day no. 14,465: hope deferred

Psalm 71

Hope deferred makes the heart sick. We have all experienced the pang of unmet expectations. It is very difficult. So much so, that is often determined to be easier to endure hopelessness in present trouble than to endure the additional weight of wishing for a future that never seems to come to pass. Hope is hard. It requires perseverance and discipline. It is much easier to jump ship. Hope will fix your sails on the sunrise in the distance, but it must survive the turbulence of the winds and waves in between. The warm glow in the distance beckons one to stay the course, but the stiff, cold breeze attempts to deter. 

day no. 14,464: evening wolves

Habakkuk 1:8
more fierce than the evening wolves

Spurgeon introduced me to the term, "evening wolves," tonight as I sat at our kitchen table. It's fitting that I'm up again after trying to go to bed for the night bothered by thoughts about preaching, paychecks and parenting. 

Evening wolves are more voracious than their morning counterparts. They've spent the entire day unsuccessfully satisfying their hunger pangs and are now facing the prospect of a long night full of a growling belly.

After a day of difficulties, failure, relational strife, financial set backs, etc... the night gives rise to the evening wolves. Thoughts and emotions set to devour and consume.

God grant me the patience to lovingly discipline and instruct my children, the paycheck to provide for my growing tribe and the perseverance to preach in Your power by Your Spirit as You provide opportunity and ability. Amen.

day no. 14,463: punchier is better if you're punching at all

I am writing this on September 8, 2017 and scheduling it out over a half a year away. I don't know what conversations or concessions will have been made by the time this posts, but I wanted to make a brief statement about the statement, the Nashville Statement that is. I like it. And even more, I like this fortified version released and signed by Doug Wilson at the link below

https://warhornmedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/The-Nashville-Statement-Fortified.pdf

This one is punchier, but in fairness, if you're punching, that's kind of the point. As Teddy Roosevelt once said, "Don't hit at all if it is honorably possible to avoid hitting; but never hit soft."

Arguments are like spears, they are more useful when you get to the point.

day no. 14,462: sugar, spice and twice as nice

Leviticus 12

In my personal experience in having 3 boys and 3 girls, this holds true. Girls are more difficult to recover from bearing then boys. My wife takes longer to bounce back both physically and emotionally from growing and birthing a baby girl. The time period assigned to this recovery is 40 days for boys and double that, 80 days, for girls. 40 is almost exclusively used synonymous with testing or trial in the Bible and the testing period of bringing a boy into this world is here assigned half the time that bringing a girl into the world requires. Some may from the outside looking in see this as discriminatory and it is, in the sense, that a clear distinction based entirely on gender is being made. If that is your accusation, then guilty is the plea. But what some may miss or choose to overlook is the period of recovery given to the new mother of a baby girl who is now allowed to recover twice as long without the usual obligations associated with "normal" non-recovering-from-labor-and-delivery life.

day no. 14.461: a cold shoulder or a shoulder tackle?

2 Corinthians 10:5

We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ

Some things are best destroyed by ignoring them while others are best destroyed by violence. This basic sentiment was introduced to me by Oswald Chambers in My Utmost for His Highest (September 8).

The best way to destroy a bully is to ignore him. The thing he wants is to get to you. The more you get irritated or fire back or defend yourself, the more power you concede to him. But the moment you refuse to bounce his bullying back at him, you defuse him. His power shrinks and the more resilient you show yourself to be, the more frustrated he finds himself. He eventually pouts and puffs and leaves you alone since he can't get the one thing from you he desires: a rise. You turn your back on the monster and he loses his power.

But that's how you destroy a bully. Some things require you to about face and attack. Those are destroyed best by driving a stake through their heart. You must meet them at the point of battle and overpower and unravel them. They will stab you in the back if you turn on them, so you must face them and fight back. You must chase them down when they turn to run. If you settle for watching them flee, they will come back later and attempt a coup again. They will not go without a fight… which means you will have to fight them… eventually. Or you will you be overcome by them… eventually. They must be put down and extinguished. They are relentless and require violent opposition.

We must be aware of both types of opposition and not treat one as you should be treating the other. If you fight a bully, he will never go away. You only feed the problem. If you turn your back on a brawler, he will punch you in the kidney. Argument and lofty ideas against the Lordship of Jesus alone come in both fashions and we must know how to fight and when to fight with a goal of destroying them. Our heart should be to defuse their explosive ability and to disenfranchise their goals. If they accomplish the desires of their hearts, Jesus' Name and reputation will be defamed, reviled and trampled underfoot. We must set our hearts to seek and destroy and we must discern whether to ignore or to ignite our enemy.

This verse (2 Corinthians 10:5) by the by largely influenced my joy in naming my son, Rocco Henry Warfield Van Voorst. B.B. Warfield is the namesake and destroying arguments in spiritual warfare is the inspiration.

day no. 14,460: God is great.

Psalm 70

May God's people always be quick to say, "God is great!" When sick or healthy, wealthy or poor, for better or worse, may our lips repeat, "God is great!" May the Spirit grace our hearts with loyalty beyond our current station that plumbs the depths and heights and widths of Christ's love as an anchor for our souls.  God is great whether we feel like it or not. God is great whether we want Him to be or not. God is great. It is an inescapable fact. May our hearts, minds, souls and strengths in concert believe that and embrace that for His glory as our highest good.

day no. 14,459: folding t-shirts for Jesus

Leviticus 11:46-47

This is the law about beast and bird and every living creature that moves through the waters and every creature that swarms on the ground, 47 to make a distinction between the unclean and the clean and between the living creature that may be eaten and the living creature that may not be eaten.

The Navy isn't particularly concerned with one's ability to fold t-shirts, except for the fact that they are very specifically concerned with one's ability to follow orders precisely as it concerns the folding of one's t-shirts. These lessons learned in boot camp and training are not as much about the folding of shirts as it is about the ability to follow a command precisely right away, without excuse and without delay. In the heat of battle, commands need to be followed exactly. God is less concerned with which animals we eat and which we don't than He is with our ability to listen to His word, devote it to memory and execute it precisely. The Law in this sense is a tutor. The goal wasn't dietary, it was doxological. In other words, the point of it was not simply to monitor our eating habits as much as it was about forming the habit of glorifying God by doing what He says simply because He said it.

day no. 14.458: when you feel like you're drowning

Psalm 69

Sometimes it feels like you're drowning, like you're up to your neck and the waters are rising. Panic begins as arms and legs grow tired of treading water. It is at this point of physical, mental and spiritual exhaustion that we cry out, "Lord, save me!" It is a short prayer, but it is packed with passion and spiritual poverty. Blessed are those who are poor in spirit. They know they have failed and they know what they're up against and above all, they know they need Jesus to save them

day no. 14,457: unauthorized fire

Leviticus 10:1-3

Now Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer and put fire in it and laid incense on it and offered unauthorized fire before the Lord, which he had not commanded them. 2 And fire came out from before the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord. 3 Then Moses said to Aaron, “This is what the Lord has said: ‘Among those who are near me I will be sanctified, and before all the people I will be glorified.’” And Aaron held his peace.

Not all sacrifice is equal. God does not receive whatever we bring, there are specifics provided regarding type and time. Sincerity is better than hypocrisy, but one can be sincere while also being sincerely wrong. One thing we learn here is that sacrifices must be sincere, but they must be more than merely sincere. Our dealings with God are determined by how He has determined and declared to us to come to Him. He initiates, we respond.

day no. 14,456: the generous King

Psalm 68

God is here seen as a conquering King coming home proclaiming victory and being honored and celebrated by the people He has saved as they throw their first and best at His feet. Paul picks up on this theme and quotes it in Ephesians 4 only he changes the narrative from a King being given gifts to a King giving away the spoils of victory. Jesus Christ is a different kind of King. He deserves respect and honor and worship and He receives it gladly, but He gives away the reward He earned, the spoils He deserved. He won the war and gives us the Medal of Honor. He captivates His people who follow Him gladly.

day no. 14,455: just weights and measures

C.H. Spurgeon, in Morning & Evening (evening September 4th), commented on 

Leviticus 19:36
You shall have just balances, just weights, a just ephah, and a just hin: I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt.

saying,

"The balances in which we weigh our own and other men's characters, are they quite accurate? Do we not turn our own ounces of goodness into pounds, and other persons' bushels of excellence into pecks? See to weights and measures here, Christian. The scales in which we measure our trials and troubles, are they according to the standard? Paul, who had more to suffer than we have, called his afflictions light, and yet we often consider ours to be heavy -- surely something must be amiss with the weights! We must see to this matter, lest we get reported to the court above for unjust dealing."

day no, 14,454: the freedom of falling on your face

Leviticus 9:24
And fire came out from before the Lord and consumed the burnt offering and the pieces of fat on the altar, and when all the people saw it, they shouted and fell on their faces.

The glory of the Lord forgives and consumes completely our sins and produces in the forgiven a reverence that surpasses all other compulsions. In the presence of God our Lord and Savior, we feel the weight of glory. It is not the oppressive weight of the world on one's shoulders, but a reliable, reassuring weight like gravity that demands respect while providing the freedom to jump as high as you can without the threat of floating away.

day no. 14,453: the breadth and depth of increasing glory

Psalm 67

God, bless us and shine upon us so that Your Name and praise might increase. When we receive with grateful hearts from the hand of our God, the world around us sees our joy and gratitude and is drawn to us. May we leverage all that God gives us, all the fame and fortune He affords us, for the increase of His fame and praise. May glory be increased in breadth and depth as more and more people praise Him for the first time and those who have praised Him for decades would increase the intensity and quality of the glory they earn for Him. Bless us that we might be a blessing to our neighbors. Protect us that we might point to our Protector. Provide for us that we might point to our Provider. Save us that we might point to our Savior. 

day no. 14,452: center or circumstance

Psalm 66

God does not hear the prayers of the proud. He hears the sound they make, but He doesn't receive them or act in gracious response to them. He hears the prayers of people broken by their sins and situations, people who humbly send out their plea for help to the only God Who can rescue. He knows who is asking out of circumstance and who is asking out of the center of their person. Those who ask out of circumstance cry for help only to forget God the moment deliverance comes. Those who ask out of their souls fulfill their vows and offer sacrifices in response to their deliverance. Jesus saved a people out of Egypt by delivering them through dry land where a sea once was, but only some of those saved people offered the right sacrifice of surrendering their center to Him alone.

day no. 14,451: holy valour and sacred courage

"Worldly ease is a great foe to faith; it loosens the joints of holy valour, and snaps the sinews of sacred courage. The balloon never rises until the cords are cut; affliction doth this sharp service for believing souls." - C.H. Spurgeon

day no. 14,450: washing our soap in blood

Leviticus 8:15

Moses took the blood, and with his finger put it on the horns of the altar around it and purified the altar and poured out the blood at the base of the altar and consecrated it to make atonement for it.

In God's economy, the blood of a sacrifice is a purifying agent. It makes things cleaner. In typical fashion, our economy develops a theme directly to the opposite where blood is typically a ruining agent - it stains, it's gross, it makes you faint, it makes you sick. We bring in hazmat because blood taints things. According to God, things are tainted unless they're made pure or cleansed by being touched or covered by blood.

day no. 14,449: providence is an evangelist

Psalm 65

Providence is an evangelist. The invisible qualities of God are made manifest in His creation. Seasons come and go, waters ebb and flow and through it all we see the constancy of generosity, compassion, attentiveness, etc… 

day no. 14,448: money and ministry

Leviticus 7:36

The LORD commanded this to be given them by the people of Israel, from the day that he anointed them. It is a perpetual due throughout their generations.

Those who devote their lives and livelihoods to ministry should be able to make their living by their ministry. Those who are taught should share all good things with those who teach (Galatians 6:6), and this certainly includes room and board. God gives the people men He has gifted as priests and He gives the priests gifts from His people.

day no. 14,447: people plotting our deaths

Psalm 64

Most of us will never have people literally plotting our deaths, but every Christian does have an enemy devising plans against them. God, protect us from evil schemes and plans. We are vulnerable to attack. Please give us wisdom to discern and faith to direct our course. Shield us from temptation and deliver us from the evil one. We are no match for him.

day no. 14,446: a fire that does not go out

Leviticus 6:13
Fire shall be kept burning on the altar continually; it shall not go out.

God is a consuming fire. His fire purifies and refines. His fire consumes and destroys. The fire of His holiness burns continually without waver. It never cools down. It never tires. He doesn't catch fire, He is fire and His resources are inexhaustible. The hope of the saint is God's refining fire perfecting those already made perfect in Christ. The terror of the sinner is God's endless ability to keep burning.

day no. 14,445: some chase oases

Psalm 63

Life under the sun is like a dry desert. While some chase oases, others look up to the fountain of life who reigns beyond the sun. Those who try to ring out the last drop of joy from this earth find themselves with sand slipping through their fingers. The harder they try to hold on to it, the more quickly it slips through the cracks. God's love is better than that life. God's love produces a wellspring of life within His children so that their thirst is quenched from within even when walking on the same dry land as their neighbor.

day no. 14,444: we all make mistakes

Leviticus 5:5-6, 10, 13

When he realizes his guilt in any of these and confesses the sin he has committed… 6 …the priest shall make atonement for him for his sin. 10 And the priest shall make atonement for him for the sin that he has committed, and he shall be forgiven. 13 Thus the priest shall make atonement for him for the sin which he has committed in any one of these things, and he shall be forgiven. 18 …the priest shall make atonement for him for the mistake that he made unintentionally, and he shall be forgiven. 19 It is a guilt offering; he has indeed incurred guilt before the Lord.

Sometimes we don't realize that we have sinned until later. And what can you do when you realize too late what you have done? You can bring a sacrifice to the priest who can make atonement for you, forgiving your sins and removing your guilt. But this process would have to be repeated each and every time you sinned, either on purpose or by accident. Guilt is accrued incrementally and thus sins must be atoned for individually. 

This system of providing a way to assuage our guilt and shame was a means of grace, but it was only a foreshadowing of greater grace that was to come. Praise God for sending His Son to be sacrificed for us once for all and making Him our great High Priest who ever lives and intercedes on our behalf. One sacrifice for all our sins and all our guilt, done on purpose of by accident. Amazing Grace!

day no. 14,443: the sin of silence

Leviticus 5:1

If anyone sins in that he hears a public adjuration to testify, and though he is a witness, whether he has seen or come to know the matter, yet does not speak, he shall bear his iniquity

It is a sin to refuse to witness to the truth. It is a sin to be silent when you know and don't show.

day no. 14,442: waiting in silence

Psalm 62

It is one thing to wait for someone and another thing to wait for them in silence. I can wait for my kids, but it usually is accompanied by reminders and exhortations to hurry up. It is another thing to humbly wait, to avoid rushing or spurring, but simply to wait trusting the timing and pace of the One for whom you wait. That is faith-- waiting in silence.

day no. 14,441: a prayer for paycheck to paycheck

Proverbs 30:7-9 

Two things I ask of you; deny them not to me before I die: 8 Remove far from me falsehood and lying; give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is needful for me, 9 lest I be full and deny you and say, "Who is the LORD?" or lest I be poor and steal and profane the name of my God.

How is this for a life goal? Never to go broke, nor to get rich -- because both are dangerous with temptation -- but to live month-to-month in constant dependence on God and to do as much good with our money as we can. – Ray Ortlund, Jr

day no. 14,440: accidents and atonement

Leviticus 4:2

If anyone sins unintentionally in any of the LORD's commandments about things not to be done

Leviticus 4:35

And the priest shall make atonement for him for the sin which he has committed, and he shall be forgiven

This chapter is dominated by two major themes: accident and atonement. People can sin by accident. Either by lack of knowledge or lack of wisdom. Sometimes a person needs to be taught the rule or regulation as principle, whereas other times they need help avoiding or interacting with situations where the rules and regulations are being worked out in practice. Either way, God does not wink at accidental sin. Sin is not entirely a matter of attitude as though doing the wrong thing with the right intention somehow removes the guilt. This would be deflating if it were not for the second dominant theme of this chapter. God eagerly provides opportunity for sinners to atone for their sins. Yes, there are many specific details here about who, how, what and when. But don't miss the point that forgiveness is being offered by a spotless God, who never makes mistakes, to a sinful people, who soil themselves by accident.

day no. 14,439: ceremony and covenant

Psalm 61

Those who fear the Lord do not do so alone. They are part of a heritage. You are not the first to follow God and by His grace, you won't be the last. And what does the life of His saints look like? Fulfilling our vows day by day. On the day of the wedding ceremony, vows are exchanged, but a marriage is built upon the fulfillment of those vows day by day going forward. People often put more time and energy into the ceremony than they do the covenant it creates. In like manner, many push all in on a conversion experience and then fail to push an inch the plow set before them.

day no. 14,438: a variance in radiance

Mark 9:15
And immediately all the crowd, when they saw Him, were greatly amazed and ran up to Him and greeted*** Him.

Spurgeon comparing and contrasting the glory of Moses' radiance communing with God on the mountain with that of Jesus' radiance after being transfigured, "the glory of the Law repels, but the greater glory of Jesus attracts."

*** "greeted" is translated by the KJV as "saluted," as in salutations, and carries with it the idea of honoring (or saluting another)

day no. 14,437: trinity and eternity

"God is our portion, Christ our companion, the Spirit our Comforter, earth our lodge, and Heaven our home." - Charles Haddon Spurgeon

day no. 14,436: first and best without blemish

Leviticus 3:1, 6

“If his offering is a sacrifice of peace offering, if he offers an animal from the herd, male or female, he shall offer it without blemish before the Lord… 6 “If his offering for a sacrifice of peace offering to the Lord is an animal from the flock, male or female, he shall offer it without blemish.

Sacrifices must be the first and best or else it isn't the kind of sacrifice God requires. You can sacrifice lesser things, but you cannot make much of God by giving lesser things. He will not accept leftovers. Sacrifices must be without blemish because they are being offered to a holy, unblemished God. As much as He is dissatisfied with wonky offerings, so should we be dissatisfied with our devotion if the best we can come up with is the change in our pockets. Giving your first and your best requires prioritization. No one accidentally gives the first and best. It takes effort, energy and devotion. God deserves your worship. He is owed the position of top priority.

day no. 14,435: vain is the salvation of man

Psalm 60

Vain is the salvation of man. Both in the sense that men are limited in their ability to deliver themselves and in the sense that even when they succeed, it is only temporary salvation or deliverance from the current enemy or circumstance. Men cannot just overpower whatever they desire. There are forces at work in this world that cannot merely be overcome by grit. Sometimes it's other men opposing you, sometimes it's God, but either way, every occasion is not just "in the bag." Additionally, the salvation of men is fleeting. It may suffice for a particular moment and we are grateful for the triumph of good men over evil men in those specific encounters, but it does nothing to protect us against future trouble from other wicked men or circumstances. The man who is rescued from the pit will the next day be trampled by an ox or catch pneumonia or be overcome in the night by a thief, etc… Only the deliverance of God is full and final salvation.