day no. 15,288: a tale of two swords

1 Samuel 13:22-14:2
So on the day of the battle there was neither sword nor spear found in the hand of any of the people with Saul and Jonathan, but Saul and Jonathan his son had them. And the garrison of the Philistines went out to the pass of Michmash. One day Jonathan the son of Saul said to the young man who carried his armor, "Come, let us go over to the Philistine garrison on the other side." But he did not tell his father. Saul was staying in the outskirts of Gibeah in the pomegranate cave at Migron. The people who were with him were about six hundred men

Israel was in possession of two swords; and one of them was sitting down under a tree of pomegranates. The other was drawn and ready to throw down on the field of battle. One was sheathed, praying the battle would not come to it. The other was brandished, taking the battle to the enemy. 

Psalm 149:6
Let the high praises of God be in their throats
and two-edged swords in their hands

Swords and songs often go together.

Saul was not singing God's praises with his sword sheathed and settled under the pomegranate tree. But Jonathan was full of song with his sword swinging and his heart singing. The banner over him was love and it led him into battle. The soundtrack of his life was epic. It followed him and propelled him to move the same way a good score moves along with the action.

day no. 15,287: duty, delight and deliverance

Isaiah 12:2
Behold, God is my salvation;
I will trust, and will not be afraid;
for the LORD GOD is my strength and my song,
and He has become my salvation.

GOD IS MY STRENGTH
God is my duty and my diligence.

I work hard to pay Him what I owe and I could never pay too much. There is no buyer's remorse when it comes to God. You cannot overpay or get swindled. The more you endeavor to spend, the better your investment. He is the incentive behind my inceptions. He empowers in me what He requires of me.

GOD IS MY SONG
God is my delight and my ditty.

We were made to sing. We are often found with a tune in our minds, on our tongues or being hummed in our mouths. We naturally raise our voices in concert to things we find to be true. We dirge when we despair and we yell when we're excited. Our voices are the release valves of our emotive states. The heart pours out the spigot of the tongue. We give words to what we worship. My joy is in singing to God. His joy is my strength, my duty is a delight and He is my ditty. God is my God and it sets my lungs and tongue to singing.

GOD IS MY SALVATION
God is my deliverance and my declaration.

If I was not in trouble, salvation would be watered down. An offer of redemption is sneered at when made upon a free man. The assumption of slavery is an offense. It rejects the deliverance on the premise that it insists on being free. God is my salvation. I cannot be my own deliverer. Until I declare myself enslaved, I will not find myself escaped. The dirty hand that spoiled the shirt cannot be the one that washes it. I need a clean hand to wash mine if I am to do any clean work going forward. So in declaring myself fallen, I find myself lifted up.

day no. 15,286: laurelai rush, seven year old extraordinaire

Laurelai,

I am so happy to celebrate your birthday with you today. We are all so blessed to have had you as part of our family for the last seven years. You continue to grow up on the inside without growing much on the outside :) Your personality is developing and maturing and it is fun to watch you becoming who God made you to be. You are kind and caring and full of fun and frenzy. You love a good tickle and big hugs. You love to cuddle and you like it when I hold you during worship at church. You like to be able to see the stage and you like being close to me while we sing songs to our God.

You do not like for there to be tension between you and anyone and are often quick to confess sin or admit wrong in order to dispense with the tension. I have been praying for you lately though that you would embrace the right kind of tensions and not be at the mercy of others who seek to manipulate you through imposing tension upon you. I am praying that your desire to be a peacemaker would be first and foremost anchored in godliness so that the primary tension you seek to reconcile is the one between you and your God and out of that reconciliation to be free from the trappings of guilt manipulators in the world who would eagerly take advantage of a sensitive spirit like yours who desires to be at peace with others. Your desire for peace is good. But some will exploit that in order to do violence to you. I love being your dad and protecting you and helping you see the world God made, the world in which He has placed you and the wisdom He's given us to navigate it with a clear conscience before Him and others.

You do not let the day come to an end without a big hug before bed and most days you do not let me leave the house without sending me off with another big hug. My days are bookended by hugs from you and I love it. 

I am excited to see what seven looks like, what maturities God will grow in you, what new habits and preferences you will develop and I'm honored that I get to be your dad in watching all of them and having the responsibility to help shape them.

I love you, Laurelai. 

Happy Birthday!

day no. 15,285: we are not our own experts

"God is making us spell out our own souls... We have to get rid of the idea that we understand ourselves, it is the last conceit to go. The only One Who understands us is God." - Oswald Chamber, My Utmost for His Highest

In math class, they make you show your work. You have to spell it out. You must put on paper for everyone to see what it is going on in your head. God is doing a similar thing with us. He is making us spell out our souls. Not just working out in our own heads, where errors go unchecked or mistakes are harder to track, but on paper, in checkbooks and calendars and facial expressions and tones of voice and social media posts and likes and what not. God wants us to put it down on paper so that we can begin to see where we made our mistakes, where we got off track, where things went wrong. Because if they've gone off track, they can't be fixed by simply pushing ahead. They are mended by going back to where the error occurred and correcting it right there in order to make progress actually possible. Plowing ahead in the wrong direction is not progress. It is forward motion, but it isn't aimed at the right destination, so in fact, any steps made in that direction are merely steps which will need to be retraced if any true progress is to be achieved.

All that to say, we don't discover ourselves by looking inside, we realize ourselves by spelling it out before God and others in order to receive correction and instruction in order that we may truly discover who we really are. 

We are not our own experts.

day no. 15,284: the ministry of listening

"There is a kind of listening with half an ear that presumes already to know what the other person has to say. This impatient, inattentive listening really despises the other Christian and finally is only waiting to get a chance to speak and thus to get rid of the other. It should be no surprise that we are no longer able to perform the greatest service of listening that God has entrusted to us -- hearing the confession of another Christian --- if we refuse to lend our ear to another person on lesser subjects. The pagan world today knows something about persons who often can be helped only by having someone who will seriously listen to them. On this insight, it has built its own secular form of pastoral care, which has become popular with many people, including Christians. But Christians have forgotten that the ministry of listening has been entrusted to them by the one who is indeed the great listener and in whose work they are to participate. We should listen with the ears of God, so that we can speak the Word of God" - Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together 

James commands us to be quick to listen and slow to speak. Not never to speak or always to listen, but to be ready to listen and willing to hold our tongues until we have. If we want to speak words of life, we must often endure listening to their words of death.

Counseling is not an area of secular expertise. They do not have the answers, but they often offer their ears. And people will often settle for ears where there are no answers over answers where there are no ears.

day no. 15,283: a crumb of obeisance

"Beware of the inclination to dictate to God as to what you will allow to happen if you obey Him." - Oswald Chamber, My Utmost for His Highest

By the time many of us muster up the gumption to actually obey God, we do so under the assumption that He is now somehow indebted to us for our show of allegiance. We believe that He is lucky that we are giving Him this crumb of obeisance and that He ought to make it worth our while if He wants to incentivize more of it from us in the future.

All that to say, we must be careful not to attach caveats to our obedience by stating the terms  of our future compliance contingent upon our present expectations being met.

day no. 15,282 continued... the first time ever I saw your face

Genesis 24:63-64
And Isaac went out to meditate in the field at the eventide: and he lifted up his eyes, and saw, and, behold, the camels were coming. And Rebekah lifted up her eyes, and when she saw Isaac, she lighted off the camel.

15 years ago, on this very day, I saw Paige face's for the very first time in the foyer of the south auditorium at Cornerstone Church of Ames, Iowa. We met for the first time moments later in the parking lot outside. This was the first time ever I saw your face or heard your voice in person.

There were less camels involved in our first meeting, but there were candy cigarettes, so I think we adequately covered our camel quota.

day no. 15,282: His banner over me is love

Song of Solomon 2:4
His banner over me is love.

The Lord's battle banner is over those He loves. In order to love something, you must oppose whatever it is that would come against the object of your affection. If you feel no impulse whatsoever to defend her, there is good reason to question your love for her.

Song of Solomon 6:4
You are beautiful as Tirzah, my love,
lovely as Jerusalem,
awesome as an army with banners.

As Chesterton once said, "'The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him." The battle begins with love, but it must include hate. 

Song of Solomon 6:10
Who is this who looks down like the dawn, beautiful as the moon, bright as the sun, awesome as an army with banners?

The error many make is either letting hate lead or refusing to order it to follow.

Hate must not lead. It must not be the fuel. It cannot suffice as the reason for the battle. But it must follow. If there is love, there must be hate. If hate does not follow, it is not love in the first place.

Psalm 97:10
O you who love the LORD, hate evil! 

Proverbs 8:13
The fear of the LORD is hatred of evil. 

Amos 5:14-15
Seek good, and not evil,
that you may live;
and so the Lord, the God of hosts, will be with you,
as you have said.
Hate evil, and love good,
and establish justice in the gate;
it may be that the Lord, the God of hosts,
will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.

In other words, love and hate are only as good or bad as their direct objects. If you love evil, your love is bad. If you hate good, your hate is bad. If you love goodness, your love is properly placed. If you hate evil, your hate deserves an, "Amen."

Do not let hate lead. It will not lead you to goodness. Do not refuse to order it to follow. If you do not set yourself against what is against what you love, you are not for what you say you are for.

To be for is to be against, by necessity and in that order.

1 Corinthians 16:13-14

Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. Let all that you do be done in love.

day no. 15,281: stoop proof

Nehemiah 3:5
And next to them the Tekoites repaired, but their nobles would not stoop to serve their Lord.

There is a difference between being unwilling to stoop regardless of the circumstances and being unwilling to stoop at this moment because other responsibilities require your attention.

The apostles refused to stoop to serve tables because the higher priority to teach and preach what they had seen as eye witnesses to the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ took precedent. They were not above serving. They were trying to serve in the way only they could. They were throwing themselves wholeheartedly into the difficulties that accompanied the work to which they were called. They were not too proud to stoop, they were too humble to be bullied. They recognized the value of what was being asked by taking the time to assign a group of men to address the tables. This assigning was something only they could do and they took the time to do it and then returned to their work, leaving the deacons to do their work.

To be a noble, servant leader and lord you do not need to bend to every request which comes to you, but not because you are above lowly tasks, but because your attention is busy currently with the higher ones. Nobility does not excuse one from stooping, rather it requires one to stoop before higher obligations.

day no. 15,280: test me!

Last night at dinner (1/5/20), I was showing the kids our family checkbook and talking about the past year in finances, what God provided, what we gave back, how we are faring and where we are going and how we hope to get there. We recently dubbed our budget, "Operation: Fiscal Jackhammer." So I laid out the basics that we always have enough. We don't have more than we need, but we never go without. God keeps His promises to us and as we are committed to giving our first and best to Him, He promises to take care of all our needs. We never go hungry or without heat in the winter or a/c in the summer. We have clothes on our backs, books in our hands and fuel in our vans. God is good and we are grateful. 

Finneas then made the following observation. He said, "It's like those toys in the store that say, 'test me."" And I could not have agreed more. I had referenced Malachi to the kids in paraphrasing the following...

Malachi 3:10-12
Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the LORD of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need.I will rebuke the devourer for you, so that it will not destroy the fruits of your soil, and your vine in the field shall not fail to bear, says the LORD of hosts.Then all nations will call you blessed, for you will be a land of delight, says the LORD of hosts.

The toys in the aisle have a button that says, "test me." Why? Because they are convinced that when you see how the toy works, you will want to possess it. You will want that toy for yourself now that you see what it does and how it works and that it works when you push the button. God, in similar fashion, is begging His children as they pass by to "test Him." Bring the full tithe to Him, your first and your best and watch and see if when you push the button if He does not provide everything you need: contentment, gratitude, appreciation, etc... Enjoying what you have is not a given (Ecc. 2:24-25). It is a gift from God. Test Him by bringing Him your first and your best and you will see Him work. You will see what He does and as a result, you will want to do so more and more. You won't be content to leave Him on the shelf somewhere surrounded by a thousand other options. You will want Him, in particular to be yours.

I love listening to my kids process God's Word and for the insights they provide by interacting with His promises around the dinner table. 

day no. 15,279: blinded by the light

Genesis 1:1-3
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.

God created visible light from the invisible light He has in Himself. He is light and there is no darkness in Him at all.

1 John 1:5
This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.

In other words, light did not come into existence on that first day. Light existed already in God. It came into our existence that day. It manifested itself apart from where it previously resided. It shone forth. But it was not born that day per se, it became incarnate. It took on its particular form of flesh. Light in became embodied, its essence encased in luminescence. 

Natural, physical light borrows its light from a spiritual source. God, the unseen, is the essence of all that which shines. Light does not exist on its own. It owes its luminescence to God's omniscience, its luminosity to His generosity, its luster to His muster.

In one sense, it can be assumed that anyone can see natural light. It's obvious and self-evident. I mean, just look around. But we can miss the forest for the trees. Everything we see is because the light makes it visible. The light is not only something we can see, but by it, we see everything else. Yet only a few can see the supernatural source of the natural light we all see. In other words, it is easier to see the light than it is to see the Lighter of the light. 

But even seeing natural light requires God's divine grace. Ecclesiastes says people experience work, wages and what not, but cannot see the natural light of them enough to enjoy them. In other words, they don't even see what they think they see. 

Ecclesiastes 2:24-25
There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God, for apart from Him who can eat or who can have enjoyment?

People take for granted that having something equates the enjoyment of its possession. But God here clearly communicates that some people are prevented from enjoying what they have. The enjoying is separate from the having and in some fashion full possession (having + enjoying) is withheld from them. They don't even see what they see. It is as if they are blinded to any satisfaction the lesser lights offer and to the greater light from where they receive their charge. A failure to acknowledge the Light leads to being blinded to that which you see. It is as though the world they live in is without form and void. It is there, but it remains hidden. It is empty until light floods in. To be without the Light is to be in the dark even when surrounded by lighter matters.

day no. 15,278: grititude

Back on July 21, 2019 at Anthem Church when being asked to speak during the transition from the message over Titus 3 to communion, I made the comment that, "Our gratitude should fuel our grititude." I memorialized my achievement with the Instagram story post below.

Grititude is the get-after-it-ness that is fueled by gratitude. 

Our grit should be full of gratefulness. 

Nothing runs like joy.

It burns clean and gets better miles per gallon.

It is renewable and inexhaustible because its source is the Author of Joy.

day no. 15,278 continued... restless

Psalm 127:2

He giveth His beloved sleep.

And last night for the second time this week, He didn't. I realized while siting on the kitchen floor at 2:30 in the morning last night, that sleep is a gift, not a given. Even if you work hard and lay your head down on a soft pillow, sleep can elude you. It can evade your best efforts. As I laid in bed with my mind spinning, I couldn't catch sleep. I became aware of every movement and muscles twitch. I felt my heartbeat like a ticking clock in an unfamiliar bedroom. Like a leaky faucet, it kept the rhythm of the night and I couldn't ignore it. Eventually, by 2 AM, I gave up and got up. So I found myself again sitting on the kitchen floor, reading and thinking and praying and reflecting and trying to fall asleep.

I contemplated how I've always imagined myself intelligent. I was given the gift of a high self-esteem from a young age. I was told I was smart and I believed them. This in all likelihood made it possible for me to achieve as much as I did in my education. But I am realizing I don't know much and definitely less than I thought I did. I'm not particularly intelligent. I have a good mind for remembering certain facts and details which reads as intelligent, but I have a difficult time thinking on my feet or putting things together in the heat of the moment. I never learned how to think. I was pretty good at learning what to think and could score well on standardized tests, but generating arguments based on logic and reason were not my forte'. Knowledge and wisdom, like sleep, are gifts from God. You can do your best to achieve them, but at the end of the day, they can only be received by grace through faith in God alone. If you grab hold of knowledge instead of opening your hand to receive it, you do not gain insight. Wisdom is a gift of God. It is bestowed, not stolen.  

Ecclesiastes 2:24 24

There is nothing better for a man, than that he should eat and drink, and that he should make his soul enjoy good in his labour. This also I saw, that it was from the hand of God.

God's gifts can only be enjoyed by the gift of appreciation. The ability to enjoy what we have is itself a gift from God. Modernity may accumulate lots of stuff, but the ability to enjoy cannot come from hard work, determination or technology. God grants gratitude and enjoyment. If He doesn't, we can do all kinds of things and never enjoy any of them. We can obtain all kinds of things and never enjoy them. The gifts of God cannot be enjoyed without another gift of God: gratitude.

*On a side note, we were supposed to leave for vacation today. Our annual trek to South Dakota had been slotted to begin today with our usual road trip beginning before the crack of dawn and ending near midnight in Custer, SD. If I had to be up most of the night, I would have rather have been driving and on vacation. It's been a long stretch since I have taken any time off of work and I always look forward to our annual trip to South Dakota. This year, however, our typical hosts are unable to accommodate us. The only thing that makes the trip feasible is the free place to stay. So with that option off the table, the vacation fell by the wayside as well. That is disappointing,but God is sovereign and is providing us with all kinds of unexpected opportunities to enjoy family time in the Kraken during this COVID season. It isn't a replacement per se for our typical South Dakota adventure, but it's not nothing and I'm doing my best to receive with gratitude what I'm being given. There is no hope to be found anywhere else. We receive what God provides and count it as our very best. He does not withhold any good things from those who love Him. I love Him and count everything I have (or don't) as good because it's Giver is Good. There is no other standard by which goodness can be measured. So while I'd rather be on vacation today than typing, I'd rather be typing here by God's design than on the road by mine.

day no. 15,277: famous with those who do not know you

1 Thessalonians 4:11-12 
Aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we instructed you, so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one.

Social media can often become an exercise in attempting to be famous in the eyes of people who do not know you. It is the antithesis of the sentiment expressed in the above admonition from St. Paul to the church at Thessalonica.

Christians must insist on living quietly, seeking honor and fame among those who actually know us -- those who share our last name and address, first and foremost. Then extending to those who happen to own property in the proximity of ours. Next those who employ us or those with whom we find ourselves employed shoulder to shoulder. Then to those for whom our employment provides a good or service.

In these areas, we are to be famous for minding our own business and minding it very well. If we are famous for this among people who know us, we are living a high ideal in lowly affairs, the Christian life in every aspect.

Do not seek to be famous by living loudly in order to earn fame at a distance from people who do not know you when such an opportunity exists to live quietly among the ones right next to you.

day no. 15,276 continued... one thousand being chased by one

Deuteronomy 32:28-30

For they are a nation void of counsel, and there is no understanding in them. If they were wise, they would understand this; they would discern their latter end! How could one have chased a thousand, and two have put ten thousand to flight, unless their Rock had sold them, and the LORD had given them up?

In a panic nothing makes sense, one thousand can be spooked by a single rumor and ten thousand can be sent running by a few suggestions of a bogey. We are living in the days of panic porn and those freaking out aren't even ashamed. They turn and see nothing chasing them, but do not repent of their running. They are enjoying the rush of running for their lives so much that they just keep on going. Instead of being embarrassed, hey're emboldened. Instead of stopping and turning around, they carbo-load and keep going.

The most tragic thing about this panic of 2020 is its evidence of having been abandoned by its Solid ground. These things happen when the bottom falls out. But the bottom doesn't just wear thin and give way. The foundation is giving way because the Founder has gone away. He has finally said in no uncertain terms, "Fine, have it your way." But when we get what we want, the storm still comes, only we have nothing left but sand to support ourselves.

May the Rock have mercy and restore order. May that begin with the gracious reintroduction of shame for having fled in the face of only a few and end in the repentance of many turning around and fleeing to Jesus. May God grant repentance for our panic.

day no. 15,276: as long as it is called, "today!"

Deuteronomy 30:15-20
See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil. If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God that I command you today, by loving the Lord your God, by walking in his ways, and by keeping his commandments and his statutes and his rules, then you shall live and multiply, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to take possession of it. But if your heart turns away, and you will not hear, but are drawn away to worship other gods and serve them, I declare to you today, that you shall surely perish. You shall not live long in the land that you are going over the Jordan to enter and possess. I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him, for he is your life and length of days, that you may dwell in the land that the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.

This clearly a call to follow God "TODAY!" Our plans are almost always to follow God and worship Him tomorrow, but the only way you can do that is to worship Him and follow Him TODAY! 

Life is always TODAY.

We don't know about tomorrow, (DT 29:29) but we know about TODAY. If we want to love God tomorrow, we must love God TODAY.

Hebrews 3:13
Exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

The VISION is to worship God tomorrow and forever.

The COMMAND is to worship God TODAY. 

So as long as it is called TODAY, worship Jesus. Wherever you are, whatever you're doing, whatever you're mixed up in, whatever you fear about the future and where its' all going… worship God TODAY. 

You aren't called to have everything figured out, you are called to choose THIS DAY to worship Jesus. Moses wasn't banking on this being a one-time, come to Jesus, altar call moment followed by going back to "business as usual" tomorrow. 

For now, let tomorrow worry about itself (Mt 6:34). By this time tomorrow, the COMMAND will be, "Worship God TODAY!"

This fact of "choosing today" is also evident in the fact that Joshua, Moses' successor ends his ministry with a similar call...

Joshua 24:14-15 14
Now therefore fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness. Put away the gods that your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.

Whatever DAY it is, the call is ALWAYS to CHOOSE on THAT DAY to worship God.

day no. 15,275 continued... arrested

Psalm 119:146-149

I cried unto thee; save me,

and I shall keep thy testimonies.

I prevented the dawning of the morning,

and cried: I hoped in thy word.

Mine eyes prevent the night watches,

that I might meditate in thy word.

Hear my voice according unto thy lovingkindness:

O Lord, quicken me according to thy judgment.

I did not sleep well last night. I laid my head down tired and then I just kept thinking. I laid and laid and tried to stay still in order to avoid keeping Paige awake. I sat and thought and thought and thought and then looked at the clock and saw 2:00 am. I decided to get up and do my morning reading. It was more productive than staying in bed and reading often makes me tired, especially at night. So I read and thought about what I read and read some more. And then it was 4:00 am. So I meandered back to bed where my mind still would not turn off. I eventually feel asleep around 5 and woke at 7 to my alarm.

While it was a frustrating time of physical and mental exhaustion, it was a refreshing time of spiritual interaction. I didn't get much rest for my body or my brain, but my soul enjoyed the uninterrupted conversation with its Maker. I contemplated my utter defeat. I considered my inability to save myself and my inexcusable sins in light of an unexplainable Gospel. I mourned my lack of initiative and my tendency toward timidity. I rejoiced in my God and the hope of resurrection fruit being born out of buried seeds. 

Psalm 63:5-7

My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness;

and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips:

When I remember thee upon my bed,

and meditate on thee in the night watches.

Because thou hast been my help,

therefore in the shadow of thy wings will I rejoice.

It was good to be up and in communion with God last night. Looking back, I would not wish that away. It is strange how hard things can be so hard while in them and yet not wished away once through them. God gave me an unplanned opportunity to depend upon Him. I am praying tonight, however, His plans for me include rest and recovery.

Psalm 127:2

He giveth His beloved sleep.

day no. 15,275: as the flowers wait upon the dew

"If our piety can live without God it is not of divine creating; it is but a dream; for if God had begotten it, it would wait upon Him as the flowers wait upon the dew." - Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Morning and Evening

There is a godliness that is ungodly because it does not originate from, live for, or aim at God in any capacity. It attempts to win favor with those who deal in godly currency by counterfeiting coins that spend in their economy. There can be severe abstention or audacious indulgence, whatever spends in the company it desires to keep. But of godliness proper there is none to be found. It is a mist that evaporates with the first hint of heat.

In other words, if our good works could be done whether or not God exists, it is nonsense to insist that they are for Him, from Him, to Him or through Him.

day no. 15,274 continued... shake it off

Hebrews 12:28-29

Let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.

We are experiencing a whole lot of shakin' going on lately. Everywhere we look, it seems like the snow globe has been stirred up by a whirlwind of uncertainty that circles around us like a wake of vultures in a bad mood after missing their breakfast. But it only feels that way. It only seems like everything is falling apart. Many things are, of course, but everything isn't. When things are shaken up, it feels like the foundation itself is unstable. When the portraits are falling off the walls it makes us believe the concrete underneath our feet is faltering. But the Founder holds firm while the fluff falls off. The chaff is carried along by the wind, but the Cornerstone holds and that which holds to Him along with it. 

Let us therefore worship our indomitable God. Let us rejoice in Him all the more as we watch our idols crack. As the false gods topple, may our gratitude for the true God grow. If they were our oppressors, may we delight in their destruction; if they were our secret delight, may we be grateful for God's intervention. Our God is a consuming fire. This is Good News for those He has dedicated to purification and bad news for those committed to those making the messes.

Do not fear. The world as we knew it is not the world that is going to be and what we inherit will be better than what we have lost. The refining fire is making all things new by shaking things up and dusting this bad boy off for better use. The world to come, the one without end, will be all the better for having been beat up a bit.

Luke 12:32

Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.

day no. 15,274: my marriage is a teenager

Pretty soon my marriage will be old enough to get it's driver's permit. But for now, it's merely entering the teens for the first time. It's voice is changing. It's becoming who it will be. Infants spend their earliest years changing rapidly from day to day, month to month and year to year. The changes are constant and the photographs taken only weeks apart reveal very different children than the ones staring back in the picture. Then changes become less often in their frequency, but more intense in their potency. The differences between an 11 year old and a 13 year old are not as severe as those between a 1 year old and a 3 year old, but the depth of the change in the teenager is intense. These changes are making the child into who they will be, what form they will take and largely retain.

My marriage is similar. It survived the frequent changes of infancy and is now beginning to get some solid legs underneath it, giving way to the shape of what it is more likely to be and the form it will more closely retain for years to come. I like where it's been, love where it is and look forward to where it's going. I love where God has my wife and me in relation to Him and in relation to each other. We are both growing and stretching and unifying and solidifying around the changes He has introduced that have potency in projecting the future course of our family. 

The Van Voorst family was established 13 years ago this day and it is more firmly established now than it was then. What it is and what it will be and what it will do and where it's all going is clearer now than it was then. I love what God has given us and where He is taking us. I love being a Van Voorst and am excited by the opportunity to minister to my great-great-great grandchildren by living my life now by faith in God. I am preaching to descendants I will never meet by loving the children I see every day. What it means to be a Van Voorst in 2020 will mean something for what it means to be a Van Voorst in 2120 if the Lord's return should still at that time be pending. 

God uses marriage as a microcosm of what the macrocosm should be. In the opportunity to serve my family as Head, I am seeing a preview of what it looks like to live in the world where everything is brought under its rightful Head, Jesus.

I love being married. It's just the best and I love the partner God has given me to experience it with. She is my best friend and my favorite person in the entire world. 13 years ago today I watched her walk down the aisle and through tears and snot, I received her as a gift. We both made our vows before God, family and friends and have been increasingly blessed ever since. She is my family. 

We nearly set our reception hall on fire that night little knowing that God would be using us to set the world ablaze for years to come. May the world feel the heat of what we are doing under our roof as we send flaming arrows flying from our home and may the light being cultivated in our midst shine brightly for years to come for His glory, our neighbor's good and our gratitude.

day no. 15,273: Christian culture is the Gospel in bodily form

"Adoration bursts out in song and feast. Incarnations. We might say, then, that Christian culture is the Gospel in bodily form. It is what happens when we live the Gospel." - Douglas Wilson, Angels in the Architecture: A Protestant Vision for Middle Earth

Over the years, the Van Voorst family has steadily advanced in this by inches, but recently, it seems, we've leapt ahead by miles. God has been moving us more intentionally in this direction through liturgical calendars, feast days, assiduity, legacy-mindedness (legacity), generationality, postmillennialism, culture creation and building, Chestertonian Calvinism, story club, hygge, candles, "blood on three!," re:treat, popcorn parties, family movie nights, Sabbaths, family lunches at Shelter Gardens, Friday Family Feast night, Friday night pizza night, Friday night movie night with Paige, "Friday" by Rebecca Black, Operation: Keep the Party Alive, Saturday Dadurday, breakast burritos, coffee & Cash, army ants on a log, Saturday Family Adventure night, "Saturday Night" by the Bay City Rollers, Sunday Funday, Sabbath Siblings Sunday lunch devotional, family naps, etc.... I love being a Van Voorst. I love being a Christian in God's economy, a citizen in His family, the head of the family He's given me and the life I get to live in light of His provision.

Ephesians 3:14-21
For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man; That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God. Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, Unto Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.

day no. 15,272 continued... once upon a time

"When in the Course of human Events, it becomes necessary for one People to dissolve the Political Bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the Powers of the Earth, the separate and equal Station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent Respect to the Opinions of Mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the Separation.

We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness—That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed, that whenever any form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its Foundation on such Principles, and organizing its Powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient Causes; and accordingly all Experience hath shewn, that Mankind are more disposed to suffer, while Evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long Train of Abuses and Usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a Design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their Right, it is their Duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future Security." -- The Declaration of Independence, Action of Second Continental Congress, July 4, 1776

day no. 15,272: abounding in the above and the below

This morning, (12/30/19) while reading, Angels in the Architecture: A Protestant Vision for Middle Earth by Douglas Wilson, I came across the following quote...

"The goodness, happiness, and dignity of every being consists in obeying its natural superior and ruling its natural inferiors." - C.S. Lewis

Hierarchy is inescapable. Attempting to smash the hierarchy is a lesson in futility. Any time and energy spent in that direction will not end at its intended destination and will have robbed from the time and energy required to get where you should have been going all along. To shake your first at the ordained order is to be out of order. It is to reject your superiors and neglect your inferiors. Revolution is a sin of twins. 

"When we revolt against God's world, we must not be surprised when His world wins. Our efforts forts are futile and will not change the way things are. We may hurt ourselves in the attempt, but the attempt will not achieve its end. We may tire ourselves out throwing snowballs at the sun. As we lie there exhausted, perhaps we will reflect, and learn wisdom." -- Douglas Wilson, Angels in the Architecture

The goodness, happiness and dignity of each and every person who has ever existed is found first, foremost and only in submitting your heart, soul, mind and strength to the station you were assigned. This station includes attendant responsibilities and duties. Responsibilities to lead and hold your office and duties to obey and attend to those in rank above yours. This includes your gender,  time, country, privileges, passions, etc... Wherever you are placed you are indebted. You owe those above you allegiance. You owe those below you service and lordship. We are all debtors. You do no service to anyone by paying your debts in only one direction. We are indebted to our superiors and to our inferiors to be who God made us to be for them.

We are closest to God when we are most devoted to our assigned posts.

Acts 17:24-27
God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that He is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands; neither is worshipped with men’s hands, as though He needed any thing, seeing He giveth to all life, and breath, and all things; and hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; that they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after Him, and find Him, though He be not far from every one of us

day no. 15,271: representative (federal/covenantal) government

"The word federal comes from the Latin word foedus, which means 'covenant.'" - Douglas Wilson, Angels in the Architecture

God has given us four areas of federal government: personal, familial, ecclesiastical, and civil. Federal here not referring to things national, but covenantal -- bound to a head or representative on our behalf. Government here not referring to piles of paperwork and the passing of bills, but duties, obligations, and responsibilities associated with and corresponding to a subsequent jurisdiction.

SELF GOVERNMENT

"Every man must do two things alone; he must do his own believing and his own dying." - Martin Luther.

God has given us ourselves to govern. We must do our own living and our own dying. Our own believing and denying. But we do not represent ourselves entirely. Even at the most fundamental, individual level we discover a federal representation in of our government. We are without exception either in Adam or in Jesus. We are all born under the jurisdiction of Adam. He is our covenant head. In him, we all fell. We are fallen because he fell. He is our representative and as he does, so go we. Only by being reborn can we experience different representation and this can only take place by adoption which requires the grace of God and faith in His one and only begotten Son, Jesus Christ. Everyone in Adam will die after they live. Everyone in Christ will live after they die. The same rules apply to Christ that did to Adam. As Jesus goes, we go. As He lives, we live. As He rose, so shall we, indeed.

FAMILY GOVERNMENT

"Every family of the pious ought to be a church." -- John Calvin

"Each home is to be a small republic, with a representative head who represents that family, and who in a covenantal sense is that family. " - Douglas Wilson, Angels in the Architecture

God has given us families. Everyone is born into or as an extension of an existing one. When a man leaves his father and mother and becomes one flesh with a woman, he lays the foundations of a new family. He is responsible to govern its well-being and it stands or falls under his headship. He is the representative of that family. He is either a good representative or a bad one, but he can't not be one. He is THE representative without question. He is to gladly assume the sacrificial responsibilities of service, provision, protection, and procreation. He is to conquer to the cultivate his homestead. He is to expand its borders and improve its bounty, to seek its fruitfulness and mend its fences to the best of his ability. He is to look to Jesus, his Head, as the Father of all fathers, Husband of all husbands and Lover of all those responsible to love others.

CHURCH GOVERNMENT

"By definition, the elder structure of government is a collective form of leadership in which each elder shares equally the position, authority, and responsibility of the office" - Alexander Strauch

God has given us the church. Every believer is part of the universal capital "C" Church and should belong and be enrolled in a lower case "c" local church. You cannot be a body part disconnected from the rest of the body without becoming a crime scene. The local church is governed by God's Word and sacraments under the headship of local leadership in the form of Elders. The local church's government is by a plurality of qualified men of character, competence and chemistry striving together to honor their Chief Shepherd, the Head of the Church universal, Jesus Christ.

STATE GOVERNMENT

“Arbitrary governing hath no alliance with God.” -- Samuel Rutherford

God has given us the state. Every person is born into a kingdom. Every person is a citizen of somewhere. That somewhere is governed by something and someone. A head can interact with or declare war on the people or representatives of other states and nations on behalf of his people. A representative Head of a people is defined by their borders. If one lives and moves and has their being within a particular geographical space, they are under the Headship of the One assigned to represent the citizens of that space. The state would do well to remember that the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein. The land is God's land. The people are God's people. And the governing of a King, president, Head, etc... is under the scrutiny of THE Head whose named on the deed of every inch of square land and on the birth certification of each and every citizen. The Head to whom all heads must give an account of their headship.

day no. 15,270: not a man of blood, but a mind of battle

My son, Atticus, wrote a short biography of Ulysses S. Grant for me and Paige last Christmas and this line stood out to me when reading it the day after, 12/26/19.

"Grant was not a man of blood but he had a mind of battle." - Atticus Van Voorst in Ulysses S. Grant

The chivalrous man is not one driven by bloodlust. He doesn't need blood in order to feel purpose, but he doesn't skip around blood in order to chase around a higher purpose. He thinks about battle and engages in the ones in front of him. He doesn't orchestrate friction in order to have something to fight about, he dwells upon strategies that allow his purposes to prevail without causing any more bloodshed than necessary. He understands that bloodshed is often necessary and does not recoil from it, but neither does he pursue it without forethought.

day no. 15,269: ye fearful saints fresh courage take

"God Moves in a Mysterious Way" by William Cowper

God moves in a mysterious way, His wonders to perform.
He plants his footsteps on the sea, And rides upon the storm.

Deep in unfathomable mines, of never-failing skill;

he fashions up his bright designs, and works his sovereign will.

God of mercy! God of grace!

Give us eyes to see!

Eyes to see Your smiling face

within the mystery,

within the mystery!

Ye fearful saints fresh courage take, The clouds you so much dread,
Are big with mercy, and shall break, With blessings on your head.

Judge not the Lord by feeble sense, But trust Him for His grace.
Behind a frowning providence, He hides a smiling face.

Refrain

His purposes will ripen fast, Unfolding every hour.
The bud may have a bitter taste, But sweet will be the flower.

Blind unbelief is sure to err, And scan His work in vain.
God is His own interpreter, And He will make it plain.

Refrain

Grace teaches our heart to fear and grace our fears relieves. God is holier than we imagined and more gracious than we deserve. His light reveals our dust. It was invisible to our eyes until we saw Him, but now that the light is coming through the windows of our soul, the dust is unveiled. Yet the fact of His presence in that light assures us that the dust will not prevail. The darkness does not make the dust go away, it only conceals it. The light reveals what dust is already there, but it shines through it and provides a way out of the dust-ridden darkness.

day no. 15,268: an indictment before a delight

"Christmas is an indictment before it becomes a delight. It will not have its intended effect until we feel desperately the need for a Savior." - John Piper,  Good News of Great Joy

The fact that Christ had to come speaks initially to how bad our situation was without Him. There was no other way. No amount of time or effort on our part would have ever produced what was required of us. We could never have done what Christ came to do. If He had not come, we could never had recovered from our sin. It was not an illness from which we could convalesce. We were terminally ill and all of our best technologies had failed to produce a cure.

The fact that Jesus came accuses us of failure, but it also assures us of His success. The fact that He came means our bankruptcy was accounted for by His abundance. 

It would be a shocking discovery to get word that you are penniless, but it would be even more shocking if the messenger who brought you this news was also a long lost, wealthy Uncle who was dying and wanted to leave his entire fortune to you.

day no. 15,267: love for the Son by the Father through the Spirit

"Jesus’s longing and goal is that we see his glory and then that we be able to love what we see with the same love that the Father has for the Son. And he doesn’t mean that we merely imitate the love of the Father for the Son. He means the Father’s very love becomes our love for the Son—that we love the Son with the love of the Father for the Son. This is what the Spirit becomes and bestows in our lives: Love for the Son by the Father through the Spirit." - John Piper, Good News of Great Joy

John 17:26
I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.

Jesus prayed everyone would come to love Him as the Father already did. This is accomplished through the Spirit by the Father for the Son. The Trinity conspires to provide, procure, and produce for us and in us the end to which we were created: to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.

day no. 15,266: the destroyer of Satan's handiwork

1 John 3:8
The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.

"Thus says the Lord: the meaning of Christmas is that what is good and precious in your life need never be lost, and what is evil and undesirable in your life can be changed. The fears that the few good things that make you happy are slipping through your fingers, and the frustrations that the bad things you hate about yourself or your situation can’t be changed—these fears and these frustrations are what Christmas came to destroy." - John Piper, The Dawning of Indestructible Joy

All the good we work so hard to uphold and build upon will not be all for not.

1 Corinthians 15:57-58
But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.

Our labors are not in vain. God promises. So work hard.

Also, all the bad we work so hard to resist and break down will not ultimately overcome us.

John 1:5
The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

The light that shines is shining in us and just like it cannot be overcome out there, it will not be overcome in us.

2 Corinthians 4:6

For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

Our darkness is becoming light in Christ. All the bad we despise about ourselves will not win out in the end.

1 John 3:1-3 See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.

day no. 15.265: something better

“The Church is looking for better methods; God is looking for better men.” - E.M. Bounds

Methods are inescapable. If you want to do anything, you will have to find a way to try and do it. There are, of course, better ways to do some things than others. But the way we do something is only part of what needs to be done. Who we are and who we are likely to become based on what methods we employ must not be overlooked. 

God is wanting us to be better men by conforming us to the image of the Best Man, Jesus Christ. What we do, why we do it and how we go about it does influence others, but who we are when we influence them is of utmost importance.

Romans 8:29
For those whom He foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son

day no. 15,264: history as our inheritance

"We are indignant at the thought that our fathers, long since gone from the scene, could possibly have any kind of authority over us. We want to think that the placement of individuals in history is nothing more than a random number sequence, with no authority given to those who came before. But the Lord of all history placed them there, with the command that they leave an inheritance to us. Our duty is to receive that inheritance, build upon it, and become in turn a blessing to our covenantal grandchildren." - Douglas Wilson, Angels in the Architecture: A Protestant Vision for Middle Earth

Tradition does not hold every veto, but it should retain a vote.

"No one should ever be allowed to tear down any fence unless they could explain why it had been erected in the first place." - G.K. Chesterton

Our ancestors are often marginalized, discriminated against and boxed out from voting in our current affairs based simply on the unfortunate fact fact that they are dead.

“Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead. Tradition refuses to submit to the small and arrogant oligarchy of those who merely happen to be walking about.” - G.K. Chesterton

Landmarks and boundary markers were not arbitrarily placed. Someone thought it through using the best that they knew to do. It doesn't stand to reason that our reasons for wanting to move them are anymore wise than theirs were merely because ours happen to be more contemporary. Things do not become cumulatively better merely because they are more current.

Proverbs 22:28
Do not move the ancient landmark that your fathers have set.

Proverbs 23:10
Do not move an ancient boundary stone or encroach on the fields of the fatherless

Deuteronomy 27:17
Cursed is he who moves his neighbor's boundary stone. And let all the people say, 'Amen!'

Deuteronomy 19:14
Thou shalt not remove thy neighbor's landmark, which they of old time have set in thine inheritance, which thou shalt inherit in the land that the LORD thy God giveth thee to possess it.

Job 24:2
Men move boundary stones; they pasture stolen flocks.

We are not bound to keep everything exactly as it always has been, but we must at least consider why it was set where it was before we move it to where we'd prefer it to be. If we make a regular habit of thrashing our ancestors, our descendants, not surprisingly, will do the same to us.

"A people which takes no pride in the noble achievements of remote ancestors will never achieve anything worthy to be remembered with pride by remote descendants." - Lord Thomas Babington Macaulay

"People will not look forward to posterity, who never look backward to their ancestors." - Edmund Burke