day no. 16,603: simple courage

"Everything that is happening... is a test of courage, and not an intellectual test. And a courageous man defending the way reality actually is may of course be killed -- but he is still invincible... We don't need much courage --- just enough to see and say how ludicrous it all is. Just enough to summon up the nerve to fill the room with the smell of burnt Marshwiggle." — Douglas Wilson, Rules for Reformers

The great blessing of our cultural moment is that it reinforces the fact that moral courage is superior to intellectual prowess. This is always true, but it isn't always as manifestly true as it is now. The simple can see that the man swimming laps around the women is not himself, a woman. So, it removes the matter of intellect altogether. Anyone can see it, but who will say it? A good deal of courage may be required, but not much cleverness. To insist on two and two being four is so obvious that a four year old can pick up on it. The differences between pegs and holes is something a toddler can sort out, but in our days it takes courage to insist on it. The blessing of all of this is the great opportunity for faith and faithfulness it provides to those who are tempted to see themselves as simple. The blessing of it all is how simple it is... and how glorious it is to be simple for the sake of Christ.

1 Corinthians 1:19-20

For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?

The number of academic designations required to understand what a woman isn't is staggering, but it is nothing. It is an empty bubble that only appears shiny and growing. It has no substance and cannot hold anything long before it pops.

1 Corinthians 1:25-27

Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty.

You don't need initials behind your name to be brave. You might get out cackled by the academy, but you need not sweat their arrogance. They don't know what they are talking about. No matter how much they insist you accept that they do. Regardless of how many graduation parties they throw themselves, they can't thread two nuts together. They won't bond and they can't hold anything together or produce anything new. It's just two nuts too nutty to even be screwed up.

So, as Bunyan's Christian realized at the House of the Interpreter, "his safety would depend it seemed not on cleverness but on simple courage."

day no. 16,602: all their miscalculations will misfire, but still cost someone something

"Living in the world that actually exists is an enormous advantage. There are times when it almost seems to me like cheating or something. In the long run, we need not worry. In the long run, blind stupidity never works. The revolutionary alternates between throwing rocks at the moon and barking at it." — Douglas Wilson, Rules for Reformers

The barking outside your door is a bit disconcerting and the rocks they throw might miss the moon, but they still come down on someone somewhere. All the miscalculations of the malcontents will misfire, but they still cost someone something. Their misjudgments cannot work, but they create a lot of work for the clean up crews. They might imagine themselves jugglers, but the clean up required in aisle 6 says otherwise and rest assured, they don't imagine themselves janitors either. 

All that said, the world that the revolutionaries want to live in doesn't exist and cannot be built. You cannot construct an imaginary banquet out of concrete bricks. Whatever they build must be borrowed from God's reality, but they cannot build circles out of triangles. They can re-brand triangles and called them circles, but they cannot live in or build up a circular world that way. That kind of project goes down the circular drain and it fits down there quite nicely. 

day no. 16,601: all your enemies are conquered beforehand

"He (Jesus) has conquered every foe that obstructed the way. Cheer up now thou faint-hearted warrior. Not only has Christ travelled the road, but he has slain thine enemies. Dost thou dread sin? He has nailed it to his cross. Dost thou fear death? He has been the death of Death. Art thou afraid of hell? He has barred it against the advent of any of his children; they shall never see the gulf of perdition. Whatever foes may be before the Christian, they are all overcome. There are lions, but their teeth are broken; there are serpents, but their fangs are extracted; there are rivers, but they are bridged or fordable; there are flames, but we wear that matchless garment which renders us invulnerable to fire. The sword that has been forged against us is already blunted; the instruments of war which the enemy is preparing have already lost their point. God has taken away in the person of Christ all the power that anything can have to hurt us. Well then, the army may safely march on, and you may go joyously along your journey, for all your enemies are conquered beforehand. What shall you do but march on to take the prey? They are beaten, they are vanquished; all you have to do is to divide the spoil. You shall, it is true, often engage in combat; but your fight shall be with a vanquished foe. His head is broken; he may attempt to injure you, but his strength shall not be sufficient for his malicious design. Your victory shall be easy, and your treasure shall be beyond all count.

Proclaim aloud the Saviour's fame,

Who bears the Breaker's wond'rous name

Sweet name; and it becomes him well,

Who breaks down earth, sin, death, and hell."

— Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Morning and Evening 

The leaven works its way through the lump without worrying about the lump's resistance to its invasion. The Church militant marches with mirth against a defeated fiend. The gates of hell cannot resist obedience to Christ's command to disciple the nations. The barricades of hell cannot withstand the advance of Christ's kingdom. All of our enemies are conquered beforehand.

Romans 8:35-37

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.

day no. 16,600: we don't want to win at losing

"Devils make better accusers, always, and we are not in this to create right-wing devils. No, we have a better game to play than that." — Douglas Wilson, Rules for Reformers

When Saul of Tarsus switched teams, he did not continue in the same old tactics only aimed in a brand new direction. What happened was that he was converted. He became the enemy of his former allies and he abandoned their tactics. He did not merely become a character assassin for the other side. He did not aspire to be the chief accuser of the Pharisees. He did not become an assassin for Jesus. He did not begin hunting down Pharisees attempting to get them into legal trouble with the Romans. In other words, he didn't just do what he was accustomed to doing for another team. His skills came with him, but his principles changed. The decisive point did not move, but for whom and how he tried to take it did.

We cannot win at losing; and we cannot lose at winning.

Christians will always be outclassed in an accusation contest. It's not our bread and butter. The best Christian accuser cannot hold a candle to the accusations of those marinated in hellfire. We don't lie, cheat, and steal for Jesus. We tell the truth, play by His rules, and receive His kingdom.

Christians cannot conquer by chaos; and chaos cannot conquer Christ.

day no. 16,599: a way in which we must walk and the works we must do

Exodus 18:20

And thou shalt teach them ordinances and laws, and shalt shew them the way wherein they must walk, and the work that they must do.

The Christian life is knowing the way wherein we must walk and the work that we must do.

Ephesians 4:1

I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called.

There is a way in which we must conduct ourselves and a work in which we must engage ourselves. There are works to do and better ways than others to do them.

God is concerned with our character and our conduct. They are inseparable. We can speak of them separately, but we cannot functionally separate them without breaking something. Just like an egg is a shell, a yolk, and a white and can be discussed separately, but cannot be actually separated without breaking the egg. In order to separate faith from faithfulness is to break faith. In order to separate character from conduct is to break covenant.

There is a way wherein we must walk and works we must do and neither can be accomplished without outside instruction. We cannot follow our hearts and have holy hands, but we can, if we listen to Christ, walk in His ways, and do what He says; which includes regularly seeking His forgiveness in walking other ways, doing what He has forbid, or forgetting to do what He has commanded.

day no. 16,598: so, sex is a weapon; but whose is it?

1 Corinthians 6:18

Flee sexual immorality.

1 Timothy 6:10

For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil.

Sex and money are dangerous.

No doubt.

Use them the wrong way and they will bite back. Love them more than the Lord and they will devour. Most Christians know this, but that is only knowing the half of it. All sex is not immorality anymore than all saving is hoarding. Sex can be immoral, but it doesn't have to be. Lucre can be filthy, but all of it isn't. Too many Christians have been taught something akin to, "Sex is dirty, gross, and wrong; so, save it for the one you love," and, "Too much money corrupts, so leave most of it to those already corrupted by it."

So, sex is a weapon; but whose is it?

Money can corrode; but whose kingdom is coming down?

Most Christians know that sex can shipwreck one person's future and that money can shipwreck another person's faith, and that many times the two sink together; but they fail to realize that sex can grow the kingdom of Christ and that money can bankroll the boots that kick down the gates of Hell.

Faithful sex is fruitful in Christ to build His Church. Faithful saving can bless future generations and arm them for their fieldwork in destroying the demonic strongholds that still remain in their day. Sex and Money can be idols and there is a danger in them, but they can also be tools used by faithful hands for the advancement of Christendom.

Do not forsake the use of sex or surrender the salvo of savings. This will not prevent the devil from investing in them. Christian maturity is receiving sex and money as gifts and handling them responsibly as weapons against the darkness.

day no. 16,597: marriage is God's original church growth strategy

"The purpose of marriage is to build the church." — Richard Stock a la Jared Longshore

When a man and woman are united by covenant to Christ, their offspring are born into the church. The same way an American man and woman grow their country in size by giving birth to new citizens, so they grow the church by giving birth to new members. Of course, there is more to being a true American than just having the United States on your birth certificate and of course, there is more to being a true Christian than just having the sign of the covenant placed upon your head in baptism as a child. There is always more to it, but never less. One born outside of the country has to go to greater lengths to obtain the privileges others were born with, but his responsibility to embody the principles of a true citizen are the same. Those born outside the church, similarly, have to change their essential citizenship to become a church member, but their obligation and privilege in embodying the commands of Christ are no more or less difficult than those born into membership. That said, adult pagan coverts don't require more water than the children of believers to be baptized. The same water serves as their sign. The covenant is entered into and kept by both of them only by God's grace and through faith.