day no. 16,352: courage is the crusade of the saved

2 Samuel 10:12

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

Good courage is on behalf of someone else. Courage considers the cities back home and the families who inhabit them. Courage calls upon a man to consider his progeny and legacy as a higher virtue than his own safety. Courage is a man facing death because he values life. Courage is a man willing to lose his life in order to save it. Courage, as such, is the crusade of the saved. Only those who see themselves as seeds are free to be buried under the burden of taking responsibility for others.

Nehemiah 4:14

And I looked, and rose up, and said unto the nobles, and to the rulers, and to the rest of the people, "Be not ye afraid of them: remember the Lord, which is great and terrible, and fight for your brethren, your sons, and your daughters, your wives, and your houses."

Courage, me lads -- for our people, for our cities, and for our God.

Courage does not require a certainty of outcome, but a certainty of conviction. Courage knows what it does, why it does it, and for whom it does it without knowing how it will pan out. It knows the value of sacrifice and spends it generously.

day no. 16,351: fighting for and through the generations that follow

1 Samuel 25:28

For the LORD will certainly make my lord a sure house, because my lord is fighting the battles of the LORD, and evil shall not be found in you so long as you live.

A sure house is secured by God for those who fight the good fight of the faith. A man begins by fighting for his children, continues by fighting alongside them, and ends by fighting through them for generations.

A man can preach to his great grandchildren by teaching his children to teach their children to teach their children. It can also be said that a man can train his great grandchildren by training his son to train his sons to train their sons.

The man who does this ends up fighting for and through generations of faithful warriors bearing his name. His house is made sure. His name is retained. As a subject of the Name above all names, he is an object of grace and his legacy lives on.

Ephesians 3:14–17

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named.

day no. 16,350: all generalizations are dangerous

“All generalizations are dangerous!" someone said. You don’t say? Even that one? After all, “all generalizations are…” is a generalization. Saying this is like sawing off the limb you’re standing on, kind of like the pot calling the kettle, "black."

Q: Are generalizations dangerous?

A: They can be, but they can also be helpful.

When Jesus condemned the Pharisees (Mt. 23), He didn’t pause to point out the exceptions though there were some. For example, Nicodemus was a Pharisee, but exempt from the accusations of Jesus’ generalization. He was exceptional precisely because he agreed with the generalization and differentiated himself from it.

“When Mr. Wells says (as he did somewhere), ‘All chairs are quite different,’ he utters not merely a misstatement, but a contradiction in terms. If all chairs were quite different, you could not call them ‘all chairs.’” — G.K. Chesterton, The Suicide of Thought

All that to say, generalizations are necessary. So, when one asserts, “all generalizations are dangerous,” they do so assuming that both danger and generalizations are generally bad. They cannot make their point without generalizing. all danger bad? One could easily retort “Are all dangers bad? Are any good or worth it? Is all risk too risky? Says who?” Depends who is danger and why.

day no. 16,349: God is inescapable

Psalm 139:1-8

O LORD, you have searched me and known me!  You know when I sit down and when I rise up; You discern my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O LORD, you know it altogether. You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high; I cannot attain it. Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!

You cannot get away from God.

You cannot get up earlier than God

You cannot stay up later than Him

You cannot flee from His presence 

You cannot escape His concern.

You cannot outrun His care.

You cannot cold shoulder Him to the point of indifference 

You cannot ascend higher than His level of interest.

You cannot descend lower than His attention span.

There is nowhere to go where He isn't early, after, before, behind, above, below, etc...

He is always there.

Anywhere is here or there to Him.

He is always here.

Anywhere is here to Him.

Everywhere is near to Him.

Nowhere is outside His attention.

No one can escape His affection.

God is infinite.

He is never finished.

Any direction you go, you cannot get ahead of God.

There are no finish lines to be found in Him.

He is inexhaustible and indefatigable in ever direction.

He never runs out or gives way.

He has no beginning.

He has no end. 

God is inescapable.

It is not a matter of if you'll meet Him, but how?

You've never lived a second outside His notice.

And you never will.

Again, the question isn't, if He'll see you.

The questions are how do you see Him?

And what will He see in you?

day no. 16,348: the State of emergency

"Emergencies have always been the pretext on which the safeguards of individual liberty have been eroded – and once they are suspended it is not difficult for anyone who has assumed emergency powers to see to it that the emergency will persist.“ — Friedrich Hayek, Law, Legislation and Liberty, Volume 3

There is a type of state that only comes into being by accident. It requires an emergency to exist. That said, the accident does not need to be accidental, it can be engineered or on purpose. The guise required to bring it about, however, must be an “emergency.” A crisis is required to be or do certain things; and so, rest assured, unforeseen events are often seen and the unheard of is often heard. If a crisis is required, a crisis can be rigged. A state of emergency must be declared in order to create the State of Emergency. It cannot come into being without one. The state of emergency can be anything that permits the State to do anything.

Proverbs 29:4

The king by justice establisheth the land;

But he that exacteth gifts overthroweth it.

The type of State that emerges as a result of an emergency is a type that doesn’t readily surrender its new state of power arguing that the land needs to be overthrown in order to be established. So, though the emergency expires, some or all of the emergency powers remain in force. It is often explained that these new powers are needed to prevent future emergencies, that is to say, "We must overthrow the land in order to establish it."

A state of emergency is often the steroids of the State used to gain a competitive advantage.

The State secures certain powers through the presence of the emergency and either continues to keep them when the emergency is long since passed or perpetuates the emergency in order to perpetuate its power, but the end game is always to do away with the accouterments. Just as the scaffolding eventually gives way to the shape of the structure and can at that point then safely be discarded, so the emergency is merely the mechanism or apparatus required to build the structure and will be discarded once it is sturdy enough to stand on its own. Rest assured, when the pretense of the emergency begins to be disassembled, it is because the State assumes it now has established itself sufficiently enough to continue on without it. By the time pretense is dropped, power has already been established.

The State of Emergency could not be built without the scaffolding of a crisis, but will do away with the crisis once the structure can stand on its own. Once the State of Emergency has gained its seat in the cabinet, it can safely declare the emergency over. The State wants to be the only Emergency you respond to. So, the citizenry catches it both ways. Their lack of planning becomes our emergency, but their plans are to be an emergency that leads to our lack.

day no. 16,347: the means and the magic

Proverbs 12:4

A virtuous woman is a crown to her husband.

Wives adorn their husbands. They make them look good. They decorate their heads by honoring them as their head. Women were made to adorn. They make things prettier and better than they were before. They transform square feet into a home. They turn vegetables into soup and flour into bread.

1 Peter 3:4-5

Let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious. For this is how the holy women who hoped in God used to adorn themselves, by submitting to their own husbands.

The man provides the means and the woman provides the magic. He brings home the bacon and she makes it into breakfast. He makes the means and she makes it meaningful. He brings home the paycheck and she makes it into a pot roast dinner. He conquers the world and brings some of it back so that she might cultivate it into an atmosphere. She turns his wages into a welcoming space. She adorns his cash by investing it into a culture. The man owns the home and the woman makes it homey. He makes the room and she makes it roomy. He works the land and she works her magic and together they embody the fairy tale. She turns his wages into wonder and transforms his funds into a feast. He plants the seed and she waters it. He sows, she grows.

Proverbs 24:3-4

By wisdom a house is built,

and by understanding it is established;

by knowledge the rooms are filled

with all precious and pleasant riches.

This is wisdom:

Men make things, women make them better;

Men buy things, women make them worth owning;

Men fill the checking account, women fill the home.

Working together, everything is made and made better.

day no. 16,346: seek the Lord early

“Be merciful to yourselves. Seek the Lord early, and so you will be spared many a bitter tear.” — J.C. Ryle, Thoughts for Young Men

You do yourself no favors by delay. If you intend to follow Christ, do so now.  Do not save greater obedience for another day. The disobedience you nourish will not be more easily abandoned tomorrow. Be merciful to yourself; seek the Lord early in life and early each day. You will spare yourself many tears. The earlier the better. Do not follow God from a safe distance or you will find Christ distant and your soul in danger.

“Hell itself is a truth known too late. Be wise in time. What youth sows, old age must reap.” — J.C. Ryle, Thoughts for Young Men

Everyone will one day know the truth, but it will be too late for those who waited to know it. You cannot grow strong in wisdom by feasting on ignorance,

John 8:32

And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

The truth sets free those who receive it in this life, but those who refuse to know the Truth until they see Him face to face are enslaved to their lifelong rejection.

Ecclesiastes 11:3

The tree fall toward the south, or toward the north, in the place where the tree falleth, there it shall be.

In whatever state the soul ends, in that state it stays.

Ecclesiastes 12:1

Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth.

Save yourself from regret. Don't forget to remember the Lord while you still can, before you're too old to remember much or too set in your ways to want to.

day no. 16,345: to remember is to resurrect

To remember is to resurrect... either to eternal life or death. When you recall something, you call it back from the dead and either by grace thank God for it or by bitterness curse Him for it. Memories are either brought back to life as glorious opportunities of praise and gratitude or hideous occasions of anger and ingratitude.

Daniel 12:2-3

And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever.

Memories, like us, are resurrected either to everlasting life or everlasting contempt. And just like us, they can only be saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone or they will be destined to live the life of death which is paved with guilt, shame, and regret.

1 Corinthians 11:24-25

And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me. After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me.

Resurrection requires remembrance. We either remember through the resurrection or we remember without it and the difference is as stark as day and night, light and darkness, love and hate, joy and grief, gratitude and regret.

Gratitude and thanksgiving are gifts of the past being remembered through the resurrection of the Son of God for our justification. Envy and bitterness are the curses of the past being remembered without God to intercede for them.

day no. 16,344: socialism christens the secular as sacred

Socialism is the religion of the secular. It is the veneration of secularization.

It excommunicates the sacred in order to carve out a sacred space for the secular. It mocks the holy places and then makes a mecca of secular landscapes. It razes the monuments of faith and tradition while raising monuments to secularity. It scorns the saints and praises the scientist. It crumples up the creeds while planning its curriculum. It abandons the old doctrines while drafting its new declarations.

"The special mark of the modern world is not that it is skeptical, but that it is dogmatic without knowing it. The moderns believe without knowing what they believe—and without even knowing that they do believe it." — G.K. Chesterton

Socialism is the sanctity of human strife. It makes a religion of making life more difficult than it needs to be. It sings hymns to hemorrhaging and says its prayers to pillaging. 

day no. 16,343: gang aft agley

"The charge to Peter was 'Feed my sheep;' not 'Try experiments on my rats,' or even, 'Teach my performing dogs new tricks.'" — C.S. Lewis, Letters to Malcolm

Jesus' charge to Peter included what to do and for whom to do it -- feed (what) Jesus' sheep (for whom). The action is "feed" and the object is "sheep." Not to be neglected is the possessive pronoun "My" in order to remind Who commands the shepherds and to Whom belong the patients. It matters that the verb is feed. This is a careful, caring thing to do. Nourishment is intimate. It is what fathers are called to provide for their offspring and mothers to their infants. It matters that the direct object is sheep. These are people who need provision and protection. It matters that the pronoun is My. It matters Whose they are. These aren't just any sheep. These are His.

This charge, however, also presupposes where to get what he needs. Peter was not charged to make the grass grow, but he was charged to lead the sheep to it. Peter could not himself provide what the sheep needed, but he could guide them to where it was. In other words, Jesus presupposed Peter would not try to teach His sheep to eat rocks. In commanding Peter to feed the sheep, Jesus was promising to provide the food.

Jesus' charge equates His people with His sheep and His shepherds with their providers and protectors. They are not called sheep so that he can easily discount them, but that he may be counted upon to care for them. The imagery is not meant to demean His people, but to provide greater meaning to His pastors. God's people are not rats to be experimented on for research purposes or dogs to be trained to entertain the elderly. God's people are sheep to be tended to and protected from wolves, not preyed upon as play things or offered up as sacrifices by sheep with master's degrees.

day no. 16,342: cool-headed, but warm-blooded

"You can't think straight unless you are cool. But then neither can you think deep if you are." — C.S. Lewis, Letters to Malcolm

Only a cool head can be wrapped around something because its coolness keeps it from getting wrapped up in it. Christians are required to think straight as crookedness is a tell tale sign of thinking like the opposition. Kinks in your thinks lead to kinky behaviors. But Christians are not merely meant to be calculators. We should compute the correct answers, but not with the cold, hard logic of a cold, dead heart. The Christian needs to be cool-headed, but warm-blooded.

Christians are required not only to think clearly, but deeply. This entails a much more scenic route than the typical highway provides. Christians are a thinking people. God requires that we love Him with all our hearts, souls, minds, and might. This means we must learn to discern straight from crooked, but also shallow from deep. We must learn how to swim in order to dive into deeper waters. Shallow, straight thinking is better than shallow, crooked thinking, but one can still drown in an inch of water. Deep, straight thinking is best. One does not have to abandon principles to enjoy poetry, but one does have to lighten up. Heaviness can drown one in the depths as easily as crookedness can in the shallows. 

All that to say, cooler heads prevail when it comes to the straight and narrow, but a broad mind is needed in order to enjoy it enough to stay on the right track. An emotional whirlwind cannot make sense of its emotions, but neither can a yardstick. God made us to be well-rounded and every aspect of human nature is called to be brought into submission under Christ as its Head: heart, soul, mind, mettle, and muscle. Blood and brains must yield to Jesus. Brains need blood to function. Blood needs brains to distribute it.

day no. 16,341: meta is beta

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!

There are few things more beta than Meta. Nothing quite cries, “I can’t get the girl,” like inventing an online one. 

What could be lamer than crutches complaining about broken legs? What could be more cowardly than retreat? What could be more ungrateful than spending your life pretending to be alive somewhere else? What could be more audacious than criticizing the real world from the safety of an artificial one? The artificial is derivative of the actual. Shadows cannot exist without light and shade cannot be thrown at the actual without first borrowing from it.

Woe to those who call the real "evil" and the fake "good" and put the actual on trial while putting on parades for the artificial.

"Bemused and besotted as we are, we still dimly know at heart that nothing which is at all times and in every way agreeable to us can have objective reality. It is of the very nature of the real that it should have sharp corners and rough edges, that it should be resistant, should be itself. Dream-furniture is the only kind on which you never stub your toes or bang your knee." — C.S. Lewis, Letters to Malcolm

Meta is beta. It is a world where you never stub your toe. It is full of packing peanuts and knee pads. By trying to eliminate every obstacle to self expression it eliminates the meaning of self. It eradicates the opportunity to prove yourself by cancelling all adversity and adversaries. 

Meta is suicide. It is a full scale rejection of reality. It forsakes itself as creation by attempting to be its own creator. It is like the snake devouring its own tail and calling the result eternity. It consumes its own end once it begins.

Meta is mass murder. It doesn't merely eliminate the self, it seeks to eviscerate all selves. It unsubscribes to every outside influence and suffocates in the vacuum of self-indulgence. 

Firsthand experience will always trump secondhand speculation. Virtual reality is a cut-rate reality. The only thing real about it is the machinery and accouterments required to keep it running.

Speculation may look up for now and guess, but revelation will always come down in the end and remove all doubt.

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

day no. 16,340: wisdom's children

"Belief is not an intellectual act; belief is a moral act whereby I deliberately commit myself.” — Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest

Belief does not exclude the intellect, but neither is it reduced to it. It involves, but is not limited to, the mind. Belief is not merely a superficial acceptance of fact. It certainly includes facts, with God accepted as the most certain fact of all, but it does not end in simple assent. Belief is not merely saying, "Uncle!" it is saying, "Father!" Agreeing with God, i.e. repentance, certainly includes a change of mind, but that change is demonstrated and accompanied by a moral act of will that follows through and complements the change of mind. All that to say, belief is not certified by a placement exam, it is a commitment to think and to behave in concert with said belief.

Luke 7:35

Wisdom is justified of all her children.

Wisdom is never barren. It never struggles to conceive or delivery. It is fruitful and it labors successfully. It is fertile soil and ample rainfall. Wisdom is palpable. It is proved by the presence and the quality of its progeny. It is never an empty nester. There are always offspring. It is never left without an heir apparent.

Belief is bountiful and robust. It always bears fruit.

day no. 16,339: going all in for another's dreams

“Go in obedience and you will find love. You will have no more dreams. Have children instead." — C.S. Lewis, That Hideous Strength

Jane was plagued by the idea of belonging. She had long been wary of being at anyone else's mercy. Her greatest fear was being obligated to someone else. She had married for loveliness, not love. She had said, "I do" to Mark as a toddler being helped with their shoes, which is to say, reluctantly. She wanted to be self-possessed and instead was possessed by abilities she did not beg for. The very thing she feared came upon her and in the end, she discovered that belonging to someone else was better than belonging only to herself.

1 Timothy 2:13-15

For Adam was formed first, then Eve; and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor. Yet she will be saved through childbearing—if they continue in faith and love and holiness, with self-control.

Love is not found in utter independence, but in covenantal dependence. Covenant assumes individual duties with cooperative ends -- a win for you is a win for me. Covenant makes your strengths my comforts and my strengths yours. Covenant means my weaknesses are forgiven as I forgive yours.

Love is not found in retaining personal dreams, but in fulfilling the dreams of others. Love is not finally getting what you want per se, but in finally giving what another needs and finding it's what you wanted to do.

Men must abandon boyish hobbies and embrace bringing up their boys. Men must reject the inheritance of secular individuality and accept the inheritance of Christian responsibility. Men must be strong enough to strike down their best life now for their grandchildren's best lives later.

day no. 16,338: resistez!

“A young Huguenot woman named Marie Durant, fourteen-years-old, was required to abjure her Huguenot faith. All she had to do was say one word—j’abjure—and she could go free. Because she would not do it, she was placed in a tower by the sea with 30 other Huguenot women where she remained for the next 38 years. She and her fellows scratched a different word entirely on the wall of the prison. It was ‘resistez’ —resist.” - Douglas Wilson, The Romance of Protestantism

Hang in there, saints!

Revelation 14:12

Here is a call for the endurance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus.

Q: What were the saints called to endure? What were the Hugeunots resisting?

A: The mark of the beast

Revelation 4:11

The smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest, day or night, these worshipers of the beast and its image, and whoever receives the mark of its name.

The temptation to give up and give in is real.

There are incentives tied to the mark and offered to those who take it upon themselves. There are penalties assigned to those who do not bear it. There are conveniences and comforts associated with taking that name and pain and discomfort threatened for those who won't.

Luke 12:4-5

I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that have nothing more that they can do. But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him!

Do not give in or give up.

Our struggle may not be against the same mark or the same beast per se, but the principalities and powers are not so creative as to put out anything other than cover albums.

Let's not tolerate an encore. The show is over. Shut it down.

Never again.

Never give in.

Keep Christ and His commands.

Surrender only to Him.

day no. 16,337: singing psalms may wake sleeping lions

“Because the final reward is found in the resurrection, in the city to come, and not here, we are set free to attempt great things here. To different kinds of cowardice this looks positively reckless, but reckless in different ways. Some are afraid that our psalm singing will wake up the lions, while others are afraid that the psalm singing will stop the mouths of those same lions.” — Douglas Wilson, Empires of Dirt

Some would rather remain lame than run with the big dogs. Some prefer the peace and quiet of being irrelevant to the sweat and tears of making a difference.

Singing psalms may wake the sleeping lions, but it also just might shut them up forever.

Let us sing like we mean it and leave the results to the Lord. Whether our worship draws fire or causes fire to fall down from Heaven, let us sing like we know the words. We are Christians. We know the Word. We have placed our hope in His life, death, and resurrection not so we can avoid our life, death, or resurrection, but so that we might attain to them. 

Romans 14:7-9

For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.

Some powers and principalities slew soundly under the assumption that Christianity is a thing of the past. But when we sing so that they can hear it, they wake up well aware that we haven’t gone anywhere and must still be dealt with. This may lead to more trouble for us, but only because we’re finally troubling them.

Any light worth it’s salt is proud to give the darkness fits and considers it a badge of honor to be so bright as to have shade thrown at it. But the dark doesn’t stick.

John 1:5

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

If the darkness decides to dark even harder, it can’t win. The darkness is fading and the light is growing ever brighter.

Proverbs 4:18-19

The path of the righteous

is like the light of dawn,

which shines brighter

and brighter until full day.

The way of the wicked

is like deep darkness;

they do not know

over what they stumble.

day no. 16,336: keep the home, keep the world

Titus 2:3-5

The aged women likewise, that they be in behaviour as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things; That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed.

When the home is kept, the word is kept.

Our modern sensibilities lead us to believe that the Word of God is blasphemed by obeying His Word. "I can't stay home and expect the world to respect my witness," a Christian wife and mother may be tempted to say. But the Bible tells us that giving into this temptation is what leads to God's Word being blasphemed. Blaspheme literally means "slow + fame." A blasphemer is slow to bring fame and praise to something that merits it. In this regard, the Word of God is not praised as quickly as it ought to be because women choose to impress the world rather than express themselves in their home.

When we keep the home, we keep the world.

The world will be saved by faithful witnesses to His Word, not by clever testimonies of compromise to it. The Word is what saves, not impressive resumes. Working hard to win the approval of the world is the best way to lose it and to secure as lost those in it. If you love the world, oppose it. It's what's best for it. To flatter the world is to shatter it. You guarantee its demise by making it your prize.

Keep the kids; keep the world.

A well-ordered home is the end of the world. The euchatastrophe is accompanied by wedding bells. The meek shall inherit the earth and those raising their children in the discipline and instruction of the Lord are those who will inhabit it. The world will be retained by those who retain their posts. Be where God has placed you and fulfill your assignments as prescribed and we will see the world won over and Christ exalted as its one, true King.

day no. 16,335: personality is located in a Person, not a in a number

“Personality is that peculiar, incalculable thing that is meant when we speak of ourselves as distinct from everyone else. Our personality is always too big for us to grasp. An island in the sea may be but the top of a great mountain. Personality is like an island; we know nothing about the great depths underneath, consequently we cannot estimate ourselves. We begin by thinking that we can, but we come to realize that there is only one Being Who understands us, and that is our Creator.” — Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest

Only God sees us as we truly are and we only see ourselves truly when we see ourselves in Him.

“Personality is the characteristic of the spiritual man as individuality is the characteristic of the natural man… Personality merges, and you only reach your real identity when you are merged with another person. When love, or the Spirit of God strikes a man, he is transformed, he no longer insists upon his separate individuality. Our Lord never spoke in terms of individuality, of a man’s ‘elbows’ or his isolated position, but in terms of personality — ‘that they may be one, even as We are one.’ If you give up your right to yourself to God, the real true nature of your personality answers to God straight away. Jesus Christ emancipates the personality, and the individuality is transfigured; the transfiguring element is love, personal devotion to Jesus. Love is the outpouring of one personality in fellowship with another personality.” — Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest

Personality is located in a Person, not in a number.

We become who we are when we listen to God instead of ourselves.

“Live your truth” is a great way to die in lies.

“Be yourself” is a great way to lose yourself.

“You do you” is a great way to be done in.

day no. 16,334: the Son of Man and the sins of man

"(Jesus) assumed the flesh of unfallen man: it is not for nothing that Paul tells us that he came, not in sinful flesh, but in 'the likeness of sinful flesh' (Rom. 8:3). But this does not mean that the flesh he assumed was not under a curse: it means that the curse under which his flesh rested was not the curse of Adam’s first sin but the curse of the sins of his people: 'him who knew no sin, he made sin in our behalf'; he who was not, even as man, under a curse, 'became a curse for us.' He was accursed, not because he became man, but because he bore the sins of his people; he suffered and died not because of the flesh he took but because of the sins he took. He was, no doubt, born of a woman, born under the law (Gal. 4:4), in one concrete act; he issued from the Virgin’s womb already our sin-bearer. But he was not sin-bearer because made of a woman; he was made of a woman that he might become sin-bearer." -- B.B. Warfield, The Emotional Life of Our Lord

There is nothing inherently sinful about material. If there were, Christ would have committed a sin in becoming flesh. God made stuff. He didn't have to, but He wanted to. In the beginning, through the Word and by His Spirit, He made everything ex nihilo. Everything is made out of nothing plus the Word of God. If God's Word were to be removed, what you'd be left with is nothing. Nothing has existence on its own other than God. He is the only immortal. He alone is the I Am. Nothing exists on its own save Him.

Jesus was not under a curse because He was a man, He was under a curse because as the Son of Man, He took on Himself the sins of man. Jesus was not guilty of sin because He was human, but because He took onto Himself the sins of humanity. Christ was born under the law, but placed Himself under its curse. He kept the Law and fulfilled it for our righteousness and took on its curse and satisfied it for our justification. Jesus was not subject to death by virtue of being a man, but by virtue of being a substitute for mankind.

day no. 16,333: individuality is all elbows

“Individuality is all elbows, it separates and isolates. It is the characteristic of the child.” - Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest

Individuality boxes others out. It wants to carve out a convenient corner of the universe all to itself or to retain a private luxury suite of sin in its soul.

Personality, on the other hand, is the individual under his Maker’s authority. Personality is dynamic because it is connected to its source of power.

Individuality is disconnected from God and others and it suffers for it. It is boring, always engaging in the tired ol’ game of catch and catch can.

Personality receives from its Creator and is therefore creative. It is genuine.

Trying to be genuine is one of the most hackneyed, disingenuous tactics imaginable and everyone sees through someone trying not to be seen through. There are few mysteries easier to solve than the whodunnit where one suspect doth protest too much.

day no. 16.332: Christ came to conquer

"We must bear in mind that our Lord did not come into the world to be broken by the power of sin and death, but to break it. He came as a conqueror with the gladness of the imminent victory in his heart; for the joy set before him he was able to endure the cross, despising shame." — B.B. Warfield, The Emotional Life of Our Lord

Christ came as a conqueror. In His submission to the flesh, He was waging war. He did not come to be crushed under the heel of sin, but to smash sin with His. He endured great difficulties as a champion enduring great blows, but he did not do so with defeat in mind. He came to win and never failed to keep victory in sight.

"Joy he had: but it was not the shallow joy of mere pagan delight in living, nor the delusive joy of a hope destined to failure; but the deep exultation of a conqueror setting captives free." — B.B. Warfield, The Emotional Life of Our Lord

Christ came to set the captives free and their liberation made His crucifixion a triumph, not a defeat. He heroically laid His life down like one who's all in laying down a winning hand on the table, that is to say, with confidence and certainty that all the chips were His. Jesus delighted in winning deliverance for those the Father had given to Him. He was satisfied in His service and excited by the prize He ran hard to obtain. He did not blush in the battle, but smiled in the success.

day no. 16,331: one little word shall fell them

Genesis 1:1-3

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, "Let there be light:" and there was light.

Before the world,

there was nothing, but God;

and then by His Word,

the worlds were made.

God spoke;

and the nothing jumped to attention;

that must have been something!

Psalm 33:6

By the word of the LORD were the heavens made;

And all the host of them by the breath of his mouth. 

But the words of the Lord were more than mere words.

John 1:1-3

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.

The world was made not just by words, but by the Word.

Hebrews 11:3

By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible.

What we see is held together by what we don't.

That world that is would not exist without the word of I Am.

Romans 4:17

God gives life to the dead and calls into being that which does not exist.

Nothing plus God's Word equals everything. 

Communication holds things together and a breakdown in communication breaks things down.

Genesis 11:4-9

And they said, "Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth." And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded. And the LORD said, "Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech." So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city. Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.

The Tower of Babel was under construction until communication broke down; that moment, the tower too broke down and was abandoned. Communication keeps things copacetic. The Word holds things together. If He breaks off communications, the world would break apart: mountains once immovable evaporate and gravity previously fixed floats away.

2 Thessalonians 2:8

The lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth and bring to nothing by the appearance of his coming.

The inventions of men fall before a full sentence is said. The sentence is passed by the breath of God. One word from the Lord and the majesty of man falls apart. 

And though this world, with devils filled,

Should threaten to undo us,

We will not fear, for God hath willed

His truth to triumph through us:

The Prince of Darkness grim,

We tremble not for him;

His rage we can endure,

For lo! his doom is sure,

One little word shall fell him

-- Martin Luther, A Mighty Fortress

There is nothing new under the sun and the world is no stranger to men uniting together to blatantly disobey God's clear Word. Those who re-inhabited the world post-flood pooled together rather than fan out according to God's command. They, instead, stayed put and began the tireless work of making a name for themselves. Instead of increasing the glory of God, they choose to see if they could increase their own stock. So they worked together to build something spectacular. They set themselves to make a world in their own image, a reality outside of God's, where towers tell the tales of great men doing great things.

And then God changed their language and the entire project was abandoned. The tower was left to the rule of rust and decay and gradually succumb to the inexorable realities of God. It returned to dust, just as those whom He dispersed did. The pride of man was laid low and all because He made it impossible for them to understand each other. They could have taken time to learn each other's languages. All languages have structure which can be taught and caught. But their impatience got the best of them. Revolutionaries don't have time for things like grammar. Studying syntax tends to take the edge off of the urgency. Diagramming sentences has a sobering effect and rioters prefer the wisdom of whiskey to the sobriety of Spanish 101.

Listening to the Cross Politic Daily Newsbrief yesterday (12/9/21), there was a story about a recent blackout of Amazon due to a server going down. It was restored and order was regained, but during the outage, peeps be cray. The same thing happened when a few months ago Facebook and Instagram went out for a few hours. A few hours... All it takes is a small miscommunication and everything can fall apart.

The curse of Babel could be applied easily enough by God to internet systems. If He merely confused their language, imagine how much would/could go down. All the force of those you fear could evaporate in the face of a miscommunication. You may scoff at the fall of Babel, but you may see it again. And you will see just how small our towers are and how great our God is. With the flick of a tongue the whole project can collapse. The programs in which we place our trust rely on the ability to send, receive, understand, and execute commands. Something as simple as an inability to communicate can destroy the greatest achievements of wicked men.

C.S. Lewis employed the same strategy for dealing with and disabling the entire N.I.C.E. The deus ex machina of a simple language barrier can bring the whole thing down.

“Qui Verbum Dei contempserunt, eis auferetur etiam verbum hominis.” -- Merlinus Ambrosius in C.S. Lewis' That Hideous Strength

(They that have despised the word of God, from them shall the word of man also be taken away.)

Praise God. 

Amen and Maranatha!

day no. 16,330: what not to wear

Deuteronomy 22:5

The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman’s garment: for all that do so are abomination unto the Lord thy God.

That which pertaineth to men in this particular instance is militaristic. It may extend, in practice, beyond that, but the principle begins with battle. Men were made for warfare and there is apparel associated with this office. A man may not always be dressed for war per se, but he must dress in a way that allows him to prepare for war and to be ready when called upon. All that to say, his clothes complement his responsibilities. His clothes match his work and the body he's been given to do it. Hard work, hard bodies. Hard, not as in difficult, but as in muscular, pointed, and piercing.

Likewise, women are called to cultivate the lands conquered by the men and dress accordingly. Cultures are built by women nurturing life, cultivating beauty, and making home.  Their clothes match their work and the bodies they've been given to do it. Soft work, soft bodies. Soft, not as in easy, but as in elegant and aesthetic.

1 Corinthians 6:9-10

Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, not idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, not drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.

Effeminacy is a sin. That is to say, gender-bending is a sin. Androgyny is a sin. It is not a quirk or character flaw, it is akin to idolatry and adultery and shares an neighborhood according to the apostle's letter to the Corinthians. In other words, men should look like and act like men; women should look like and act like women. Neither should do anything to create confusion and each should go to great lengths to clarify should any confusion arise.

“For one who is a man to comb himself and shave himself with a razor, for the sake of fine effect, to arrange his hair at the looking-glass, to shave his cheeks, pluck hairs out of them, and smooth them, how womanly!…This is a meretricious and impious form of snare. For God wished women to be smooth, and rejoice in their locks alone growing spontaneously, as a horse in his mane; but had adorned man, like the lions, with a beard, and endowed him, as an attribute of manhood, with a shaggy chest – a sign of strength and rule.” — Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor

A man should be ashamed to be womanly, not because being a woman is shameful, but because being a man who is confused for a woman is. It is bad for a man to be womanly precisely because he isn't one. There is nothing wrong with femininity. In fact, for a woman, it is her glory. For her, it would be wrong to be manly. She should be ashamed to be butch. Not because masculinity is a disgrace, but because being a woman who is confused for being a man is. She is not a man and should not be confused for one.

“The beard signifies the courageous; the beard distinguishes the grown men, the earnest, the active, the vigorous. So that when we describe such, we say, he is a bearded man.” — St. Augustine of Hippo, Exposition on Psalm 133

Wearing a beard is putting on a brave face. Men were made for courage and intimidation. They were crafted to subdue evil and beards were given to men to make wickedness think twice in their presence. A beard reflects the nature of who men were made to be. You can, for sure, be a man without one; but any man without one would surely not be less manly for growing one, whereas most men diminish their masculinity by shaving theirs off. All that to say, beards become men and masculinity.

day no. 16,329: swing and amiss

1 Samuel 20:20-22

Then I will shoot three arrows to the side, as though I shot at a target; and there I will send a lad, saying, ‘Go, find the arrows.’ If I expressly say to the lad, ‘Look, the arrows are on this side of you; get them and come’—then, as the Lord lives, there is safety for you and no harm. But if I say thus to the young man, ‘Look, the arrows are beyond you’—go your way, for the Lord has sent you away.

There is a way to miss that hits its target.

There is a kind of missing that communicates intention. There is missing because you meant to hit the target and failed to do so out of incompetence and there is a missing because you meant to miss the target and succeeded in doing so out of competence. In other words, there is a missing which says that something is amiss.

Jonathan was able to communicate a message by missing in a particular way. He was competent enough to miss in the way he wanted to, not in the way an incompetent archer does while attempting to hit the bulls-eye.

Having established this, let me apply the principle in a different direction: 2020 and 2021 have been spectacularly bad. So bad, in fact, that you couldn't concoct it by accident. It's too bad to have been by mistake. All that to say, incompetence could not, on its own, explain how bad things have gotten. Incompetence isn't that good at being bad.

There is a kind of bad that is so bad that it proves how good at being bad it is. In other words, you can't be that kind of bad by accident. That kind of bad can only be accomplished on purpose. It is not missing the mark because of a lack of competence, but because of an excess of arrogance.

If you look back at 2020 and 2021, you must conclude that one can’t miss that badly by accident. It is statistically impossible to be that bad. You can cheat on an exam by filching the right answers from someone else’s work or you can cheat on an exam by filling in the wrong answers intentionally. Mere guesses or random selection can only produce so much error. There are scores so low, however, that they imply someone tried hard to get the answer wrong. Which also tells you that they knew the right answers and deliberately chose the wrong ones. To know the wrong answer with that degree of certainty is to also know what is certainly right.  

All that to say, when you see something this bad, you know someone is aiming at evil. They know the good and intentionally choose the bad. They haven't made a mistake or a miscalculation. They have seen the good, rejected it, and pursued the bent.

But Someone is keeping score and knows how to grade the papers. Rest assured, where idiocy is an excuse, it will be accounted for; and where evil is inexcusable, it will be counted. It will either be reckoned to Christ or it will face a reckoning. Kiss the Son while you still can and wait upon Him knowing that the bad guys will soon have to kiss it all good-bye. 

day no. 16,328: saved souls will always be found to have fought a fight

"Every baptized churchman is by his profession a 'soldier of Jesus Christ,' and is pledged 'to fight under His banner against sin, the world and the devil...' Christian warfare is a great reality and a subject of vast importance. It is not a matter like church government and ceremonial, about which men may differ, and yet reach heaven at last. Necessity is laid upon us. We must fight. There are no promises in the Lord Jesus Christ’s epistles to the seven churches, except to those who 'overcome.' Where there is grace there will be conflict. The believer is a soldier. There is no holiness without a warfare. Saved souls will always be found to have fought a fight.

It is a fight of absolute necessity. Let us not think that in this war we can remain neutral and sit still. Such a line of action may be possible in the strife of nations, but it is utterly impossible in that conflict which concerns the soul. The boasted policy of non–interference, the 'masterly inactivity' which pleases so many statesmen, the plan of keeping quiet and letting things alone—all this will never do in the Christian warfare. Here at any rate no one can escape serving under the plea that he is 'a man of peace.' To be at peace with the world, the flesh and the devil, is to be at enmity with God and in the broad way that leads to destruction. We have no choice or option. We must either fight or be lost." -- J.C. Ryle, Holiness

Enmity is inescapable. If you are not fighting, you are lost and all who are fighting, will win. The fighting is the winning. The faith to fight is what overcomes, by believing, it has already won. To lie down, to give up, to stay down, etc... is defeat. To surrender or give up is to be lost. To rise again, to get up, to stand up, etc... is victory.

Ephesians 6:11-13

Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.

To wrestle is to win. To refuse to wrestle is to have already been pinned. You cannot opt out. If you do not fight, you are conquered. But if you fight, you are already more than a conqueror.

Romans 8:35-37

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.

And how do we conquer? By having faith in the Conquerer. By being conquered by Him, we conquer the world. By losing ourselves in Him, we win. By surrendering our lives to Him , we are victorious.

1 John 5:4-5

For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?

Revelation 3:21

To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.

Revelation 21:7

He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.

day no. 16,327: mercy that does not hate sin is vice, not virtue

"True mercy is no less the product of anger than of pity: that what differentiates the divine virtue of mercy from 'the vice of insensibility' which is called 'tolerance,' is just the under-lying presence of indignation. Thus — so the reasoning runs, — 'the man who cannot be angry cannot be merciful,' and it was therefore precisely the anger of Christ which proved that the unbounded compassion he manifested to sinners 'was really mercy and not mere tolerance.'" -- B.B. Warfield, The Emotional Life of Our Lord

Mercy is not the tolerance of evil. Where evil is tolerated, mercy is unnecessary. If sin is not wicked, there is nothing to overlook.  If evil is not counted against us, it is nothing to say that you do not count it against someone else. If sin is nothing to be angry about it, it is not a virtue to keep your calm about it. But if sin is wicked, then it would be wicked to overlook it. If sins count, it would be wicked to discount it. If sins are hateful, it would be wrong not to hate them. 

Mercy of the kind that merely tolerates sin, then, is a vice, not a virtue. It lacks, as Warfield says, sense. If it doesn't hate the sin it seeks to cover, it just another sin. If it doesn't despise the evil it dies for, it defies its own ends. Why should anyone have to die? But if someone must die, it becomes virtuous to substitute yourself in order to spare the one on death row.

All that to say, if you do not hate sin, you cannot be merciful. You can be tolerant. You can be empathetic. You can be all kinds of things, but merciful may not be named among them. You must hate sin if you want to be merciful. 

God is merciful because He hates sin. Jesus showed great mercy in despising the cross and its shame on His way to and through it (Heb. 12:2). Jesus does not tolerate sins, He dies for them. He does not paint over dirt, He bulldozes the building and rebuilds brand spanking new. If the old could be improved, nothing new would be needed. If sinners could be sainted by twelve step programs, the Son of God died for nothing. If time could heal all wounds, Jesus was unnecessary. But if sin is serious, someone has to die. And if someone has to die, it is merciful to be the one who does the dying in the condemned person's place.

John 15:13

Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

day no. 16,326: in flaming wrath against the foe

"The spectacle of the distress of Mary and her companions enraged Jesus because it brought poignantly home to his consciousness the evil of death, its unnaturalness, its 'violent tyranny' as Calvin (on verse 38) phrases it. In Mary’s grief, he 'contemplates' — still to adopt Calvin’s words (on verse 33), — 'the general misery of the whole human race' and burns with rage against the oppressor of men. Inextinguishable fury seizes upon him; his whole being is discomposed and perturbed; and his heart, if not his lips, cries out, —

'For the innumerable dead

Is my soul disquieted.'

It is death that is the object of his wrath, and behind death him who has the power of death, and whom he has come into the world to destroy. Tears of sympathy may fill his eyes, but this is incidental. His soul is held by rage: and he advances to the tomb, in Calvin’s words again, 'as a champion who prepares for conflict.' The raising of Lazarus thus becomes, not an isolated marvel, but — as indeed it is presented throughout the whole narrative (compare especially, verses 24-26) — a decisive instance and open symbol of Jesus’ conquest of death and hell. What John does for us in this particular statement is to uncover to us the heart of Jesus, as he wins for us our salvation. Not in cold unconcern, but in flaming wrath against the foe, Jesus smites on our behalf. He has not only saved us from the evils which oppress us; he has felt for and with us in our oppression, and under the impulse of these feelings has wrought out our redemption." -- B.B. Warfield, The Emotional Life of Our Lord

Jesus is not a dispassionate deliverer. He doesn't deliver merely because it's the right thing to do or because His dad said so. His heart is in it. He wants to rise up and lift up those crushed by the tyranny of sin, Satan, and death. He longed to smash the serpent's skull. He didn't shrink back with feminine meekness at the thought, but leaned in with masculine fierceness to thrust his heel down hard enough to hear the bones crack. 

Jesus is a Champion. He had prepared for the fight and was excited to put His powers to good use. He did not grapple without grit. He came to destroy the works of the evil one and He delighted in demolishing them. He found pleasure in pulling it down and satisfaction in seeing it crumble. Jesus burns with rage and an inextinguishable fury when it comes to sin. He will not stop until it is utterly stopped.

Psalm 2:12

Kiss the Son, lest he be angry,

and ye perish from the way,

when his wrath is kindled but a little.

Blessed are all they that put their trust in him.

Revelation 6:16

“Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb:” 

day no. 16,325: a cheerful giver is a shrewd farmer

"It is not possible for us to be cheerful givers if we think we are dumping perfectly good seed down a gopher hole. But it is more than possible once we discover that soil is fertile. A cheerful giver is actually a shrewd farmer." — Douglas Wilson, A Brief Theology of Christmas Presents

Making good investments is not hard work. It is always easy to plow fertile soil. The work is no less strenuous, mind you, but the reward is more obvious. Hard, unyielding land is tough to work. It not only resists your efforts, but refuses to reward them. The farmer who finds fertile soil, however, has less trouble sowing greater percentages of his seed. He can resist the urge to eat it up now knowing how much more there will be to eat later. He gives up the gratification of a plate of food for the satisfaction of a feast for the extended family.

If God can be mocked, then sowing and giving can be separated. But if God cannot be mocked, then you will reap what you have sown. Your reaping will be in keeping with the quantity and the quality of the seeds you have planted. If you have sown sparingly, you will reap a life with nothing to spare. However, if you sow abundantly, you will reap a life of abundance enough to give away and sow even more.

If you are convinced that your gifts to God and His Kingdom are money poorly spent, you will find yourself spent and poorly equipped to recover. However, if you are convinced that your gifts to God and His Kingdom are deposits well invested, you will find you are personally invested in it and richly equipped to appreciate its increasing production.

day no. 16,324: the humble stand against the tyrannies of man

Hebrews 11:23-29 (Geneva 1587)

By faith Moses when he was borne, was hid three moneths of his parents, because they sawe he was a proper childe, neither feared they the kings commandement. By faith Moses when he was come to age, refused to be called the sonne of Pharaohs daughter, And chose rather to suffer aduersitie with the people of God, then to enioy the pleasures of sinnes for a season, Esteeming the rebuke of Christ greater riches then the treasures of Egypt: for he had respect vnto the recompence of the reward. By faith he forsooke Egypt, and feared not the fiercenes of the king: for he endured, as he that sawe him which is inuisible. Through faith he ordeined the Passeouer and the effusion of blood, least he that destroyed the first borne, should touche them. By faith they passed through the red sea as by drie land, which when the Egyptians had assayed to doe, they were swallowed vp.

Moses' parents did not fear the king's commands. They did not do so because they were scofflaws. They did so because their King's commands usurped Pharaoh's preferences. The King of kings has jurisdiction over kings of geographical areas and/or particular peoples. He is the King of every square inch of earth and every single person. His Law is above every other and all lesser laws are unlawful when out of step with it. 

Moses, when grown up, did not fear the fierceness of the Pharaoh for he feared the Lord of Pharaoh. He forsook Egypt for the sake of Zion. He partook in the blood of the Lamb instead of the food of the Pharaoh. He rejected the throne of the magistrate for the love of the throne of Majesty. And in the end, he saw the lesser lawgiver swallowed up by the sea of the Law of the Lord. The proud will be humbled and the humble will be exalted. This has always been the case. So, when the proud demand you appraise them, you are not proud in defying them. What looks like pride before man is humility before God. When you humble yourself before God, you stand up to the tyrannies of man. 

day no. 16,323: legalism is a charge applied liberally

"Legalism is a word that is thrown around liberally." -- K.P. Yohannan, Head Coverings

The willfully disobedient like legalism. It is the perfect scapegoat. It is one of their favorite friends. Don't want to do something? Just say it would be legalistic to do it. Appeal to the spirit of the Law rather than the letter. The charge of "legalism" not only gives one the license to go on their merry way, but provides them with the smug satisfaction of having the moral high-ground while doing so. It acts for them like poison gas-filled bubble wrap. It protects them from the shock of being rattled, but also releases a deadly vapor into the air if someone's pokes at them become particularly pointy.

Legalism is an idea beloved by the licentious.  It is a camouflage for the corrupt. They can hide in plain sight and sin out in the open without fear of being spotted. The charge of "legalism" sounds bad in anyone's ears.

The best protection of living in one ditch is the accusation of living in the other one.  The best way to protect a cold heart is to accuse the warm-blooded of getting too hot and bothered. The best way to protect bold disregard is to accuse the adamant of being overly scrupulous.

Thus, legalism is used liberally to defend open defiance and liberalism is used legalistically to defend hidden defiance.

All that to say, legalism is a sin, to be sure, but so is accusing the obedient of “legalism” in order to justify ongoing, unrepentant disobedience. Being hyper-scrupulous is a sin, of course, but so is being anti-scrupulous.

day no. 16,322 continued... alphabetical areas of interest list July 2023

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

- G.K. Chesterton

Interested people are interesting people.

Be interested... stay interesting.

Aggressively Optimistic (secondary catch phrase for Postmillitant)

AR (hopefully sooner rather than later)

Assertive (need to learn how to ask for what I want while leaving others to say no)

Atticus (he is 14 and officially taller than me)

Babylon Bee (love watching new vids with the kids)

Beard (still growing, longest I've ever had)

Beard hair (have bad habit of pulling scragglers sometimes)

Be Blessed... Or Else (catch phrase for Postmillitant)

Beta male (these skills come to me more naturally than alpha ones)

Bible Read Through Challenge (completed first one back in May)

Bikes (kids love riding on our street in the evening)

Billboard (excited to see Christ is Lord billboard go up in Leavenworth August 7th)

Birth certificate (KS DOT said not a valid certificate)

Boniface (celebrated our first with reading and twig pencils)

Books (back on track for 300 after getting behind going through GKC catalog)

Brandishing (excited about some of the logos I've made for Postmillitant)

Canon+ (got this as a Christmas gift and have been LOVING it)

Cantus (enjoying reading through it devotional style)

Case of Christian Nationalism (looking to read for the first time soon)

Christ is Lord boxes (ordered 10 to secure billboard in Leavenworth)

Cigars (getting the hang of 'em and ordered a second sampler batch)

Clean up (been staying to help clean up after service each week)

Coffee (brewing a pot once a day between me and Paige)

Coffee (drink a cup of two of black coffee between 12p-3p)

Disciple (new album, Skeleton Psalms, is pretty good!)

Dishwasher (wrestled with it and hoping new piece will fix it and stop the leaking)

Doug Wilson (recently turned 70, excited to see what speaking his minds looks like)

Drive thru (going to start ordering)

Dude Perfect (love watching new vids w/ family when published)

Exercise (need to get back into regular habit of working out from home)

Faucet (kitchen sink will not stay tight)

Fellowship (enjoying staying after each week to eat, talk, and let kids play)

Fight Laugh Feast Conference (details locked down for this October)

Fight Laugh Feast Magazine (working on possible article submission)

Firepit (fired this up for first time over Memorial Day)

Fireworks (need to get some for the Fourth)

Girard, Rene (need to read some of his stuff)

Goldie (need to get new battery and oil change, then register)

Handy (need to learn how to be more handy for Paige)

Headaches (have had a really good stretch of avoiding migraines)

Indigo (not in the pride flag)

Inheritance (praying to live long enough to secure this for my kids)

Intermittent Fasting (still going hard on the 20/4 sans Sunday)

Instant Regret (been watching with Paige at night)

Jenny Geddes (looking fwd to celebrating our first w/ water balloons)

June for Jesus (wrapping up monthly campaign for Postmillitia)

Kentucky (looking fwd to visiting in October, never stayed, only driven thru)

Lawncare (Atticus has been having fun mowing some lawns)

Leavenworth (wonder who else might move here: Gideon, Josiah, Kendall?)

Liturgy (loving the shape our weekend liturgies are taking on)

LOTR (in book 4 of The Two Towers for Story Club)

Lucky People (been watching compilations of these w/ kids at night)

Martime Stories (discovered these four fun reads from Douglas Wilson)

Men's Beer n Books (been LOVING these on the first Fridays of each month)

Men's Movie Night (LOVE that Aaron introduced this bi-monthly)

Milk (still making weekly trips for raw milk)

Mom and Dad (looking fwd to seeing in August, it's been nearly a year)

Money (praying God continues to provide during expensive times to be alive)

Nate Bargatze (watched stand up as family, very funny!)

Nightlocks (install)

NLT (reading Paige's old Bible for Same Page Summer)

NQN (reading through old anthologies in preparation for this November)

The Office (watching through again with Paige at night)

Operation Fiscal Jackhammer (monthly review of checkbook w/ kids)

Ophelia (excited to hear her talk and see her walk soon)

Outdoor dining (have taken table and chairs outside a few times)

Ozymandias (need to circle back to some of these classic poems)

Persuasions (excited to read this Wilson book with kids at dinner time)

Pipe (Laurelai got one of these for me for Father's Day)

Pipe Tobacco (bought some online, smells like I remember... sooo good!)

Playlist (Sabbath clean up playlist is a fan favorite each week)

Popcorn Party (still rock one of these once a month on family movie night)

Postmillitant (up to 2,720 followers)

Postmillitia.com (Peter is working on rolling out soon)

Prayer (in a good groove for others, but need better routine for covering Paige/kids)

Preaching (Hadley seems to think I should be on the rotation)

Psalms (loving these more and more as we learn more and more)

Psalm Sing (monthly Psalm Sing is a family favorite)

Publishing (Peter has mentioned possibility of starting publishing)

Quarantine (new proofs continue to demonstrate it did NOTHING but damage)

Reformation Day (Excited for this year's festivities, hoping for Toby)

Re:treat (monthly chance to have treat a second time)

Roe (one year anniversary of overturn of this wicked ruling)

Rushdoony (read my first Rushdoony recently)

Sabbath Dinner (continues to be a weekly highlight)

Same Page Summer (first time participating, all kids doing it as well)

Shinedown (been getting acquainted with their back catalog with the kids)

Sleep (been having trouble intermittently in getting to sleep)

Snake (filled a huge black snake that was camped under our deck)

Story Club (been working our way slowly through LOTR)

Strategic Withdrawal (may take hiatus from Postmillitant if not to 2,750 by 7/1/23)

Swimming lessons (kids back at it after a few  years off)

Temper (need help from God to get a better grip on my quick anger)

Utility (need to learn how to do more things/have more skills: girls like guys with skills)

Vacation (at the use it or lose it stage of having stored up so much)

Vacation to Custer (on the books for Aug. 24th)

Wade Show (new show in Canon+ we watch every Sunday before movie night)

Warrior Poet Society (John Lovell videos on being better prepared)

Wear Your Faith (staple on my Instagram stories)

Weekly Wrap Up (also watch these from CrossPolitic on Sunday as a family when available)

Weezer (enjoying getting reacquainted with them and being introduced to many new songs)

Weight (clothes still fit and feel decent in my skin, but could stand to lose 5 lbs of so)

Womens' Singing (hosted our first church event at our place)

eXasperated (been getting flustered easily lately, need to grow in long-suffering)

Yes (need to be more like God in providing a world with more yes's and less no's)

Yuengling's (now distributing in MO and KS)

Zzzz's (intermittent difficulty in getting to sleep)