day no. 15,806: comfort comes out

2 Thessalonians 2:15-17
So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by our spoken word or by our letter. Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work and word.

Comfort comes out. 

God provides eternal comfort in the completed work of Christ at the cross and continues to comfort us in the continued work of Christ at His Father's right hand. This comfort comes from without and goes within. But it does not stop there. Comfort come outs. The comfort we experience internally is meant to manifest itself externally. What God established on the cross of Christ, He means to establish in the work of our hands and the words of our mouths.

We were made for traditions.

God gave us the apostles: their beliefs and behaviors, their prayers and practices, and their words and works. We were meant to stand firm and hold tightly to what was passed along to us by them. What they said and did are to be what we now say and do. These traditions and liturgies were spoken, written down, lived out, and passed along. 

If we want our work to be established, it must be performed on the foundation of Christ and the teachings of His apostles.

Ephesians 2:19-22
Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.

day no. 15,805: right premise, wrong conclusion

"Instinctively we do know that true beauty proceeds only from Deity. Our problem is that we have deified ourselves and have assumed, contrary to the visible results, that whatever proceeds from us must be beautiful." -- Douglas Wilson, Angels in the Architecture

We rightly understand that beauty is divine, but we wrongly understand divinity. We proclaim ourselves children of God, but not in order to honor our Father, but in order to assume His divine prerogative. When we assume a sort of sacred inner spark, we presume all sorts of sinful urges are begotten of God. Our theology falls off of our fingertips. We create and call whatever comes from inside us “beautiful” because we misunderstand who and what we are on the inside. Because we believe ourselves to be gods, we believe our creations to possess our attributes of truth, goodness and beauty. While we're right to presume that truth, beauty and goodness only derive from divinity, we're wrong to assume ourselves a source of divinity: right premise, wrong conclusion.

Human nature is not supernatural. Humanity is not divinity. But divinity by the grace of God took on humanity when the Word became flesh and as a result the flesh can be resurrected a newborn child of God.

John 1:9-14

The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

day no. 15,804: Christendom, in a nutshell

"We try to lay out in the following pages, namely a love of beauty, an Augustinian appreciation for the sovereignty of God, the chasm between pagan and Christian, the centrality of laughter, the importance of celebration, a covenantal wholeness of family and society, a submissive hierarchicalism, respect for good traditions, sphere sovereignty, anti-papalism, a harmonization of technology and humanity, an agrarian calm, disciplined silence, the glory of a unified Holy Church, a skepticism of novelty, and a triumphant, peaceful hope for the future of Christendom." - Douglas Wilson, Angels in the Architecture

That is the world the meek will inherit: one of culture and liturgy and tradition and spontaneity. That is the better country for which my heart longs and for which my hands labor to see come.

Hebrews 11:16
They desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city.

day no. 15,803: full lives of fidelity and fecundity

"This is modernity's barbarism - hollow hearts led about by sterile matter, perversely mocking those with full lives." - Douglas Wilson, Angels in the Architecture

Modernity is heartless and fruitless. It prefers skepticism to faith and stainless steel appliances to plastic children's toys. It has no room for marital fidelity or fecundity. Yet, those medieval souls who orient their homes around love making, laughter and the joy of the Lord find them overflowing: full bellies, full hearts, full rooms, full lives. 

Nehemiah 8:10
Eat the fat, and drink the sweet... 
for the joy of the Lord is your strength.

Modernity prefers fat-free dying to full fat living. It opts for sugar-free death over the sweet life. It prides itself on the serious business of saving the planet rather than the joyful business of the Savior of the world.

day no. 15,802: better ignorance

“'I see it well,' said Ransom. 'Though in my world it would pass for folly. We have been evil so long' and then he stopped, doubtful of being understood and surprised that he’d used a word for evil which he had not hitherto known that he knew, and which he had not heard either in Mars or in Venus."

“'We know these things now,' said the King, seeing Ransom’s hesitation. 'All this, all that happened in your world, Maleldil has put into our mind. We have learned of evil, though not as the Evil One wished us to learn. We have learned better than that, and know it more, for it is waking that understands sleep and not sleep that understands waking. There is an ignorance of evil that comes from being young: there is a darker ignorance that comes from doing it, as men by sleeping lose the knowledge of sleep... Maleldil has brought us out of the one ignorance, and we have not entered the other. It was by the Evil One himself that he brought us out of the first. Little did that dark mind know the errand on which he really came to Perelandra!'” -- C.S. Lewis, Perelandra

Adam and Eve were born ignorant of evil. They partook of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil and became a deeper kind of ignorant. Before they were naive, afterward they were numb. The knowledge of good and evil had been for them like a language they didn't speak, but afterward it become like a language they'd forgotten. You can be ignorant to the intoxicating effects of alcohol through tee-totaling or through drunkenness, either will suffice. Whether your lips have never had a sip or you've have too much to sip, your lips cannot add an intelligible word to the discussion. The abstinent and the indulgent share the same ignorance. Neither one is capable of describing intoxication, albeit for different reasons. The sober, however, can be made to understand drunkenness. There is more hope for the clear-headed to comprehend than for the drunk. The good man, in the end, understands good and evil better than the wicked. It is not that the good understands goodness and the evil understands evil. The good understands both better than the evil understands anything for there is a knowledge of evil that is lost by participating in it.

The ignorance of evil, then, is not eradicated by experience, but obedience.

Adam and Eve were born ignorant and never gained knowledge. They did not, as promised by the serpent, become wise to good and evil by breaking God's good rule. They learned something, but it wasn't something good; and it didn't make them wiser. It taught them a deeper ignorance than they had previously known. It educated them in sin, which is not an advance in knowledge, but a corruption. Had they but held out, they would have perhaps, like Tor and Tinidril in Lewis' Perelandra, gained a knowledge better and wiser than ignorant innocence and better than experienced indulgence.

day no. 15,801: let's break up

Hosea 10:12

Sow for yourselves righteousness; reap steadfast love; break up your fallow ground, for it is the time to seek the LORD, that he may come and rain righteousness upon you.

Cultivating abandoned fields is hard work. Restoring culture to an abandoned building requires resurrection as much as it does construction. The fallow ground of Christian culture will prove difficult to break through due to years of neglect it has endured; but don’t give up. Fruitful fields of multiplying yields will be inherited by those following in our footsteps. Thirty, Sixty and Hundredfold fruitfulness is set to follow. Our hard work may see no immediate fruit, but it will provide our progeny the privilege of gazing over and being grateful for fruit-bearing fields. Our work in the wilderness will pave the paths of the gardens of our great grandchildren.

1 Corinthians 15:58

Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.

day no, 15,800: earthier

“I doubt whether the best men ever would devote themselves to politics. The best men would devote themselves to pigs and babies and things like that.” - G.K. Chesterton

Politics are only important because pigs and babies are more important. The best men work the earth and raise their children and if necessary, engage in the lesser work of politics in order to protect their ability to do both when others attempt to infringe upon their greater work.

day no. 15,799: someone's been reading our mail

“How far does it go? Would you still obey the Life-Force if you found it prompting you to murder me?”

“Yes.”

“Or to sell England to the Germans?”

“Yes.”

“Or to print lies as serious research in a scientific periodical?”

“Yes.”

“God help you!” said Ransom.

“You are still wedded to your conventionalities,” said Weston. “Still dealing in abstractions. Can you not even conceive a total commitment — a commitment to something which utterly overrides all our petty ethical pigeon-holes?” -- C.S. Lewis, Perelandra

C.S. Lewis had the gift of reading other eras mail. He was able to put his finger on the thing in such a way as to identify it in principle so that when it was employed in another time under another name in another form, it would be immediately evident. What he here calls Life-Force, is today the animating force behind various movements including, but not limited to: Antifa, Black Lives Matter, Socialism, Communism, Marxism, Feminism, LGBTQ+, Climate Control, Build Back Better, The Great Reset, etc...

These all view integrity, honesty and courage as mere conventionalities. They advocate that if you're not cheating, you're not trying. They insist on winning at all costs. Whatever they must forfeit or lose in the process in order to possess it is irrelevant. It is the religion of progress. It is the unshakable belief that human invention is always for the better. They would murder in cold blood in order to protect the way of life they propose. They have and they will continue to do so. 63 million murdered children's blood testifies from the ground against them. They would count their country as nothing by selling it for top dollar. They have and they will continue to do so. They would lie in order to be seen as champions of the truth. They have and continue to do so.

The principalities and powers of this world don't fight fair because fairness is their enemy. Justice is not their aim. Their goal is the ability to bully for their vantage point. They are tired of being pushed around, but it is not the pushing around per se that they object to, but the direct object. They desire to be the pushers. They imagine themselves bullied while envying the bully. And if given the chance, they will reveal themselves as the manifestation of that which they previously decried. They bemoaned the bullies, but they merely envied their brawn. This is immediately evident the moment they receive any kind of sway. Do they handle it judiciously? Do they preserve peace and diversity when their beliefs are dominant? No, no, and no.

As Weston points out, they are committed and they will do great damage. But the Good News of God, is that they cannot prevail. Insanity never works. Anything that can't go on forever... won't. May God hasten the day the insanity comes to an end in the light of His glorious, indomitable revelation at the return of His Son. Amen.

day no. 15,798: frederic bastiat and the law

No, that's not my band's new name. I have no intention of giving Langhorne Slim and his a run for their money. Smart money's on them.

No, I first heard about Bastiat's The Law on Doug Wilson's Plodcast (7/15/20) where he mentioned it during his book review section.

"The law perverted! The law—and, in its wake, all the collective forces of the nation—the law, I say, not only diverted from its proper direction, but made to pursue one entirely contrary! The law become the tool of every kind of avarice, instead of being its check! The law guilty of that very iniquity which it was its mission to punish! Truly, this is a serious fact, if it exists, and one to which I feel bound to call the attention of my fellow citizens." -- Frederic Bastiat, The Law

Bastiat argues that God has bestowed on every man the right of personality, property and liberty.  The only thing the government has to do to ensure you have these is nothing. It is a negative right. It does not require any action on behalf of anyone else for you to possess. Government's occupation is the protection of these God-given rights. It's lane is limiting itself in order to maximize man. But what Bastiat sees happening is government using laws to limit personality, property and liberty, thus using as a means of restriction what was meant to be a means of freedom. 

"I cannot possibly conceive fraternity legally enforced, without liberty being legally destroyed, and justice legally trampled under foot. Legal plunder has two roots: one of them, as we have already seen, is in human greed; the other is in misconceived philanthropy." -- Frederic Bastiat, The Law

Bastiat is opposed to plunder, which he defines as forcibly taking away someone else's personality, property or liberty. The worst brand of plunder he perceives is that of legal plunder performed under the auspices of law. When that which was meant to protect is employed as the vehicle of tyranny, trouble is brewing. This, of course, is the essence of socialism which utilizes laws which empower them to plunder people they determine unfit for the rights God has given them. This can be motivated, obviously, by bald greed or envy in desiring what someone else has and uses whatever means possible to obtain it or it can be motivated, more dangerously, by misguided philanthropy which doesn't understand its own envy.

"When a portion of wealth passes out of the hands of him who has acquired it, without his consent, and without compensation, to him who has not created it, whether by force or by artifice, I say that property is violated, that plunder is perpetrated. I say that this is exactly what the law ought to repress always and everywhere. If the law itself performs the action it ought to repress, I say that plunder is still perpetrated, and even, in a social point of view, under aggravated circumstances." -- Frederic Bastiat, The Law

Theft is theft, even it is the government using law to do it. Plunder is plunder even when performed by law. It is robbing someone of something God gave to them. It is using what God provided (the law) to take what God has provided (the right to personality, property and liberty). 

"I am attacking an idea that I believe to be false—a system that appears to me to be unjust; and this is so independent of intentions, that each of us profits by it without wishing it, and suffers from it without being aware of the cause." -- Frederic Bastiat, The Law

One of the most difficult hurdles to overcome in attempting to correct this overreach is first accepting how much it would cost you to stop profiting off of plunder. Much of what we enjoy is systematized plunder. Many programs we benefit from would not exist if plunder were abolished.

"When law and force keep a man within the bounds of justice, they impose nothing upon him but a mere negation. They only oblige him to abstain from doing harm. They violate neither his personality, his liberty, nor his property. They only guard the personality, the liberty, the property of others. They hold themselves on the defensive; they defend the equal right of all. They fulfill a mission whose harmlessness is evident." -- Frederic Bastiat, The Law

When government is godly, it seeks to limit itself. It is aware of its ability to overreach and takes explicit measures to keep itself from doing so and resisting the insistence of others that it overreach on their behalf.

"In fact, it is not justice that has an existence of its own, it is injustice. The one results from the absence of the other." -- Frederic Bastiat, The Law

Injustice is the law of the land in a sinful world. If nothing is done, injustice reigns. So it isn't that the government should do nothing, but that it should only operate inasmuch as it works against injustice. Injustice here being defined by infringing upon one's God-given rights of personality, property and liberty.

"Socialism, like the old policy from which it emanates, confounds Government and society. And so, every time we object to a thing being done by Government, it concludes that we object to its being done at all. We disapprove of education by the State—then we are against education altogether. We object to a State religion—then we would have no religion at all. We object to an equality which is brought about by the State then we are against equality, etc., etc. They might as well accuse us of wishing men not to eat, because we object to the cultivation of corn by the State." -- Frederic Bastiat, The Law

Socialism is the political manifestation of egalitarianism just as feminism is its sexual manifestation. It states that if education is important then the government should be involved, if religion is important, the government, again, should be involved. It puts itself in the place of God as the creator and sustainer of essential rights. It assumes the role of father and husband to a people in providing and protecting them rather than entrusting these to God the Father and His Son, the bridegroom.

"This is the high road to communism; in other words, legislation will be—as it now is—the battlefield for everybody’s dreams and everybody’s covetousness." -- Frederic Bastiat, The Law

Once it is realized that this is how the game is played, the battlefield becomes which laws are passed and which laws are enforced. Some laws are on the books but not enforced. Some laws are not on the books, but enforced as ferociously as if they were. Policing is inescapable. It is not a matter of whether we will have police, but what will be policed. Legislation becomes a battle over definitions. At the end of the day, it is a fight over the dictionary which ultimately matters. What "hate" and "help" means determines who is arrested and who is applauded.

"Which are the happiest, the most moral, and the most peaceable nations? Those where the law interferes the least with private activity; where the Government is the least felt; where individuality has the most scope, and public opinion the most influence; where the machinery of the administration is the least important and the least complicated; where taxation is lightest and least unequal, popular discontent the least excited and the least justifiable; where the responsibility of individuals and classes is the most active, and where, consequently, if morals are not in a perfect state, at any rate they tend incessantly to correct themselves." -- Frederic Bastiat, The Law

A place where the government is least felt is a place you want to be. Where personal responsibility is high and outside interference is low. This is the place God would have us pray for.

1 Timothy 2:1-2
First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.

"Liberty... is an act of faith in God and in His work." -- Frederic Bastiat, The Law

A faithless generation entrusts its justice to godless systems of plunder in order to secure a false sense of freedom. Not only is it faithless in looking to Washington, D.C. instead of the New Jerusalem, but it is also faithless in marching against Heaven's decrees in an attempt to create a new heaven and earth of its own.

Galatians 5:1
For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.

day no. 15,797: be a bee, not a spider

"Good-nature, like a bee, collects honey from every herb. Ill-nature, like a spider, sucks poison from the sweetest flower" - Anyonymous

Belief counts any and every trial as a blessing.

Unbelief counts any and every blessing as a trial.

Gratitude can lighten anything.

Ingratitude can ruin anything.

Faith can turn even bitter to sweet.

Faithlessness can turn even sweet to bitter.

day no. 15,796: spotty reception

Jeremiah 13:23
Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots?
Then also you can do good who are accustomed to do evil.

The Ethiopian's blackness is something he has always known. He possibly even takes it for granted. It is what it is. Same goes for the leopard's spots. He has always been that way and doesn't even notice he is spotty. If you pointed out the Ethiopian's blackness, he would be able to see it the same way a fish could be made to consider how wet he is all the time. Same can be said for the leopard and his spots. 

The point is not that blackness is sinful, but that sin is built in, like blackness. Spots are not problematic for the leopard. Jeremiah's point in referencing the skin colors of people or animals is that it is hard-wired. Our sins are like this. They are built in. It's all we've ever known. We have no context for a time when we lived our lives by the golden rule. We had to learn that maxim and work hard to apply it even after we adopted its truth. In fact, we're so sinful, that we don't spend much time even thinking about it. Sin is just one of the facts of life, the backdrop, the et cetera. If someone points it out to us, we can see it if we look intently upon it, but we're so used to seeing it, we're often blind to it. We live in an ocean of air at all times, but it is invisible to us though we breath it in and out and see it moving the limbs of trees in the distance. We take special note of our breath on cold days and use the fact that we can see it to highlight how unusual it is. We see it on the glass expanding and then quickly retreating, but most of the time, we forget. Breath is easy to forget.

So our sin is like the Ethiopian's skin or the leopard's spots: part of who we are. To change the Ethiopian's skin is to rob him of something Ethiopian. To change the leopard's spots is to unleopard him. To tell an Ethiopian that he must change his skin to enter eternity is to tell him that Ethiopians cannot enter eternity. To tell a leopard that he must change his spots in order to be blessed is to tell him that leopards cannot be blessed. For to change the skin of the one or the spots of the other is to unmake who they are. So it is with our sin. If it is removed, it results in a new creation. Whatever was will no longer be. Whatever remains cannot be what it once was. In other words, we cannot be saved by staying who we are. We will have to die. And we will need to rise again in order to live.

Put another way, what must be done cannot be done if things do not change. Sinners cannot be righteous anymore than leopard's can be spotless. If you remove the leopard's spots, you kill its leopardness. If you change the Ethiopian's skin, you end his Ethiopianess. So too we must die to ourselves if we are to become who God calls us to be. We cannot enter the kingdom without being changed -- not merely a costume change or a cosmetic alteration, but an entirely new creation.

day no. 15,795: good courage

2 Samuel 10:12
Be of good courage, and let us be courageous for our people, and for the cities of our God, and may the LORD do what seems good to him.

Good courage:

- risks death in order to protect that for which living was designed; 

- takes responsibility for others and assumes risk in order to protect their safety; 

- considers the cities behind them when facing the enemy before them; and

- acts on the assurance of God instead of the assurance of the outcome.

Bad courage:

- willingly accepts the risks of hell in order to hold on to the right to be the one choosing them;

- shirks responsibilities to others in order to secure comfort and safety for oneself;

- destroys the cities in front of them assuming the enemy is behind them; and

- justifies any action that leads to obtaining the only outcome it can imagine.

day no. 15,794: from boast to boast

Jeremiah 9:23-24
Thus says the LORD: "Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the LORD."

Whatever wisdom a man has is on loan. Whatever might a man has is borrowed. Whatever wealth a man may possess is lent to him. There is no wisdom, might, or riches outside of Almighty God. Whatever anyone has, it has been given to him.

1 Corinthians 4:7
What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?

There will be boasting. That is inescapable. But what is boasted about is yet to be determined. One will either boast about their achievements as though they are theirs while another boasts of their blessings as though they were Someone else's achievements.

Psalm 44:8

In God we have boasted all day long,

And we will give thanks to Your name forever.

Since we will boast, let it be in obedience -- bringing glory to God for all His goodness.

1 Corinthians 1:31
As it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

day no. 15,793: God isn't merely what we don't know

“How wrong it is to use God as a stop-gap for the incompleteness of our knowledge. For the frontiers of knowledge are inevitably being pushed back further and further, which means that you only think of God as a stop-gap… We should find God in what we do know, not in what we don't.” -- Dietrich Bonhoeffer, A Testament to Freedom

God is not what we don't know. God is not merely a stop gap between that which we have mastered for ourselves and that which remains mysterious.

"The God of the gaps recedes before scientific advance as the gaps are narrowed.” -- John Cobb

If God is merely what we don't know, He is diminished by each and every advance of knowledge. His rule and reign only preside over that of which we remain ignorant. He is all fog and no illumination.

"Here again, God is no stop-gap; he must be recognized as the centre of life, not when we are at the end of our resources; it is his will to be recognized in life, and not only when death comes; in health and vigour, and not only in suffering; in our activities, and not only in sin." -- Dietrich Bonhoeffer, A Testament to Freedom

God is not a placeholder for what we don't understand. He is not the periphery that hovers just outside of all we know and do. He is not only for when we throw our hands up or meet an obstacle too heavy to carry or too complicated to understand. God is revelation. He is not to us all that remains darkened, but our light. He is light that shines in the darkness. Light which cannot be overcome. God is not boxed out by darkness; the darkness, rather, is diffused and dissipated by His light.

"Let there be light," and the darkness was done for.

God does not live in the dark. He lives in the light.

1 John 1:5

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

John 1:4-5

In him was life, and the life was the light of men. L The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

day no. 15,792: hnakrapunt

"Hna—hma," it muttered and then, at last, Hman, hnakrapunt." -- C.S. Lewis, Out of the Silent Planet

These are the last words of Hyoi as they are spoken to Ransom. With his final breath, he wants Ransom to know that he is a "Hman, hnakrapunt." 

"Hnakrapunt" in the language of the hrossa means "one who kills many hnéraki, literally "hnakra-slayer"

There are few titles more desirable than "dragon-slayer." There is hardly a designation you could bestow on a fellow man that would communicate more respect. 

The only thing better than a world without dragons is a world with dead dragons with some of them having met their demise by your hands.

May God grant me and my sons the courage, opportunity and privilege to be named among those bearing the name, "hnakrapunt."

day no. 15,791: getting used to it

“Sanctification is the art of getting used to your justification" - Gerhard Forde

When you know who you are, you know what to do. When who you are is made new, you need to adapt to a new way of doing things. Sanctification is the process of dying to your old self (mortification) and coming alive to your new self (vivification) as you learn to be who you now are in Christ. It is not merely becoming who you ought to be in Christ, but being who you already are in Christ. It is not simply preparing to get your driver's license, but learning how to handle the privileges and responsibilities of being legally allowed to drive.

day no. 15,790: an acquired taste

Jeremiah 5:30-31

An appalling and horrible thing has happened in the land: the prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule at their direction; my people love to have it so, but what will you do when the end comes?

A prophet is meant to speak on behalf of another so when the prophet speaks falsely, he not only lies, but he defames the one for whom he claims to speak. A priest is meant to mediate on behalf of another so when a priest does what he wants, he not only misleads, but he fails to connect the supplicant to anyone other than his own wishes. 

This is tragic in its own right, but the appalling and horrible thing is that people prefer it this way. They would rather be lied to and misled than know the truth and have to face God. As bad as false prophets and lame priests are, even worse are the parishioners who would not have it any other way.

Lies and misleading are acquired tastes. And some, in fact, have such a taste for them as to despise a banquet table truth. When sat at a feast of verity, fidelity, and authority, they no longer have any hunger or thirst for either.

day no. 15,789: anything you can do, God can do better

Jeremiah 2:12-13
Be appalled, O heavens, at this; be shocked, be utterly desolate, declares the LORD, for 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.

Sin is substitution.

Man sets aside his God and crafts for himself another one. That is why when you break the first commandment, you always break the second and no one breaks the second without first having broken the first. Man substitutes himself for God in creating a world to his liking, but because man cannot shake off the compulsion to worship, he also creates a substitute to worship.

Salvation is substitution.

God sent His Son in the form of a man as a substitute. Jesus took our place in living the life we owed God and in dying the death that our sins had earned. Jesus rose from the grave in our place so that we might also rise to newness of life. This is called penal substitutionary atonement. A penalty (for sin) was placed on someone else (substitution) in order to pay what was owed (atonement). 

Man plunged the world into sin and error through substitution.

God restored the world to righteousness through substitution.

day no. 15,788: if you want to get up, you got to get down

Jeremiah 1:19
They will fight against you, but they shall not prevail against you, for I am with you, declares the LORD, to deliver you.

God provides four assurances:

(1) They will fight against you
(2) They will not prevail against you
(3) God will be with you

(4) God will deliver you 

God's people should expect resistance. The enemies of God will not go quietly into that good light.

We should expect push back, but we shouldn't expect to be pushed entirely back. The kingdom of God is like leaven working its way through the lump – slowly, but surely.  The Kingdom is not like the ascent of a rocket ship, straight up; but like that of a mountain, with frequent descents on the way to the summit. 

God is with you. While the enemy is against you, He is not. Remember that. Do not be defined by who you are against, but by Who you are with and let your enemies be those who oppose who you are first for.

God will deliver you: from your enemies, from their efforts, from your failures, from your fears.

Rest assured, all of this will take place. The will of God is inescapable. It is not a question of IF?, but WHEN? and HOW? Yet God's command is not for us to know or decipher the how's and when's (Dt. 29:29), but to fight the good fight of believing His promises where we are. His will is indomitable and for those who love Him, that is their only comfort in death and life.

day no. 15,787: the case for name calling

"And the evening and the morning were the first day." - Genesis 1:5

"The evening was 'darkness' and the morning was 'light,' and yet the two together are called by the name that is given to the light alone! This is somewhat remarkable, but it has an exact analogy in spiritual experience. In every believer there is darkness and light, and yet he is not to be named a sinner because there is sin in him, but he is to be named a saint because he possesses some degree of holiness. This will be a most comforting thought to those who are mourning their infirmities, and who ask, 'Can I be a child of God while there is so much darkness in me?' Yes; for you, like the day, take not your name from the evening, but from the morning; and you are spoken of in the word of God as if you were even now perfectly holy as you will be soon. You are called the child of light, though there is darkness in you still. You are named after what is the predominating quality in the sight of God, which will one day be the only principle remaining. Observe that the evening comes first. Naturally we are darkness first in order of time, and the gloom is often first in our mournful apprehension, driving us to cry out in deep humiliation, 'God be merciful to me, a sinner.' The place of the morning is second, it dawns when grace overcomes nature. It is a blessed aphorism of John Bunyan, 'That which is last, lasts forever.' That which is first, yields in due season to the last; but nothing comes after the last. So that though you are naturally darkness, when once you become light in the Lord, there is no evening to follow; 'thy sun shall no more go down.' The first day in this life is an evening and a morning; but the second day, when we shall be with God, forever, shall be a day with no evening, but one, sacred, high, eternal noon." -- Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Morning and Evening

The field may be mixed with wheat and weeds, but it is still called a "wheat field". This is the case when the wild patch of land is first transformed from weeds to seeds. It continues to be the case when the resilient weeds seem to be the dominant note of the garden. At no point is it a weed field once it has been claimed and called a "wheat field" by its owner. The owner will go to great lengths to ensure the field becomes what He already calls it: bountiful, fruitful, and wheat -- every inch of every acre. Until then, may the wheat field be comforted even when seeing weeds here and there, for your Master has plans to eradicate those and in the meantime continues to call you, "wheat." 

"Simul justus et peccator." --- Martin Luther (at the same time justified and a sinner)

All saints are sinners, but they are called by the name "saint."

All days include a night, but are collectively called "days."

day no. 15,786: hitting a triple

“We are fond of talking about 'liberty'; but the way we end up actually talking of it is an attempt to avoid discussing what is 'good.' We are fond of talking about 'progress'; that is a dodge to avoid discussing what is good. We are fond of talking about 'education'; that is a dodge to avoid discussing what is good. The modern man says, 'Let us leave all these arbitrary standards and embrace unadulterated liberty.' This is, logically rendered, 'Let us not decide what is good, but let it be considered good not to decide it.' He says, 'Away with your old moral standard; I am for progress.' This, logically stated, means, 'Let us not settle what is good; but let us settle whether we are getting more of it.'  He says, 'Neither in religion nor morality, my friend, lie the hopes of the race, but in education.' This, clearly expressed, means, 'We cannot decide what is good, but let us give it to our children.'" ― G.K. Chesterton, Heretics

The ignored presupposition and malady behind the modern mind is the failure to ask, "by what standard?"

Liberty is asserted without asking, "free from what?
Progress is assumed without asking, "progressing toward what?"
Education is embraced without asking, "knowing what?"

We want to be free; but without knowing from or for what, we find ourselves enslaved. Feelings promise freedom, but make for cruel, unrelenting taskmasters in the end. We want to advance; but without knowing from or to what, we find ourselves on repeat. Aiming all our creative energies at solving problems instead of acknowledging trade-offs leads to inventing the old problems all over again. We want to be intelligent; but without knowing up from down, we find ourselves ignorant. Abandoning objectivity is imagined to open up the picture, but in reality, deleting the frame abandons the picture. Without borders and boundaries, it is impossible to know where the picture begins or ends. Without definition, it ceases to be.

Yet liberty, progress, and education are inescapable. The world can redefine them, but they cannot graduate beyond them. It is compelled to justify itself as right, free, advanced, and educated; but without objective mechanisms it is left merely to redefine the terms in order to achieve them -- as though renaming first base "third" made hitting a triple easier.

day no. 15,785: discipline is freedom

"Discipline yourself and others won't need to." -- John Wooden, Wooden on Leadership

There will be discipline. It is inescapable. The question is whether you will take responsibility to do it yourself or if you will force someone else to do it for you. 

Proverbs 25:28
He that hath no rule over his own spirit is like a city that is broken down, and without walls.

If you refuse to discipline yourself and reject the discipline that is imposed upon you by those who love you, you will be disciplined by the consequences of trying to live without discipline.  A city without walls is vulnerable. It is disciplined by the consequences of refusing to construct and/or man it's walls. If you want to be free from vulnerability, you cannot be free of walls. If you want the freedom of security, you need to erect walls of discipline and have means to defend and watch over them.

Song of Solomon 2:15
Catch the foxes for us, the little foxes that spoil the vineyards, for our vineyards are in blossom

A fenced garden is free from foxes, an unfenced one is free for the taking.

The fenced garden has a defense, the unfenced one is left defenseless.

Titus 2:1-6

But as for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine. Older men are to be sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith, in love, and in steadfastness. Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled. Likewise, urge the younger men to be self-controlled.

Self-control is sound doctrine. Those who have it, teach it. Those who need it must be taught it.  Those who will not accept or exercise it  are not free to call themselves Christian.

"Discipline equals freedom." -- Jocko Wilink

day no. 15,784: no snooze button for the belly

Richard Weaver rightly observed, "Thoughts and ideas have consequences." If the understanding is off, the activities that follow will be off. Behaviors flow out of beliefs. Our theology comes out our fingertips. If our understanding is bent, our undertakings will be too.

“We only progress in sound living as we progress in sound understanding... No man indulges an error of judgment, without sooner or later tolerating an error in practice.” — Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Morning and Evening

An imperfection in the cornerstone has implications for the rest of the building. Thinking precedes doing and nothing can be thought without infecting what is done. In other words, whatever is done is a product of something previously thought or in many cases, a failure to think. For unthinking minds are carried along by unthinking bodies and if the mind won't do the heavy lifting of thinking, the body will continue on with its habit of doing. While the mind can resist the urge to meditate, the body cannot abandon its urge to scratch and consume. A man's mind may hit the snooze button, but his belly cannot.

Philippians 3:19

Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things.

day no. 15,783: directional

Proverbs 4:26
Ponder the path of thy feet,
and let all thy ways be established.

Direction determines destination. The best indicator of where you'll end up is what direction you're currently headed. If your feet are facing east, then further east is a reasonable expectation of where you'll be by the day's end. Unless you're walking backwards. In which case, turn around. Unless you're approaching Medusa. In which case, you've got bigger problems.

"A destination is meaningless, however, without directions on how to get there." -- John Wooden, Wooden on Leadership

You must know where you want to go and you must point your feet in that direction, but there remains a need for guidance on how to traverse the obstacles of the path, how to make it uphill without giving up or downhill without slipping and falling head over heels. Direction then requires directions. Not just where to go, but how to go about it.

God, in His Word, has given us clear instruction as to the destination at which we should aim, the direction in which we should go and the directions on how to ensure that we get there.

day no. 15,782: calling upon the armies to march

Exodus 6:26
These are that Aaron and Moses, to whom the Lord said, "Bring out the children of Israel from the land of Egypt according to their armies."

While reading Toby Sumpter's Blood-Bought World, he commented on the passage above by saying,

"The word for 'armies' or 'hosts' is tsabaoth. It's used six time in the book of Exodus, and it never refers to soldiers of Pharaoh. It always refers to the children of Israel. Let that sink in. The story of the Exodus is not merely a rescue story. It is not merely an emancipation story. It's a conquest story. We tend to think the king of Egypt as a paranoid despot, greedy and consolidating. But his fear that 'there falleth out any war' and they might 'join also unto our enemies, and fight against us, and so get them up out of the land.' (Exod. 1:10) actually turns out to have been ironic prescience. Yahweh is the 'enemy' whom the Pharaoh chose to pick a fight with, and He did declare war on Egypt. And Israel was drawn into the fight, joined this enemy of Egypt, and did get them up out of the land."

The children of Israel were organized by military divisions. They were perceived to be a threat to Egypt because they would all fight for the same team, under the same banner, and Pharaoh suspected that banner would not be the jersey of his franchise. He was right. He produced his very fear by poking the bear when he provoked the Lord of hosts to march His hosts out of Egypt. God led them through the sea and into the promised land and Pharaoh and his men, for their part, were left vanquished and underwater. God called His armies to march and as they obeyed by faith, putting one foot in front of the other, they stepped into freedom.

Later Sumpter goes on to say,

"But what about Pharaoh's armies? As Pharaoh's heart completely hardens and he realized what he has done in allowing Israel to leave, he assembles his chariots and captains. 'But the Egyptians pursued after them, all the horses and chariots of Pharaoh, and his horsemen, and his army, and overtook them encamping by the sea' (14:9). Only Pharaoh does not actually have an 'army.' The Hebrews says that he has 'strength.' Or again the Lord say, 'And I, behold, I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians, and they shall follow them; and I will get me honour upon Pharaoh, and upon all his host, upon his chariots, and upon his horsemen' (14:17).  And yet, the Hebrew actually says that Pharaoh has chariots and horsemen, but strictly speaking he has no 'host.' Again, the word is 'strength.' Only Yahweh has a host. Only the Lord has armies. Pharaoh has chariots and captains and horsemen and his own strength. But Pharaoh has no armies."

The world relies upon its own strength and wields it wildly in response to its disorganized cravings and desires. The children of Israel, the armies of God, march according to their military divisions, in an orderly fashion, under control, under authority, under God. Chaos cannot march, it can only riot; but the meek follow footsteps into the well-ordered and established land of promise.

day no. 15,781: the blessing of Rebekah, mother of millions

Genesis 24:60
And they blessed Rebekah, and said unto her, "Thou art our sister, be thou the mother of thousands of millions, and let thy seed possess the gate of those which hate them."

Now that's how you give a toast; what a wedding speech! -- not merely sweet talk sentimentality reminiscing and relaying personal anecdotes, but vision casting, blessing, faith and the future.

May my daughters be the mothers of thousands of millions. May they all be their mother's daughters in every sense of the word. May they inherit their faith, wisdom, and beauty and walk in the steps of their ancestors. May they turn a profit on what God has accomplished in this lifetime and advance the leaven through the lump more and more in each successive generation and through them. May they all vote one direction. May their convictions be nuanced and fitted to the times in which they will be born and timeless in being derived from the foundation of Jesus Christ and His apostles. May all those who oppose our great grandchildren be defeated by the grace of God and the grit and gratitude of our progeny. May the seed of the serpent be pushed back and may the gates of his kingdom not prevail against the onslaught of the faithful. May my daughter's be mothers of millions who will be resurrected to inherit the earth. May our numbers swell and cover God's green earth the way waters cover the deeps. May the blessing of Rebekah fall upon you my daughters and may the grace of God all that you do and those who will exist because of our faithfulness in fruit-bearing and child-rearing now.

*When a mother sings lullabies to her babies, she is composing the folk songs of generations and nations yet to come. She swaddles and carries in her arms the hope and faith of millions. 

Godspeed and God bless!

day no. 15,780: the prodigal sons of the republic

Luke 15:11-14
And he said, A certain man had two sons: and the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his living. And not many days after the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living. And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land; and he began to be in want.

America is like the prodigal son. She was born into a good home built upon Christian principles. And when she grew too big for her britches, she was given her portion of the fortune on demand. But the fortune was the Father's doing. She left the protection of her Father's house and began squandering her inheritance making friends with the world. But the riches, with no source now to replenish them, began to dwindle and the bank account evaporated.

This is our current cultural moment. All of our freedoms were inherited from the house in which America grew up, yet she has despised its foundation and abandoned them, wasting its riches on entertaining worldly friends. So America is poor and a famine of righteousness has begun to descend upon the land. America has not yet reached the point of want, however. She knows something is wrong and she can feel that she is broke, but hasn't hit rock bottom yet. She still refuses to turn her eyes back to her home. She still insists somehow that her upbringing is the reason she is going broke. So, rather than seeking to humbly return, she is conspiring with the world to make an assault on her former home to find more riches.

May America, like the prodigal son, find herself feeding the swine and wishing for something more, something that it used to possess, something that, Lord willing, could again be hers if she merely repented and returned in a spirit of submission.

And may the other America, the older sibling, back on the ranch, dutifully doing what has been required and enjoying the blessing of the Father's house, not resent the younger if and when she returns in humility -- for the riches she squandered, while lost opportunities, do not diminish the Father's ability to produce more.

day no. 15,779: turnt or burnt?

"Ephraim is a cake not turned" - Hosea 7:8

"A cake not turned is uncooked on one side; and so Ephraim was, in many respects, untouched by divine grace: though there was some partial obedience, there was very much rebellion left. My soul, I charge thee, see whether this be thy case. Art thou thorough in the things of God? Has grace gone through the very centre of thy being so as to be felt in its divine operations in all thy powers, thy actions, thy words, and thy thoughts? To be sanctified, spirit, soul, and body, should be thine aim and prayer; and although sanctification may not be perfect in thee anywhere in degree, yet it must be universal in its action; there must not be the appearance of holiness in one place and reigning sin in another, else thou, too, wilt be a cake not turned.

A cake not turned is soon burnt on the side nearest the fire, and although no man can have too much religion, there are some who seem burnt black with bigoted zeal for that part of truth which they have received, or are charred to a cinder with a vainglorious Pharisaic ostentation of those religious performances which suit their humour. The assumed appearance of superior sanctity frequently accompanies a total absence of all vital godliness. The saint in public is a devil in private. He deals in flour by day and in soot by night. The cake which is burned on one side, is dough on the other.

If it be so with me, O Lord, turn me! Turn my unsanctified nature to the fire of thy love and let it feel the sacred glow, and let my burnt side cool a little while I learn my own weakness and want of heat when I am removed from thy heavenly flame. Let me not be found a double-minded man, but one entirely under the powerful influence of reigning grace; for well I know if I am left like a cake unturned, and am not on both sides the subject of thy grace, I must be consumed forever amid everlasting burnings." — Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Morning and Evening

day no. 15,777: alphabetical areas of interest January 2022

"There are no uninteresting things, only uninterested people."

- G.K. Chesterton

Interested people are interesting people.

Be interested... stay interesting.

Amish trips (been going with kids on Saturdays)

Anthem Church (what does it look like going fwd?)

Ascensional (waiting for Paige's revisions to print off 2.0)

Babel (praying God confuses the communications of His enemies again... and soon)

Bananagrams (got for Xmas, been playing with Nen)

Bombadil (new book by C.R. Wiley excited to read)

Books (300 two years in a row! go for a hat trick?)

Canon Press (picking up the pace lately, excited to see what they pump out in 2022)

Church (need to find place to worship in person on a regular basis)

Couchechism (need to pick back up once Advent/12 Days of Xmas season)

Crosspolitic Daily Newsbrief (listening daily)

C.R. Wiley (began following Postmillitant on IG!)

Dinner Dance Time (introduced songs based on meals last year)

Dinner Time Bell (began ringing to rally the hungry troops)

Eating (love Feast season, but am ready to be back on normal diet)

Fight Laugh Feast Conference (waiting to see details about Fall Conference)

Gashmu Saith It (new book by Doug Wilson excited to read)

Gloria Patri (fun listening to little girls participate in singing on Sundays)

Good Charlotte (kids have enjoyed first two albums on Amish trips)

Good To Be A Man (new book by Michael Foster excited to read)

Graphic Novels (Atticus is interested in producing his own YA ones)

Halibather Chronicles (new book by Penelope I got for Christmas)

Headaches (been having some more serious ones again after a long lull)

High School (Atticus and Penelope will be there in only a few years)

Intermittent Fasting (3 yrs in and still my diet plan sans Sunday - Christian Warrior Diet!)

Josh and Josiah (continue plodding through books with them in 2022)

Korn (recently revisited, had forgotten just how angry they were)

Kids (love being a dad, now have 8 littles calling me, "dad")

Leavenworth (move closer for Christ Church?)

Linkin Park (Hybrid Theory/Meteora in van, "One More Light" on Youtube)

Lord of the Rings (looking to finish series for first time this year)

Lord's Prayer (implemented into Sabbath Liturgy)

Mandate (will I still have a job?)

MCRx (kids love Welcome to the Black Parade album)

Monthly Melodies (began w/ "June Hymn" last year during dad time)

Move??? (if? where? when? why?)

19 Crimes (love their Shiraz and drink on Sundays for Sabbath meals)

1917 (watched w/ Atticus for first time recently)

Omicron (the common cold never got so much pub)

Ophelia Belle (almost 3 weeks old!)

Ozymandias (hoping to see the facade fall in 2022)

Postmillitant (over 700 followers on IG, now posting 4x a day, hoping to crest 1k)

Presbyterianism (continuing to enjoy what I'm learning, especially Sunday liturgy)

Proverb of the Day (drawing pictures for Atticus to copy each night)

Psalm Singing (have learned several this year and am excited to learn more!)

Quarantine (can't believe it's still a thing after 2 years)

Raise (hoping for one in April)

Rally (no FLF Rally this Spring. Bummer!

Sum 41 (listened to on one Amish trip, Atticus liked it)

Table (finished stripping, sanding, pre-staining, staining, and sealing!!!)

Treadmill (been hit or miss during holidays, ready to get back to the regs)

Underwriting Sr. (received promotion in September!)

Vespers (has developed: convocation, prayer, singing & benediction)

Walks (haven't done morning one since Thanksgiving, looking to getting back on track)

Weight (gained some lbs. with Paige being pregnant)

Weird Al Yankovic (introduced kids "Christmas at Ground Zero" & "Night Santa Went Crazy")

While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks (recently introduced to me by Christ Church)

Wingfeather Saga (just began 4th book in the series, excited to see how it ends!)

Wodehouse (looking fwd to reading my first Wodehouse novel)

Work (been off since Ophelia was born, going back on the 4th)

Xtra cash (will Joe Dough continue in 2022?)

Yellowcard (thinking about revisiting these guys)

Yelling (seen an uptick in little girls raising voices, need to nip in the bud)

Zzzzs (haven't been sleeping well lately)

day no. 15,778: a year in books, 2021 edition

1.   The Fellowship of the Ring - J.R.R. Tolkien

2.   The Art of War - Sun Tzu

3.   Introduction to Athanasius’ On the Incarnation - C.S. Lewis

4.   Beowulf - translated by Frances B. Grummere

5.   The Priest of Spring - G.K. Chesterton

6.   Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury

7.   Pilgrim’s Progress - John Bunyan

8.   The Last Battle - C.S. Lewis

9.   Pilgrim’s Progress, Part II: Christiana’s Story - John Bunyan

10. The Missing Three-Quarter - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

11.  The Screwtape Letters - C.S. Lewis

12.  Parenting: 14 Gospel Principles - Paul David Tripp

13.  The Princess and the Goblin - George MacDonald

14.  The President’s Advisory 1776 Commission - Various Authors

15.  Evangeline: A Tale of Acadie - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

16.  30 Theses on Culture Shaping - New Saint Andrews College

17.  The Raven - Edgar Allan Poe

18.  The Black Cat - Edgar Allan Poe

19.  The Cask of Amontillado - Edgar Allan Poe

20.  The Masque of the Red Death - Edgar Allan Poe

21.  The Purloined Letter - Edgar Allan Poe

22.  Some Aspects of the Grotesque in Southern Fiction - Flannery O'Connor 

23,  A Good Man is Hard to Find - Flannery O’Connor

24,  The Life You Save May Be Your Own - Flannery O’Connor

25.  A Temple of the Holy Ghost - Flannery O’Connor

26.  A Diary of Private Prayer - John Baillie

January

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27. The Pit and the Pendulum - Edgar Allan Poe

28. The Fall of the House of Usher - Edgar Allan Poe

29. Everything That Rises Must Converge - Flannery O’Connor

30. The Barber - Flannery O’Connor

31. The Geranium - Flannery O’Connor

32. The Man of Science - Jerome K. Jerome

33. John Charrington’s Wedding - Edith Nesbit

34. The Man and the Snake - Ambrose Bierce

35. The Monkey’s Paw - W.W. Jacobs

36. The Tell Tale Heart - Edgar Allan Poe

37. Parker’s Back - Flannery O’Connor

38. Good Country People - Flannery O’Connor

39. The River - Flannery O’Connor

40. Revelation - Flannery O’Connor

41. Peter and the Wolf - Sergei Prokofiev

42. An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge - Ambrose Bierce

43. The Action Bible - Sergio Cariello

44. The Screwtape Letters - C.S. Lewis

45. Notes from the Tilt-A-Whirl - N.D. Wilson

46. The Empty House - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

47. Andrew and the Firedrake - Douglas Wilson

48. The Six Napoleons - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

48. The Golden Pince-nez - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

49. The Ballad of the White Horse - G.K. Chesterton

50. 100 Cupboards - N.D. Wilson

51. And There is None Beside - Douglas Wilson

52. Bad Blood - Atticus J.R. Van Voorst

53. Song of Shulamith - Douglas Wilson

54. The Weight of Glory - C.S. Lewis

55. Where the Sidewalk Ends - Shel Silverstein

56. The Three Students - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

57. An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge - Ambrose Bierce

58. Wildcat - Flannery O’Connor

59. Why Do the Heathen Rage? - Flannery O’Connor

60. Beowulf - translated by Seamus Heaney

61. The Turkey - Flannery O’Connor

62. The Naval Treaty - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

63. Enoch and the Gorilla - Flannery O’Connor

64. My 1st Book of Questions and Answers - Carine MacKenzie

65. Heaven Misplaced - Douglas Wilson

66. The Little Mermaid - Hans Christian Andersen

67. The Crop - Flannery O’Connor

68. The Highwayman - Alfred Noyes

69. The Illustrious Client - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

70. Dragons and Dragonslayers - Tim Chester

71. Letters to Malcolm - C.S. Lewis

72. Dulce Et Decorum Est and Other Poems  - Wilfred Owen, Various Authors

73. Everything On It - Shel Silverstein

February

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74. Boyhood and Beyond - Bob Schultz

75. The Abolition of Man - C.S. Lewis

76. The Biggest Story - Kevin DeYoung

77. The Usher of Lea House School - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

78. The Dragon and the Garden - N.D. Wilson

79. In The Time of Noah - N.D. Wilson

80. The Sword of Abram - N.D. Wilson

81. The Four Loves - C.S. Lewis

82. The Giving Tree - Shel Silverstein

83. The Wasteland - T.S. Eliot

84. The Four Quartets - T.S. Eliot

85. The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock - T.S. Eliot

86. The Lame Shall Enter First - Flannery O’Connor

87. Dulce Et Decorum Est and Other Poems  - Wilfred Owen, Various Authors

88. The Book of the Seventh Seal - Douglas Wilson

89. Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold - C.S. Lewis

90. Dangerous Journey - John Bunyan

91. This is the Gospel - Trish Mahoney

92. The Chorus of Creation - Kristen and Kevin Howdeshell

93. Cautionary Tales for Children - Hilaire Belloc

94. Pilgrim’s Regress - C.S. Lewis

95. The Law - Frederic Bastiat

96. A Grief Observed - C.S. Lewis

97. The Ballad of the White Horse - G.K. Chesterton

98. Standing on the Promises: A Handbook of Biblical Child-rearing -  Douglas Wilson

99. The Great Divorce - C.S. Lewis

100. Surprised by Joy  - C.S. Lewis

March

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101. Getting Started with Latin - William E. Linney

102. The Four Loves  - C.S. Lewis

103. The Abolition of Man - C.S. Lewis

104. The Weight of Glory  - C.S. Lewis

105. Wise Words - Peter J. Leithart

106. The Screwtape Letters  - C.S. Lewis

107. Vindiciae Contra Tyrannos - Junius Brutus

108. Thoughts For Young Men - J.C. Ryle

109. The Problem of Pain  - C.S. Lewis

110. Worlds Between Worlds - Penelope Van Voorst

111. Cousin Companions - Douglas Wilson

112. The Winter King - Christine Cohen

113. Miracles  - C.S. Lewis

114. Letters to Malcolm  - C.S. Lewis

115. The Little Mermaid - Hans Christian Andersen

116. An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge - Ambrose Bierce

117. My 1st Book of Christian Values - Carine Mackenzie

118. Dragons and Dragonslayers - Tim Chester

119. Dracula - Bram Stoker

120. Dulce Et Decorum Est and Other Poems  - Wilfred Owen, Various Authors

April

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121. The Law - Frederic Bastiat

122. The Masque of the Red Death - Edgar Allan Poe

123. The Lost Tools of Learning - Dorothy L. Sayers

124. Mere Christianity - C.S. Lewis

125. The Divine Right of Resistance - Dr. Phillip Kayser

126. The Ransom Trilogy: Out of the Silent Planet  - C.S. Lewis

127. Fight Laugh Feast 1.0: Weapons for this War - Various Authors

128. Ascensional - Todd Henry Van Voorst

129. Beowulf - translated by Seamus Heaney

130. Slaying Leviathan - Glenn S. Sunshine

131. The Ransom Trilogy: Perelandra - C.S. Lewis

132. Fight Laugh Feast 2.1: Joy & Strength - Various Authors

133. The Apple and the Arrow - Mary and Conrad Buff

134. The Ransom Trilogy: That Hideous Strength  - C.S. Lewis

135. The Ballad of the White Horse - G.K. Chesterton

136. The Ology: Ancient Truths Ever New - Marty Machowski

137. Cardboard - Doug TenNapel

May

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138. Fortunately, the Milk - Neil Gaiman

139. Heretics - G.K. Chesterton

140. Orthodoxy - G.K. Chesterton

141. Ghostopolis - Doug TenNapel

142. Falling Up - Shel Silverstein

143. The Dragon and the Garden - N.D. Wilson

144. In The Time of Noah - N.D. Wilson

145. The Sword of Abram - N.D. Wilson

146. It Was the War of the Trenches - Atticus Van Voorst

147. The Everlasting Man - G.K. Chesterton

148. The Biggest Story - Kevin DeYoung

149. Tommysaurus Rex - Doug TenNapel

150. Animal Farm - George Orwell

151. Ref Toons: Collection 1 - Ray Cox. 

152. The Giving Tree - Shel Silverstein

153. How Should We Then Live? - Francis Schaeffer

154. Seven Reasons Why You Can Trust The Bible - Erwin W. Lutzer

155. The Fates of Empires - Sir John Glubb

156. Creature Tech - Doug TenNapel

157. Lord of the Flies - William Golding

June

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158. More Laugh Out Loud Jokes for Kids - Rob Elliott

159. A Light in the Attic - Shel Silverstein

160. My 1st Book of Christian Values - Carine Mackenzie

161. Cardboard - Doug TenNapel

162. The Wingfeather Saga: On the Edge of the Sea of Darkness - Andrew Peterson

163. Fight Laugh Feast 2.2: In the Presence of My Enemies - Various Authors

164. Cautionary Tales for Children - Hilaire Belloc

165. Mary Poppins - P.L. Travers

166. One Day in the Eucalyptus, Eucalyptus Tree - Daniel Bernstrom

167. This is the Gospel - Trish Mahoney

168. The Chorus of Creation - Kristen and Kevin Howdeshell

169. The Master and Margarita - Mikhail Bulgakov

170. The Raven - Edgar Allan Poe

171. Black Cat - Edgar Allan Poe

172. The Tell Tale Heart - Edgar Allan Poe

173. The Cask of Amontillado - Edgar Allan Poe

174. The Masque of the Red Death - Edgar Allan Poe

175. The Dragon and the Garden - N.D. Wilson

176. In The Time of Noah - N.D. Wilson

177. The Sword of Abram - N.D. Wilson

178. The Purloined Letter - Edgar Allan Poe

179. The Pit and the Pendulum - Edgar Allan Poe

180. The Fall of the House of Usher - Edgar Allan Poe

181. Underwear Do's and Don'ts - Todd Parr

182. The Fates of Empires - Sir John Glubb

183. The 4th of July Story - Alice Dalgleish

184. The Search for Survival - Sir John Glubb

185. The Ox-Cart Man - Donald Hall

186. The Law - Frederic Bastiat

187. It Was the War of the Trenches - Atticus Van Voorst

188. Beowulf - translated by Seamus Heaney

189. Brains: It’s the End! Vol 1 & 2 - Finneas Van Voorst

190. Ghostopolis - Doug TenNapel

191. The Abolition of Man - C.S. Lewis

192. Tommysaurus Rex - Doug TenNapel

193. The Four Loves - C.S. Lewis

194. A Grief Observed - C.S. Lewis

195. Ratfist - Doug TenNapel

196. Letters to Malcolm - C.S. Lewis

197. Bad Island - Doug TenNapel

July

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198. The Great Divorce - C.S. Lewis

199. Nnewts, Book One: Escape from the Lizzarks - Doug TenNapel

200. The Screwtape Letters - C.S. Lewis

201. Nnewts, Book Two: The Rise of Herk - Doug TenNapel

202. John Knox: Stalwart Courage - Douglas Wilson

203. The Weight of Glory - C.S. Lewis

204. Some Aspects of the Grotesque in Southern Fiction - Flannery O'Connor 

205, A Good Man is Hard to Find - Flannery O’Connor

206. Where the Sidewalk Ends - Shel Silverstein

207. The Life You Save May Be Your Own - Flannery O’Connor

208. The Barber - Flanney O’Connor

209. A Temple of the Holy Ghost - Flannery O’Connor

210. Everything That Rises Must Converge - Flannery O’Connor

211. The Fates of Empires - Sir John Glubb

212. 300 - Frank Miller

213. The Search for Survival - Sir John Glubb

214. The Law - Frederic Bastiat

215. Nnewts, Book Three: The Battle for Amphibopolis - Doug TenNapel

216. On the Shortness of Life - Seneca

217. Introduction to Athanasius’ On the Incarnation - C.S. Lewis

218. Beauty and the Beast - Andrew Lang

219. Lord Kitchener - G.K. Chesterton

220. Introduction to the Book of Job - G.K. Chesterton

221. Magic - G.K. Chesterton

August

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222. The Appetite of Tyranny - G.K. Chesterton

223. Newspaper Columns: The New Witness 1921 - G.K. Chesterton

224. The House with the Mezzanine - Anton Chekhov

225. Creature Tech - Doug TenNapel

226. 300 - Frank Miller

227. The Problem of Pain - C.S. Lewis

228. A Reformed Catholic - William Perkins

229. Everything On It - Shel Silverstein

230. Father Fox’s Pennyrhymes - Clyde Watson

231. Fortunately, the Milk - Neil Gaiman

232. Earthworm Jim: Launch the Cow! - Doug TenNapel

233. Mere Christianity - C.S. Lewis

234. Earthworm Jim 2: Fight the Fish! - Doug TenNapel

235. Bigfoot Bill: Shadow of the Mothman - Doug TenNapel

236. Miracles - C.S. Lewis

237. Bigfoot Bill 2: Finger of Poseidon - Doug TenNapel

238. Bigfoot Bill 3: Born Twice - Doug TenNapel

239. Food Catholic - Douglas Wilson

240. Surprised by Joy - C.S. Lewis

September

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241. 300 - Frank Miller

242. The Pilgrim’s Regress - C.S. Lewis 

243. Till We Have Faces - C.S. Lewis

244. The Art of War - Sun Tzu

245. Ratfist - Doug TenNapel

246. The Law - Frederic Bastiat

247. The Holy Bible (RSV) - Holy Spirit

248. Papa Don’t Pope - Douglas Wilson

249. The Fates of Empires - Sir John Glubb

250. The Search for Survival - Sir John Glubb

251. The Declaration of Independence - Thomas Jefferson, Committee of Five

252. Dulce Et Decorum Est and Other Poems  - Wilfred Owen, Various Authors

253. The Ballad of the White Horse - G.K. Chesterton

254. Magic - G.K. Chesterton

255. The Wingfeather Saga: North! Or Be Eaten - Andrew Peterson

256. Newspaper Columns: The New Witness 1921 - G.K. Chesterton

257. Introduction to Athanasius’ On the Incarnation - C.S. Lewis

258. On the Incarnation - St. Athanasius

259. Wine, Water, and Song - G.K. Chesterton

260. How to Exasperate Your Wife and Other Short Essays for Men - Douglas Wilson

261. Miscellaneous Essays - G.K. Chesterton

262. The Wild Knight and Other Poems - G.K. Chesterton

263. Post Tenebras Lux - Paul Cox

264. A Light in the Attic - Shel Silverstein

265. Here We Stand: A 31-Day Journey with Heroes of the Reformation - Desiring God

October

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266. The Cremation of Sam McGee - Robert W. Service

267. The Landlady - Roald Dahl

268. The Giving Tree - Shel Silverstein

269. A Different Shade of Green - Gordon Wilson

270. Wit and Wisdom - G.K. Chesterton

271. The Trees of Pride - G.K. Chesterton 

272. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens

273. Eugenics and Other Evils - G.K. Chesterton

274. An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge - Ambrose Bierce

275. Travels with Charley - John Steinbeck

276. Economics in One Lesson - Henry Hazlitt

277. What Is Seen and What Is Not Seen - Frederic Bastiat

278. The Thanksgiving Story - Alice Dalgliesh

279. Falling up - Shel Silverstein

280. The Temple - George Herbert

November

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281. Head Coverings - K.P. Yohannan

282. The Ransom Trilogy: Out of the Silent Planet  - C.S. Lewis

283. A Brief Theology of Christmas Presents - Douglas Wilson

284. Fight Laugh Feast 2.3: Defy Tyrants - Various Authors

285. The Emotional Life of Our Lord  - B.B. Warfield

286. The Ransom Trilogy: Perelandra - C.S. Lewis

287. The Holy Bible: New Testament (Modernized Geneva Bible) - Holy Spirit

288. The Ransom Trilogy: That Hideous Strength  - C.S. Lewis

289. Cousin Companions - Douglas Wilson

290. The Abolition of Man - C.S. Lewis

291. The Wingfeather Saga: The Monster in the Hollows - Andrew Peterson

292. Empires of Dirt - Douglas Wilson

293. The Four Loves - C.S. Lewis

294. Dangerous Journey - John Bunyan

295. Letters to Malcolm - C.S. Lewis

296. Jesus Christ, Forgiver of Our Sins: The Advent of Christmas - Penelope Van Voorst

297. Farmer Takes A Wife - John Gould

298. The Biggest Story - Kevin DeYoung

299. The Screwtape Letters - C.S. Lewis

300. The Dragon and the Garden - N.D. Wilson

301. In The Time of Noah - N.D. Wilson

302. The Sword of Abram - N.D. Wilson

303. The Chorus of Creation - Kristen and Kevin Howdeshell

304. This is the Gospel - Trish Mahoney

305. Ploductivity - Douglas Wilson

306. God Rest Ye Merry - Douglas Wilson

307. My Utmost for His Highest - Oswald Chambers

December

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