day no. 16,171: cultural engagement quadrants

Quadrants can be created by asking two binary questions and placing them respectively on an X and Y axis. The responses to each will create the quadrants in charting overlapping and intersecting responses to each with respect to the other.

Let's play.

X: Should Christians engage outside culture? Yes/No?

Y: Should Christians admire outside culture? Yes/No?

Of if you prefer, the Y axis could be posited as, "Should Christians have a High or a Low view of the world outside of the church?"

Q1: Engage: No, Admire: Yes

Q2: Engage: Yes, Admire, Yes

Q3: Engage: No, Admire: No

Q4: Engage: Yes, Admire, No

We are commanded by Christ to be in the world, but not of it. He prayed for us to this end. The intersection of these two questions produces four distinct methods or tactics for being a Christian in the world.

Q1: Alongside the outside. Lives in the secular world, but worship in the sacred one on Sunday.

Q2: Accommodate the outside. Listens to the secular world to gain a voice for the faith in theirs.

Q3: Abandon the outside. Lives in own world, or ghetto, in a cloister outside of worldly sway.

Q4: Attack the outside. Lives in Christ's world and calls the outside to surrender to their King.

In other words, with respect to the world, you can either:

Q1: Work by

Q2: Work with

Q3: Work away from

Q4: Work against

Enmity is inescapable, but these intersections produce differing attitudes towards the enmity between the seed of Eve (Spirit) and the seed of the serpent (flesh):

Q1: Evade the enemy's priorities

Q2: Embrace the enemy's priorities

Q3: Evade the enemy's presence

Q4: Embrace the enemy's presence

Q1 differs in its evasion from Q3 in that it evades the tensions by not having any. It just works alongside the world, letting it do its thing and separating or compartmentalizing life into sacred and secular categories, conceding much of life to the world. Q3 evades the enmity by retreating into its own community. It recognizes the tension by trying to escape it; whereas Q1 evades the enmity by ignoring it altogether. Q1 thinks it can live with the world like a spouse in a loveless marriage living parallel lives. It imagines it can share an address without sharing it's influence or being influenced by the other.

Q2 sends out feelers for what the world likes and then plants a church aimed at meeting their felt needs. It orients its approach around the enemy's desires, hopes, and dreams. It begins and ends with the world and becomes more and more like it with every move it makes.

Q2 differs in its embrace from Q4 in that it embraces the enmity and attempts to empathize with it. It seeks to understand it and learn from it whereas Q4 embraces the fact of enmity by preparing for war. There is a stark contrast between embracing your enemy with hugs and embracing the fact of your enemy by engaging him in battle. Q2 seeks to love its enemies by surrendering to them whereas Q4 seeks to love its enemies by defeating them.

Q3 attempts to evade the world's presence altogether by quarantining itself. It attempts to save the healthy by keeping out the sick. Q4 embraces the fact of the enemy and accepts its presence. It does so by preparing for war. Si vis pacem para bellum. (If you want peace, prepare for war.) Q4 wants peace and expects to achieve it through the surrender of the world.

The four intersections also end with very different eschatological attitudes about the end of the world. In short, is it victory or defeat here that is expected?

Q1: Accept defeat

Q2: Accept defeat

Q3: Expect defeat

Q4: Expect victory

Q1 and Q2 both accept the dominance of the world. The one by simply accepting it's place and seeking to work alongside it, the other by accepting it's place and seeking a place for Christianity in their world.

Q3 expects the church to lose and sequesters itself. It loses the battle by conceding it, placing it's hope in a future when their cave dwelling can be done in broad daylight.

Q4 expects the church to fulfill Christ's commands. Q4 expects to see the leaven work through the loaf and the Kingdom come, not go. Q4 believes that Jesus did not place it on a suicide mission, but accepts the fact the casualties are a part of all wars and that battles are lost on the way to victory and that climbing a mountain sometimes involves going down a slope in order to arrive and ascend the next cliff.

The intersections also result in differing attitudes about "the center." Who gets to determine the agenda? Who gets to define the terms?

Q1: Assumes no center 

Q2: Assumes no periphery

Q3: Assumes the periphery

Q4: Assumes the center

Q1 assumes that there is no center. It is content to let the world have politics. It is content to participate in politics, but only when done outside its Christianity. It votes as a citizen, not as a Christian. It assumes there is no arche that holds everything together: religion is one thing, re-zoning the city, another.

Q2 assumes that there is no periphery. It accommodates itself to unbelief in order to create one new man, but not the one Christ died to reconcile (Eph 2), but one co-existing lovefest of ecumenical meaninglessness.

Q3 assumes the periphery. This world is counted altogether forfeit. It belongs to the prince of the power of the air and it always will, so why fight it. It retreats to the corners and is content to carve out a Christian community out there. It lights a candle in a dark corner and hopes a dark wind won't up and blow them out.

Q4 assumes the center. It is Kuyperian and believes that Christ is Lord of every square inch of earth. It assumes that He is King of every molecule and thought and policy and association in existence, in heaven and on earth. He is the arche and to Him all things will be organized as under one Head.

Final Analysis:

Q1: ChristiUNdity

Q2: ChristiANDity

Q3: Benedict option

Q4: Boniface option

Q3 and Q4 are the only permissible Christian approaches. Q1 unseats Christ as King by implying there are two kingdoms: one belonging to the world and one belonging to Jesus.  It puts the UN in Christian.

Q2 seeks to make the throne so large that anyone can fit on it, thus functionally eliminating the rule and reign of Jesus by crowding Him out. It is the classic error of subtraction by addition, i.e. Christ + AND. To add anything to Him is to take away from Him.

Q3 is a way of retaining a world where Christ is Lord by retreating. There is a time where resistance is no longer possible and retreat is recommended, even by Jesus: e.g. pregnant before the siege of Jerusalem. If you see the city surrounded, head for the hills. However, that is under only extreme situations in order to preserve the seed so that it may be sown again to sprout in broad daylight.

Q4 is the approach of Boniface, who chopped down the sacred tree of Thor and used the lumber to build a church. It is aggressive and assumes the center. It expects the kingdom of God to manifest itself more and more as we believe and behave accordingly. You cannot compartmentalize Christianity and retain an orthodox faith. You cannot accommodate the world and retain an orthodox faith. You can attempt to save the treasure by burying it or hiding it in the attic if the Gestapo is on to you... OR you can invest the treasure into expansion efforts in expecting to see compound interest work in your favor for the glory of God. Q3 and Q4 fight for the faith. The one seeks to shelter it from the world, the latter seeks to overwhelm the world. Q3 imagines Christianity as on an Ark escaping from the flood. Q4 imagines Christianity as the flood filling the earth and overwhelming it all (Hab. 2:14, Isaiah 11:9) until even the last enemy, death, will be capsized by the storehouse of Heaven opening up entirely upon it.

day no. 16,170: perfect pens and imperfect men

2 Peter 1:21

For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.

Was the Bible written by God or by men? Yes.

Holy men inspired by the Holy Spirit wrote the Bible.

One catechism asks and answers it this way:

Q. 14. Where do you learn how to love and obey God?

A. In the Bible alone.

Q. 15. Who wrote the Bible?

A. Holy men who were taught by the Holy Spirit.

How can unreliable, imperfect men write reliable, perfect words?

The same way unreliable, imperfect men do anything which isn't in vain... by relying upon the Lord.

Psalm 127:1

Except the Lord build the house,

they labour in vain that build it.

The point is clearly made: laboring without the Lord is ludicrous, but the inverse is also true -- labor for the Lord will last.

1 Corinthians 15:58

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

Unreliable men can write reliable words, e.g. two plus two equals four. That is reliable, but typed by yours truly, an unreliable man. I am an imperfect, but that is perfectly true. Even more to the point, saying, "I am an imperfect man," is perfectly true. I have it on good authority. I've looked in a mirror, but I've also seen my reflection in the pool of God's Word. So, you ought to believe me when I say, "I'm imperfect." You shouldn't doubt my imperfection simply because I could be wrong. And if that is to taken as Gospel truth, how much more so the actual Gospel truth. And amen.

day no. 16,169: compound temptations

The following response was written by Doug regarding homosexuality, temptation and sin.

"A repentant homosexual could expect his temptations to come from that direction, and that it was not a sin to be tempted. But then Revoice used that standard understanding as a way to carve out a space to be a celibate gay, which is effeminate, and which is a sin." -- Doug Wilson, Letters of No Little Empathy

What follows was a reply I wrote to Doug requesting some further clarification...

Is it fair to say that some temptations are only experienced by having given in to previous temptations? For example, when the Word says that Jesus was tempted as we are, I take that to mean that He was tempted in the core ways every man, woman and child is, yet to degrees more intense than we ever experience by having never given in to them. So He experienced an intensity of temptation to which we cannot relate, but we, by giving in, experience a diversity of temptations to which He cannot relate. For example, Jesus was never tempted to molest a child. I would argue that this temptation is a product of having given in to other temptations. It is not a front end temptation, but a result of compound temptations stacked and influencing the others. The whole cardboard box gets wet when you set the bottom in a puddle. When some say that Jesus experienced every temptation we did and then go on to say He knows what it's like to want to cheat on your wife or molest a child or desire another man sexually, I don't buy it. Jesus was never tempted to hide the body after a premeditated murder because He never gave in to numerous temptations required to get to that point. Am I wrong? Have you written anywhere about this kind of thing as it relates to temptations and what might be considered the doorway temptations (perhaps lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, pride of life) that give way to all other perversions and temptations?

day no. 16,168: postmillennial, partial preterist

Partial preterist. Full preterism is heresy as confirmed by the Apostles’ Creed (“from thence He will come to judge the living and the dead”.) Most of Revelation is in our past, but was in their immediate future. That said, the devil isn’t so creative as to avoid repeating himself. History doesn’t always repeat, but it often rhymes. So it wouldn’t shock me to see similar tactics or strategies employed now which were previously employed against the saints. And just like them, the faithful will prevail.

Revelation 12:10-11

And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death.”

day no. 16,167: before the throne of God... or man

“He (the Puritan) prostrated himself in the dust before his Maker, but set his foot on the neck of his king.”  — Benjamin F.  Morris, The Christian and Character of the Civil Institutions of the United States

No earthly authority is absolute and the only heavenly authority that exists is. That is why the Puritan bowed before the throne of heaven without reservation and approached the thrones of men with determination. He knew enough to lower himself before the former and to raise himself up against the latter when it raised itself beyond its permitted jurisdiction. The Puritan's faith in God through Christ provided confidence before the throne of God and man.

Acts 5:29

Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, "We ought to obey God rather than men."

Christ is the King of kings and Lord of lords. When kings defy their King, citizens are obligated to defy them in order to honor Him. To defy a tyrant in his tyranny is to obey God. To obey a tyrant's defiance of God is to disobey God. To go along to get along only makes you an accomplice. To accommodate evil is to approve of it. You are what you tolerate.

Hebrews 4:16

Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.

If you are permitted to stand before the throne of God, you can stand anywhere. If God grants you to rise in His presence, you can rise up anywhere. If we are emboldened by Christ to have confidence before His Father's throne, we can be emboldened by Him to have confidence before any other. If we are accepted by God on His throne, we can face rejected by a man behind his desk. If by grace through faith we can stand before God Almighty, we can stand before any man. If in Christ we need not fear our Father, we need not fear our brother.

Psalms 118:6-7

The LORD is on my side; I will not fear. What can man do to me? The LORD is for me among those who help me; Therefore I shall see my desire on those who hate me.

day no. 16,166: the sins of others do not cleanse us of our own

1 Peter 2:1-3

So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation—if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.

Slander assumes salvation is possible through the condemnation of others. We should not look to manipulation to save us. We cannot run others down enough to elevate ourselves and we cannot talk ourselves up enough to chase down righteousness. But salvation is not a matter of being less bad, but of being forgiven for being worse than we imagined. The sins of others do not cleanse us of our own.

"Be careful not to measure your holiness by other people's sins." -- Martin Luther

1 John 1:8-10

If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

We are cleansed by confessing that we are dirty. Pointing out the dirt around you does not make you cleaner. Creating a higher contrast does not provide an excuse. 

Only Jesus saves.

Only Jesus cleanses.

day no. 16,165: alternate authorities

"If children see that their teachers despise what their parents desire, there is and must be a conflict of authorities. And there is, and must be, in the modern State, a monstrous discovery; that it is the more new and unnatural authority that has the power." -- G.K. Chesterton (New Witness, Dec. 27. 1918)

When the State has access to your children 8 hours a day, they have more sway than you do. God has hard-wired children to want to please their parents. Godly parents leverage this to point their children to God and His grace and see their children grow to follow Him in step along side them. However, this blessing of persuasion can be forfeited. Unconfessed sin can obliterate the bond, of course, as we have certainly seen in some families, but so can abdication. Sending your children to alternate authorities can undermine the authority of the home.

This does not have to be the case per se, if the alternate authorities respect the place of parents and/or if they share the same values and vision of life and livelihood as the parents. But when the alternate authorities hate the home and see themselves and their 8 hours a day as an opportunity to evangelize and catechize their students, the home can't keep up. Not, mind you, because it doesn't have the ability or authority to do so, but because it surrenders its authority to do so by failing to fight for its own.

All that to say... Christian, get your children out of the government schools. Educate and nourish them at home. Send them to a Christian school which you have vetted perhaps. But whatever you do, don't send them to Caesar unless you want a world full of Romans -- that is to say, a world that is antagonistic to the Christian faith of our fathers.

“We cannot continue to send our children to Caesar for their education and be surprised when they come home as Romans.” -- Voddie Baucham

day no. 16,164: the family was the first university

"A row of identically dressed and identically trained soldiers set side by side, or a number of citizens listed as voters in a constituency, are not members of anything in the Pauline sense. I am afraid that when we describe a man as 'a member of the Church' we usually mean nothing Pauline: we mean only that he is a unit--that he is one more specimen of the some kind of thing as X and Y and Z. How true membership in a body differs from inclusion in a collective may be seen in the structure of a family. The grandfather, the parents, the grown-up son, the child, the dog, and the cat are true members (in the organic sense) precisely because they are not members or units of a homogeneous class. They are not interchangeable. Each person is almost a species in himself. The mother is not simply a different person from the daughter, she is a different kind of person. The grown-up brother is not simply one unit in the class children, he is a separate estate of the realm. The father and grandfather are almost as different as the cat and the dog. If you subtract any one member you have not simply reduced the family in number, you have inflicted an injury on its structure. Its unity is a unity of unlikes, almost of incommensurables." -- C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory and other essays: Membership

The family was the first university.

Family is where unity in diversity was first fully realized. A man and a woman have as much in common as they have in distinction. They are diverse, but they are alike; and in marriage, they come together as one flesh in a unity that glorifies the diversity of each. The family is from God and combines robust creativity with covenantal unity. He makes the two into one in a way that does not rob from either, but rather accentuates both. Diversity is retained, but unity is gained.

"To be happy at home is the ultimate result of all ambition. " -- Samuel Johnson

Home teaches us harmony.

At home, a person can be themselves without being abandoned. At home, a person can be unique and still be part of something. Each member of the family is unique without being an outcast. Their differences contribute to the unity just as a kidney comes along side a liver to make a healthy body.

"He is happiest, be he king or peasant, who finds peace in his home." -- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

A home provides a place of peace. The unusual find their place and the regular finds its delight. Everyone is at rest being who they are under the comfort of the same roof -- living, moving, and having their being as part of the household.

The home is where the heart is taught true diversity and it grows to love outside its comforts what it once learned routinely within them. At home you learn to look not only to your own interests, but the interests of others so that when you leave the home you are prepared to consider the interests of others without forfeiting your own interests altogether.

day no. 16,163: the meek inherit the earth by handing it faithfully off

1 Chronicles 28:8

Now therefore in the sight of all Israel, the assembly of the LORD, and in the hearing of our God, observe and seek out all the commandments of the LORD your God, that you may possess this good land and leave it for an inheritance to your children after you forever.

Seek the commandments of the Lord out. Chase them down. Orient your mind around believing and understanding them. Orient your day around obeying and living in the light of them. When we repent of our sin, receive His forgiveness and mercy in Christ, and run hard after His commandments like they're the honey of our hearts, we can in faith fully expect to take possession of the promised land. The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein. The meek will inherit the earth in the end and in the meantime the faithful have the fun of handing the world off to their descendants generation after generation. They will gather together in a land flowing with milk and honey to enjoy the fruits of the labors together forever by the grace of God in Christ our Lord and Savior.

The meek inherit the earth by handing it faithfully off. They do not have it by hoarding it. They gain it by giving it away.

day no. 16,162: Christianity demands border control

Isaiah 5:20-21

Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes,

and prudent in their own sight!

Definitions are borders and Christianity demands border control. 

Borders define things. It states where something begins and ends, what it is and what it isn't. Order requires water tight definitions. Borders require the same.

Proverbs 25:28

He that hath no rule over his own spirit 

is like a city that is broken down, and without walls.

A city without walls is undefined. A dictionary without consistent definitions is a blind guide.

Nehemiah 1:3

And they said unto me, The remnant that are left of the captivity there in the province are in great affliction and reproach: the wall of Jerusalem also is broken down, and the gates thereof are burned with fire.

When the walls come down, order and stability go down with them. Walls provide stability. They define a space and decide what is included in the definition and what is kept outside of it. The law of non-contradiction presupposes walls. Something cannot be what it is and what it isn't at the same time in the same way. It cannot be both here and there if those words are to mean anything.

Two walls currently under attack are those of the person in the form of their bodily autonomy and the nation in the form of its physical borders and philosophical presuppositions.

To the first, bodily autonomy is essential. It is a God-given right. No one should be forced into having anything inserted into them or removed from them against their will and/or consent. This means that abortion is an abomination, not a right. The mother has bodily autonomy, but so does the baby inside her. The child has the right to be free from outside, intentional, negative interference. If a child in utero has a health complication as observed through an ultrasound, outside interference may be needed in order to attempt to save the child, but it is forbidden in order to destroy the child or hinder their progress intentionally. It also means that mandatory medical prescriptions are illegal and against the law of God. No one should be legally forced to participate in any particular course of medical action. Health, welfare, and education belong to the family as designed by God, not to the civil magistrate.

The second, national borders are essential. If a country cannot control who and what gets in and who and what gets out, it is no longer a nation. It has no ability to determine for itself what it is and what it isn't. It will be defined by whatever gets in or by whatever leaks out. God intends for nations (plural) to be represented in eternity before Him. He will unite them into one people, but not by shaving off every distinction in order to do so. He will unite them in their diversity and create a new people in Christ. Nations need to be able to turn some away just like a household needs to be able to lock their front door. No one thinks you’re a racist or stingy if you don't let anyone who happens to knock on your door come in and live with you. Or at least, they shouldn't; and they definitely don't do that at their home, even if they say that it's ideal. A country is not free because it is forced to be always open for business, it's free when it can lock the door at 5 and go home to enjoy it's family. If it is forced to be open 24/7 without qualification, it is enslaved, not enlightened.

day no. 16,161: gaytriarchy again

Psalm 2:1-3

Why do the nations rage

and the peoples plot in vain?

The kings of the earth set themselves,

and the rulers take counsel together,

against the LORD and against his Anointed, saying, 

“Let us burst their bonds apart

and cast away their cords from us.”

Meet the new hierarchy, same as the ol' hierarchy. There is nothing new under the sun and the envious always become what they despise. The only way to smash the patriarchy is with another patriarchy. You can't break a sword with a wet noodle. If the goal is to demolish the existing power structure, you will have to do it using a similar power. Strength answers to strength. The gaytriarchy, in other words, is just the same ol' patriarchy they've always hated, without any of the restraints or responsibilities hard-wired into fatherhood. It is a desire to have privilege without responsibility, to be in charge without having any charges to whom you must look after. It's that MUST that really gets them — duty and obligation really grinds their goat. 

For the purpose of this post, the word "gay" is being used a general catch-all for all things unproductive and unfruitful as defined by God through His Word, the Bible. So gay is not being limited to sexual ethics, but being extended to include egalitarianism in all of its sickly manifestations: feminism, racism, Marxism, socialism, communism, environmentalism, etc..

Patriarchy has been blamed for just about every and any thing. In some ways, this is an accurate understanding and the indictment sticks. Patriarchy is responsible. It is a position of covenant headship that owns whatever happens on its watch. That is a very different thing than being at fault for everything that has ever happened. One can be responsible for what's happening under his own roof without being at fault for its happening. So, in that sense, it makes sense that Patriarchy would have the collective shade of human history thrown at it. The buck stops with it and it should take responsibility, even for its own soiled reputation. Deserved or not, guilty or not, the fact of it is the responsibility of it. And patriarchy should not appeal to complaints of that being unfair or asking the inquisitor to consider how that makes them feel. Patriarchy should know better and play the cards they've been dealt by playing the man, not attempting to do commerce in counterfeit currency. 

The patriarchy makes diversity possible. Only in a society of patriarchy are women free to be feminine and children free to be childlike. There is no competition. Men are not trying to be women and aren't expecting women to want to be men. Each accepts their strengths and weaknesses as part of the system which allows everyone to be different, valued, and included. The irony of the gaytriarchy and its “inclusiveness” is how unwelcoming and aggressive it is towards any other viewpoint. “Be inclusive or get the eff out” is their mantra. Swell. The kindness of the wicked is worse than the rudeness of the righteous. That kind of love and acceptance I can deal without and would likely be asked to go without if they had their way.

Mandating diversity is the best way to destroy it. Only a society organized under patriarchy would tolerate gay shenanigans as evidenced anecdotally by the very fact of it. If patriarchy is the long-standing tradition of western society and is blamed as being entirely narrow-minded and intolerant, how is it that out of that western society the greatest diversity of genders in the history of the world has ever been produced. If the patriarchy is as bad as they say, we would't know it, because we'd never been permitted to hear about it because they would never have been allowed to exist in the first place. 

But grant authority to the gaytriarchy and what do you find? Threats, firings, lawsuits, imprisonment camps, re-education, mandatory diversity trainings, preferred pronouns at gunpoint, mostly peaceful riots, and transvestites being applauded in public libraries. Their charge of the patriarchy forcing things down everyone else’s throats for thousands of years hardly carries weight when in its first year at the helm it crams as much of itself wherever it can. The problem it turns out was not with the cramming itself, but with who was doing the cramming and where they were allowed to cram it. But enough about perversity as a protected right.

All that to say, hierarchy is inevitable. The eternal God exists in a state of divine hierarchy with the Father as the head of the Son and the Spirit without any disparity in value or differentiation of divinity. The Father is not more God than the Son or the Spirit, but He is the head. The gaytriarchy is not a new and improved headship, but merely the very thing they have accused the old patriarchy of being: abusive, abdicating, narrow-minded, vindictive, bigoted, and absent. The only hope for the world is a robust patriarchy taking responsibility and gladly assuming the sacrificial responsibility of leading and let live. This will involve some much-needed, much-delayed spankings, and not the kind the kink cult advocate.

day no. 16,160: first in, last out, and laughing loud

1 Chronicles 19:13

Be strong, and let us use our strength for our people and for the cities of our God, and may the LORD do what seems good to him.

Courage is faith incarnate. It takes faith to fight for what is right regardless of the outcome. Courage recognizes failure as a possibility without being deterred by it. It doesn't make failure the determining factor.

Revelation 12:11

And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.

The right side is not always given the right outcome. Pride falls and sloth won't get up, but faith goes into battle fueled by purpose, not by a guarantee of outcome. Faith is no less faithful if it falls in battle. In fact, it is proven faithful for doing so. Courage would rather die for the right cause than live for the wrong one.

"For this is what it means to be a king: to be first in every desperate attack and last in every desperate retreat, and when there’s hunger in the land … [to] laugh louder over a scantier meal than any man in your land." -- C.S. Lewis, The Horse and His Boy

Faith is first in the fray and last out. It works as hard as it can in order to honor the God above them and the people behind them. It does what is best as defined by God and leaves what's best to God's designs. God will do what seems best to Him and faith does what God said is best to do. Faith seeks to be as strong as it can be. It wants to fight as hard as it can because it loves what is behind it, above it, and before it. Whatever the result, faith rests in obedience by fighting the battle before it.

Sing, men of Christ, sing loud:

“Our banner is the Lord!”

First in, last out, and laughing loud,

We work for our reward.

One day we’ll hear, “Well done,”

And all our striving cease,

But ’til our lifelong race is run,

We’ll fight and laugh and feast.

- Josh Bishop, Come, Men of Christ, Be Strong

day no. 16,159: gaytriarchy

Genesis 1:28

And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion"

Hierarchy is inherent.

Imposition is inescapable. 

There will be a hierarchy. It is built in. The world is angular and you cannot flatten it. So the idea of smashing the patriarchy may claim to be born out of a desire to end all imposition, but in the end it can only usher in a brand new imposition -- meet the new boss, same as the ol' boss. 

You discover a person's commitment to the principle once they obtain the option to be on the other side of the equation. In other words, you find out if someone was opposed to oppression as a principle or if they were merely opposed to being oppressed. Many claiming abuse make enthusiastic abusers once given the ability. Their resistance to the power structure was merely an irritation of being powerless.

The gaytriarchy is the new patriarchy whether they like it or not. They only think that they despise fatherhood. They are at war with what is because it wasn't what they hoped it would be. And some of them have legitimate beefs. They weren't fathered well. But their solution is to prefer a world without fathers rather than becoming the fathers they desired. So when they ascend to power, they do not become the benevolent abbas of the next generation, but merely the next brutal absentee dad that they despised. 

Fruitlessness is currently making its move to rule the roost. It wants all the privileges of making the calls without any of the responsibility for taking the blame for the falls. Fruitlessness is at war with fruitfulness. It despises what it cannot do, but refuses to submit to how it is done. They prefer to be barren and brash than bountiful and obedient.

The fecund are under fire from the effete. Luckily, wet spaghetti can only whip for so long before it all falls apart. Defy the limp-wristed with a strong back. Bring fatherhood and fecundity back. The downfall of the fruitless will be their inability to tap into generational and covenantal blessing... assuming the faithful and fruitful stop sending their children to them.

day no. 16,158: generational, covenantal

1 Chronicles 16:11-17

Seek the LORD and his strength;

seek his presence continually!

Remember the wondrous works that he has done,

his miracles and the judgments he uttered,

O offspring of Israel his servant,

children of Jacob, his chosen ones!

He is the LORD our God;

his judgments are in all the earth.

Remember his covenant forever,

the word that he commanded, for a thousand generations,

the covenant that he made with Abraham,

his sworn promise to Isaac,

which he confirmed to Jacob as a statute,

to Israel as an everlasting covenant

God works through generations and covenants. It passes from father to son to grandson, from Abraham to Isaac to Jacob. God's promises never fail, they always follow and they are ever waiting for us where we are going.

Covenants are everlasting. They stand as long as the ones who make them, so when eternal God makes a promise, it stands eternally. When Forever says, "Forever," He means it. When the Everlasting promises "everlasting," it isn't hyperbole.

The Lord has promised a blessing upon those who love Him. He has promised faithful generations to follow the faithful. The faithful will remember and rejoice in His covenant forever.

To remember is to rejoice.

To rejoice is to reproduce.

You cultivate what you celebrate and covenants water the garden, replenish the land, freshen the fruit, and sweeten the soul. The promised land is flowing with milk and honey and the generations will gather at the feast prepared by the One they call Faithful.

day no. 16,157: lex orandi lex credendi

Lex orandi lex credendi,

"The law of prayer is the law of faith."

Formal worship forms us. We are becoming what we worship and arriving where we're going more and more with each passing day. Liturgy shapes us. The way we worship establishes us. What we do in worship affects what we do elsewhere. Everything is going somewhere and sooner or later it is going to get there.

day no. 16,156: covenant keeps

Psalm 112:1-4

Praise the LORD!

Blessed is the man who fears the LORD,

who greatly delights in his commandments! 

His offspring will be mighty in the land;

the generation of the upright will be blessed. 

Wealth and riches are in his house,

and his righteousness endures forever. 

Light dawns in the darkness for the upright;

he is gracious, merciful, and righteous.

The meek think in terms of generations. They cannot plant a tree without thinking about their great-great grandchildren climbing in it with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs on their lips. The faithful are fruitful and set their sights on crops they will never harvest. They send everything ahead trusting that it will be retained and refined by God. 

Covenant keeps. It holds on to what it has already inherited and seeks to grow and increase that which will be handed on. Covenant reaches back to the faith of its ancient ancestors and looks forward to the faith of its remote descendants.

Light is shining in the darkness and the darkness cannot overcome it. As the diameter of light increases, so does the circumference of darkness. It may feel like a growing presence on the perimeter, but it only feels that way. It is a by-product of light's constant expansion.

day no. 16,155: the future is Christian

Psalm 111:6

He has shown his people the power of his works, in giving them the inheritance of the nations.

The future is Christian.

Christ is in control. The world and its future belong entirely to Him and He isn't giving it up. He isn't going to misplace it or forget about it. He isn't absent-minded or indifferent. He is God and King. He isn’t up for re-election or in any danger of being unseated. He has no term limits. He will never retire. He never needs a break. He doesn’t take vacations. He lived, died, rose again, and ascended to Heaven to secure the world as a birthright; an inheritance He fully intends to bestow upon His beloved people. His power has shown that He owns the grave. Death can't hold Him. Hell can't stop Him. The world can’t thwart Him and the plot can’t get away from Him. He is the Author. He is the beginning and the end, the paper and the pen. The plot unfolds on Him, by Him, through Him, and for Him.

The future, my friend, is Christian.

day no. 16,154: righteousness will never win wickedness's approval

Psalm 112:6-10

For the righteous will never be moved;

he will be remembered forever. 

He is not afraid of bad news;

his heart is firm, trusting in the LORD. 

His heart is steady; he will not be afraid,

until he looks in triumph on his adversaries. 

He has distributed freely; he has given to the poor;

his righteousness endures forever;

his horn is exalted in honor. 

The wicked man sees it and is angry;

he gnashes his teeth and melts away;

the desire of the wicked will perish!

Righteousness will never win wickedness’s approval. And it wouldn't want it even if it were offering. Stop trying to impress people who don't like you. Stop trying to gain the favor of people you don't like. You won't win anything by winning them over since the only way to gain their respect is by losing your own. The wicked will never admire the way of God. If they did, they’d no longer be wicked in their assessment. Only the one made righteous by the grace of God admires and aspires toward righteousness.

The wicked man watches the righteous and rages. He clenches his jaw and his fists in impotent upset. But his envy will come to nothing. His wants evaporate before noon. The righteous, however, will rule with God forever. Therefore, they don't unravel or recoil at the sound of bad news. They don't believe the prophets of doom. The enemy may boast like one taking off his armor (1 Kings 20:11), but his hubris will only find him fighting unprotected.

day no. 16,153: reformation requires resurrection

John 12:24-26

Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.

Until we decide to die, we are defenseless and out maneuvered. However, once we decide to die, we begin fighting like those who could win and dying like those who have already won.

Reformation requires resurrection.

Decay must die.

day no. 16,152: not interchangeable

1 Corinthians 11:7, 16

Man is the image and glory of God, but woman is the glory of man… If anyone is inclined to be contentious, we have no such practice, nor do the churches of God.

Men are better than women at being men.

Women are better than men at being women.

This should not be any more controversial than saying one is better than two at being solitary or that two is better than one at being a couple. Each is better than the other at being what it is and a complete failure at being what it isn’t. 

A key is better than a lock at being a key.

A lock is better than a key at being a lock.

The same could be said of bow and arrow, seal and wax, nut and bolt, plug and outlet. These were made for each other. They go together, but they are NOT interchangeable. They are one, but the one is not the other.

*for more, click HERE

day no. 16,151: salvation belongs to God

Jonah 2:9

Salvation belongs to the LORD!

From top to bottom, front to back, side to side, beginning to end: salvation belongs to God.

Salvation is from the Father, through the Son, and by the Spirit. Salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone to the glory of God alone. Salvation is only in the life, death, resurrection, ascension, intercession, and consummation of Christ. In Him, we are saved yesterday, today, and forever. Our justification, sanctification, and glorification are all accomplished by Him so that all the glory is from Him, for Him, thorough Him, and to Him alone. Amen!

Romans 11:36

For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.

day no. 16,150: pray for peace, prepare for war

"To be prepared for war is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace." — George Washington, First Annual Address To Both Houses of Congress; Friday, January 8, 1790

If you earnestly desire peace, prepare for war. Be as strong as you can be and as committed to peace as possible. Pray that your enemies see your strength and stand down.

Deuteronomy 20:10-12

When you draw near to a city to fight against it, offer terms of peace to it. And if it responds to you peaceably and it opens to you, then all the people who are found in it shall do forced labor for you and shall serve you. But if it makes no peace with you, but makes war against you, then you shall besiege it.

Imposition is inescapable. Better to impose peace upon the belligerent than to wish for better days while under the imposition of their belligerence.

Matthew 10:11-13

And into whatsoever city or town ye shall enter, enquire who in it is worthy; and there abide till ye go thence. And when ye come into an house, salute it. And if the house be worthy, let your peace come upon it: but if it be not worthy, let your peace return to you.

Always bring your peace with you and wear it on your sleeve; but always be ready to roll up your sleeves if your peace is not reciprocated.

Si vis pacem, para bellum (a Latin adage translated as "If you want peace, prepare for war")

day no. 16,149: truth is not a registered trademark

Truth does not belong to the State. It doesn’t need its papers notarized. It does not need to conform to any Federal rules and regulations committees. It is not a commodity. It cannot be bought or sold. It cannot be taxed or tariffed. It is an authority on its own. The State needs to register with it. Truth is the standard by which the State shall be judged, not the property of the State to define or package as they see fit.

"But since I have made this criticism of the modern view of the family more than once before, both in connection with the modern view of marriage and the modern view of education, I will try once more to explain to my critics and correspondents what I mean; and since I cannot be subtle, I will try to be simple. There are two human relations which modern rulers are everywhere disposed to dissolve.... that of man and wife or mother and child. A man can desire a woman as thing of beauty, or woman can desire a baby as thing of beauty. These two relations are the only two recognised combinations founded on natural satisfaction with the thing itself. They are also the only two recognised combinations in capitalist civilisation which that system has set out to destroy... Divorce and the destruction of parental control therefore are the two main modern reforms, because they both express distrust of the two natural emotions that can in some reasonable degree be trusted." -- G.K. Chesterton, Is The Parent A Paradox, 1921

The love of a man for a woman manifested in marriage is a threat to a State with no sense of self-control. The love of a parent for their child exhibited in education is another threat. The Christian family is founded on both of these, and as such, is the greatest threat an out-of-control State will ever face. This is why so much of their time, energy, and economic resources are aimed at dissipating its sway.

The State goes to great lengths to annex marital and parental responsibilities. It seeks to provide and protect those for whom husbands and fathers are responsible by first supplementing what they seek to ultimately supplant. In other words, they come along side in order to box out. Practically speaking, this leads to things like no-fault divorce laws and less stigmatization of those who pursue them for any and every reason. It also takes the form of government schooling becoming cheesier and more mandatory; and the more mandatory, the more layers of cheese that are added.

The State cannot compete with a responsible husband. The State cannot endure a happy homemaker. Free men and women make for free thinking citizens who raise free range Christian children, fed on the grace of God and the freedom of His Spirit. So, the State seeks to supplant the existing men through *Baalfare and to hamstring the rearing of future men through *Feducation. 

Truth is not a registered trademark.

----

Baalfare: a system of distribution predicated upon the notion that the State not only has the authority to dispense the rain, but the ability to produce it.

Feducation: a system of indoctrination predicated upon the notion that the State not only owns the trademark on truth, but also the means of production and distribution.

day no. 16,148: God does not paint over dirt

Amos 2:9

Yet it was I who destroyed the Amorite before them,

whose height was like the height of the cedars

and who was as strong as the oaks;

I destroyed his fruit above

and his roots beneath.

God does not paint over dirt. He is not satisfied by simply making things look better, He won't be content until everything actually is better, from the fruit to the root.

He does not merely wipe the nose, He treats the cold. He does not merely nick the tip of the dandelion off, He digs out its root. God is not content to address the effects of evil, but is bent on ending the source of evil itself. This applies both to our world and to our persons. The kingdom will not merely restrict evil by making it illegal to act wickedly, it will change the hearts of its citizens so that wickedness will no longer come so naturally. It won't rely on the force of law without for order, but upon a properly ordered heart within. The saint is not one who merely polishes the outside of the cup, but the one who scours the inside as well.

God's approach is robust. Holiness is holistic. When God deals with evil, He deals with all of it. When God deals with His people, He deals with all of them: that is, each and every; and completely and entirely. When God deals with the world, He deals with all of it from the fruit of its pride parades to the root of its rebellion.

day no. 16,147: where the mountains drip with wine

Amos 9:13-15

“Behold, the days are coming,” declares the LORD,

“when the plowman shall overtake the reaper

and the treader of grapes him who sows the seed;

the mountains shall drip sweet wine,

and all the hills shall flow with it.

I will restore the fortunes of my people Israel,

and they shall rebuild the ruined cities and inhabit them;

they shall plant vineyards and drink their wine,

and they shall make gardens and eat their fruit. 

I will plant them on their land,

and they shall never again be uprooted

out of the land that I have given them,”

says the LORD your God.

The meek shall inherit mountains that drip sweet wine. The faithful shall find themselves surrounded by hills that flow with fermented fluid. Christians will have their cities restored. Christians will have their best refined by fire for the better. Whatever good we retain will only be made better. Whatever bad we couldn't seem to vanquish will eventually be eliminated completely.

The future is Christian.

In that land, flowing with mountains of milk, hills of honey, and wine like water, we shall be planted and never removed. We will be rooted as permanent fixtures in the place of never-ending joy and pleasure.

All that to say, the future is a feast in a world without end. And Amen!

day no. 16,146: repairing the ruins

“The end then of learning is to repair the ruins of our first parents by regaining to know God aright, and out of that knowledge to love him, to imitate him, to be like him, as we may the nearest by possessing our souls of true virtue, which being united to the heavenly grace of faith makes up the highest perfection.” ― John Milton, Milton on Education, the Tractate of Education: With Supplementary Extracts from Other Writings of Milton

Education is a restoration project. It is an effort to reverse engineer everything back to its Edenic roots using perfection as its blueprints and faith as its building blocks. Education is from the Latin educere which literally means "to lead out." In order to educate, you must have an end in mind. You cannot educate unless you know where you want it all to go. This presupposes two blueprints: one in your mind and one in the process of being completed. God has given us the pattern. He provided Eden as the ultimate exempli gratia. We are called to gardenize the world. We were made to be fruitful and to multiply and to spread God's image throughout all of His creation, teaching the pattern and showing them how to practice it. Sin may have smudged the ink, but faith sees the blueprints. Sin may have marred the tools, but faith sees straight lines drawn with crooked sticks by the steady hand of Him who holds them both.

Genesis 1:28

And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion

Matthew 28:18-20

All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

day no. 16,145: revelation, enculturation, and education

“Culture is ‘lived religion.’ It is the form that religion takes in the lives of men… Culture is any and all human effort and labor expended upon the cosmos, to unearth its treasures and its riches and bring them into the service of man for the enrichment of human existence unto the glory of God.” - Henry R. Van Til, The Calvinistic Concept of Culture

Culture is religion incarnate.

It is worship with a waistline. It is doctrine on display. It is a creed performing live and in concert. Culture is revelation and education.

Ephesians 6:4
Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

Instruction is enculturation. This presupposes a particular culture. Paul is not suggesting that Christian dads should simply get some kind of culture into their kids lives, he is commanding them to produce and promote a particular, Christian culture in their life and livelihood, under their roof and wherever they roam, a foundation for future culture enfleshed at present in the education.

Education assumes an end and culture assumes a Creator, just as a kingdom assumes a King.

day no. 16,144: the marks of a good soldier

Luke 3:14

Soldiers also asked him, “And we, what shall we do?” And he said to them, “Do not extort money from anyone by threats or by false accusation, and be content with your wages.”

A good soldier is a good man soldiering well. One can be competent at soldering without having the character required to be a good one. One can be a good man without being good at soldiering, but one cannot be a good man without recognizing this deficiency while doing his level best to address it. A good man cannot make peace with being bad at warfare. He laments his cowardice and/or incompetence and thus confirms himself to be a good man.

Luke 7:8-9

For I too am a man set under authority, with soldiers under me: and I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes; and to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.’ When Jesus heard these things, he marveled at him, and turning to the crowd that followed him, said, “I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith.”

A good soldier is authoritative because he is under authority. He can be trusted to give orders because he is trustworthy when receiving orders. He has the character to lead because he has the humility to follow. A good man is not good because he digs deep within himself, but because he draws deeply from without. He has a standard outside himself and holds himself to it. As such, he can be trusted to hold others to that standard. 

2 Timothy 2:3-4

Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him.

A good soldier understands his situation. He does his best to avoid the snares of distractions and makes it a point to keep himself from getting tangled up in competing interests. He makes it his aim to please the one under whom he serves. He does not desire merely to fulfill orders, but to flourish in them.

day no. 16,143: a year in books, 2022 edition

1.   The Two Towers - J.R.R. Tolkien

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

3.   Mikey and the Dragons - Jocko Willink

4.   Father Fox’s Pennyrhymes - Clyde Watson

5.   The Return of The King - J.R.R. Tolkien

6.   The Fates of Empires - Sir John Glubb

7.   The Search for Survival - Sir John Glubb

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

9.   Cautionary Tales for Children - Hilaire Belloc

10. The Law - Frederic Bastiat

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

12. The Art of War - Sun Tzu

13. On the Shortness of Life - Seneca

14. Beowulf - translated by Seamus Heaney

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

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

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

18.  Magic - G.K. Chesterton

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

20.  Miscellaneous Essays - G.K. Chesterton

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

22.  Wit and Wisdom - G.K. Chesterton

23.  Lord Kitchener - G.K. Chesterton

24.  What’s Wrong with the World? - G.K. Chesterton

25.  The Defendant - G.K. Chesterton

January

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26.  The Crimes of England - G.K. Chesterton

27.  Gashmu Saith It: - Douglas Wilson

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

29.  The Ballad of St. Barbara & Other Verses – G.K. Chesterton

30.  Where the Sidewalk Ends - Shel Silverstein

31.  The Superstition of Divorce – G.K. Chesterton

32.  On Secular Education - R.L. Dabney

33.  A Chesterton Calendar – G.K. Chesterton

34.  The Wingfeather Saga: The Warden and the Wolf King - Andrew Peterson

35.  The Call of the Wild - Jack London

36.  James and the Giant Peach - Roald Dahl

37.  The BFG - Roald Dahl

38.  Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl

39.  Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator - Roald Dahl

40.  The Witches - Roald Dahl

41.  Future Men - Douglas Wilson

42.  Matilda - Roald Dahl

43.  George’s Marvellous Medicine  - Roald Dahl

44.  Fantastic Mr. Fox  - Roald Dahl

45.  Excused Absence - Douglas Wilson

46.  Boy  - Roald Dahl

47.  Letters from Father Christmas - J.R.R. Tolkien

48.  Everything On It - Shel Silverstein

49.  Going Solo - Roald Dahl

50.  Danny the Champion of the World - Roald Dahl

February

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51.  The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar  - Roald Dahl

52.  Fight Laugh Feast 2.4: Far As The Curse Is Found - Various Authors

53.  The Twits  - Roald Dahl

54.  Billy and the Minpins  - Roald Dahl

55.  Royal Jelly - Roald Dahl

56.  The Boy Who Talked with Animals  - Roald Dahl

57.  The Hitch-hiker - Roald Dahl

58.  The Halibather Chronicles, 1: Secret And Talizard - Penelope Page Van Voorst

59.  Lucky Break - Roald Dahl

60.  Revolting Rhymes - Roald Dahl

61.  The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me - Roald Dahl

62.  Edward the Conqueror - Roald Dahl

63.  Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs - Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm

64.  Jack and the Beanstalk - J. Roberts

65.  The Wonderful Wizard of Oz - L. Frank Baum

66.  Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll

67.  A Damned Thing - Ambrose Bierce

68.  Chickamauga - Ambrose Bierce

69.  The Moonlit Road - Ambrose Bierce

70.  The Death of Halpin Frayer - Ambrose Bierce

71.  An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge - Ambrose Bierce

72.  The Devil’s Dictionary - Ambrose Bierce

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

74.  A Good Man is Hard to Find - Flannery O’Connor

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

76.  The Discarded Image - C.S. Lewis

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

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

79.  To A Thousand Generations - Douglas Wilson

80.  Revolting Rhymes - Roald Dahl

81.  The Four Loves  - C.S. Lewis

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

83.  The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde

84.  The Battle of Maldon - Anonymous

85.  Wingfeather Tales - Various, Andrew Peterson: Editor

86.  The Screwtape Letters - C.S. Lewis

87.  Letters to Malcolm - C.S. Lewis

88.  Life of King Alfred - Asser

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

March

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90.  Mere Christianity - C.S. Lewis

91.  Wise Words - Peter J. Leithart

92.  The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe - C.S. Lewis

93.  Revolting Rhymes - Roald Dahl

94.  A Grief Observed - C.S. Lewis

95.  Paradise Lost - John Milton

96.  Paradise Regained - John Milton

97.  The Battle of Maldon - Anonymous

98.  The Highwayman - Alfred Noyes

99.  Ascensional - Todd Henry Van Voorst

100. The Amazing Dr. Ransom's Bestiary of Adorable Fallacies – Douglas and N.D. Wilson

101. The Wingfeather Saga: Pembrick’s Creatuepedia - Andrew Peterson

102. Is Church Membership Biblical - Ryan M. McGraw and Ryan Speck

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

104. Treasure Island - Robert Louis Stevenson

104. Prince Caspian - C.S. Lewis

105. The Great Divorce - C.S. Lewis

106. Robinson Crusoe - Daniel Defoe

107. Little House in the Big Woods  - Laura Ingalls Wilder

108. The Discarded Image - C.S. Lewis

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

110. Farmer Boy  - Laura Ingalls Wilder

111. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader - C.S. Lewis

April

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112. Little House on the Prairie  - Laura Ingalls Wilder

113. On the Banks of Plum Creek  - Laura Ingalls Wilder

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

115. The Art of Turning - Kevin DeYoung

116. Our Mother Tongue: An Introductory Guide to English Grammar - Nancy Wilson

117. By the Shores of Silver Lake  - Laura Ingalls Wilder

118. The Long Winter  - Laura Ingalls Wilder

119. A Utopia of Usurers - G.K. Chesterton

120. Little Town on the Prairie  - Laura Ingalls Wilder

121. The Silver Chair - C.S. Lewis

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

123. Ascensional - Todd Henry Van Voorst

124. These Happy Golden Years  - Laura Ingalls Wilder

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

126. The First Four Years  - Laura Ingalls Wilder

127. The Secret Garden - G.K. Chesterton

128. On the Way Home - Laura Ingalls Wilder

129. The Blue Cross - G. K. Chesterton

May

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130. The Fates of Empires - Sir John Glubb

131. The Search for Survival - Sir John Glubb

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

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

134. The Law - Frederic Bastiat

135. The Invisible Man -  G.K. Chesterton

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

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

138. The Art of War - Sun Tzu

139. On the Shortness of Life - Seneca

140. The Oracle of the Dog - G.K. Chesterton

141. The Battle of Maldon - Anonymous

142. The Queer Feet - G.K. Chesterton

143. Life of King Alfred - Asser

144. The Horse and His Boy - C.S. Lewis

145. Beowulf - translated by Seamus Heaney

146. Fight Laugh Feast 3.1: Politics of Six-Day Creation - Various Authors

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

148. The Hammer of God - G.K. Chesterton

149. The Absence of Mr. Glass - G.K. Chesterton

150. Present Concerns: Journalistic Essays - C.S. Lewis

151. The Queen of the Seven Swords - G.K. Chesterton

152. The Hobbit - J.R.R. Tolkien

153. The Paradise of Thieves - G.K. Chesterton

154. The Duel of Dr. Hirsch - G.K. Chesterton

155. All the Condemnation in the World - Douglas Wilson

156. Gear - Doug TenNapel

157. The Man in the Passage - G.K. Chesterton

158. Brains: It’s the End! Vol. 4 - Finneas Van Voorst

159. A Review of Johnny Cash and the Great American Contradiction - Douglas Wilson

160. The Mistake of the Machine - G.K. Chesterton

161. The Head of Caesar - G.K. Chesterton

162. The Purple Wig - G.K. Chesterton

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

164. Westminster in Verse - Douglas Wilson

165. The Perishing of the Pendragons - G.K. Chesterton

June

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166. The Magician’s Nephew - C.S. Lewis

167. The God of the Gongs - G.K. Chesterton

168. The Two Towers - J.R.R. Tolkien 

169. The Salad of Colonel Cray - G.K. Chesterton

170. The Strange Crime of John Boulnois - G.K. Chesterton

171. The Fairy Tale of Father Brown - G.K. Chesterton

172. The Raven - Edgar Allan Poe

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

174. The Return of the King - J.R.R. Tolkien 

175. The Adventures of Tom Bombadil and Other Verses - J.R.R. Tolkien

176. It’s Good To Be A Man - Michael Foster & Domnic Bnonn Tennant

177. The Black Cat - Edgar Allan Poe

178. The Cask of Amontillado - Edgar Allan Poe

179. The Purloined Letter - Edgar Allan Poe

180. The Chronicles of Conan of Cimmeria - Robert E. Howard

181. Ride, Sally, Ride - Douglas Wilson

182. The Pit and Pendulum - Edgar Allan Poe

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

184. The Monkey’s Paw - W.W. Jacobs

185. The Man and the Snake - Ambrose Bierce

186. An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge - Ambrose Bierce

187. The Landlady - Roald Dahl

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

July

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189. James and the Giant Peach - Roald Dahl

190. Revolting Rhymes - Roald Dahl

191. Lucky Break - Roald Dahl

192. The Hitch-hiker - Roald Dahl

193. The Last Battle - C.S. Lewis

194. Fight Laugh Feast 3.2: The Grace of Theonomy - Various Authors

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

196. Peter and the Wolf - Sergei Prokofiev

197. Knights of the Skull: Tales of the Waffen-SS - Wayne Vansant

198. The Little Pilgrim’s Progress - Helen L. Taylor

199. Evangellyfish - Douglas Wilson

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

201. Scripture Stores: Lives and Times - Douglas Wilson

202. There’s No Free Lunch: 250 Economic Truths - David L. Bahnsen

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

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

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

206. The Man in the Dark - Douglas Wilson

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

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

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

210. Beowulf - translated by Seamus Heaney

211. The Battle of Maldon - Anonymous

212. Cautionary Tales for Children - Hilaire Belloc

213. Letters to Malcolm  - C.S. Lewis

214. Miscellaneous Essays - G.K. Chesterton

215. Rules for Reformers - Douglas Wilson

216. Cousin Companions - Douglas Wilson

217. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow - Washington Irving

218. Rip Van Winkle - Washington Irving

August

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219. Horatius at the Bridge - Thomas Babington Macaulay

220. A Short Introduction to Abraham Kuyper’s Lectures on Calvinism - Jesse Sumpter

221. Little House in the Big Woods  - Laura Ingalls Wilder

222. In the House of Tom Bombadil - C.R. Wiley

223. Farmer Boy  - Laura Ingalls Wilder

224. Little House on the Prairie  - Laura Ingalls Wilder

225. On the Banks of Plum Creek  - Laura Ingalls Wilder

226. The Light from Behind the Sun - Douglas Wilson

227. The Duties of Parents - J.C. Ryle

228. By the Shores of Silver Lake  - Laura Ingalls Wilder

September

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229. No One Doubts a Belly Laugh - Jason Farley

230. Why Children Matter - Douglas Wilson

231. The Long Winter  - Laura Ingalls Wilder

232. Church Music and other Kinds - Douglas Wilson

233. Little Town on the Prairie  - Laura Ingalls Wilder

234. The Westminster Confession of Faith - Westminster Divines

235. Westminster Systematics - Douglas Wilson

236. These Happy Golden Years  - Laura Ingalls Wilder

237. The First Four Years  - Laura Ingalls Wilder

238. On the Way Home - Laura Ingalls Wilder

239.  The Confessional County - Raymond Simmons

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

241. The Queen of the Seven Swords - G.K. Chesterton

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

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

244. Magic - G.K. Chesterton

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

246. Miscellaneous Essays - G.K. Chesterton

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

248. Resolutions and Advice to Young Converts - Jonathan Edwards

249. Wit and Wisdom - G.K. Chesterton

250. Lord Kitchener - G.K. Chesterton

251. Deeper Heaven - Christiana Hale

252. The Ballad of St. Barbara & Other Verses – G.K. Chesterton

253. The Superstition of Divorce – G.K. Chesterton

254. The Fates of Empires - Sir John Glubb

255. The Search for Survival - Sir John Glubb

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

October

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257. A Serrated Edge - Douglas Wilson

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

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

260. Death By Living - N.D. Wilson

261. The Law - Frederic Bastiat

262. A Brief Theology of Christmas Presents - Douglas Wilson

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

264. The Art of War - Sun Tzu

265. Dragons and Dragonslayers - Tim Chester

266. The Hobbit - J.R.R. Tolkien

267. Andrew and the Firedrake - Douglas Wilson

268. On the Shortness of Life - Seneca

269. The Battle of Maldon - Anonymous

270. Life of King Alfred - Asser

271. Date Your Wife - Justin Buzzard

272. Beowulf - translated by Seamus Heaney

273. The Song of Roland - Anonymous

274. The Neglected Qualification - Douglas Wilson

275. Samson Agonistes - John Milton

276. The Haunted Mind - Nathaniel Hawthorne

277. Kill the Dragon, Get the Girl - Cheston Hervey & Darren Doane

278. The Shaping of a Christian Family - Elisabeth Elliot

279. The Screwtape Letters - C.S. Lewis

280. Heretics - G.K. Chesterton

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

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

283. Fight Laugh Feast 3.3: Unwoke Church - Various Authors

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

285. Orthodoxy - G.K. Chesterton

286. The Biggest Story - Kevin DeYoung

287. The Thanksgiving Story - Alice Dalgliesh

288. The Holy Bible (NASB) - The Holy Spirit

289. The Didache: The Lord’s Teaching Through the Twelve - Unknown

November

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290. The Everlasting Man - G.K. Chesterton

291. Evergreen - Penelope Page Van Voorst

292. Head Coverings - K.P. Yohannan

293. The Club of Queer Trades - - G.K. Chesterton

294. Ascensional - Todd Henry Van Voorst

295. The Man Who Knew Too Much - G.K. Chesterton

296. When the Man Comes Around - Douglas Wilson

297. The Napoleon of Notting Hill - G.K. Chesterton

298. Just Do Something - Kevin DeYoung

299. A Light in the Attic - Shel Silverstein

300. The Man Who Was Thursday - G.K. Chesterton

301. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens

302. Manalive - G.K. Chesterton

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

304. Brains: It’s the End! Vol. 5 - Finneas Van Voorst

305. The Flying Inn - G.K. Chesterton

306. God Rest Ye Merry - Douglas Wilson

307. My Utmost for His Highest - Oswald Chambers

308. Think on These Things: Wisdom for Life from Proverbs - Ray Comfort

309. Morning and Evening - Charles Haddon Spurgeon

December

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