day no. 16,626: parenting for the perfecting of their saints

"Remember the word that the conqueror Caesar always used to his soldiers in a battle. He did not say 'Go forward,' but 'Come.' So it must be with you in training your children." — J.C. Ryle, The Duties of Parents

Parents must urge their children to join them in fighting the good fight. Children must do what mom and dad command and forsake what they forbid. Parents cannot in good conscience send their children into battles they are unwilling to fight. They must not, like David, send out the soldiers while they recline on the rooftop. Disaster soon pursues that course of inaction. Lack of ambition is aggressively courting destruction.

1 Corinthians 11:1

Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ.

Like Paul, parents must implore from out front, not send from somewhere else. Parents must already be going where they command their kids to go. Mom and dad must sometimes show the back of their heads to their children. They must often fix their eyes on the prize and lead the way. They must stop and tie shoelaces and wipe noses too, of course, but always from the superior position. We can tie their laces because we're not tripping over ours. We can wipe their behinds because we've got our crap together.

Philippians 4:9

Those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you.

Mom and dad must be at peace with God by grace through faith in Christ and obedience to Him alone and urge their children to copy them in their conviction and conduct so that they might be the same. A child should know Christ more for knowing his parents and if your son parrots your ways, it ought to produce an increasing likeness to Christ.

Ephesians 4:11-13

And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.

And He also gave parents for the perfecting of their saints (1 Cor. 7:4).

day no. 16,625: Penelope is 14!!!

Happy 14th Birthday, Penelope!!!

It is crazy to consider that you've been a teenager for a full year. It's not hard to believe when I consider all that you are capable of and your maturity, but it is crazy when I think about little Sissypants singing her little songs. It seems like only yesterday that you were a mermaid swimming to the deepest parts and breaking people's hearts. It's funny, 'cause now that you are older, you have no interest in swimming in the deep end, but hearts are soon to begin breaking when they realize they aren't up to snuff.

Where to begin with describing you? You are a tornado in shoes. You do a little of this and a lot of everything else. What don't you have going on?

It makes sense to begin with your stories, of course. You love to write and as you grow up, your stories are growing as well. You are learning how to describe a scene, develop dialogue, create a character arc, introduce tension, and how to resolve it. The Third Claw has been fun to read. Your writing ability is really taking off and that story in particular represents a significant shift in ability. I am excited to see how much more you have in the tank and where it's all headed.

Second only to stories is your songwriting and piano playing. You have really taken it upon yourself to develop your music reading skills as well as you song writing, singing, and playing. It is fun to hear you training your fingers on the piano as I work above you during the day. I can hear the familiar tunes through the wall and am impressed with your ability to teach yourself.

You are no longer a big girl, but a young lady. You clean the house for your mom, watch the little kids, do baths for the little girls, and bake things. You take on yourself a lot of grown up responsibilities. You do this so often that it is easy to overlook, but it is really quite impressive. You can do whatever you decide to do and we're all grateful that many times, it is something that your mother or I would have to have done. So, all that to say, THANK YOU!

It is so much fun hearing you tuck in Oey for nap. Since her bedroom is near the one from which I work each day, I can hear you and her reading little books and chatting before nap. It is adorable. She loves you and looks up to you. I hope she grows up to be like you.

You are always doing shows for your little sisters and creating characters to inhabit all of the worlds you have imagined. You have kept your childlike wonder while growing into a young lady. Your Chestertonian instincts are on point. You know how to live in the world without being of it and how to imagine other worlds without getting completely caught up into them.

When you are into something, you are really into it. You have the ability to completely engage in whatever imaginative experience you are interacting with. When you play piano, you are immune to everything else. When you are in Manga-Anime-Chibi, you are oblivious to anywhere else. You enjoy story grip and are growing in your ability to produce that same hold on others through your piano playing, song singing and writing, poetry, and story telling.

 

You are a voracious reader. The question is what haven't you read?

You have recently taken to creating meme ideas for me. It all began with your Spartan "Come and Take Them" idea a few months back and ever since it's become a thing. It's fun creating and publishing them so that you can see them come to life on the big screen during watch time in the evening.

You are still best buds with Lydia. What a grace of God in providing you with such a bosom friend. You are like Anne and Diana or Heidi and Clara. You go together like peas and carrots. It is fun watching you love your friends and be loved by them.

I am so proud of you, Penelope. You are a beautiful, smart, funny young lady and I watch you watching your mom and taking your ques from her. You love your sisters and your brothers and love your God. You have a good reputation before God and man and you are growing in wisdom, stature, and favor with both daily.

I cannot wait to see what 14 has in store for you. You are a blessing to us all. We love you.

Happy Birthday, Nen.

Love, 

Dad

day no. 16,624: lust conceived ought to be killed

"And do not be afraid, above all, that such a plan of training will make your child unhappy. I warn you against this delusion. Depend on it, there is no surer road to unhappiness than always having our own way. To have our wills checked and denied is a blessed thing for us; it makes us value enjoyments when they come. To be indulged perpetually is the way to be made selfish; and selfish people and spoiled children, believe me, are seldom happy. Reader, do not be wiser than God; — train your children as He trains His." — J.C. Ryle, The Duties of Parents

Spoiled children are like spoiled milk; they stink. Getting your way without exception is a great way to go bad.

"If you do not take trouble with your children when they are young, they will give you trouble when they are old. Choose which you prefer." — J.C. Ryle, The Duties of Parents

There will be trouble. Either give it to them artificially when they are young or receive experientially from them when they are older. Either introduce trouble for sin with correction or invite trouble from sin in its maturation.

James 1:15

Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.

Sin is the only thing a Christian should ever abort. Lust conceived should be killed. If it is not kiboshed in kids, it will grow up into a killer.

"Learn to say 'No' to your children. Show those who you are able to refuse whatever you think is not fit for them. Show those who you are ready to punish disobedience, and that when you speak of punishment, you are not only ready to threaten, but also to perform. Do not threaten too much. Threatened folks, and threatened faults, live long. Punish seldom, but really and in good earnest,—frequent and slight punishment is a wretched system indeed." — J.C. Ryle, The Duties of Parents

If they have to ask, the answer can be, "No." If the answer cannot be, "No!" it is not a request, it is a command. And parents do not answer to their children. They will, however, answer for them. The child who has not heard "No" enough will be a nightmare and his haunted parents will have to give an account for him.

day no. 16,623: where excuses fail, Christ does not

"Try to keep this continually before your children's minds. Press upon them at all times, that less than the truth is a lie; that evasion, excuse-making, and exaggeration are all halfway houses towards what is false, and ought to be avoided. Encourage them in any circumstances to be straightforward, and, whatever it may cost them, to speak the truth." — J.C. Ryle, The Duties of Parents

The truth will set you free. Evasive language is an attempt to free yourself from the consequences of truth. But the only thing that can save you from the truth is the Truth. The only way to the Father is the Way. The only life to be had is in the Life of God. Excuses do not atone for sin. (John 14:6).

Sin is inexcusable, but by the grace of God is not unforgivable. If an excuse will suffice, forgiveness is not needed. But where excuses fail, Christ does not. Exaggerations cannot increase your merit. An embellishment only increases the distance between you and righteousness. You cannot exaggerate your way across the chasm of sin. Only Christ can cross the cavern and provide a bridge between sinful man and an holy God. 

The problem with lies is not that they try to cover up sin, but that they cannot adequately cover it. In other words, it isn't that lies cover sin, it's that they don't. Sin must be covered, but lies cannot do the trick. An ol' fashioned cover-up cannot keep sin under wraps. Only Christ can cover sin. Your sins do need covering. The impulse to hide them is correct, but the instinct to hide them somewhere else is not. It not only fails to cover sin, it creates another sin in need of forgiveness.

By the grace of God, all sins can be forgiven, including the sin of covering your sins somewhere other than Jesus. Confess it as sin and it will be forgiven in Him. You can only hide in Him. Nowhere else are your sins hidden. In Him, God sees only Christ and your sins are completely covered by His blood. So stop trying to hide your sins from God and man and start hiding yourself in God so that you are free to speak of your sins openly, uncondemned before God and man.

day no. 16,622: obedience is faith incarnate

"Obedience is faith incarnate. It is the test of real discipleship among the Lord's people. 'You are My friends if you do whatever I command you' (John xv. 14). It ought to be the mark of well-trained children, that they do whatever their parents command them. Where, in deed, is the honor which the fifth commandment enjoins, if fathers and mothers are not obeyed cheerfully, willingly, and at once?" — J.C. Ryle, The Duties of Parents

Obedience is faith incarnate. We do what we believe. Children ought to obey their parents. Parents ought to be believable. Husband and wife must be united in faith and faithfulness so that their children are not forced to say, "Which one?" when commanded to honor their father and mother. Obedience is hard enough without making it impossible. If mom and dad demand different things, children are left incapable of obeying God's command,

We are saved by grace through faith in Christ alone, not by works, lest we should boast and true faith is manifest in increasing faithfulness to Christ's commands. Paul's manifesto on faith alone is book-ended by this desire:

Romans 1:5

We have received grace and apostleship, for obedience to the faith among all nations, for his name.

Romans 16:25-26

Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began, but now is made manifest, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith.

The faith once for all delivered to the saints is to be obeyed. The Bible makes no bones about it. We are to teach our children to obey us because our Father commands this of us, respectively. We are commanded to teach them. We are commanded to teach them to teach their children the same. They are commanded to obey us and will one day be expected to obey God in asking their children to obey them.

"Early obedience has all Scripture on its side. It is in Abraham's praise, not merely he will train his family, but 'he will command his children, and his household after him' (Gen. xviii. 19)." — J.C. Ryle, The Duties of Parents

Abraham trained the men of household for war (Gen. 14:14) and commanded his children to be the kind of men who would someday do the same. Abraham is our father in the faith and we ought to listen to him. God commanded him to command his children to obey him. This was not merely him training them to obey him, but training them to obey his God.

day no. 16,621: give 'em Watts, boys!

Lord, crush the serpent in the dust,

And all his plots destroy;

While those that in thy mercy trust,

For ever shout for joy.

The men that love and fear thy name

Shall see their hopes fulfilled;

The mighty God will compass them

With favor as a shield.

— Isaac Watts, Psalm 5: Lord, in the Morning Thou Shalt Hear

Christians are a race of giant-slaying dragon-stampers. Our Chief and Lord only bruised His heel in order to smash the Heel of all history. If we are to follow the footsteps of Christ, we ought to look for the blood. If we are to walk in His ways, we must prepare our feet for battle. Strongholds must come down. Thoughts must be taken captive. We walk behind the serpent-smasher who has shown us the way.

Isaac Watts made munitions out of music. He waged war with his words. His hymns call the flock to the fight. In fact, the story goes that his songs went so far as aid the colonial shooters in the American War for Independence. James Caldwell needed more wadding for the Americans during the battle, but the only paper he could find to cram around their musket balls was in hymnals loaded with the songs of Isaac Watts. When he arrived back on the field of battle, hymnals in hands, he reportedly yelled, “Give ‘em Watts, boys!”

day no.16.620: education is...

"Grace is the strongest of all principles... Nature, too, is very strong. But after nature and grace, undoubtedly, there is nothing more powerful than education. Early habits (if I may so speak) are everything with us, under God. We are made what we are by training. Our character takes the form of that mold into which our first years are cast." — J.C. Ryle, The Duties of Parents

Few forces are more formative than the family into which you were born. The culture of that clan imposes itself upon its citizens. Education is an eschatology. It presupposes a place and takes the initiative to lead there. Training assumes a destination and works the clay into a particular shape.

Ryle goes on to quote Cecil, "He has seen but little of life who does not discern everywhere the effect of education on men's opinions and habits of thinking. The children bring out of the nursery that which displays itself throughout their lives."

We are what we read. All opinions are borrowed. All habits are hereditary. Education is an act of war. It sets the mind up for some things by setting it against other. It is enmity enfleshed. It identifies the targets and the tactics.

"We depend, in a vast measure, on those who bring us up. We get from them a color, a taste, a bias which cling to us more or less all our lives. We catch the language of our nurses and mothers, and learn to speak it almost insensibly, and unquestionably we catch something of their manners, ways, and mind at the same time." — J.C. Ryle, The Duties of Parents

We grow up breathing in the atmosphere of our homes before we know what to call it. In other words, we breath in oxygen before we learn the word "oxygen." We are caught up in a culture before we are taught the particulars of that culture. We learn to love the taste before we understand the ingredients. We ask our mothers for the recipe. She eagerly shows us the index card.

"A very learned Englishman, Mr. Locke, has gone so far as to say: 'That of all the men we meet with, nine parts out of ten are what they are, good or bad, useful or not, according to their education.'" — J.C. Ryle, The Duties of Parents

Education is people farming. It is intellectual husbandry. It feeds the imagination and the mind. It aims to marry ideas and to propagate the best ones. It is fruitful and it multiplies. This is why a Christian education commanded by Christ and essential for every Christian child (Eph. 6:4). Children will be nourished and admonished to some end. If not for Christ, then to something less. Christians cannot forfeit the God-given window of influence they have been given. Along with the gift of the child, God gives the responsibility to raise that child. It comes in the package like scoop that comes inside the laundry detergent. Each box comes with its own scoop just as each child with his or her own obligation.

"And all this is one of God's merciful arrangements. He gives your children a mind that will receive impressions like moist clay. He gives them a disposition at the starting-point of life to believe what you tell them, and to take for granted what you advise them, and to trust your word rather than a stranger's. He gives you, in short, a golden opportunity of doing them good. See that the opportunity do not be neglected, and thrown away. Once let slip, it is gone forever. Beware of that miserable delusion into which some have fallen — that parents can do nothing for their children, that you must leave them alone, wait for grace, and sit still... the devil rejoices to see such reasoning, just as he always does over anything which seems to excuse indolence, or to encourage neglect of means." — J.C. Ryle, The Duties of Parents

Salvation is by grace through faith in Christ alone, but the the Word of Christ comes to us by the obedience of someone else. Someone's blessed feet share the Good News. Someone else is sent to declare to us the glories of God and the goodness of His mercy. For children, these people are their parents. Of course, a parent cannot save their child per se, but they are most assuredly the means by which God intends to save their children. Do not miss the window God has given to you by insisting that grace requires your negligence. Do not throw up your hands and say, "But what can I do?" rather, throw your hands in to the work of making disciples of your children by teaching them all that Jesus has commanded of them by first doing what He has commanded of you, their parent, in teaching them.

day no. 16,619: one fate for all men

Ecclesiastes 9:3

There is one fate for all men.

All fates do not befall every man, but one particular fate does.

Hebrews 9:27

It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:

Every one dies but once. Some try to reschedule, but none avoid the appointment.

Romans 3:23

For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.

The soul that sins shall die. Since all have sinned all will die.

Romans 6:23

For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

God will faithfully sign and send every paycheck. He will not withhold anyone's wages. Death is the dues of every life lived. But God has provided a gift for those discontent with their wages. He has made a way for the poor in spirit to avoid getting paid. He has cashed the check of sin on the cross and has left a will leaving His righteous life to those who confess their own as unrighteous.

There is one fate for all men. Every flower and forest will fall, but those who previously died to themselves are seed that will spring up again and pull off the ultimate fate and switch.

day no. 16,618: heat vents

Ecclesiastes 7:9

Be not hasty in thy spirit to be angry: for anger resteth in the bosom of fools.

Be angry, but not hasty.

Anyone can lose their temper.

Hot nostrils are not the unique possession of the righteous.

Ephesians 4:26

Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath.

Be angry, but be careful.

Be angry, but stay in control.

Do not let your wrath get on top of you. Do not take orders from your temper. If you cannot direct your heat, you should not vent it. 

Do not spend your fury on fifth rate annoyances, save it for sins against the Lord God and see to it that you hop to it before the day is done.

day no. 16,617: give the state the faints; say, "no, thanks!"

1 Timothy 2:1-2

I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.

We ought to pray for the State. It cannot resist the urge to overreach without intercession. When we pray for our authorities, we ought to pray for them to exercise authority only where called upon by God to do so; that is, punishing evil doers, defending the innocent, and acknowledging the righteous. That is a healthy state for the State to be in.

When the State is in a bad state of mind, however, it needs to be needed. It passes laws for the sake of job security. It executes its office by running for office.

Give the State the faints; say, "No, thanks!"

It has no category for a free man or woman. It imagines it has all but eliminated that possibility by so incentivizing dependency as to make liberty unattractive. It cannot imagine anyone still going in for all that self-governance hullabaloo.

But some still do. And our quiet, peaceable lives of godly, honest, integrity are like cannon blasts in their ears. So, raise a righteous racket. Be at peace with God and wage war on magisterial overreach by simply saying, "No, thank you."

day no. 16,616: story always wins

"Lewis explains, 'Most of us know what we should expect to find in a dragon's lair, but, as I said before, Eustace had read only the wrong books. They had a lot to say about exports and imports and governments and drains, but they were weak on dragons.' Eustace had subsisted on the wrong stories... His imaginative training had not prepared him to deal with dragons -- and so he becomes one." — Christiana Hale, Deeper Heaven

Story always wins and a hard heart is no defense against a soft head. A starved imagination will be revenged. You cannot keep narrative at arm's length. If you try, you only succeed in being an unlikable character. You cannot cram facts into your skull in order to keep story out. Your mental closet cannot be so packed full of material and moth balls as to keep the magic out. In fact, Edmund only discovered more magic in that wardrobe upon further inspection, not less.

If you ignore dragons, you become one. If you avoid thinking about your sin, your thoughts will be sinful. You cannot keep the plot at bay. There is no such thing as a narrative-less existence. You cannot crawl off the page. You are a printed word. You can either be emboldened or struck through, but you cannot blot yourself out. You were printed at a price and the ink of your existence does not belong to you.

day no. 16,615: eraducation

"The central point of Abolition had to do with the demolition job that a certain pernicious form of education accomplishes when consistently applied. When this form of education is set loose among the children of men, the end result is the eradication of men. Lewis is pointing to the difference between being educated and being erased. Nothing is more obvious at the end of the process and so hard to see at the beginning of it." — Doug Wilson, The Light from Behind the Sun

There is an education that is an eradication. It strip mines the mind rather than planting seeds in it. It holds its pencils pointed up. What it writes upon the hearts of men is emptiness. It is eraducation: eradicating what it educates. It is slaking thirst with salt water. At best, it is by accident, but at its worst, it is intentional. But either way, the end result of those who adopt it is abandonment. Those who feast on poison cannot be full for long. By the grace of God that kind of nonsense either dies or is vomited up. Either way, there will be a mess to clean up, but in any event, the ascended Son of God has proven He isn't too proud to stoop.

day no. 16,614: dispensing with the pleasantries

"The graveyards are full of indispensable men." — Charles De Gaulle

Men honored as indispensable are buried everywhere you look, but Christ's grave remains empty.

Isaiah 2:22

Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils: for wherein is he to be accounted of?

Do not put your trust in man who runs out of breath, but in Christ who outran death.

Yet, let us not dispense entirely with the pleasantries. God gives us good and godly men and we are to receive them with gratitude. We ought to respect them and honor them as the good and godly men they are in Christ. and commit our ways to following them in our character and conduct as such (1 Cor. 11:1, Php 4:9, Heb. 13:7). But we must never lose sight of the light behind the sun, the Man behind the men, the Creator behind the creation — for it is to Him, through Him, from Him, and for Him that all other things exist.

day no, 16,613: gladness of heart guards the mind

Ecclesiastes 5:20

For he shall not much remember the days of his life; because God answereth him in the joy of his heart.

Gladness of heart guards the mind.

Philippians 4:7

And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

The peace of God protects our heads. We do not guard the peace of God by using our brains. Our brains are what need protection. Our minds are not the hard steel that keeps the soft peace of God safe and secure. The peace of God is the helmet that keeps our heads. Our hearts and minds cannot keep Christian faith safe.  It is our hearts and minds which we are prone to lose. We need help to take heart. We need grace to keep our heads. The grace of God keeps us.

day no. 16,612: handmade, homemade goods

"The spirit of faith and piety of the parents should be regarded as the most powerful means for the preservation, upbringing, and strengthening of the life of grace in children." — Theophan the Recluse

God gives parents sway. Children feel a compulsion to please their parents. They want to make their mom and dad proud of them. This hard-wired herald of grace is a call for parents to step up. Parents will influence their children. It is not a question of if, but of how? How will the parents influence their child? Their presence or absence will be felt. Their words or silence will speak volumes. Their time given or withheld will carry weight. God has given children to parents and parents to children. When they are in Christ, they are grace upon grace from God to each other, but when they aren't a child can become a shame to his parents and parents can be bitter memories to their children.

A Christian parent has had their disciples handmade for them by the hand of God. A child has had their missionaries assigned to them by the Author of all ambassadors. God's plan is for Christian children to be homemade.

Malachi 2:15

And did not he make one? Yet had he the residue of the spirit. And wherefore one? That he might seek a godly seed.

May God turn the hearts of fathers to their children and children to their fathers so that parent and child both may have their hearts and minds turned toward their Father in Heaven.

Malachi 4:6

And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers.

day no. 16,611: Juniper is FIVE

Happy Birthday, Juniper Elise!

You are FIVE years old today. It seems like it was just yesterday that you were toddling down the hall to grab my legs and say, "Hi" when I came out of my bedroom during work hours to get some coffee or to go outside for a walk. Wait a minute, that wasn't yesterday, that was earlier this morning! You have always been excited to see me and sad to see me go. You are, to be fair, the first Van Voorst to grow up with me working down the hall for most of your life. I was sent home from Shelter before you turned one and I've been working from our home ever since. It's been fun being able to watch you grow up every step of the way.

You are a creature of habit and your habits are hilarious. Every morning, you ask me to let you know when I'm going to leave for my walk so that you can be the last to hug me and wave out the window to me. Every afternoon, you ask me to tuck in for your nap. You always ask to have the closet door opened (so Michael Meyers can't get you), the salt lamp turned on, and to remind me to ask mom what's for dinner. Every time you need someone to wipe you, you call out, "Can somebody please wipe me!" Every day you ask me to throw you up as high as I can and every time I do, you ask me to do it again. Every time you're on a swing set, you ask me to push you and say, "More, faster! More, faster!" Every Sunday you ask to sit on my lip during service and are sad when I ask you to wait until I'm done taking notes. Every week after service you make multiple trips to the treat table. Every time you sing, you bring us down a full octave... in a good way! You are so much fun and I can always depend on you to be you. You are Juni through and through, just the way God made you.

You like Sting from WWE... except for when you don't. Sometimes you want to paint your face like him and sometimes you're scared he's going to come into your room at night. Sometimes he's your hero. Sometimes he's your nightmare. Sometimes you forget that he's a good guy and on our side. Sometimes you believe me when I remind you. Sometimes... you don't.

You have a great run. Your little legs get moving and you get to huffing and puffing. You also have a blast riding your bike in the road. You always ask and you always end up in our neighbor’s driveway doing donuts. 

You love your sisters and spend most of your time either playing with Lissy, fighting with Lissy, or harassing Oey. It's a good life.

You are a one of kind and I'm so glad that you are my daughter. I love you and I like you and I am excited to see what God has in store for you this year.

Here's to you JuneBug, Happy Birthday!

Love,

Dad

day no. 16,610: be strong and get to work

Haggai 2:4

Yet now be strong, O Zerubbabel, saith the Lord; and be strong, O Joshua, son of Josedech, the high priest; and be strong, all ye people of the land, saith the Lord, and work: for I am with you, saith the Lord of hosts.

Be strong and get to work.

God is with you.

Do not reason, "God is with me, why be or do anything?" That is godless backchat. All labor in the Lord is not in vain, but laziness is. If God is for us, who can stop us? Scripture reasons that the Lord's presence produces enthusiasm, not skepticism. If the Lord is at hand, we ought to be at work. Whenever any reasons the opposite: God is near, let's doze, it ends poorly. Christ's parables highlight the godless recline of those who assume that conclusion.

Because of the grace of God we get to work. We are permitted to work. God gives us purpose and points us in a particular direction. We are privileged to work. God gives us something to do. God provides scope and meaning. We are prompted to work. Far from floating, we paddle. We do not coast along, we crank the accelerator. God's grace gives us more grit, not less. His mighty works on our behalf inspire our best efforts for His glory.

Be strong and get to work.

God is with you.

day no. 16,609: consider your ways

Haggai 1:5-7

Now therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts; Consider your ways. Ye have sown much, and bring in little; ye eat, but ye have not enough; ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink; ye clothe you, but there is none warm; and he that earneth wages earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes. Thus saith the Lord of hosts; Consider your ways.

Consider your ways. God is not mocked. You cannot sow sin and reap satisfaction. You cannot indulge in discord and enjoy harmony. If you flatter chaos, you will not attract order. So, if all of your attempts to fill the void only produce a bigger hole, consider your ways. Perhaps satisfaction cannot be pursued as end in itself. Maybe pleasures are means to an end, not an end to obtain by any means. If you are spending liberally, but scarcely reaping, consider your ways.

day no., 16,608: no rest until the rest find rest in Him

"I hope, as soon as practicable, to attack." — Stonewall Jackson

The gates of Hell will not prevail against the advance of the Kingdom of Christ. Christendom is not in quarantine hoping to ride out the deluge of disease outside it's pearly gates. The call to defend the faith once delivered is not a command to cloister. The enmity inserted into existence by God does not merely run the one direction. Yes, the world will hate us like it hated Christ, but do we hate the world the way Christ did? Which is to say, do we love the world the way the Father did? He so loved the world that He sent His Son as a weapon of mass destruction. He loved the world too much to watch it rot. He took the offensive and inserted Himself into our sorry situation. He flexed His initiative for the sake of His world, even while it was His enemy (Rom. 5:10). He loved His enemies by defeating them (Matt. 5:44). He blessed its rebels by making them obey.

Our hope is not in retreat, it is in reform. We only want to be left alone (1 Th 4:11) so that our leaven might work its way into everything else. We do not desire a Christian ghetto, but Christendom. All that to say, we don't desire peace and quiet without Christ. And we will not rest until the rest of the world rests in Him.

day no. 16,607: chesteronian calvinism a la wilson via lewis

"On many questions and specially in view of the marriage bed, the Puritans were the indulgent party, if we may without disrespect so use the name of a great Roman Catholic, a great writer, and a great man, they were much more Chestertonian than their adversaries." — C. S. Lewis

The term, "Chestertonian Calvinism," was coined by Doug Wilson, but I had not previously considered that it's inspiration came from Lewis. That only adds another layer of joy to the cake. So, in using the term, you not only get the soteriological precision of Calvin and the benevolent gratitude and wonder of Chesterton, but also the imaginative medieval power of Lewis. The term itself then is a fine dish consisting of Calvin, Chesterton, and Lewis, but was served to me at a restaurant run by Wilson. All that to say, Chestertonian Calvinism about sums it all up.

day no. 16,606: you cannot tolerate abominations without being taught by them

Deuteronomy 20:17-18

But thou shalt utterly destroy them; namely, the Hittites, and the Amorites, the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites; as the Lord thy God hath commanded thee: That they teach you not to do after all their abominations, which they have done unto their gods; so should ye sin against the Lord your God.

We pick up on where we plop down. We observe and more often than not absorb the habits and customs of our surroundings. In fact, without intention, this will happen. No one can resist the current they are caught up in without, uh... resisting it. 

"A dead thing can go with the stream, but only a living thing can go against it." — G.K. Chesterton

You cannot tolerate abominations without being taught by them. The presupposition of God's command to utterly destroy pagan culture is that it will serve as a schoolmaster if it isn't. It will instruct even if it is not institutional. 

How much more so then should Christians hear this warning? If being around abominations is dangerous, how much more so to be deliberately taught by them? If their presence is accidentally instructive, how much more their intentional instruction? If there is a danger in living near Sodom, how much more is there a danger in sending your sons to Sodom State University?

Hebrews 2:1

Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip.

If we ignore what we've heard, we will slip into what the world is saying. If we stop paying attention to God's eternal Word, we will spend our attention on the advice of the world. Heed will be given. It is inescapable. If you do not heed to God on purpose, you will heed to the world by accident. How much more so if you teach your kids to heed it and send your kids to be taught by it? If there is a danger in failing to provide a Christian education, how much more is there a danger in intentionally receiving one from the Antichrist?

day no. 16,605: the king is subject to the Law

Deuteronomy 17:18-20

And it shall be, when he sitteth upon the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write him a copy of this law in a book out of that which is before the priests the Levites: And it shall be with him, and he shall read therein all the days of his life: that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, to keep all the words of this law and these statutes, to do them: That his heart be not lifted up above his brethren, and that he turn not aside from the commandment, to the right hand, or to the left: to the end that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he, and his children, in the midst of Israel.

Kings must be reminded that they are under the Law of the Lord. The laws of the land apply to the man with the crown on his head as much as they do to the man minding his plow. In fact, one could argue, as a representative of all his people, the law is more pressed upon the king than the cobbler, since he will come in contact with it more often and with more at stake in each meeting.

"Lex Rex." — Samuel Rutherford

The Law is King and the king is subject to it. 

Psalms 82:6-7

I have said, "Ye are gods; And all of you are children of the most High." But ye shall die like men, And fall like one of the princes.

The King of kings commands His kings to keep His law for the expressed purpose of reminding them that they are NOT ABOVE their brothers. They sit in a seat that is higher than their neighbors, but as men, they are not a different class of person. They are truly superiors with respect to their office, but they brothers with respect to their standing before God. The Law does not apply differently to them as men. They are ALL equal under God. That has a nice ring to it. I feel like I've heard something like that somewhere before... but I digress.

A King who keeps Christ's commands ensures peace for his people and his people's people. May God grant us again men who understand their place under God in humility and over us as representatives in responsibility.

day no. 16,604: a holy hubbub

Charles Haddon Spurgeon once described the presence of children in church as, "The sweet sights and sounds of a holy hubbub.”

Chaos is not an excess of life, but an abundance of death. An engine running makes noise, but an engine dying makes a different noise. Chaos is the cacophony of failing parts, not the sound of thriving ones. Children are not chaotic. That is the word we use, but it is not the condition of our kids. They are abounding in life and vitality. They are the opposite of chaos. They are an engine firing on all cylinders, not one giving up the ghost of its last one. The hum of an engine is not the screech of a breaking one.

Our kids in church should be like running engines. They cannot be altogether silent, because they are not dead; but neither should they be screeching, because they aren't dying. When they do get riled up, it is more like an engine revving than one expiring. But a parent's job is to keep them in the right gear so as to keep the engine from revving too high and for keeping the noises to a bare minimum. Hubbubs should not be destroyed, but discipled. Anyone sitting nearby exasperated that the engines are humming doesn't understand how life works. To their credit, life is not noisy, but to counter, it does make noises. Noise in se may be the cacophony of hell, but Heaven... is not silent. And neither are we. Screwtape's entire Spotify playlist may be discord, but ours is harmony. Harmony is not less sounds, but more, joyfully complementing each other.

So, let the kids live and appreciate the hum of their horsepower, Do your best to corral it and harness it for the holy hubbub that is life in abundance; and come along side those sitting beside you at church trying to harness and hitch their team up to the hubbub that is holiness incarnate.

day no. 16,603: simple courage

"Everything that is happening... is a test of courage, and not an intellectual test. And a courageous man defending the way reality actually is may of course be killed -- but he is still invincible... We don't need much courage --- just enough to see and say how ludicrous it all is. Just enough to summon up the nerve to fill the room with the smell of burnt Marshwiggle." — Douglas Wilson, Rules for Reformers

The great blessing of our cultural moment is that it reinforces the fact that moral courage is superior to intellectual prowess. This is always true, but it isn't always as manifestly true as it is now. The simple can see that the man swimming laps around the women is not himself, a woman. So, it removes the matter of intellect altogether. Anyone can see it, but who will say it? A good deal of courage may be required, but not much cleverness. To insist on two and two being four is so obvious that a four year old can pick up on it. The differences between pegs and holes is something a toddler can sort out, but in our days it takes courage to insist on it. The blessing of all of this is the great opportunity for faith and faithfulness it provides to those who are tempted to see themselves as simple. The blessing of it all is how simple it is... and how glorious it is to be simple for the sake of Christ.

1 Corinthians 1:19-20

For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?

The number of academic designations required to understand what a woman isn't is staggering, but it is nothing. It is an empty bubble that only appears shiny and growing. It has no substance and cannot hold anything long before it pops.

1 Corinthians 1:25-27

Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty.

You don't need initials behind your name to be brave. You might get out cackled by the academy, but you need not sweat their arrogance. They don't know what they are talking about. No matter how much they insist you accept that they do. Regardless of how many graduation parties they throw themselves, they can't thread two nuts together. They won't bond and they can't hold anything together or produce anything new. It's just two nuts too nutty to even be screwed up.

So, as Bunyan's Christian realized at the House of the Interpreter, "his safety would depend it seemed not on cleverness but on simple courage."

day no. 16,602: all their miscalculations will misfire, but still cost someone something

"Living in the world that actually exists is an enormous advantage. There are times when it almost seems to me like cheating or something. In the long run, we need not worry. In the long run, blind stupidity never works. The revolutionary alternates between throwing rocks at the moon and barking at it." — Douglas Wilson, Rules for Reformers

The barking outside your door is a bit disconcerting and the rocks they throw might miss the moon, but they still come down on someone somewhere. All the miscalculations of the malcontents will misfire, but they still cost someone something. Their misjudgments cannot work, but they create a lot of work for the clean up crews. They might imagine themselves jugglers, but the clean up required in aisle 6 says otherwise and rest assured, they don't imagine themselves janitors either. 

All that said, the world that the revolutionaries want to live in doesn't exist and cannot be built. You cannot construct an imaginary banquet out of concrete bricks. Whatever they build must be borrowed from God's reality, but they cannot build circles out of triangles. They can re-brand triangles and called them circles, but they cannot live in or build up a circular world that way. That kind of project goes down the circular drain and it fits down there quite nicely. 

day no. 16,601: all your enemies are conquered beforehand

"He (Jesus) has conquered every foe that obstructed the way. Cheer up now thou faint-hearted warrior. Not only has Christ travelled the road, but he has slain thine enemies. Dost thou dread sin? He has nailed it to his cross. Dost thou fear death? He has been the death of Death. Art thou afraid of hell? He has barred it against the advent of any of his children; they shall never see the gulf of perdition. Whatever foes may be before the Christian, they are all overcome. There are lions, but their teeth are broken; there are serpents, but their fangs are extracted; there are rivers, but they are bridged or fordable; there are flames, but we wear that matchless garment which renders us invulnerable to fire. The sword that has been forged against us is already blunted; the instruments of war which the enemy is preparing have already lost their point. God has taken away in the person of Christ all the power that anything can have to hurt us. Well then, the army may safely march on, and you may go joyously along your journey, for all your enemies are conquered beforehand. What shall you do but march on to take the prey? They are beaten, they are vanquished; all you have to do is to divide the spoil. You shall, it is true, often engage in combat; but your fight shall be with a vanquished foe. His head is broken; he may attempt to injure you, but his strength shall not be sufficient for his malicious design. Your victory shall be easy, and your treasure shall be beyond all count.

Proclaim aloud the Saviour's fame,

Who bears the Breaker's wond'rous name

Sweet name; and it becomes him well,

Who breaks down earth, sin, death, and hell."

— Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Morning and Evening 

The leaven works its way through the lump without worrying about the lump's resistance to its invasion. The Church militant marches with mirth against a defeated fiend. The gates of hell cannot resist obedience to Christ's command to disciple the nations. The barricades of hell cannot withstand the advance of Christ's kingdom. All of our enemies are conquered beforehand.

Romans 8:35-37

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

day no. 16,600: we don't want to win at losing

"Devils make better accusers, always, and we are not in this to create right-wing devils. No, we have a better game to play than that." — Douglas Wilson, Rules for Reformers

When Saul of Tarsus switched teams, he did not continue in the same old tactics only aimed in a brand new direction. What happened was that he was converted. He became the enemy of his former allies and he abandoned their tactics. He did not merely become a character assassin for the other side. He did not aspire to be the chief accuser of the Pharisees. He did not become an assassin for Jesus. He did not begin hunting down Pharisees attempting to get them into legal trouble with the Romans. In other words, he didn't just do what he was accustomed to doing for another team. His skills came with him, but his principles changed. The decisive point did not move, but for whom and how he tried to take it did.

We cannot win at losing; and we cannot lose at winning.

Christians will always be outclassed in an accusation contest. It's not our bread and butter. The best Christian accuser cannot hold a candle to the accusations of those marinated in hellfire. We don't lie, cheat, and steal for Jesus. We tell the truth, play by His rules, and receive His kingdom.

Christians cannot conquer by chaos; and chaos cannot conquer Christ.

day no. 16,599: a way in which we must walk and the works we must do

Exodus 18:20

And thou shalt teach them ordinances and laws, and shalt shew them the way wherein they must walk, and the work that they must do.

The Christian life is knowing the way wherein we must walk and the work that we must do.

Ephesians 4:1

I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called.

There is a way in which we must conduct ourselves and a work in which we must engage ourselves. There are works to do and better ways than others to do them.

God is concerned with our character and our conduct. They are inseparable. We can speak of them separately, but we cannot functionally separate them without breaking something. Just like an egg is a shell, a yolk, and a white and can be discussed separately, but cannot be actually separated without breaking the egg. In order to separate faith from faithfulness is to break faith. In order to separate character from conduct is to break covenant.

There is a way wherein we must walk and works we must do and neither can be accomplished without outside instruction. We cannot follow our hearts and have holy hands, but we can, if we listen to Christ, walk in His ways, and do what He says; which includes regularly seeking His forgiveness in walking other ways, doing what He has forbid, or forgetting to do what He has commanded.

day no. 16,598: so, sex is a weapon; but whose is it?

1 Corinthians 6:18

Flee sexual immorality.

1 Timothy 6:10

For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil.

Sex and money are dangerous.

No doubt.

Use them the wrong way and they will bite back. Love them more than the Lord and they will devour. Most Christians know this, but that is only knowing the half of it. All sex is not immorality anymore than all saving is hoarding. Sex can be immoral, but it doesn't have to be. Lucre can be filthy, but all of it isn't. Too many Christians have been taught something akin to, "Sex is dirty, gross, and wrong; so, save it for the one you love," and, "Too much money corrupts, so leave most of it to those already corrupted by it."

So, sex is a weapon; but whose is it?

Money can corrode; but whose kingdom is coming down?

Most Christians know that sex can shipwreck one person's future and that money can shipwreck another person's faith, and that many times the two sink together; but they fail to realize that sex can grow the kingdom of Christ and that money can bankroll the boots that kick down the gates of Hell.

Faithful sex is fruitful in Christ to build His Church. Faithful saving can bless future generations and arm them for their fieldwork in destroying the demonic strongholds that still remain in their day. Sex and Money can be idols and there is a danger in them, but they can also be tools used by faithful hands for the advancement of Christendom.

Do not forsake the use of sex or surrender the salvo of savings. This will not prevent the devil from investing in them. Christian maturity is receiving sex and money as gifts and handling them responsibly as weapons against the darkness.

day no. 16,597: marriage is God's original church growth strategy

"The purpose of marriage is to build the church." — Richard Stock a la Jared Longshore

When a man and woman are united by covenant to Christ, their offspring are born into the church. The same way an American man and woman grow their country in size by giving birth to new citizens, so they grow the church by giving birth to new members. Of course, there is more to being a true American than just having the United States on your birth certificate and of course, there is more to being a true Christian than just having the sign of the covenant placed upon your head in baptism as a child. There is always more to it, but never less. One born outside of the country has to go to greater lengths to obtain the privileges others were born with, but his responsibility to embody the principles of a true citizen are the same. Those born outside the church, similarly, have to change their essential citizenship to become a church member, but their obligation and privilege in embodying the commands of Christ are no more or less difficult than those born into membership. That said, adult pagan coverts don't require more water than the children of believers to be baptized. The same water serves as their sign. The covenant is entered into and kept by both of them only by God's grace and through faith.