day no. 15,865: good news for criminals

"The gospel is good news for criminals, as the thief on the cross can testify. He knew that he deserved to die and that he still wanted to live." -- Douglas Wilson, A Justice Primer

Faith is the courage to confess that you deserve to die combined with the conviction that the glory of God is worth living for. It is a willingness to die for that which is worth living. It is an acknowledgement of the kindness and the severity of God, the seriousness of sin and the superfluity of salvation. Sin is worse than our depravity and salvation exceeds our audacity. Our situation is far worse than we wish and our salvation is far greater than we dare dream.

"Courage is almost a contradiction in terms. It means a strong desire to live taking the form of readiness to die." -- G.K. Chesterton

Matthew 10:39, 16:25; Mark 8:35; Luke 9:24, 17:33; John 12:25
For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.

The Gospel is Good News for criminals who openly confess to their crimes. All have fallen short of the glory of God and committed crimes, but only repentant criminals can be forgiven. Only those who agree that they deserve to die can live. You must admit your crimes in order to remove your condemnation. The Gospel is ONLY Good News for criminals. It is Bad News for those who imagine that they have clean records. The healthy don't make Dr. appointments anymore than the innocent seek clemency. Yet, the sick find healing and criminal find freedom in seeking the Good Physician and our Brother, the Advocate.

day no. 15,864: when helping hurts

“Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victim may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated, but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.” -- C.S. Lewis, God in the Dock: Essays on Theology

History has produced no greater villains than those who imagined themselves valiant. The worst bad guy is the one who thinks he is the good guy. For, like Lewis observed, he will never stop assailing you. His conscience will never compel him stop. It urges him on to greater atrocities. It fuels his insistence "to help."

"She's the sort of woman who lives for others—you can always tell the others by their hunted expression." -- C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters

“The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: ‘I'm from the Government, and I'm here to help.’” — Ronald Reagan

day no. 15,863: fast and loose with other people's reputations

"(Cowards) usually have no shortage of opinions as to what others ought to be doing; they’re brave with other people’s lives and reputations. Conflict and justice involve risks. In a fallen world, the pursuit of justice sometimes requires warfare, which, inevitably, requires getting shot at." -- Douglas Wilson, A Justice Primer

It takes no backbone to play fast and loose with someone else's reputation. It is easy to know what someone else should do. It costs the critic nothing to see what costs someone else should be paying.

This tendency is what makes us good at reading stories. We intuitively know what each character ought to do or have done. That is why it is crucial for us to see ourselves as characters in a story. God is the Author and we are acting on the stage He has placed us during the part of the play He has called us up. When we step back and see ourselves like we see other characters in a story, it often becomes obvious what we should do. We know how to read other people's stories, but have we learned how to read our own?

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.” -- Theodore Roosevelt

Literary criticism is easier than being a noble character. The critic can count the blunders, but cannot be counted upon to avoid them himself. The critic is an expert in reading other people's stories and an amateur actor in his own.

Cowards become critical experts of what other characters should be doing. The courageous are those who embrace their roles and play their parts to the glory of their God and the good of their neighbor.

1 Corinthians 16:13

Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong.

Be a better character. Consider what a man would do and make that your script and then devote all of your energy to acting it out and playing the part assigned to you by your Director.

day no. 15,862: self-defensive

"Scripture requires those in spiritual authority to take care that they not react in a manner that makes the accusations retroactively true. False accusations of tyranny could provoke a man into tyranny." -- Douglas Wilson, A Justice Primer

“O Lord, deliver me from this lust of always vindicating myself.” -- St. Augustine of Hippo

When we are insecure before God and man, we rush to our own defense when falsely accused and in our zealous self defense, become guilty of what we were previously innocent.

It is a high ground the enemy can acquire only through our forfeit. When we withstand the temptation to justify ourselves, we are justified by God and before the men whose opinions matter rather than by ourselves and before men whose opinions mean nothing. The haters will still hate and jeer at you for not calling on a legion of angels to come to your defense, but  in fairness, they are also the same people who put you on a stake by falsely accusing you in the first place. So don't imagine that bending over backwards to appease them will convince them to join your fan club.

day no. 15,861: anonymity is an assassin

"Never write what you dare not sign. An anonymous letter-writer is a sort of assassin, who wears a mask, and stabs in the dark. Such a man is a fiend with a pen. If discovered, the wretch will be steeped in the blackest infamy." -- Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Anonymity is a sucker punch. It provides the satisfaction of punching without any of the danger of being punched back. It is a sniper firing shots from the safety of distance. It can strike without being struck. It can wound without being exposed. It is the desire to cast your vote without having to be accountable for the outcome. It is the ability to condemn without the necessity of clarifying. It is the privilege of withdrawing funds without the responsibility of accounting for them.

day no. 15,860: when your wife, like fine wine, ages well

They say that time flies when you're having fun. Admittedly, they say all kinds of crap, but in this particular case, they appear to be right. However, what they miss is that time flies just as quickly when you're having babies. And how much the more then when you're having fun having babies? By that math, you should be fast enough to give the Flash a run for his money and I don't doubt that you could if I didn't also know how much you dislike running. Best leave those sorts of shenanigans to the superheros, amiright? I mean, those voxxer messages aren't just going to answer themselves. Hit the showers windsprints, Scrubs is on.

All that to say, happy birthday!

You've done a lot this last year between surviving the Winter of our Deadly Discontents and having another baby. All things considered, those two facts alone would constitute a pretty productive year. Add to that the regular upkeep of the household and maintenance of the people who dwell therein and you round out quite the resume. I am very grateful for all that you do from planning and preparing our meals to cleaning up after them, from keeping our shelves stocked to keeping track of our appointments and schedules. You proactively look for ways to improve our lives from better water to cuter pillows and make the effort to resurrect our yard back to life:

“Paige, can this yard live?”

“You know, Lord.”

“Call out to the yard and say, ‘Dry clay, hear the word of the LORD! “I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life."’” Worth a shot, right?

Our household depends on you. Not just your presence, but your person. We need you; not just another warm body doing its job. We need your personality influencing the atmosphere of our world. We depend on you and rely upon you. And you, for your part, come through for us. You take care of us and think of us and go out of your way to serve us. From the time spend making sure the kids have shoes that fit to researching and ordering curriculum that fits our vision, you are do it all. You make sure I have shoes for walking and clean sheets for sleeping under. You keep up with everyone's birthdays and all the presents that accompany them; and more often than not, you even keep your head in the process. 

And if that we not enough, you have friends who reach out to you for advice. When they are wrestling through the cross-sections of Christianity and culture, you are the one they turn to. You always have more voice messages to listen to than you have time to respond to. You are a resource many rely upon for truth, advice, wisdom, and godly counsel.

I am proud to be your husband. I am glad that you are my children's mother. I like you and I love you and I promise that I always will. Especially if you keep making it this easy. 

Happy birthday! Here's to many more.

Todd 

day no. 15,859: as a matter of fact

"In other ways, our touchy-feely era is way too interested in motives. This is why we now have stiffer penalties for hate crimes (which must be distinguished from those ordinary, run-of-the-mill love crimes)." -- Douglas Wilson, A Justice Primer

Feelings are difficult to define. Facts are easy to establish. Feelings are subjective. Facts are objective. Feelings can be hard to describe. Facts must be able to be described. Motives are helpful in attempting to help the person, but not in establishing the facts of their case. The reason why the crime was committed is not an additional crime. There are certainly better reasons to break the law than others, but the reasons are not admissible as evidence in establishing the fact. They may play a role in considering proper discipline or punishment, but they are not necessary for determining the facts of what happened.

"Motives matter. Rightly balanced and rightly known, motives matter to persons, and in personal relationships, but there are important places in our consideration where we do not and must not factor them in." -- Douglas Wilson, A Justice Primer

There is a time to wonder why, but that time is not when attempting to establish timelines or matters of fact.

day no. 15,858: where the fight actually is

"The entire medieval and Protestant tradition is anti-Statist, and that includes, as Augustine taught us, the view that the State is the least important institution among Church, State, and Family. Yet, the great irony of the Christian Right is that though their families are often messes and their churches splintering, they think they have the wisdom to wield the sword. In search of 'real change,' they charge out to conquer the institution that is most impotent in actually bringing it about. We haven't changed much from our ancient Israelite brothers. We want a king or a sword just like everybody else. We don't understand how God has structured the world, how real change occurs. " -- Douglas Wilson, Angels in the Architecture

The households of family and faith are God's primary mechanisms for producing lasting change in this world. These are the two battlefronts where most of our efforts should be deployed. However, when the civil magistrate interferes with the family or the flock, it may be necessary to engage them in battle. But even then, the main objective is to restore them to their rightful place of protecting the ability of families and flocks to worship Jesus in peace without much interference from the civil government. Mission creep has leaked in when those who temporarily pulled troops off of the front lines in order to engage the civil government end up camping there or forgetting about their primary objectives back at home and at church.

1 Timothy 2:1-3
I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; for kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour

Simply put, we pray that our civil magistrates don't interfere with us or force us to interfere with them so that we can focus on the frontlines of family and local flocks.

day no. 15,857: lost-pitality

Proverbs 25:17
Let your foot be seldom in your neighbor’s house, lest he have his fill of you and hate you.

"Guests, like fish, begin to smell after three days." -- Benjamin Franklin

Being a good guest or a good host is a tricky business. Consider, the departure. The same sentiment can be said for different reasons. Yet, however veiled the intention may be, it is often inferred accurately enough from the tone and insistence of the host. It is either graciousness or guilt. 

There is a way of saying, "Goodbye" that communicates,

"We love you and wish you could stay longer."

and quite another, which says,

"If you loved me, you’d stay longer."

The first relays,

"I understand you have to go, but I want you to know that you’d be welcome to stay longer if you didn’t,"

while the second implies,

"I don’t understand why you’re leaving and I want you to know that I’m hurt that you’re not staying longer."

The irony is that both are aimed at getting the guests to come back again. Both want to spend more time with the guests, but only one is likely to produce its desired outcome. The first is grateful for the time and opportunity they had to host. The second is upset it did not get more time or opportunity. Both want their visitors to know that they enjoyed their time and would gladly welcome more of it soon, but only one produces guests who just as gladly want to return for a visit.

day no. 15,856: community center

"Communities are grown, not constructed. It takes a self-conscious effort beginning in the family and the pulpit." -- Douglas Wilson, Angels in the Architecture

Communities cannot be mass produced like widgets. You cannot assembly line a society. The body of Christ cannot be bought at a big box store. It cannot be manufactured. It needs to be nourished. It needs water and blood and dirt and sunlight. 

Communities are not built on poured concrete, but on Christ. The foundation is the life, death and resurrection of Jesus and the teachings of His apostles being proclaimed by pastors and pater familias. (Eph 2:20).

day no. 15,855: something askew

"Whenever I'm asked why Southern writers particularly have a penchant for writing about freaks, I say it is because we are still able to recognize one. To be able to recognize a freak, you have to have some conception of the whole man, and in the South the general conception of man is still, in the main, theological. That is a large statement, and it is dangerous to make it, for almost anything you say about Southern belief can be denied in the next breath with equal propriety. But approaching the subject from the standpoint of the writer, I think it is safe to say that while the South is hardly Christ-centered, it is most certainly Christ-haunted. The Southerner, who isn't convinced of it, is very much afraid that he may have been formed in the image and likeness of God." -- Flannery O'Connor, Some Aspects of the Grotesque in Southern Fiction

A people who still recognize a standard are able to spot something askew. Those who reject the straight can no longer see the crooked. It loses context and they become blind to it. O'Connor insists here that seeing the whole gives you eyes for the sick, having an idea of the normal helps you identify the irregular. This standard is Christ. It is understanding the world as God's possession and it's ordering as His providence. The world made by His Word provides absolute zero from which other things can be measured. The world made in our own image by our open-minded words has no ability to see anything as out of bounds, because the boundary markers are invisible to them.

day no. 15,854: marinated in marketing

"If we replaced every expression of the marketplace with a sign of the Church or State, people would scream tyranny." -- Douglas Wilson, Angels in the Architecture

Imagine if every commercial, every logo, every ad, every billboard, every word from our sponsor was a crucifix or homily. Or imagine they were all donkeys or elephants, but all were political. You would feel like you were being bombarded by propaganda. You would feel oppressed by the insistent hammering of the same message. Yet, this is the world of advertising and marketing. We are surrounded by t-shirts advertising colleges, companies, bands, local eateries, etc... We are constantly hearing pleas from people to buy their products or sign up for their seminars. But because they are not from one single source, but from all the competitors in the market, we don't categorize them for what they are. My point here is not that people should not be able to produce and market their wares or services, but rather that we're so used to it, that we take for granted how saturated we are in it. We live in marketing like a fish lives in water. He doesn't know he's wet anymore than we know we're being asked to buy something. But we would notice if we were being asked to consider something else: a political agenda or a Christian testimony. Rest assured, we'd notice that, like a fish being placed in kerosene. The wetness would no longer be the issue, but the thing making you wet would become obvious. 

The medieval world was bathed in Christianity the way the modern world is marinated in marketing. 

day no. 15,853: pants on fire

"Someone tells a lie when he says something untrue, knowing it to be untrue, and seeks to get others to believe it, although it is untrue." -- Douglas Wilson, A Justice Primer

Lying is not just being wrong. You can be wrong and not be lying. You can think something is true that actually isn't and work hard to tell others people what you think. You are wrong, but you aren't lying. You are spreading lies, but you aren't a liar. You are deceived and spreading deception without being yourself a liar. You may be guilty of many things in that scenario, but not lying.

day no. 15,852: dating disaster

"The New Jerusalem must, in like manner, be surrounded and preserved by a broad wall of nonconformity to the world, and separation from its customs and spirit. The tendency of these days break down the holy barrier, and make the distinction between the church and the world merely nominal. Professors are no longer strict and Puritanical, questionable literature is read on all hands, frivolous pastimes are currently indulged, and a general laxity threatens to deprive the Lord's peculiar people of those sacred singularities which separate them from sinners. It will be an ill day for the church and the world when the proposed amalgamation shall be complete, and the sons of God and the daughters of men shall be as one: then shall another deluge of wrath be ushered in." -- Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Morning and Evening

In the days of Noah the sons of God found the daughters of men attractive and intermingled what should have been kept separate. The result was a world so abominable, God decided to destroy it completely with the exception of eight.

When Christians mingle with the world, they are dating disaster.

2 Corinthians 6:14-18

Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? and what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? and what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.

day no. 15,851: fan-girling the zeitgeist

"His epitaph is Athanasius contra mundum, 'Athanasius against the world.' We are proud that our own country has more than once stood against the world. Athanasius did the same. He stood for the Trinitarian doctrine, 'whole and undefiled,' when it looked as if all the civilised world was slipping back from Christianity into the religion of Arius - into one of those 'sensible' synthetic religions which are so strongly recommended today and which, then as now, included among their devotees many highly cultivated clergymen. It is his glory that he did not move with the times; it is his reward that he now remains when those times, as all times do, have moved away." -- C.S. Lewis, Introduction to Athanasius' On The Incarnation

It is to your credit to avoid getting caught up in your times, but it won't be credited to your account until later. Whatever glory is gained by abstaining from the spirit of the age, it is not awarded until another age. "Contra Mundum" cannot be acquired by compromise. The sycophant may get the celebrity, but the stalwart get the glory. Refusing to fan-girl the zeitgeist is not a good way to make a living, but it is a great way to leave a legacy. It won't earn the applause of your peers, but it will earn the honor of your descendants.

Bless your descendants; don't be a douche.

day no. 15,850: self-love potion no. 9

“Discouragement is disenchanted self-love, and self-love may be love of my devotion to Jesus.” — Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest

Sometimes the spell breaks. Our ability to love what we want to love falls flat and we find ourselves insufficient to persevere in what we prefer. Our love finds its limit. It reaches terminal velocity and we cannot eclipse our constraints or sustain our max effort any longer. Our confidence fails us and we find ourselves discouraged. The love of Jesus has not let us down, but our love of our love for Jesus has. Sometimes what looks like humility is merely wounded pride. Sometimes the spell is broken, but the self-love potion is still right at hand.

day no. 15,849: loan smarts

Deuteronomy 24:10-11

When you make your neighbor a loan of any sort, you shall not go into his house to collect his pledge. You shall stand outside, and the man to whom you make the loan shall bring the pledge out to you.

Be careful who you lend things to and how you do when you do. If you can't trust a person to provide the collateral for their loan, then you shouldn't entrust them with a loan at all. If you feel they can't be trusted to comply without your interference, what makes you think they will pay you back without you having to harp on them? If you anticipate having to badger them, don't lend to them in the first place. 

day no. 15,848: hospitality is meeting immediate needs

Deuteronomy 23:24-25

If you go into your neighbor's vineyard, you may eat your fill of grapes, as many as you wish, but you shall not put any in your bag. If you go into your neighbor's standing grain, you may pluck the ears with your hand, but you shall not put a sickle to your neighbor's standing grain.

Christian courtesy should say, "My pantry is your pantry or my fridge is your fridge," it does not need to say, "My pantry is your grocery store or my fridge is your shopping list." It makes sense that a guest under your roof should be able to assuage their immediate hunger or thirst at your expense, but they shouldn't expect to fill their pockets with tomorrow's breakfast. Hospitality is meeting the immediate needs of those for whom you have temporarily taken responsibility. It does not mean being a free market for freeloaders. You should let guests glean, but you shouldn't feel bad for not letting them loot your reserves.

day no. 15,847: academics have lost their damned minds

When you worship something other than God, you are not permitted to keep it. If you worship wine, you do not get to keep it — it goes down the toilet. In addition, the enjoyment of it is robbed from the one who worships it — the drinker one gets, the duller the senses. The one, however, who enjoys wine but worships God gets to keep both.

The intelligentsia have worshiped their minds and their accumulation of information as their highest good and as a result, they are not being allowed to keep them. In other words, they've lost their damned minds. I don't say that lightly or flippantly. Their brains have literally been benighted. Their minds have been damned, which is why they have been swept away. By attempting to sanctify their modern sense, they've sentenced it to Satanic influence. By worshiping knowledge, they've become demonic… and dummies to boot. The god of knowledge exacts his vengeance on the ignorant and its acolytes by becoming who and what it hates… simpletons. Instead of enlightened, they are darkened. Rather than being wise, they have become foolish. By chasing academia, they’ve become academic —by loving their minds they’ve lost them.

Romans 1:21-22

For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools

1 Corinthians 1:19-21

For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.” Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe.

Ephesians 4:17-18

Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. 

day no. 15,846: cajole

ca·jole /kəˈjōl/

verb

persuade (someone) to do something by sustained coaxing or flattery

After reading 1984 and the preface to Mere Christianity recently, I have gained a new found zeal for the recovery of words. We could all stand to be a bit dictionarier. After talking to Paige about it, I'm even more committed to the preservation of vocabulary. Words matter and when you know two words for the same thing, pick the more unusual one if only to keep it in circulation. Paige suggested this, so when I came across "cajole" this morning (8/17/20) in Oswald Chambers' My Utmost for His Highest, I decided to put it to use.

Jesus never cajoled. He did not flatter. He did not say things nicer than they were true in order to produce behavior better than it would have been. That end does not justify those means.

Matthew 15:12

Then the disciples came and said to him, “Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying?”

Like Christ, we should not cajole. Flattery is not a permissible Christian tactic. We must trust the truth to persuade or not persuade at all. If a man is not won over by the truth, you cannot lie him over to a better appreciation of it. You cannot spark an affection for truth with the matches of lies. You cannot encourage purity through provocation. A Christian girl in the backseat with a boy is not in a better position to teach him purity than a pastor in the pulpit merely because she has a more captive audience.

God has called us to proclaim a particular message and His promise is that those He has elected will believe it. When we muck up the message with flattery and half-truths for the sake of being more persuasive than God's Good News, we do not tell sinners about a true assurance of the Kingdom, but a false assurance for living outside of it. So, in one fell swoop, flattery provides a false sense of security and makes the real one even harder to access.

day no. 15,845: soft soap or submission?

"The Christian religion is, in the long run, a thing of unspeakable comfort. But it does not begin in comfort; it begins in the dismay I have been describing, and it is no use at all trying to go on to that comfort without first going through that dismay. In religion, as in war and everything else, comfort is the one thing you cannot get by looking for it. If you look for truth, you may find comfort in the end: if you look for comfort you will not get either comfort or truth — only soft soap and wishful thinking to begin with and, in the end, despair." -- C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

Comfort is not a first thing. It cannot be found by making it a top priority. It is a consequence, not a cause. If you seek comfort,  you ensure that you will not find it. It can only be had by seeking something else. And not just anything else, but something capable of comforting.

In similar fashion, you cannot find refuge by looking for it. Refuge has no address. You cannot send it a letter or from it receive a package. Refuge is only found as a by-product of a place capable of protecting you. And that requires something more of the place than it does of your desires for it. In other words, to seek shelter is to seek the strength of something or someone else. It's ability to shelter you is in itself, not in your hopes of being sheltered. It can offer shelter because it offers you something else.

If you submit to the strength of another, you may find shelter behind them, but if you seek shelter on its own, you will surely end up in the open and exposed to the elements.

day no. 15,844: when two and two make five

"Think what a totally different morality would mean. Think of a country where people were admired for running away in battle, or where a man felt proud of double-crossing all the people who had been kindest to him. You might just as well try to imagine a country where two and two made five." -- C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

Morality is a fixed given. It is inescapable in presence and in principle. In other words, you cannot imagine a world without morality and you cannot imagine a different morality. The morality we all know is the only morality that is. It is as indomitable as two and two making four.

"In the end the Party would announce that two and two made five, and you would have to believe it. It was inevitable that they should make that claim sooner or later: the logic of their position demanded it. Not merely the validity of experience, but the very existence of external reality was tacitly denied by their philosophy." -- George Orwell, 1984

Objective reality insists on certain continuities. Two and two making four is consistent with doing unto others as you would have them do unto you. The only way to do away with the golden rule is to do away with the stubborn, concrete reality of arithmetic. 

"For, after all, how do we know that two and two make four? Or that the force of gravity works? Or that the past is unchangeable? If both the past and the external world exist only in the mind, and if the mind itself is controllable—what then?” -- George Orwell, 1984

Reality is a creature. It is created. If there is no God, there is no objective reality, only the reality which is currently in fashion. If according to Cartesian coordinates "we think therefore we are," our thoughts then can also unmake all that we are. If reality only exists in the few square inches between our ears, then the one who owns the space around our heads, controls the world.

"Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four.” -- George Orwell, 1984

The multiplication table paves the path of liberty. The fact that four fours makes sixteen is the basis of all freedom. If four fours is not sixteen, there can be no freedom. There can be no assurance of consistency. If nothing is truly immutable, then everything is malleable and that world is not free to be whatever shape it wants. In fact, it cannot hold any shape. One may argue that it is the most free because it can be whatever shape it desires, but, the fact is, it has surrendered all freedom to hold any shape in particular. It cannot remain in any shape. It has forfeited solidarity for the sake of subjectivity. By binding itself to abstraction, it prohibits itself from anything concrete. To be free in that sense is to be enslaved to shapelessness. 

"Fires will be kindled to testify that two and two make four. Swords will be drawn to prove that leaves are green in summer." -- G.K. Chesterton, Heretics

We are approaching the days were battles will be fought over the basic realities under our feet. The fact that grass is green, skies are blue, fires are hot, and digits are fixed will be debated over blows. And yet the law of non-contradiction is indisputable. To be struck in the face is not the same as to not be struck in the face. The very battle over it verifies the fact.

"You may, if you like, free a tiger from his bars; but do not free him from his stripes. Do not free a camel from the burden of his hump; you may be freeing him from being a camel. Do not go about as a demagogue, encouraging triangles to break out of the prison of their three sides. If a triangle breaks out of its three sides, its life comes to a lamentable end."  -- G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy

There is no freedom in redefining the world according to our preferences. It cannot be done. Freedom is only found in submitting to the elected realities designed by the one and only immutable, inexorable God. Inventing new freedoms is a surefire way to fall into old slaveries. If you insist on freeing the world from the tyranny of basic sums, you release it to the freedom of  forced labor camps where two and two are said to make anything the taskmaster insists upon.

day no. 15,843: when he is old enough to die

Ye must be born again. — John 3:7

"The answer to the question 'How can a man be born when he is old?' is — When he is old enough to die — to die right out to his 'rag rights,' to his virtues, to his religion, to everything, and to receive into himself the life which never was there before. The new life manifests itself in conscious repentance and unconscious holiness." -- Oswald Chamber, My Utmost for His Highest

You cannot be born again until you die to your self. You cannot have new life until you have a former life. You cannot live until you die. You cannot be God's until you cease to be your own. You cannot be new until the old has passed away. You cannot be virtuous until you deny your virtues. You cannot have a new mindset until you repent. You cannot have anything worth keeping until you give away every thought of being worthy. You cannot inherit the earth until you renounce any claim to it. You cannot be saved until you confess you are damned.

day no. 15,842: this is your wake up call

1 Corinthians 14:8

And if the bugle gives an indistinct sound, who will get ready for battle?

“This is how our learned leaders have managed the process so far, in four easy steps. 

    1. There is no fight.

    2. There might come a time when we might have to fight.

    3. It’s too soon to fight.

    4. It’s too late to fight . . . 

We are here because our respected evangelical leadership specializes in indistinct bugle blowing” -- Douglas Wilson, Same Sex Mirage

Because it's been some time since we last heard reveille, we don't jump out of bed when we hear it anymore. It has a familiar ring to it and we catch ourselves somewhat sleepily wondering, "What is that? I know it from somewhere. It reminds me of something," and by the time we finally realize it's our wake up call, it's 10:30 in the morning and we now live in Oceania. 

day no. 15,841: the battle for the dictionary

"The battle for the dictionary is the fight over who will be in charge of language and who will be in charge of our ability to describe the world as we see it." - Douglas Wilson, Plodcast Ep. 7

In the beginning, God made the world with words. He spoke and it was created. The Word of God spoke into existence various kinds of bodies: from light, to stars, to planets, to water, to trees, to beasts, to people. Everything that is and ever was other than God is made out of words. In other words, out of nothing other than His Word, the Word brought forth everything. There is nothing that is not made out of words. Without words, nothing would exist. The Word existed before there was anything else and everything else was made by it and through it. The world is made of words.

"The purpose of Newspeak was not only to provide a medium of expression for the world-view and mental habits proper to the devotees of Engsoc, but to make all other modes of thought impossible." -- George Orwell, 1984: Appendix

He who controls the words controls the world. God is the Word and He controls the world. But those who reject the presence of God do not reject the influence of words. They can't. Words are inescapable. Words are hard-wired into how God made the world. So, rather than ignoring words they way they do God, they seek to control them. They could not do the same with God. To acknowledge Him is to acknowledge an inability to control Him. If there is a God, the last thing you can do is make Him your slave. But words, on the other hand, can be manipulated, castrated, domesticated, and employed for your purposes. They can be cowed whereas God cannot. 

"When a word ceases to be a term of description and becomes merely a term of praise, it no longer tells you facts about the object: it only tells you about the speaker's attitude to that object." -- C.S. Lewis, Preface to Mere Christianity

Words matter. What they mean, who gets to say them, what can't be said, and why you can't say them matter. Why certain phrases fall out of fashion matters. Why other phrases take their places matters. Words will always matter. And everyone knows it. It's almost as if words were in the beginning with God, were with God, and were, in fact, God.

"We have not only lost the concept, we have destroyed the words which could enable us to recover it." -- Douglas Wilson, Angels in the Architecture

Words embody ideas. Words are thoughts incarnate. Without words, we lose not only our ability to think, but our ability to hear what others think or have thought. Where vocabularies are etiolated, thoughts are abbreviated. Words are important. We invent new words to keep up with our technological advances, but lose just as many, if not more, to neglect. Too many words are put out to pasture and placed in nursing homes where they are out of sight and out of mind, forgotten, and abandoned. We allow words to die and the concepts they represent perish along with them. We forget how to think in those terms because those terms have passed away into the remote past. In the end, we lose our ability to converse with our ancestors because don't speak their language anymore.

day no. 15,840: Finneas turns 10!

Today, we celebrate a decade of Finneas Haddon Foxe Van Voorst!

God made you to win. You have dominion printed on your soul. You don't lose. When you set your mind to something, you cannot be shaken from it. You dig in your heels and push. You are not a push over. You are a pusher over. This is a very manly quality to possess if it employed for the glory of God and the good of others. The halls of faith are full of men like you -- men who did not give in, men who met opposition face to face, men who held on to the principles even to the point of death. The martyrs were all men like you -- men who valued loyalty to the Lord more than loyalty to their own lives. God has given you an ability to win and when you use it to make much of Him or to make the most of things for your neighbor, it is a HUGE blessing. No one can bless others like you. Your ELEVEN is a gift of God. 

God has also, however, given you a sensitive heart. You don't like being left out. You enjoy playing with others. You'd always choose a game you don't like with people you do over a game you enjoy all by yourself. God has given you this love of company in order to keep you from living on an island. A man of your conviction could easily do away with all others and live alone with his convictions and his God without another care in the world. This would be a loyal, but lonely existence and would require you to ignore all of the verses that require another person in order to obey: love one another, forgive one another, pray for one another, help one another, etc... You love people and you like being around them. 

You are a peacemaker. You are often the first to suggest a cease fire once things get heated in order to restore order. You are not a coward and you do not back down, but you do value peace enough to be the one to reach out in order to make amends. May God always give you zeal and fire for what is right in proportion to a zeal and fire for making your enemies into your friends -- not by you surrendering to them, but by showing them a better way of winsome tartness. May you win many over to the kingdom of Christ by your tenacity and your tenderness.

In addition to all of that, you are also our resident clown. You love making jokes and don't mind being the center of attention. You lead the ministry of silly walks around the house and don't mind if anyone notices in the meantime. You are not easily embarrassed. You like quoting funny lines from movies and shows and have good comedic timing. You like laughing and have an infectious laugh that often rallies others into your joy. You are a gatherer. You find it easy to rally a crowd to your side and know how to connect with others. 

You like tank tops. That's all. Nothing more to say about that. Just thought it was worth mentioning. 

You care about people and often worry about the lost. You feel badly for those who don't know God and who reject Him. You think about what lies in store for them and your hearts goes out to them. You care. That is a rare quality. Increasing so in our time. May God use your genuine care and concern for others to fill you with love and compassion and to rescue many who are stumbling and stubbing their toes over they know not what in the darkness.

You and Rocco are thick as thieves. Thicker, actually, because you're not thieves. You spend your days playing together and are always there for each other. You like having him as your sidekick and he looks up to you. I can't say I blame him. You're a good dude.

You always make sure to give me a hug before bed after I sing and pray with you at night. You don't like saying, "Goodbye" to anybody and always enjoy saying, "Hello!" You are friendly and a good friend. Anyone who has you for a friend finds a good thing.

You notice things. If someone gets a haircut or changes their clothes, you take note. You like the way things look a d have a good eye for what would make them look even better.

You often engage strangers in conversation. You are not shy about talking to new people or timid about bringing up hot topics. You gladly engage others and ask them about their relationship with God. You care more about that than you do looking silly or seeming awkward. You embrace it and go for it. I love that about you.

Truth be told though, I love everything about you. You are a good son and I like being your dad. I'm proud of you and the man you are growing up into. I thank God that I get to know you and spend my days with you.

I love you, my son.

Happy Birthday!

Here's to many more.

Love,

Dad

day no. 15,839: dead ends

“Sanctification is not my idea of what I want God to do for me; sanctification is God’s idea of what He wants to do for me.” — Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest

Many of us aspire to a type of personal holiness that providence must deny us access. We have ideas, hopes, and dreams about the kind of Christians we want to be, but they are not in keeping with the reality of what saints actually are. We imagine God’s people to be something none of them are and then aim our efforts at the wrong model. We want things for ourselves which God does not desire or require. This is not because we are more refined in our tastes than God, but because we are too hipster to see what's actually good for us.

1 Thessalonians 5:23-24

And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is He that calleth you, who also will do it.

Sanctification is an act of God. No one can become more godly without God's intervention. Our intentions often take us off course. Combine that with our ineptitude at getting there and you get a tragic ending… unless He interferes. And by His grace, He does.

If God does not change our aspirations, our inclinations are deadly.

If God does not provide an inspiration,

our destination is always a dead end.

day no. 15,838: the greatest threat to the present mischief

"Above all we do not allow the dead to rise up against us.” -- George Orwell, 1984

The greatest threat to the present mischief is history.

The resurrection will kill the insurrection.

"Naturally, since I myself am a writer, I do not wish the ordinary reader to read no modern books. But if he must read only the new or only the old, I would advise him to read the old." -- C.S. Lewis, Introduction to Athanasius' On the Incarnation

When we are anchored in history, we are armed for the moment.

day no. 15,837: ought or not?

Deuteronomy 4:2

Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you.

The commandments of God come with an ought. God does not talk just to hear His teeth rattle. If He commands it, it isn't optional. He doesn't make suggestions or share His opinions. What God says is our obligation. His commands merit honor and respect.

In other words, we owe God our obedience. When we obey Him, we are merely paying our debts. We are giving Him what He is due. Our obedience merely pays the bill His glory and honor demand.

No one shall diminish the ought of God's words. We do well when we clarify that glad-hearted "get to" is more in line with what we owe than hard-hearted "have to," but we must also carefully clarify that "get to" does not mean that we get to do whatever we want, but that we get to do what He requires.

Luke 17:10

When you have done all that you were commanded, say, "We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty."

Additionally, God's commandments cannot benefit from any of our contributions to them. Nor do God's commandments suffer from any of our retractions from them. We cannot promote God's Word or demote it by any addition or subtraction of ours. We neither make it more attractive by adding to it nor make it less offensive by subtracting from it. God's commandments cannot be fortified by synthetic vitamins and minerals and God's commandments cannot be purified by our state of the art refineries.

Anyone who adds to the God's commands is accusing His Word of being insufficient. Anyone who removes the ought from His commands is accusing His Word of being insignificant.

day no. 15,836: captivity and liberty

2 Corinthians 10:3-6

For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete.

Thoughts are either held captive by the world or by Christ. They are either liberated from Christ or liberated from men. To be liberated from Christ is to be bound to chaos. To be liberated in Christ is to be bound for glory. To be captive to the world is to be bound to chaos. To be captive in Christ is to be bound to the boundless.

day no. 15,835: leavening and leveling

Luke 13:20-21

And again he said, "Whereunto shall I liken the kingdom of God? It is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened."

The kingdom of God is like leaven which works its way through everything and causes it to rise. The kingdoms of egalitarianism are like leveling agents which work through everything and cause it all to fall. Leaven breaths life into everything and lifts it up. Egalitarianism sucks the life out of everything and tramples it underfoot. The kingdom of God ends up light and fluffy and warm and fills the world with a sense of home akin to fresh baked bread. The kingdoms of men end up dark and heavy and cold and fills the world with a sense of discomfort akin to an operating room.