day no. 15,744: conversant

Philippians 1:27
Only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ.

"The word "conversation" does not merely mean our talk and converse with one another, but the whole course of our life and behaviour in the world. The Greek word signifies the actions and the privileges of citizenship: and thus we are commanded to let our actions, as citizens of the New Jerusalem, be such as becometh the gospel of Christ... We must not forget that the gospel of Christ is holy. It never excuses sin: it pardons it, but only through an atonement. If our life is to resemble the gospel, we must shun, not merely the grosser vices, but everything that would hinder our perfect conformity to Christ. For his sake, for our own sakes, and for the sakes of others, we must strive day by day to let our conversation be more in accordance with his gospel." -- Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Morning and Evening

The word "conversation" finds its etymology in the mid-14th century, "place where one lives or dwells," also "general course of actions or habits, manner of conducting oneself in the world," from the assimilated form of com "with, together" + versare "to turn." 

In other words, a conversation is a turning together or a turning with. To converse with another person is to walk along the same path and take the same exits and on ramps. When different paths or on ramps are taken, conversation has ceased.

Galatians 1:13-14
For ye have heard of my conversation in time past in the Jews’ religion, how that beyond measure I persecuted the church of God, and wasted it: And profited in the Jews’ religion above many my equals in mine own nation, being more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my fathers.

Paul was previously conversant in the Jewish religion. He applied himself entirely to it and pursued it with everything he had. He gave all his heart, soul, mind, and strength to turning with it and on it. He was exceedingly zealous. He was all in and that meant he breathed, moved and had his being in, on and with wherever it turned. He conformed his steps to its imposition.

Our primary conversation is with respect to whether or not we are walking in step with God's revelation. It includes every aspect of life: word, thought, deed, intention and application. It is comprehensive. We will have conversation. Our lives will turn on something and with something. If we are to be Christians, that turning must be entirely on and with Christ. 

1 Timothy 4:11-13
These things command and teach. Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity. Till I come, give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine.

So if we have been conversing with something or someone other than Christ, we must repent, end that conversation, confess it as sin, and begin conversing with Christ.

Ephesians 5:8
For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light

1 John 1:6-7
If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.

Our walking speaks to where we are going. Our direction determines our destination. It reveals how we are getting there and with whom we are working to keep up with. Do we turn with Him? Or do we turn to go our own way?

To be a Christian is to keep our steps in keeping with His turnings, following the narrow way and avoiding the broad off ramps.

day no. 15,743: perfecting which concerneth me

Psalm 138:8
The LORD will perfect that which concerneth me

If He doesn't, who could?

“The Psalmist was wise, he rested upon nothing short of the Lord's work. It is the Lord who has begun the good work within us; it is he who has carried it on; and if he does not finish it, it never will be complete. If there be one stitch in the celestial garment of our righteousness which we are to insert ourselves, then we are lost; but this is our confidence, the Lord who began will perfect. He has done it all, must do it all, and will do it all. Our confidence must not be in what we have done, nor in what we have resolved to do, but entirely in what the Lord will do.” — Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Morning and Evening

Philippians 1:6
Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ

No confidence can be located in our ability to complete by ourselves what God by His grace began by Himself. 

Isaiah 26:12
LORD, thou wilt ordain peace for us: for thou also hast wrought all our works in us.

The good of us which God requires, He works within us to complete.

“Lord command what you will and grant what you command!” — St. Augustine of Hippo

day no. 15,742: holy glory thrice entitled

Revelation 6:16-17
Hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?

One might imagine the wrath of a lamb to be quite laughable. Rest assured, the laugh track won't play on the day of His visitation. On that day, grown men will retreat to the hills and hummocks in the hopes that they can either hide them or fall on them, whichever comes first. Being crushed by a landslide would be preferred to being crushed by the Lamb. Men will desire eternal darkness in a cave outside of God's presence to the unbearable wrath of the light of the Lamb of God. His vengeance will not be cut-rate. Vigilantes are a rip-off. They are pale in comparison to the genuine article. Petty revenge does not steal anything from God per se, but it steals from us a picture of true vengeance. It substitutes a manufactured satisfaction for a manifested revelation. True vengeance isn't a catch phrase carrying a loaded gun; it is the Lamb of God in holy glory thrice entitled visiting His people.

day no. 15,741: dare to say, dare to think

“In times of soft tyranny like ours, pray that God raises up men who dare to say what many dare to think.” — Douglas Wilson, Rules for Reformers

The courage to think Biblically would be a step in the right direction for many and for the few who have already armed themselves with a Biblical way of thinking, even less of them also possess the courage to say out loud what they think in private.

Soft tyranny permits you to think what you like in private as long as you say what's required in public. Thoughts crimes are tolerated as long as they are left in the head. However, it only says this up front. The fact that it would label any of your thoughts criminal should be a shadow of what’s to come. It knows that muzzling mouths emaciates minds, which is their long con. The longer we all assume that we all disagree in principle without actually saying anything out loud and to the contrary in practice, the less we will have anything contrary to say if we’re ever given the chance. 

In our day, it unfortunately requires bravery merely to believe God in your own head. It takes courage to keep even private conviction. But God calls us to more than mere intellect took assent. Christ refuses to be compartmentalized. He will not stay in the guest room of your head. Your theology will come out your fingertips. It is not content to go unexpressed. That is why unpracticed principles atrophy. That is why they permit you to think what you like for now, because they know if left long enough to that, you will no longer think what you once thought.

God calls us further onward and upward, and more to our purpose, outward - outside the comfortable privacy of our own intellectual living rooms and into the public wastelands of western civilization.

May God encourage more to think His thoughts and even more to have the chutzpah to say what He has said out loud and without apology.

"The problem with preachers today is that no one wants to kill them anymore!"  —Steven Lawson

day no. 15,740 continued... the long and short of getting along for a short time

“I never discuss anything else except politics and religion. There is nothing else to discuss.” ― G.K. Chesterton

There is something to be said for setting aside your differences for the sake of promoting civility at a large group gathering, but what can't be said is that what is left unsaid is of no consequence. The long and short of getting along for a short time with those you disagree with is setting aside what's most important to you outside of that gathering in order to make the gathering the most important thing to you at the moment. In other words, not saying anything about which you care about most is just another way of saying that what you care about most isn't what you care about most at this moment. Which is just another way of saying nothing.

As Chesterton points out, you cannot discuss things that aren't worth discussing. You can make inoffensive comments about inoffensive topics, but you cant, strictly speaking, discuss anything. To discuss something is to break it down and shake it out. The word discuss literally means dis (apart) + cutere (to shake). You break something down in order to examine its pieces. You reverse engineer something in order to better understand it as a whole. This is something you cannot do without ruffling a few feathers. You cannot shake things out without shaking things up. You cannot keep the peace if you break things into pieces.

Our Lord's example is shaking things up in order to reveal what cannot be shaken. He breaks things into pieces in order to show what cannot be broken. His Word cannot be broken and His Kingdom cannot be shaken.

Hebrews 12:28

Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let’s show gratitude, by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe.

John 10:35

Scripture cannot be broken.

day no. 15,740: sand castles where storms are brewing

“As Owen Barfield once said to me, ‘The trouble about insects is that they are like French locomotives--they have all the works on the outside.’ The works--that is the trouble. Their angular limbs, their jerky movements, their dry, metallic noises, all suggest either machines that have come to life or life degenerating into mechanism. You may add that in the hive and the ant-hill we see fully realised the two things that some of us most dread for our own species--the dominance of the female and the dominance of the collective.” — C.S. Lewis, Surprised by Joy

Matriarchy and the hive-mind make the bee's life a microcosm of what Feminism and Socialism are attempting to accomplish. It is no wonder that men like Barfield and Lewis found this diorama repulsive. Mind you, this was written in 1955. The seed forms of the effeminatti and the cult of the comrade were merely cutting teeth back then. However, if that much can happen in 70 years, it can also happen in the opposite direction, and in less time, no doubt, since sanity has the advantage of steady strides whereas insanity stumbles over itself every other step like a drunk runner-up prom queen missing one of her heels.

The hope of a fully realized Lesbyterian Utopia would have been pretty bleak in 1940, but look what they've accomplished by sheer stick-to-it-iveness. It goes to show that with enough passion and perseverance even insanity can make hay even while making a mess of everything. Therefore, let us not lose heart. Consistent persistence is a proven tactic. If it works for those consistently insane, it can and will work for the consistently sane, if they keep their eyes in their heads and their hands to the plow.

Our enemies may appear to have the upper hand, but insanity cannot stand forever. They are feverishly tossing aerosol cans into an open fire. They are frantically filling their homes with gun powder as the fire fast approaches. The more zealously they build, the more tremendous will be their fall. They have selected sand as their foundation for some inexplicable reason... despite many warnings to the contrary, and the rumor is... there's a storm a brewing.

day no. 15,739: effeminacy at the forefront

From Mans effeminate slackness it begins,
Said th' Angel, who should better hold his place
By wisdome, and superiour gifts receav'd.
-- John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book XI (635)

Effeminacy led to the Fall. What else could it do? If sin is allowed to lead, it cannot go anywhere else. Before the Fall, Adam fell into effeminacy. He was made to lead and Even was made to follow. He was meant to conquer and she to cultivate. So, when he followed his wife's lead, he naturally fell... and everyone else along with him.

Eve sinned first, but the world had not fallen. She did possess the sway to pull the world down with her. Adam, however, was the head, even when he acted like an ass. He forfeited his God-given privilege of initiative and leadership by using it to follow his wife's lead. This abdication led not only him, but Eve into a brave, new, but fallen world. Adam used his initiative to set aside his initiative; and that sent the world into its death spiral.

Adam could have responded to Eve's sin by leading. He could have stepped up instead of stepping aside. He could have taken responsibility for the state of his house and asked God to forgive Eve. He could have offered himself to God in her place. He could have done something. But he didn't. He committed the cardinal sin of men... doing nothing.

Effeminacy led to the defilement of many. It doesn't just ruin the one who commits it, but everyone else around them. Adam followed Eve and they both went down. It was in Eve's best interest for Adam to refuse to follow her.

Proverbs 31:3
Give not thy strength unto women,
nor thy ways to that which destroyeth kings.
And their kingdoms along with them.

While the first kingdom fell because of effeminacy, it was not the last. Kings and kingdoms continue to come undone when men call it quits. Masculinity cannot be castrated without its consent, and far too often, we suffer under the tyranny of masculine abdication.

"And if you think tough men are dangerous, wait until you see what weak men are capable of." -- Jordan Peterson

1 Corinthians 6:9
Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.

The kingdom will not be given back to those who walk unrepentant in the sin that led to it being taken from them in the first place.

Men must lead. It is inescapable. A question of HOW, not IF. So will men lead with masculinity or with effeminacy? Will they take the initiative to step up and save or abdicate the responsibility and sink along with those for whom they are responsible? 

day no. 15,738: resign thy manhood

To whom the sovran Presence thus repli'd.
Was shee thy God, that her thou didst obey
Before his voice, or was shee made thy guide,
Superior, or but equal, that to her
Thou did'st resigne thy Manhood, and the Place
Wherein God set thee above her made of thee
-- John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book X

When Adam submitted to Eve, he was, in that moment, resigning his manhood. He handed his man card over to be punched by the preferences of his wife. By turning to her, he turned in his formal resignation from the office of manhood, effectively immediately with no two weeks notice.

1 Corinthians 11:3
I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God.

God made man first in order to be first among equals. He was to be the head. And while placed over the woman, he was still under God. God had said one thing and his wife had said another. To listen to the woman was to ignore the voice of God. In short, it was idolatry. It was to place the desires of his charge over the desires of his Master.

Adam was made to obey God, Eve was made to obey Adam. As such, Eve would be ruled by God through Adam. Eve was not to worship Adam. She was to worship God by submitting to Adam. Instead, she ran point on this project and Adam listened to her counsel instead of the command of his God. Before he was a husband, he was a son. He was a man made in the image of God and owed his first allegiance to his Maker, not his helpmate.

Proverbs 31:3

Do not give your strength to women,

your ways to those who destroy kings.

Men were made to delegate tasks, not authority. The authority to delegate cannot itself be delegated. God delegated and invested some of His authority in man. But man was not and is not free to lend it to anyone else. God has not given man permission to to pass along his responsibilities. He can delegate some of the duties associated with the responsibilities, but the weight of the things remains on him. He cannot remove it or shirk it onto anyone else's shoulders.

Adam's sin was bending his ear in the wrong direction.

Genesis 3:17-19

And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.

day no. 15,737: foolish investors are not applauded for their buy in

Matthew 7:24-27
Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.

"There are two kinds of men here, and we must note where the distinction is not. Both the wise man and the foolish work equally hard in building a house. But the more the fool does, the worse he is making it for himself when the day of disaster comes. The more he puts into his house, the more he will lose. The more he puts into his house, the greater the pile of debris he will have. When the investment is a poor one, the situation is not bettered through having a tremendous amount invested. Foolish investors are not applauded for their effort." -- Douglas Wilson, Not as the Scribes

The harder one works foolishly, the more he foolishly loses. The fool is foolish not only for building in such a way as to lose the fruit of his efforts, but to work so hard at increasing the amount of his loss. The fool's diligence only serves to magnify his disaster.

The harder one works wisely, the more he wisely keeps.  The wise man is wise not only in building in such away as to be able retain the fruit of his efforts, but to work hard in increasing the amount of his gain. The wise man's diligence serves to multiply his reward.

day no. 15,736: worry doesn't work

Matthew 6:26

Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. 

Birds are not lazy. Jesus is not commending birds as those who merely wait for food to fall from heaven. No, birds are always busy. They are hard workers. They are mending their nests or out trying to find food to bring back to their nests. They are not fed because God chases them around and forces them to eat. They know what they're looking for and they look for it. 

Worry doesn't work.

Worry doesn't look for food. It sits and worries that there won't be any. Worry doesn't mend the nest, it sits and frets that the nest won't hold together in the storm.

Worry doesn't work.

It doesn't do anything. It spins. It perseverates. It frets. But it does not do.

Not only that, but worry doesn't work.

It isn't effective. It doesn't even do what it is trying to do. It doesn't accomplish what it intends. It doesn't hit the target it aims at. It seeks to relieve stress, but only creates more. It seeks to deal with the problem but does nothing about it. It refuses to lift a finger to fix the problem and as a result, the problem remains and grows worse by neglect.

Worry is a false prophet.

It cannot produce what it predicts.

Worry is not effective.

It never delivers what it promises. It can't. Delivering would be doing something and that's the last thing worry wants to do. But it doesn't stop it from still promising. It promises to accomplish the end without being engaged in any of the means. 

Worry is of no profit.

Worry is unemployable.

It cannot work and it doesn't work.

day no. 15,735: when all else fails, God's Word won't

John 1:1
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

Matthew 24:35, Mark 13:31, Luke 21:33
Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.

Psalm 119:89
For ever, O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven.

God's Word endures forever
When all else fails, it won't.

Isaiah 40:6-8
The voice said, Cry.
And he said, What shall I cry?
All flesh is grass,
and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field:
the grass withereth, the flower fadeth:
because the spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it:
surely the people is grass.
The grass withereth, the flower fadeth:
but the word of our God shall stand for ever.

When all is said and done, God's Word will still be speaking.

1 Peter 1:24-25
For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away: but the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.

What God has said is what He has always said and nothing will ever shut Him up. And that is Good News for those who believe it and place their faith in it for their endurance.

day no. 15,734: a rock in the desert sending out streams of life from its smitten side

Numbers 20:10-11
Then Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock, and he said to them, "Hear now, you rebels: shall we bring water for you out of this rock?" And Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock with his staff twice, and water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their livestock.

Psalm 78:19-20
They spoke against God, saying, "Can God spread a table in the wilderness? He struck the rock so that water gushed out and streams overflowed. Can he also give bread or provide meat for his people?"

There are few places less likely to produce life than a rock in the desert. Yet, when this rock was struck, it yielded water in such abundance as to slake the thirst of all those following after God's promises. From a source no one imagined in a place least likely to produce it, life burst forth. The rock's water was the source of provision and perseverance for those who drank it in.

John 19:32-37
So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first, and of the other who had been crucified with him. But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water. He who saw it has borne witness-his testimony is true, and he knows that he is telling the truth-that you also may believe. For these things took place that the Scripture might be fulfilled: "Not one of his bones will be broken." And again another Scripture says, "They will look on him whom they have pierced."

"(Jesus) is a rock in the desert, ever sending out streams of life from his smitten side." 
-- Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Morning and Evening

There are few places less likely to produce life than a dying man on a cross. Yet, when this Christ was struck, He yielded water and blood in such abundance as to satisfy the hunger and thirst of all those following after God's promises. From a source few imagined and a place few considered, life burst forth. The dying man's blood is the source of eternal life and security for those who believe in it.

1 Corinthians 10:1-6
For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ. Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness. Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did.


Jesus Christ was the Rock in the desert. He was struck then and gave relief to those living in the dusty, dry land of desert life. He is also the Man on the cross. He was struck and pierced there in order to give relief to those living in the desert of darkness, a land of suffocating shadow in which He shone brightly and overcame it.

day no. 15,733: a man and woman happily married

"There is no better statement of God's creational purpose for the world than a man and a woman living together in harmony; and there is no better statement of God's restorative purpose for the world in the Gospel than a man and a woman living together in harmony " -- Douglas Wilson, A Crisis in Masculinity

Genesis 2:25
Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.

Ephesians 5:25
Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it.

The picture God provides of the purpose of mankind is a man and woman happily married. The picture God provides of the restoration of mankind is a man and woman happily married.

From the beginning, before sin, the best picture of what we were made for, is that of a marriage; and in the end, when all sin is eradicated, the best picture of what we will be like, is that of a marriage.

Revelation 19:6-9
Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out,

“Hallelujah!
For the Lord our God
    the Almighty reigns.
Let us rejoice and exult
    and give him the glory,
for the marriage of the Lamb has come,
    and his Bride has made herself ready;
it was granted her to clothe herself
    with fine linen, bright and pure”—
for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.

And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” And he said to me, “These are the true words of God.”

day no. 15,732: epistemologically self-conscious

"We conclude then that when both parties, the believer and the non-believer, are epistemologically self-conscious and as such engaged in the interpretative enterprise, they cannot be said to have any fact in common. On the other hand, it must be asserted that they have every fact in common. Both deal with the same God and with the same universe created by God. Both are made in the image of God. In short, they have the metaphysical situation in common. Metaphysically, both parties have all things in common, while epistemologically they have nothing in common. Christians and non-Christians have opposing philosophies of fact. They also have opposing philosophies of law. They differ on the nature of diversity; they also differ on the nature of unity." -- Cornelius Van Til , Common Grace and The Gospel

Christians and non-Christians can only agree when neither takes themselves very seriously. There can be peace and unity and conformity between them only as long as no one cares too much about what they claim to believe. Interfaith celebrations and dialogues are only made possible when no one has much faith in their particular faith, or to put it more succinctly, when no one has a faith that is very particular.

Christians ought to be epistemologically self-conscious. They must know what they believe and why they believe. They must know where and from Whom they have come and to where and for Whom they are going in order to be where they are for Whom they exist at this moment. Any Christian who knows all of that can have nothing in common with someone who considers all of that nonsense. The two are oriented around different principles. The two are trying to shape the world in different, mutually exclusive ways. They are creating, perpetuating and participating in different cultures centered around different cultus, i.e. worship.

"Culture is religion externalized." -- Henry Van Til, The Calvinistic Concept of Culture

We become what we worship and our worship determines what we, in turn, create.

day no. 15,731 continued... ride the right kind of sky

"Kites rise highest against the wind, not with it." -- Winston Churchill

The sail harnesses the wind by showing it its back, but the kite harnesses it by facing it down. Which one you should be depends on what kind of wind it is. If is the Spirit of the Age blowing smoke, by all means go fly a kite, but if it is the Spirit of God blowing as He wills, by all means hoist your sails.

When the winds of change bluster about with chronological snobbery, set your face against it and rise above its gusts.  If you go with that wind, you will fall to the ground. But if you go against that gale, you will find yourself flying high.

But when the wind of God blows by, submit to its force and go where it takes you.

John 3:7-8

"Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

And when the warm winds of grace collide with the cold front of corruption, expect a storm. Watch the heavens. Read the weather. Ride the right kind of sky.

day no. 15,731: jibber-jabber

"The problem with 'tongue-speakers' today is not that they speak in tongues, but that they do not. Nonsense remains nonsense in any language." -- Douglas Wilson, Not as the Scribes: A Commentary on the Sermon on the Mount

Gibberish is not intelligible, nor is it even intelligiblish. It's not ish or esque, it's just plain gibber, or perhaps at best, jibber-jabber. But either way, it's nonsense; and nonsense is not a language in any language. Gibber only communicates confusion and gibberish is somehow even worse at it.

1 Corinthians 14:33
For God is not a God of confusion but of peace.

day no. 15,730 continued... no outlet

“In the general course of human nature, a power over a man's subsistence amounts to a power over his will.” -- Alexander Hamilton

The quickest way to man's heart is through his stomach. If you can control his access to basic necessities, you can control the man. Napoleon observed that an army marches on its stomach. Citizens, as it turns out, do too. When food becomes the name of the game, you find out just how principled your opposition is. Many will accommodate in the face of convenience. More will cave after greater consideration. Still more will capitulate out of consternation. But some will hold out as a matter of conscience and conviction. In most cases, as Hamilton observed, the power over a man's subsistence amounts to a power over his will. But some will go down swinging. Necessity is the mother of invention. By pushing something all the way to the corners, you inspire the fighting instinct. Once the majority of the resistance flees, the minority that remains is forced to fight.

"When you surround an army, leave an outlet free. Do not press a desperate foe too hard. When a foe is cornered, they must fight for their lives and will do so with the energy of final fear. If you force them to go down in a blaze of glory they will do so, taking more of your troops than you might otherwise expend." -- Sun Tzu, The Art of War

By closing all outlets, you leave the hold outs with no option but to bow up and give it their best shot. You force them to draw themselves up to their full height to fight.

"Kites rise highest against the wind, not with it." -- Winston Churchill

When you take away the only out, you guarantee a greater buy in. When you barricade the way out, you get their best coming right back at you.A cul-de-sac does what a through street doesn't: it forces you to face those who were happy enough to go away.

“Well, I won't back down

No, I won't back down

You can stand me up at the gates of hell

But I won't back down

No, I'll stand my ground

Won't be turned around

And I'll keep this world from draggin' me down

Gonna stand my ground”

 — Tom Petty

day no. 15,730: antiquity establishes nothing

"Antiquity in itself establishes nothing. After all, Cain was older than Abel. Charles Spurgeon noted in this regard, 'Antiquity is often pleaded as an authority; but our King makes short work of them of old time.'" -- Douglas Wilson, Not as the Scribes: A Commentary on the Sermon on the Mount

While age may grant one a hearing, it does not guarantee obedience. Being older does not necessarily make one wise, although it does have its advantages. Perspective is at least possible from that vantage point. However, an elder is more than elderly. To be fair, rarely will one be qualified as an elder until they have some age, but they shouldn't be prohibited by age per se anymore than they should be promoted by age per se. We must be careful not to remove ancient landmarks too quickly or to rely on them too flippantly.

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

Chesterton advised that a landmark should not be moved unless and until its presence there in the first place can be explained. You owe a landmark a certain respect for the simple fact that someone intentionally put it there in order to mark something on purpose. That said, our ancestors were not right merely because they are now dead. Some of our dead ancestors were wrong. Just as they had to think through how and what to do, so we must do the same in our day. We should benefit from their wisdom without failing to utilize ours.

day no. 15,729: no tension between friends

“The New Testament is latent in the Old Testament and the Old Testament is patent in the New Testament.” -- St. Augustine of Hippo

The New Testament is implied in the Old the same way the man is implied in the boy. The fact that the boy grew up into the man is not surprising. It was all there before, but now it is grown into its full form. The New Testament is present in seed form in the Old.

The Old Testament is obvious in the New the same way the man has the same eyes he had as a boy. In his grown face you can see his younger self.  The Old Testament is present in quotation in the New. 

Matthew 5:17
Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill.

"Nothing is more patently taught in the pages of the New Testament than the continuing and abiding authority of the Old. This passage is one such place, but there are many more." 
-- Douglas Wilson, Not as the Scribes: A Commentary on the Sermon on the Mount

All that to say, you cannot pit the Old against the New. You can speak of them uniquely the way you can speak of a boy who became a man, but you cannot discuss them as separate people. The man and the boy are the same person, but in different forms. The New was there in the Old and the Old is here in the New. There is no tension to resolve because there is no tension between good friends.

"The Bible teaches that grace and law are found in the Old Testament, and grace and law are found in the New." -- Douglas Wilson, Not as the Scribes: A Commentary on the Sermon on the Mount

day no. 15,728: the most pathetic people in the world

While reading Douglas Wilson's Not as the Scribes: A Commentary on the Sermon on the Mount, I came across this,

“The formal Christian is a man who knows enough about Christianity to spoil the world for him . . . . He has enough ‘Christianity’ to spoil everything else, but not enough to give him real happiness, peace and joy and abundance of life. I think such people are the most pathetic people in the world. Our Lord certainly says they are the most useless people in the world. They do not function as worldings or as Christians. They are nothing, neither salt nor light, neither one thing nor the other.” -- Martyn Lloyd-Jones

Christianity a la carte is just enough to ruin your appetite, but not enough to satisfy your hunger. It is useless. It does not save you from the allure of the world or the wrath of God. It does not possess potency enough to quicken, only dispassion enough to kill. A la carte Christianity is an inoculation. It gives you just enough of something to keep you from getting all of it. It introduces a synthetic, controlled version for the sake of preventing the invasion of the pure, dangerous version.

Titus 1:15-16

To the pure, all things are pure, but to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure; but both their minds and their consciences are defiled. They profess to know God, but they deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work.

day no. 15,727: the Founder of the feast

"'We all want to be happy, blessed, and we are tempted to make that state of blessing our goal. But the spiritual irony is that such blessings are reserved for those who want something else more. And as Jesus puts it here, that something else is righteousness. We are required by God to hunger and thirst." -- Douglas Wilson, Not as the Scribes

Happiness is reserved for those who want something more than happiness. In other words, happiness cannot be acquired as an end in itself. It cannot be grabbed or held that way. If you chase happy, you won't have it. If you find yourself happy, you can't keep it by trying to keep it. Blessedness is obtained by aiming at righteousness. Those who know that they lack righteousness will have it. Those who know they can't acquire happiness will have it. The hungry are the only ones who can be full and the thirsty the only ones who can be quenched. You cannot be sated or slaked by chasing food or drink. Satisfaction is found in the Founder of the feast.

day no. 15,726: the fluctuation of faith and feelings

"One must train the habit of Faith... Now Faith, in the sense in which I am here using the word, is the art of holding on to things your reason has once accepted, in spite of your changing moods. For moods will change, whatever view your reason takes.

This rebellion of your moods against your real self is going to come anyway. That is why Faith is such a necessary virtue: unless you teach your moods 'where they get off,' you can never be either a sound Christian or even a sound atheist, but just a creature dithering to and fro, with its beliefs really dependent on the weather and the state of its digestion. 

The first step is to recognise the fact that your moods change. The next is to make sure that, if you have once accepted Christianity, then some of its main doctrines shall be deliberately held before your mind for some time every day. That is why daily prayers and religious reading and church going are necessary parts of the Christian life. We have to be continually reminded of what we believe. Neither this belief nor any other will automatically remain alive in the mind. It must be fed. And as a matter of fact, if you examined a hundred people who had lost their faith in Christianity, I wonder how many of them would turn out to have been reasoned out of it by honest argument? Do not most people simply drift away?"
-- C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

Feelings, moods and emotions change. Faith cannot be rooted in them for the simple reason that nothing can be rooted in them. They are not anchored down. They are not fixed points or consistent coordinates. They cannot be counted upon to be present two minutes from now, how much less to hold the weight of an entire belief system like "til death you do part" together?

At some point, every person needs to tell their emotions to "hit the showers." As Lewis points out, if you don't or refuse to, you cannot be a sound Christian... or a sound anything for that matter. You cannot commit to any position because you cannot count on your mood to last.

Most people lose their faith because they can't remember where they left it. They set it down and never picked it up again. But their feelings followed them around, speaking up when tired, or when late for something, or when hungry or lonely or the like.

Faith must be pursued.

Feelings pursue you.

Feelings drift.

Faith anchors. 

Faith takes effort.

Feelings do not.

day no. 15,725: the pluck and the pick

For sweetest things turn sourest by their deeds;
Lilies that fester, smell far worse than weeds.
-- William Shakespeare, Shakespeare's Sonnets (94)

There are few things uglier than beauty gone bad. An ugly expression on a beautiful face reads particularly unsightly. It does not befit its setting like a kidney stone in place of a diamond. Rotten flowers smell worse than thriving weeds.

Proverbs 25:26

Like a muddied spring or a polluted fountain

is a righteous man who gives way before the wicked.

Good things gone bad are worse than those that were bad from the beginning. A spoiled spring is worse than soiled swamp. The swamp water was never good for drinking, whereas the fetid fountain once was. The end is the same, worthless water, but the one embodies the forfeiture of worth.

1 Peter 3:4
Let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious.

Women were made to be beautiful and to pursue it with proportion. The amount of time and effort put into plucking eyebrows in order to be on fleek should not be disproportionate to the time spent picking out the speck from one's eye underneath. While applying eye shadow to the lid, one must be sure to let light in through the iris. 

Proverbs 31:29-31
Many daughters have done virtuously,
but thou excellest them all.
Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain:
but a woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised.
Give her of the fruit of her hands;
and let her own works praise her in the gates.

A woman's good works should match her good fortune in being God's handiwork. If His hands have made such beauty for her, she must work hard to keep pace. Beauty is grace in that you can be praised for something you did not do and good works also acquire praise for the one who makes them possible. But the woman of God thanks her Creator for her outward appearance and demonstrates her gratitude by using it to cultivate faith and good works.

day no. 15,724: good lost and evil got

Greedily she ingorg'd without restraint,
And knew not eating Death: Satiate at length,
And hight'nd as with Wine, jocond and boon,
Thus to her self she pleasingly began.

O Sovran, vertuous, precious of all Trees
In Paradise, of operation blest
To Sapience, hitherto obscur'd, infam'd,
And thy fair Fruit let hang
-- John Milton, Paradise Lost

Sapience is a word for wisdom that derives its meaning from a word associated with tasting and in French can even mean, "having good taste." Here, Milton cleverly asserts it into the story at a point where the tasting the fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil was likened by the serpent to obtaining wisdom. But what they gained in grabbing that fruit, while new, was not wisdom. In other words, Satan can make sin look tasty, but he cannot make it less poisonous.

O Eve, in evil hour thou didst give eare
To that false Worm, of whomsoever taught
To counterfet Mans voice, true in our Fall,
False in our promis'd Rising; since our Eyes
Op'nd we find indeed, and find we know
Both Good and Evil, Good lost, and Evil got
-- John Milton, Paradise Lost

The tasting of the fruit led to new knowledge of good and evil; good lost and evil got. They did not know the presence of evil before and they had never misplaced good. Now, as a result of eating the forbidden fruit, they gained a new knowledge of good and evil. They would now know good only from afar and evil only to well from within. This gain incarnates well the sentiment, "subtraction by addition."

day no. 15,723: from beg to blame

Thus it shall befall
Him who to worth in Women overtrusting
Lets her Will rule; restraint she will not brook,
And left to her self, if evil thence ensue,
Shee first his weak indulgence will accuse.
-- John Milton, Paradise Lost

Eve began by begging Adam's indulgence and ended by blaming it.

Proverbs 31:1-3
The words of king Lemuel, the prophecy that his mother taught him.
What, my son? and what, the son of my womb?
and what, the son of my vows?
Give not thy strength unto women,
nor thy ways to that which destroyeth kings

What we observe in Eve's blame and Lemuel's mother's advice is that women want men to lead all the way up to and including the ability to resist their pleas. While women want to be desired and to aspire to move men through their wiles, they cannot respect a man who gives into them. All that to say, when they win, they end up with men they cannot respect. When a woman wins that way, she loses the strength of her man as an asset since it was surrendered. She cannot trust him to protect her from danger if he cannot protect himself from her.

It is in everyone's best interest to follow God's ordained order of headship, initiative, leadership, insight and organization. May God make us men and women strong enough to be strong in our assigned positions and strong enough not to begrudge others pursuing theirs: neither condescending or flattering the other post nor shirking our own.

day no. 15,722: studying household good and promoting good works

God hath assign'd us, nor of me shalt pass
Unprais'd: for nothing lovelier can be found
In Woman, then to studie houshold good,
And good workes in her Husband to promote.
-- John Milton, Paradise Lost

Feminine strength is designed by God and peculiarly equipped to cultivate beauty, nurture life, make home, and make babies. Men are to recognize these pursuits as praiseworthy. Men were made to serve, provide, protect, and procreate to gain glory for God's great name. Men are obligated to praise others in their assigned posts under the main effort of bringing glory to God. It is a unified effort toward a common goal achieved by different detachments using different weapons and tactics suited to their assigned posts.

Adam, here in Milton, assigns praise to Eve for studying the household good and promoting in him good works.

Titus 2:3-5
The aged women likewise, that they be in behaviour as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things; that they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed.

Hebrews 10:24
Let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works.

day no. 15,721: revenge begins sweet, but goes down bitter

O foul descent! that I who erst contended
With Gods to sit the highest, am now constraind
Into a Beast, and mixt with bestial slime, 
This essence to incarnate and imbrute,
That to the hight of Deitie aspir'd;
But what will not Ambition and Revenge
Descend to? who aspires must down as low
As high he soard, obnoxious first or last 
To basest things. Revenge, at first though sweet,
Bitter ere long back on it self recoiles;
-- John Milton, Paradise Lost

Satan aimed at Deity and ended up a dragon. His reach exceeded his grasp of reality. He aspired to the divine and found himself descending to the lowest depths. He who wanted to be the ultimate good became one willing to do the pettiest evil in order to get revenge. Pride transformed an angel of light into a demon of darkness. Envy and bitterness, wrath and revenge consume anyone who wants to be worshiped who is not worthy of such admiration. Only God can command worship without sinking to sin to acquire it. Revenge begins sweet, but goes down bitter.

day no. 15,720: sow in hope, reap in joy

Psalm 126:3-6
The LORD has done great things for us; we are glad. 
Restore our fortunes, O LORD, like streams in the Negeb! 
Those who sow in tears shall reap with shouts of joy! 
He who goes out weeping, bearing the seed for sowing,
shall come home with shouts of joy, bringing his sheaves with him.

"Labour is light to a man of cheerful spirit; and success waits upon cheerfulness. The man who toils, rejoicing in his God, believing with all his heart, has success guaranteed. He who sows in hope shall reap in joy." -- Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Morning and Evening

Christianity is founded upon the hope of resurrection. It is the crux, so to speak, of the matter. In order for something to spring up in resurrection joy, it must first be sown to death in hope. The one who dies to himself receives himself back and all things along with it. The one who lays down his life in resurrection faith and hope will receive back joy in 30, 60 and 100 fold abundance. 

day no. 15,719: do not consume or be consumed by worry

Mathew 6:34
Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things

Do not consume or be consumed by worry

"Worry and anxiety are a waste of time. It doesn’t do any good anyway... You start living your life completely out of order. Worry is like thinking there is going to be a famine next year, and eating double portions at every meal now. It doesn’t work that way. 'Sufficient for the day is its own trouble' (MT. 6:34, NKJV) Worry is like a little greased piglet, and you are not going to able to catch it. And even if you did, what would you do with it then? Worry is not an adversary to be wrestled to the ground. Worry is not an adversary that you can just hit on the head with a chemical rock. Worry is a sin to be repented—as you would repent of lying, or adultery, or theft. You name it as sin, and offer it to Christ. And what does He do? He forgives it (1 John 1:9)" -- Douglas Wilson, The Sinfulness of Worry

Trying to solve tomorrow's problem with today's worry is like preparing for a marathon by spending more time on the couch for the fear of how much you'll be required to run next month. Worry exhausts your resources. It does not prepare you to endure future difficulty. In fact, it makes it harder. If you eat double portions of worry today in order to avoid a prophesied famine of tomorrow, you not only still end up experiencing the famine when it comes, but you invite additional disaster upon yourself right at this moment. Mass consumption of worry does not get you into the right kind of shape for fighting future battles. You actually end up depleting the very resources you will need to survive the future disaster by unnecessarily consuming them now. You also condition yourself  to consume more food than necessary exactly when you're about to have less food than you've ever had.

day no. 15,718: rocketsauce at SIX!

Rocco Henry Warfield Van Voorst... you are SIX years old today!!!

You did it!

No more naps... no more naps... no more naps!!!

Well, except for Sunday... but in fairness, everyone naps then :) The thing you seem to dislike the most about naps is that you miss your brothers and sisters. You are always very compliant when you're told it's time for nap, but you also often express that the hardest part is being apart from those you love most. Well, buddy... your day has come. You are six, and the afternoon... is your oyster.

You are such a smart kid. You catch on to things quickly. You are beginning your first year of official schooling, but admittedly, you've been teaching yourself many things already for years. You have a sharp mind. I am excited to watch you learn and grow through your schooling. It is so much fun hearing the things you think about. You are going to devastate the enemies of God. Their arguments don't stand a chance.

You are articulate. You like sharing your thoughts and talking about what you're thinking about. You have a way with words and impeccable comedic timing. You are always good for a funny comment here or there. You pay attention to what's being talked about and know how to keep up with your older siblings. You seem to be hanging back and then, blammo!, you drop a gem that makes everyone grin.

You are a handsome little man. You have beautiful eyes and a hard head. At night, you often pray about your future wife. You pray to be a good dad and husband. You have a vision for who you want to be and what God wants you to do. The world needs more good, strong men who are good at being men, and you, my son, are well on your way.

You have developed a recent interest in goatees. I won't hold it against you. I had an interest in them at one point as well. Just ask my senior pictures. 

You are physical. You love to hug, jump, punch, bounce, wrassle, squeeze, grab, etc... You are all boy. You bounce off the walls and play hard. You love to mix it up and you like getting in over your head. You seek out the challenge. You turn towards the difficulty, not away from it. That is man's move and all the more so since you're still only a boy. I can't wait to watch that instinct grow up. Darkness beware. You're about to be put on blast!

You are strong. You like your daily exercises and like showing off your muscles. You are thick and dense and muscle-y. You like wearing tank tops so you can show off your guns. You're all, "suns out, guns out," but not, "suns down, guns down." You're never not ready to play the man. You like being strong and that is leading you to become even stronger.

You have a good heart, a strong body and sharp mind. You are a dangerous little dude. The darkness doesn't stand a chance. I'm so glad you're on my team. :) We ALL are.

My prayer for you from the beginning, as you know, has been that you would be a cannonball for God's kingdom. Your middle name, Warfield, was given to you as an homage to B.B. Warfield, but also as a recognition that the cultural cold war seemed, even then, to be heating up and that the need for more good and godly men, trained in the way of worship and warfare, was becoming more pressing. 

So why "A cannonball for God's kingdom"? Cannonballs are formed and shaped in a particular mold. They are made a particular way by their Maker for a particular purpose. They are hard and tough and resilient. They maintain their shape when fired from a cannon and can fly through the air before crashing into an enemy's fortress. Cannonballs change the shape of the enemy's walls without being changed themselves. They are able to engage with the enemy without being changed by them. They are still hard balls of resolve after the walls fall down all around them.

May you, my son, also be formed fully by God's formation and submit to His plans to fire you off wherever He will send you and may you always retain the shape He gave you and change the shape of the world all around you. The gates of hell cannot prevail against God's kingdom and I fully expect you to play a pivotal role in destroying the demonic strongholds that surround us. As the diameter of light increases, the circumference of darkness grows, so if it seems like it's getting worse, its only an illusion. More contact and conflict with the dark is a sure sign that the light is growing in influence.

I love you, Rocco. You're a good son, a good brother, and a good man. I like being your dad. I love you and I like you. I'm so glad God put you in our family. We wouldn't be the same without you. 

Happy Birthday, Buddy!

Dad

day no. 15,717: non-excused absence

"Knowledge brings moral culpability with it. Natural revelation can certainly be called natural law. It has all the ingredients -- a lawgiver, a standard, a subject, and a moral responsibility." 
-- Douglas Wilson, Rules for Reformers

"There is a difference between an ideal and a vision. An ideal has no moral inspiration; a vision has. The people who give themselves over to ideals rarely do anything. A man’s conception of Deity may be used to justify his deliberate neglect of his duty. Jonah argued that because God was a God of justice and of mercy, therefore everything would be all right. I may have a right conception of God, and that may be the very reason why I do not do my duty. But wherever there is vision, there is also a life of rectitude because the vision imparts moral incentive." -- Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest

"We are forced to believe in a real Right and Wrong. People may be sometimes mistaken about them, just as people sometimes get their sums wrong; but they are not a matter of mere taste and opinion any more than the multiplication table." -- C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

We have a moral responsibility and obligation to obey what God has revealed to us. In nature, we observe certain qualities consistent with God's character and commandments that are in keeping with the qualities He reveals to us in His word. In other words, His world is consistent with His Word and while not everyone has access to His Word, everyone has access to His world. As such, we are required to keep His commands and there are adequate excuses for refusing to do so. Ignorance is not an intellectual defect, but a moral one. We cannot claim even claim intellectual ignorance because every one of us knows on account of the sun coming up; and knowing them obligates the knower to do something in response to them -- something specific which if not done becomes a clear violation.

In other words...

Romans 1:18-23
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

day no. 15,716 continued... defined by who holds the transparency

"When the government knows everything about you, that's tyranny, when you know everything about your government, that's democracy." -- Cristian Terhes

Governments are defined by who is held to be transparent. The difference presupposes who owes whom an explanation and who is most likely to be hiding something.

A government which refuses to be questioned and insists on all the answers cannot and should not be trusted. Limited government is a Christian invention and when employed by grace through faith, it safeguards those in control from becoming tyrants and those under control from becoming tinder.

Where the people are given access to all the information, the representatives work for the citizens.; where the government is given access to all the information, the citizens become slaves of the State. Representative government is based on covenanted agreements. Federal comes from the Latin for foedus which means covenant, pact, or treaty. Federal governance is an arrangement of promises in which each party agrees to do something on behalf of the other. The representative agrees to act on behalf of the people at the mercy of the people as their elected head. The people agree to vest decision-making authority into the person they send to represent them. If the representative breaks faith with those they represent, the people are free to break out from under their headship. This is the premise behind the American War for Independence. The colonies grievance was that King George was not protecting them per their agreement. The consent of the governed was being abused by the absence of the governor in matters related to their safety, security, and prosperity. Thus, the colonists, confirming their heads abdication, set forth to elect new heads that would represent them faithfully.