day no. 17,097: the religious right where we were wrong

“We do not really want a religion that is right where we are right. What we want is a religion that is right where we are wrong.”  — G.K. Chesterton, The Catholic Church and Conversion

If our religion will not call us a liar, then it is lying to us. We know ourselves too well to take seriously anything that blows sunshine at us. Our wickedness might enjoy the feeling of flattery, but our consciences, if God be merciful, cannot accept it. We long for a God who will show us the back of our own head and plumb the depths of our darkened hearts. Without that, we are lost.

1 John 1:8-10

If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

The only way up is down. If we will not hit our knees, we will not be raised from the dead. If we do not confess our sins, we will not be free from them. We must accept the rebuke of God in order to receive the redemption of God.

Proverbs 27:5-6

An open rebuke is better than a hidden love;

the wounds of a friend are more trustworthy than the kisses of an enemy.

A good mirror tells it like it is and a good friend is like a good mirror. God is a good friend. He loves you too much to flatter you. He likes you too much to let you think you're as great as you sometimes think you are. He is not trying to embarrass you. You are doing a good enough job of that on your own. He is bringing it up in order to help you avoid embarrassing yourself. He knows that you would prefer to feel silly in front of Him than to look silly in front of everyone else. It is better to feel stupid for being corrected than it is to feel superior for being stupid.

day no. 17,096: bald faced lies and shame faced fibs

“To quote Ward’s phrase, ‘Make up your mind that you are justified in lying and then lie like a trooper.’ Ward’s argument was against equivocation or what people call Jesuitry. He meant, ‘When the child really is hiding in the cupboard and the Chinese torturers really are chasing him with red-hot pincers, then (and then only) be sure that you are right to deceive and do not hesitate to lie; but do not stoop to equivocate. Do not bother yourself to say, 'The child is in a wooden house not far from here,' meaning the cupboard; but say the child is in Chiswick or Chimbora zoo, or anywhere you choose.”’” — G.K. Chesterton, The Catholic Church and Conversion

Deception is permitted in war. Camouflage is not bearing false witness even though it is a lie. It is pretending to be some branches and some leaves in order to go undetected. Lying is not a sin per se, but more often than not it is. Deception is a declaration of war and if you are lying to someone, you are ringing the bell for a fight the other party may not know they are in. That is why you must declare war before you are free to deceive them. And even then, not all wars are permissible. You cannot declare war on anyone for anything in order to do whatever you want. Well, I should say, you can do that, but you shouldn't. It would be a sin to declare an unlawful war and then deceive someone you have no business battling in the first place.

And to Chesterton's point, if it is permissible to lie in a particular scenario, then make it a good one. Don't attempt technicalities. Don't try to lie and assuage your conscience. If you're not comfortable deceiving someone else, then don't. But if you are, then do it well. Embrace the tactic or abandon it, but don't try to split the difference. If deception is permissible in an particular instance, then be like Rahab and deceive. Send the enemy as far as track as possible. Tell them a flat out lie, but don't give them a chance to get warm by seeing how close to the truth you can get without spilling the tea. Tell a bald faced lie, not a shame faced fib.

day no. 17,095: agreeing with God

“We value the Church because she is a Church Militant; and sometimes even because she militates against ourselves. She is something more than the cosmos, in the sense of completed nature or completed human nature. She proves that she is something more by sometimes being right where they are wrong.”  — G.K. Chesterton, The Catholic Church and Conversion

We do not follow Christ because we want to follow our hearts and we do not believe in Him because we believe in ourselves, we place our faith in Him because we have lost faith in ourselves. We do not put our trust in Jesus because we trust our decision-making abilities, we put our trust in Jesus because we trust Him and His decisions.

We do not join a church because we think she needs our fire power. We become members of a church because we see our need for her weapons. We love the church because it is willing to oppose us. We love it because it is willing to receive us. We may come as we are, but we will not be permitted to stay as we are. We are taken from where we are and not from where we should have been, but not before we agree that where we should have been is where we will now seek to go.

We do not need a god who agree with us, we need a God who will oppose us to our faces. We do not need a fun house mirror, we need a perfect looking glass that tells us exactly how bad it is. We need to see what He has forgiven that we may go and sin no more. We need to realize how we were living in order to start living a life worthy of the Gospel of God and the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of His one and only Son, our Lord, Jesus Christ. We have to see how bad it was in order to see how good we have it. When we realize how bad we were, we begin to see how good God is.

day no. 17,094: local loyalty and the grace of nations

“Local loyalty follows on the universal brotherhood of all men. The Catholic says, ‘Of course we must love all men; but what do all men love? They love their lands, their lawful boundaries, the memories of their fathers. That is the justification of being national, that it is normal.’” — G.K. Chesterton, The Catholic Church and Conversion

It is a good land that is full of sons who honor their fathers and mothers just like they honored their own. That land is blessed beyond measure. It will go on as it goes with the grain of grace.

Acts 17:26

He hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation.

God has given every man his time and his place. Everyone is born for such a time and such a place as the one they were born. Those who say, "Thank You," will inherit the whole shebang. They get to keep their father's land as they keep their Father's commands.

"For it is a wild folly to suppose that nations will love each other because they are alike. They will never really do that unless they are really alike; and then they will not be nations. Nations can love each other as men and women love each other, not because they are alike but because they are different." — G.K. Chesterton, What I Saw In America

Because Christ is King, every nation has Christ in common. They may not share much else in common, but that, alone, is enough to bind them together more than any common language or customs. The blood of Jesus is a better bonding agent than any shared experience, skin color, or sports team. In Christ, the hostilities are ended and the divine diversities are finally, truly celebrated.

Revelation 7:9

After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands.

The nations are nourished by generations. One thing all men have in common is how much they love their own homes. In that spirit, Christendom will conquer the world. Every man will honor his own father and mother because he loves his home and his heritage. In so doing, he brings great glory and honor to his Heavenly Father above from whom all good and perfect gifts come down.

In the end, the brotherhood of all men will be based on each one honoring his own father and mother to the glory of God our Father. 

day no. 17,093: a big bunch of robber bands

“Without justice what are kingdoms but great bands of robbers? And what is a band of robbers but such a kingdom in miniature? It is a band of men under the rule of a leader, bound together by a pact of friendship, and their booty is divided among them by an agreed rule. Such a blot on society, if it grows, assumes for itself the proud name of kingdom.” — Augustine, City of God

A kingdom of cutthroats will not survive an encounter with the kingdom of Christ. It is Christ or chaos and if you set up a rival kingdom, it will be cut down. After all, you cannot go on cutting throats indefinitely. Eventually you run out of people to pierce. Christ's Kingdom will come and all other kingdoms will go. Their gates cannot hold out against the battering ram of God's goodness and grace.

The lesser kingdoms have been established by Christ as His deacons of wrath. They are to promote the good and punish the evil. They are to uphold justice and ensure peace and quiet for Christian people. God has not deputized the State to be deacons according to their own agendas. They are not to redistribute the bread of a nation based on their own whims. They are to enforce His law by His standards. They are not above the law. They do not have the authority to make laws that contradict His law. They are to govern by His grace and for the good of the governed. If they refuse to appeal to the justice of God, they will insist on the injustice of man.

day no. 17,092: works don't work, but grace goes hard

“The secret of the gospel is that grace works better than works do.” — Douglas Wilson, Keep Your Kids

When it comes to salvation, works don't work, but grace goes hard. Grace saves what works cannot.

Ephesians 2:8-10

For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

Works accompany grace by faith in believing, but they cannot replace grace or faith by doing.

Grace does what grit cannot do, but does not do it without gutting it out.

Matthew 19:6

Therefore they are no more two, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.

Faith and works are friends. There is no tension between them. They love and like each other. 

day no. 17,091: don't debate with demons

2 Corinthians 10:3-5

For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;

You will never win a debate with a demon. The serpent is subtle and talking things through never changes his mind. David did not negotiate with Goliath, he confronted and killed him. 

Genesis 3:1

Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, "Yea, hath God said, 'Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?'"

There is a way to lawfully ask, "Did God really say?" The way you can tell the difference is if the answer is allowed to be, "Yes" or if the answer is already presupposed to be, "No." If that unwillingness is built into the question, it is a question from the pit of Hell and should be met with blows, not "yeah, buts."