day no. 14,557: the blessing of boundaries

Psalm 104

God makes boundaries and defines the limitations of all things. He made man to be thirsty and He tells the ocean where to start and stop. He gives life and breath and everything else until He doesn't and at that precise moment, life ends. The lion and the sparrow both depend on God for food. Man must work the ground, but God makes the ground fruitful and responsive to man's labors. All things are under Him. The world owes its beauty to its Author and man owes His life to His Maker. What an opportunity for worship we have on a daily basis just by looking around at all He has made, how He has made it and how He sustains it.

day no. 14,556: an enemy and an entrance

Numbers 19
The wages of sin is death. The day that Adam and Eve ate the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, death entered into the human race. Death in the inward man and death working on the man himself. We see here in Numbers 19 that coming into contact with death can make even a priest temporarily unclean. Jesus is our great High Priest who tasted death so that we can live forever. He came into contact with death, but was not changed by it. Instead, He changed death because it had no power over Him. His resurrection changed death and our relationship with it. It is still an enemy, but it is also in Him an entrance into eternal life.

day no. 14,555: laurelai is five!!!

Little lady ain't so little no more. Well, to be fair, she is still quite little, but she is one year older today. You are full of sassafras and I love you. You always ask anyone leaving to honk at you and call you "Hello Kitty." You are on a kick of asking for cereal for dinner lately. You think that the picture you drew and left at church last week is still going to be there this week when we go to church. You like sitting on my lap during family movie night. You love piggy back rides. You do not like flossing. You wake up every morning at 6:30 and ask if you can use the bathroom. At this point, I wake up enough to put a thumbs up in the air. I don't know when this became our routine, but it is and has been for some time now. You love milk. You pray to be faithful every night. You are a delight and I am so excited to continue to get to know you more and more as you grow up. I'm glad you're part of our family. Here's to 5 years of having Laurelai in my life!!!

day no. 14,554: dusty

Psalm 103

God remembers that we are but dust. He was there and He hasn't forgotten. His expectations have not exceeded our station. Our expectations of Him, however, often fall flat. If He remembers that we are but dust, we should remember that He is eternal. 

God gives Himself freely to dirt yet we often resist giving ourselves entirely to God.

day no. 14,553: I will love them freely

"A man must choose his love and then he must love his choice." - Henry Smith

...

I came across the following verses in Spurgeon's Morning & Evening.

Hosea 14:1-4
Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God, 
for you have stumbled because of your iniquity. 
Take with you words and return to the Lord; say to him,

“Take away all iniquity; accept what is good, 
and we will pay with bulls the vows of our lips. 
Assyria shall not save us; we will not ride on horses; 
and we will say no more, ‘Our God,’ to the work of our hands. 
In you the orphan finds mercy.” 

I will heal their apostasy; 
I will love them freely, 
for my anger has turned from them. 

God is the only free agent in all of existence. He is under no obligation to do anything for anyone and is indebted to no one for anything. He loves without condition. He elects because He wants to. Israel comes like the prodigal with a prepared speech in her mouth and vows prepared in her heart. Israel comes back in repentance and humility, but God's love is already theirs. He gives it freely. He isn't won over by their devotion or compelled by their sincerity. He heals because He wants to. He loves because He chooses to. He loves freely and offers water without price. He selects without condition and gives without restraint. God will not be wooed. He chooses and does the wooing. Anyone being drawn to Him was first drawn by Him. 

day no. 14,552: privilege or possession?

Numbers 18
The degree to which you believe that the priests were getting a raw deal is the degree to which you value the gifts over the Giver. God gave Himself as an inheritance to the priests. This may be less tangible in one sense than land or possessions, but it is eternally more possessed than any piece of land or property that inevitably passes through every hand that holds them. 

day no. 14,551: in all the churches

1 Corinthians 11:3-5, 16
But I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ, the head of a wife is her husband, and the head of Christ is God. 4 Every man who prays or prophesies with his head covered dishonors his head, 5 but every wife who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head, since it is the same as if her head were shaven. If anyone is inclined to be contentious, we have no such practice, nor do the churches of God.

1 Corinthians 14:33-36
For God is not a God of confusion but of peace. As in all the churches of the saints, 34 the women should keep silent in the churches. For they are not permitted to speak, but should be in submission, as the Law also says. 35 If there is anything they desire to learn, let them ask their husbands at home. For it is shameful for a woman to speak in church. 36 Or was it from you that the word of God came? Or are you the only ones it has reached? 

Whatever "prophesying" with her head uncovered is supposed to mean in 1 Cor 11:5 it certainly has to mesh with what is said later in chapter 14, which seems pretty absolute. Without exception. Concrete. Hard to work around. 

So we have to figure out what contexts he means this hard and fast rule to be applied. You can't apply this limp-wristed to any situation or you go against the clear, authoritative thrust of it. It is relentlessly clear. If 1 Timothy 2 is controversial in saying, "I permit no woman to teach or exercise authority," this possibly amps it up even more by saying "I permit no woman to speak" in church. 

And notice he says, "in all the churches" multiple times. This is not a Corinthian problem (or an Ephesian one for that matter) Notice that he appeals to things bigger and larger and more timeless like the Law and nature itself. He says it would go against the Law to have a woman speaking in this context. He says it is shameful for women to speak in this context. It goes against nature. It is repulsive or to borrow OT Law language (since Paul goes there) it would be an abomination. That is no small thing and I cannot see how it so easily gets disregarded merely because a few chapters earlier Paul infers that a woman who prophesies with her head uncovered should be ashamed, embarrassed, etc… He is using the same language in 1 Cor 11 (shame, nature, the Law of God in creation) to make the same case. And DO NOT lose sight of the fact that the point of 1 Cor 11:5 is not that women may be permitted to prophesy. That's not his point. His point is that whatever prophesying they do must be done under authority, under headship for any praying or prophesying that is out from under headship is shameful, embarrassing, against God and His angels, etc…

So if Paul implies that women are to be praying or prophesying a la 1 Cor 11:5 (granted it being in a manner that is veiled, covered, under authoity), then he also must be implying that they must not be praying or prophesying in church since it would require speaking. That is clearly prohibited by his comment a few chapters later 1 Cor 14:34. So it seems at the very least that in church or when doing "churchy" things or things that may be considered under an official church capacity, Paul is forbidding women to speak or exercise authority in those capacities.

day no. 14,550: suffering selflessly

Psalm 102

Often times suffering people are extremely selfish people. The more they suffer, the more focused on their sufferings they become as they insist that every conversation and comment be concerned with their plight. Yet they offer no interest in anyone else's sufferings or difficulties. They often turn inward in such a way as to be oblivious to anyone else's wants or needs. But the psalmist, being found in that place - so sad that they often forget to eat - thinks of the next generation. The psalmist considers people not yet even born and urges the current generation to endure suffering well so that an unborn, unreached people group will hear of the glory of God. That is how you suffer. You receive your assigned difficulties for the glory of God and the good of your neighbor.

day no. 14,549: the fruitful staff

Numbers 17
As if the events of the preceding chapter were not evidence enough that God has chosen the tribe of Levi and Aaron in particular to serve as priests and High priest respectively, God proposes this last proof of His will regarding the matter. This has the wow factor of the magician who has you write your name on a playing card in your own handwriting in order to later verify the illusion. The men wrote their names on their staffs and submitted them all to the same fate. So when Aaron's alone was retrieved bearing fruit and each man received back their staff with their own name on it, it solidified the point God was making. He has chosen the station and the one connected to Him will bear much fruit while those not connected to Him are fruitless regardless of how much they strive.

day no. 14,548: freedom in fences

Psalm 101
We discover at the end of Revelation that the new Jerusalem is a gated community (21:8). The wicked are kept out and will by no means enter to disrupt the community of God's glorified people. We discover in the Gospel of John that Jesus is the gate and through Him is plentiful pasture to roam in freedom (10:9). The wicked of this world shortcut freedom by arrogantly asserting their independence from any and all restrictions and definitions. It looks like liberty, but it is not out from under all law. The man free-falling from an airplane is only freed from the ground for so long. His falling is only freedom until it isn't. The firm, established ground below ends his frolic abruptly.

day no. 14,547: the murder that is unforgiveness

"It may be an infinitely less evil to murder a man than to refuse to forgive him. The former may be the act of a moment of passion: the latter is the heart's choice. It is spiritual murder, the worst, to hate, to brood over the feeling that excludes, that, in our microcosm, kills the image, the idea of the hated." - George MacDonald

You can kill someone by accident, but you cannot accidentally refuse forgiveness. It takes focus and determination to continually withhold mercy from someone. It often requires more premeditation and follow through than the most elaborate murder plot. For the plot thickens only until the pulse stops, but unforgiveness is unrelenting, never-ending murder.

day no. 14,546: too far gone

Numbers 16
This chapter begins with Korah accusing Moses and Aaron of going too far and ends with God showing that the sons of Korah were too far gone. They were not content with the mediators God had provided. They attempted to cut out the middle man between them and God and ended up cut off from all men and God. Korah's rebellion began with their attempted coup d'etat and ended with God's accomplished coup de gras.

day no. 14,545: shall we dance or dirge?

Psalm 100

Discovering that there is a God when you've been living life as though there wasn't one, is very bad news. Discovering what God has done in spite of what you've been doing, is very good news. The fact that there is a God who rules and reigns and makes His will known is a joyous thought for the child of God and a devastating reality for the enemy of God. The very things that lead His elect to sing cause His enemies to weep. His mercy brings tears of gratitude to the humble and tears of grief to the proud. His sovereignty is the comfort of the child and the consternation of the wicked. 

day no. 14,544: accidents and obstinance

Numbers 15
God distinguishes between mistakes and high handed treason. He can tell the difference between accidents and obstinance. Given this information, some naturally conclude it would be best to be blissfully ignorant. At least there is an opportunity for forgiveness. But don't miss the warning of vs. 39: "the things your heart gravitates toward and eyes migrate toward are adulterous." When left to your own devices, you drift immediately into whoredom. For those who love God, adultery is not an attractive option. For those who make vows, their intention is to keep them and that begins with remembering the Word of God, not ignoring it.

day no. 14,543 continued... day 4,019

11 years of marriage, 4,019 days of oneness.

DAY 1

DAY 4,019

We just keep getting better and better... and we're surrounded by just about as many people as we were at the end of day 1!

day no. 14,543: eleven

Eleven years ago today my wife and I were married. I like being married. I am a better man because of it. Having a helpmate has really... helped. I would highly recommend it. Marriage in general that is. Not marriage with my wife. I would NOT recommend trying that. Unless your plan is to die single. 

day no. 14,542: worship at His footstool

Psalm 99:5
Exalt the Lord our God; worship at his footstool! Holy is He!

Worship where God rests His feet. Do not work where He has kicked up His feet. Do not stress where He has rested. Do not fret your enemies when He has His holy feet firmly upon their necks. Worship at the footstool of God where the good work of salvation is done and messy work of vengeance is complete.

day no. 14,541: high-fives and hand-jives

"It has a bad look when a courtier is too intimate with his king's enemies." - C.H. Spurgeon

Christians are messengers. The Gospel is Good News and we are its reporters. We are carriers of news. If our King has a message for His enemies, it is our job to deliver it. That being said, it we are found high-fiving and hand-jiving along with the world's secret handshakes, it says something about our loyalty to our King. We shouldn't be closer to them than we are to Him. It has a bad look.

James 4:4
You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

day no. 14,540: the miser's wealth leads him to want more

Ecclesiastes 5:10
He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves wealth with his income; this also is vanity. 

The miser's wealth leads him to want more wealth. This is the way our hearts operate and it's actually a good thing. Hear me out. The reason it often goes so terribly wrong is that we direct our hearts at inferior treasures. The principle takes over and we find ourselves wanting more and more of the things we hoard. It's not the principle that destroys, but the things at which we aim it. Those things, those people, that identity has an expiration date. They rust, decay, grow old, get exhausted, wear out, dry up, evaporate, dwindle, or numb. They cannot bear the weight of the principle. Our growing want eclipses their wherewithal. BUT, this same principle when applied to the inexhaustible God works for our good. The more of Him we hoard in our hearts, the more of Him we desire. But in His case, there is always more to be had. We can never wring out all there is of Him. He never dries up. He never tires. His treasures are inexhaustible. He cannot go bankrupt. He is forever full regardless of how much of Him we withdraw. He is an everlasting treasure and our hearts follow what we value. If we treasure Him, we will have Him and we will never be dissatisfied. The principle when applied to Him works in the opposite direction of what see in Ecclesiastes 5:10. We are satisfied and our lives are eternal and meaningful for the breadth of our horizons to the height of the heavens to the depths of our souls.

day no. 14,539: without the Law

Romans 5:12-14
Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—13 for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. 14 Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come. 

In talking with Paige this morning this verse came to mind. We were discussing Leviticus and life before the Law. We were talking about how sin was in the world before the Law was written down. There were sacrifices (Abel, Noah, Abraham, Jacob, etc...) of various kinds and types being offered at various times for various reasons. There was continuity in seeing that blood was connected to sin and death was needed to atone for the transgression of the living. But what had never occurred to me before was that grace and favor were also present during that time WITHOUT THE LAW. People were dying without the Law and this makes sense because sin was present. But people were being blessed and pursued by God without the Law because grace was present. Anyone who found favor with God before the Law was found by God by His prerogative. They were not found because they had been doing works of the Law. They were blessed by the free gift of God. And just as the weight of sin and death came to be visible through the written Law, so too the weight of grace and life came to be visible through the Word made flesh and put to death.

day no. 14,538: the sin of acquiescence

Numbers 14
The people put their faith in the report of the 10 rather than the hope of the 2. The command was to take the land, but the people fixed their eyes only on the giant hurdles and fortified cities before them. They put their faith in their fears and chose to disobey God's command and disinherit themselves from His will. When God responds by affirming their disinheritance and confirming that they will die according to their own prophecies -- penniless in the desert -- they mourn. They acquiesce to the original command to take the land, but Moses warns, "Don't go! You are going against God's commands and indomitable giants." But wait, if the giants were too much for them, why did God tell them to go up against them in the first place? Because, they were not going up against fortresses and monsters on their own, they were going with God and nothing is impossible with Him. But these things are impossible with man, so when the people finally decide to attack the land, they are doing so without God, the one thing that made all the difference. And so, many of them die in their attempt to retroactively obey God. When He said, "Go!" they were all brakes. When He said, "Stop!" they were all accelerator. They were guided by their desires and fears and not by faith in God, which is why they were disinherited from father Abraham's family tree.

day no. 14,537: all the work, all the credit

Psalm 98

God has used His strength to accomplish and declare salvation. And He has done it all for His own glory. The telos of all existence is doxological, not soteriological. That means the end goal of our salvation is not about us, it is about Him. It is about bringing Him more glory. God saves His elect with an outstretched arm so that He may be given thanks for it. He does all the work so that He can get all of the credit and He wants everyone to know all about it. God does everything for His own glory and we, His children by grace through faith in His Son, are benefactors. We are caught up in the train of His kingly procession that leads us to a place where His glory reigns forever.

day no. 14,536: testing either/or

Numbers 13
Moses gathers 12 men from the 12 tribes and assigns them the covert task of spying out the promised land. Moses gives these men specific tasks concerning the law of non-contradiction -- is it good or bad, filled with trees or not filled with trees, filled with strong people or filled with weak people, are their cities fortified or are they vulnerable, etc... This men's retreat was meant to tackle these questions and concerns. 

With this commission, they set out for 40 days. As we've seen, 40 is a number of testing and here the land is tested and their resolve is tested. The land proves itself faithful -- it flows with milk and honey and grape clusters that require two men to carry them. The spies report the facts faithfully, but 10 out of 12 do not approach those facts with faith. They report the good, but the only see the difficult. The same standard of either/or that was meant to be applied to the land is also applied to them: facing the facts by faith or fleeing from them by fear? 2 of 12 see the difficult facts by faith. 10 of 12 out of fear see the difficulties and then promptly forget that the land was promised to them by God.

day no. 14,535: in the world

Ephesians 2:12
Remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 

The one time the word atheist is used in the New Testament is here in this verse. It is translated here as "without God," and it is from the greek word "atheoi." An interesting thing about this verse is how Paul couples it with hopelessness. And not eternal hopelessness, but earthly hopelessness. You would think the connection would be: those without God have no hope in death. They have nothing but darkness awaiting them by their own admission. But Paul here says that they are without hope in the world. Their lives and livelihoods are hopeless. This is who all of us who are now Christians once were. We were without promise, without hope and without God in this world.

day no. 14,534: not whether, but which

"it's not whether, but which" - Doug Wilson, citing Rushdoony's inescapable concept (discussed in Plodcast episode 13)

It's not a question of whether morality will be imposed upon someone, but which morality will be imposed upon someone. Here's how this works. Let's say a Christian wants to end human abortion now. Another may quickly say, "Ah, ah, ah friendo. It's not fair for you to impose your morality upon my body." We've been there before and felt trapped. But the inescapable concept comes to our aid. It is not a question of WHETHER our morality is imposed upon others, in this example the morality of forbidding the murder of innocent human beings, but WHICH morality will be imposed. The argument is aimed at making the Christian seem arrogant, narrow-minded, and selfish. But in reality, all laws are an imposed morality. It is not a question of WHETHER morality will be imposed, but WHICH morality will be imposed. 

day no. 14,533: the tribute vice pays to virtue

"Hypocrisy is the tribute vice pays to virtue." - Doug Wilson, Plodcast, episode 13

You cannot have public virtue without private virtue. No one can be virtuous in public if they are not virtuous in private. If your private wickedness becomes public, your previous public virtue will be discredited. No one can be virtuous in private without Gospel. One can be virtuous in public without the Gospel, but left alone, with no one watching, with no Holy Spirit, no one is virtuous. 

day no. 14,532: new beginnings

80 years of life. Hats off to Teunis Van Voorst. Well done, Dad! Happy Birthday!!!

41 years of marriage. Hats off to Teunis and Jacqi Van Voorst. Well done, parents! Happy Anniversary!!!

day no. 14,531: the darkness has not overcome it

Psalm 97

Light hates darkness. Anywhere light shines it destroys the darkness it touches. Light has no tolerance for darkness. It either withholds itself from the darkness or it overwhelms it with its presence. To love the Lord is to hate evil. You cannot be for God and for sin. It is a forced choice situation and there can only be one. 

day no. 14,530: no earthly authority is absolute

Numbers 12
No earthly authority is absolute, but all earthly authority is still authoritative because it is initiated by God. God has all authority and gives husbands, parents, employers, kings, elders real authority. It is authoritative because it comes from Him. But it is limited because it comes from Him. Any authority on earth is heavenly authority come down. Because it is heavenly, it has jurisdiction on earth. Because it is earthly, it can never overrule heaven.

day no. 14,529: love and justice

Psalm 96

Modern minds assume a tension where the psalmist assumes a harmony. If God loves the world and the people He has made, how could He ever judge them or find fault in them? Modern minds wrestle to understand how a loving Creator could sentence His creation to hell. Ancient minds understood that a loving Creator MUST judge His creation. It is a necessary and natural conclusion. Love demands justice and justice assumes love. If one loves, one must seek to stop anything that comes against its love. And if one is just, it is only because it loves something.

day no. 14,528: a generous Spirit

Numbers 11:27-29
And a young man ran and told Moses, “Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.” 28 And Joshua the son of Nun, the assistant of Moses from his youth, said, “My lord Moses, stop them.”29 But Moses said to him, “Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the Lord's people were prophets, that the Lord would put his Spirit on them!”

Moses was more jealous for God's name than he was his own.

day no. 14,527: today and tomorrow

Psalm 95

What God deserves, He rarely receives. What God gives, He never owes. All things are His things and all earthly glories are rented. Today, if you are given the grace to hear His voice, do not muffle its volume. Do not tune it out. The still small voice is still small. It is patient and persevering. It is smaller than you'd expect and more profound than you'd imagine. It is constant though we are intermittent. So if today is a day by God's grace that the white noise of life is muted enough for you to hear His voice above it all, do not take it for granted. Do not assume you will simply pay better attention tomorrow. We often put our faith in tomorrow and hope in today when we should have faith today and hope for tomorrow.