day no. 16,260: conceal and carry this conception

1 Peter 4:1-2

Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking, for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human passions but for the will of God.

Christ entered into conflict for that which He cared about. He did it for the love of God and the good of man. Conceal and carry this kind of thinking. It will protect you when it goes down around you.

Thoughts are ammunition. They are a form of self defense. They are weapons of attack.

2 Corinthians 10:4-5

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.

It is never ideal to try to produce weapons or ammunition in the midst of war. You can't effectively turn them out in the trenches. Missiles are best manufactured in times of peace. The more you sweat in peace, the less you bleed in war.

Do not sleep on the weapons of our warfare. They are not weak like flesh, but powerful like God. They bring down what seem to be the strongholds of the enemy. His best polemics evaporate under the lamp of godly logic. What once looked like strongholds end up, if they remain at all, like Ozymandias' stumps, serving only as a reminder that every lofty opinion that has raised itself up against God has been razed by a flick of His wit.

day no. 16,259: penelope page... teenager!

Peneople Page, what did you do? How did this happen? It seems like just yesterday you were eating all the icing and handing me the cupcake stump and now you're a teenager! They say that time flies when you're having fun, but admittedly, they say all kinds of things.Yet even a broken clock is correct twice a day and on this subject, they're spot on. It has been a blast and it has been fast.

All that to say, Happy birthday, Penelope! Today you are a party animal! Which is only differs from every other day in that this one comes with a party hat. Rarely does a day go by that you don't spend at least some time practicing your animagus. You love wildlife. You love reading about animals, thinking about animals, pretending to be different animals, and pretending to own various animals. You carry an invisible zoo with you wherever you go. Your imaginary pets are everywhere. I'm afraid I'm going to run one over someday. Just imagine the imaginary veterinarian bills!

With all that imaginative power at your disposal, it is not shocking that you are a story teller. You love creating characters and inventing worlds for them to explore. You have written and rewritten many stories and many imaginary dragons and dangers have been dispatched thanks to your creativity. I love reading your stories. By the time I get to, however, I've often heard bits and pieces of it from you. As you write, you can't help but want to share the joy. It is fun to watch you delight in your craft.

You also love writing songs. You have really enjoyed having a second piano in the basement which is fair game for playing. While I am working from home, I often hear you in the conservatory below me practicing piano pieces and composing new ones. You also spend plenty of time in your room playing guitar and often write tunes and songs on it as well. You are a whirlwind of creative energy. From singing, to composing, to writing, to playing, to dancing, to performing.... you are always up to something.

Your Bible reading apple did not fall far from the Bible reading tree. Like me, you've developed the habit of reading tomorrow's readings and sometimes even several days ahead. You faithfully read every evening before bed and fret when you get behind, which is code for regular person on schedule and lazy person advanced placement.

You like to cook and bake and are learning a lot from your mom and from your books about making and baking good food. You enjoy making special treats for your siblings and for others when we're having them over for dinner or to bring with us for those who are hosting us. You look for excuses to bake things and I can't say I mind much... unless they're all gone before I can eat any.

You have really enjoyed making friends here in Leavenworth and have fit right in with several girls at church. It is fun to watch you enjoy them. You are a good friend and like thinking of others. You and Lydia are birds of a feather and it's fun watching you flock together.

You are growing up and this last year has been full of milestones confirming that. You are still my little girl, but you are growing into a fine young lady. You are smart, funny, organized, quick-witted, creative, predictable, playful, faithful, and friendly. You like people and people like you. 

There is always more that could be said and if I've forgotten anything, I'm sure you'll remind me :)

I love you, Penelope. 

I like being your dad.

Happy Birthday, Nen!

day no. 16,258: a society of emasculated liars

"Political correctness is communist propaganda writ small. In my study of communist societies, I came to the conclusion that the purpose of communist propaganda was not to persuade or convince, not to inform, but to humiliate; and therefore, the less it corresponded to reality the better. When people are forced to remain silent when they are being told the most obvious lies, or even worse when they are forced to repeat the lies themselves, they lose once and for all their sense of probity. To assent to obvious lies is in some small way to become evil oneself. One's standing to resist anything is thus eroded, and even destroyed. A society of emasculated liars is easy to control. I think if you examine political correctness, it has the same effect and is intended to.” — Theodore Dalrymple

Masculinity and truth are hard to harangue. It won't sit still or take a tongue-lashing. It stands up. It talks back. It isn't easily swayed by catch phrases and herd mentality. It knows how to account for subtlety and furthermore, knows to look out for it. Masculinity is not in a hurry to get where someone else is going. It takes initiative. It has plans of its own. It makes full use of the talents God has given to it and takes responsibility for itself under God and over those whom it has been given that privilege.

Free men make slavemasters skittish. The truth sets men free and those whom the Son has set free are free, indeed. Free men do not fear death or kowtow to cowardly threats. They rely on the truth and their God-given rights as they receive authority through submission to their Maker. A society of emasculated liars are easy to corral. They can't resist the whip or come up with a good why they should, but a manly love of the truth can take a licking and know why it's worth enduring.

1 Peter 2:19-21

For one is approved if, mindful of God, he endures pain while suffering unjustly. For what credit is it, if when you do wrong and are beaten for it you take it patiently? But if when you do right and suffer for it you take it patiently, you have God’s approval. For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps.

day no. 16,257: read the Word; read the world

"Give me a candle and a Bible and shut me up in a dark dungeon, and I will tell you everything that the whole world is doing." -- J.C. Ryle

The Word teaches you to read the world. The one who spends his time in God's Word will be able to read the world's mail. The Author knows His characters and has written His narrative in such a way as to provide tells.

All Christians must crave the Word. It is the way you grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

1 Peter 2:2

Like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation

As we read the Word, we learn to read the world around us. As we are instructed in the Story, we learn to read the story we're in. It is not merely a matter of personal devotion, but of personal discernment. You get to know your Author by reading His Word and you acclimate yourself to His world and the stage on which your story takes place.

Hebrews 5:13–14

Everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.

The world paints in off white and discernment is needed to distinguish it from pure white, but the grace of God has provided the color swatches and labeled them kindly for us.

The story of the world is easily read by the student of the Word. If you know the Ancient of Days, you will know your times and what to do. (1 Chr. 12;32)

day no. 16,256: always resist at the first crime scene

"How we burned in the camps later, thinking: What would things have been like if every Security operative, when he went out at night to make an arrest, had been uncertain whether he would return alive and had to say good-bye to his family? Or if, during periods of mass arrests, as for example in Leningrad, when they arrested a quarter of the entire city, people had not simply sat there in their lairs, paling with terror at every bang of the downstairs door and at every step on the staircase, but had understood they had nothing left to lose and had boldly set up in the downstairs hall an ambush of half a dozen people with axes, hammers, pokers, or whatever else was at hand?... The Organs would very quickly have suffered a shortage of officers and transport and, notwithstanding all of Stalin's thirst, the cursed machine would have ground to a halt! If...if...We didn't love freedom enough. And even more – we had no awareness of the real situation.... We purely and simply deserved everything that happened afterward.” --- Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn , The Gulag Archipelago

Always resist at the first crime scene. What comes next, rest assured, will be worse. Whatever they’re willing to do in broad daylight will pale in comparison to what they plan to do to you once they get you behind closed doors.

The second crime scene is always worse than the first.

Predators benefit from our delay. They prey upon our default of thinking that it's too soon to do anything and much to soon to do something drastic. So, tyrants swell where the people are worried about being too soon or too much. The people have a sense of proportion; the predators, however, don't. They bank on your morality making you defenseless against their immorality. Our enemies leverage our sense of proportion against their lack of one. They go too far and expect us to restrain ourselves. They go big and expect us to go home.

It is always easier in retrospect to justify what should have been done, which means it will always be difficult in the moment to justify the intensity of your resistance. 

If you go along to get along, you eventually get to where someone else wants you to be and if you wait too long, you're too far gone to get back.

Beware of the tragic trajectory that accompanies a failure of nerve:

1 - There's nothing to it

2 - There may be something to it someday

3 - There is something to it, but it's too soon to do anything

4 - There was something to it and now it's too late to do anything about it

The Good News is that with God all things are impossible. The trapped are provided a way out and the caught can be released. Our enemies never take God into their accounts and He is always the variable that spoils all of their plans.

Psalm 35:7-9

Since they hid their net for me without cause

and without cause dug a pit for me,

may ruin overtake them by surprise—

may the net they hid entangle them,

may they fall into the pit, to their ruin.

Then my soul will rejoice in the LORD

and delight in his salvation.

The catchers will get caught out.

The trappers will be trapped.

Psalm 141:9–10

Keep me from the snares they have laid for me,

And from the traps of the workers of iniquity.

Let the wicked fall into their own nets,

While I escape safely.

The schemers are going to get gamed.

The plotters are digging their own graves.

day no. 16,255: the gift of second sight

Hebrews 11:6

Without faith it is impossible to please Him.

"Faith in antagonism to common sense is fanaticism, and common sense in antagonism to faith is rationalism. The life of faith brings the two into a right relation. Common sense is not faith, and faith is not common sense; they stand in the relation of the natural and the spiritual; of impulse and inspiration." -- Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest

Faith is not unreasonable. Faith, for sure, is more than reason, but it isn't less.  Those who abandon reason in the name of faith embrace fanaticism. Those who abandon the faith in the name of reason embrace materialism. Common sense, however, is common grace and since it is a gift, it is not necessarily a given, as those immersed in materialism often eagerly demonstrate.

Christians walk by faith, not by sight, but they don't have to close their eyes in order to do so. Faith is the gift of second sight. It isn't being blind to material reality, it is seeing the spiritual reality in or behind all things visible and invisible. Second sight does not replace the first. It isn't instead of, it is in addition to. The materialist is blind to the spiritual. The spiritualist may be blind to the material. The Christian sees all things simultaneously without confusing the categories. The Christian sees the wine and the blood, the bread and the body.

Ironically, the materialist denies the cross and the spiritualist denies the resurrection.

2 Corinthians 5:7

We walk by faith, not by sight.

Faith is not walking in blindness. It doesn't deny sight, it surpasses it. It is binocular. It reconciles two worlds into one vision. It sees the situation and its significance. It simultaneously looks at the object and its abstract. It is logical and poetical. It is fact and romance. It is principle and passion.

Faith is holistic. It is a way of seeing that is superior to the material or the spiritual in isolation. Faith sees in stereo; it boldly refutes gnosticism and Darwinism by seeing what they are blind to.

day no. 16,254: rest assured

On the Sabbath, rest assured.

Psalm 118:24-25

This is the day that the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.

Save us, we pray, O LORD! O LORD, we pray, give us success!

Rest assured, this is the day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it.

Rest assured, He is hard at work.

Rest assured, it is finished.

Rest assured, in the Lord your labors are not in vain.

Rest assured, He sits at the right hand of the Father interceding for His people.

Rest assured, He never needs a break.

Rest assured, if you seek His kingdom and His righteousness, the rest will take care of itself.

day no. 16,253: the awake will never win the respect of the woke

The awake will never win the respect of the woke, nor should they want to. So, stop trying. Stop trying so hard to win the approval of people you don’t even like. If righteousness makes impressing wickedness its quarry, it loses before it begins. If it wins, it is no longer righteous and if it loses, it falls short of its goal.  The righteous should not make a fetish of acquiring honor from the dishonorable. That is self-destructive empathy masquerading as Christ-like compassion. Give up that ghost and get with the program. The awake will never win over the woke.

1 Peter 4:3-5

The time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do, living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry. With respect to this they are surprised when you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery, and they malign you; but they will give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.

Righteousness will never win the approval of wickedness. 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 ones made righteous by the grace of God admire and aspire 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, but his hubris only leaves him fighting unprotected.

day no. 16,252: someone else's livelihood hinged upon your hardihood

"Action springs not from thought, but from a readiness for responsibility." -- Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Responsibility is a better predictor of action than intellect. What someone knows or thinks may not produce much more than a malaise that keeps them up at night, but responsibility gets a man out of bed in the morning.

When someone or something depends on  you and you take that weight seriously, you are compelled to act. You push through discomfort and difficulty and do something. When something matters to you, you move.

Ideas do have consequences, but action isn’t necessarily always one of them. A thought may move a man without him moving a finger.

"The ultimate test of a moral society is the kind of world that it leaves to its children." -- Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Does the next generation figure into any of your current plans? Are you cultivating what you hope to pass along to them or exhausting what you have because you can't bear to part with it. Is your children's inheritance something you're working hard to grow now or something your cold, dead fingers will be forced to hand over.

Moral stupidity is cured by moral responsibility. An immoral generation will not reform until it takes responsibility for the next generation. Civilizations are built and sustained by men with mouths to feed. Nothing motivates like someone else's livelihood depending on your hardihood.

day no. 16,251: the sway and the swing

"The forest was shrinking, but the trees kept voting for the axe because its handle was made of wood and they thought it was one of them." ~ Turkish proverb

An axe may win over the forest by appealing to what they have in common while laying waste to the forest with what they don't. Do not let shared interests blind you to the ulterior motives for sharing them. The axe leverages its shared values against the trees. Its handle is what gives it power to fell the forest. It provides the sway and the swing.

2 Corinthians 11:13–14

For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.

Satan puts on a costume of light in order to conceal his darkness in the company of the lit. He cuts down the orchard by first brandishing bark.

2 Corinthians 2:11

Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices.

This should not require any of us to haul out our shocked faces. We know he is doing this. It is his modus operandi. The only way this works is if we aren't paying attention or are incentivized to look the other way because of darkness we are already giving quarter to within.

Ephesians 6:11

Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.

The armor of God enables us to withstand the wiles of the wicked. We are not caught up in them or caught off guard by them. We are ordered to suit up. There is no reason to be unaware.

Proverbs 25:19

Confidence in an unfaithful man in time of trouble

is like a broken tooth, and a foot out of joint.

Be careful who you rely upon. A broken tooth can be tolerated, but not when trying to eat and a twisted ankle may be endured until you try to put any weight on it. 

Proverbs 25:26

A righteous man who falters before the wicked

is like a murky spring and a polluted well.

It is disappointing to discover that some who stood by you have fallen by the wayside. It is like the waste of good water. A spring that once gave refreshment is now spoiled and soiled. It is not only the loss of something helpful, but the introduction of something awful.

day no. 16,250: know your enemy

"This is the way men deal with their enemies. They search out their plans, ponder their goals, and consider how and by what means they have prevailed in the past. Then they can be defeated. This is a most important strategy. If you do not utilize this great strategy, your warfare is very primitive." -- John Owen

We must know our enemies. We must know why they oppose us and how they plan to do so. We must know why we oppose them and how we intend to do so. We must consider how they've attempted to overcome us before, what they want, and how they have tried before to obtain it. 

James 4:1–2

What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask.

All quarrels and fights are caused by someone wanting something that they do not have. You must know what that thing is, how they intend to get it, and what you can do, when in warfare, to prevent them from doing so.

2 Corinthians 2:11

Satan should not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes.

There is no reason to be caught flat-footed. There is no excuse for not seeing this coming. God has placed the antithesis into our story (Gen. 3:15). The enemy seldom, if ever, forgets that they are fighting us. Sin doesn't get distracted. It stays on point, in our way, and on its mission. Sin is subtle, but that said, it only has so much to work with. It cannot create ex nihilo and must work with pre-existing materials. It can only corrupt what's in front of it. That is why we must study how it often works and where it often attacks.

"Let not that man think he makes any progress in holiness who walks not over the bellies of his lusts. He who doth not kill sin in this way takes no steps towards his journey’s end. He who finds not opposition from it, and who sets not himself in every particular to its mortification, is at peace with it, not dying to it." -- John Owen

To be at peace with sin is to be caught in it. There is no excuse for not fighting it. We know what it wants and how it often tries to get it. We must fight back and we must seek not merely to wound, but to kill it. We begin with the sin that lies closest by confessing it and crucifying it with Christ and only then do we seek to confront it in our homes, churches, cities, and nations.

day no. 16,249: pride loves merit, envy despises it

"Gratitude is not pride, and this is a nation of sinners, prone to do what sinners in this position have always done -- which is to interpret blessings as rewards, to see the milk and honey as 'best in show' indicators." -- Douglas Wilson, Empires of Dirt

Pride considers its blessings as its reward, while envy considers your blessings its bane.

Pride wants to take credit for grace and envy wants to do away with all credit.

Romans 12:15

Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep.

Envy rejoices when others weep and weeps when others rejoice. It is grieved by the success of others and excited by their failures. 

“Every time a friend succeeds, I die a little." -- Gore Vidal

Pride and envy lead to death.

They both kill a person's ability to receive anything.

Pride wants to flaunt its wages while envy wants wages without any effort.

Pride loves merit; envy despises it.

day no. 16,248: cask strength Christianity

“Christianity even when watered down is hot enough to boil all modern society to rags.” 

— G.K. Chesterton

Christianity is so concentrated that even in small, watered down doses it can burn the throat of society. Just imagine the glorious warmth cask strength Christianity will achieve.

day no. 16,247: the kind that accompany conquest

“The viewpoint to maintain is that we are here for one purpose only, viz., to be captives in the train of Christ’s triumphs. We are not in God’s showroom, we are here to exhibit one thing — the absolute captivity of our lives to Jesus Christ. How small the other points of view are — 'I am standing alone battling for Jesus'; 'I have to maintain the cause of Christ and hold this fort for Him.' Paul says — 'I am in the train of a conqueror, and it does not matter what the difficulties are, I am always led in triumph.'” - Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest

Whatever happens to the Christian, it is all part of winning. However hard it may be, it is the kind of hard that is worth it. Whatever difficulties we may encounter in tracking Christ's footsteps, they are the kind that accompany conquest.

2 Corinthians 2:14

Thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere.

Christ has conquered and we are caught up in His train. Wherever He leads, it is a triumphal track. However dark it may seem following behind in His shadow, it is always, only, ever-increasing light before Him.

Ephesians 4:4-8

There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call—one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift. Therefore it says, “When he ascended on high he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men.”

He liberally distributes gifts as He marches ever onward and upward in victory. Grace is generously given as the parade rolls on.

Romans 8:37

In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

We will see His kingdom come, not go. We will watch our prayers come true. He did not instruct us to pray for something neither He nor His father want to answer. He did not beg the question in order to say, "No!" He leads us in triumph. Our rule and reign with Him is as secure as His rule and reign, which is to say, very.

Acts 14:22

Through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.

There will be tribulations, but they lead to a place where Christ is honored as King. Tribulations are promised, but so is the destination and admittance upon arrival.

day no. 16,246: you cannot crowdsource morality

Isaiah 45:19-20

I the Lord speak righteousness, I declare things that are right. Assemble yourselves and come; draw near together, ye that are escaped of the nations: they have no knowledge 

A moral standard requires a moral standard Giver. Contact sports require a Referee, if you will. There must be someone who defines and enforces the moral order. Without a moral Orderer, you do not have morality. It is immoral to call something moral without a standard by which you can measure it. 

In an effort to maintain a moral standard without God, western civilization has created the myth of secular neutrality. But, as it turns out, you cannot crowdsource morality. If you make public opinion your standard, you are married to a measuring stick that must be constantly redefined by whatever the crowd is currently into or against.

If you crowdsource a standard, what you get isn’t morality and it isn't orderly. It isn't clear or consistent. In other words, it is chaos. And you cannot measure anything in an ever changing world. Stability and order are qualities of goodness and the crowd cannot have goodness as their communal source of integration and determination without appealing to Someone superintending the crowd.

Morality is a standard that comes from eternal transcendence not local preference.

You cannot create a standard that can hold from people who don't hold still, Societies ebb and flow as fads come and go. And the standards they set are as fickle as the fashions on their racks. What's in season is often at enmity with what was en vogue at last year's fashion week.

“Our Lord never nurses our prejudices, He mortifies them, runs clean athwart them. We imagine that God has a special interest in our particular prejudices; we are quite sure that God will never deal with us as we know He has to deal with other people. 'God must deal with other people in a very stern way, but of course He knows that my prejudices are all right.' We have to learn — 'Not a bit of it!' Instead of God being on the side of our prejudices, He is deliberately wiping them out. It is part of our moral education to have our prejudices run straight across by His providence, and to watch how He does it. God pays no respect to anything we bring to Him; there is only one thing He wants of us, and that is our unconditional surrender.” — Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest

Morality and stability either come from without or they do not come. We cannot muster enough resolve to build anything upon. Our collective merits cannot hold anything up and the next generation will reveal just how unstable mere sentiments can be. 

Moral order is achieved through our surrender, not our insistence.

day no. 16,245: juniper is FOUR

Happy 4th Birthday, Juniper!!!

You are such a joy. You LOVE sitting on my lap and look for every opportunity to do so. Even sometimes while I'm still eating you will make your way over to my chair. You also like sitting by me when we watch at night. I suspect part of the reason is that you like to ask for sips of my coffee and it's just easier if you're already within arm's length of it. 

You like asking people to be your best friend and as a result you have more best friends than most people. You like to add that this makes it possible for you to "call them 'buddy'" 

You are a lead foot. You cannot sneak up on anyone and everyone always knows where you are. You are not easy to ignore.

You still love your chewy. Even though there is less chewy left to love, you make sure to keep what's left of it near you, especially when you're not feeling well or when it's nap time.

You have been staying dry most nap times and even some evenings and are getting ready to be a big girl who goes without diapers altogether. You still get M&Ms for staying dry, but soon enough you won't need the incentive of chocolate to stay dry.

You have the sweetest voice. You have a big of gravel in your delivery that is so cute. Add to that your penchant for growling anyways and you've got quite the combo. You like to sing and bring us down a whole octave... in a good way :)

You love dresses and like to wear your princess jammies as often as you are allowed. 

You always ask for the music to be louder. Without fail if the volume is turned down, you will ask for it to be louder. You, like Dr. Bill's phone app, prefer to live your life at "maximum volume."

You look forward to meals and always ask what's for breakfast before you go to nap. By breakfast, of course, you mean dinner, but nevertheless, you want to know what you'll be eating later. When I joke that it will probably be pants, you do not find it funny. 

You like "Behold Bless the Lord Day." You look forward to Lord's Day Lauds and eating good food before going to church. You also love the bread and wine and often ask at various points during the church service if it is time for bread and wine. You're getting the hang of the service now and will often say, "big sermon, then sing, then prayer, then bread and wine," just to remind me of what's to come. Who needs bulletins when they could just sit next to you?

You are Lissy's little crony and love following her around. Like all little friendships, you find yourself in little frays, but you always return to each other's sides and find something else to eventually fight about :)

You lose your glasses a lot. You take them off and then don't remember where you left them. It's like living in a Where's Waldo book where you're trying to complete all the little side missions.

You love watching family videos of all of us, especially when your siblings were babies. You like babies in general and often go, "ahhhh.... so cute!" 

You always think your seat belt is too tight.  

You knock at my door throughout my workday and come in asking for a "hug/kiss." You always have to give me a hug if I come out to get a drink of water or to say something to your mom.

You are a sweet little girl and I can't believe it's been four years of having you in our lives. What did we ever do without you, little lady?

I love you and I'm so excited to see what the next year has in store for you.

Happy Birthday, Juni!

Love,

Dad

day no. 16,244: by flattery not battery

"Satan never brushes the feathers of his birds the wrong way; he generally deals with us according to our tastes and likings. He flavours his bait to his fish." -- Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Sin doesn't cut against the grain. It goes with the grooves. It seeks out smooth words. It entices by flattery, not battery. It likes a lull. It doesn't want the dramatic. Ruffled feathers and frustrated cravings are not its modus operandi. Sin prefers more subtle mediums of seduction.

Proverbs 27:5-6

Open rebuke is better than secret love.

Faithful are the wounds of a friend;

but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.

Sin prefers to kill with kisses. It doesn't want to cause discomfort, it wants to scratch the itch.

2 Timothy 4:3-4

For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth.

Satan is a smooth operator, not a rabble-rouser. He wants you unaware, not paying attention. And the best way to slake a thirst is to give it what it wants.

Beware of the ones who've never crossed you, they will never lead you to the cross.

day no. 16,243: jettison all but Jesus

“The Spirit of God witnesses to the redemption of our Lord, and to nothing else. He cannot witness to our reason… If we are trying to make Him witness to our reason, it is no wonder that we are in darkness and uncertainty. Throw it all overboard, trust in Him, and He will give you the witness of the Spirit.” - Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest

Jettison all but Jesus. Whatever you think may save you won't and it can't unless you refuse to look to it for salvation. As long as you are looking for something other than the cross in front of you, you won't see salvation. But look there and you see it, not in part, but the whole.

Isaiah 45:22

Look unto me, and be ye saved,

all the ends of the earth:

for I am God, and there is none else.

There is nowhere else to turn and nowhere else to look if salvation is what you long to see. Anyone anywhere can turn and look to Him and see it. But it requires you to stop looking where you're used to gazing. Whatever you looked to before for salvation must be abandoned.

Philippians 3:7-9

Whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ  and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith.

The boat free from everything except Christ will not capsize. He will keep it afloat and guide it through the storm. A heart that has jettisoned every other source of safety or salvation except Jesus shall be saved. At first, there are easy things to throw overboard, but eventually you get to the best that you save for last. That which you hope to hold on to, that which you fear to let go of. These are the last things that must be tossed overboard before you can truly retain any of them.

Matthew 6:33

Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you

day no. 16,242: the tricks and the trades

"Journalism and conjuring will always be incompatible... The two trades rest on opposite principles. The whole point of being a conjurer is that you won't explain a thing that has happened; the whole point of being a journalist is that you do explain a thing that hasn't happened." -- G.K. Chesterton, Magic: A Fantastic Comedy

Magicians thrive by doing without explaining; whereas the media stays in business by explaining what no one is doing. Journalism and Juju are both dark arts.

The soothsayer tries to keep secret what every can see, but the studio tries to keep secret what no one can see. The wizard's agenda is clear, his methods are not; the anchor's methods are obvious, but their agenda isn't always. The illusionist and the journalist both have secrets, but one makes plain what the other seeks to conceal.

They are photo negatives of each other. Each depends on you seeing something and not see something else.

The magician wants you to see the trick, but not the tactic; the reporter wants you to see the tactic, but not the trick. The conjurer wants you to see the wand, not the ways, whereas the anchor wants you to see the way, but not their wand. Both use sleight of hand, one with a wand, the other with a wink. The magician, to his credit, is at least honest enough to tell you that it’s a trick; whereas the trick of the media is that you'd never know. The one tells the truth but disguises the game where the other disguises the truth by playing a game.

Both rely on tricks of the trade. The magician's trade is to deal openly in tricks; whereas the media's trick is to deal secretly in trading. The illusionist trades a bird for a flame. The headlines trade a truth for a lie. The conjurer confesses in broad daylight that he is up to something. The journalist insists in print that he isn't. The one is honest about their lies, the other is dishonest about their "facts."

day no. 16,241: the conquest of the world one acreage at a time

Jeremiah 29:5

Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce.

The conquest of the world is achieved one acreage at a time. Dominion is made manifest in the domestic. Every home is a center of education, culture, and production. 

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.

As we build our homes in the Lord, our efforts are not in vain. As we watch over our neighborhoods in the Lord, our watching is not in vain. As we raise our children in the nourishment and admonition of the Lord, our labors are not in vain.

We build a home.

We build a community.

We change a nation.

We conquer the world.

For Christ and for Kingdom.

Let's go!

day no. 16,240: Christian civilization will overcome heathen nihilism

"Alfred has come down to us in the best way (that is, by national legends) solely for the same reason as Arthur and Roland and the other giants of that darkness, because he fought for the Christian civilization against the heathen nihilism." - G.K. Chesterton, The Ballad of the White Horse

Christian civilization will overcome heathen nihilism. It will need to be defended and it will have to advance, but it will overcome. It is indomitable and inexorable. Christ has conquered, is conquering, and will conquer the entire world.

John 1:5

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

The gates of hell cannot prevail against the kingdom of God. The light will invade the darkness and the darkness will be transformed. It will either be illuminated or decimated, but in the end, no darkness will survive.

Revelation 22:5

And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.

But for now, we shine like cities on a hill and the greater the diameter of light, the greater the circumference of contact with the darkness. In other words, as the light grows in scope, the perimeter also grows. As such, it can feel like we are seeing more darkness than before. How can this be advancement when our borders with darkness are ever increasing?

1 John 5:4

For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.

Everyone born of God has already witnessed a world overthrown. Their world within was deep, dark, empty and void before Christ shone His light in and overturned everything. When we look within, we see a world colonized and conquered for Christ.

2 Corinthians 4:6

For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

So, we fight the good fight of faith and believe His promise that knowledge of the Lord will cover the earth as the waters cover the seas. We do not lose heart, because we have hearts that have already been overcome. We expect Him to do for the world what He has already done for us. It seems impossible, but how likely did it seem to you that you would worship Jesus... until all of a sudden, you did. Now for some there were signs and plot points which suggested it, but for others it happened all at once. Either way, they were won over and overcome by Christ... just like the world will be, one way or another.

"Therefore your end is on you,

Is on you and your kings,

Not for a fire in Ely fen,

Not that your gods are nine or ten,

But because it is only Christian men

Guard even heathen things."

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

All things belong to Christ, including us. And all things, in Him, will one day be ours. So much so that even at this moment, it is the Christian men who protect the best of the pagan world. They are preserved and kept by us and for us. The meek will inherit the earth and no darkness there will remain; and the best of what was lent to the nations will be restored to the kingdom.

day no. 16,239: sincoherence

“The nature of Christ’s salvation is woefully misrepresented by the present-day evangelist. He announces a Savior from hell rather than a Savior from sin. And that is why so many are fatally deceived, for there are multitudes who wish to escape the Lake of fire who have no desire to be delivered from their carnality and worldliness.” – A.W. Pink

Unbelief wants to be saved from the consequences of sin without being parted from the presence of sin. It wants to lay with sin without bearing any of its children. It wants the fruit of faithfulness without the works of faithfulness. It wants blessings without labor. It wants to stay up late and to get a good night’s sleep. It wants to eat junk and lose weight. It wants the thrill of cheating and the privileges of loyalty. It wants the wages of death with the paycheck of life. It wants the wild bender of the prodigal without the pig pen. It is, in short, insanity. It is incoherence incarnate. And anything that can’t go on forever, praise God, won’t.

day no. 16,238: give with intention, not concession

Proverbs 31:2-3

What are you doing, my son?

What are you doing, son of my womb?

What are you doing, son of my vows? 

Do not give your strength to women,

your ways to those who destroy kings.

Strength cannot be taken away, but it can be given away. Instead of being treasured, it can be squandered. Instead of being gathered up to protect others, it can be scattered about to appease others. Instead of being employed for sacrifice, it can call in sick for ease. Instead of standing by a "No," it can hide behind a "Yes." Instead of being kept and respected, it can be given away and ashamed.  Strength taken for granted is given too readily.

That said, strength was meant to be spent. You can spend it on faithful endeavors or worthless pursuits. If it is spent for someone else, it builds muscle. If it is spent on oneself, it atrophies. Strength is meant to be given with intention, not by concession. The advice here is to use your strength and position for the good of those for whom you have taken responsibility. Do not merely give your strength away through thoughtless delegation. Do not surrender it in order to avoid a conflict. Retain your strength so that you can leverage it for the good of those you love and for whom you have the obligation to love and provide.

If you give your strength away, you will have to ask for it back, but you can never have it back in the same way. A woman cannot follow someone she can lead. She cannot respect someone who pines for her respect. She will not admire a man who needs her to punch his man card.

All that to say. Men, do not give your strength away. She doesn't want you to. Even if she thinks she does. Even if you think she does. Don't do it. Kingdoms collapse because strength is taken for granted and given away as ransom.

day no. 16,237: the glory of sacrifice outlives the gain of self interest

“There does not appear to be any doubt that money is the agent which causes the decline of this strong, brave, and self-confident people. The decline in courage, enterprise, and a sense of duty is, however, gradual. The first direction in which wealth injures the nation is a moral one. Money replaces honour and adventure as the objective of the best young men. Moreover, men do not normally seek to make money for their country or their community, but for themselves. Gradually, and almost imperceptibly the Age of Affluence silences the voice of duty. The object of the young and the ambitious is no longer fame, honour or service, but cash." -- Sir John Glubb, The Fates of Empires

Men seek honor and glory for their God, for their nation, for their people, or for their family; but men, more often than not, seek money only or themselves. Men seek security for their community through sacrifice, duty, and obligation. Men seek security for themselves through their indulgence, self-interest, or fear.

The glory of sacrifice outlives the gain of self interest.

A man working for the glory and honor of another works harder than if he were only working for his own while the man working for the financial stability of another works less enthusiastically. If his labors are to be used to fill someone else's pockets, his esprit de corps diminishes. So, a man will work hard for money for himself, but will struggle to work as hard to make money for someone else. But a man attempting to gain honor and glory for his people, his flag, his family, his coat of arms, etc... will go as hard, if not harder, than if he were only attempting to gain personal glory. 

Glory presupposes sacrifice. It counts it as part of the pursuit. Financial gain and accrual does not factor sacrifice into its game plan. Generosity is not inherently part of filling your own pockets. Sacrifice, however, is built into the pursuit of honor and glory.  Heroes are remembered for their courage and sacrifice in the face of adversity. You can't gain glory without a sacrificial spirit. Nobility is not in serving your self, but in giving yourself for something noble.

Isaiah 32:8

He who is noble plans noble things, and on noble things he stands.

day no. 16,236: societies deserve their celebrities

"Frivolity is the frequent companion of pessimism. Let us eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die. The resemblance between various declining nations in this respect is truly surprising." -- Sir John Glubb, The Fates of Empires

Decadence begets disillusion. Indulgence dries the well. Nations that abandon diligence for decadence decline into frivolous entertainments. Their whole lives become hobbies while their labors and hard work are avoided.

"The heroes of declining nations are always the same—the athlete, the singer or the actor. The word ‘celebrity’ today is used to designate a comedian or a football player, not a statesman, a general, or a literary genius." -- Sir John Glubb, The Fates of Empires

When a society is obsessed with athletes, singers, and thespians, it is in bad shape. You cultivate what you celebrate and societies deserve their celebrities. You get what you glorify. Glory is inescapable. A culture will glory in something. If not honor and sacrifice, then indulgence and few things exemplify this more than celebrities whose primary occupation is being and staying famous. Their job is to be self-interested. They sing songs about what they think about and submit only to photo shoots and articles that make them the center of attention. They are cheered on for being self-absorbed by people whose primary dream in life is to be the one on the magazine cover instead on the one buying the magazine.

"Religion begat prosperity and the daughter devoured the mother.” - Cotton Mather

Jeshurun does not have to kick after he waxes fat, but he often does (Deut 32:15).

Gratitude is the only solution to the problem of prosperity.

day no. 16,235: societies are saved by sacrifice

"Perhaps the most dangerous by-product of the Age of Intellect is the unconscious growth of the idea that the human brain can solve the problems of the world. Even on the low level of practical affairs this is patently untrue. Any small human activity, the local bowls club or the ladies’ luncheon club, requires for its survival a measure of self-sacrifice and service on the part of the members. In a wider national sphere, the survival of the nation depends basically on the loyalty and self-sacrifice of the citizens. The impression that the situation can be saved by mental cleverness, without unselfishness or human self-dedication, can only lead to collapse." -- Sir John Glubb, The Fates of Empires

Societies are saved by sacrifice. Knowledge puffs up if it is not poured out. It inflates the skull if it doesn't infiltrate it's fingers. God has so woven the Gospel into every aspect of the world, that nothing can be accomplished outside of sacrifice and resurrection. This power is foreshadowed and revealed in everything. In other words, many of our problems are not the result of ignorance, but arrogance. Our issues, therefore, cannot be solved by academics. Cleverness cannot help us out of the crisis it caused. Our faith in our intellect causes suffering and our faith in our intellect to relieve our sufferings only compounds them.

"Perhaps it is not the intellectualism which destroys the spirit of self-sacrifice—the least we can say is that the two, intellectualism and the loss of a sense of duty, appear simultaneously in the life-story of the nation.  Indeed it often appears in individuals, that the head and the heart are natural rivals. The brilliant but cynical intellectual appears at the opposite end of the spectrum from the emotional self-sacrifice of the hero or the martyr. Yet there are times when the perhaps unsophisticated self-dedication of the hero is more essential than the sarcasms of the clever." -- Sir John Glubb, The Fates of Empires

The smarter we are the less loyal we often become. As our intellectual muscles grow our spiritual muscles often atrophy. It doesn't have to be this way, but it often is this way. The confidence obtained by scienticism corrodes the sense of obligation. The more you feel like you know, the less you will feel duty-bound to do anything about it. And on the rare occasions that you do, it will likely only be motivated by a prideful assertion that the world needs to be exposed to your insights, not for their sake mind you, but to prevent yourself from being robbed of the glory you deserve.

day no. 16,234: when money is in better supply than courage

"Money being in better supply than courage, subsidies instead of weapons are employed to buy off enemies. To justify this departure from ancient tradition, the human mind easily devises its own justification. Military readiness, or aggressiveness, is denounced as primitive and immoral. Civilised peoples are too proud to fight. The conquest of one nation by another is declared to be immoral. Empires are wicked. This intellectual device enables us to suppress our feeling of inferiority, when we read of the heroism of our ancestors, and then ruefully contemplate our position today. ‘It is not that we are afraid to fight,’ we say, ‘but we should consider it immoral.’ This even enables us to assume an attitude of moral superiority." -- Sir John Glubb, The Fates of Empires

When a people pass from pioneering to prosperity they get soft as a society. They get used to conveniences and are less likely to willfully suffer the shenanigans associated with trailblazing and conquest. They also shift from production to service. In so doing, their tenacity atrophies as their bank accounts burst.

However, the world around you does not settle in just because you have. A country giving itself over to effeminacy is ripe to be plucked by one flexing its masculinity. Effeminacy can never rule the roost. It can nag and coddle, but only its own. Those outside the flock do not fall for any of their fakakta claptrap. Foreigners care nothing for their temper tantrums and sweep them off the floor where they're still red in the face from kicking and flailing.

At first, the affluence of the effeminate can buy off the aggression of the masculine. It can hire other warriors to defend them. It can bribe the barbarous with delicacies. But eventually the barns go bare or the men at the borders get restless and there is nothing the effeminate can do to resist the initiative of stronger, better men. Dainties cannot keep back the devourers indefinitely. Sweets cannot stall the salty forever.

While the effeminate are busy congratulating themselves for their refinement, they are, all of a sudden, swept up and made to serve in another man's kingdom.

Imposition is inescapable and where gold is more abundant than grit both are taken away by the gumption of another group.

For example:

Daniel 5:1, 4-6, 8-9, 13, 17-18, 22-23, 26-28, 30-31

King Belshaz′zar made a great feast for a thousand of his lords, and drank wine in front of the thousand...They drank wine, and praised the gods of gold and silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone. Immediately the fingers of a man’s hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall of the king’s palace, opposite the lampstand; and the king saw the hand as it wrote. Then the king’s color changed, and his thoughts alarmed him; his limbs gave way, and his knees knocked together... Then all the king’s wise men came in, but they could not read the writing or make known to the king the interpretation. Then King Belshaz′zar was greatly alarmed, and his color changed; and his lords were perplexed... Then Daniel was brought in before the king...Then Daniel answered before the king, “O king, the Most High God gave Nebuchadnez′zar your father kingship and greatness and glory and majesty; and because of the greatness that he gave him, all peoples, nations, and languages trembled and feared before him; and you his son, Belshaz′zar, have not humbled your heart, though you knew all this, but you have lifted up yourself against the Lord of heaven; and the vessels of his house have been brought in before you, and you and your lords, your wives, and your concubines have drunk wine from them; and you have praised the gods of silver and gold, of bronze, iron, wood, and stone, which do not see or hear or know, but the God in whose hand is your breath, and whose are all your ways, you have not honored...This is the interpretation of the matter: mene, God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end; tekel, you have been weighed in the balances and found wanting; peres, your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians." ... That very night Belshaz′zar the Chalde′an king was slain. And Darius the Mede received the kingdom.

day no. 16,233: the moxie to be contentedly milquetoast

Isaiah 3:1-4

For behold, the Lord GOD of hosts

is taking away from Jerusalem and from Judah

support and supply,

all support of bread,

and all support of water; 

the mighty man and the soldier,

the judge and the prophet,

the diviner and the elder, 

the captain of fifty

and the man of rank,

the counselor and the skillful magician

and the expert in charms. 

And I will make boys their princes,

and infants shall rule over them.

A clear sign of God's judgment is the evaporation of masculine authority. If the heat of the day causes men to fade rather than fight, it is an indication that God is working against a people, not for them; or that He is working for them by giving them what they deserve so that they might observe and openly repent.

Calvin in commenting on these verse had this to say, 

“The strong man, and the man of war He mentions other ends which contribute to the safety and good order either of nations or of cities. Of these he threatens that the Jews will be wholly deprived, so that they will neither have wisdom or bravery at battle, nor military forces abroad. He is not careful to attend to order, but is satisfied with giving a short abridgement, and mixes one subject with another. He begins with men of war, into whose hands was committed the defense of the country. God sometimes takes them away by death, and sometimes by making them soft and effeminate. The latter is more frequent, so that posterity degenerates from the bravery of ancestors, and those who were formerly courageous become, in process of time, cowardly and unfit for war. But we see also that the former sometimes happens, in consequence of which the boldest men suddenly lose heart.”

Boldness is inescapable. There will either be boldness for righteousness or against it. The one who runs from the battle may lack boldness on the battlefield, but he has it in aces when it comes to his cowardice. He may not have the courage to do the right thing, but he finds the courage to do the wrong thing. Cowardice is courage in lesser things. It is boldly departing from the straight and true. It takes a particular type of moxie to be contentedly milquetoast. When God gives men over, they do not cease going somewhere, but rather go boldly where they ought not to go. Without God's help, men cannot be courageous in that which is Christlike. A sure sign of His passive wrath is a feast of effeminacy and a famine of virtue.

day no. 16,232: set your sights on the One who sees the whole shebang

Psalm 141:8-10

But my eyes are toward you, O GOD, my Lord;

in you I seek refuge; leave me not defenseless! 

Keep me from the trap that they have laid for me

and from the snares of evildoers! 

Let the wicked fall into their own nets,

while I pass by safely.

We set our sights on the One who sees the whole shebang. The whole board is known to Him. The Lord knows the traps the enemy is attempting to set and those that are already in place. He can guide our feet around their pitfalls and help us to avoid falling prey to their designs. He can also deliver us from those into which we get ourselves entangled.

The wicked, by laying traps, rest their hopes entirely in our failing to take notice all the while failing to take notice of the One watching over their shoulders. He reads their schemes. He sees through their subterfuge. He finds them out. In trusting in deceit, they deceive themselves. Meanwhile, He can make my feet to walk unscathed through their minefields while causing it to blow up in their faces.

John 1:5

That light shines in the darkness, yet the darkness did not overcome it.

God sees them in the dark. Who are they kidding? The cover of night provides no camouflage from Him. He can pick them out of a crowd and read their mail regardless of the encryption. You can't hide from the light. No dark can resist or overcome it. All will be exposed.

day no. 16,231: if they have to ask, your answer can be, "No!"

1 Kings 20:8

And all the elders and all the people said to him, “Do not listen or consent.”

If they have to ask, your answer can be, "No!" Especially if they're asking, "Can we stop asking?" If you never say, "No," they will no longer need to ask. If they ask, "May I take away your ability to say, "No," you should say, "No!" If they ask, "Will you please vote, 'Yes!," for putting an end to voting?" You should say, "No!" If you don't say, "No!" then, you will not be able to say anything later. You will surrender your ability to resist and the kicker will be that it was your own fault. If no one says, "No," everyone will eventually be muted.

You may vote your way into socialism; but you must shoot your way out of it.

If you vote to end all voting, you lose your ability to change your mind later. If you surrender your rights, you won't receive them back. In other words, you can only vote your rights away just the once.

You rights do not originate with you and they aren't distributed to you by the State. The State is not a rights factory. They cannot manufacture rights. Rights originate with God. They are His to give. You have them because He is generous. But if you use your freedom to enslave yourself to sin or the State, you won’t receive more freedom from either of them to get you out of it. If you accept the State's giving or taking away rights, you reject the rights given to you by God. You are free to despise what God has given you and trample it underfoot, but you are not free from the consequences of doing so anymore than a man who joyfully jumps off a cliff is free from the gravity of the situation that follows. If you give your rights to the State or give them the impression that they can manufacture their own, you will never get them back and you will find out just how well State-made products hold up -- which is to say, not very. Keep in mind, these are the same folk who invented the DMV.

You can give yourself over to your lusts, but you cannot get yourself back. You can gain the world, but it will cost you your soul. And what can a person give in exchange for that? How can a person buy back their soul? They can't. Giving yourself over comes to an end. You run out of self to give away and you are possessed entirely by something or someone else.

Our only way ahead is to say, "No" to man and "Yes" to God. For those who've already given in, it is never too late for God to set them free, but it will take an act of God. The prisoner who is in love with his cell cannot be set free any other way.