day no. 16,816: the promised land and the baptized babies

1 Corinthians 10:1-6

Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; And did all eat the same spiritual meat; And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ. But with many of them God was not well pleased: for they were overthrown in the wilderness. Now these things were our examples.

All of Israel was baptized in the Exodus from Egypt and all communed on elements of heavenly bread and drink in their wanderings in the wilderness, but all did not keep their respective covenants with Christ.

Joshua 5:6

For the children of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness, till all the people that were men of war, which came out of Egypt, were consumed, because they obeyed not the voice of the Lord: unto whom the Lord sware that he would not shew them the land, which the Lord sware unto their fathers that he would give us, a land that floweth with milk and honey.

All the grumblers died in the desert and these were all of those twenty years old and upward, fit for war, but fighting the hand that fed them instead of the enemies that opposed them.

Numbers 14:29

Your carcases shall fall in this wilderness; and all that were numbered of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward, which have murmured against me,

In the end, the only ones who entered the land of milk and honey were those who entered the exodus drinking their mother's milk, those who were baptized as children, save Joshua and Caleb, who held their own though they grew up in the midst of rampant apostasy.

day no. 16,815: those who chase the wind catch hell

Ecclesiastes 6:9

Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of desire. This also is vanity and grasping for the wind

Those who chase the wind catch hell.

You cannot outrun the spirit of the age. You will wear yourself out and end up empty handed. The zeitgeist can haunt you, but it cannot be hunted down. It is unreality. It is the fever dream of fanatical unbelief. In the effort to overthrow the reality of God, reality itself is rejected. It is better to hold on to a little bit of horse sense than to graduate with honors from Sodom State University.

Ecclesiastes 1:14

I have seen all the works which have been done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and striving after wind.

Any and every thing done under the sun without reference to that which is beyond its brightness is simply a lesson in futility. The pursuit of wind is an empty promise. Clutching at sand castles cannot keep them. The harder you hold, the more they slip through your fingers. The wish fulfillment of unbelieving man is an empty hand and a head full of nonsense.

day no. 16,814: Rocco is NINE!

Happy 9th Birthday, Rockestsauce!

You are one year older and just as Rocco as you have always been.

You have always been you and as you grow older, you are only becoming more you.

Here are some things that you like that I like about you:

You like being a boy... especially boy jokes. If burps or toots are involved, you're probably involved... or on your way to join in.

You like wrestling and you are really strong.

You like shooting air soft guns and are learning to enjoy being shot by them.

You like following Finneas around, but you also have been making your own friends at church.

You like coffee and often ask me to make you some after church.

You like falling asleep on the couch during Story Club and I like that I get to carry you down to your bed.

You like playing air guitar with Finneas and Lolo when you get together to be the air band version of Sevendust.

You like wearing face paint.

You like tommy guns.

You like being thrown up in the air (a task that is getting increasingly more difficult the bigger you get)

You are easy to love and everyone loves you.

Happy birthday, Rocco.

Love,

Dad

day no. 16,813: current events are conceived by origin stories and eschatologies

"We deny that there can be any true Christian impact on culture if there is not absolute faith in what God teaches in His Word about human origins. This is because the progress for which we labor is a species of sanctification, not a form of evolution." — New Saints Andrews College, Thirty Theses on Culture Building

Current events are shaped by competing origin stories and eschatologies. They are conceived by what is believed about where we came from and where we should be going.

Sanctification presupposes both the Edenic perfection and the Fall into sin as well as justification and ultimate glorification of those in Christ. Where you think we came from and where you think we should go will determine what you try to promote and what you seek to penalize.

If you imagine we are the product of millions of years of chance happening and headed toward a future utopia built by human merit, it will come out your fingertips here and now. It will season the words that cross your lips and color the cares that cross your mind.

"We affirm that genuine cultural engagement is a long term inter-generational endeavor, and requires those who participate in it to do it with an intelligent grasp of eschatology. Cultural endeavors that are not supported by an eschatological vision either will be drudgery, trying to eke out a living, or will be characterized by an attempt to get excitement from somewhere, which will usually be the kind of excitement that comes from the latest and hot new thing." — New Saints Andrews College, Thirty Theses on Culture Building

If you are not anchored in an ultimate telos, you will be subject to the whims of contemporary froth and bubble. Eschatology keeps a man from fads and keeps his head down in his labors with a legacy to fuel him rather than the fanfare of his contemporaries.

"We deny that an optimistic eschatological expectation requires us to adopt false optimism of the kind promulgated by the left wing of postmillennialism, whether of the social gospel sort of a century ago or the social justice nostrums that are being peddled now. Neither should we fall into the trap of an over-realized eschatology. We believe that our labors in the Lord are not in vain (1 Cor. 15:58), but at the same time we understand ourselves to be playing the long game. It may well be that future generations will consider us to have been part of the early church. The yeast expands slowly. The mustard seed grows into a plant slowly." — New Saints Andrews College, Thirty Theses on Culture Building

We don't work hard because failure is impossible, but because good work is hard. We labor with the promises of the Lord in our hearts and the perseverance of His saints as our example. We endure difficulty for the sake of the joy set before us. That joy is guaranteed. The path there is sometimes a steep ascent and other times a dramatic plunge, but it always advances up that mountain of God.

"We seek to educate future cultural leaders, which means we are equipping them for that role, which is not the same thing as determining the will of God for their lives. If an individual graduate is led by the Spirit of God to labor in an obscure corner, the last day will reveal the cups of cold water that he gave to others in the name of Christ, and we do not in any way consider that a failure of our mission. It is, rather, a striking success. At the same time, if after graduating scores of cultural leaders, no culture actually gets led or shaped in biblical directions, we might want to consider changing our mission statement." — New Saints Andrews College, Thirty Theses on Culture Building

Christendom comes through homes where men and women married in the Lord raise their children in the Lord. That home will be productive and will export its goods to the its neighborhoods, cities, etc... Culture will be shaped and nations will be taught the commands of Christ. If Christ is Lord between your ears, that will come out your mouth and through your fingertips. If Christ is Lord of your home, it will exit your doors and pour out your windows. Where Christ is Lord, He is Lord of all and anywhere He is held in high esteem, He goes with those, wherever they may go.

Matthew 28:18-20

And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, "All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen."

We do not merely go, we therefore go. We go because all authority in heaven and earth belong to Christ. He is our God and we are His people. We go knowing His kingdom will come and His will will be done. We go knowing He goes with us. We go knowing He is where we are going. We go because He sent us. The beginning and the end is always Jesus. World without end. Amen.

day no. 16,812: specializing in generality

"We are not trying to shape culture by producing an array of specialists but rather generalists who understand the importance of all specialties in a way that specialists frequently do not. A good life is what generalists are called to specialize in." — New Saints Andrews College, Thirty Theses on Culture Building

Specialties are good and necessary, but the temptation for specialists is to elevate their specialty above all others or to discredit other specialties simply for not being the same as their own. Generalities are good and necessary, but the temptation for generalists is to denigrate any specialty as being unnecessary. A good generalist appreciates all specialties. A good specialist appreciates the goodness of other specialties in general without surrendering their special commitment to a specific one.

A good life is the specialty of a good generalist.

Proverbs 22:29

Seest thou a man diligent in his business?

He shall stand before kings;

he shall not stand before mean men.

Diligence in one's business will catch the attention of business experts. Whatever your craft or competency, a good king will recognize your specialty, because he recognizes excellence in general. Game recognizes game.

day no. 16,811: quicksand and longstands

"We affirm that the living God is the God of all the livng and that all who hate wisdom do so because they are in love with death (Prov. 8:38). All attempts at culture building apart from the God of Scripture are attempts that will spiral downward into a culture of death. This city of death has many back alleys, and the whole thing is a slum, filled with promiscuity, easy divorce, abandoned children, pornography, lesbianism, sodomy, and the carnage of abortion. The culture of life we represent stands against this anti-culture, this culture of death, at every point. We deny that any of our graduates can compromise in any way with this sexual revolution and in any way represent our vision. There is no compromise here." — New Saints Andrews College, Thirty Theses on Culture Building

Defy the Death Cult at EVERY point.

Christendom must stand against the deathmongers wherever they assemble. But it cannot stand on quicksand. Christ is the only rock into which one can dig his heels deep enough to endure the surge. Wobbly knees won't due on the day of onslaught. Faith in the Way, the Truth, and the Life is the only way to stay in the foxhole while being fired upon.

Psalm 106:30a-31

Then stood up Phinehas... and that was counted unto him for righteousness unto all generations for evermore.

Stand up.

While everyone else is down with the darkness, resist it. Like Phinehas, stand up while others are laying down and be counted among the righteous and remembered reverently by them.

Ephesians 6:10-13

Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.

Waylay the wiles of the wicked.

Wrestle against the wreckage of the wretched. 

Defy the death cult.

Stand.

day no. 16,810: prisoners of the moment and the architects of tomorrow

"We affirm that Scripture knows nothing of faithful culture that is detached from generations. But generations entail men, and women, and marriage, and sex, and children, and grandchildren. A sine qua non of all biblical culture making is therefore fruitful lovemaking. A transformative generation is going to be, by the grace of God, disciplined, married, moral, heterosexual, and highly-sexed."  — New Saints Andrews College, Thirty Theses on Culture Building

Reformation begins with regeneration and procreation. New birth of both kinds characterize rebirth. Before there can be a new culture, there has to be new people. These people need to be made and discipled. 

Matthew 28:18-20

And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, "All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen."

Culture shaping will include new students and consistent teaching, the same Gospel of grace taught in the authority of Christ to new children and new converts. As we make babies, we make disciples. As we preach the Good News, God calls more to enter into covenant. 

Attempting to create a culture without an emphasis on creating a new generation is to admit an interest in fads rather than a commitment to Christendom. No prisoner of the moment has ever made anything that held the next moment captive. Kowtowing to the Spirit of the Age is a tired attempt at keeping the vibe alive. The clubbing catches up with up with you, the sun comes up, and the hangover sets in. There is nothing fruitful in frolicking with strangers at 2 am, but there is something eternal in singing your kids to sleep before heading to bed with the wife with whom you made them. 

Trends cannot compete with traditions. Nothing is lamer than yesterday’s coolness and nothing is stronger than eternal covenant. The architects of tomorrow live for a good legacy; the prisoners of the moment live for a good time.