day no. 15,349: reformation day!

Today, we celebrate the faith of our fathers and the inheritance they left to us in the form of this testimony...

“We are resolved, by the grace of God, to maintain the pure and exclusive teaching of His only word, such as is contained in the Biblical books of the Old and New Testaments, without adding anything thereto that may be contrary to it. This Word is the only truth, it is the sure rule of all doctrine and of all life, and can never fail or deceive us.” -- John, Elector of Saxony, the first to sign the protest at the second Diet of Speyer (source)

day no. 15,348 continued... a state of emergency

A state of emergency doesn’t require a marketing campaign.

"I was at this casino minding my own business, and this guy came up to me and said, 'You're gonna have to move, you're blocking a fire exit.' As though if there was a fire, I wasn't gonna run. If you're flammable and have legs, you are never blocking a fire exit." -- Mitch Hedberg

#fauxvid19

#panicdemic

day no. 15,348: word, water, bread and wine

"Word, water, bread and wine" -- Douglas Wilson, The Face of Jesus (sermon)

The Christian faith is based on themes as basic as words, water, bread and wine. It is a faith built around things said, wet, fed and sipped. It is tangible. It is undeniable. And yet it is as profound as Word, water, bread and wine.

The Word of God in the beginning spoke the worlds into being. The Word of God in the middle became flesh in order to be in our world. The Word of God in the end will appear and end the world as we know it.

Water is the universal solvent. It washes away most things with which it comes into contact. Water comes down and water can drown. Water rushes and water gathers. It gets us wet and it whets our appetites. it greases the gears of our inner workings.

Bread can be chewed. It can be felt when swallowed. It contains energy and it is produced by energy. Bread does not grow in fields, but wheat does. Bread is produced by gathering, refining, making and baking. All of which require energy. Our daily bread is produced by bread powered hard work.

Wine makes the heart glad and is a miracle of waiting on grapes. The same grapes that taste sweet in time taste strong.

These elements of our faith are earthy and spiritual in one. They are hypo-static in their retention of two worlds. They are visible tokens of invisible attributes. They are basic and simple. They are divine and profound.

day no. 15,347: kept the way a floor is swept

Oh! how sweet to view the flowing 
Of His sin-atoning blood;
With divine assurance knowing,
That it made my peace with God.
--  Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Morning and Evening

Peacekeepers do whatever to keep the peace, but the peace they produce is counterfeit. It is fueled by compromise and flattery and it has no ability to bear the tension between parties. This is why it must be kept the way a floor is swept. It requires constant maintenance. It is a flurry of activity and maneuvering merely to maintain a semblance of sanity. It is anything but peaceful. 

Only the blood of Jesus produces peace with God. It ends the tension by satisfying fully the conditions of lasting peace. The only party who can hold a grudge, God, is satisfied completely with Christ's sacrifice. In Jesus, we have peace made. Not just peaceful feelings intermittently kept, but tangible peace permanently made. Peace you could lay down and take a nap on. Peace upon which you can confidently build. Peace that is currency that spends unto salvation and sanctification. Not a peace in the clouds, but a peace under your feet.

day no. 15,346: counting and recounting

"Let us for a moment recount those precious things which are a delight to our souls, telling them over as misers count their gold." - Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Morning and Evening

Someone who loves their money can easily spend their time counting and recounting every dollar and cent. They do this because they want to guarantee they haven't misplaced a single penny. They do this because they delight to take a census of their treasure. It is natural. We count and recount what we highly value. 

If a miser can take such care to count and recount his gold, we can take such care to count and recount the blessings of God in the inexhaustible vault of His treasure. 

Ephesians 1:3-10
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as He chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us for adoption to Himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of His will, to the praise of His glorious grace, with which He has blessed us in the Beloved. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace, which He lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which He set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in Him, things in heaven and things on earth.

day no. 15,345: division is not the arch enemy of multiplication

"So when our first parents disobeyed Him at the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they did not introduce division into the world. What they introduced was a fragmented, inharmonious division, which is what sin always does. The division between one note and a completely different note is what makes harmony possible—but it is also what makes a discordant lack of harmony possible. We sometimes think that our first parents’ sin brought differences into the world, but what it actually did is take a world already full of glorious differences, and make them all jar and clatter against each other. The differences in themselves were good and necessary." -- Douglas Wilson, Bone of My Bones

God likes distinctions.He said so, on record, in the beginning. The differences He deliberately created were good, very good in fact. So when we speak of sin, we cannot speak of it as the agent of division. Sin takes advantage of those divisions by exaggerating them beyond their created arrangement by either bringing them too close to each other or too far away. The widening or narrowing of the divine distinctions create disharmony, just like complementary notes shifting too far away from or toward their proper stations produce discord. 

Division in the not archenemy of multiplication.

God divided the world and infused creation with distinctions not to parcel it out into tiny, disconnected, disinterested factions, but to make it possible for harmonious fruitfulness and multiplication.

day no. 15,344 continued.. Deo volente