day no. 17,029: neuteronomy

Matthew 5:17

Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.

Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil, not the word of God.

1 John 3:8

For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.

Jesus is seated at the right hand of the Father destroying all of His enemies. The law and the prophets are not listed among them.

"Jesus said that He came to fulfill the law, not abolish it; so, whatever 'fulfill' means, it cannot mean 'abolish.'" — K.J. Behler

Fulfilling the law may transform it, but it does not abolish it. Jesus may take the law into His arms, but He will not abandon it. The law and the prophets carry on in the Gospel of God and the conquest of Christendom.

Matthew 24:35

Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.

The Word of God will be fulfilled. Every word of it shall come to pass, but none of it shall merely pass away. It will not return to void, but will accomplish everything it prophesied.

1 Peter 1:24-25

For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away: But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.

Do not emasculate the law of the Lord. Do not Neuteronomy. The end of the world is not the abolition of law Word of the Lord. It is the fruition of it.

day no. 17,028: like minded

“What the heart liketh best, the mind studieth most.” — Richard Sibbes

We think a lot about the things we love a bunch. It is easy. It comes naturally. When you like something, you like thinking about it. You even like thinking about how much you like it. 

God has put this principle into place primarily for the purpose of man meditating upon the Word of God as a result of his intense love for God. Since there is only one God, you do not have to divvy up your mind or your heart. This frees a man up to love the Lord God with all of his heart and all of his mind. When he does so, he finds himself thinking about God a lot. He who is forgiven much, loves much; and he who loves much, meditates often and at length about his Savior and his salvation.

As a secondary benefit of this principle, God gives us the joy of enjoying things. When those things are ordered correctly, they really are enjoyed for what they are with proportion to what they are. We can think about them as gifts and enjoy them as His grace. We like thinking about them because we are grateful for them. Thanks be to God!

day no. 17,027: asked and answered

“You can’t ask someone if you have a short temper and then blow up (or stop talking to them for six months) if they say, 'yes.'” — Douglas Wilson, Keep Your Kids

Well, you can, but you've answered your own question.

Proverbs 27:5-6

Open rebuke is better than secret love.

Faithful are the wounds of a friend; 

but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.

Other people can sometimes make good mirrors.

If you do not like the face looking back at you, perhaps it's not always their problem.

Ephesians 4:26

Be angry, but do not sin.

A short temper is a sin.

Longsuffering is a sanctification.

Choose wisely.

day no. 17,026: middle-class fancy

“It may sound odd, but many Christians have not learned contentment with their blessings in the middle. They have not leaned middle class contentment. I like to think that if God gave me a boatload of money, I could do an enormous amount of good for the kingdom. This is has been a point of disagreement between me and the Lord for some years now. So be content with what you have (Heb. 13:5)” — Douglas Wilson, Calibrated Wealth Preferences

Too much or too little is not too good. Too much and hubris seeps in. Too little and scruples leak out. The Goldilocks zone is good enough and enough, that sense, is as good as a feast. Better to be middle-class and a welcomed as a friend at Bag End than to be honored among the upper crusties in the land of Mordor. 

1 Timothy 6:6-8

Godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and raiment let us be therewith content.

Contentment is better than riches. The greedy never have enough even when it is ten times more than most.

Hebrews 13:5

Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.

The one who has God and nothing else has more than he who has everything except God.

day no. 17,025: Christianity is a fighting religion

“Christianity is a fighting religion. It thinks God made the world — that space and time, heat and cold, and all the colours and tastes, and all the animals and vegetables, are things that God “made up out of His head” as a man makes up a story. But it also thinks that a great many things have gone wrong with the world that God made and that God insists, and insists very loudly, on our putting them right again.” — C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

Truth claims are combative. To say that you believe in the one, true God, the Father Almighty, Maker of Heaven and earth is to say that you don't believe in other gods or origin stories: i.e. Allah, Vishnu, or Darwinian evolution, et al. Whatever claims they are making, you are saying that you don't believe them. In other words, you are calling them all liars. And dems be fightin' words.

But Christianity is not merely belligerent in its assertion that Christ is King, it is militant in its mission to push that claim to every corner or every inch of existence. Christ is King on earth and in Heaven and we pray for His kingdom to come, not go. We strive to bring His kingdom to bear here as it is there. Again, this puts us back onto the battlefield as the darkness dos not always go quietly into that good night. No, it rages against the growing of the light. 

So, the greater the diameter of light, the greater the circumference of the darkness. The points of contact become more frequent as they become more thin. So, expect more bumps in the night, but also expect the lumps to be leavened as the day extinguishes the darkness.

day no. 17,024: tyrannitos

“One of the reasons God makes them so small is so that they won’t kill you. And one of the reasons he makes them so cute is so that you won’t kill them.” — Voddie Baucham

Murder is bound up in the heart of an infant, but by the grace of God, they lack the requisite competencies needed to pull off their plots. Rest assured, if they could burn the world to the ground over their unmet expectations, they would, but they can't, so it keeps on chugging along. God loves us and He wants us to be happy.

Toddlers are tiny tyrants. Let's call them tyrannitos. They would "off with their heads" every hand that feeds them if they had the ability to do it. They rail at any one in between what they want and when they want it. They are all impulse and no implication. They would blow up the kitchen one minute and be mad that dinner was delayed the next.

Their sin is not cute, but they are. As Voddie points out, if they were as ugly as their sin, it would not go well for most babies. But more often than not, they are so cute that their sin gets excused as cute as well. This is not an improvement. Parents who make this accommodation end up with teens who want to burn the world down, but by that point they actually could, and it is no longer cute.

Proverbs 23:13-14

Withhold not correction from the child: For if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die. Thou shalt beat him with the rod, And shalt deliver his soul from hell.

Correct sin when the kids are cute. If you wait, the child you raise will be as ugly as the sin always has been. Love your son enough to give him the gift of knowing how to be under authority and he will walk with God, following His footsteps, as a grown man.

day no. 17,023: poor and wise over rich and stupid

“The wisdom of Solomon tests us. It is only possible to be wealthy and wise if such a person would rather be poor and wise than rich and stupid.” — Douglas Wilson, Calibrated Wealth Preferences

It is better to be poor and wise than rich and stupid, but it is best to be rich and wise. The worst, of course, is to be poor and stupid. Proverbial wisdom always pushes us to order our affections by pitting two good things against each other. It is better to have thin soup with good friends than fat steaks with fatheads who are plotting your downfall. It is better to be rebuked by a good friend than to be flattered by fakes. It is better to be served cold, hard truth than soft, warm treacle. It is better to be socked in the face by love than to be sucked up to by sycophants.

You cannot be wealthy and wise unless you would pick pious poverty over luxurious lunacy. If you really would, you could gain riches without losing your mind. If you know enough to say that you would, but don't have the resolve, you may dabble in decadence, but it won't be long before you are back to drowning in destitution.