day no. 16,596: what God commands to be kept, keeps

Exodus 16:33-34

And Moses said unto Aaron, Take a pot, and put an omer full of manna therein, and lay it up before the Lord, to be kept for your generations. As the Lord commanded Moses, so Aaron laid it up before the Testimony, to be kept.

What God commands to be kept, keeps. The same manna that could not be kept overnight, kept for two days on the Sabbath. The same manna that could not ever be kept for three days, kept for generations as a Testimony of God's provision in the wilderness. Whatever God commands to be kept will keep. What He says does not spoil. His Word never goes to the worms. It is a living seed that develops deep roots and climbs to the skies.

The commands of Christ cannot fail and anyone who walks in them has the promise of His presence in them:

"I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen." — Matthew 28:20.

Those who keep His commission are kept in their keeping of it and when they teach the nations to keep Christ's commands, He is with them in that. He is in the commands He is in the insistence upon them, and He is in the obedience to them; He is in all of it:

"one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all." — Ephesians 4:5-6

day no. 16,595: ten or ten thousand?

"If men will not be governed by the Ten Commandments, they shall be governed by the ten thousand commandments.” — G.K. Chesterton

Rules are inescapable. Something is going to govern. If you will not abide by the simplicity of God's Law you will suffer under the complexity of man's. The Bible may be a big book, but it pales in comparison to our tomes on tax codes. God's Law provides simple principles that can be applied to all of life, but man's laws must account for every imaginable scenario and thus require never-ending revision and addition. When you reject God and His image, you do not get liberty; you get libraries of regulations aimed at making man into the image of man's idea of man.

day no. 16,594: pride or shame in forgetting

"In the story of creation, Adam met Eve in a garden. In the story of redemption, Jesus met Mary in a garden. Adam met a woman with a disreputable future. Christ met a woman with a disreputable past. We must always remember this because we are so prone to forget it. And when we forget it, when we forget our name of Magdalene, we usually do so in one of two ways. We either become self-righteous because we have forgotten our past, or we are guilt-ridden because we have forgotten our future." — Douglas Wilson, Scripture Stores: Live and Times

Eve has trouble in her future; Mary had trouble in her past. But our troubles are no trouble for Christ. With man these things may be impossible, but in Christ they are not only possible, but passed over, accomplished, in His own words, "Finished!"

Pride is a self-righteous product of forgetting yesterday's sins;

Shame is a self-condemning product of forgetting tomorrow's salvation.

Christ has saved us, He is saving us, and He will save us.

Our pasts are forgiven and our futures are secure — let us not forget lest we too fall by standing proudly or make a stand in a shame spiral.

day no. 16,593: the punishment of a crime

"War is waged by men, not by beasts or Gods. It is a peculiarly human activity. To call it a crime against mankind is to miss at least half of its significance; it is also the punishment of a crime."

— Frederic Manning, The Middle Parts of Fortune

God has declared war on sin and set enmity between the seed of the serpent and the seed of Eve. War is therefore not a sin in itself unless it is waged directly against the seed of Eve or indirectly against the efforts of the seeds of Eve to fight the seeds of the serpent. As Manning points out, war does contain a crime, but only on one side of the battlefield. To be on the side of peace is to be at war with the side of war. God calls men to fight for the sake of ending all fighting. God calls men to peacemaking, not peacekeeping; the creation of calm comes at the cost of crushing the chaos. Peace can be made only by ruthlessly eradicating restlessness.

Galatians 5:17

The flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other.

It is not a crime to punish a crime. The officer lawfully breaks the speed limit in order to apprehend the one unlawfully breaking the speed limit. The executioner lawfully ends the life of the lawless one caught and convicted of murder. The officer speeds to put an end to speeding; the executioner kills to put an end to bloodshed. He isn't committing a crime, but condemning one. 

The love of God produces a hatred of evil and a desire for peace inspires the battle to end all battling.

day no. 16,592: cowardice up close

Jeremiah 38:4

Therefore the princes said unto the king, We beseech thee, let this man be put to death: for thus he weakeneth the hands of the men of war that remain in this city, and the hands of all the people, in speaking such words unto them: for this man seeketh not the welfare of this people, but the hurt.

"It is worth noting that cowards are frequently brave about distant dangers, like the Babylonians, precisely because they are afraid of nearby pressures, such as those that might come from courtiers and princes. Because Zedekiah was this kind of coward, he lived to see his sons executed in front of him and all the words of the courageous prophet fulfilled." — Douglas Wilson, Scripture Stories: Lives and Times

It is easy to carry your bravado into hypothetical battles, but difficult to stand your ground against present danger. The Spirit of the Age can cause a man to crucify the immortal Son of God in order to avoid the sideways glance of the mortal Caesar of a temporary empire. Pressure is always felt where it comes to a point. One can sell their future for the sake of some soup or kowtow to the crowd in front of them while grandstanding against the army across the ocean, but either way, wherever the pressure is felt is where the resilience is required.

"If I profess with loudest voice and clearest exposition every portion of the truth of God except that little point which the world and the Devil are at that moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christ. Where the battle rages, there the loyalty of the soldier is proved, and to be steady on all the battlefield besides, is mere flight and disgrace if he flinches at that point." — Martin Luther

day no. 16,591: paige's birthday

Happy 38th Birthday, Paige!

You are my best friend. There is no one I miss more when they're gone or enjoy more when they're around. You are my favorite person in the whole world. I am so glad you got born. 

I hope you feel honored and loved and respected and grateful today for all the good things God has done for you and through you. You are a blessing to so many. I am so glad my children get to have you around all day as they grow up. I can't wait to see the myriad ways they will rise up to call you blessed. You are a great wife, a good friend, a faithful mom, and joy to know. I am glad that I get to know you more than most.

Happy Birthday! 

Here's to many, MANY more.

day no. 16,590: living prophets demand living faith

Jeremiah 18:18

Then said they, Come, and let us devise devices against Jeremiah; for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come, and let us smite him with the tongue, and let us not give heed to any of his words.

"Who does Jeremiah think he is? Let us ignore him now and attack him with our tongues. Today, when a prophet speaks to those people who will not hear the Lord, they smite with their tongues as well. They say, 'The age of prophets is past. You are not inspired like Jeremiah was. He was a prophet.' And thus they testify—the only prophet they will hear is a dead one. And their fathers, who heard the living prophet, resolved to make him a dead one." -- Douglas Wilson, Scripture Stories: Lives and Times

Living prophets demand living faith. Dead faith can honor dead prophets. It does not require any faith to raise a monument to a man you do not have to obey. We do not honor our ancestors by merely keeping their last names anymore than we become children of Abraham by the accident of birth.

day no. 16,589: missing nothing and never missing

Acts 1:21-22

Wherefore of these men which have companied with us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, Beginning from the baptism of John, unto that same day that he was taken up from us, must one be ordained to be a witness with us of his resurrection.

The application for Apostle included a caveat concerning late arrivals. Those who jumped on board after the baptism of John did not meet the minimum requirements of the position. Also, any who were there for the baptism of John, but left before the ascension were excluded for consideration. In other words, those who heard the Father confirm the Son at His baptism and persevered to see the Son ascend to the Father's right hand were the only ones considered to fill the void left by Judas' forfeiture of his office. Judas was there for the baptism, but not the ascension. He exited stage left and gave up his office by giving up his ghost to guilt instead of giving it to the Savior. 

An apostle was one who had seen it all through and had been present and accounted for through it all. He didn't miss anything and was never found missing.

day no. 16,588: our victory cannot fail

Fear not, O little flock, the foe

Who madly seeks your overthrow;

Dread not his rage and power;

What though your courage sometimes faints?

His seeming triumph o’er God’s saints

Lasts but a little hour.

Fear not, be strong! your cause belongs

To Him Who can avenge your wrongs;

Leave all to Him, your Lord;

Though hidden yet from mortal eyes,

Salvation shall for you arise;

He girdeth on His sword!

As true as God’s own promise stands,

Not earth nor hell with all their bands

Against us shall prevail;

The Lord shall mock them from His throne;

God is with us; we are His own;

Our victory cannot fail!

Amen, Lord Jesus, grant our prayer!

Great Captain, now thine arm make bare;

Thy church with strength defend;

So shall thy saints and martyrs raise

A joyful chorus to Thy praise,

Through ages without end.

-- Verzage nicht, du Häuflein klein

Attr. Jacob Fabricius, 1632; st. 4 anon., 1638

Tr. Catherine Winkworth, 1855, alt.

Source: The Lutheran Hymnal, 1941, No. 263

The gates of hell cannot prevail against God's Church. The world, the flesh, and the devil cannot hold out against the onslaught of salvation. The barricades of darkness cannot keep out the advancing light. The heel that stomps may be bruised, but it cannot fail. The thorns of hell may prick, but they cannot keep from being uprooted. Through many tribulations the Kingdom is entered, but no tribulation can prevent its coming. 

day no. 16,587: our enemies are attempting impossibilities

The daughter of Jerusalem hath shaken her head at thee. — Isaiah 37:22

"Reassured by the Word of the Lord, the poor trembling citizens of Zion grew bold, and shook their heads at Sennacherib's boastful threats. Strong faith enables the servants of God to look with calm contempt upon their most haughty foes. We know that our enemies are attempting impossibilities. They seek to destroy the eternal life, which cannot die while Jesus lives; to overthrow the citadel, against which the gates of hell shall not prevail. They kick against the pricks to their own wounding, and rush upon the bosses of Jehovah's buckler to their own hurt.

We know their weakness. What are they but men? And what is man but a worm? They roar and swell like waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame. When the Lord ariseth, they shall fly as chaff before the wind, and be consumed as crackling thorns. Their utter powerlessness to do damage to the cause of God and his truth, may make the weakest soldiers in Zion's ranks laugh them to scorn.

Above all, we know that the Most High is with us, and when he dresses himself in arms, where are his enemies? If he cometh forth from his place, the potsherds of the earth will not long contend with their Maker. His rod of iron shall dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel, and their very remembrance shall perish from the earth. Away, then, all fears, the kingdom is safe in the King's hands. Let us shout for joy, for the Lord reigneth, and his foes shall be as straw for the dunghill."-- Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Morning and Evening

Our enemies are attempting impossibilities. They cannot win; God cannot lose. They are attempting to tear down the exalted, to silence the Word, to keep down the Resurrection, to block the Way, to corrupt the Holy, to impede the Inexorable, to ignore the Inescapable, to wear down the Indefatigable, and to kill the Life. They are running fool's errands like wind sprints, wearing themselves out with absurdities. They cannot win; God cannot lose: the Nephilim will never learn how to tread water long enough. Babel can never be tall enough to usurp the throne. The Philistines will never assemble an army large enough or find a large enough champion to overcome those who come in the name of the Lord. Pharaoh and Herod will never kill enough baby boys to rig the outcome.

Where are God's enemies? The footstool of Jesus expands as His number of vanquished foes marches on. All of God's enemies will be defeated. They will either be won over in repentance or overrun in resistance, but none will stand in His presence. All will bow. All will confess Him as rightful King. 

day no. 16,586: battle is your calling

“When principles that run against your deepest convictions begin to win the day, then battle is your calling, and peace has become sin; you must, at the price of dearest peace, lay your convictions bare before friend and enemy, with all the fire of your faith.” — Abraham Kuyper

Worldviews are at war whether or not you are dressed for battle. If you are not fighting for what you believe in, what someone else believes in is winning the day. When the day comes that your beloved beliefs are besieged, battle is your obligation. You cannot love something without seeking its welfare and protecting its existence. Love stands in the gap and wedges itself between the danger and its beloved. We live in such a time as this. To be a pacifist is to be a proselyte of invading principles. To stand down in this atmosphere is to settle down into the spirit of the age.

day no. 16,585: a noble death does not require a noble birth

"Noble death is a treasure which no one is too poor to buy.” — C.S. Lewis, The Last Battle (Roonwit to King Tirian)

Noble death does not require a noble birth nor a privileged entrance guarantee a privileged departure. You cannot be too humble to stand when commanded, but you can be too proud to kneel. You cannot be too penitent to be forgiven, but you can be too confident to ask. A godly legacy is so expensive that only your life can buy it, but so affordable that anyone's life will do.

"A good death is better than a bad life." — Jan Hus

day no. 16,584: hand shakes

Proverbs 11:21

Though hand join in hand,

the wicked shall not be unpunished:

but the seed of the righteous shall be delivered.

The handshakes of the wicked do not protect against the shaking of the Lord's hand. His shaking will be revelatory. It will make light work of the serious business of wickedness. The plans and plots of the diabolical will float away like dust off of a beaten rug. Like chaff separated from the substance, they will simply float away on the breeze. There is no legislation that can protect the wicked from the law of the Lord. There is no network that can navigate the rod of the risen Nazarene. There is no forum that can fend off the free will of the One called Faithful and True. You can shake the hand of the most powerful man and still be utterly powerless before the Man, Christ Jesus. You can hear the hands of applause from men of renown and yet be backhanded by the Name above every other. You can have as much cash and resources at hand as any man can and still be bankrupt before God. The seed of the righteous will survive the drought. The harvest of the faithful will endure the scorching heat and produce fruit for the Feast.

Hebrews 12:25-29

See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven: Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven. And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear: For our God is a consuming fire.

No earthly hardship can hold back the faithful.

No earthly friendship can hold off the judgment.

No heavenly work can be quenched.

No earthly endeavor can stay lit.

day no. 16,583: justification and accusation as inescapable concepts

"The sinful heart can repent, but it can also recoil. When it recoils from God’s holiness, suppressing the truth in unrighteousness, the fundamental motion that the soul is making is that of preferring to accuse God than to accuse self. If a man has repented, if he has received John’s baptism, then what he does is justify God (Luke 7:29)." — Douglas Wilson, All the Condemnation in the World

Justification and accusation are inescapable. The only question is who will be justified? and how? and who will be accused? and for what?

The man who justifies God accuses himself. He agrees with God as to his guilt and justifies the wrath of God. He finds forgiveness when he then goes on to agree with God's propitiation provided in Christ alone. 

The man who justifies himself accuses God. He disagrees with God as to his guilt and justifies his wrath with God. He doesn't seek forgiveness from God, he expects an apology from Him.

1 John 1:8-10

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

We either call God a liar or confess that we are. We either call God a murderer or confess that we are. We either call God a blasphemer or confess that we are. When His Word is in us, we confess our sins in order to justify Him. When His Word is far from us, we accuse Him in order to justify our sins.

day no. 16,582: pure country

"Patriotism has then, many faces. Those who would reject it entirely do not seem to have considered what will certainly step—has already begun to step—into its place. For a long time yet, or perhaps forever, nations will live in danger. Rulers must somehow nerve their subjects to defend them or at least to prepare for their defence. Where the sentiment of patriotism has been destroyed this can be done only by presenting every international conflict in a purely ethical light. If people will spend neither sweat nor blood for ‘their country’ they must be made to feel that they are spending them for justice, or civilisation, or humanity. This is a step down, not up. Patriotic sentiment did not of course need to disregard ethics. Good men needed to be convinced that their country’s cause was just; but it was still their country’s cause, not the cause of justice as such. The difference seems to me important. I may without self-righteousness or hypocrisy think it just to defend my house by force against a burglar; but if I start pretending that I blacked his eye purely on moral grounds—wholly indifferent to the fact that the house in question was mine—I become insufferable. The pretence that when England’s cause is just we are on England’s side—as some neutral Don Quixote might be—for that reason alone, is equally spurious. And nonsense draws evil after it. If our country’s cause is the cause of God, wars must be wars of annihilation. A false transcendence is given to things which are very much of this world.” — C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves

We honor or fathers by honoring our fatherland. We do not honor our fathers by pretending they were perfect, but by refusing to publish every flaw we have observed. We do not need to make our fathers into something they weren't in order to honor them in their office, but we also don't need everyone else to know exactly what they were at their worst. Our fatherlands are not perfect. They do not merit our respect based on their resume per se, but based on their home base. We belong, in some form or fashion, to the soil from which we sprung. We may take issue with our homeland and in fact, in some circumstances we must, but not because we hate it, but because we don't.

“No one doubts that an ordinary man can get on with this world: but we demand not strength enough to get on with it, but strength enough to get it on. Can he hate it enough to change it, and yet love it enough to think it worth changing? Can he look up at its colossal good without once feeling acquiescence? Can he look up at its colossal evil without once feeling despair? Can he, in short, be at once not only a pessimist and an optimist, but a fanatical pessimist and a fanatical optimist? Is he enough of a pagan to die for the world, and enough of a Christian to die to it? In this combination, I maintain, it is the rational optimist who fails, the irrational optimist who succeeds. He is ready to smash the whole universe for the sake of itself.” ― G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy

The true patriot, like the true solider, fights not for the hate in front of him, but for the love behind him. He may even fight against his own country, but not because he hates it, but because he dearly loves it. The good Pharisee agrees with God and wishes better for it than what it was reduced to. The good Samaritan agrees with God and wishes his actions weren't so shocking. 

"'My country, right or wrong,' is a thing that no patriot would think of saying except in a desperate case. It is like saying, 'My mother, drunk or sober.'” ― G.K. Chesterton, The Defendant

Citizens of heaven have a higher allegiance than boundary and time assigns, but not a lesser one. They do not disciple the nations by insisting on the dissolution of nations. They do not preach detachment to those with addresses. We love our country, right or wrong, as we love our spouses, right or wrong, but we do not pretend like the rightness or wrongness doesn't matter, for that would be to hate our country or our spouse. Discipline and instruction accompany objects of affection, not abomination.

Hebrews 11:16

But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city.

The patriot loves his country by desiring a better country. He loves its warts by investing in wart remover. He loves its crooked smile by paying for and putting up with its braces. The citizen of heaven is the kingdom of God with a home address. He pays the utility bill in the place where he follows Eden's blueprints. God has prepared a country for people who care about their current one and expect others to do the same with theirs. We honor our fathers by encouraging others to honor theirs. We do not honor our father for the sake of dishonoring others, but encourage everyone to love the land of their birth by honoring their Father who art in Heaven.

day no. 16,581: the roar of God shall rouse the realm

Hosea 11:10

They shall walk after the Lord: he shall roar like a lion: when he shall roar, then the children shall tremble from the west.

The Lion of the tribe of Judah will call out to His elect and they will come from wherever they are. They will come before their God and King. His heralds will not fail to make His Name and fame known throughout the entire world. He shall roar and they will rally. He will terrify the world and His own will come trembling before Him. All will bow, but some will rise. All will confess, but some will with gladness. We shall walk in step with our Lord and Savior by following His lead. His roar will rouse the realm and all the dead shall rise, some to everlasting life and others to everlasting destruction (Dan. 12:2). His entire Kingdom will hear His call and all will appear before Him. All will respond in one way... or the other.

day no. 16,580: eating the fruit of our lies

Hosea 10:12-13

Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the Lord, till he come and rain righteousness upon you. Ye have plowed wickedness, ye have reaped iniquity; ye have eaten the fruit of lies: because thou didst trust in thy way, in the multitude of thy mighty men.

When we rely entirely on our experts, we should expect to be fed lies. Faith in fallen men produces poisonous fruit. The forbidden fruit of the garden of Eden was not deadly in itself, but in its prohibition. The sin of partaking in it produced the poison, not the flesh of the fruit. But that sin sowed the seeds of poisonous plants to grow. Believing in a lie led to eating that fruit, but the fruit of that sin was seeds sown in deceit. So much so, that trusting in the strength of men to fix the weakness of men is now one our greatest weaknesses.

So, we must repent. We must cast off the idea of drawing ourselves up out of the well we are drowning in. We must break up the fallow ground and seek the Lord. Unless He rain righteousness upon us, there will be no fruit of righteousness. Unless He come, we will not go to Him. If He does not descend, we will never arrive.

day no. 16,579: your standard is your god

Matthew 7:2

For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.

It is always necessary to ask, "By what standard?" because your standard is your God. Whatever you measure yourself by is your Gospel. However you determine progress from regress is your goal. It provides your categories of falling short and the abundant life. Whatever court you appeal to for justification and apply toward accusing others is your religion. Everyone has a standard. If they insist on having no standards, that is their standard and they demonstrate their allegiance to it in their persecution of all standards that come against it. But no one can stand under their own standard. No one can raise a banner for their beliefs and faithfully walk underneath. No one can keep their own convictions. We are inconsistent and condemned by our own mouths.

Romans 2:1

Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest: for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things.

day no. 16,578: feasting in faith and fervency

Ecclesiastes 9:7

Go thy way, eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine with a merry heart; for God now accepteth thy works

Feast in faith for our fervency is not in vain. Our labors in the Lord are sowing sure reward. By grace through faith in Christ, our efforts are acknowledged by God for His glory, our good, and the good of our neighbor.

Ecclesiastes 9:10

Whatever you find to do with your hands, do it with all your might.

The will of God guides the faithful hand. He directs it to the plow, sustains it in the plowing, and provides by it in the reaping. The faithful hand has discretion. It doesn't find some activities because it finds them unappealing. The love of the Lord guides the grit to better works and provides a distaste for lesser things. That is why it can throw its back into whatever it does without worry. You cannot overdo that which is done by grace upon grace.

Colossians 3:23-24

And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men; Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ.

We do not work hard in order to be accepted; we work hard because we are. We are not trying to win entry into His presence, but getting to glory in it. Ours is enthusiasm, not skepticism. We are not elbowing others out, but ushering many in.

day no. 16,577: like people, like priest

Hosea 4:9-10

And there shall be, like people, like priest: and I will punish them for their ways, and reward them their doings. For they shall eat, and not have enough: they shall commit whoredom, and shall not increase: because they have left off to take heed to the Lord.

As goes the shepherd, so goes the flock. Culture reflects its cultus. Worldviews are our worship. 

"The pulpit leads the world.” — Herman Melville

We all walk by faith, only for some, their sight is their faith and their pulpit is their private opinion. But someone's preaching is present everywhere. There is no escape from exegesis. Everywhere we look, the world is reading and remonstrating against something.

Convictions drive our considerations and we do what we believe. We are pragmatists at heart. He act in keeping with our priorities. Our theology is manifested in the things we do. Our worship leaks into everything we own. Our private worlds are all watered by our worship which then floods the public sphere. Everything is soaked in worship. The flood of faith has never receded like Noah's. It covers the world and one day, Christ the King will be the only wet the world will know.

Habakkuk 2:14

For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.

Those who have not heeded to the Lord will be barren in their bedrooms and starve to death in their hording. For all their sex, they are childless and for all their gorging, they are still hungry. They never get any of the one or enough of the other. Their perversions cannot produce life and their decadence cannot create livelihood. Those who worship their bellies go hungry and those who worship their orgasms go without descendants. The one endures a famine of satisfaction and the other drowns in a flood of futility.

day no. 16,576: Christ does not curtsy

Hosea 2:18

And in that day will I make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field and with the fowls of heaven, and with the creeping things of the ground: and I will break the bow and the sword and the battle out of the earth, and will make them to lie down safely.

The battle will by the grace of God someday be over... but not a day before. Until then, we battle. We do not make peace with evil, we resist it. We assail its strongholds and avail ourselves of every opportunity to take captives. We demolish the demonic as long as it stands. We do not cower or bow before lesser gods. Christ does not curtsy. He does not flatter the foul. He gets to the point and the tip of His tongue is the tip of the sword. 

We will lie down in safety if we have stood up in sanctity. We look forward to laying our weapons down by brandishing them in the meantime. We do not forsake the trial for the treaty. We cannot come to terms with Cain. We fight until we die so that in dying we might live to fight no more. 

So keep your sword sharp and clean and continue to hack at the harvest until the season is passed.

day no. 16,575: plants seeds. tend plants. repeat.

"Sex is the engine of dominion." — Michael Foster, It's Good To Be A Man

God made man to rule and subdue, to conquer and to cultivate. Man was commanded to plant seeds and to tend to plants. He was given the pattern in Eden and the rest of the planet on which to practice. This blueprint is embedded into the essence of masculinity. Thus, the man plants his seed in the garden of the woman. The seed is nourished and grown in her soil and then springs to life outside of her. He tends to the plant. He deters pests and threats. He provides a place where water and sunlight are readily available. He propagates his plants and bids them be more fruitful. He sees his plants produce more plants. He watches the covenant thrive in his son's sons. This is the rally cry and marching orders of the man of God.

Psalm 22:27-31

All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the LORD: and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee. For the kingdom is the LORD'S: and he is the governor among the nations. All they that be fat upon earth shall eat and worship: all they that go down to the dust shall bow before him: and none can keep alive his own soul. A seed shall serve him; it shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation. They shall come, and shall declare his righteousness unto a people that shall be born, that he hath done this.

Jesus fell like a grain of wheat to the ground and was buried. He burst forth to new life and has generously sown His seed among nations and generations who are given the high privilege of walking in His ways: plant seeds. tend plants. repeat; you, your son, and your son's son — world without end, amen.

Hebrews 2:11-15

For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren, Saying, I will declare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee. And again, I will put my trust in him. And again, Behold I and the children which God hath given me. Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.

Plant seeds.

Tend plants.

Destroy death.

Take dominion.

day no. 16,574: battle formations

“A man is not only to wield the plow but also to bear the sword.” — Richard Phillips

Build.

Fight.

Nehemiah 4:17-18

They which builded on the wall, and they that bare burdens, with those that laded, every one with one of his hands wrought in the work, and with the other hand held a weapon. For the builders, every one had his sword girded by his side, and so builded. And he that sounded the trumpet was by me.

Trowel.

Sword.

A man must wield the plow and the sword. He must bear his responsibilities and his arms. He must carry his own load and his own weapon. He must lay down bricks and the law. 

Battle formations must be assumed: battling to form and taking form to battle. We battle by building. We build by battling. We form by fighting and fight for what we are forming.

A man must work for what he wants and defend that for which he has worked. He must build what is worth fighting for and fight for what is worth building. If the work has value, it will be opposed. The doctrine of the antithesis insists upon it (Gen. 3:15). Enmity ensures resistance to the good works prepared beforehand by the Father. He gave us work to do and the weapons to defend it; the tools to build it and the weapons to protect it. 

So plow and punch, plant and pummel, build and battle, found and fight, construct and kibosh.

Take dominion.

Rule and subdue.

Fill the earth.

Fight the good fight.

day no. 16,573: dare much, do much

“Because of their dependence upon Christ's love they dared much, and because of their love to Christ they did much, and it is the same now. The children of God are ruled in their inmost powers by love--the love of Christ constraineth them; they rejoice that divine love is set upon them, they feel it shed abroad in their hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto them, and then by force of gratitude they love the Saviour with a pure heart, fervently.” — Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Morning and Evening

Gratitude fuels grititude.

Faith produces fervency.

Humility hungers and thirsts.

Meekness moves.

Patience perseveres.

Joy jumps.

Love labors.

Those who depend on Christ dare much and do much. The kingdom within compels them to conquest without. The new birth builds the new earth. The regenerate take responsibility. The redeemed rally.

The holy huddle up in order to break out for the battle.

day no. 16,572: shut in and shut out

Genesis 7:16

The Lord shut him in.

Noah was shut safely inside from the shenanigans outside. In Christ within, he was shielded from the chaos without. When God shuts us in, He shuts out the danger. In one motion, He closes the door on the danger and secures the saints. He interrupts the reign of the riot and inaugurates the realm of rest. 

“Outside the ark was all ruin, but inside all was rest.” — Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Morning and Evening 

God gave the ark to Noah. He provided the plans and the time to prepare. He declared His will and provided the wood. Noah had to throw his back into it, but he didn't have to make the trees. He had to swing the hammer, but he didn't have to keep his heart beating. He had to labor, but He didn't have to look for the blueprints. God delivers what He demands. Safety and security were given by grace to Noah in the warning, the work, and the welcome.

Noah built the ark that God provided and once inside, God shut him in.

Matthew 25:10

The bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage: and the door was shut.

The same door that safely shut in the wise virgins surely shut out the foolish ones. The same opportunity that energized the wise virgins' work guaranteed the foolish virgins' eviction. When God closes a door, He protects and punishes in one fell swoop. As C.S. Lewis observed, "A heaven for mosquitoes and a hell for humans can be accommodated by one place." 

day no. 16,571: finneas is twelve

Finneas Haddon Foxe, you are TWELVE years old today!

I am so proud of you.

I like being your dad. You make every day fun. You are full of enthusiasm for life and love bringing a smile to others. You have perfect comedic timing and a brilliant knack for finding the right words at the right moments. You make the adventure a joy.

You are a good brother. You love your siblings and take care of your little sisters and look up to your older brother. You look out for your little brother and do your best to give your older sister a run for her money. You both keep each other on your toes. You are learning how to live with others and have plenty of people around you to practice on. There are little girls to console and big brothers to battle. It's a good life and I'm glad you're part of it.

You have a great smile and wear it often; and just as often you are putting smiles on other people's faces. You like to tell jokes and thing of funny things to say. Your mom often mentions how sharp and how quick you are. You get it. You see the joke before anyone else and you say it before most have noticed. You are on top of things.

You are a winner. You find a way. Your will be done more... often than not. That is a great power and an even greater responsibility. When you have an eleven, you can outlast most. You are at the helm of most situations. We walk in the garden of your turbulence!! ... YEAH!!! All that to say, you were made to dominate. You are a conqueror. God made you to rule and by His grace, you will rule well and the world will be blessed because you beat them.

You like being goofy. You're not afraid to be funny. You're not afraid of much of anything... except for that weird few months at our last home where you were really concerned about flooding. Other than that... fearless.

You often set out the plates for pizza party night on Fridays while I'm out getting the food. You also help Lolo with the chickens by providing cover fire for her to feel safe when it's dark out. 

You run towards the roar when it comes to bugs. You aren't grossed out by them as much as you are interested in them.

You love listening to music on Sunday afternoons after church. You like to throw on your headphones and jam the day away. You have favorite bands and favorite songs. You like singing and have a really good voice. More often than not, you are goofing around, but even still, anyone can tell you have a good voice. You love to drum and often turn the dinner table into a percussion solo. You often take the place of drummer in whatever air band is being assembled.

You have lots of friends at church and don't find any difficulty making new ones whenever you feel like it. 

You are a good kid and I like being your dad. While I am sad to see 11 year old Finneas meet his Maker, I am excited to see all things that 12 year old Finn will do.

So, here;s to you, my son. Happy Birthday and to many, many more!

Love, 

Dad

day no. 16,570: win the well-fought day

Soldiers of Christ, arise,

and put your armor on,

strong in the strength which God supplies

thro' his eternal Son.

Strong in the Lord of hosts,

and in his mighty pow'r,

who in the strength of Jesus trusts

is more than conqueror.

Stand then in his great might,

with all his strength endued;

but take, to arm you for the fight,

the panoply of God.

Leave no unguarded place,

no weakness of the soul;

take ev'ry virtue, ev'ry grace,

and fortify the whole.

To keep your armor bright,

attend with constant care;

still walking in your Captain's sight,

and watching unto prayer.

From strength to strength go on;

wrestle and fight and pray;

tread all the pow'rs of darkness down,

and win the well-fought day.

— Charles Wesley,

Soldiers of Christ, Arise

In Christ, we are more than conquerors, not less.

When you choose to fight, you must also choose to win. If something is worth going to war over, it must be worth your best effort. God has called us to crush serpents in the train of His Son.

Romans 16:20

And the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen.

Peace is at war with enmity.

Christ is at war with chaos.

God injected enmity into the world in order to resist and overcome evil (Gen. 3:15). The grace of God led Adam and Eve to oppose the serpent who had already been opposing them. The goodness of God compelled men to resist the evil they previously reached for. The God of peace will prevail everywhere. Peace will impose itself upon restlessness and the wicked will either submit to the ease of His yoke or be broken underneath His feet.

The demonic strongholds really are entrenched, but their gates, we are told, cannot prevail against the onslaught of Christ's Kingdom. Jesus is busting down doors and we are called, like Samson, to storm the gates and carry them off. Evil has no safe space. It is under siege and overwhelmed, going down, and dying. The darkness will be snuffed out.

day no. 16,569: we do not need more men without mentors

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.

Every person is not your person, but God does assign certain persons to us. In His providence, He gives us a father and a mother to honor. By His grace, He often provides a wife to love, lead, serve, provide, and protect or a husband to respect, follow, serve, and help. By even more grace, and a natural, normal outcome of the previous grace, He often provides children to love, discipline, instruct, and nourish in the Lord.

If you have any or all of these, they are your people. No question about it. Your father and mother, your spouse, your children, your elders, your employer, your employees, etc... These are your people. God has given your neighbor to you as a gift and has defined who those neighbors are by determining the time and boundary of your and their particular habitation. (Acts 17:26)

We must disciple our own children before we look to disciple others. Everyone is someone's son or daughter and you should not spend your time disciplining someone else's son or daughter before you have discipled your own. You merely create more young men without mentors when you ignore your own sons in order to disciple someone else’s. There is a way to do both, but that means that the other guy’s son gets the leftovers, not your own.

When God commanded us to make disciples (Matt. 28:18-20), He did not mean for us to make more children for someone else to disciple. He meant that we were to spread the Good News to the nations, who are full of sons and daughters who had never heard the Word of God and the Good News of Christ crucified, buried, resurrected, and ascended to reign. We should do our best to reach those who have not had fathers or mothers to teach them, but we should not create spiritual orphans in our own homes in order to father spiritual sons somewhere else.

Do not create more men without mentors in your zeal to mentor other men without mentors. If you abandon your son for the sake of someone else's, you merely make your son the project of another man with children of his own. Rather than discipling everyone else's children, let us begin with our own and free up resources for those who truly have no one else. Your children have you. Do not withhold what God has provided to them.

We do not need more men without mentors; we need more men who mentor the sons they've been given.

day no. 16,568: build where He has bestowed

2 Chronicles 14:7

Therefore he said unto Judah, Let us build these cities, and make about them walls, and towers, gates, and bars, while the land is yet before us; because we have sought the LORD our God, we have sought him, and he hath given us rest on every side. So they built and prospered.

Where God provides rest, we get to work. When He graciously gives us a place, we get after establishing it. Out of His generosity, He provides opportunity. So, let us build where He has bestowed and secure what He has sown. Let us construct where He has consigned and propagate what He has planted. Let us take dominion where He has directed us and prosper what He has provided. Let us turn a profit on the prophets and husband the heritage of the Lord to greater faithfulness and fruitfulness.

James 1:21b-22

Receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.

He implants; we grow... so, let's go!

day no. 16,567: the rule of resurrection

Romans 6:5-6

For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection: Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.

The world is ruled by resurrection. It is embedded into the soil beneath our feet. The seed that dies survives and the fruit we can see came from seeds can no longer. We plant, we harvest, we eat. We plant, animals eat, we eat the animals. Resurrection rules the world right now. The power of death and resurrection is the power of every plant. It is the energy that keeps everything alive. It is woven into the fabric of every endeavor. It lays the foundation of everything.

In the end, when resurrection ends all other things, it will not be a plot twist. It will be the natural climax and denouement of the entire arc. Everything is foreshadowing the final resurrection in which the entire world will be reborn through dying, but never to die again. Life is sustained by resurrection and it will be secured by resurrection. The resurrection at the end will be the resurrection of all the lesser resurrections. The final rebirth of all the rebirtthings. It will throw death itself into the lake of fire and nourish a tree of life that will never wither or die.

The ground is watered by the reign of resurrection. The world as we know it is quickened by its quickening as will be the world to come; the one without end and forever with amen.

day no. 16,566: retreat as an offense

Acts 14:5-7

And when there was an assault made both of the Gentiles, and also of the Jews with their rulers, to use them despitefully, and to stone them, they were ware of it, and fled unto Lystra and Derbe, cities of Lycaonia, and unto the region that lieth round about: and there they preached the gospel.

Retreat is permissible as a strategy, but not as a reaction to someone else's. You cannot retreat in obedience to your enemy's designs, but you can pull back in obedience to your own. Chesty Puller refused to call falling back a "retreat," preferring rather to call it an “attack in a different direction." All that to say, there are such things as strategic withdrawals.

In this instance from the books of Acts, the show was taken on the road. Note that they did not retreat in order to stop preaching. The strategy was to spread the Gospel. They did not look for somewhere safe or somewhere already evangelized. They redirected the main effort to another theater. 

It's not that it would have been wrong to seek security in Christian community, it's that their particular mission was to spread the Word, which required them to huddle up with Christian communities in order to say, "Break!" You cannot live in the huddle if you want to play the game. Since their mission was to put points on the board for Christendom, they ran to where the tacklers weren't. Not because they were too scared of being tackled to play the game, but because they were playing the game, which is trying to advance the ball without being tackled. In other words, they were not trying to avoid death, but they were trying to keep the play alive.

2 Corinthians 10:3-5

For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.

The weapons of the world cannot affect the outcome. They cannot keep points off the board. Christ is scoring on them over and over. They can tackle, they can rack up penalties, they can pay off referees to have the calls go in their direction, but they cannot keep Christ's offense off the field; and He is running up the score. Don't worry about the plays the adversary is running. They can huddle up and scheme all they like, but the defense of the devil will not prevail against the offense of the Lord.

The remainder of human history is merely a victory lap. The outcome is not at stake. The victory parade may feature a few floats with flat tires, but that doesn't make it a funeral procession. The only hearse hoists an empty coffin as a reminder of the victory won. There is no reason to fear the enemy's attempts to jeer. They cannot be heard over the cheers.