day no. 17,083: not even a sliver of sin will make it in

"There is no heaven with a little of hell in it.” — Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest

The deadbolt on the door of devilry will fail and the gates of Hell will not prevail. They will give way before the glory of the Lord. The gates of gross will not be able to successfully keep any of God's goodness out. The darkness will not retain a corner of corruption so that not even a sliver of sin will make it in. Satan will not be able to smuggle any secrets into the open air of God.

1 Peter 4:3-5

For the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries: Wherein they think it strange that ye run not with them to the same excess of riot, speaking evil of you: Who shall give account to him that is ready to judge the quick and the dead.

Do not daydream about the nightmare that was your life before Christ. Do not scrapbook your days in Egypt. Forget about the leeks and onions of your days in the dark. Nothing good will come out of providing quarter to yesterday's evils.

Revelation 20:14

And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.

Death and Hell will someday be shut out from the light of day. They will be no more.

1 Corinthians 15:24-26

Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.

No enemies will remain. Some will be converted to friends while the others will be confined to the lake of fire, but none will retain any presence of power in the kingdom of Christ going forward.

Revelation 21:25-27

And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day: for there shall be no night there. And they shall bring the glory and honour of the nations into it. And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life.

The gates of glory shall welcome in every repentant friend of God: every friend being a former enemy and every enemy being kept from coming in. No speck of hellish dust will find its away into the streets of Heaven. No pinch of impurity will linger in paradise. 

1 Corinthians 3:12-15

Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.

The gates of Heaven will burn away any dross that knocks at the door and all the chaff will be blown away so that only a harvest of pure gold will enter into glory.

Revelation 22:14-15

Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city. For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.

The tree of life was kept from Adam and Eve after they fell for sin will not live forever; but they were sent out from the Garden of Eden with a promise of a serpent-slayer who would someday secure for them safe passage back to the Tree of Life. In the end, sinners will be sanctified and the fruit of the Tree of Life will be enjoyed by His saints forever and ever, world without end. And amen.

day no. 17,082: a mild diss comfort

“There were naturally going to be advocates of a ‘third way’ who thought that perhaps there was a better way, a bit less bloody. A bit less exciting. But alas for them, we are called to follow Christ the disruptor, Christ the troublemaker, Christ the flipper of tables, Christ the crucified. There are far too many Christians who want to preach Christ crucified without any real understanding of why He was crucified. They understand why the Father sent Him to the cross, but with almost no understanding of why men sent Him there.” — Douglas Wilson, Battle Joined

Most Christians are comfortable with the fact that the Father sent His one and only Son into the world and onto the Cross. This is the hope of our salvation, after all. He died in our place and for our sins. And so far, so good. Praise God. Christians identify with the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus inasmuch as they receive His perfect life, give Him all their sins to die for, and hope in their own resurrection from the dead in Him. 

That all said, many Christians are uncomfortable being identified with Him in His controversy. There is a reason men wanted to kill him and we don't want to be hated by anyone. There is a reason people considered Him a trouble-maker and we don't want to cause anyone trouble. So, we have a hard time identifying with Him in that regard.

"Jesus promised his disciples three things–that they would be completely fearless, absurdly happy, and in constant trouble." — G.K. Chesterton

If we are going to truly follow Jesus, we will need to get far more comfortable with being uncomfortable and even more comfortable with making other people uncomfortable.

day no. 17,081: sacrifice and civilization

“The reason Christians still own the public square is because Jesus rose from the dead in it. I know that the militant secularists despise this truth, but truth it is, and they should have thought of those objections before they crucified Him there. And they somehow think they can do something about that foundational and drastic mistake of theirs by dragging real believers out there and doing the same thing to them. Go right ahead. This is how Christ conquered the West the first time, and this is how He will do it again.” — Douglas Wilson, Mere Christendom

The West was built upon the sacrifices of Christian men and women.

"The blood of Christians is seed,” — Tertullian

The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church. The West, it now seems, has seen better days, but it is not dead. And more to the point, even if it dies, it will rise again renewed.

John 12:24

Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.

Christ's sacrifice laid the foundation of our salvation and Christian sacrifice laid the foundation of Christendom. When Christian men and women again begin sacrificing their lives and livelihoods for the glory of God, the West will rise from the ground and flood the earth like the wildflowers cover the land.

'If you are not prepared to use force to defend civilization, then be prepared to accept barbarism." — Thomas Sowell

Civilizations are built upon sacrifice. Christendom is built upon the once for all blood sacrifice of Christ and the everyday sacrifices of praise produced by Christian obedience.

1 Corinthians 15:58

Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.

So, let's get to work. The heathen hordes must be opposed. We know that the gates of Hell will not prevail, so why are we not pushing against them any harder?

day no. 17,080: why do serious?

"Scott takes his heroes and villains seriously, which is, after all, the way that heroes and villains take themselves--especially villains.” — G.K. Chesterton, Twelve Types

Villains always take themselves seriously. Too seriously, in fact. That isn’t to equate taking oneself seriously with villainy, but to point out that no villain has ever been able to take himself lightly. It is one of his worst qualities.

“Angels can fly because they can take themselves lightly.” — G.K. Chesterton

When God is your center of gravity, you’re free to fly around without crashing back to the surface or drifting away into the outer darkness. You have enough seriousness to keep you grounded and enough levity to keep you afloat.

"The devil . . the prowde spirite . . cannot endure to be mocked." — Thomas More

Heretics are, in one sense, no joke; but in another sense, that's all they are, only they cannot see it, and that's one of their biggest problems.

"The best way to drive out the devil, if he will not yield to texts of Scripture, is to jeer and flout him, for he cannot bear scorn." — Martin Luther

Bad guys cannot bear being the brunt of the joke. They can't laugh at themselves. And they flat refuse to see how ridiculous that is. In the meantime, they simultaneously see with perfect clarity how silly everyone else is. That is textbook villainy 101.

"The Devil is (in the long run) an ass." - C.S. Lewis

The essence of sin is incorrigibility - a refusal to listen, a resistance to being teachable. It is a stubborn insistence on one's own inclinations and proclivities over and beyond the reach of any other. It is being an ass.

day no. 17,079: slander and satire

“A man is angry at a libel because it is false, but at a satire because it is true.” — G.K. Chesterton, Twelve Types

When men bear false witness against a man, they provoke him to anger by lying about him, but when men mock his eccentricities, they provoke him to lie about his own anger in being exposed. In the first instance, the barbs hit their target by missing it on purpose and in the second instance the wise cracks hit home by exaggerating the target. 

1 Timothy 5:24

Some men's sins are open beforehand, going before to judgment; and some men they follow after.

A man gets mad when he is accused of doing something he did not do, but he gets even madder when he is caught doing something he wishes you did not know he was in the habit of doing. 

Proverbs 12:23

A prudent man concealeth knowledge: 

but the heart of fools proclaimeth foolishness.

A man gets mad when you say he is hiding something he does not have, but he also gets mad when you say out loud something he thought he was successfully hiding.

day no. 17,078: a cart before a horse is like a spouse before the vows

The idiom "putting the cart before the horse" originated in the 16th century and means to do things in the wrong or illogical order. John Heywood first used it in his book of proverbs in 1546.

The reason the horse is hitched to a cart in the first place is to get something else somewhere else. In other words, the horse is the means, not the main point. The horse goes before the cart, not because it is more important, but because the contents of the cart are and in order for them to be transported, the cart they are in must go behind the horse. And so, the horse goes first because the contents of the cart of first importance.

1 Corinthians 14:40

Let all things be done decently and in order.

In similar fashion, a marriage goes before the spouse. The vows a man and woman take make them into husband and wife, but the spouse is more important than the vow per se. Yet without the vows, you do not have a spouse. You make the vows in order to have a spouse. So, much like the horse and the cart, the vows come chronologically first, in a left to right kind of way but the spouse is the reason you make them. The vows pull the marriage along, but the spouse is the reason you have a marriage.

If you put your spouse before your vows, you can end up breaking your vows to them in an effort to benefit them. You will try to love your spouse by doing things that your vows would not permit you to do. If you put her first without putting in vows, you will likely end up putting her away or putting up with her nonsense. God is love. Love is not God. If you try to love someone first without reference to God, what you end up doing is not love. You may love a woman before you make vows to her. In fact, in most cases, your love for her is what motivates you to make vows to her, but you do not have her as a bride until you make vows to her. 

So, the vows must come first, but only because the spouse is of first importance. Because your bride is most important, she must follow the vows. Do not put her before your vows or you will break her as you break your bond to her.

day no. 17,077: better or worse, but not in between

“‘Have you ever noticed,’ said Dimble, ‘that the universe, and every bit of the universe is always hardening and narrowing and coming to a point?’ His wife waited as those wait who know by long experience the mental processes of the person who is talking to them. ‘I mean this,’ said Dimble in answer to the question she had not asked. ‘If you dip into any college, or school, or parish, or family – anything you like – at a given point in its history, you always find that there was a time before that point when there was more elbow room and contrasts weren’t quite so sharp; and that there’s going to be a time after that point when there is even less room for indecision and choices are even more momentous. Good is always getting better and bad is always getting worse: the possibilities of even apparent neutrality are always diminishing. The whole thing is sorting itself out all the time, coming to a point, getting sharper and harder.’” — C.S. Lewis, That Hideous Strength

Everything is going somewhere and sooner or later it's going to get there.

Genesis 3:15

And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

Neutrality has never been an option. Before the Fall it was the side of the Sovereign or the side of the serpent and since the Fall it has stayed the same: the Seed of the woman or the seed of the snake. And you will reap whatever it is you sow.

Galatians 5:17

For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other.

The flesh and the Spirit will never play nicely. The one won't stop until the other is destroyed.

Romans 16:20

And the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen.

In the end, only the Son shall shine. The serpent will be buried underneath the heel of the Holy forever.

1 Corinthians 15:24-26

Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.

The myth of neutrality will be destroyed and the enmity will evaporate only when death itself dies and the father of lies is finally overcome by the Word, the Truth, and the Life (John 14:6)