day no. 15,834: the certainty of the cross

Matthew 9:4-6

But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, "Why do you think evil in your hearts? For which is easier, to say, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Rise and walk'? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins"-he then said to the paralytic-"Rise, pick up your bed and go home."

How were people saved before Jesus died? The same way we are not saved, by His blood. The cross is such a fixed certainty, that it could be trusted in advance to compete its work just as it can now be trusted in retrospect for what it did.

During Jesus' earthly ministry He forgave sins. On what basis? His blood. But how so? His blood wasn't poured out yet. It was still pumping through His veins and animating His person with vitality. Yet, the certainty of the Savior's submission and the perfection of the Father's plan was so secure, it could forgive sins even while the Sacrifice walked and talked. Sins were forgive on the basis of what He would do. His blood was always as good as poured. So certain, in fact, that Jesus could forgive sins in the present for what He was going to do in the future.

The cross was never a question. It was always a fixed linchpin on which past, present, and future sin is forgiven completely.

Our sins are forgiven on the certainty of the cross.

day no. 15,833: story time

"Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past." -- George Orwell, 1984

History is the story of us and story always wins.

The past is the objective point off which the present is measured and the future is calculated. Without a firm, stubborn past, terms like advance and progress are meaningless and subjective. Therefore, those looking to do war on objective reality in the present know they must first launch an assault on the past. The past must be rewritten before present atrocities can be applauded and once rewritten, there's no telling what their editors may have in store for us tomorrow.

History is loyal, faithful, dependable, indomitable, immutable, immovable, uncompromising and always on your six. When history has your back, you can face anything.

day no. 15,832: God fulfills because He is faithful

Joshua 21:45

Not one word of all the good promises that the LORD had made to the house of Israel had failed; all came to pass.

God is the only promise-keeper. He is the only one with the jurisdiction to guarantee an outcome. In His sovereign will, He can decree what will come to pass. He is faithful to His Word because of His character. He is faithful to His Word because of His competence. In other words, He can do what He says He will do because of His ability and He always does what He said He would because of His integrity.

1 Thessalonians 5:24

Faithful is He that calleth you, who also will do it.

God fulfills because He is faithful. He makes promises He isn't required to make and keeps promises He could understandably break. But He still makes them and He still keeps them. He keeps His Word because He can and because He wants to. He commits Himself because He desires to bind Himself.

"Love is not blind; that is the last thing that it is. Love is bound; and the more it is bound the less it is blind." - G.K. Chesterton

God is not caught off guard. He always knows what He is getting Himself into. He is not blind to the costs, He binds Himself to them. He counts the costs beforehand and He pays them in full when they come due.

2 Corinthians 1:20

For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us.

God bound Himself to His Word, therefore His Word was bound to a cross. 

day no. 15,831: world without end... and amen.

“It is only when one loves life and the earth so much that without them everything seems to be over that one can believe in the resurrection and a new world.” — Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison

Resurrected bodies will need somewhere to live. Perfected and glorified bodies will need a perfectly glorified place to play. The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein (Ps 24:1). The Christian belief in resurrection is not limited to the value of the soul, but expands to the value of the stuff. The Word did not become flesh in order to teach immaterialism. The Word materialized in order to confirm the value of the material and to redeem all of it back as the second Adam. The first Adam’s sin had profound spiritual and material consequence. The second Adam’s sacrifice has profound spiritual and material consequence.

One danger of being too heavenly minded is that spiritual realities like the resurrection of the body and the new earth become muted and longing for a corporeal eternality replaces one for a world without end. Only those who receive their lives, breath, and everything else as gifts from God aspire to retain them as eternal opportunities of gratitude. The meek inherit the earth because, as mentioned before, they're the only ones who want to be there. The meek are resurrected to eternal life because they are the only ones who want to live that way. The high-minded find the world too dirty and beneath them and could gladly be done with all of it; the low-minded find it too clean and above them and gladly await the day when they're made clean enough to fully enjoy it.

day no. 15,830: idolatry is not only a sin... it's a drag

"When the Lord musters His accusations against the people of the Lord, He charges them for missing this. 'Because thou servedst not the Lord thy God with joyfulness, fulness, and with gladness of heart, for the abundance of all things' (Dt. 28:47). As the Lord sums up all the curses He would bring upon the people for disobedience, He tells them in effect that they will be expelled from the land for not having had a good enough time there. The godly have learned that idolatry is a sin; they have not yet fully learned that idolatry is a drag. 'For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised: he also is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the people are idols: but the Lord made the heavens. Glory and honour are in his presence; strength and gladness are in his place' (I Chron. 16:25-27)." - Douglas Wilson, Angels in the Architecture

The meek inherit the earth because, in the end, they are the only ones who want it. Those who refuse to enjoy God's gifts in this world won't be able to enjoy them in the one that is to come. They couldn't even if they wanted to... which they don't. Idolatry is not merely turning away from God to other things, but turning away from any ability to really enjoy anything .Those who cannot be grateful when surrounded by great abundance cannot be satisfied by even greater abundance. So idolatry is not only a sin, it's a drag. It's willful ignorance when it comes to fun. It is paying for the cake and refusing to eat it, hearing the music and refusing to dance, having a marriage bed and sleeping somewhere else.

day no. 15,829: rally caps

"Only one thing can account for it — the love of God in Christ Jesus. 'Out of the wreck I rise' every time." -- Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest

When we pray for revival and reformation, we are putting on our rally caps. We are sitting in the dug out and looking up at the scoreboard with hope. Whatever the deficit, we turn our hats inside out in unison and pray for the next batter to lay the foundation of a comeback. We begin by getting on base and it grows to getting them into scoring position and it ends with a walk off hit which clinches the victory. 

Rally. Rally. Rally. Rally. Rally.

Micah 7:8

Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy: when I fall, I shall arise; when I sit in darkness, the Lord shall be a light unto me.

However fakakta the score, we know what's in store. So hats inside out and backwards boys. It's going to be a barn-burner.

day no. 15,828: someone else's fire

"We were better off, I believe, letting them adjust to us. My belief was that we'd be stronger executing our system at the highest possible level than trying to change each week depending on who the opponent was." -- John Wooden, Wooden on Leadership

We are better off being someone else's fire than we are being everyone else's firefighters. Our best bet is always what we believe to be best, not combating what others believe to be best.

If someone else's fire is your focus, you spend your time worried about them burning your stuff down. But if you focus on your fire, spending your time adding gas to what you care most about, you make yourself into someone else's fire. When that happens, they spend their time trying to put your work out instead of building or protecting their own strongholds. 

One of the best ways to demolish enemy strongholds is to be such a time consuming problem for them that they neglect their own fortresses. We must always be careful not to fall victim to this tactic from the other direction in abandoning our posts for the sake of worrying about their progress.

Proverbs 26:20

Where no wood is, there the fire goeth out

If your enemy is busy about your fire, they are lazy about their own. If they are spending their energies on water in order to put out your fire, they are negligent in finding wood to keep their own going.

Ecclesiastes 10:18

By much slothfulness the building decayeth; and through idleness of the hands the house droppeth through.

We can destroy enemy strongholds merely by distracting them with the building of ours.

All that said, spend more time pouring into your passions than trying to find water to pour onto someone else's.

day no. 15,827: respect all. fear none.

"Respect all. Fear none." -- John Wooden, Wooden on Leadership

Romans 13:7

Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed.

We respect our enemies best by refusing to fear them. They are owed our opposition and we gladly give it to them. We respect them as adversaries by opposing them to the best of our abilities.  We do not honor or respect them by opposing them weakly. 

If we fail to show up because we fear them, we not only disrespect them, but our God. If we do not fight them and push back against them as hard as we could or should because we're distracted by our timidity, we fail to respect them and our God.

We respect every opponent by not fearing any of them.  If we underestimate their ability to hurt us or undervalue our need to rise to the occasion in front of us, we fail to respect our enemies properly. 

Luke 12:4-5

And I say unto you my friends, Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: Fear him, which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear him.

We should spend our respect on others and reserve our fear for God alone. We should be charitable with our respect and frugal with our fear.

day no. 15,826: when we forget the future and pass over the past

"The good things of life — truth, justice, beauty — all great accomplishments need time, constancy and 'memory,' or they degenerate. Those who feel neither responsibility toward the past nor desire to shape the future are those who 'forgets' and I do not know how one can really get at such people and bring them to their senses.” — Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison

Good things are cultivated and curated over time. It requires consistent remembering in small faithfulness over long amounts of time. Without effort, we forget. Without taking heed, we drift away.

Hebrews 2:1

Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip. 

Those who refuse to take heed of the past or to take hold of the future live entirely in the moment and for the moment and like a moment evaporate in a flash. They are timeless in the same way that wanderers are homeless in that they belong to no time. But not because they are eternal. That would be to belong to all times. But a homeless man does not belong to all homes. He hangs his hat in none of them. Neither do those who forget the future and pass over the past belong to any time. Not because they're boundlessly eternal, but because they are so insistingly temporal.

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

day no. 15,825: we honor our fathers by fighting for our children

Shall your brethren go to war, and shall ye sit here? - Numbers 32:6

"Kindred has its obligations. The Reubenites and Gadites would have been unbrotherly if they had claimed the land which had been conquered, and had left the rest of the people to fight for their portions alone. We have received much by means of the efforts and sufferings of the saints in years gone by, and if we do not make some return to the church of Christ by giving her our best energies, we are unworthy to be enrolled in her ranks.“ — C.H. Spurgeon, Morning and Evening

We are like Reuben, Gad and half of Manasseh. We have been given land by the blood of others. We have inherited blessing. Like them, we are guilty if we do not march forward to help others enjoy what we've already obtained. We are wrong to lay down our weapons because our land has been conquered. We must march ahead for the sake of those who laid down their lives in securing our land and for the sake of those whose land remains unsecured. We cannot indulge in what we've been given without fighting to give the same privilege to our brothers.

We honor those who fought for us by fighting for those yet to come.

We honor our fathers by fighting for our children.

Reuben, Gad and half of Manaseeh had the blessing of fighting for their brothers while being able to leave their wives and little ones behind in secure places. Their brothers were still without homes and their wives and little ones still hoofing it by day and tenting it by night until cities were for them secured. 

day no. 15,824: lies belie

"Those who love a lie are not constrained by facts and can fight dirty, or not, as it pleases them. They can twist a how-do-you-do into something sinister. They craft their accusations in such a way that any and every response is more proof of their claim. Truth, on the other hand, is constrained by its own nature and the bounds of Scripture.Truth fights by the rules, and lies fight lawlessly. This might seem like an insuperable disadvantage, but there is something else to consider: Truth fights under the covenant blessing of the triune God, while lies are in the service of the devil, who loves to double-cross and abandon his own instruments. When Judas was hunting for the rope, the devil wasn’t trying to save him." -- Douglas Wilson and Randy Booth, A Justice Primer

"In fighting those who serve devils one always has this on one’s side; their Masters hate them as much as they hate us. The moment we disable the human pawns enough to make them useless to Hell, their own Masters finish the work for us. They break their tools." -- C.S. Lewis, That Hideous Strength

At first glance it seems as though falsehood has the upper hand. It can lie or tell the truth, whatever happens to suit it. Meanwhile, truth is forbidden from lying. And while it seems like this tips the scales in favor of falsehood, it only seems that way. Without truth, lies are powerless. Lies are only effective inasmuch as they are believed. Lies known to be lies are impotent. They can only inflict damage when they are believed as true. Lies need the truth in order to work -- in order to exist. But truth does not need lies. It can live without them... and someday, it will.

Revelation 21:7-8
He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son. But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.

"Truth should do what truth does the best, which is to move on straight ahead. Truth fights when it has to, but it fights in the path, in order to stay on the path. Bunyan’s pilgrim was not chasing over the meadows in order to go Apollyon-hunting. He fought, but he fought because Apollyon was in the path. We have our tasks assigned to us, and it is most important that we remain faithful in those tasks, whatever liars may say." -- Douglas Wilson and Randy Booth, A Justice Primer

Nothing is better at going straight forward than truth. While lies may have the freedom to leave the narrow path and wander, they don't have the freedom to stick to the path. Falsehood, by allowing the option of wandering, cannot avoid sometimes wandering off. It is not free to keep to the road. And while lies are off-roading and looking for wild adventure, truth is moving, plodding steadily forward like leaven advancing through the rest of the loaf.

day no. 15,823: first and best, worst and least

“I believe that even our mistakes and shortcomings are turned to good account, and that it is no harder for God to deal with them than with our supposedly good deeds.” - Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison

God uses my first and best the same way He uses my worst and least, only by His grace and mercy. 

day no. 15,822: tomorrow's faith today

“I believe that God will give us all the strength we need to help us resist in all time of distress. But God never gives it in advance, lest we should rely on ourselves and not on God alone. A faith such as this should allay our fears for the future.” - Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison

God does not command us to pray for tomorrow's bread, but today's. He does not require tomorrow's faith today. He commands us not to spend our faith in worry and anxiety about tomorrow's troubles, but to be faithful in our present circumstances, resisting the urge to go into debt over tomorrow's costs.

day no. 15,821: the strain is the the strength

In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world. — John 16:33

"An average view of the Christian life is that it means deliverance from trouble. It is deliverance in trouble, which is very different.  If you are a child of God, there certainly will be troubles to meet, but Jesus says do not be surprised when they come... God does not give us overcoming life: He gives us life as we overcome. The strain is the strength. If there is no strain, there is no strength. Are you asking God to give you life and liberty and joy? He cannot, unless you will accept the strain. Immediately you face the strain, you will get the strength. Overcome your own timidity and take the step, and God will give you to eat of the tree of life and you will get nourishment. If you spend yourself out physically, you become exhausted; but spend yourself spiritually, and you get more strength. God never gives strength for to-morrow, or for the next hour, but only for the strain of the minute. The temptation is to face difficulties from a common-sense standpoint. The saint is hilarious when he is crushed with difficulties because the thing is so ludicrously impossible to anyone but God." -- Oswald Chamber, My Utmost for His Highest

Too often we see our spiritual strength like a set of tires that wear out the more they're used, but spiritual health is more like an immune system that grows stronger the more it learns how to fight. The more it is exposed to threat the stronger it is. It is like a muscle that grows as it is exercised.

Proverbs 11:25

Whoever brings blessing will be enriched,

and one who waters will himself be watered.

Spiritual strength poured out for the glory of God and the good of others produces more spiritual strength, not less.

day no. 15,820: good good-byes

"Do not stay. I’m not dying. Seeing people off is always folly. It’s neither good mirth nor good sorrow.." - C.S. Lewis, That Hideous Strength

There are good laughs and good tears and times appropriate for both, but a bad good-bye produces neither one or the other. A prolonged send off never really scratches either itch. It dilutes the sorrow by stretching it out and minimizes the mirth through meaningless, repetitive niceties. Kind things said too many times begin to feel forced and less kind -- a classic case of subtraction by addition. Grand send offs are not the product of over-extension, but simple separation submitted to the will of God and the good will of those departing for the times they were blessed to spend together. A good good-bye is a glorious and simple thing.

day no. 15,819: logres or lunacy?

"I agree with Arthur. Those who have forgotten Logres sink into Britain. Those who call for Nonsense will find that it comes.” - C.S. Lewis, That Hideous Strength

The doctrine of the antithesis reminds us that the world is at war. (Gen. 3:15)

While worldliness is our adversary, the world is not. The battle is FOR the world. The conflict is not over the aim, but the chief aim — not over the end per se, but the means of ending there.

If worldliness and Christianity were concerned about occupying different territories, there would be no conflict, but our opposition is due to our common objective.

In other words, we fight because of what we agreed upon: the world is valuable and worth keeping.

Christianity seeks first the Kingdom in order to gain the world by inheritance through meekness whereas worldliness seeks first the world in order to gain the world by force through whatever means necessary.

Worldliness wants the world whatever the costs and ends up paying whatever comes along with it. Nonsense cannot overthrow sense, but doesn't know enough not to try. Insanity cannot work and anything that can't go on forever… won't; but, in the meantime, it doesn't know enough not to try to endure and by doing so invites all kinds of nonsense.

Lewis quite literally pits Logres versus lunacy. Logres is a reflection of deep heaven while lunacy mirrors the dark side of the moon.

day no. 15,818: carrying two days at once

Matthew 6:24-34
No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: and yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.

Worry is worship. It is faith - an unshakable belief in an unfortunate future. It is a disciple of a dire future and orients everything today around it.

Worry is a false prophet. It claims knowledge it cannot know, yet still demands obedience. It Insists you accept its predictions despite a track record of miscalculation, exaggeration and deception.


When you worry, you suffer twice. You ruin today and tomorrow still comes. You spend your day building up tomorrow’s hurdles. You wake up worn out and facing a taller wall.

“Worrying is carrying tomorrow's load with today's strength- carrying two days at once. It is moving into tomorrow ahead of time. Worrying doesn't empty tomorrow of its sorrow, it empties today of its strength.” ― Corrie Ten Boom

day no. 15,817: legacity: pack a punch

Yesterday (8/1/20), I concocted a new term, legacity.

Legacity - n, tenacious, legacy-mindedness. 

This is an assiduous approach to producing legacy. This is the long war -- aiming your efforts around training your children to raise up and train their children.

Deuteronomy 6:1-2
Now these are the commandments, the statutes, and the judgments, which the Lord your God commanded to teach you, that ye might do them in the land whither ye go to possess it: that thou mightest fear the Lord thy God, to keep all his statutes and his commandments, which I command thee, thou, and thy son, and thy son’s son, all the days of thy life; and that thy days may be prolonged.

God commanded Moses to teach fathers to teach their children to teach their children. So, a father's duty is to teach his children the commandments, statutes, and judgments of God. And one of these commands he is to teach, is that they are to someday teach their children the commandments, statutes, and judgments of God. Just as Jesus commanded His disciples to make disciples that make disciples, so He commanded His children to teach their children to teach their children. It is one in the same. Making disciples and training children are part and parcel, warp and woof.

Make babies.

Make disciples.

Train your children.

Train disciples.

Legacity is living your life in light of those lives who will bear your last name. It is creating a culture to be tangibly passed along, an inheritance in God, from God, and going to God -- something that has ancient stability, current fertility, and eternal applicability; that is, living for forever by living in the Lord right now -- loving those in front of you at your table by teaching them to love those that will be in front of them at theirs someday.

Manufacture ammunition for your great grandchildren. Store up and stockpile generational gusto.

In short, pack a punch.

You spend time and care packing your children's lunches for later?

Don't forget to pack a punch for them for dessert.

day no. 15,816: when our eyes with sleep are girt, be our hearts to Thee alert

"The ancients had a persistent sense of man's helplessness while sleeping, of the kinship of sleep with death, of the devil's cunning in making a man fall when he is defenseless. So they prayed for the protection of the holy angels and their golden weapons, for the heavenly hosts, at the time when Satan would gain power over them. Most remarkable and profound is the ancient church's prayer that when our eyes are closed in sleep God may nevertheless keep our hearts awake. It is the prayer that God may dwell with us and in us even though we are unconscious of His presence, that He may keep our hearts pure and holy in spite of all the cares and temptations of the night, to make our hearts ever alert to hear His call and, like the boy Samuel, answer Him even in the night: 'Speak, Lord; for thy servant heareth' (I Sam. 3 : 9). Even in sleep we are in the hands of God or in the power of evil. Even in sleep God can perform His wonders upon us or evil bring us to destruction. So we pray at evening: 

'When our eyes with sleep are girt,
Be our hearts to Thee alert;
Shield us, Lord, with Thy right arm,
Save us from sin's dreadful harm.' - Martin Luther

But over the night and over the day stands the word of the Psalter: 'The day is thine, the night also is thine' (Ps. 74:16)." - Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together

Sleep is often used as a euphemism for death because it has so much in common with it.  When we lay ourselves down to sleep at night, we entrust ourselves to our faithful Creator to raise us up from it as our faithful Sustainer come the morning. We entrust our hearts and heads to His protection while we retreat to a place where self-defense is incapacitated. Yet even in our sleep and dreams we can be united to Christ and made to grow in wisdom and faith. Just as we by faith will hand ourselves completely over to God after our death, we practice now by doing the same every evening by laying down our lives when we lay ourselves down to sleep. In physically laying our body down we are acting out and incarnating a spiritual reality of laying ourselves down in the hope of being raised both body and spirit come morning. The trust that the day was His, that the night is and that tomorrow will be no different is practice for the Day when body and soul we will be raised to eternal life.

day no. 15.815: the progressive element

"Our modern, hasty science is so much like the ancient Athens of Paul's time, 'given over to idols,' spending 'their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing" (Acts 17:21). We are in love with the ugliness of novelty. Yet at the heart of Christian thinking about antithesis is a skepticism of novelty." - Douglas Wilson, Angels in the Architecture

Because the default disposition of modernism is to assume that newer is better, a position which pauses to ask any questions is seen as truculent and intractable. Christianity is not required to be skeptical of new things merely because they are new per se, but it is required to test all things and to keep the good and toss out the bad.

New things are not innocent until proven guilty or guilty until acquitted, they are just things which require Christian discernment to consider whether they are good, bad, or a mixed bag.

The progressive element defines novelty and newness as good by default. All progress is new must be good: part and parcel, warp and woof. Progress is in love with the next step if only because it's the newest one.

But Christianity is not in love with going forward just for the sake of it, but for advancing the Kingdom of God. Because of sin, some steps forward actually attempt to prevent or oppose the advance of the Kingdom.

Christianity is concerned with conserving the old good and embracing the new good without embracing the bad old or new bad. This requires not merely holding on to old good, but to the old way of determining good from bad, which was based on time tested quality and merit, not mere novelty and newness.

day no. 15,814: making history

"If we want future Christians to be merciful to our mistakes -- keeping the best, tossing out our blind spots -- then we need to offer the same mercy to our forefathers in the faith. Protestants have been too quick to write off medieval thinking as hopelessly compromised." - Douglas Wilson, Angels in the Architecture

Because we are in the habit of dismissing our predecessors as primitive while accentuating our modernity as progress, we are setting up our descendants to despise us. We are encouraging them to review our best efforts as uncharitably as we view those of our forefathers. If we do not honor our fathers and mothers, our great grandchildren won't honor us.

Proverbs 22:6
Train up a child in the way he should go:
and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

What we hope to pass down will be forgotten and what we hope will be forgotten will be the only thing that is remembered. By rejecting our ancestors, we've taught our children to reject theirs. Our proudest achievements and best contributions will be filed in their history books as our most glaring follies and worst foibles if we do not learn to pass along an heritage of honoring our ancestors as we ourselves honor ours.

"People who take no pride in the noble achievements of remote ancestors will never achieve anything worthy to be remembered with pride by remote descendants.” - Thomas Babington Macaulay

day no. 15,813: a prize of war

Jeremiah 45:5
And do you seek great things for yourself? Seek them not, for behold, I am bringing disaster upon all flesh, declares the LORD. But I will give you your life as a prize of war in all places to which you may go.

Mark 8:35
For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it. 

The one who prizes his life above all others loses what he gains. The one who confesses his life as a disaster is rewarded with his life as a reward of war. Whoever seeks to save his life or justify its existence on its own merit falls short. Whoever surrenders his life by staking his reputation on God's grace receives back the life he laid down. God has so designed the world to revolve around resurrection power. Only that which is laid down in faith will be raised up in reward. That which is held up in pride will be knocked down as a result. 

This won't be easy. This will be a war. But if you fight against your desire to save yourself, you will find yourself saved. The one who seeks first the kingdom receives all other things, their soul included. The one who seeks first his own kingdom loses his kingdom, everything else and worse yet, his own soul.

day no. 15,812: shadowlands

James 1:16-21
Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures. Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.

Do not buy into the lie and look within. Goodness is not inside us. It is outside. It does not spring up from inside us when we're at our best, it comes down from outside us like sunlight. The world is not illuminated from within, but from without. Goodness doesn't rise, it descends. Shadows are cast on a dark world by light from outside, but the source of light has no shadow whatsoever. That which casts a shadow is dark begetting darkness. That which has no shadow is light itself.

God did not shine upon us and provide us rebirth because of any goodness or light He found in common with us. He did so out of sheer grace in giving what could not be earned. He was not compelled by our accomplishments, He was moved by His own will. He send the seed of the Word of truth to be planted in soil He prepared to receive it. 

As the implanted word takes root in us and branches out of us, we ought to be careful to prune it and tend to our soil so that the weeds which previously dominated our landscape do not choke out what God has embedded into us. Listening more, speaking less and relying less on our sense of intuitive justice are like miracle grow for weed-ridden souls. We must faithfully walk our rows and rip out the hangers-on when they appear. We must in meekness confess our sins and repent of them in order to honor and align ourselves with the seed that has been sown in us. This word is able to save our souls. It goes deeper than we could ever go, tilling soil we could never reach.

day no. 15,811: its coup de grace was its own coup d'etat

Genesis 3:15

I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.

God called His shot. He told the darkness what would happen. It would strike at the heel of the seed of Eve and receive a fatal blow to its head for its efforts.

“The governors of that aeon were overthrown, and in the wisdom of God it was accomplished through their murder of a righteous Man. Clearly, if the rulers of that age had known what they were doing, they would never have crucified our Lord and our glory." - Douglas Wilson, Angels in the Architecture

If the darkness knew what Jesus was doing, they would never have helped Him do it. Not because they would have acknowledged His Lordship, but because they would not have wanted to participate in their own destruction.

1 Corinthians 2:7-8

But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory: Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

The rulers of this world surrendered their own dominion in making Jesus Lord and Christ by killing Him. Evil assumed it was putting an end to objective righteousness in killing the Christ, but it actually established it definitively in history beyond dispute by staking it on a particular person to a particular cross on a particular day. It absolutized divine righteousness and eradicated its own in one fell swoop. This is why it would have repented if it had known better. Not because it would have had a sensitive conscience, but because it would not have cut off the branch it was standing on had it known that's what it was doing.

Mark 3:27

No man can enter into a strong man’s house, and spoil his goods, except he will first bind the strong man; and then he will spoil his house.

Jesus gamed the darkness. Its attempted coup de grace was its own coup d'etat. Jesus submitted Himself to a cross they thought was their design and in dying there undid their own dominion. By it they were bound and ever since God's people have been set free to spoil its plans.

day no. 15,810: by little and little

"Because Jesus is Lord, Christian culture is now established in the earth. But He does not want to do everything for us all at once. The powers fell in an instant, but the cultures they supported took more time to fall. The unbelievers have not been driven out all at once lest the beasts of the field turn on us." - Douglas Wilson, Angels in the Architecture

Exodus 23:28-30
And I will send hornets before thee, which shall drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite, from before thee. I will not drive them out from before thee in one year; lest the land become desolate, and the beast of the field multiply against thee. By little and little I will drive them out from before thee, until thou be increased, and inherit the land.

The kingdom of God grows slowly like a seed rooting downwards into the earth and branching out upwards toward the heavens. It multiplies little by little like leaven through the lump.

Matthew 13:31-33
Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and sowed in his field: Which indeed is the least of all seeds: but when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof. Another parable spake he unto them; The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened.

The seed is sowed in a second. The leaven is hidden in a moment. The results reveal themselves over time. The kingdom increases and overcomes the entire earth, the entire lump, the whole shebang. 

day no. 15,809: toppled towers and pummeled powers

"Our Lord was born as one of us in order to redeem us and topple all these ancient powers. As that great aeon came crashing to a close, the pillars holding that old sky were thrown down; a new heaven and new earth were established. The seed of David came to destroy the one who had the power of death, that is, the devil. When He was lifted up in death, at that moment the ruler of that age was cast down. And when He had triumphed over all these powers, He made a spectacle of them, taunting and humiliating them." - Douglas Wilson, Angels in the Architecture

Jesus Christ came to topple towers and pummel powers. He came to destroy the dominion of darkness and lay waste to the sway of the world.

1 John 3:8b
For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.

Hebrews 2:14
Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil

If we are to walk in His footsteps, we must march.

2 Corinthians 10:3-5
For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.

We must do in broad daylight what He did. We must triumph over the principalities and powers of this world and spoil their plans, exposing them as the frauds of the gods that they are. We must remove the cap so that the stench of their rot is released for all to smell.

Colossians 2:13-15
And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses; blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross; and having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it.

day no. 15,808: hustle

"There was a sense of urgency in everything we did; not haste, nor hurry, but hustle." - John Wooden, Wooden on Leadership

Hustle is getting yourself to overcome yourself. It is focusing on what's important and compelling yourself to address it faster than you feel like it. It is faith moving at the speed of its belief. It despises slapdashery. It does not go fast merely to get it over with. It does not go quickly because what it is doing doesn't matter. It goes hard because it matters. It goes fast because it gets a man more quickly to where he wants to go.

Haste is speed without focus;

Hurry is speed without faith;

Hustle is speed without fear.

Haste is going faster than your focus.

Hurry is going faster than your faith.

Hustle is going faster than your flaws.

Haste makes waste.

Worry makes hurry.

Hustle takes muscle.

Bustle takes tussle.

day no. 15,807: civility and severity

1 Corinthians 16:13-14

Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong. Let all your things be done with charity.

On my morning prayer walk today (7/24/20), in praying for my sons, I found these words...

May my sons be full of meekness and mettle, civility and severity. Amen.

God calls men to be chivalrous: both humble and heroic.

He calls them to be meek enough to ask Him for help and brave enough to be helpful to others.

He calls them to possess gentility and gallantry.

He calls them to be polite at a dinner party and punchy on a battlefield.

He calls them to be courteous and courageous.

A man needs to be hard for his wife and children, not hard on them;

he must be soft toward them and without being softened by them.

God calls men to be refined and fearless, forthright and focused, pleasant and with plenty of pluck.

In a word, God calls men to be men.

Andrizomai.