day no. 17,361: the Biblical case for limited government

Deuteronomy 17:19-20

And it shall be with him, and he shall read therein all the days of his life: that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, to keep all the words of this law and these statutes, to do them: That his heart be not lifted up above his brethren, and that he turn not aside from the commandment, to the right hand, or to the left: to the end that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he, and his children, in the midst of Israel.

The king was forbidden from turning to the right or the the left of the commandments of God. He could not fall short or shirk any of his assigned duties and he could not expand or add to any of his privileges. The magistrate had clearly defined and enumerated powers. He was obligated to fulfill his role in upholding his responsibilities and forbidden from expanding his jurisdiction of authority.

The Word of God advocates limited government, lex rex, not unlimited government, rex lex. The Word of God commands federal government in the original sense of the word "federal" meaning covenantal. Rulers rule by covenant. They are under covenant to God and take vows of office to uphold their duties before him and the people are covenantally represented by him and obligated to obey him inasmuch as he fulfills his role in good and orderly fashion. The people are also obligated to remove him in the event that he becomes a lawbreaker. It is not a sin for a people to remove a tyrannical leader, it is a sin for a leader to become a tyrant. In that scenario, the "ruler" is the rule breaker and the "rebels" are the rule keepers. 

day no. 17,359: sin farms

"If you pay firefighters by the fire, you are tempting some of them to become arsonists. Once a third world country was trying to deal with a rat infestation, and they had the bright idea of paying a bounty to anyone who brought in a rat tail. The natural consequence of this, because incentives work, was that some folks took up rat farming." — Douglas Wilson, Hate Farm Subsidies from the SPLC

You get more of what you incentivize and less of what you penalize. If you pay people for dead snakes, you will not end your snake problem, you will gain a bunch of snake farmers. If you get paid every time someone breaks the speed limit, you will not get less speeders, you will get cameras at every intersection and planes in the air monitoring your speed. 

The civil magistrate cannot profit off of justice. If and when it does, you will find more injustice about, not less. When the authorities make money off of your disobedience, you will be sure to find authorities who are cheering for and sometimes even generating more disobedience in order for them to turn a greater profit, just ask the SPLC.

day no. 17,358: the game of risk

“God requires us to risk things. This risk includes all that we hold dear, and to shrink back from it is to incur the displeasure of God. The wicked and lazy servant was the one who would not risk what had been entrusted to him. To play it safe is to play it dangerous.” — Douglas Wilson, No Such Thing as Bad Words

When it come to faith, safe is dangerous and dangerous is safe. The one who tries to save his life loses it and the one who risks his life for Christ's sake finds it. God is a safe bet, but He is still a bet. You have to push all in on Him. He has promised us what will happen if we do, i.e. we will find life, but we have to believe in His promises. The promises do not remove the risk, but they do reward it. You cannot have the reward before you take the risk, but if you take the risk, you will get the reward. If that doesn't sound like much of a risk to you, ask yourself why you are tempted to hold on to things. Why can't you die to that? Why won't you let that go? Is it because you're worried that the risk isn't worth it? Is it because you don't believe the promises of God? And now you begin to see why faith requires risk. True, it is a calculated risk, but it is nevertheless a risk. 

So, the only question that remains then is this: will you take the risk? Will you believe God's promises and push all in? If not, why not? Do you distrust the promises of God or do you believe that what you have now is better than what God promises to give you?

day no. 17,357: managing monsters

“The shepherd must hate the wolves because he loves the sheep. If he hates the wolves because he loves to hate, then he is a wolf himself.” — Douglas Wilson, No Such Thing as Bad Words

Men must fight monsters, but they must fight them because they love something, not merely because they hate monsters. In other words, men must be bold enough to confront the monsters he encounters out there and humble enough to confront the monsters he encounters within. If he can do that, he can be trusted with a staff; If he cannot, he is in need of a rod.

Hate must be secondary, but it must be. "Hate has no place here" is a surefire way to cater to wolves. Hate must not lead, of course, but it must follow. Hate cannot be the foundation for anything, but it must be built into the structure that goes up. You must hate sin enough to want to change it and love the sinner enough to think them worth changing. You must love the sheep enough to hate what come against them. If you do not hate the wolves, you do not love the sheep.

day no. 17,356: big brother and the brave new world

“We were keeping our eye on 1984. When the year came and the prophecy didn't, thoughtful Americans sang softly in praise of themselves. The roots of liberal democracy had held. Wherever else the terror had happened, we, at least, had not been visited by Orwellian nightmares. But we had forgotten that alongside Orwell's dark vision, there was another - slightly older, slightly less well known, equally chilling: Aldous Huxley's Brave New World. Contrary to common belief even among the educated, Huxley and Orwell did not prophesy the same thing. Orwell warns that we will be overcome by an externally imposed oppression. But in Huxley's vision, no Big Brother is required to deprive people of their autonomy, maturity and history. As he saw it, people will come to love their oppression, to adore the technologies that undo their capacities to think." — Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business

The oppression Huxley's Brave New World produced was a result of passivity, not passion. Orwell's Big Brother needed you to love him before he could be done with you, but Huxley's Brave New World needed nothing from you per se. We fear fascism while we indulge in nihilism. While we worry that someone may want something so badly that they would try to force us to do want it too, we miss the fact that we want less than we used to as we settle for more indifference. Orwell predicted a world where one thought stomped on every other thoughts, but Huxley predicted that the thoughts would stamp themselves out.

day no. 17,355: penelope is sixteen

Happy 16th Birthday, Penelope!

You are a beautiful, smart, funny young woman. You are taking college level courses and passing them without much effort. You are babysitting and earning some extra cash as  you earn a good reputation with our church people. You are writing songs, writing stories, drawing pictures, and doing shows, and all of that in addition to reading all the books.

You are a good sister. You love your siblings and look after them. You like looking after the babies and you enjoy debating with your older brothers. You like playing with the little girls and you like making or buying the perfect gifts for all your siblings on their birthdays.

You are a good daughter. You love talking to your mom and watching shows with her on restful Sunday afternoons. You like me and enjoy bouncing ideas off of me when you're trying to gather your thoughts.

You are learning how to stretch yourself and how to increase the threshold of your limitations. You are going to more places, staying longer at them, and participating in them when you are there. It is fun to watch you having fun. 

You love discovering new worlds and you enjoy the suspension of disbelief in order to better enjoy fictional worlds. You like story grip and gladly give yourself to it. When you are into something, you are really into it. 

You take yourself seriously enough to know what you believe and why you believe it and you take yourself lightly enough to know what you like even when others are ribbing you for liking it. You know who you are and you know what you want. You are clear headed when it comes to categorical distinctions and when it comes to fantastical creations. You somehow keep all your increasing number of characters straight.

You love music. You like listening to music, singing songs, playing the guitar, playing the piano, and singing with your sister in perfect harmony. I love hearing you play the piano while I am working. I can you you through the floor creating new songs or trying to teach yourself to play a new song you heard during clean up time the night before.

You love to tell jokes and you like finding the wittiest way to say something. You have a good sense of humor and you like enjoying the humor of others. You have a good laugh and we all love it when you're having a good time.

Happy Sweet Sixteenth, Penelope! 

May you continue to grow in wisdom, stature, and favor with God and with those around you.

So, here's to Penelope!

Love,

Dad

day no. 17,354: golf claps and thunder claps

“No reformation worth having was ever accomplished to the sound of polite applause in the background. There will be smoke, and thunder, and yelling, and all the rest of it.” — Douglas Wilson, No Such Thing as Bad Words

Reformation is not revolution, but it is not painless. Revolutions are more spasmodic and eruptive, but they are not more violent than reformations. The violence of reformation is more controlled and less ejaculatory, but it is violent nevertheless. You cannot change long standing problems without causing a few problems.

Hebrews 12:26-27

He hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven. And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.

God sometimes take the rug out back to beat the crud out of it. What looks like violence toward the rug, is actually love of the rug. For the love of the rug, it is beaten, seemingly without mercy. It is for the removal of the dust that it is whacked to severely. That which isn't rug falls to the ground, but the rug remains. That which can be shaken falls apart when God gives the whole things a good shake. 

Reformation is God shaking the rug out. 

Revolution is man setting the rug on fire. 

Reformation wants to return to the cleaner rug. 

Revolution wants to see what might rise from its ashes. 

Reformation is a return to the first form of God. 

Revolution is a hope in the next evolution of man. 

Reformation is being formed into the image of Christ. 

Revolution is being deformed into chaos.

Golf claps do not often accompany great feats. Thunder claps are often required in order to change the landscape.