Belshaz′zar made a great feast for a thousand of his lords, and drank wine in front of the thousand...They drank wine, and praised the gods of gold and silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone. Immediately the fingers of a man’s hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall of the king’s palace, opposite the lampstand; and the king saw the hand as it wrote. Then the king’s color changed, and his thoughts alarmed him; his limbs gave way, and his knees knocked together... Then all the king’s wise men came in, but they could not read the writing or make known to the king the interpretation. Then King Belshaz′zar was greatly alarmed, and his color changed; and his lords were perplexed... Then Daniel was brought in before the king...Then Daniel answered before the king, “O king, the Most High God gave Nebuchadnez′zar your father kingship and greatness and glory and majesty; and because of the greatness that he gave him, all peoples, nations, and languages trembled and feared before him; and you his son, Belshaz′zar, have not humbled your heart, though you knew all this, but you have lifted up yourself against the Lord of heaven; and the vessels of his house have been brought in before you, and you and your lords, your wives, and your concubines have drunk wine from them; and you have praised the gods of silver and gold, of bronze, iron, wood, and stone, which do not see or hear or know, but the God in whose hand is your breath, and whose are all your ways, you have not honored...This is the interpretation of the matter: mene, God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end; tekel, you have been weighed in the balances and found wanting; peres, your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians." ... That very night Belshaz′zar the Chalde′an king was slain. And Darius the Mede received the kingdom.

day no. 16,233: the moxie to be contentedly milquetoast

Isaiah 3:1-4

For behold, the Lord GOD of hosts

is taking away from Jerusalem and from Judah

support and supply,

all support of bread,

and all support of water; 

the mighty man and the soldier,

the judge and the prophet,

the diviner and the elder, 

the captain of fifty

and the man of rank,

the counselor and the skillful magician

and the expert in charms. 

And I will make boys their princes,

and infants shall rule over them.

A clear sign of God's judgment is the evaporation of masculine authority. If the heat of the day causes men to fade rather than fight, it is an indication that God is working against a people, not for them; or that He is working for them by giving them what they deserve so that they might observe and openly repent.

Calvin in commenting on these verse had this to say, 

“The strong man, and the man of war He mentions other ends which contribute to the safety and good order either of nations or of cities. Of these he threatens that the Jews will be wholly deprived, so that they will neither have wisdom or bravery at battle, nor military forces abroad. He is not careful to attend to order, but is satisfied with giving a short abridgement, and mixes one subject with another. He begins with men of war, into whose hands was committed the defense of the country. God sometimes takes them away by death, and sometimes by making them soft and effeminate. The latter is more frequent, so that posterity degenerates from the bravery of ancestors, and those who were formerly courageous become, in process of time, cowardly and unfit for war. But we see also that the former sometimes happens, in consequence of which the boldest men suddenly lose heart.”

Boldness is inescapable. There will either be boldness for righteousness or against it. The one who runs from the battle may lack boldness on the battlefield, but he has it in aces when it comes to his cowardice. He may not have the courage to do the right thing, but he finds the courage to do the wrong thing. Cowardice is courage in lesser things. It is boldly departing from the straight and true. It takes a particular type of moxie to be contentedly milquetoast. When God gives men over, they do not cease going somewhere, but rather go boldly where they ought not to go. Without God's help, men cannot be courageous in that which is Christlike. A sure sign of His passive wrath is a feast of effeminacy and a famine of virtue.

day no. 16,232: set your sights on the One who sees the whole shebang

Psalm 141:8-10

But my eyes are toward you, O GOD, my Lord;

in you I seek refuge; leave me not defenseless! 

Keep me from the trap that they have laid for me

and from the snares of evildoers! 

Let the wicked fall into their own nets,

while I pass by safely.

We set our sights on the One who sees the whole shebang. The whole board is known to Him. The Lord knows the traps the enemy is attempting to set and those that are already in place. He can guide our feet around their pitfalls and help us to avoid falling prey to their designs. He can also deliver us from those into which we get ourselves entangled.

The wicked, by laying traps, rest their hopes entirely in our failing to take notice all the while failing to take notice of the One watching over their shoulders. He reads their schemes. He sees through their subterfuge. He finds them out. In trusting in deceit, they deceive themselves. Meanwhile, He can make my feet to walk unscathed through their minefields while causing it to blow up in their faces.

John 1:5

That light shines in the darkness, yet the darkness did not overcome it.

God sees them in the dark. Who are they kidding? The cover of night provides no camouflage from Him. He can pick them out of a crowd and read their mail regardless of the encryption. You can't hide from the light. No dark can resist or overcome it. All will be exposed.

day no. 16,231: if they have to ask, your answer can be, "No!"

1 Kings 20:8

And all the elders and all the people said to him, “Do not listen or consent.”

If they have to ask, your answer can be, "No!" Especially if they're asking, "Can we stop asking?" If you never say, "No," they will no longer need to ask. If they ask, "May I take away your ability to say, "No," you should say, "No!" If they ask, "Will you please vote, 'Yes!," for putting an end to voting?" You should say, "No!" If you don't say, "No!" then, you will not be able to say anything later. You will surrender your ability to resist and the kicker will be that it was your own fault. If no one says, "No," everyone will eventually be muted.

You may vote your way into socialism; but you must shoot your way out of it.

If you vote to end all voting, you lose your ability to change your mind later. If you surrender your rights, you won't receive them back. In other words, you can only vote your rights away just the once.

You rights do not originate with you and they aren't distributed to you by the State. The State is not a rights factory. They cannot manufacture rights. Rights originate with God. They are His to give. You have them because He is generous. But if you use your freedom to enslave yourself to sin or the State, you won’t receive more freedom from either of them to get you out of it. If you accept the State's giving or taking away rights, you reject the rights given to you by God. You are free to despise what God has given you and trample it underfoot, but you are not free from the consequences of doing so anymore than a man who joyfully jumps off a cliff is free from the gravity of the situation that follows. If you give your rights to the State or give them the impression that they can manufacture their own, you will never get them back and you will find out just how well State-made products hold up -- which is to say, not very. Keep in mind, these are the same folk who invented the DMV.

You can give yourself over to your lusts, but you cannot get yourself back. You can gain the world, but it will cost you your soul. And what can a person give in exchange for that? How can a person buy back their soul? They can't. Giving yourself over comes to an end. You run out of self to give away and you are possessed entirely by something or someone else.

Our only way ahead is to say, "No" to man and "Yes" to God. For those who've already given in, it is never too late for God to set them free, but it will take an act of God. The prisoner who is in love with his cell cannot be set free any other way.