day no. 16,413: Christian liberty is slavery to God

“He who says, ‘free from’ must also assert a specified ‘free to.’ A man cannot turn away from something without simultaneously turning to something. Liberty always assumes an appeal to law… Christian Liberty is nothing other than slavery to God.” — Douglas Wilson, Future Men

Free from must include free to. Liberty is not licentiousness. Lawlessness is not free. First and foremost, it is not free to be lawful. The insatiable need to cast off all restraint is a type of slavery. The need to keep all restraints off is another. Those who insist on going on unhindered are hindered by their insistence.

Slavery is inescapable.

"But you're gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed 

You're gonna have to serve somebody
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you're gonna have to serve somebody"

— Bob Dylan

You will be mastered.

But why whom and by what?

Romans 6:16-19

Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.

Only in Christ can we say, "No" to sin and "Yes" to God. Outside of Him, we are stuck with ourselves and in our sins. We cannot say, "No" to them anymore more than we can say, "Yes" to Him. Without His help, we are limited to a particular type of slavery, but by His grace we are free to embrace a new slavery that is the law of liberty.

Galatians 5:1

Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.

day no. 16,412 continued... Be Strong and Courageous: a poetic verse commentary of the Authorized text

After Moses’ resignation

It came to pass that God now sought

One Joshua, the son of Nun

To play the man and lead the lost

“My servant Moses’ fight is fought

You, therefore go, arise and meet

The Jordan’s waters, walk across

It’s bed to baptize with your feet.”

“Guide all the sons of Israel’s race

Into the land which I bestow

For everywhere you place your feet

Is yours wherever you shall go.

The land, it’s rivers, all its host,

The wilderness yet to be tamed,

As sunsets mark your western coast,

And rises stake your eastern claim.”

“No gate of hell shall there prevail

Nor man successful stand opposed

I, who am with thee, cannot fail

Nor forsake saints before their foes.

Be strong and with good courage go

The land of your inheritance

Is eager its domain to know

Your Father’s sworn benevolence.”

“So, be thou strong and very brave

That thou might seek and serve the law

All Moses got from Me he gave

So all could see what Moses saw 

Do not this way or that withdraw

And blest ubiquitous you’ll be

This book of law lock in your jaws

And from My thoughts you’ll never leave.”

“Day and night dwell upon Scripture

Night and day work out with trembling

Then shalt thou make thy way prosper

And see vict’ry when assembling

Have I not commanded conqu’ring?

Brace yourself! Have faith and fervor

Fear no man nor his rebelling

I am with thee for forever.”

— Be Strong and Courageous,

Postmillitant original rendering

*** based on Joshua 1:1-9

day no. 16,412: weaponized withholding

Galatians 4:17

They zealously affect you, but not well; yea, they would exclude you, that ye might affect them.

There are those who push you away in order to play hard to get. They don't exclude you because they want you excluded, but because they want you to want to be included. They weaponize withholding in order to entice you to desire their provision. They don't ultimately want to withhold. They want to give. But they want you to want it before they do. They don't want to keep you out. They want you in. But not before you feel excluded enough to clamor for admittance.

day no. 16,411 continued... Hannah's Song (alt. lyrics): a poetic verse commentary of the Tyndale translation

My heart rejoices in the Lord 

My horn is lifted high in Him

My mouth is wide and open o’er

My enemies who hear our hymns

There is none holy as the Lord

No, there is none, save Him alone

No strength like His with one accord

Can sit with Him on Heaven’s throne

So, shut your mouths, you proud peacock

Let old things from your mouth depart

For God turns over every rock

And judges every human heart

The bows of strong men have been snapped

The weak, meanwhile, with strength are strapped

The bloated, boastful fattened calves

Have become fodder for the shrewd

The hungry, humble not by halves

Are feasting with God and His food

The babies of the barren born

In number rival sevenfold 

The children of the boastful mourn

Their mother, feeble, to behold

The wicked wasted by the Lord

The humble quickened by His hand;

The haughty hewn down by His sword

The lowly fetched up, raised again

The Lord, He gives and takes away

Brings low, and heeds up, come what may

God raises up the poor from dust

He lifts the beggar from deep dung

He sets them with the upper crust

As to inherit them a throne

The pillars of the earth are God’s

On them He spins the world around

He keeps the feet of saints on sod

But purges sinners from the ground

For no man, by his might, is strong

And no man can the Lord withstand

The fear of God is Heaven’s song

As thunder shakes and shapes the land

The Lord shall judge the ends of earth

His King exalted proves it worth

— Hannah's Song

Postmillitant original rendering

*** based on Tyndale's translation of 1 Samuel 2:1-10

day no. 16,411: generations are nations

"A very profound and precise instinct has let them to single out the human household as the chief obstacle to their inhuman progress. Without the family we are helpless before the State, which in our modern case is the Servile State." — G.K. Chesterton, The Superstition of Divorce

The family is a form of government directly established by God. As such, it will always provide a natural push back to a State who wants exclusive control of each citizen. The family is the fundamental rallying point for free people. It is a world unto itself, a nation under one roof. That nation grows as children grow and establish homes of their own. Generations are nations.

"For humanity to be thus spontaneously organised from below, it is necessary that the organisation should be almost as universal as the official organisation from above. The tyrant must find not one family but many families defying his power; he must find mankind not a dust of atoms, but fixed in solid blocks of fidelity. And those human groups must support not only themselves but each other." — G.K. Chesterton, The Superstition of Divorce

Pharaoh feared a family.

Israel went from seventy persons to millions, but all that would have been for nothing if they had not been unified. A million greased bb’s in an Egyptian bag are no concern of Pharaoh’s. He could keep that kind of thing in his garage, out of sight and out of mind. But these were not atomistic individuals, they were families and communities in covenant. They were twelve tribes of one nation with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as their fathers. They had an arche and that gave Pharaoh fits. They had an allegiance outside of him. The family has loyalties he cannot access or interfere with. That is why Pharaohs fear families. That is why the State wants to play Daddy.

day no. 16,410 continued... David's Valedictory: a poetic verse commentary of the Authorized text

David’s valedictory

The son of Jesse said,

The man who upon high was raised,

The one the God of Jacob bade,

The psalmist sweet who penned the lays,

Of Israel’s amens

The Holy Spirit of God

Through me declared His Word

The God of Jacob has revealed,

The Rock of Israel’s ideals,

That men who rule must justly wield

By fear of God their sword

He shall be the dawn of day

Like light in eastern skies

A morning where the clouds are tamed,

Where tender grass springs from the plain,

And shining clear as after rain,

A risen sun abides

Although my house be not yet

Still God has shown me grace

He made with me a covenant,

And ordered by His government,

That this, my will and testament,

Will overcome the grave

But the friends of fiends shall fall

Like thorns when thrust away

Forsaking naked-handed touch,

They force an iron-fisted clutch

And spear to bundle in a bunch

To burn them where they lay

— David's Valedictory

Postmillitant original rendering

*** based on 2 Samuel 23:1-7

day no. 16,410: make your bed, but don't lie in it

Acts 9:34

Peter said to him, “Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you; rise and make your bed.” And immediately he rose.

Before this, the bed made the man. He was defined by his confinement. His life was limited to lying in bed.

But after this incident, the man made his bed in order to walk away from it. He was not required to lie in the bed he had made. He was set free from the bed that had made him.

May God in similar fashion set many free from that which longs to define and confine them so that they might walk freely in obedience to His Word.

Whatever your bed, put it to sleep.

Don’t be mastered by it.

Listen to your Master and make it.

day no .16,409: a clear sign of God's curse on mankind

Isaiah 3:12

As for my people,

children are their oppressors,

and women rule over them.

O my people,

they which lead thee cause thee to err,

and destroy the way of thy paths.

The widespread and increasing presence of estrogen in leadership roles is a clear sign of God's curse on a nation.

Beware the woes of womenion. Where women are the dominion, men have forfeited their mission.

Diversity and inclusion committees are signs of progress only inasmuch as they are progressing slowly toward the edge of a cliff. Their presence guarantees the downfall of any who run them out. Where womankind is on the coin, mankind is clearly under the curse.

Genesis 3:16

Unto the woman He said,

"Thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee."

The curse of Eve is a constant desire to control the narrative. The curse of Adam is letting her write the story. But the story of the world is not a rom-com, it is an epic battle and the more you have your character development contrived by Mr. Rights the more you can expect the plot to go wrong. There is room for romance and love in war, but there is no room for mettle in a chick flick. God's story makes room for all good things in their proper place.

"An increase in the influence of women in public life has often been associated with nattional decline. The later Romans complained that, although Rome ruled the world, women ruled Rome. In the tenth century, a similar tendency was observable in the Arab Empire, the women demanding admission to the professions hitherto monopolised by men." — Sir John Glubb, The Fates of Empires

When women and children are in charge, men have failed. The men have not failed to lead, they have failed to lead well. Strictly speaking, God has made men to lead. This is inexorable. Men cannot not lead. So, even where women and children rule the roost, it is the men who led the procession to crown them. Men can lead poorly. They can push women and children out front and into authority, but they cannot remove themselves from their responsibilities.

It is good and godly for a man to put women and children ahead of himself where hot food or escape from danger is considered and bad and wicked when he puts them into positions of ultimate authority and responsibility. 

Women in places of power points to weak men off somewhere else. No man worth his salt would stand idly by. He can't. So if a man does, it is his vacuum that is filled in. Men can abandon their posts, but they can't abandon the fact that the post is theirs. They may not be there, but they cannot remove their responsibility to be the one who should’ve been there.

day no. 16,408 continued... Hannah's Song: a poetic verse commentary of the Tyndale translation

In the Lord my heart rejoices

And my horn in Him is lifted

Sounding loud triumphant voices

Of salvation sweetly gifted

There is none, save Him, so holy

No, not one, like Him, unblemished

There is one, the Lord, the only

God and He, my strength, replenished

Talk not much, nor flaunt pretension

Let old things flee from your speeches

For the Lord, a proud intention,

Knows afar, yet judgment reaches

Broken are the bows of strong men

While the weak, endowed, are strengthened

All the full, whose fat was waxing,

Now are found hired out and hungry;

All the thin, whose toil was taxing

Now are round and rule the country

Babies born unto the barren;

Sevenfold in sum now rival:

Mothers boasting many children

Are, behold, now waxing feeble

Wicked ways, the Lord dispatches

Haughty hearts, to Hell, belittles;

Righteous faith, from death, He snatches

Humble thirst, with life, He victuals

Gives and takes away at leisure,

Sink or swim by His good pleasure

Men of dust, by grace, God raises

Lifts them up to sit with princes

Deep in dung, He draws their gazes

To their soul’s inheritances

All the earth and its dominions

Firmly perch on His foundation

Wicked men, by Him, are pinioned

Sainted souls soar to salvation

For no man, his might, can muster

Nor his nerve, survive contrary

To the Lord whose sky shall thunder

And whose scale shall judge the ending

To His King shall reign be given

And His horn resound decision!

— Hannah's Song

Postmillitant original rendering

*** based on Tyndale's translation of 1 Samuel 2:1-10

day no. 16,408: pantsuit

"Modern women defend their office with all the fierceness of domesticity. They fight for desk and typewriter as for hearth and home, and develop a sort of wolfish wifehood on behalf of the invisible head of the firm. That is why they do office work so well; and that is why they ought not to do it." — G.K. Chesterton, What's Wrong With The World

Women were made to keep their home come hell or high water. They contend for their kingdom with God-given tenacity. So, when droves of women abandon their homes for the workplace, their office becomes their kingdom. It is the place where they get things done. As a result, it becomes the place to which they apply their allegiances. They contend for the corporate culture with all the gusto of one contending for the atmosphere of her home. They bake cookies, bring treats, stay late, wake early, do their hair, and dress their best all for the sake of the company. Women are in no danger of doing their desk jobs too poorly, they are in danger of doing them too well. There is no temptation to resent the work, but one to revel in it. Many women should avoid the marketplace not because they aren't cut out for it, but because they so easily will cut themselves on it by getting caught up in it.

There is no small number of ladies who entered the workforce to bide their time until they would settle down as wives and mothers who end up CEOs of companies with two dogs where four kids were planned to be and one divorce where one marriage was supposed to be.

Feminism is misplaced ambition in a pantsuit.

day no. 16,407: it's not the best... it's better

"Woman must be a cook, but not a competitive cook; a school mistress, but not a competitive schoolmistress; a house-decorator but not a competitive house-decorator; a dressmaker, but not a competitive dressmaker. She should have not one trade but twenty hobbies; she, unlike the man, may develop all her second bests.This is what has been really aimed at from the first in what is called the seclusion, or even the oppression, of women. Women were not kept at home in order to keep them narrow; on the contrary, they were kept at home in order to keep them broad. The world outside the home was one mass of narrowness, a maze of cramped paths, a madhouse of monomaniacs. It was only by partly limiting and protecting the woman that she was enabled to play at five or six professions and so come almost as near to God as the child when he plays at a hundred trades." — G.K. Chesterton, What's Wrong With The World

Women are better equipped and positioned to be the best that they can be without needing to be better than anyone else. A mother is not competing against the mother across the street to see who can make the best breakfast. A wife is not competing with the wife across the app to see who can better decorate their respective homes. A woman is not competing against the woman across the aisle to see who can best dress their children for church. A homeschool mom is not competing against the other homeschool moms to see who is the best teacher. In short, a woman doesn't need to be the best mother in the world to be the best mother for her home anymore than she needs to be the best wife in the world to be the best wife for her husband.

day no. 16,406: the Master and martyria

Matthew 1:21

You shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.

The promise was:

Christ will be Master;

Sin will be mastered.

2 Timothy 2:19

God’s firm foundation stands, bearing this seal: “The Lord knows those who are his,” and, “Let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity.”

Christ will be glorified;

We will be sanctified.

Christ was crucified.

Sin will be mortified.

The promise was kept:

Christ is Master;

Sin is being mastered.

day no. 16,405: every grape grows closer

Amos 9:13-15

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

“when the plowman shall overtake the reaper

and the treader of grapes him who sows the seed;

the mountains shall drip sweet wine,

and all the hills shall flow with it. 

I will restore the fortunes of my people Israel,

and they shall rebuild the ruined cities and inhabit them;

they shall plant vineyards and drink their wine,

and they shall make gardens and eat their fruit. 

I will plant them on their land,

and they shall never again be uprooted

out of the land that I have given them,”

says the LORD your God.

If you sow, you know.

Those who sow shall reap.

Those who plant shall eat.

Those who die shall live.

Those who move shall never be moved.

Nothing is so ruined that God cannot rebuild.

Nothing is so buried that God cannot resurrect.

Every day marches closer to that day.

Every grape grows closer to that feast.

day no. 16,404: an enjoyable fight, but a miserable truce

“The full value of this life can only be got by fighting; the violent take it by storm. And if we have accepted everything we have missed something – war. This life of ours is a very enjoyable fight, but a very miserable truce.” — G.K. Chesterton

The good life is the good fight. There are few things more miserable than making peace with evil. It never keeps its treaty. You cannot draw a boundary line, shake hands with wickedness, and expect it to honor the conditions. It will always encroach. It will always break it words. It is evil. What did you expect?

There is no such thing as a cease fire and those who set their hopes on one live a life of relentless disappointment. Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a desire realized is like a tree of life.

1 Timothy 6:12

Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life.

Those who fight are often given the joy of landing a blow and are even given the more miraculous joy of being grateful for getting knocked down in the course of fighting the good fight.

day no. 16,403: seeing a woman

"Keeping to one woman is a small price for so much as seeing one woman."  — G.K. Chesterton

The man who is seeing multiple women is seeing none of them. The man who tries to keep up with several ladies keeps none of them. Only the man who commits himself to a single woman in Christian covenant ever really gets the honor of seeing one. No longer seeing parts of other women is a small price to pay for seeing every part of just one. Keeping your eyes from looking at the female parts of others is the only way to start to see the whole female.

Men, it's time to make a covenant with your eyes. As long as you are looking at pornography, you are blind to femininity. You will not begin to see until you stop peeking.

“The reason there is so much porn on the net is that there are thousands of fools with credit cards who want to pay money for flickering images on a screen.” — Douglas Wilson, Future Men

Shut it down.

S it D.

Bankrupt the morally bankrupt.

Stop paying people to destroy you.

Stop bankrolling abuse. 

No more porn again Christians.

If you're in the habit of clicking the corners of the internet or deleting your browser history in shame, the time has come to quit. Two weeks to flatten the perv. By the grace of God and the power of His Spirit, you can say, "No" to sin and, "Yes" to Him and as men we can single-handedly take down the pornography industry. If we kill the demand, we can cut off the supply. Supply chain issues should apply to moral issues.

Stop clicking around and commit to Christ. In doing so, you will see Him and you may, by His grace, be given the ability to finally see one, real, solid, living woman. Give up the internet ghost girls and get with the program. Get your hands off yourself and get to work. 

Gentlemen, we ride at dawn.

Who's with me?

No more porn, period.

Two weeks to flatten the Perv.

day no. 16,402 continued... Revelation Twelve: a poetic verse commentary of the Authorized text

And there appeared

A woman wearing

Solar weaving

Wonder great

Upon her head

Twelve rigel bearing

Lunar lying

Under feet

And she with child

In painful raring

Birth travailing

Waiting cried

And then appeared

A seven-headed,

Scarlet serpent

To behold

Per capita

A crown conceited

In the heavens

Great and bold

And he with horns

Of ten defiant

Sounded sirens

“This is War!”

The third part of

The stars of Heaven

Cast to earth drawn

By his tale

Stood by as he

Bestrode the woman

Lest her child crown

And prevail

So there he nipped

Devour’d by vengeance

Tasting treason

Licked his lips

Yet she brought forth

A man child truly

Son of God and

Son of Man

Who with a rod

Of iron ruling

All the nations

Claimed His throne

The woman fled

To wild unruly

Places God ruled

And was fed

And there was war

As angeled heavens

By division

Stood opposed

As Michael and

His faithful dragons

Satan’s legions

Juxtaposed

And prevailed o’er

The cursed rebellion

Swept the leaven

Out deposed

That ancient snake,

His court included,

Saw his cunning

Cast and dyed

As Heaven’s hymn

With forte concluded,

“Christ and Kingdom

Come abide!”

And all Hell’s hiss,

Its sting extinguished,

Sulked in anguish

Day and night

By the Word and

By the blood the saints

O’ercame the fear

Of dying

Though their days on

Earth were few, still his

Were fewer and

Expiring 

The dragon knew

So sought to slay and,

Wrought with woe, he

Them pursued

He vented rage

To vex the virgin

Whose Son’s birth his

Hate increased

She rested days

And times well-nourished

In her trials

Given peace

And eagle winged

From Satan’s spying

Woman flying

Found relief

The serpent’s maw

Sent floods of venom

Hoping her to

Sweep away

But earth its mouth

His malice swallowed

Buried it all

Like a grave

And dragon wrath

At war still wages

With the sainted

To this day

— Revelation Twelve

Postmillitant original rendering

day no. 16,402: not a family tree, but a family forest

"Aristocracy sins not in planting a family tree, but in not planting a family forest." — G.K. Chesterton, The Superstition of Divorce

Our vision is too small. We miss the forest for the tree. We remember our grandfather and forget our grandchildren. We must learn to live like we expect to expand. We need to remember the hundreds of thousands who will one day trace their heritage back to us.

One should, of course, remember, acknowledge, and honor his ancestors, but he must also remember to attempt to bless his descendants by making it easy for them to do the same.

day no. 16,401: ascent, not mere assent

“A man on top of the mountain didn't just fall there." — Vince Lombardi

No one falls up a mountain, but too many fall down them. No one summits without ascent and no one summits by mere assent -- neither does anyone reach the top by sheer accident. It is not enough to know that you must climb, you must climb. It is not enough to agree with the premise, you must push ahead to the precipice.

God has called us further up and further in. A mountain ascent, however, often involves going down in order to go up -- so much so it can be said that in order to go up a mountain you must be prepared to climb down. There is no other path. So, rest assured, there will be times where climbing up will not only feel like you're going down, but will actually require it. And then, more than ever, you will need to remember that it is all part of going up the mountain. Further up and further in!

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.

Those who labor in the Lord do not do so in vain; and only those who do so will reach the summit. No one will arrive there by accident and everyone by grace through faith in Christ alone will get there.

day no. 16,400: to reform without form is a lesson in futility

"It is futile to talk of reform without reference to form." — G.K. Chesterton

You cannot reform without an origin story anymore than you progress without an eschatology. Without a concept of creation, you cannot articulate what you're trying to get back to. Without a concept of culmination, you cannot articulate what you're trying to get to. You cannot separate reformation from formation. To reform without form is a lesson in futility.

Reform has become synonymous to some as shorthand for change. So when something needs to change, they say it is in need of reform (e.g. tax reform, welfare reform, finance reform, etc…) but you cannot recover something without reaching back. You cannot return to somewhere you've never been. You cannot advance to liberty without going back to Christendom. You cannot have a revival without a resurrection.

Christianity is anchored in the origin of all things, the Word of God who was with God in the beginning and, is Himself, God. It believes in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth. It looks back to Him and His creation before the Fall as the cornerstone of all human morality and conduct. Christianity strives toward the culmination of all things in Christ and His coming again. It has the blueprint off which to build, the energy through His Spirit to build it, and the hope of His kingdom come for which we strive, in which we live, at which we aim, to which we go.

day no. 16,399: immoral education is worse than none at all

"The education of children for God is the most important business done on earth. It is the one business for which the earth exists. To it all politics, all war, all literature, all money making ought to be subordinated; and every parent especially ought to feel, every hour of the day, that next to making his own calling and election sure, this is the end for which he is kept alive by God — this is his task on earth." — R.L. Dabney

Educating a soul is second only to saving one and the two are not unrelated. Christ commanded us to teach the world what He commanded. This begins with our children. Nothing short of the full counsel of Christ will suffice for an education. Calculus cannot hold a candle to Christ. Calculus may get a plane off the ground, but it can't get a soul into Heaven without Christ.

"The training which does not base duty on Christianity is, for us, practically immoral." — R.L. Dabney, On Secular Education

What is morality without the Maker? From where does it come and on what can it stand? There is no such thing as a secular morality. The myth of neutrality is a Trojan horse for licentiousness. Neutrality never favors the brave. It always capitulates to the craven.

"To educate the mind of a bad man without correcting his morals is to put a sword into the hands of a maniac." — Dr. Griffin via R.L. Dabney

An immoral education is worse than none at all. It only teaches the immoral how to be better at it. It provides hacks to hacks and work-arounds to ne'er-do-wells. It teaches natural born killers how to hide the bodies and introduces sexual misfits to more crevices to consider.

"It is virtue, then, direct virtue, which is the hard and valuable part to be aimed at in education. If virtue is not settled in the student, to the exclusion of all vicious habits, all the education in the world will do nothing but make the student worse or more dangerous." — John Locke

Virtue is the one thing that must be taught. It cannot be obtained by default. It will not spring up from within. It must be impressed upon from without. Education presupposes ignorance. It is predicated upon leading someone to somewhere they weren't going to go otherwise. It assumes that there are goods for which a taste must be acquired. If virtue is not taught, viciousness cannot be curbed. If correction does not find a student, corruption cannot be countered.

"The virtue of the citizen is the only basis for social safety and the Christian religion is the only adequate basis for that virtue." — George Washington via R.L. Dabney

The triune God of the Christian religion is the only foundation of love and order. Nothing else can hold a world together, let alone a small society within that world.

"We need the best men to teach our children. But the best are true Christians, who carry their religion into everything... Therefore the tendency [of secular education] must be towards throwing public schools into the hands of halfhearted Christians, or of contemptuous unbelievers." — R.L. Dabney

A Christian wanting to make a difference in the public, government school system can only keep their job if they don't. If they begin to make a difference, they will be asked to find a different employer. The only Christians who keep their jobs in government education then are those who live out their Christian faith so halfheartedly as to make no difference. They draw no fire from their anti-Christian co-workers and cannot disagree too openly with the anti-Christian curriculum they teach their students. If they teach their students anything about Christ, it’s that He isn’t all that important and can be set aside when it comes to certain things, if not most things, and certainly the most important things like life and learning.

"Public education has not produced an educated public." — G.K. Chesterton

Nor did it desire to. Christianity, alone, is the basis and telos of educating anyone, let alone everyone. It is the only justification for doing it in the first place and the only destination to which it can be justified in continuing on with. Public schools graduate public fools. And this is not a bug, this is a feature; this is not an accident, this is the point. A state educated public is eager to be enslaved. They are easier to convince, corral, coddle, and cast off. 

"But nearly all public men and divines declare that the State schools are the glory of America, that they are a finality, and in no event to be surrendered. We have seen that their complete secularization is logically inevitable. Christians must prepare themselves then, for the following results: All prayer, catechisms, and Bibles will ultimately be driven out of the schools." — R. L. Dabney, On Secular Education

In summary, public schools have not failed — they have done exactly what they set out to do: they have raised up generations of godless citizenry who give unto Caesar that which is God’s, that is to say, they look to the State instead of the Lord.

day no. 16,398 continued... Hannah's song

While I was on my regular, late afternoon, lunchtime walk I heard for the first time William Tyndale's translation of Hannah's Song recorded in 1 Samuel 2:1-10 while listening to Calvinist Poetry: 101 Poems by Calvinist Poets edited by Douglas Wilson and Jayson Grieser and published by Canon Press. 

My heart rejoices in the Lord

My horn is high in the Lord and my mouth is wide open over my enemies

For I rejoice in Your saving

There is none so holy as the Lord

No, there is none, save You.

Neither is there any strength likened to our God.

Talk not too much proudly

Let old things depart out of your mouths

For the Lord is a God of knowledge

And judges the thoughts

The bows of the strong are broken

And the weak are endued with strength

They that were full have hired out themselves for bread

And they that were hungry cease to be so

Insomuch of the barren has born seven

And she that had many children has waxed feeble

The Lord kills and makes alive

Brings down to hell and fetches up again

The Lord makes poor and makes rich

Brings low and heeds up on high'

He raises up the poor out of the dust

And lifts up the beggar from the dunghill

To set them among princes

And to inherit them with the seat of glory

For the pillars of the earth are the Lord's

And He has set the round world upon them

He will keep the feet of His saints

But the wicked shall keep silence in darkness

For in his own might shall no man be strong

The Lord's adversaries shall be made to fear Him

And out of Heaven He shall thunder upon them

The Lord shall judge the ends of the world

And shall give might unto His king

And exalt the horn of His anointed

day no. 16,398: foundations for generations

Isaiah 58:11-14

And the Lord shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not. And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places: thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in. If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: Then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.

Those who put their hope in God lay foundations for many generations while enjoying the labors of the generations that have gone before them. They are watered so that they might water and filled that they might be poured like concrete. They repair the breach by building on the prophets and apostles. They restore the paths by walking constantly over God's promises. The well beaten path of the faithful will again reveal itself and provide direction for generations to come.

When the people of God look forward to His day and delight in it, they find the rest of their days filled with joyful expectation. When we delight in the Lord, we are lifted into the high places and grounded in our earthly ones. We feast on the faithfulness of our fathers and on the promised future of our grandchildren under God. 

day no. 16,397: masculinity is not toxic in excess, but in scarcity

“It is painful, being a man, to have to assert the privilege, or the burden, which Christianity lays upon my own sex. I am crushingly aware how inadequate most of us are, in our actual and historical individualities, to fill the place prepared for us. But it is an old saying in the army that you salute the uniform not the wearer. Only one wearing the masculine uniform can (provisionally, and till the Parousia) represent the Lord to the Church: for we are all, corporately and individually, feminine to Him. We men may often make very bad priests. That is because we are insufficiently masculine. It is no cure to call in those who are not masculine at all. A given man may make a very bad husband; you cannot mend matters by trying to reverse the roles. He may make a bad male partner in a dance. The cure for that is that men should more diligently attend dancing classes; not that the ballroom should henceforward ignore distinctions of sex and treat all dancers as neuter. That would, of course, be eminently sensible, civilized, and enlightened, but, once more, ‘not near so much like a Ball.’” — C.S. Lewis, God in the Dock

The problem with men is not that they are too manly, but that they are such sore representatives of the Man, Christ Jesus. Toxic masculinity, if such a thing exists, is not a excess of manliness, but a deficiency of it. It is a disease that presents where masculinity numbers are too low not too high. That is to say, western civilization does not need to go on a testosterone diet, but to begin taking testosterone supplements. The regiment needs a regimen of masculinity prescribed, not extra training in sensitivity and diversity. The problem with the patriarchy was not that it elevated fathers, but that the fathers were not adequately father-like. The mess of masculinity is how effeminate it is, not how macho it is -- how etiolated it is, not how saturated it is.

Men do not need lessons in femininity, they need to take masculinity more seriously. Men should study their wives, rest assured, but as a man researching a foreign people from a foreign land with whom he has taken interest, not as a convert come to blend in. That, as Lewis says, would merely ruin the dance. You can't have a Ball if some tuck their nuts so that everyone can show up in a dress and neither can you have one if some wrap their chests so that everyone, as Feminism insists, shows up wearing tuxes. 

day no. 16,396 continued... Jehovah Tsidkenu

While I was on my regular, late afternoon, lunchtime walk I heard for the first time Robert Murray M'Cheyne's poem Jehovah Tsidkenu while listening to Calvinist Poetry: 101 Poems by Calvinist Poets edited by Douglas Wilson and Jayson Grieser and published by Canon Press. He originally wrote it back on November 18, 1834 in Edinburgh, Scotland and visited me for the first time 68,966 days later on a sunny afternoon in Leavenworth, Kansas.

Jehovah Tsidkenu

"The Lord our righteousness."

(The watchword of the Reformers.)

I once was a stranger

to grace and to God,

I knew not my danger,

and felt not my load;

though friends spoke in rapture of Christ on the tree,

Jehovah Tsidkenu was nothing to me.

I oft read with pleasure,

to soothe or engage,

Isaiah's wild measure

and John's simple page;

but e'en when they pictured the blood-sprinkled tree,

Jehovah Tsidkenu seemed nothing to me.

Like tears from the daughters

of Zion that roll,

I wept when the waters

went over his soul

yet thought not that my sins had nailed to the tree,

Jehovah Tsidkenu – 't was nothing to me.

When free grace awoke me,

by light from on high,

then legal fears shook me,

I trembled to die;

no refuge, no safety in self could I see –

Jehovah Tsidkenu my Saviour must be.

My terrors all vanished

before the sweet name;

my guilty fears banished,

with boldness I came

to drink at the fountain, life-giving and free –

Jehovah Tsidkenu is all things to me.

Jehovah Tsidkenu!

my treasure and boast,

Jehovah Tsidkenu!

I ne'er can be lost;

in thee I shall conquer

by flood and by field –

my cable, my anchor,

my breastplate and shield!

E'en treading the valley,

the shadow of death,

this "watchword" shall rally

my faltering breath;

for while from life's fever my God sets me free,

Jehovah Tsidkenu my death-song shall be.

day no. 16,396: to the death

“Marriage is a duel to the death, which no man of honor should decline.” — G.K. Chesterton

Marriage is like a fight scheduled for tweve rounds with two participants both hoping it goes the distance. Neither wants to knock the other out nor knock the other down so often as to win by TKO; but neither also pulls their punches or would want the other to pull theirs. It is an honest battle where you want the other to give you their best shot and wouldn't think of holding back your best from them. 

Marriage is like a fight that no one wins unless they both do. It is a fight that everyone loses if any one does.

No man worth his salt would turn down such an opportunity. It is a glorious expedition that promises to end in death only after a lifetime of adventure.

“Men wanted for hazardous journey. Low wages, bitter cold, long hours of complete darkness. Safe return doubtful. Honour and recognition in event of success.” — Ernest Shackleton, Ad placed for Antarctic Adventure

day no. 16,395: a good man lives like a grandfather

Proverbs 13:22

A good man leaves an inheritance to his children's children.

A good man lives like a grandfather. He doesn't merely provide for his children, but for his grandchildren and great grandchildren. He doesn't simply give his children what they need, he teaches them how to provide for the needs of his grandchildren.

1 Timothy 5:8

But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel.

A man must provide for his own. If he does not do this, he isn't a man, let alone a good one. It is less than human to neglect the needs of those who need you.

So, a man must provide, but a good man goes further. He preaches to his great grandchildren by teaching his children to teach their children to teach their children. He begins by fighting for his children, continues by fighting along side them, and ends by fighting through them for generations after he is gone.

Deuteronomy 6:1–2

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

Length of days is afforded to the one who keeps his son's son in mind. His legacy lives on after he no longer does.

A good man is a grandpa and lives for generations by remembering them — and being remembered by them.

day no. 16,394 continued... The Apostles' Creed (original, metrical rendering)

Our God and Father

Did conceive

The earth and Heaven

I believe

His one and only 

Begotten 

The Lord, Christ Jesus

God the Son

Who by God’s Spirit

Was conceived

By virgin, Mary

Was received

By Pontius Pilate

Crucified

Under whom suffered,

Bled, and died

His body buried

In a grave

His soul in Hades

For three days

But then He rose

From the dead

And then to Heaven

Did ascend 

To God the Father’s

Right hand side

Where He now sitteth

And abides

Until the time when

He shall come

To judge the quickened 

And the slow

I believe in God

The Spirit,

And one church: holy,

catholic,

Saints of God in one

Communion,

Sins of saints in One

Forgiven,

And resurrected

Bodied men,

And life eternal,

And amen.

— The Apostles' Creed

Postmillitant original rendering

day no. 16,394: gratitude adjustment

"We are the children of light, and it is we that sit in darkness. If we are judged, it will not be for the merely intellectual transgression of failing to appreciate other nations, but for the supreme spiritual transgression of failing to appreciate ourselves."  — G.K. Chesterton, The Defense of Patriotism

Ingratitude cannot be atoned for by envy. You cannot make up for your lack of interest in what you've been given by becoming overly interested in what someone else was given. While there always exists a temptation to prefer your tribe to another, there is also a temptation to prefer any tribe to your own.

“These are the days when the Christian is expected to praise every creed except his own.” — G.K. Chesterton

These are the days when the white person is expected to praise every color except his own. These are the days when the straight person is expected to praise every sexual preference except his own. These are the days when the man is expected to praise ever gender except his own. These are the days when the American is expected to praise every nation except his own.

Hating your father and mother is all the rage these days. Envy is en vogue while tradition is called terrorism. Yet you cannot correct the culture by merely whitewashing our own. 

“Can he hate it enough to change it, and yet love it enough to think it worth changing?” — G.K. Chesterton

We must have enough honesty to admit our wrongs and enough loyalty to commit to righting them. We must learn to love the color of our skin, the gender God assigned to us, the history of our people, and the place of our birth.

Acts 17:26

And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation.

God handpicked the place and time of our lives. He decided our height, hair color, skin tone, sex, and ancestry. We were made for such a time as the one we are in. Gratitude is what we owe. For life, breath, and everything else He provides, we must learn to say, "Thank you."

day no. 16,393: crown Him the Lord of life

Crown him with many crowns,

the Lamb upon his throne.

Hark! how the heavenly anthem drowns

all music but its own.

Awake, my soul, and sing

of him who died for thee,

and hail him as thy matchless king

through all eternity.

Crown him the Lord of life,

who triumphed o'er the grave,

and rose victorious in the strife

for those he came to save;

his glories now we sing

who died and rose on high,

who died eternal life to bring,

and lives that death may die.

Crown him the Lord of love;

behold his hands and side,

rich wounds, yet visible above,

in beauty glorified;

no angels in the sky

can fully bear that sight,

but downward bends their burning eye

at mysteries so bright.

Crown him the Lord of years,

the potentate of time,

creator of the rolling spheres,

ineffably sublime.

All hail, Redeemer, hail!

for thou hast died for me;

thy praise shall never, never fail

throughout eternity.

— Matthew Bridges (1851); Godfrey Thring (1871), Crown Him With Many Crowns

day no. 16,392: when the undisciplined find the spoons

Proverbs 29:18

Where there is no revelation,

the people cast off restraint

If people are left to figure things out for themselves, things will go poorly. Revelation comes from without. Wisdom is revealed to a person through discipline and instruction. The one who is not disciplined or instructed will be left to speculation. Speculation comes from within and leads to thinking that liberty means getting to act upon whatever urges come up from within.

Proverbs 5:22-23

The iniquities of the wicked ensnare him,

and he is held fast in the cords of his sin. 

He dies for lack of discipline,

and because of his great folly he is led astray.

Discipline is inescapable, not whether but which. In other words, children who are not disciplined by their parents are the ones disciplining their parents. They make clear demands, set expectations, and explain the consequences of crossing them; and their parents fall in line. If cocksuredness is not disciplined out of a person, it grows up within them.

James 1:14-15

But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.

Sin doesn’t stay put. If it isn’t put down, it grows up. If sin is given reign, it expands its kingdom by invading neighboring territories and continues until either it is stopped or it takes over so completely that it kills. Sin cannot keep what it takes. It kills whatever masters. It spoils whatever it touches.

Proverbs 13:24

Whoever spares the rod hates his son,

but he who loves him is diligent to discipline him.

A child without spanks is spoiled. He goes from rotting to rotten like a garden left unweeded ceases to be a garden. Withholding godly discipline is not an act of love. No one loves their child too much to spank them. It is abuse. It creates the kind of monsters who grow up to discipline others according to their own whims.

The baby boomers were not spanked, but now they have the spoons. Their parents never found a wooden spoon to their behinds, but that didn't keep them from finding the spoons once they grew up. And once found, they knew what they were for. They were never disciplined by their parents, but got plenty of practice making demands. Now they have grown up and are the parents, the governors, officials, teachers, etc... and they are demonstrating that they know how to discipline others. When the undisciplined are in charge of the laws, they wreak havoc.

There will be discipline. If you don't discipline a child according to the Word of God, he will grow up to discipline others according to the prevailing kultursmog or his desires, which often amount to the same thing.

day no. 16,391: people are responsible to the reality of possible realities

“Human observation transcends that of the animals, who may very well observe basic empirical realities but lack the soulful capacity for bridging the gap between what is and what could be. Humans were given not just this ability but this burden — this opportunity— this cultural mandate.” — David L. Bahnsen

People are responsible to the reality of possible realities, pets are not. God has given His image bearers not only the blessing of enjoying the products of His creation and culture, but the privilege and responsibility of creating culture in order to shape the future of the world to come according to His commands.

day no. 16,390: man the ramparts; watch the road; dress for battle; collect all your strength

Nahum 2:1

The scatterer has come up against you. Man the ramparts; watch the road; dress for battle; collect all your strength.

When you can see that you are up against it, there is nothing left to do but to go up against it.

MAN THE RAMPARTS

The ramparts are where you take a stand. A man places himself between his beloved and the danger that comes against her. When the scatterer comes to destroy all that you've gathered, play the man and man your post. 

WATCH THE ROAD

The enemy comes in predictable fashion. Sin may seek to surprise us, but we should never be caught off guard. We are not ignorant of its schemes. Watch the road. Keep your eyes on the places it has previously tread down. Don't be ready to watch, be watchful.

DRESS FOR BATTLE

The more you sweat in peace, the less you bleed in war. Do not wait to get ready, be ready. Dress for battle beforehand. Put on the whole armor of God. The enemy will hold nothing back. Don't have your gear at hand, have it on.

COLLECT ALL YOUR STRENGTH

Collect all your strength. Gather all you can muster against the scatterer. Do not scramble. Collect yourself ahead of time. Gather your strength against the scatterer before its needed.

Matthew 12:30

He that is not with me is against me; and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad.

The one who gathers with sin is a scatterer against the Savior. The one who scatters from sin is a gatherer with God.

1 Corinthians 16:13-14

Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong.

Let all your things be done with charity.

day no. 16,389: let my people go

Exodus 5:1

Moses and Aaron went and said to Pharaoh, “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, ‘Let my people go.'"

There comes a time when the State needs to hear, "Hands off!" Caesar never forgets what is Caesar's, but he often needs to be reminded what isn't his. There is a line they cannot cross. There is a jurisdiction that does not belong to them. And when those assigned by God to govern reach outside the lines of their jurisdiction, He says, "Let my people go!"

day no. 16,388: revolution is war against order

1 Corinthians 14:33

God is not a God of disorder but of peace

God is not chaotic, but orderly. He is not an eternal tension, but infinite peace. Enmity is His response to the presence of sin. He goes to war because He is against disorder. He resists unity with evil. He opposes the proud to their face, but He does so in order to restore peace and quiet.

Matthew 10:34

Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.

Jesus carries a sword because chaos carries on. He comes, however, to put an end to that nonsense. 

The French Revolution was a war against order. It was chaos rebelling against Christendom. The American War of Independence was a war against disorder. It was principle taking up arms against malpractice. The aim of the French Revolution was progressive. It wanted to unmake the past. The aim of the American War for Independence was conservative. It wanted to restore the past. The French weaponized rage. The Colonies weaponized righteous anger. The French went to war not just with their king, but with the idea of kings, and therefore the King of all kings. The Colonies went to war to defend the idea of kings, insisting George was not living up to what a king ought to be, therefore appealing to the King of kings.

In short, the French Revolution was a protest against order and the American War for Independence was an orderly protest.