day no. 14,618: none of us until all of us

Numbers 32:6-7
But Moses said to the people of Gad and to the people of Reuben, “Shall your brothers go to the war while you sit here? 7 Why will you discourage the heart of the people of Israel from going over into the land that the Lord has given them?"

None of us must lay hold of the promise until all of us lay hold of the promise. To settle for good enough or close enough is to deprive others of their inheritance. To seek only your own security is to rob from other's.

day no. 14,617: occupying multiple offices

Numbers 31
Every once in a while in Scripture we get a glimpse of a man occupying multiple offices. For example, David was a King and a prophet, a warrior and a poet.  Men like this provided a sneak preview of what it would look like for a man to reign and conquer as a king, serve and be set apart like a priest, and speak the truth as a prophet.

In Phinehas, we get another such a glimpse. He was a priest and a warrior. He served in the temple and on the battlefield. He guarded the knowledge of God at home and the honor of God in the world. Men like this were a trailer of the Man who was to come. Jesus was a man who perfectly occupied every office. He was a great High Priest more priestly than Phinehas, a true Prophet truer than Moses, and a High King higher than David.

day no. 14,616: your satisfaction

Proverbs 27:7

One who is full loathes honey,

but to one who is hungry everything bitter is sweet

The satisfied in Christ can discern between good and best,

but the dissatisfied are unable to tell bad from worse.

day no. 14,615: peaceably with enmity

Psalm 140
Some people refuse to be at peace. They are hell bent on looking for ways to instigate. They seek out tension and create it when there is none. 

In Romans 12:18 we are commanded, "If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all." There are two assumptions behind this command. There is a role in peacemaking we can play AND we must assume that some will respond to our meekness with malice.

With respect to the first assumption, Proverbs 15:1 states, "A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger." We can only do what we can do, but we must do what only we can do. You can't force someone to be at peace with you, but you can promote peace in the way you proactively engage others and in the way you reactively respond to others. That is your part and God is clear that you should strive to live peaceably.

But some refuse to live peaceably as our second assumption already noted. You must not be naïve. There are those who are pursuing war. They want strife. They desire conflict. They won't be happy until you are fighting. So do not be shocked when they attack you. Do not be surprised when they try to trip you up. Do be caught off guard by the malice they throw at your meekness.

The seed of the serpent and the seed of Eve have enmity placed between them by God. There should be adversity. For the only scenario where no turmoil exists is one where no seed of Eve remains. As long as there are seeds of Eve alive, the seeds of the serpent will plot against them. There is NO scenario where the seeds of the serpent stop fighting. So there should exist no scenario where the seeds of Eve are unprepared for battle.

The Day is coming when the enmity will forever cease, but it is at the return of the great High King who deals the death blow to the seed of the serpent. Only then will enmity be thrown into the lake of fire forever. Until then, we do our best to live in peace, which means being prepared for war.

"To be prepared for war is one of the most effective means of preserving peace." - George Washington

day no. 14,614: everyone wants to be known... and loved

Psalm 139
Everyone wants to be known… and loved. If you are known, but the person who has you figured out despises what they've found, it does no good to reason, "at least I'm known by someone."

We desire to be known and to be loved and frequently find ourselves frustrated because others don't get us or they despise what they do get about us. 

Enter God. He knows us. He KNOWS. He gets us. He knows what we think, why we think it, what we want and why we want it. He knows how we feel and how others feel about us. He knows what we've endured and how hard it was to endure it. He knows when we've given up and when we've shown patience. He sees what we do in secret and understands our motives and movements.

This reality produces two VERY different reactions. If your relationship with God is by grace through faith being known is a beautiful thing. If your relationship with God is by merit through will power being known is terrifying. In the first place, the comfort of God knowing everything about you and forgiving it is Gospel salve that heals all wounds of conscience. In the latter case, the agony is knowing that no matter how much you convince others that you're good, God knows that you're not. He knows what you've imagined doing, He knows the words you've left unsaid and the actions left undone. He knows which were a result of cowardice and which were a matter of opportunity. He knows what you wished you could or would do and that is terrifying. Despite your best attempts to be something you're not, you're known – you're caught. There is no getting away with anything. There is nowhere you can go or anything you could do that God would not know.

This should be either your greatest hope and cause for celebration or your greatest fear and cause for repentance.

day no. 14,613: the mighty, magnanimous God

Psalm 138
I love the pregnancy of the sixth verse, "For though the LORD is high, he regards the lowly, but the haughty he knows from afar."

The Lord is high. He is exalted. We can exalt Him and ascribe worth to Him in our souls and lift His Name up, but it is already up there whether we do or not. His height is not dependent on our thrust. He is high. This is a given. 

So given that, it is astounding that He has regard for the lowly. For Him to look on anyone is for Him to look down, but how far down He looks is magnanimous. He doesn't just look down and see the cream that has risen to the very top by their tiptoes, He sees all the way down to the soul laying prostrate against the dust from which it came and to which it will soon return. He not only has the ability to see that far down, He prefers things that are that far down.

The haughty and high-minded are known by God. He knows which is which and though their hands may be closer to grasping the clouds, they're far from Heaven. He still knows them, but He knows them from a distance. They do not have the closeness they imagine. Because of their lofty self-assessments, they are further from the One who is lofted above all. The high and mighty God will lift up the lowly and strike down the high-minded.

day no. 14,612: the fat lady has not yet sung

Psalm 137
The enmity between the seed of the serpent and the seed of Eve is well at work and we see it everywhere we look. The children of wrath oppress and torment the children of God with taunts. They gain control, flex their might and then say, "Hey, why don't you sing me one of those songs about how mighty and awesome your God is?" They mock the meek as they tread upon the earth, planting flags for their team. But God is not mocked and they will reap what they have sown. They will be cut off and all of their accomplishments and advancements will come to nothing. Whatever capitals they have renamed after their own gods, will be restored under the Name of Zion when the meek inherit the earth from the Maker of heaven and earth.

day no. 14,611: kid tested, mother approved

Today I turn 40 years old. 40 is commonly associated with testing in the Bible. It is a motif. When you see or hear the number 40, you can expect it to be associated with a period of testing. So look out world, the prototype has been tested and is being turned loose. I wonder what the next set of 40 years will bring if, Lord willing, He endures me to 80. I feel like I'm just now only getting started in doing what I was put here to do. It seems like a waste of the first 40 years in some respects, but it is also a relief knowing that they have produced some clarity rather than continued ambiguity. So here's to 40 years of figuring it out and to 40 more for getting after it.

day no. 14,610 continued... the moms God chose

Happy birthday to two moms who made my life possible. 

Jacqi Sue - God chose you to be my mom. 
Karen - God chose you to be my wife's mom.

1 Corinthians 11:11-12
In the Lord woman is not independent of man nor man of woman; 12 for as woman was made from man, so man is now born of woman. And all things are from God.

Acts 17:26-27
God made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, 27 that they should seek God

day no. 14,610: the undercurrent of everything that has ever occurred

Psalm 136

The undercurrent of everything that has ever been done is that God's steadfast love endures forever. From the creation of the world to the care of His created people, His steadfast, enduring forever love has been observed. It drives everything. It is the reason for everything. Put another way, nothing that has ever happened has occurred outside of or removed from the influence of God's steadfast, enduring forever love.

day no. 14,609: federal headship at home

Numbers 30
When Eve ate the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, God came looking for Adam. That is headship. It is less "I get to do what I want," and more, "I must give an account for you." In light of this reality, this chapter makes perfect sense. If you approach Scripture from an egalitarian vantage point, this seems awfully invasive. Let the lady speak for herself. Let her make her own promises. What does it matter to her dad or to her husband what she wants to promise to God or anyone else? Shouldn't she have full repercussion rights? He must give an account for her. So he is on the hook for any promise she makes. So to answer the question, that is why it matters to him. That is why she doesn't have the ultimate say - the buck doesn't ultimately stop with her. Because the judgment for breaking the promise would fall on the head, it is fair that he must first consent to the promises made by the heart before the terms are applied to the entire body.

day no. 14,608: pride of heart deceives the head

Obadiah 1:2-4
"Behold, I will make you small among the nations; 
you shall be utterly despised. 
3 The pride of your heart has deceived you, 
you who live in the clefts of the rock, 
in your lofty dwelling, 
who say in your heart, 
'Who will bring me down to the ground?'
4 Though you soar aloft like the eagle, 
though your nest is set among the stars, 
from there I will bring you down," 
declares the Lord.

God opposes the proud and gives grace to the humble. A prerequisite for salvation is confessing one's lowliness. Those who desire to make themselves big will be made small. The particular sting of humility forced upon the big-headed will be how small they are made. Pride of heart deceives the head. It convinces one to find the highest mountain one can summit and look down on all below. It persuades one to find security and safety in one's surroundings while entirely ignorant of one's ceilings - always looks around or below, but never above.

But two eternal facts elude the proud. God is above them beyond the sun and God came down and humbled Himself in the form of a servant. From that position He forever topples those perched on totem poles. There is no height one can ascend that reaches higher than His throne and there is no depth to which He did not descend in humility. Your self esteem is no security. You will be brought down more than a few notches. He will bring you down.

day no. 14,607: is not My Word like fire?

Jeremiah 23:29
"Is not my word like fire," declares the Lord, "and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?" 

God's Word is like fire. It enlightens. It sheds light on dark matters exposing what really is. It brings comfort to those seeking refuge from the night. It also brings heat. It warms the hands of those nearby or the homes of those that appropriate it rightly. All that God's Word does for those who love Him it also does for those who don't, but with very different consequences. It spotlights their darkness. It burns and consumes them. Since God is a consuming fire, it should come as no surprise that His Word has sizzle.

God's Word is like a hammer. It fixes nails in their places, firmly planted and dependable. It is a faithful tool for building a sturdy life. But again, what it does for those who love it is drastically different from what it does to those who don't. It razes other foundations. It breaks opposing pillars into pieces. No pagan pillar is so deeply driven that the claw of His Word cannot dislodge it.

day no. 14,606: inescapably liturgical

When running on the treadmill on Wednesday nights, I typically listen to podcasts. I often listen to Doug Wilson's Plodcast and the White Horse Inn which both produce weekly podcasts. On one such Wednesday recently, I was listening to THIS podcast from the White Horse Inn called, "The Worship Service."

Here's the run down: liturgy is an inescapable concept, meaning it is not a matter of whether, but which. Some recoil at the sound of the word "liturgy" conjuring stuffy, high church, routinized ceremony detached from intellectual or emotional engagement. And for some churches and in some people's experiences, that is a fair assessment of their particular situations. The problem, however, isn't that there was a liturgy, it was perhaps, that particular liturgy. Many non-denominational types in active resistance and attempts to break free from liturgical scripts, have concocted a Sunday service free from traditional trappings. But in the process, they have not tossed liturgy aside, they have simply produced an alternative liturgy. You know the drill. Song, announcements, song, song, prayer, sermon, song, song. That liturgy takes place without much variation at the lion's share of non-denominational churches Sunday in and Sunday out. 

My point here is not to imply this liturgy is wrong per se, but to point out that in attempting to be novel, most churches have merely adopted a different script.

There is much that could be said on the topic, so I will here limit my response to the thoughts I had in the days after listening to it.

Everyone is uncomfortable walking into a traditionally liturgical church where they are unfamiliar with the script. It is hard to know when to sit, when to stand, when to pray, when to talk, when to respond, when to come up front, when to stay back, etc... You have to learn these rhythms by being part of the congregation. Every outsider knows they are an outsider and every insider can clearly see who is an outsider by their comfort level/ability to interact with the morning's normative liturgies. An unchurched, non-believer may have a difficult time as others recite the Lord's Prayer together, having never heard it, but they will understand that the congregants here know this and do it often together. 

Now take that same unchurched, non-believer and plop them down into a modern, non-denominational mega-church style liturgy and they feel much more comfortable. Why? It doesn't require participation. You can spectate. You can watch other people sing and worship. You can watch others dance. You can listen to others talk and then you can go home. No one may know you're new and you will not be forced to do anything unusual for you. It's just like going to movies. Which is a great invitational element. But it's not a great feel if church should be something more than merely going to the movies. Church is not a spectator sport or event you attend to take in. The Roman Catholic church circa pre-Reformational Europe was largely a spectator event. You watched other people sing, listened to other people pray, and listened to a sermon in language you didn't understand until you left. You weren't there to worship, you were there to witness others worship and hoped it somehow counted on your behalf. 

One last note, the modern liturgy is also unfriendly to children. The songs are too new too often for any of them to memorize or pick up by osmosis and they can't read the screens because they're too young. They often get wiggly around minute 25 of most sermons and aren't spoken to by the pastor most mornings anyways. 

How we worship and what liturgies we adopt have great impact on those who call our churches home and on those who visit. My point here is not to debunk per se all modern liturgies, but rather to point out that everyone prescribes to a particular liturgy and it is worth working through what assumptions our liturgies are built upon and where those liturgies may or may not be taking us.

day no. 14,605: ordinary work

Numbers 28-29
There are times where we are commanded to set aside the daily grind in order to focus on divinity. This also means that there are times where our focus on divinity is part of, or alongside, our respective daily grinds. It is not right to extract the principle from the Passover and lay it over the rest of the year. For example, it would be wrong to say, "If it's good to ignore common work 2 weeks per year, imagine how good ignoring it all year round would be." This error assumes that more of something is better simply because there is more of it. But this leap ignores the boundaries assigned and categories commanded by the Creator. God made ordinary work and people to ordinarily assign themselves the tasks of completing it. There are times when it is good to set these common chores aside for intensified focus, but it is unwise and unbiblical to assume the only time we focus at all on God is during set aside times of solace. We are to be working by faith, breathing by faith, waking and sleeping by faith, washing dishes by faith, wiping bottoms by faith, paying our taxes by faith, returning under-cooked steaks by faith, etc... It is ordinary, common business, but it is not intended to be absent of awareness of God. 

day no. 14,604: sex, sin and salvation

In studying for a Salt Company sermon from a series on Sex on the topic of "Dating and Marriage" I had the following observation from the first chapters of the Bible. 

In Genesis 2:24-25 it says, 

"a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed."

Before the Fall there was sexual freedom. Man and wife were naked before each other and before God and there was no shame. It was good. The isolation of the solitary man was remedied by his helper and they were together an image of their Creator. God removed Eve from Adam's side and then escorted her back to him. Where there was once only one, God made two, but reunited them in a oneness more glorious and good than the solitary man was by his lonesome. All that to say, sex was not only possible and permissible, but perfect. It was the mechanism by which two became one. It was the way things were made better than before. Sex was God's design for making man fully reflect His image.

Fast forward to the fallout of the Fall. Adam and Eve sinned against God by believing the Serpent's truth claims over the Creator's. They partook of that which was forbidden and it ruined everything.

But in Genesis 3:15, God surprisingly hits the problem head on by offering a promise of hope. When everything is out of order for the first time in history, God announces that He will put things back right when He proclaimed,

"I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her Offspring; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel."

Don't miss the fact that God's plan of salvation required people to have sex. His Serpent Crusher would come as a son of sinners participating in His redemptive history by faithfully marrying, having sex and raising godly offspring. The hope of the entire world hinged on His people multiplying and producing the next generation through sex. If His people had taken a position of clerical celebacy, His Messiah would have been snuffed out by their highfalutin snobbery. Their piety would have strangled the progeny and the promise.

God likes sex. He made it and delights in married people having it. He inserted it as an essential ingredient of redemptive history. No sex, no Savior. Sex is not our savior, anymore than good works are. But they are part of the process of redemptive history in both producing the seed of Eve who would conquer sin, Satan and death and in producing the nations for whom the Savior was sent to redeem.

day no. 14,603: kindness and kindling

Malachi 3:2-3
But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner's fire and like fullers' soap. 3 He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, and they will bring offerings in righteousness to the Lord. 

Jesus will refine and purify His people. Fire refines and purifies by removing everything that cannot endure it's heat. Fire consumes chaff and the fuller's soap destroys impurities. 

Proverbs 27:21
The crucible is for silver, and the furnace is for gold, and a man is tested by his praise.

Kind words often expose as violently as fire. When God says that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, it exposes the hearts of its hearers. Those who love Him are refined by the heat of that proclamation to greater devotion and good works while others are consumed by what they heard as a license to serve their own appetites more ferociously. A man is tested by his response to kindness.

Romans 2:4
Do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?

day no. 14,602: we become what we behold without exception

Psalm 135

We become what we behold. Everyone who fixes their eyes on Christ will one day be like Him glorified. Everyone who fixates on lesser things will one day be like them impotent and inadequate. Not only is it a matter of culmination, but a matter of process. Those who behold God are on their way to glorification even now passing from one glory to another on the path to utter glory while those who behold lesser things are on their way to nothingness even now passing from one debauchery to the next, one degradation and devolution to the next. We become what we behold without exception. This is the hope of the Christian and the devastation of the idolater. 

day no. 14,601: much of ministry is late nights and early mornings

Psalm 134

We should often be interceding in prayer for those who pastor and minister to us. We should seek their favor from God so that they may continue to spend themselves faithfully for His glory. Their late nights and early mornings often find them ministering to others when the sun is down. And may those in ministry remember to pronounce a blessing upon those for whom they labor. It is easy to consider cursing the ox for making a mess, but the ox makes one's work more productive. Ministry would be easier without the people, but without the people there'd be no ministry. May God bless both the laborers and the partakers, the ministers and the ministered to. May He bless them both with His presence and power to persevere.

day no. 14,600: never battle so important, never crown so glorious

The following is the evening devotional from Spurgeon's classic, "Morning & Evening," for November 30th. I read this one morning (yeah, I know I read the "evening" portion in the morning) and my thought immediately turned to the future men I call my sons. My hope for us is that we would fight the good fight on the same team, side by side, following Jesus into battle and emerging victorious in His Name. This devotional inspires me to battle by digging my heels deeply into grace and my prayer is that the Holy Spirit would use its energy to do the same in the hearts of my sons in increasing degrees as they mature in wisdom and stature in the eyes of God and man.
...

"Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels."
Revelation 12:7

War always will rage between the two great sovereignties until one or other be crushed. Peace between good and evil is an impossibility; the very pretence of it would, in fact, be the triumph of the powers of darkness. Michael will always fight; his holy soul is vexed with sin, and will not endure it. Jesus will always be the dragon's foe, and that not in a quiet sense, but actively, vigorously, with full determination to exterminate evil. All his servants, whether angels in heaven or messengers on earth, will and must fight; they are born to be warriors--at the cross they enter into covenant never to make truce with evil; they are a warlike company, firm in defence and fierce in attack. The duty of every soldier in the army of the Lord is daily, with all his heart, and soul, and strength, to fight against the dragon.

The dragon and his angels will not decline the affray; they are incessant in their onslaughts, sparing no weapon, fair or foul. We are foolish to expect to serve God without opposition: the more zealous we are, the more sure are we to be assailed by the myrmidons of hell. The church may become slothful, but not so her great antagonist; his restless spirit never suffers the war to pause; he hates the woman's seed, and would fain devour the church if he could. The servants of Satan partake much of the old dragon's energy, and are usually an active race. War rages all around, and to dream of peace is dangerous and futile.

Glory be to God, we know the end of the war. The great dragon shall be cast out and forever destroyed, while Jesus and they who are with him shall receive the crown. Let us sharpen our swords tonight, and pray the Holy Spirit to nerve our arms for the conflict. Never battle so important, never crown so glorious. Every man to his post, ye warriors of the cross, and may the Lord tread Satan under your feet shortly!

day no. 14,599: a band of brothers

Psalm 133

A band of brothers fighting the good fight together is a blessing to behold. Grown, competent men getting along is a gift to a family, church and nation.

day no. 14,598: the preservation of the progeny

Psalm 132

One of the primary ways we see God working to fulfill His promises in the Old Testament is in the ordinary, every day continuation of His covenant to produce a Son from the tribe of Israel, the legacy of David to sit on the throne forever as Lord and Savior. The endless genealogies contain within them the extraordinary everyday preservation of the seed of Israel. As miraculous as was the sea's parting or Jericho's walls falling, as is the preservation of the progeny. Certain mile markers were highlighted like Abraham, Jacob and David, but in between and after were links in the chain all leading up to Jesus, the son of Mary and Joseph, the promised seed of Eve, the Serpent Crusher!

day no. 14,597: a weaned soul

Psalm 131

A nursing child cannot sit in his mother's lap without wanting to be fed. The smell of mom is often enough to inspire the desire to eat. But a weaned child has been fed by milk long enough and has transitioned to eating regular table food along with the rest of the family. The weaned child can sit in his mother's lap at rest without constantly craning his neck looking for something more. He is contented by the company of his mother. So is the soul that has learned to desire God's presence over God's presents. The soul that has been nourished by God's good gifts should grow up to appreciate the power and nourishment that is in Him.

day no. 14,596: high causes and low moments

Numbers 27
Our commitment to high causes is often challenged most at our lowest moments. Moses was committed to making God known as holy and worthy of our entire lives. It was the highest cause he could imagine and he threw himself into it with all his heart. But Moses, at a low point, frustrated with people who would not heed his work of recognizing God's holiness, himself dishonored God in a moment of exasperation. Now the test of his life's work was truly at its fever pitch. What do you do when you turn on the highest good you know? How do you come back from that? When you become what you've preached against, what do you do? Your true colors come to the surface in how you respond to those questions. If your true goal and deepest desire has been to lift God up, you will lift Him up from your lowest point. Moses here proves his mettle by earnestly pleading that God would raise up another to take his place. Why? Because his most sincere desire is to see God's people led to worship Him more and more and without a shepherd, they would scatter and God's Name would suffer.

day no. 14,595: from the mount of Sinai to the plains of Moab

Numbers 26
The number of people enrolled in the plains of Moab is nearly the same as the number of those enrolled previously on the mount of Sinai, but of those now listed, only Caleb and Joshua remained from the previous count. God kept His promise and killed in the wilderness each and every one of the generation of Israelites who refused to enter into His rest. They all died, without exception. Only Joshua and Caleb, as previously set apart by God for their faith, survived the 40 years of wandering and winnowing. So too we live on the precipe of God's rest. We are told of a land of milk and honey... and giants and danger in between. But it is the land promised to the faithful. Will we like Joshua and Caleb be faith-filled fighting giants knowing the Author of giants is on our side and has promised to see us through or will we like every other Israelite hear the promise and forfeit the future because of our unbelief?

day no. 14,594: exhausted, but hopeful

Psalm 130

If God should count our sins against us, who could avoid accountability? But as powerful as the rule of sin is over us, God possesses power beyond it. So much so that He can forgive sins. He can break the rule of sin. He can overrule the weight of our wages. If the thought of facing a holy God in our sins should produce fear, how much more fear is owed to the God who can disarm sin? As devastating as our sin is, He is the devastator of my sins. He stands above them. Love is as strong as death and I wait for Him like the watchman waits for morning: exhausted, but hopeful, exasperated at times, but sure of the sun's appearing ending all my earthly woes.

day no, 14,593: haters gonna hate

Psalm 129

God placed enmity between the seed of Eve and the seed of the serpent and ever since the seed of the serpent have taken this seriously. The world, the flesh and the devil are in cahoots and have their sights set on taking the children of Abraham out. But God knows who is who and the enmity that the darkness has for the light is only eclipsed ed by His enmity for it.

day no. 14,592: arrival

Psalm 128

The one who sows in the fear of the Lord will reap the blessing of that Lord. The one who walks in God's ways will end up where God is. If you travel down a certain path long enough you will discover that you have arrived.

day no. 14,591: home security

Psalm 127

Everything earthly will rot, die, decay, topple, wobble or worsen. You can get up early and stay up late working, crafting, carefully plotting, but if God is not the pioneer and perfecter of your plans, they will ultimately fail. Nothing man can do or come up with will stand on its own forever. But anything God establishes, even something as simple as the faith of a family, will endure for eternity. 

day no. 14,590: those who sow in tears shall reap of joy

Psalm 126

The rule of reaping and sowing is at work. God is not mocked, you will reap what you have sown. This is a surety proclaimed throughout Scripture. Hear we see that those who sow in tears will reap of joy. Those who carry the seeds of weeping will come home with sheaves of shouts of joy. In other words, blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted and blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

day no. 14,589: the three stages of conversion

Adapted from Doug Wilson's "three stages of conversion" found HERE.

Acts 26:16-18

But rise and stand upon your feet, for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you as a servant and witness to the things in which you have seen me and to those in which I will appear to you, 17 delivering you from your people and from the Gentiles—to whom I am sending you 18 to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.

Conversion occurs in three stages:

(1) opening eyes

(2) turning from darkness to light

(3) turning from the power of Satan to God

The early stage of conversion begins when blindness becomes sight. This may sound like a metaphor for the entire conversion process, but consider what good sight is for someone living in utter darkness. How would you know that you can even see when all you see is darkness. But there does exist yet in this stage even an initial awareness of the darkness around you which comes by sight. Previously, in blindness, you walked in darkness, but you were unaware of it, like a fish being oblivious to how wet he is. This is the first step in the conversion process realizing, "Hey, it's dark in here!"

The next stage of conversion is turning from the darkness to see that there is a great light in the distance. While first stage was largely characterized by knowing that dark is dark, this second stage is characterized by seeing that there is a light and that it is altogether different than the darkness. During this stage the contrast between darkness and light is understood and acknowledged, but we still are not yet to full conversion. A person can see the darkness for what it is and the light for what it is and yet remain outside the shine of the light. There is one more step that must take place.

In the final stage of conversion, the person, having been given vision to see the darkness and the ability to understand how dark the darkness is and being shone the great light of Christ shining into said darkness, responds by actually entering into the power of the light and forsaking the shadows of the former life. The power of Satan is in the dark, the power of God is in the light. This last phase is the fullness of conversion that saves the soul and secures its inheritance in the city of light. 

day no. 14,588: while others laid down, he stood up

Numbers 25
Balaam figured out if he couldn't curse Israel with his words, he could get God to curse them by cooking the books. The wiles of devliish worldliness always look for a way to work around God's Word. So he introduced a fly into the ointment in the form of Midianite women. After one thing inevitably led to another, Israel found themselves not only marrying Midianite people, but worshiping Midianite gods. God's charge to Moses was clear: whoever does this deserves to die!

And yet the practice went on to the point that sinners were emboldened in their debauchery to the point that a particular man swaggered through the camp in broad daylight, in the presence of all people, with a Midianite by his side. It was then that the jealousy of the Lord overcame Phinehas. He was consumed by zeal for the Lord's Name. And he did what no one was willing to do, what God had commanded to be done. He left the congregation of the mourning. While everyone else in Israel was laying down, he stood up. While some laid with Midianites, others laid down in grief. But he, alone, stood up. 

And how did God respond to this violent outburst? With reward. Phinehas inherited a covenant of peace. His violent zeal for God's purity produced peace between God and man. His stand begat salvation. The plague of God ended because the zeal of Phinehas began. Years later, a better Phinehas, would secure a covenant of peace between God and man. He would obtain the salvation of many by his violent death. His zeal would lead him to be pierced for our transgressions and by His stripes we would be healed.

Psalm 106:28-30

They yoked themselves to the Baal of Peor and ate sacrifices offered to lifeless gods; 

they aroused the LORD’s anger by their wicked deeds, and a plague broke out among them. But Phinehas stood up and intervened, and the plague was checked.

Isaiah 53:5
He was wounded for our transgressions,
He was bruised for our iniquities;
The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,
And by His stripes we are healed.