day no. 17,435: porn and rage porn often walk hand in hand

2 Timothy 2:22-23

So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. Have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies; you know that they breed quarrels.

Consider putting more effort into cultivating godly friendships with other young men and guys. Help where you can and ask for help where you need it. Side by side is the best way to bond with other men. A good crew can help with the loneliness. That said, choose your crew wisely. A bunch of young bucks trying to bond over the latest twitter outrage isn't the best basis for a productive friendship.

In other words, avoid porn and rage porn by spending more time around guys who aren't involved with either of them.

day no. 17,434: an undervalued overpowering

“I believe that this righteousness of faith is what the sons of Abraham were promised they would be able to use to overpower the world and all of its customs, manners, and ways.” — Douglas Wilson, Concise and to the Point

The Word of God overcame the void. The fullness of God conquered the emptiness. The wisdom of God outmaneuvered the knowledge of evil. The light of God blinded the darkness.  

1 John 5:4

For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.

The sons of Abraham will cover the world as the sand covers the beach and light up the world the way the stars punctuate the sky. The world as we know it is passing away, the world as God wants it is coming to pass.

day no. 17,433: all of the fuss and none of the fun

"Frivolity is trying to rejoice with nothing to rejoice over." — G.K. Chesterton, G.K.'s Weekly (1925)

Frivolity is artificial. It wants the rewards of intimacy without the intimacy and the benefits of responsibility without any of the responsibility. It knows enough to know that it should want to have fun, but refuses to turn to the Font of fun to have it. It wants to party without an occasion and a ceremony without a Guest of honor.

"The result is that at last even frivolity begins to fail. People who began by coming together only for fun end by doing it only for fashion; and there is no more even of faint suggestion of fun but only of fuss." — G.K. Chesterton, G.K.'s Weekly (1925)

Chasing a high is always exhausting. All of the superstition and reenactments cannot contain the thrill of the original. There is a reason for the original that the reenactment cannot capture. Eventually, you are left with fussing over the details of getting it just right only to be disappointed all over again.

day no 17,432: cut to the quick

"Wit is a fighting thing and a working thing. A man may enjoy humor all by himself; he may see a joke when no one else sees it; he may see the point and avoid it. But wit is a sword; it is meant to make people feel the point as well as see it." — G.K. Chesterton

It is one thing to know how to make someone see and understand the point of something and quite another to make them feel the point of it.

Acts 5:29-35

Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, "We ought to obey God rather than men. The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom ye slew and hanged on a tree. Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins.  And we are his witnesses of these things; and so is also the Holy Ghost, whom God hath given to them that obey him." When they heard that, they were cut to the heart, and took counsel to slay them.

You can speak in a pointed way, but you cannot poke someone's soul. The Word of God can cut to the division of joint and marrow, soul and spirit, however.

Hebrews 4:12

For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

It is the grace of God that gives us the ability to see the point and it is the grace of God that gives us the ability to feel its poke in our souls.

"All good things come to a point, swords for instance" — G.K. Chesterton

All good and perfect gifts come down to us from above, including the words that cut us to the quick. Thank God for His surgical precision in doing reconstructive heart surgery on us after having already performed a heart transplant on us. 

day no. 17,431: punctuation marks the spot

“One of the most necessary and most neglected points, about the story called history, is the fact that the story is not finished.” — G.K. Chesterton

History is not yet in the books. Some of it is, but not all of it. The Author knows the ending, but He has not written it down yet. It is in His mind. He knows where all of this is going, but He has not yet put all of the details down on paper. Not because He doesn't know them, but because He is still writing down the details of today right before our eyes. We often know the end of a sentence before we begin to type it out. We sometimes know the end of the essay before we begin writing it. But God knew the end of history before the beginning. He knows where the period will be even as He is typing the present into existence.

day no. 17,430: in the cave or out of it?

"While Christians and Jews share the Old Testament, we come down here to a foundational principle of division. Jesus either rose from the dead or He did not. The Old Testament either prophesied that He would, or it didn’t. If He did not rise, then as the apostle Paul noted, we Christians are the most pitiable creatures ever (1 Cor. 15:19). If He did rise from the dead, then He is the promised Messiah that the entire Old Testament was pointing toward. That would make the Jews the most to be pitied." — Douglas Wilson, By the Rivers of an Everlasting Babylon

Judeo-Christian is an oxymoron. They cannot coexist. Both cannot be true Israel. 

Deuteronomy 6:4

Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord:

There is only one God.

Deuteronomy 6:5 

And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.

You cannot have another god because there could not be anything left for him. If you love the one, true God with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength, you would have no heart, soul, mind, or strength to give to another and no god would suffer such indignity. 

"And whether Jesus rose from the dead is one of those binary things. He either did or He didn’t. There is no halfway. If He didn’t, then what honest man would want to be one of those deluded Christians? If He did rise, then every sensible person would want everyone else to know and acknowledge it. But the one thing we cannot do with whether He remained in the grave or came out of it is . . . split the difference. Splitting the difference is not a rational option. There is no difference that can be split." — Douglas Wilson, By the Rivers of an Everlasting Babylon

If Jesus is God, worship Him, if not, then don't. If Judaism was the packaging that the Messiah came in, so be it, but no one treats the packaging like they do the product it contained. You might keep a package to read some instructions about the product, but you don't keep the zip ties that held the product in place or the mold in which the product rested in order to be displayed. Some want to make the whole thing a collectible by keeping the product in its original packaging by insisting that no one open it. They put it on a shelf and stare at it. They may offer it some form of worship and adoration and even show it off to their friends or others who appreciate such things, but they do not appreciate the product for what it is. They do not respect its Maker by making His work into an idol kept behind a clear sheet of plastic. 

1 Kings 18:21

And Elijah came unto all the people, and said, "How long halt ye between two opinions? if the LORD be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him." And the people answered him not a word.

Do not split the difference. If Christ is risen, do not worship the cave He walked out of. You can and should revisit it in contemplating His achievement in overcoming it, but you cannot and must not worship a buried-Christ, you must bow before the risen Christ. Judeo-Christian is wanting to have the cave and beat it too. Either Jesus has grown out of Judaism or Judaism put down Jesus. Either He overcame the grave or the Jews sent Him forever to one.

Jesus is either still in His grave clothes somewhere or He is sitting at the right hand of God the Father and from thence He shall come to judge the quick and the dead.

day no. 17,429: raised or razed?

"The modern world will have to fit in with Christmas of die." — G.K. Chesterton,  The Illustrated London News (1909)

Christmas will conquer the world. The world will either have to get on board by dying to itself or it will be killed by the coming on of Christ. The earth will be as it is in Heaven. That will come either by being raised from the dead by repentance or by being razed to the ground by the wrath of the Lamb.