day no. 16,936: Finneas the thirteenth

Happy 13th Birthday, Finneas!

They say to look out for Friday the 13th, but they say all kinds of things, and more importantly and to our purposes here, they've never had to tangle with Finneas the 13th! No one ever has. At least, not until TODAY. Get ready, world. Here he comes.

Finneas, you are officially a teenager. 

While you still enjoying boyhood, you are beginning to appreciate the pursuit of manhood. You are lifting weights and wanting to grow muscle. You are helping out with physical chores around the house and looking for opportunities to help. You are beginning to earn a little extra cash in the process and learning how to spend and save money and how to make purchases you don't regret. 

You have a razor sharp wit and often surprise your mother and me with just how quickly you pick the perfect comeback. You have a clever tongue and you can read a room. You know where all the buttons are. You identify the weak points without much effort. The work for you will be knowing what to do with that insight. God has given you a great gift of being able to read people and situations and by His grace and through His Spirit, you will leverage that strength to build up saints and break down demonic strongholds.

You are a fun person to be around as evidenced by how easily you make friends and how quickly you adapt to whatever game the group was playing before you got there. 

I'm proud of you, Finneas. 

You are a good son. You are caring, thoughtful, helpful, hilarious, and loyal. You are committed to what you like and look to convince others to like it. I would not be surprised if you leveraged that to win many to the Christian faith. You are not afraid of conflict and as we have pointed out time and time again, you almost always win. You dominate. By God's providence, you are often able to impose your will on a person or a situation. And since you are growing up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord, you are learning God's will as well. So, putting it all together, I suspect you will be used by God to bring His will to bear upon many people and places before it’s all said and done.

God has great things in store for you. That has always been obvious to anyone who has gotten to know you. When you were a child, I would often joke that you were either going to destroy the world or fix it. As Shakespeare said, "Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.” In your case, itt is all three. You were born special and will do special things because God has singled you out, like Samson, for special work.

I love being your dad and like being your friend. I look forward to smoking cigars and clinking glasses of scotch with you. 

Welcome to manhood, my friend.

You are my son, but you are my brother in Christ.

Happy Birthday, Finneas.

Love,

Dad

day no. 16,935: the house of God rules over the houses of men

Psalm 87:2

The Lord loves the gates of Zion

more than all the dwelling places of Jacob.

The Lord God loves the assembled families of men in worship at His house more than He does the individual families of men leading their times of family worship in their homes. This is not to say that He does not love families. He does. To love one thing more than another is not to have no love for the first. But it does highlight a particular emphasis or order.

You cannot make an omelet without eggs and you cannot have a congregation without families, but neither can you have an omelet if the eggs stay in the carton or a congregation if all the families stay home. There is something special about everyone getting out of their own bed, getting dressed in their own clothes, driving their own vehicles, and gathering together to a common place on a common day to worship a common God. The gathering of the saints on the Lord’s Day to worship God with His people is unique. It does not happen on a Tuesday evening. That isn’t to say that your Tuesday night with your family in worship is unimportant. If anything, it is to say that family worship at home is all the more important because it prepares your particular people to better worship your God with the rest of His people the following Sunday. 

Ephesians 3:14

For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named.

We are grateful for the gifts of God and for godly families, but families are derivative, not substantive. They are important because God is important. Fathers matter because God the Father Almighty matters. Families matter because the family of God matters. Your house matters because the House of God matters. Family worship is special because the family of God is special.

day no. 16,934: better by what standard?

1 Chronicles 29:2

I have provided for the house of my God, so far as I was able, the gold for the things of gold, the silver for the things of silver, and the bronze for the things of bronze, the iron for the things of iron, and wood for the things of wood, besides great quantities of onyx and stones for setting.

Is gold better than silver? Sometimes. It has historically been worth more, at least in fair trade on the open market, but that does not make it better at being silver. Sometimes you need silver. Is iron better than wood? It depends. Does it need to float? Does it need to bend? How much heat will it need to endure? What are you trying to do? By what standard?

David carefully set aside everything that would be needed for the house of God. He had categories. He didn’t just save a bunch of gold saying, “Gold is best. Make it all out of gold.” Gold is great, but it is also heavy and soft. Some things need to be light and some things need to be rigid. And some things are not always available for purchase, no matter how much gold you could offer for it.

David also didn’t just store up a bunch of gold saying, “Use this to buy whatever you need.” Gold can, after all, buy things that it cannot build. At the end of the day, however, David didn’t want to give Solomon a big bank account and a bigger to do list. He could have done that, but he didn’t. He gave him the things he needed in proportion to what they were needed for. Iron is strong, but onyx is pretty. Gold is precious, but wood can float. 

God has made everything according to its kind and purpose. It is our duty to appreciate things in proportion to what God made them for. 

If I set the sun beside the moon,

And if I set the land beside the sea,

And if I set the flower beside the fruit

And if I set the town beside the country

And if I set the man beside the woman

I suppose some fool would talk

About one being better.

— G.K. Chesterton, Comparisons

This is not some post-modern goo log about everything being equal. This is merely pointing out that context is required to assign value. The sun is better at governing the day than the moon is. The sea is better at being wet than the land is. A man is better at being a man than a woman is.

Every thing really is better than another thing at being what God made it to be and nothing is better than anything else at being what it is not.

day no. 16,933: the secular blood sacrament

“Abortion is the demonic parody of the Eucharist.” — Peter Kreeft

At the Lord's Supper we celebrate, among other things, faith in the idea of "My body for yours."

In the act of abortion the modern world declares, among other things, its insistence on the idea of "Your body for mine."

Abortion is the blood sacrament of the modern secular church. 

2 Corinthians 11:14

And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.

It should not shock us that the secular world has sacred texts like Darwin's Origin of Species and sacraments like Sanger's abortion-on-demand. Secular chaos cannot escape the power of God's living order and symbolism. So, it borrow rainbows and doves in order to celebrate defiance and enmity with God as superficial peace with men (Jas 4:4) It puts crucifixes around its neck or tattoos them on its shoulders. It cannot help itself. People were made to worship, but they defy their Maker. They play with the power of religion without consulting the Person  by whom and for whom religion exists. You cannot be on good terms with sin and the Savior. You cannot sit at the table of sin and the table of salvation.

1 Corinthians 10:20-21 

I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils. Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils: ye cannot be partakers of the Lord's table, and of the table of devils.

The side of good never calls "evil" good in order to annex more land. 

Psalm 16:4

Their sorrows shall be multiplied that hasten after another god: their drink offerings of blood will I not offer, nor take up their names into my lips.

You cannot call murder "healthcare" and by the side of health or holiness.

You cannot call evil "good" and be on the side of good or goodness.

day no. 16,932: divine indifference

"What is the solution to all this? The solution is the divine gift of not caring what they think. But of course, not caring at all is apathy, and that is also a sin. Caring is another inescapable concept—not whether, but which. It is not whether your conduct will be approved, but rather which group will approve it. It is not whether you care if your conduct is approved, it is rather which group’s approval you care about." — Douglas Wilson, Real Offense and Not So Much

There is a Christ-like way to not care what others are saying about you.

Differentiated leaders embrace the diktat of divine indifference.

This is the way.

Luke 11:44-46

Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are as graves which appear not, and the men that walk over them are not aware of them. Then answered one of the lawyers, and said unto him, Master, thus saying thou reproachest us also. And he said, Woe unto you also, ye lawyers! for ye lade men with burdens grievous to be borne, and ye yourselves touch not the burdens with one of your fingers.

The lawyers were worried that Christ had accidentally included them in His critique of the Pharisees. Christ was concerned that any doubt remained, so He took the opportunity to clarify.

Matthew 15:12-14

Then the disciples came and said to him, “Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying?” He answered, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be rooted up. Let them alone; they are blind guides. And if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit.”

The disciples were worried that Jesus had offended the Pharisees.

Jesus was worried that He hadn't. 

“You could see that they were ready to be friends with anyone who was friendly and didn't give a fig for anyone who wasn't." — C.S. Lewis, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Horse and His Boy

So, all that to say, in order to be Christ-like, you must be willing to be friends with the friendly while not giving a fig for those won't.

Christ-like not caring is the way. If you care a great deal about what God thinks, you won't care a bit about what blasphemers feel.

day no. 16,931: light swallows darkness

“Everything becomes more and more itself. Here is joy that cannot be shaken. Our light can swallow up your darkness: but your darkness cannot now infect our light. No, no, no. Come to us. We will not go to you. Can you really have thought that love and joy would always be at the mercy of frowns and sighs? Did you not know they were stronger than their opposites?” — C.S. Lewis, The Great Divorce

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

Luke 8:17

For nothing is secret that will not be revealed, nor anything hidden that will not be known and come to light.

The darkness will be dragged into the light until it is no more.

Hebrews 2:8

Thou hast put all things in subjection under His feet. For in that He put all in subjection under Him, He left nothing that is not put under Him. But now we see not yet all things put under Him.

Everything will be subordinated to Christ.

Light devours darkness.

Darkness cannot dim the day.

The seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent are on opposite sides, but they are not equals. The devil is not God's opposite. God has not opposite. If an opposite was needed, Michael would be Satan's opposite, but God would still have none.

1 Corinthians 15:24-26

Then comes the end, when He delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when He puts an end to all rule and all authority and power. For He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy that will be destroyed is death.

Everything is going somewhere and that somewhere is a Someone. Everything is headed to Him. Enemies will be destroyed. Friends will be delighted.

day no. 16,930: democracy and total depravity

“I am a [proponent of democracy] because I believe in the Fall of Man. I think most people are democrats for the opposite reason. A great deal of democratic enthusiasm descends from the ideas of people like Rousseau, who believed in democracy because they thought mankind so wise and good that every one deserved a share in the government. The danger of defending democracy on those grounds is that they’re not true… I find that they’re not true without looking further than myself. I don’t deserve a share in governing a hen-roost. Much less a nation. . . . The real reason for democracy is just the reverse. Mankind is so fallen that no man can be trusted with unchecked power over his fellows. Aristotle said that some people were only fit to be slaves. I do not contradict him. But I reject slavery because I see no men fit to be masters.” — C.S. Lewis, Present Concerns

Democracy can only be supported by Pelagianism or Total Depravity. If every man, no matter how bad, has a spark of good within, he should not be prevented from letting that light shine on election day. But if every man, no matter how good, has some sin within, he cannot be trusted to be the light of a nation, let alone the entire world. 

Slavery is not inherently sinful, but men are. If slavery were mala in se, the New Testament would not have commands to masters on how to handle themselves as Christians. It would simply rebuke them for having slaves and command them to liberate them. Yet, in Christianity the seeds of liberation are planted so that even in a slave-holding society, when saved and sanctified according to God's Word, the natural result is less slavery, not more as men are raised and nurtured in the discipline and instruction of the Lord, freedom prevails. As such, it makes sense that the more the world is conformed to the image of Christ, the more it will accept the Christian doctrine of total depravity. And the more it does that, the less it will accept the leadership of any man who takes exception to that reality, especially when it is himself that is concerned.

The Fall of man must moderate the power of any man, both in kind and in scope.

Democracy is only justified where demos confesses itself depraved.

Democracy without this doctrine is merely despotism in denial.