day no. 16,341: meta is beta

Isaiah 5:20-21

Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil;

that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; 

that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!

Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes,

and prudent in their own sight!

There are few things more beta than Meta. Nothing quite cries, “I can’t get the girl,” like inventing an online one. 

What could be lamer than crutches complaining about broken legs? What could be more cowardly than retreat? What could be more ungrateful than spending your life pretending to be alive somewhere else? What could be more audacious than criticizing the real world from the safety of an artificial one? The artificial is derivative of the actual. Shadows cannot exist without light and shade cannot be thrown at the actual without first borrowing from it.

Woe to those who call the real "evil" and the fake "good" and put the actual on trial while putting on parades for the artificial.

"Bemused and besotted as we are, we still dimly know at heart that nothing which is at all times and in every way agreeable to us can have objective reality. It is of the very nature of the real that it should have sharp corners and rough edges, that it should be resistant, should be itself. Dream-furniture is the only kind on which you never stub your toes or bang your knee." — C.S. Lewis, Letters to Malcolm

Meta is beta. It is a world where you never stub your toe. It is full of packing peanuts and knee pads. By trying to eliminate every obstacle to self expression it eliminates the meaning of self. It eradicates the opportunity to prove yourself by cancelling all adversity and adversaries. 

Meta is suicide. It is a full scale rejection of reality. It forsakes itself as creation by attempting to be its own creator. It is like the snake devouring its own tail and calling the result eternity. It consumes its own end once it begins.

Meta is mass murder. It doesn't merely eliminate the self, it seeks to eviscerate all selves. It unsubscribes to every outside influence and suffocates in the vacuum of self-indulgence. 

Firsthand experience will always trump secondhand speculation. Virtual reality is a cut-rate reality. The only thing real about it is the machinery and accouterments required to keep it running.

Speculation may look up for now and guess, but revelation will always come down in the end and remove all doubt.

“Christianity even when watered down is hot enough to boil all modern society to rags.” — G.K. Chesterton

day no. 16,340: wisdom's children

"Belief is not an intellectual act; belief is a moral act whereby I deliberately commit myself.” — Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest

Belief does not exclude the intellect, but neither is it reduced to it. It involves, but is not limited to, the mind. Belief is not merely a superficial acceptance of fact. It certainly includes facts, with God accepted as the most certain fact of all, but it does not end in simple assent. Belief is not merely saying, "Uncle!" it is saying, "Father!" Agreeing with God, i.e. repentance, certainly includes a change of mind, but that change is demonstrated and accompanied by a moral act of will that follows through and complements the change of mind. All that to say, belief is not certified by a placement exam, it is a commitment to think and to behave in concert with said belief.

Luke 7:35

Wisdom is justified of all her children.

Wisdom is never barren. It never struggles to conceive or delivery. It is fruitful and it labors successfully. It is fertile soil and ample rainfall. Wisdom is palpable. It is proved by the presence and the quality of its progeny. It is never an empty nester. There are always offspring. It is never left without an heir apparent.

Belief is bountiful and robust. It always bears fruit.

day no. 16,339: going all in for another's dreams

“Go in obedience and you will find love. You will have no more dreams. Have children instead." — C.S. Lewis, That Hideous Strength

Jane was plagued by the idea of belonging. She had long been wary of being at anyone else's mercy. Her greatest fear was being obligated to someone else. She had married for loveliness, not love. She had said, "I do" to Mark as a toddler being helped with their shoes, which is to say, reluctantly. She wanted to be self-possessed and instead was possessed by abilities she did not beg for. The very thing she feared came upon her and in the end, she discovered that belonging to someone else was better than belonging only to herself.

1 Timothy 2:13-15

For Adam was formed first, then Eve; and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor. Yet she will be saved through childbearing—if they continue in faith and love and holiness, with self-control.

Love is not found in utter independence, but in covenantal dependence. Covenant assumes individual duties with cooperative ends -- a win for you is a win for me. Covenant makes your strengths my comforts and my strengths yours. Covenant means my weaknesses are forgiven as I forgive yours.

Love is not found in retaining personal dreams, but in fulfilling the dreams of others. Love is not finally getting what you want per se, but in finally giving what another needs and finding it's what you wanted to do.

Men must abandon boyish hobbies and embrace bringing up their boys. Men must reject the inheritance of secular individuality and accept the inheritance of Christian responsibility. Men must be strong enough to strike down their best life now for their grandchildren's best lives later.

day no. 16,338: resistez!

“A young Huguenot woman named Marie Durant, fourteen-years-old, was required to abjure her Huguenot faith. All she had to do was say one word—j’abjure—and she could go free. Because she would not do it, she was placed in a tower by the sea with 30 other Huguenot women where she remained for the next 38 years. She and her fellows scratched a different word entirely on the wall of the prison. It was ‘resistez’ —resist.” - Douglas Wilson, The Romance of Protestantism

Hang in there, saints!

Revelation 14:12

Here is a call for the endurance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus.

Q: What were the saints called to endure? What were the Hugeunots resisting?

A: The mark of the beast

Revelation 4:11

The smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest, day or night, these worshipers of the beast and its image, and whoever receives the mark of its name.

The temptation to give up and give in is real.

There are incentives tied to the mark and offered to those who take it upon themselves. There are penalties assigned to those who do not bear it. There are conveniences and comforts associated with taking that name and pain and discomfort threatened for those who won't.

Luke 12:4-5

I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that have nothing more that they can do. But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him!

Do not give in or give up.

Our struggle may not be against the same mark or the same beast per se, but the principalities and powers are not so creative as to put out anything other than cover albums.

Let's not tolerate an encore. The show is over. Shut it down.

Never again.

Never give in.

Keep Christ and His commands.

Surrender only to Him.

day no. 16,337: singing psalms may wake sleeping lions

“Because the final reward is found in the resurrection, in the city to come, and not here, we are set free to attempt great things here. To different kinds of cowardice this looks positively reckless, but reckless in different ways. Some are afraid that our psalm singing will wake up the lions, while others are afraid that the psalm singing will stop the mouths of those same lions.” — Douglas Wilson, Empires of Dirt

Some would rather remain lame than run with the big dogs. Some prefer the peace and quiet of being irrelevant to the sweat and tears of making a difference.

Singing psalms may wake the sleeping lions, but it also just might shut them up forever.

Let us sing like we mean it and leave the results to the Lord. Whether our worship draws fire or causes fire to fall down from Heaven, let us sing like we know the words. We are Christians. We know the Word. We have placed our hope in His life, death, and resurrection not so we can avoid our life, death, or resurrection, but so that we might attain to them. 

Romans 14:7-9

For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.

Some powers and principalities slew soundly under the assumption that Christianity is a thing of the past. But when we sing so that they can hear it, they wake up well aware that we haven’t gone anywhere and must still be dealt with. This may lead to more trouble for us, but only because we’re finally troubling them.

Any light worth it’s salt is proud to give the darkness fits and considers it a badge of honor to be so bright as to have shade thrown at it. But the dark doesn’t stick.

John 1:5

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

If the darkness decides to dark even harder, it can’t win. The darkness is fading and the light is growing ever brighter.

Proverbs 4:18-19

The path of the righteous

is like the light of dawn,

which shines brighter

and brighter until full day.

The way of the wicked

is like deep darkness;

they do not know

over what they stumble.

day no. 16,336: keep the home, keep the world

Titus 2:3-5

The aged women likewise, that they be in behaviour as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things; That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed.

When the home is kept, the word is kept.

Our modern sensibilities lead us to believe that the Word of God is blasphemed by obeying His Word. "I can't stay home and expect the world to respect my witness," a Christian wife and mother may be tempted to say. But the Bible tells us that giving into this temptation is what leads to God's Word being blasphemed. Blaspheme literally means "slow + fame." A blasphemer is slow to bring fame and praise to something that merits it. In this regard, the Word of God is not praised as quickly as it ought to be because women choose to impress the world rather than express themselves in their home.

When we keep the home, we keep the world.

The world will be saved by faithful witnesses to His Word, not by clever testimonies of compromise to it. The Word is what saves, not impressive resumes. Working hard to win the approval of the world is the best way to lose it and to secure as lost those in it. If you love the world, oppose it. It's what's best for it. To flatter the world is to shatter it. You guarantee its demise by making it your prize.

Keep the kids; keep the world.

A well-ordered home is the end of the world. The euchatastrophe is accompanied by wedding bells. The meek shall inherit the earth and those raising their children in the discipline and instruction of the Lord are those who will inhabit it. The world will be retained by those who retain their posts. Be where God has placed you and fulfill your assignments as prescribed and we will see the world won over and Christ exalted as its one, true King.

day no. 16,335: personality is located in a Person, not a in a number

“Personality is that peculiar, incalculable thing that is meant when we speak of ourselves as distinct from everyone else. Our personality is always too big for us to grasp. An island in the sea may be but the top of a great mountain. Personality is like an island; we know nothing about the great depths underneath, consequently we cannot estimate ourselves. We begin by thinking that we can, but we come to realize that there is only one Being Who understands us, and that is our Creator.” — Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest

Only God sees us as we truly are and we only see ourselves truly when we see ourselves in Him.

“Personality is the characteristic of the spiritual man as individuality is the characteristic of the natural man… Personality merges, and you only reach your real identity when you are merged with another person. When love, or the Spirit of God strikes a man, he is transformed, he no longer insists upon his separate individuality. Our Lord never spoke in terms of individuality, of a man’s ‘elbows’ or his isolated position, but in terms of personality — ‘that they may be one, even as We are one.’ If you give up your right to yourself to God, the real true nature of your personality answers to God straight away. Jesus Christ emancipates the personality, and the individuality is transfigured; the transfiguring element is love, personal devotion to Jesus. Love is the outpouring of one personality in fellowship with another personality.” — Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest

Personality is located in a Person, not in a number.

We become who we are when we listen to God instead of ourselves.

“Live your truth” is a great way to die in lies.

“Be yourself” is a great way to lose yourself.

“You do you” is a great way to be done in.