day no. 17,279: sticking to the word

2 Samuel 23:9-10
And after him was Eleazar the son of Dodo the Ahohite, one of the three mighty men with David, when they defied the Philistines that were there gathered together to battle, and the men of Israel were gone away: He arose, and smote the Philistines until his hand was weary, and his hand clave unto the sword: and the Lord wrought a great victory that day; and the people returned after him only to spoil.

As Eleazar fought without fail, his hand grow so accustomed to his sword that when the fighting was over, it refused to let go. 

The same should be said of us and our sword, the word of God.

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.

If our hands are not stuck to our swords, they will be stuck to something else. If we do not carry the Word of God with us in our hearts and in our heads wherever we go, we are carrying something else with us. Something else is instructing our hearts and influencing our thoughts.

Men, let us stick to the Word and may our hands cleave to it as we wage peace.

day no. 17,278: elbows and asses

“All motion is relative. Perhaps it is you who have moved away-by standing still.” ― Robert E. Lee, Inherit the Wind: The Powerful Courtroom Drama in which Two Men Wage the Legal War of the Century

That which is not growing is dying. Living things change. They may look the same, but not without a lot of effort. Living things can look them same only by being renewed. In this way, they fight off the effects of entropy. If they stop fighting, they start showing their wear and tear.

"A dead thing can go with the stream, but only a living thing can go against it."  — G.K. Chesterton

A dead thing floating down stream may have the appearance of swimming, but only a living thing can swim upstream. Anyone can go with the flow or get caught up in the current, but only a living thing has the dynamism to resist the rule of rust and decay.

"All conservatism is based upon the idea that if you leave things alone you leave them as they are. But you do not. If you leave a thing alone you leave it to a torrent of change. If you leave a white post alone it will soon be a black post. If you particularly want it to be white you must be always painting it again; that is, you must be always having a revolution. Briefly, if you want the old white post you must have a new white post. But this which is true even of inanimate things is in a quite special and terrible sense true of all human things. An almost unnatural vigilance is really required of the citizen because of the horrible rapidity with which human institutions grow old. It is the custom in passing romance and journalism to talk of men suffering under old tyrannies. But, as a fact, men have almost always suffered under new tyrannies; under tyrannies that had been public liberties hardly twenty years before." — G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy (The Eternal Revolution)

If you want to get back to the good ol' days, you're going to have to do it anew. The good ol' days grow dull unless they are renewed. The flames of tradition grow cold if no one adds new wood to the fire. It must be stoked in order to stay ablaze. 

“Any organization not explicitly and constitutionally right-wing will sooner or later become left-wing.” — Robert Conquest

If you are not fighting for what you believe, you are conceding to what someone else is fighting for. Nothing is right wing by accident. The antithesis placed into creation by God continues. For all of its many faults, the one thing the seed of the serpent never fails to do is fight. It never fails to remember that it is in a war. It never flags in zeal for its purposes. If only the same could be said for those claiming the name of Christ. If only the devil knew anytime he took it to a Christian, he would be getting the zeal of the Lord in response. Then we would begin to see him flee.

James 4:7

Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

When we put our faith in Christ, the enemy is all elbows and asses.

day no. 17,277: daddy sang bass, mama sang tenor

"When a man is being both masculine and on pitch, and his wife is being both feminine and on pitch, there are few things in this world that can compare to it for glory. But when a man is singing masculine, but flat, and the woman is singing feminine, but sharp, there are few things on earth that can compare to it for sheer auditory insult. It is enough to make you stop and stare." ― Douglas Wilson, Hayden and Danis

Soft men and hard women are a sign of God's curse on a community. Men who are flat instead of bold and muted instead of dynamic cannot lead. Women who are shrill instead of sweet and loud instead of lilting cannot complement anyone. 

"The Spirit will never try to create a false peace, where the man and the woman take the lazy way out and sing something really boring in unison. That happens when a blustering man demands that his wife sing his part along with him, or more frequently, as in these our times, when the woman insists that he sing the Longhouse Blues along with her." ― Douglas Wilson, Hayden and Danis

Egalitarian sex swapping cannot produce happy homes and androgynous notes cannot produce dynamic music. It can drone along, but it cannot crescendo. Feminism wants everyone to sing bass while misogyny wants women to sing while men sit and listen. 

1 Corinthians 11:16

If any man seem to be contentious, we have no such custom, neither the churches of God.

Harmony in the home is only in singing the part God made you to sing, everything else is discord.

Good marriages, like good music, is Christ or chaos. If Daddy sings bass and mama sings tenor the home will be full of music, if not, it will be full of noise.

day no. 17,276: eyes in our heads

“Finally Modernism, which denies and abolishes every difference, cannot rest until it has made woman man and man woman, and, putting every distinction on a common level, kills life by placing it under the ban of uniformity.” ― Abraham Kuyper, Lectures on Calvinism (1898)

Equality of outcome is the same as hostility toward excellence. Kuyper saw this coming. He saw hat egalitarianism would lead to men pretending to be women and women pretending to men. He saw that excellence would be penalized and debauchery would be subsidized.

"Give me a candle and a Bible and shut me up in a dark dungeon, and I will tell you everything that the whole world is doing." ― J.C. Ryle

The prophets of God always see these kind of things coming. Anyone with new eyes in their head can read the room, even when it is pitch black. The Bible is a lamp to our feet and gives us guidance as to where we should step next, but also shows us where the road is headed.

Modernity is merely egalitarianism. The spirit of the age is the elimination of distinctions. It is at war with the world God made. It hates that night and day are divided and that men and women are different. It despises distinctions.

day no. 17,275: manly character

“Obedience to lawful authority is the foundation of manly character.” ― Robert E. Lee

A man is not an island and any man who strives to be seen as a lone wolf is not a good man. He may be good at getting his way, but he does not possess the character of a man as much as he has the disposition of a boy. He throws his tantrums with muscles and lawsuits. He does to people what a three year old would if they had the resources (and with just as much sense).

Matthew 8:8-10

The centurion answered and said, Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof: but speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed. For I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me: and I say to this man, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it. When Jesus heard it, he marvelled, and said to them that followed, Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel.

The centurion was a good and godly man because he both commanded respect from others and respected the commands of his superiors. Men hopped to when he talked because he hopped to when his boss talked. The kind of man who gladly obeys his master is the kind of man who can humbly lead others. 

A man cannot be an authority until he is under authority. He can be a boy and try to take short cuts, but he will not have authority. He may be feared and obeyed, but he cannot be respected by conducting his business that way.

Manly character is not just a matter of being in charge, it is a matter of being under authority.

day no. 17,274: wage peace or reap rage

“It is well that war is so terrible, or we should grow too fond of it.” ― Robert E. Lee

If war were not Hell, it would be a Heaven. Fighting for what you believe in is the essence of what makes life worth living and if the collateral damage were not so heartbreaking, it could easily become addictive. For some sorry souls, in fact, it does.

“The war is not meant to be won. It is meant to be continuous." — George Orwell, 1984

Whether from the profits to be earned or from the blood lust to be satiated, there is always some reason for someone to want to go to war.

James 4:1-2

From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members? Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not.

There are always sinful opportunities to want to go to war. But that also means that there are also always faithful opportunities to fight back against that sinful impulse. There is a way of escape provided by God should we take it. That path is often paved with warfare.

"Every baptized churchman is by his profession a soldier of Jesus Christ, and is pledged to fight under His banner against sin, the world and the devil... Christian warfare is a great reality and a subject of vast importance... Necessity is laid upon us. We must fight. Where there is grace there will be conflict. The believer is a soldier. There is no holiness without a warfare. Saved souls will always be found to have fought a fight. It is a fight of absolute necessity. Let us not think that in this war we can remain neutral and sit still. Such a line of action may be possible in the strife of nations, but it is utterly impossible in that conflict which concerns the soul. The boasted policy of non–interference, the 'masterly inactivity' which pleases so many statesmen, the plan of keeping quiet and letting things alone—all this will never do in the Christian warfare. Here at any rate no one can escape serving under the plea that he is 'a man of peace.' To be at peace with the world, the flesh and the devil, is to be at enmity with God and in the broad way that leads to destruction. We have no choice or option. We must either fight or be lost." — J.C. Ryle, Holiness

If you do not fight, you cannot win. If you will not fight, you will be defeated by those that will.

“The full value of this life can only be got by fighting; the violent take it by storm. And if we have accepted everything we have missed something – war. This life of ours is a very enjoyable fight, but a very miserable truce.” — G.K. Chesterton

Compromise is for cowards. Standing for something and fighting for it are the élan vital. The essence of life is fighting to stay alive and for what's worth living for.

"Some men fight because they love fighting. Others fight because they love what they are defending. With the former, we find malice and cruelty. With the latter, the attitude is chivalric. But chivalry in conflict is not pacifism, and it is not weak sisterism. The Christian faith does not require us to send off Little Bo Peep to slay the dragon. At the same time, the need for fighters does not ever justify thuggery, and the fact that Christian gentlemen must sometimes fight should not keep them from hitting hard. But how they hit is important." — Douglas Wilson, Warriors Not Thugs

Life is a fight. To be a Christian, you must fight the world, the flesh, and the devil. If you do not oppose them, you will be overcome by them. They certainly will not settle for a ceasefire against you. They will not declare, "peace" where there is no peace. They may say so, but only to get you to drop your weapons.

"This sanctification is throughout, in the whole man; yet imperfect in this life, there abiding still some remnants of corruption in every part; whence ariseth a continual and irreconcilable war, the flesh lusting against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh." — Westminster Confession of Faith, 13.2

The good life is the good fight. There are few things more miserable than making peace with evil. It never keeps its treaty. You cannot draw a boundary line, shake hands with wickedness, and expect it to honor the conditions. It will always encroach. It will always break it words. It is evil. What did you expect?

There is no such thing as a cease fire and those who set their hopes on one live a life of relentless disappointment. Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a desire realized is like a tree of life.

1 Timothy 6:12

Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life.

Those who fight are often given the joy of landing a blow and are even given the more miraculous joy of being grateful for getting knocked down in the course of fighting the good fight. We fight for peace, but we can enjoy the fight while it lasts, but only if peace is our end game.

Isaiah 2:4

He shall judge between the nations, and shall decide disputes for many peoples; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.

The goal should be to be done with weapons, but not to lay them down before that time.

"It is absolutely essential for boys to play with wooden swords and plastic guns. Boys have a deep need to have something to defend, something to represent in battle. And to beat the spears into pruning hooks prematurely, before the war is over, will leave you fighting the dragon with a pruning hook” — Douglas Wilson, Future Men

We must fight until the fighting is done. We must fight for peace until we have peace.

"We need a theology of fist fighting... A time will come when spears are beaten into pruning hooks. A time will come when men no longer study war. This is the end result of the Gospel's fruitfulness in the world. But until the time when men will learn war no more, they must still learn it." — Douglas Wilson, Future Men

Wage peace.

day no. 17,273: self-control as a prerequisite

“I cannot trust a man to control others who cannot control himself.” ― Robert E. Lee

Those who do not possess self-control cannot be given the privilege of controlling others. If you want to be in charge, you must first be in charge of yourself.

"Authority flows to those who take responsibility." ― Douglas Wilson

Taking responsibility means refusing to make excuses. And that comes from recognizing that you are under authority. No earthly authority is absolute. Every king has a King. Every husband has a Husband. Every father has a Father. Every general has a General. Every master has a Master.

“Behavior that’s admired is the path to power among people everywhere.” — Beowulf, Unknown (Seamus Heaney translation)

So, if you want people to follow up, show them how. Follow God and demonstrate the fruit of His Spirit in self-control. People will gladly give their governing to those who have demonstrated the ability to govern themselves. When your behavior is admirable, your leadership is desirable. They're not called Admirals for nothing. People tend to admire them.

Matthew 8:9

For I too am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. And I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes, and to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it."

Those who are under authority will be given authority. 

When the Roman Centurion wanted to give proof that he was a man under authority, he pointed to examples of people being under his authority. One man goes because he says, "Go," while another comes because he says, "Come." These initially seem like peculiar examples of being "under" authority. But don't miss the principle that the Centurion assumes. He believed that those who have authority must be under authority. Or said another way, those who desire to be in authority, must themselves first be under authority.

So, do not be hasty in the laying on of hands, in signing letters of recommendation, or in giving authority to those who are clamoring for it. Do not feel hard pressed to create opportunities for those who insist they're gifted at leading others. Rather, look for those who have faithfully placed themselves under authority and look for ways to give them a platform to produce more of the same downstream.

In other words, no one should be over until they are under.

The faith of the Centurion is believing that those who humble themselves will be exalted and that those who exalt themselves will be humbled. God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Place your faith in Jesus and find your place under His authority.