day no. 17,422: a violent interpretation

"Good men must know violence, so evil men do not become fluent in it." — Miyamoto Musashi

Good men must not be violent all of the time, but they must be violent some of the time or else bad men will be violent all of the time. If good men are never violent, they are not good. If they are incapable of violence, they are not men. Good men are violent when necessary and never when not.

Ephesians 4:26

Be ye angry, and sin not.

Good men agree and seek to submit to this, their marching orders from God. In their anger, they do not sin. In their violence, they do not steal vengeance from the Lord, but become His hand of justice as they are submitted to His will. Good men are the deacons of God's wrath. 

Proverbs 19:25

Strike a scoffer, and the simple will learn prudence; 

reprove a man of understanding, and he will gain knowledge.

A good man must know how to speak violence, but he must not be fluent in it. It cannot be his native tongue, but he must know how to translate his native tongue into violence so that the wicked may understand and the simple may gain wisdom.

day no. 17,421: all fuss and no fun

"This merry-making is subordinate to the marriage; because it is in honour of the marriage. People came there to be married and not to be merry; and they are merry because they did." — G.K. Chesterton, G.K.'s Weekly (1925)

Those who forget why they are gathered fall into frivolity, but those who remember the reason for the gathering get caught up in the festivities that follow. The fun is the result of the formation. The party bows to the privilege and the dancing takes a back seat to the doctrine. But it always follows. The doctrine demands it. The privilege provides it. The fun follows the formalities. But only if the formalities are acknowledge on the front end as the true meaning of what is being done.

Snobs who forget the formalities in principle throw large celebrations, but have no fun for they have forgotten what they are celebrating. They have large societal weddings with all the who-who's attending, but they have nothing to celebrate. It is all fuss and no fun. It is pomp and circumstance and no faith or substance. They participate in grand renditions of long held traditions for the sake of nostalgia, not as an apologia. 

"Modernity is largely the story of human beings attempting to find significance apart from God." — Ryan Whitaker Smith, Winter Fire

The modern world is all wedding reception and no ceremony. They have the ceremony to get to the reception as opposed to the Christian who has a reception because of the ceremony. That is the difference in its highest contrast.

day no. 17,420: a fighting chance

"The 7th century Christians of Asia and Africa...had trained themselves not to fight, whereas the Moslems were trained to fight.” — Teddy Roosevelt, Fear God and Take Your Part

Pacifism is a dead Quaker. It is the war on war. If you are not prepared for battle, you are being prepared for the menu.

Those who fight the good fight discover that God is still a God of battles. Everyone stands up a little straighter in the armor of God.

“From the hammer of Charles Martel to the sword of Sobieski, Christianity owed its safety in Europe to the fact it...would fight as well as the Mohammedan aggressor.” — Teddy Roosevelt, Fear God and Take Your Part

Enmity is hardwired into the system by God. Those who do not fight the seed of the serpent will lose. He will not stop fighting even if you do. Jihad will not go quietly into that good night, it will only go out with, quite literally, a bang. So, fight for your brothers, your sisters, your wives, your children, your country, your people, your life, and your God and see the deliverance of the Lord.

day no. 17,419: all grateful with nowhere to go

"Rossetti makes the remark somewhere, bitterly but with great truth, that the worst moment for the atheist is when he is really thankful and has nobody to thank." — G.K. Chesterton, St. Francis of Assisi

Joy is harder for an atheist to account for than despair. Heart ache makes sense if the world is heartless, but thankfulness does not make sense if the world is not full. Joy is the undoing of unbelief. When gratitude wells up within, it seeks an outlet. It wants to pour out in the form of a "Thank you," but if the man does not believe in a You above to thank, he is left with a heart that wishes there was.

day no. 17,418: alphabetical areas of interest July 2026

"There are no uninteresting things, only uninterested people."

— G.K. Chesterton

Interested people are interesting people.

Be interested... stay interesting.

AC (was not working as well, able to fix by simply cleaning filter, praise God!)

Baseball (kids all got gloves and are learning how to throw/catch)

Bob Reese (YouTuber who does backflips and funny vids w/ his kid)

Boylei Hobby Time (still enjoying his imaginary builds on YouTube)

Chickens (we have baby chicks, again)

Convictions (Christian metal we recently discovered)

Cottage cheese (been eating this for snack for more protein)

Creatine (began supplementing for muscle growth)

Crimson Armada (Revelations II is soooo good!)

Die Hards (watching through on 3rd Fridays)

Dishwasher (on the fritz and handwashing again with Atticus after dinner)

Dragonball Z movies (watched Superhero and Broly movie for first time)

Dragonball Z show (kids watching through and have Super ready to go after)

Driving (Paige has been driving to milk again)

Elder (still a candidate at CCL)

Europeans Discovering America (fun trend online for FIFA World Cup 2026)

Evanescence (new album, new single/video for "Who Do You Follow?" is really good)

Fall Out Boy (been enjoying their its during dishes)

Fifth Friday (introduced where Paige gets to pick movie on 5th Fridays)

Garage (been spending nice afternoons out there smoking cigars)

Headaches (have good runs with none and bad runs with them daily)

High Church Protestantism (enjoying the reformed catholic life)

Huguenots (genealogy info from mom, may go back to them)

Imagine Dragons (also been listening to their hits during dishes)

Instagram (growth on main channel has slowed, backup hit 10k)

Insurance Score SME (asked to join at Shelter)  

Jazz (date night spot at Legends)

July (should be an interesting 250th anniversary for the USA)

June (happy to see another muted year of "pride" month)

Key & Peele (watch skits before 3rd Friday movies)

Liver shots (began taking these after fasting)

Make Your Own Sandwich (rediscovered and added to Sabbath dinner rotation)

Memorization (monthly Bible verse challenge for kids)

Night time drink (stopped doing coffee/creamer, started vit C, magnesium, creatine combo)

Oatmeal (Paige bought me more to enjoy before dinner / after work)

Page One (once a month at CCL)

Party Speaker (great Father's Day gift)

Preaching (once a month at CCL)

Quick minutes (began doing with Paige in the morning)

Quince (Paige got some more clothes and perfume from them)

Reconquista (first cigar from Ave Maria box I smoked)

Reading (began reading more hard copy books agains during work day breaks)

Red Pill Reformation, Joshua Haymes (YouTube shorts)

Ruck (began rucking on Saturday at 6a with Atticus, Finneas, and Rocco)

Sermons (once/month at $500 per and trying to work ahead)

Session (began hosting monthly session meeting at our place)

Shaboozey (Good News and Amen have become fun dish time faves)

Side yard (attempted landscaping to redirect water)

Sila Thai (great new Thai place in LV we often go to for date night)

Tatiana (discovered these fun, flavored cigars)

Ten Thirty (introduced 10:30 dates with Paige when possible)

Traveller (story club book)

USA (250th birthday)

Van (still chugging along)

Verses (memorization challenge for kids completed with treats)

Weezer (new album/songs, fun to play their classics for summer months)

Wingfeather (working our way through this series again for Story Club)

Workout (began working out w/ Paige in AM after quick minutes)

Xtra Protein (been buying cottage cheese and yogurt for snack before dinner)

Yogurt (plain Greek for snack to increase protein, less chips)

Young Washington (going to see in the theaters on 4th of July)

Zzz (changed daily wake up time to 7:05a for more time to read Bible before working out)

day no. 17,417: religion and riot

"The truth is that there is an alliance between religion and real fun... Religion and riot are very near, as the history of all religions prove. Riot means being a rotter; and religion means knowing you are a rotter." — G.K. Chesterton, The Illustrated London News (1907)

The real religion of God in Christ is really fun, but the false religions of man are just riots. It is the nature of religion to draw men upward, but when the highest ideals of a belief are beneath you, the only thing left to do is to settle for decadence. Just as the true religion leads to spontaneous laughter, all false religions lead to spontaneous lynchings. Fun is found in the Father, but licentiousness is lived out where there is no awl. 

"Joy, which was the small publicity of the pagan, is the gigantic secret of the Christian." — G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy

Christendom does not fight for joy, it fights from it. Joy is the secret weapon of the kingdom. What paganism dismisses, Christendom promotes. The joy of the Lord is our strength.

day no. 17,416: eastern mystery and western logic

"The Three Kings came to Bethlehem bringing gold and frankincense and myrrh. If they had only brought Truth and Purity and Love there would have been no Christian art and no Christian Civilization... There were three things prefigured and promised by the gifts in the cave in Bethlehem concerning the Child who received them; that He would be crowned like a King; that He should be worshipped like a God; and that He should die like a man. And these things would sound like Eastern flattery, were it not for the third." — G.K. Chesterton (speaking of the three gifts the wise men presented)

The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Christianity is more than forms and philosophy. The Word was with God and the Word was God. Christianity is more than the physical and pragmatics. It is truth, goodness, and beauty. It is the idea of those things and the manifestation of those things. It is not just invisible in the air, it is visible on the ground. It is both/and.

Jesus is a prophet, a priest, and a king, but He is also the sacrifice. He is the prophet who died for the truth, the priest who sacrificed Himself, and the King who was subjected Himself to His subjects.

Jesus is eastern mystery and western logic. He is the secret things of God and the things of God revealed.