day no. 15,441: better at what?

"My thesis is that the whole hope, and the only hope, lies not in mixing two things together, but rather in cutting them very sharply asunder. That is the only way in which two things can
succeed sufficiently in getting outside each other to appreciate and admire each other. So
long as they are different and yet supposed to be the same, there can be nothing but a
divided mind and a staggering balance. It may be that in the first twilight of time man and
woman walked about as one quadruped. But if they did, I am sure it was a quadruped that
reared and bucked and kicked up its heels. Then the flaming sword of some angel divided
them, and they fell in love with each other. Nobody can argue about whether the Swiss climb mountains better than the Dutch build dykes; just as nobody can argue about whether a triangle is more triangular than a circle is round." -- G.K. Chesterton. What I Saw in America

God made man and woman different. They were not made to be the same. Certainly, one can say they have similarities: they are both made in the image of God, they both have their eyes on the front of their faces and their hands right in front of them. But they were not made for the same purpose. They both have the same end goal, but their contribution to that goal is separate. As Chesterton points out, if they were not more sharply divided in their assigned tasks, they would be placed in direct competition with each other. The modern feminist experiment aims at exactly that in giving full vent to the egalitarian impulse of making everything an even playing field. Except in that scenario, the only evenness that can be achieved, is inescapably a playing field. And on a playing field they keep score. There are no participation ribbons in the eternal economy. There is too much at stake to play at it that way. The playing, in other words, is not mere leisure, but hard work. The playing is not extracurricular, it is necessary; not a hobby, but a glory. 

So, all that to say:

Men are better than women... at being men.

Women are better than men... at being women.
Triangles are better than circles... at being triangular.
Circles are better than triangles... at being circular.

It all depends on what you mean by better -- better by what standard? better at what and for what reason?

Only a fool would come along and say one is better at being a form or shape in general. It depends on what form or shape you were aiming at.

If I set the sun beside the moon,
And if I set the land beside the sea,
And if I set the flower beside the fruit
And if I set the town beside the country
And if I set the man beside the woman
I suppose some fool would talk
About one being better.
-- G.K. Chesterton, Comparisons

day no. 15,440: progress is providence without God

"Progress is Providence without God. That is, it is a theory that everything has always perpetually gone right by accident. It is a sort of atheistic optimism, based on an everlasting coincidence far more miraculous than a miracle. If there be no purpose, or if the purpose permits of human free will, then in either case it is almost insanely unlikely that there should be in history a period of steady and uninterrupted progress; or in other words a period in which poor bewildered humanity moves amid a chaos of complications, without making a single mistake." -- G.K. Chesterton, What I Saw in America

The modern sense of progress in the absence of a providential God assumes that the accident of our existence is fated to perpetually advance in the right direction although unguided by any overarching principle other than pluck and luck. This agnostic optimism asserts that things will continue to improve without any reason to expect that outcome other than a blind assertion of hubris. The arrogance of atheistic evolution is the assumption that chaos is inerrant, never making a mistake and always advancing without any accountability or supervision.

day no. 15,439 continued...risk mismanagement

On my walk this morning, I had the following thought:

Insurance is a transfer of risk. You have risks in your life: you may hit someone with your car or someone may slip down your steps, someone may hit your car or a tree might fall on your house. So you transfer those risks to an insurance company. They charge you a fee in order to accept your risks. They now bare the burden of the potentials in exchange for the premium you pay them. 

So, you cannot simply wait until you experience bad luck to get insurance. You can't hit the deer and then call and pay for insurance. That isn't transfer of risk, that is transfer of calamity and insurance isn't set up to cover pre-existing problems. And if that is how insurance worked, no one would have it until they needed it, but the amount they would charge you is simply the amount it was going to cost you anyways, so it would functionally be the same as just paying for what you owe when you happen to owe it and trying to avoid scenarios as much as possible that would lead to you owing anyone anything.

So when it comes to health insurance, there is a reason why carriers were not able, prior to Obama-care, to cover certain pre-existing conditions.  The products they were selling and the industry they did commerce in wasn't made to pay for known issues, but to accept the risk of potential issues.

Forcing health insurance carriers to accept pre-existing conditions is like forcing Las Vegas to accept bets on games that have already been played. That isn't how betting works and you can't claim that it's not fair after the fact. It is fair. To let you bet on an outcome that has already happened would be unfair to those who bet on it before, not to mention unfair to the one accepting your bet.

So, in order to make this work, insurance carriers have had to change their prices in order to stay in business. So you are allowed to $1,000 on your pre-existing condition and guess what? You win! Your prize? $700. In order to allow you to bet without risk, you must win a prize that is less than your bet. So you can call that winning if you like, but you can't call it making money. And you can't blame the insurance carrier. Someone has to pay for all the infrastructure required to receive your claim, your payment and mail back your winnings.

It's the same as exchanging currency in a foreign land. You aren't trading apples for apples. You are paying a fee to have the funds transferred into a different medium, so your $1,000 does not equal the same amount in the foreign currency, it is reduced by the fees involved in changing your money into the other kind.

So Obamacare has thus forced a situation where there is now a service fee for all your transactions since they are forced to accept them. But that requires a permanent tax or hike in prices because that money has to come from somewhere. But now you've institutionalized a way for someone to tax you more, which once obtained will never be relinquished. Whereas before you had control over how often you engaged in the process, now it is out of your hands, which means someone will certainly be taking more out of your hands.

So we've surrendered control and money in order to gain a sense of "winning" which by my math is... losing.

day no. 15,439: lusts realized lead to leanness

Psalm 106:13-15
They soon forgat His works; they waited not for His counsel:
But lusted exceedingly in the wilderness, and tempted God in the desert.
And He gave them their request; but sent leanness into their soul.

Lusts realized lead to leanness of the soul.

It is God's grace to withhold from us that which our flesh desires. It is His wrath in allowing us to have whatever we crave. It ends is leanness: fat bodies and thin souls; full flesh and skeletal spirits.

When we worship our bellies, we starve our souls.

day no. 15,438 continued... but a little cloud

I read this today on Doug Wilson's blog and was greatly encouraged...

"One one occasion the Roman emperor, Julian the Apostate, told the people of Alexandria that they could choose another bishop for themselves, but that Athanasius had to leave Alexandria. Athanasius encouraged his friends by telling them that Julian was “but a little cloud” that was going to soon pass over... And this confidence from an early church father can provide us with another bit of encouragement in troublous times. We are in our day confronted with quite a cluster of challenges, from Biden to Big Tech, and a range of other tedious troubles in between. And all of them are but a little cloud."

This reminded me of the following poems for reasons I trust will be obvious.

God Moves in a Mysterious Way

by William Cowper

God moves in a mysterious way, his wonders to perform;

he plants his footsteps in 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.

Ye fearful saints fresh courage take, the clouds that you much dread,

are big with mercy and will break in 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.

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.

The Destruction of Sennacherib

by Lord Byron (George Gordon)

The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold,

And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold;

And the sheen of their spears was like stars on the sea,

When the blue wave rolls nightly on deep Galilee.

Like the leaves of the forest when Summer is green,

That host with their banners at sunset were seen:

Like the leaves of the forest when Autumn hath blown,

That host on the morrow lay withered and strown.

For the Angel of Death spread his wings on the blast,

And breathed in the face of the foe as he passed;

And the eyes of the sleepers waxed deadly and chill,

And their hearts but once heaved, and for ever grew still!

And there lay the steed with his nostril all wide,

But through it there rolled not the breath of his pride;

And the foam of his gasping lay white on the turf,

And cold as the spray of the rock-beating surf.

And there lay the rider distorted and pale,

With the dew on his brow, and the rust on his mail:

And the tents were all silent, the banners alone,

The lances unlifted, the trumpet unblown.

And the widows of Ashur are loud in their wail,

And the idols are broke in the temple of Baal;

And the might of the Gentile, unsmote by the sword,

Hath melted like snow in the glance of the Lord!

day no. 15,438: grace does not take the place of following Jesus

"At the end of a life spent in the pursuit of knowledge Faust has to confess, 'I now see that we can nothing know.' That is the answer to a sum, it is the outcome of a long experience. But as Kierkegaard observed, 'it is quite a different thing when a freshman comes up to the university and uses the same sentiment to justify his indolence.' As the answer to a sum it is perfectly true, but as the initial data it is a piece of self-deception. For acquired knowledge cannot be divorced from the existence in which it is acquired. The only man who has the right to say that he is justified by grace alone is the man who has left all to follow Christ. Such a man knows that the call to discipleship is a gift of grace, and that the call is inseparable from the grace. But those who try to use this grace as a dispensation from following Christ are simply deceiving themselves." -- Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship

"Grace through faith is the only thing that saves" is a good summation at which to arrive, but it is a dangerous place from which to begin. The soul that has arrived at the conclusion that God's grace is the only thing that can save them has actually been humbled to the point of hungering and thirsting for righteousness. The soul that begins with the maxim that grace saves may live in such a way as to never realize how desperately grace is actually required. The soul that presupposes grace may never understand how gracious it is since it never aspires much for righteousness. Grace is not a freedom to sin. It is the freedom of a fine paid after being arrested.

“No man knows how bad he is till he has tried very hard to be good. A silly idea is current that good people do not know what temptation means. This is an obvious lie. Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is. After all, you find out the strength of the German army by fighting against it, not by giving in. You find out the strength of a wind by trying to walk against it, not by lying down. A man who gives in to temptation after five minutes simply does not know what it would have been like an hour later. That is why bad people, in one sense, know very little about badness — they have lived a sheltered life by always giving in. We never find out the strength of the evil impulse inside us until we try to fight it." -- C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

Grace does not take the place of actually following Jesus. Grace is the gift that inspires the pursuit. It is acknowledged as the reward of those who are trying to pursue it, but falling disappointingly short. Grace is not grace if it is merely personal preference. Grace is knowing that you need it because you don't have it.

day no. 15,437 continued... negative and positive rights

"Alexander Hamilton reminds us in one of those primary documents (his 1775 essay Farmer Refuted), 'The sacred rights of mankind are not to be rummaged for, among old parchments, or musty records. They are written, as with a sun beam, in the whole volume of human nature, by the hand of the divinity itself; and can never be erased or obscured by mortal power.'" - The President's Advisory 1776 Commission, Final Report

God's Law presupposes particular God-given rights.

For example:

- You shall not make for yourselves idols presupposes a right to freedom of religion.

- Keeping the Sabbath presupposes a right to honest industry.

- Do not murder presupposes a right to life and livelihood.

- Children honor our father and mother presupposes the right to raise your own children.

- Do not steal presupposes the right to possess real property.

“Being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty, or possessions.” ― John Locke, Second Treatise of Government

Negative rights are those which require nothing from anyone else in order to possess. E.g. my right to live requires nothing of you for me to have it. Yet, you can infringe on that right by attempting to harm or kill me. But even then, you don't take my right to live in doing so, you only violate it and make yourself a murderer for your trouble. Negative rights are from God and cannot be nicked by another, or bought or sold for or to another, nor do they require another to do anything in order to keep them. The only thing the government has to do in order for me to have this kind of right is... nothing. 

Positive rights are those which require someone else to do something in order to have it. E.g. if I have the right to a free college education, that requires someone else to teach me, grade my exams, read my research papers, etc..., someone to buy the books I will need, someone to pay the teacher for their time, someone to own and maintain the facilities and technologies required to deliver the education, etc... If someone doesn't do that and more, I don't get a free education. In other words, positive rights promote slavery. They put someone else on the hook for something I have been told I can't be denied. That means someone has to teach and someone has to pay that teacher, whether they like it... or not. The government has to create and sustain all the moving pieces in order to secure a promise for a positive right like a free education. And passing a bill or making it a law doesn't make it less complicated to pull off. Someone still has to do a great deal in order to make it happen and someone else is still obligated to pay for and/or perform the particular tasks required to provide a positive right. The only thing the government has to do in order you to have this kind of right is... everything.

But governments aren't God and so they often fall short, even of their best-intentioned promises, to provide rights. That's because governments can't give you rights proper. They can pass laws to provide you with positive rights, but they can't promise to be able to secure them. And even when they can provide a positive right, they can always pass another law and take this kind of right away as quick as you can say, "Jack Robinson!" Governments aren't as resourceful as God and therefore, they have to tax and enslave others. Whereas God never runs out of what He gives. He doesn't rely on anyone else to provide what He promises.

day no. 15,437: if behavior was the problem, words won't be antidote

"You cannot talk your way out of problems you behaved yourself into." 
-- Stephen Covey, 7 Habits

If you walk into a room you weren't supposed to be in, you cannot talk your way out of it. The only way to get out is to turn around and walk back out. What got you in will have to get you out. Words can't walk back a wrong turn. You can discuss the problem and better understand how your behavior caused it, but the words themselves cannot resolve the problem.

If behavior was the poison, words won't be antidote.

Matthew 3:8

Bear fruit that befits repentance.

day no. 15,436 continued... build me a son

Build Me A Son

by General Douglas MacArthur

Build me a son, O Lord, who will be strong enough to know when he is weak, and brave enough to face himself when he is afraid; one who will be proud and unbending in honest defeat, and humble and gentle in victory.

Build me a son whose wishbone will not be where his backbone should be; a son who will know Thee and that to know himself is the foundation stone of knowledge. Lead him, I pray, not in the path of ease and comfort, but under the stress and spur of difficulties and challenge. Here let him learn to stand up in the storm; here let him learn compassion for those who fail.

Build me a son whose heart will be clean, whose goal will be high; a son who will master himself before he seeks to master other men; one who will learn to laugh, yet never forget how to weep; one who will reach into the future, yet never forget the past.

And after all these things are his, add, I pray, enough of a sense of humor, so that he may always be serious, yet never take himself too seriously. Give him humility, so that he may always remember the simplicity of greatness, the open mind of true wisdom, the meekness of true strength.

Then I, his father, will dare to whisper, “I have not lived in vain.”

day no. 15,436: the scintillating sheen of the secret society

"There is nothing that an American likes so much as to have a secret society and to make no secret of it." -- G.K. Chesterton, What I Saw in America

There is no fun in being admitted into a secret society unless someone outside of it knows you've finally made it in. There is no fun, for that matter, in secret societies, unless they've become common knowledge.

"I believe that in all men’s lives at certain periods, and in many men’s lives at all periods between infancy and extreme old age, one of the most dominant elements is the desire to be inside the local Ring and the terror of being left outside." -- C.S Lewis, The Inner Ring

There are few things so enticing as being invited into a secret club or so devastating as knowing you've been barred from entry.

day no. 15,435: undomesticated femininity

"Women have always been in the position of despots. They have been despotic because they ruled in an area where they had too much common sense to attempt to be constitutional. You cannot grant a constitution to a nursery; nor can babies assemble like barons and extort a Great Charter. Tommy cannot plead a Habeas Corpus against going to bed; and an infant cannot be tried by twelve other infants before he is put in the corner. And as there can be no laws or liberties in a nursery, the extension of feminism means that there shall be no more laws or liberties in a state than there are in a nursery. The woman does not really regard men as citizens but as children. She may, if she is a humanitarian, love all mankind; but she does not respect it. Still less does she respect its votes... Against this, protests are already being made, and will increasingly be made, if men retain any instinct of independence or dignity at all. But to complain of the woman interfering in the home will always sound like complaining of the oyster intruding into the oyster-shell. To object that she has too much power over education will seem like objecting to a hen having too much to do with eggs. She has already been given an almost irresponsible power over a limited region in these things; and if that power is made infinite it will be even more irresponsible." -- G.K. Chesterton, What I Saw in America

Chesterton prophesied here that a culture becoming more feminine will have less liberties. So if legislation that regulates your private behavior down to what and when you are able to eat begins springing up everywhere you look, you can be rest assured that it is a side effect of a heavy dose of feminism and effeminacy. The feminine has already been given nearly unilateral autonomy and sway in the domestic theater. She has unlimited power in a limited sphere. To unleash that kind of authority from its intended scope is to expand her desire to control the nursery under her own roof to the nurseries of others,and perhaps even to the degree of being primarily concerned with only the nurseries of others, abandoning her own.

day no. 15,434 continued... how did you die?

 

How Did You Die?

by Edmund Vance Cooke

Did you tackle that trouble that came your way

With a resolute heart and cheerful?

Or hide your face from the light of day

With a craven soul and fearful?

Oh, a trouble's a ton, or a trouble's an ounce,

Or a trouble is what you make it,

And it isn't the fact that you're hurt that counts,

But only how did you take it?

You are beaten to earth? Well, well, what's that?

Come up with a smiling face. 

It's nothing against you to fall down flat,

But to lie there -- that's disgrace.

The harder you're thrown, why the higher you bounce;

Be proud of your blackened eye!

It isn't the fact that you're licked that counts,

It's how did you fight -- and why?

And though you be done to the death, what then?

If you battled the best you could,

If you played your part in the world of men,

Why, the Critic will call it good.

Death comes with a crawl, or comes with a pounce,

And whether he's slow or spry,

It isn't the fact that you're dead that counts,

But only how did you die?

day no. 15,434: the fuller the vessel, the deeper it sinks

"The fuller a vessel becomes, the deeper it sinks in the water. Idlers may indulge a fond conceit of their abilities, because they are untried; but the earnest worker soon learns his own weakness. If you seek humility, try hard work; if you would know your nothingness, attempt some great thing for Jesus. If you would feel how utterly powerless you are apart from the living God, attempt especially the great work of proclaiming the unsearchable riches of Christ, and you will know, as you never knew before, what a weak unworthy thing you are." - C.H. Spurgeon, Morning and Evening

C.S. Lewis pointed out, "No man knows how bad he is till he has tried very hard to be good.”

The more we grow in godliness, the more we understand our ungodliness.

The more we are sanctified, the more we realize the depths of our unsanctity.

Humility grows as obedience and faith increase. The fuller you become, the deeper you sink, not in despair, but in understanding how much it takes to keep you afloat and how much credit God deserves for upholding you while you were buys figuring that out.

If you want to feel powerless, attempt great things and you will come to the place of appreciating how great our God is and how merciful He is to empower mere weaklings like ourselves to accomplish such magnificent work for His sake and our neighbor's good.

day no. 15,433: ordinary, everyday implements

1 Samuel 13:19-22
Now there was no blacksmith to be found throughout all the land of Israel, for the Philistines said, "Lest the Hebrews make themselves swords or spears." But every one of the Israelites went down to the Philistines to sharpen his plowshare, his mattock, his axe, or his sickle, and the charge was two-thirds of a shekel for the plowshares and for the mattocks, and a third of a shekel for sharpening the axes and for setting the goads. 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. 

The Philistines did not permit blacksmiths in the land of Israel for fear that they would produce weaponry which would then be used to free Israel from Philistine oppression. But the Philistines underestimated the ingenuity of the Israelites and the intensity of their commitment to freely worship their God. The Israelites did not have weapons, but they did have tools, and they brought then down to Philistia for sharpening. But these tools were not merely destined for domestic duty, but for warfare.

"Rough tools may deal hard blows, and killing need not be elegantly done, so long as it is done effectually." -- C.H. Spurgeon, Morning and Evening

For warfare, a sword or a spear is preferred, but Christians are called to fight regardless and can manufacture instruments of praise and battle from ordinary, everyday implements. The Christian is a ninja who upon entering a room immediately identifies the objects that could be repurposed as weapons for the demolishing demonic strongholds and the building up the kingdom of God on earth as it already is in Heaven.

"Most of our tools want sharpening." -- C.H. Spurgeon, Morning and Evening

But sharp things don't stay sharp. If swords, which are made for battle, dull overtime with use, how much more do makeshift implements eventually fall flat? These everyday implements fashioned for battle require constant sharpening and must return to the grinding wheel of constant training and discernment in order to stay creative, faithful and sharp for God's glory, our neighbor's good and our growth.

day no. 15,432 continued... postmillennial prefill poster: eschatology is not et cetera

Came across this today and wanted to share...

What we think about where it's all headed has implications for what we do in the meantime. What we think about what's going on here has implications for where we think it's all headed.

Eschatology is not et cetera.

At the end of the day, your beliefs about the end of days matter. 

day no. 15,432: a quest is merely a question incarnate

"A quest is a lived question." -- Peter Kreeft, Three Philosophies of Life

A genuine question seeks resolution. It produces its own source of energy and excitement and resolve and perseverance. A quest is merely a question incarnate. Every quest is an attempt to answer a great question. Can evil be defeated? Can a righteous life really satisfy? These are questions that are lived out in the form of a quest if taken seriously. The long, dangerous, narrow road of this quest is filled with adventure and ends in the answer of God's, "Yes," and "Amen" in the Person of Jesus.

God prompts the question, God empowers the quest and God is the resolution and answer.

day no. 15,431: faith, hope and love abide, these three: but the greatest of these is love

"Ecclesiastes is the sunset, the end of hope; Job is the night with hope of morning; Song of Solomon is the morning." -- Peter Kreeft, Three Philosophies of Life

Dante's The Divine Comedy is a movement from Hell to Purgatory to Heaven. But Hell, if it is going to be overcome, must be breached by faith and so Ecclesiastes (i.e. Hell) ends by looking, for the first time, beyond the sun.

Ecclesiastes 12:13-14
The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil.

The entire thought experiment of Ecclesiastes presupposes that the only reality is that which exists under the sun. In these last two verses, however, the Preacher looks up in faith to the reality of another way of seeing -- the way of faith that presupposes a Creator looking back down.

This is precisely the philosophy of Job and where this thread picks up. The second movement takes place at the end of Job when he finally sees God's face. Job's life (i.e. Purgatory) is one of suffering in hope for something better. It has faith, but doesn't yet see the end. But it does hope for and long for one. And then, in the end, Job sees God. His faith sees its object and his hope is confirmed in substance.

Job 42:5-6
I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear,
but now my eye sees you;
therefore I despise myself,
and repent in dust and ashes.

This then gives way to the final destination: the Song of Solomon (i.e Heaven). Love is faith and hope consumed in sacrificial death and the power of resurrection.

Song of Solomon 8:6
Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm, for love is strong as death, jealousy is fierce as the grave. Its flashes are flashes of fire, the very flame of the LORD

The only thing stronger than death is love. It allows a grain of wheat to fall to the ground and rise, more abundant and the better for having fallen. It alone can redeem death and not only overcome it, but empower it to produce an even greater life. 

1 Corinthians 13:13
So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

"Our lives are played out here and now as seeds and completed after death as flowers."

-- Peter Kreeft, Three Philosophies of Life

day no. 15,430: three pointers

I've picked up Three Philosophies of Life by Peter Kreeft again. It is on my short list of re-read books and has been for sometime. It is a faithful friend and one I thoroughly enjoy reconnecting with. Even going a year in between visits, we pick up right where we left off. We are good friends and it takes only a moment to catch up and begin rehashing our favorite memories. 

Here are a few highlights from the opening pages.

There are three philosophies of life:

Life as vanity: Ecclesiastes

Life as suffering: Job

Life as love: Song of Solomon

There are three conditions in which a life can find itself:

Hell - Ecclesiastes

Purgatory - Job

Heaven - Song of Solomon

*Kreeft points out here he is not advocating a theological point about a particular place called Purgatory (Kreeft being a Catholic theologian) but rather making a point about a soul/life being either in a state of hellish torment, heavenly delight or in the process of moving from hellish torment to heavenly delight.

There are three metaphysical moods which provoke a philosophy of life to manifest:

There are three moods that prompt us to ask, "Why is there anything rather than nothing?"

Boredom - Ecclesiastes

Despair - Job

Joy - Song of Solomon

In this sense, Kreeft advocates that Hell is not only straight forward immanent suffering, but also a transcendent suffering of the loss of caring about anything. Physical suffering still seeks relief whereas spiritual/metaphysical suffering gives up believing relief exists or that meaning of any kind can be found. Physical torment still seeks resolution whereas boredom can't be bothered anymore and is beyond caring about changing one's situation.

There are three theological virtues:

Faith - Ecclesiastes

Hope - Job

Charity - Song of Solomon

Faith is the only virtue that can help one escape the total depravity and hellish existence of living a life of vanity. Faith alone can resurrect the dead to a state of living. But this is not the end, it is only the beginning. Once faith has moved one from boredom or apathy to concern, one immediately comes into contact with suffering. The bored soul does not suffer the lack of its progress, but the soul aimed at Heaven suffers the shock of still being so far from it. Hope then becomes the virtue of enduring the difficulties of sanctification. Faith justifies, but hope sanctifies. Charity, or love, then embodies the final stage of glorification. God is love and we are becoming what we behold. If we worship Him, we are becoming more loving as we are conformed to the image of His Son, Love incarnate eternally, perfectly embodied.

Kreeft quotes Chesterton's observation that these three form the trajectory of history overall in addition to the individual's salvation in particular.

"Paganism was the biggest thing in the world, and Christianity was bigger, and everything since has been comparatively small." -- G.K. Chesterton

The search for something more to life was suffered as the most tenacious task of the ancient world. Christianity alone surpassed it in providing an answer larger than the questions it could generate. As a result, every knock-off, store-brand Messiah since is relatively small in comparison. You cannot go back to the bigness of paganism after it has been eclipsed by the giant of Jesus.

Kreeft sums it up this way,

"Job shows us the heights of pre-Christian hope and heroism. Songs of Solomon shows us the spiritual center of the Christian era, and finally, Ecclesiastes tells us the truth about the modern, post-Christian world and world view. Once the divine Lover's marriage offer is spurned, the modern divorcee' cannot simply return to being a pagan virgin, any more than an individual who spurns Heaven and chooses Hell can make Hell into purgatory (hopelessness into hope)." -- Peter Kreeft, Three Philosophies of Life

day no. 15,429 continued... Psalm 46 in poetic verse

Psalm 46 - 1650 Scottish Metrical Psalter

1 God is our refuge and our strength,

in straits a present aid;

2 Therefore, although the earth remove,

we will not be afraid:

Though hills amidst the seas be cast;

3 Though waters roaring make,

And troubled be; yea, though the hills,

by swelling seas do shake.

4 A river is, whose streams do glad

the city of our God;

The holy place, wherein the Lord

most high hath his abode.

5 God in the midst of her doth dwell;

nothing shall her remove:

The Lord to her an helper will,

and that right early, prove.

6 The heathen raged tumultuously,

the kingdoms moved were:

The Lord God uttered his voice,

the earth did melt for fear.

7 The Lord of hosts upon our side

doth constantly remain:

The God of Jacob's our refuge,

us safely to maintain.

8 Come, and behold what wondrous works

have by the Lord been wrought;

Come, see what desolations

he on the earth hath brought.

9 Unto the ends of all the earth

wars into peace he turns:

The bow he breaks, the spear he cuts,

in fire the chariot burns.

10 Be still, and know that I am God;

among the heathen I

Will be exalted; I on earth

will be exalted high.

11 Our God, who is the Lord of hosts,

is still upon our side;

The God of Jacob our refuge

for ever will abide.

day no. 15,429: to the end of my mirth

Acts 1:8
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.

God, conquer me as you have called us to conquer the world. Begin at my center and work your way out that no corner of my life would be left in rebellion to you. Annex my entire life down to my fingertips for Your glory! Start in my capital and extend to my every district. Increase the diameter and thereby the circumference of Your control in me. Witness to my entire person: all of my heart, all of my soul, all of my mind and all of my strength. Do not leave any rock or pebble unturned. Upend it all. Conquer me for the sake of Your Son. Holy Spirit invade. Manifest Your destiny in my person until every square inch of my soul is governed under the banner of God's Kingdom in the service of His Son. Amen.

day no. 15,428 continued... bright light for dark days

Isaiah 30:15-33, 31:1-3

For thus said the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel, "In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength." But you were unwilling, and you said, "No! We will flee upon horses"; therefore you shall flee away; and, "We will ride upon swift steeds"; therefore your pursuers shall be swift. A thousand shall flee at the threat of one; at the threat of five you shall flee, till you are left like a flagstaff on the top of a mountain, like a signal on a hill. Therefore the LORD waits to be gracious to you, and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you. For the LORD is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for him. For a people shall dwell in Zion, in Jerusalem; you shall weep no more. He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry. As soon as he hears it, he answers you. And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your Teacher will not hide himself anymore, but your eyes shall see your Teacher. And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, "This is the way, walk in it," when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left. Then you will defile your carved idols overlaid with silver and your gold-plated metal images. You will scatter them as unclean things. You will say to them, "Be gone!"

And he will give rain for the seed with which you sow the ground, and bread, the produce of the ground, which will be rich and plenteous. In that day your livestock will graze in large pastures, and the oxen and the donkeys that work the ground will eat seasoned fodder, which has been winnowed with shovel and fork. And on every lofty mountain and every high hill there will be brooks running with water, in the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall. Moreover, the light of the moon will be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day when the LORD binds up the brokenness of his people, and heals the wounds inflicted by his blow. Behold, the name of the LORD comes from afar, burning with his anger, and in thick rising smoke; his lips are full of fury, and his tongue is like a devouring fire; his breath is like an overflowing stream that reaches up to the neck; to sift the nations with the sieve of destruction, and to place on the jaws of the peoples a bridle that leads astray. You shall have a song as in the night when a holy feast is kept, and gladness of heart, as when one sets out to the sound of the flute to go to the mountain of the LORD, to the Rock of Israel. And the LORD will cause his majestic voice to be heard and the descending blow of his arm to be seen, in furious anger and a flame of devouring fire, with a cloudburst and storm and hailstones. The Assyrians will be terror-stricken at the voice of the LORD, when he strikes with his rod. And every stroke of the appointed staff that the LORD lays on them will be to the sound of tambourines and lyres. Battling with brandished arm, he will fight with them. For a burning place has long been prepared; indeed, for the king it is made ready, its pyre made deep and wide, with fire and wood in abundance; the breath of the LORD, like a stream of sulfur, kindles it.

Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help and rely on horses, who trust in chariots because they are many and in horsemen because they are very strong, but do not look to the Holy One of Israel or consult the LORD!  And yet he is wise and brings disaster; he does not call back his words, but will arise against the house of the evildoers and against the helpers of those who work iniquity. The Egyptians are man, and not God, and their horses are flesh, and not spirit. When the LORD stretches out his hand, the helper will stumble, and he who is helped will fall, and they will all perish together.

day no. 15,428: overflow

"It is no fault of a fountain that it overflows." -- Jonathan Edwards

God is a community. He is a Godhead composed of the three persons commonly referred to as the Trinity. He is a happy organization, a satisfied community, a joyful congregation in Himself. And out of that overflow, He created the world and everything in it, the earth and everyone who dwells therein. Joy overflows. It is generous by nature, increasing its delight in giving itself away, generating more joy by overflowing outside itself.  A fountain is not foolish to overflow. It does not lose any of itself by doing so. It retains itself and yet gives life and livelihood to all who receive it's life-giving streams. Jesus is a fountain that overflows and from His side life runs freely. He loses nothing by giving Himself away. He only gains admiration by inviting others into glorifying that which is already so glorious that it cannot be contained. Joy is ejaculatory. It springs forth with vivacity giving life by being lively and there is life found nowhere else.

Oh precious is the flow
That makes me white as snow
No other fount I know,
Nothing but the blood of Jesus

John 7:38
Whoever believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’”

Ezekiel 47:9
Everything will live where the river goes.

Isaiah 12:2-3
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.
With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.

Isaiah 58:11
And the LORD will guide you continually and satisfy your desire in scorched places and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail.

Proverbs 11:25
Whoever brings blessing will be enriched, and one who waters will himself be watered.

Jeremiah 2:13
My people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water.

day no. 15,427: election year

2 Peter 3:8-9
But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

If the world continues, it is because there are elect who need to be saved and elect that are yet to be born. God endures the sin of men for the sake of the elect, those He is currently calling and those whom He has yet to bring forth. Any who are saved must be born of God. Some of the walking dead are yet to be reborn in their lifetime and some who are to be reborn have not been born the first time yet.

All that to say, the world must go on until God redeems the very last one who will make up the sum total of those He has elected before the foundation of the world to inherit to whole shabang. 

God is not slow, He is meticulous. He isn't impotent, He's patient. He isn't asleep at the wheel, He is waking sleepers from their slumber.

day no. 15,426: classic like a cow

"A classic is like a cow: it gives fresh milk every morning. A classic is a book that rewards endlessly repeated reading. A classic is like the morning, like nature herself, ever young, ever renewing." -- Peter Kreeft, The Three Philosophies of Life

C.S. Lewis made a similar observation in An Experiment in Criticism when he said that, "a good book is one that rewards return visits."

A good book should be read more than once because a good book gets better the more you read it. If you have a favorite book, read it again. If it isn't as good as you remember it, it may not have been as good as you first thought.

day no. 15,425: just as Eve was taken from Adam's side, so the church was taken from Jesus'

"Just as Eve was taken from the side of Adam, so also the Church was born of water and blood, straight from the side of the Lord Jesus." -- Douglas Wilson, Bone of My Bones

John 19:34
But one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water.

The church was born from Jesus' side. Out of the blood and water that came from His side, God fashioned the church. Just as Eve owed her existence to Adam's rib, so the church owes it existence to Jesus' blood poured out of His rib cage.

John 20:27-28
Then (Jesus) said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and see My hands; and put out your hand, and place it in My side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.” Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!”

Thomas was invited to investigate the site from which the church was birthed and in coming face to face with it cast away all doubt and worshiped the risen Lord. Thomas in touching Jesus' side became part of the church that issued from it.

day no. 15,424: opposite sides of the atlantic

"All good Americans wish to fight the representatives they have chosen. All good
Englishmen wish to forget the representatives they have chosen." -- G.K. Chesterton, What I Saw in America

Americans take pride in the fact that we elect our leaders and then spend most of our time putting them on blast. The English take pride in the fact that they have Kings and then spend most of their time and energy on talking about something else. Americans have elected officials in order to protect against nepotism and the English have a royal family to protect against dogmatism. 

day no. 15,423: Acts 6-7 at 30,000 ft.

ACTS 6:1
Now in these days when the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint by the Hellenists arose

Mo people, mo problems!

It's not surprising that as the number of saved sinners increased that trouble at some point increased as well. Everyone is a sinner. Christians are saved sinners, but they're still sinners, so it's not surprising that even in a community like this where they are loving each other, sharing bread, homes, money, etc... that they still have problems. If they couldn't pull off a perfect church back then in that world, we shouldn't expect to do so in ours.

So, good news! if you're a sinner, you are welcome to join. You won't ruin it, you will just be joining the rest of us sinners. But don't join thinking being part of a church will solve all of our problems. It won't and you'll be disappointed!

ACTS 6:2-4
“It is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables. Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty. But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.” 

Many of us read this and are offended. Our natural response is to say, "Why don't they care more about justice and widows?"

But notice, no one in their town reacted to it that way. They didn't respond by accusing the apostles of shirking their responsibilities. They were happy that the apostles took this seriously enough to appoint a group of good and godly men to address it.

This WAS the apostles caring about it. So we get it exactly backwards. We accuse them of not caring when in fact this is the height of their concern.... it just wasn't their role. 

They took RESPONSIBILITY for it by appointing others who were more imminently qualified and gifted to address it so that they could focus on what they alone were most imminently qualified and gifted to do.

And the result?

Acts 6:7
And the word of God continued to increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith.

When God's people use their gifts to serve the body, everyone wins, everyone grows and more are added and disciples are multiplied in number and in maturity. This is a model of lay leaders and regular church members getting after it and going work. Too many churches expect their vocational pastor staff to do everything, but here we see that that is NOT Healthy and the church actually grows (wider and deeper) when pastors get other people into the game (Eph 4:11-12)

This would require a transition to an emphasis on lay leaders, committed members, and faithful Christians in every corner, not just on stage or in the back office.

Acts 6:8-15

This lay leader is a living representative of Jesus and an ambassador for Him out in places where only lay people go (to work, to their homes, to their neighborhoods, etc..)

Acts 7:1-53

Stephen is not a vocational minister, but he is NO SLOUCH! Preach! Brother read his Bible, understood theology, cared about it and remembered it and if you pricked him, he bled it. He wasn't afraid to call sin out and He was not afraid to lift Jesus up as our only hope.

Acts 7:54-60

And so the first recorded martyr for the Christian faith is an ordinary man filled by an extraordinary Spirit, a regular church attender who waited tables while reading His Bible. He has the HIGH privilege of being the first to shed blood in Jesus' name. He is the first fruits of many more who would come after. 

What the church needs more than anything is not more superstar celebrity pastors, but more regular, committed members who celebrate, connect, and contribute at the local level faithfully for God's glory, their neighbor's good and their own personal growth.

day no. 15,422: down the way, to the place, toward the purpose

"Effective people are not problem-minded; they're opportunity-minded. They feed opportunities and starve problems." -- Peter Drucker

Effectiveness is a product of purpose. Purpose is a positively-defined destination to which you proactively aim all of your time, energy and talent to accomplish. It begins with seeking, knocking and asking in order to take advantage of the opportunities in front of you that help you reach your goal. It recognizes that there will be problems and obstacles along the way, but the destination is the motivation, the way is the method and the obstacles are merely anecdotal. They will come and will be dealt with, but only as a product of continuing to progress down the way, to the place, toward the purpose of any and every effort. That is effectiveness.

In other words, as I've said somewhere before, be someone else's fire. Don't bother yourself primarily with the problems of other people's fires. Pursue your own flame and fan it into a frenzy that becomes a problem for someone else and then be ok with being someone else's problem. Let someone else be problem-minded if they must, but as for you, be opportunity/productivity-minded for God's glory, your neighbor's good and your own personal growth.

day no. 15,421: subordinated desires

"The successful person has the habit of doing the things failures don't like to do. They don't like doing them either necessarily. But their disliking is subordinated to the strength of their purpose." -- E.M. Gray

To be successful, you must first and foremost know what you're called to do... your purpose.  In order to know your purpose, you must know who called you. God has provided clear priorities and principles that govern the world and the situations into which He has placed you, including your: gender, parent, geography, socio-economic status, time in history, etc...

If you don't know your purpose, you don't have the strength to order your affections. They will organize themselves on the fly according to your impulses. Meanwhile, your values or standards, if you have them, will be powerless to propose any counter argument.

Failures fail because they don't make a habit of doing things they don't feel like doing. Their day is determined by their desire at that moment rather than their desire overall either because they have failed to define a clear. over-arching desire; or because in the moment, their immediate desires take precedent over their long-term desires.

Success is obtained by subordinating what you want at the moment to what you want overall. Success is saying, "No" to your immediate likes and dislikes when they interfere with your values.

day no. 15,420: what matters most

"Things which matter most must never be at the mercy of things which matter least." -- Goethe

As my wife often says, "Live your priorities." When she says this, she means just what Goethe is saying here above as quoted in 7 Habits. Your priorities must be decided and your practices must flow from those decisions. The word decide implies a cutting off. It comes from the Latin decidere, which means, "to cut off." To make something your top priority is to cut off anything other thing from occupying that top position. And that which you have determined matters most must not be subjected to the demands of that which matters less.

God has given us our marching orders and we must watch our steps. If you are not living in light of your stated priorities, it is because you are living in light of your actual priorities. Whatever matters most makes its way to the top of your priorities. In one sense, then we are all living our priorities. However, for many of us, our deeper desires for ourselves in responsive faith to God's commands, would result in a different life than the one we're currently leading. 

But that's just it: priorities lead. 

God has given us governance over ourselves. We are responsible to put our priorities in His prescribed order and then establish disciplines and practices that not only keep the priorities in their proper order in theory, but executed in their proper order in practice with the top priorities receiving the first and best and refusing to lend to lesser priorities until they have been fulfilled.

day no. 15,419: property rights and wrongs

I read this today (2/26/20) on Blog & Mablog,

"When the seventh commandment prohibits adultery (Ex. 20:14)), what is presupposed in the restriction? Well, the institution of marriage is presupposed. Because there is such a thing as another man’s wife, or another woman’s husband, the crime of adultery becomes a possibility. If there were no marriage, there could be no adultery. The prohibition presupposes the institution of marriage, and obviously exists in order to protect that institution.

So in a similar way, when the eighth commandment prohibits theft (Ex. 20:15)), what is presupposed there ? I will tell you. The institution of private property is presupposed. The institution of private property is being honored. The prohibition presupposes the institution of private property, and it obviously exists in order to protect that institution.

Property rights are human rights... The reason why socialist governments have such an untrammeled record of abusing human beings is that they begin the entire process by denying one of the foundation stones of human rights, which is property. Pure and simple, without a deep respect for property that the government cannot touch, human rights declarations are nothing more than the flattering words that turkey farmers offer to the turkeys in the run up to Thanksgiving.

But I should anticipate one obvious question. Since the Scriptures do have a category of legitimate taxation (Rom. 13: 6-7), and because a government can obviously steal, where is the dividing line between the two? When does legitimate taxation become theft? The answer I would offer is this. When the government uses its powers of taxation in an attempt to rival or surpass God’s financial claim on us (which is the tithe), the government is abusing its authority to tax. (1 Sam. 8:15) But the fact is that most of us think that getting taxation back down to 10 percent seems like a libertarian opium dream. This just shows us just how far gone we are in our idolatrous statism." -- Douglas Wilson, 3 Reasons Why Socialism Should Not Be Considered As The Butterfly's Boots

Property rights are the assumed principle behind God's command that thou shall not steal. And the thou in question is anyone looking to take someone else's property without their permission. Citizens grant their government permission to exact taxes from them. It is the cost of obtaining the benefit of being somewhere. But the qualification here is that anything more than 10% presumes an exaction that rivals that of God. In total, a person should have no more than 10% of their income exacted by their government. If the government wants more of your money, they should cheer for your success so that the size of your pie increases so that their 10% slice grows as you prosper. The Christian then would give 10% of their income to their local church leaving them a total of 80% of their earned income to meet their needs not provided for by the benefit of being a citizen of a nation and a member of a local church.

day no. 15,418: angel horses and good dragons

2 Kings 6:17
Then Elisha prayed and said, “O LORD, please open his eyes that he may see.” So the LORD opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw, and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.

In his talk, "The Word is Rated 'R'," N.D. Wilson drew my attention to the verse above.



There are angels horses. That's a thing. It's right there. Read for yourself. What did Elisha pray his friend would see? A heavenly host composed of angels, horses and flaming chariots. And not just one or two, but enough to fill a mountain. And those are just the ones Elisha saw at this moment. There could be more.

So remind your children, especially your daughters, that there are angel horses awaiting those who live by faith.

Also, for every bad dragon, there are two good ones.

Revelation 12:3-4
And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads seven diadems. His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth

Again, it's right there. How many angels fell and followed Satan, 1 out of 3. That leaves 2 out of 3 loyal to the Lord. If the fallen angels are dragons, how dangerous are those that remain close to God where true power and authority actually generate? 

So, tell your sons not to fear dragons, for behind every nasty dragon stands two righteous ones employing their fire for purity and their teeth for justice.