day no. 16,749: it's all been covered before, but...

1 Corinthians 11:6

For if the woman be not covered, let her also be shorn: but if it be a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her be covered.

The woman in question here has hair, but not a covering. She is not shorn, but has no shawl. If she refused to get a scarf, she should be shorn. To be shorn would be shame, so it'd be a shame if she didn't simply get a scarf. That said, hair length cannot be the entire scope of this conversation. 

Paul does later appeal to nature in verse 14 stating that women should have long hair and men should not, "Doth not even nature itself teach you, that, if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him?" This qualifier seems redundant and unnecessary in supporting an apostolic command to do something most people already felt inclined to do. In other words, Paul is appealing to the natural to support his command to artificially cover. If it was a sheer matter of a woman growing her hair to a certain length, he could not appeal to nature, since they would have already felt free to ignore it in cutting their hair short in the first place. Whatever standard he would be looking to levy from nature would already have been ignored and set aside by his hearers. In other words, the women in Corinth already had long hair. He didn't need to command them to do something they were already doing. He wrote to command something some of them were wondering if they could set aside, that is, the covering of a woman's head when entering corporate worship. 

This makes sense since the Christian church made women equal to men in Christ (Gal. 3:28) and as such invited them into the corporate worship of their common God and Savior. But since some norms were being broken down, like women and men attending the same service under the same roof, the question perhaps arose about what other norms were up for reconsideration. Head coverings, as Paul points out here, was one of those traditions anchored in eternity past (his appeal to creation order) and every geographical space (his appeal to every other church of God in existence).

God commands to our weakness and for the benefit of others. Paul didn't have to command Corinthians women to do something they were already inclined to do. But Paul is downright punchy here and even punctuates his argument by pointing out that others might want to punch back about this in vs. 16: "But if any man seem to be contentious, we have no such custom, neither the churches of God." Again this would make the most sense if being applied to an artificial covering more than to hair length. Who exactly is fighting about this back then? If Paul's appeal to nature is to be believed, then most people who would need to be presupposed to themselves presuppose that standard. If people largely did not recognize that nature covers a woman and not a man, then his appeal would lack authority. But if everyone already acknowledged that authority, then who exactly are these women who have already shorn themselves voluntarily?

Finally, Paul ends this appeal by stating that this is the practice of every church of God as mentioned above in vs. 16. It would stand to reason that a practice is something put into place. Again, women growing their hair long was something they were already doing. You don't need to introduce a practice of sleeping at night or eating when you are hungry. You would, however, have to introduce a practice to sleep during the day or to fast. These are unnatural and would require effort. If women intuitively grew their hair long, as nature demands, what practice would be needed?

IA straight forward reading of this text will lead any woman to assume she should cover her head with something at church. That same woman, however, then looks around and doesn't see many, if any, other women artificially covering their heads and even sees many who have cut their uncovered hair short to boot. She then assumes she has misread the text and that if it were this obvious, everyone else would be doing something about it. In other words, anyone who makes the case that the topic du jour here in 1 Corinthians 11 is merely about hair length, seems to start from a presupposition of saying, "It isn't about head coverings." This does beg the question, why would so many be so allergic to this reading of the text. At the very least, it seems like an honest reading. But many pastors actively attempt to admonish their women away from covering the heads or worse, threaten discipline them if they pursue it. I have a hard time wrapping my head around that. It seems like a basic reading and comprehension thing, not a matter of subtle "yeah, but in the Greek" or "you have to consider the context of Corinthian prostitution" in order to understand. This is why it's also so baffling to me that so many don't just interpet the text at face value: that is to say, women should wear an artificial covering over their head during corporate worship. Plain and simple. Straight forward. Right there in the text and easy to obey.

At the end of the day, if Paul had made it back to Corinth, what would he have looked for in order to tell if he had been obeyed? It seems like he would expected to see women covering their head on the Lord's Day during the corporate worship gathering. Paul does point out that it's specifically in the context of praying or prophesying with her head uncovered that a shame is produced, but later goes on to state that it's a shame for her to have short hair wherever she is, whatever she is doing. It is a shame for a women to pray or prophecy with her head uncovered, but it is equally a shame for her to prepare dinner with short hair. The context implies that something should happen in the worship service that could happen elsewhere without incident. A women could not have short hair anywhere without being disgraced. Ergo, the way to avoid shame in the corporate worship setting is to put an artificial symbol of authority (a covering) over the natural symbol of authority (long hair) She is presupposed to possess the natural symbol, the command is to adopt the practice of placing an artificial one in place during worship services.

The consequences outlined in this section only seem to match a woman without a covering over her hair. The presence of long hair is simply assumed which is why one of the consequences of disobedience is shortening one's hair. If she already had short hair, this would be of no consequence. All of this to say, I don't know how to make heads or tails of any of the language in 1 Corinthians 11 without bringing in something other than ponytails.

If you're still not convinced, consider Calvin or Dabney.

"'But I would have you know' It is an old proverb: 'Evil manners beget good laws.' As the rite here treated of had not been previously called in question, Paul had given no enactment respecting it. The error of the Corinthians was the occasion of his showing, what part it was becoming to act in this matter. With the view of proving, that it is an unseemly thing for women to appear in a public assembly with their heads uncovered, and, on the other hand, for men to pray or prophesy with their heads covered, he sets out with noticing the arrangements that are divinely established." — John Calvin, Calvin's Commentary on the Bible: 1 Corinthians

"He says, that 'as Christ is subject to God as his head, so is the man subject to Christ, and the woman to the man.' We shall afterwards see, how he comes to infer from this, that women ought to have their heads covered." — John Calvin, Calvin's Commentary on the Bible: 1 Corinthians

"'Every woman praying or prophesying' Here we have the second proposition — that women ought to have their heads covered when they pray or prophesy; otherwise they dishonor their head For as the man honors his head by showing his liberty, so the woman, by showing her subjection. Hence, on the other hand, if the woman uncovers her head, she shakes off subjection — involving contempt of her husband. It may seem, however, to be superfluous for Paul to forbid the woman to prophesy with her head uncovered, while elsewhere he wholly prohibits women from speaking in the Church. (1 Timothy 2:12.) It would not, therefore, be allowable for them to prophesy even with a covering upon their head, and hence it follows that it is to no purpose that he argues here as to a covering. It may be replied, that the Apostle, by here condemning the one, does not commend the other. For when he reproves them for prophesying with their head uncovered, he at the same time does not give them permission to prophesy in some other way, but rather delays his condemnation of that vice to another passage, namely in 1 Corinthians 14:34. In this reply there is nothing amiss, though at the same time it might suit sufficiently well to say, that the Apostle requires women to show their modesty — not merely in a place in which the whole Church is assembled, but also in any more dignified assembly, either of matrons or of men, such as are sometimes convened in private houses.

'For it is all one as if she were shaven'. He now maintains from other considerations, that it is unseemly for women to have their heads bare. Nature itself, says he, abhors it. To see a woman shaven is a spectacle that is disgusting and monstrous. Hence we infer that the woman has her hair given her for a covering Should any one now object, that her hair is enough, as being a natural covering, Paul says that it is not, for it is such a covering as requires another thing to be made use of for covering it And hence a conjecture is drawn, with some appearance of probability — that women who had beautiful hair were accustomed to uncover their heads for the purpose of showing off their beauty. It is not, therefore, without good reason that Paul, as a remedy for this vice, sets before them the opposite idea — that they be regarded as remarkable for unseemliness, rather than for what is an incentive to lust."  — John Calvin, Calvin's Commentary on the Bible: 1 Corinthians

"Two principles, then, are laid down: first, verse 4, that the man should preach (or pray) in public with head uncovered, because he then stands forth as God’s herald and representative; and to assume at that time the emblem of subordination, a covered head, is a dishonor to the office and the God it represents; secondly, verses 5, 13, that, on the contrary, for a woman to appear or to perform any public religious function in the Christian assembly, unveiled, is a glaring impropriety, because it is contrary to the subordination of the position assigned her by her Maker, and to the modesty and reserve suitable to her sex; and even nature settles the point by giving her her long hair as her natural veil. Even as good taste and a natural sense of propriety would pro­test against a woman’s going in public shorn of that beautiful badge and adornment of her sex, like a rough soldier or a laborer, even so clearly does nature herself sustain God’s law in requiring the woman to appear always modestly covered in the sanctuary. The holy angels who are present as invisible spectators, hover­ing over the Christian assemblies, would be shocked by seeing women professing godliness publicly throw off this appropriate badge of their position (verse 10). The woman, then, has a right to the privileges of public worship and the sacraments; she may join audibly in the praises and prayers of the public assembly, where the usages of the body encourage responsive prayer;. but she must always do this veiled or covered." — R.L. Dabney, The Public Preaching of Women

"A feeble attempt is made to find an implied recognition of the right of women to preach in 1 Cor. xi. 5 : 'But every woman that prayeth or prophesieth with her head uncovered, dishonor-eth her head: for that is even all one as if she were shaven.' They would fain find here the implication that the woman who feels the call may prophesy in public, if she does so with a bon­net on her head."  — R.L. Dabney, The Public Preaching of Women

"The ordinance of worship which the apostle is regulating just here is not public preaching at all, but the sacred singing of psalms. And all that is here settled is, that Christian females, whose privilege it is to join in this praise, must not do so with unveiled heads, in imitation of some pagan priestesses when conducting their unclean or lascivious worship, but must sing public praises with heads modestly veiled."  — R.L. Dabney, The Public Preaching of Women

day no. 16,748: the fight is the faith and the faith is the fight

"It is not the problem of giving up the faith, but the problem of giving up the fight, that is the one genuine difficulty from the old guard of the Orange tradition. But the English cannot comprehend people having come to love the fight for its own sake, or merely because it is a story. He asks what people are fighting about and does not realise that they are fighting about the story of the fight. That self-renewing romance or nightmare, as we happen to regard it, is the soul and immorality of the feud. To the English the feud would be nightmare, but to some at least of the Irish, the feud has been almost fairy tale." — G.K. Chesterton, The Orangeman and the Englishman, 1921

God has engrafted enmity into every story. Since the Fall, God has seen fit to frame the future in terms of impostion with the seed of Eve and the seed of the serpent perpetually at odds. Fighting, in other words, is inescapable. You cannot not fight. To conscientiously object is to join the side of the serpent. God accepts no ceasefires, but Satan is often proposing them, as losing sides are often want to do. But there can be no peace with evil until it is eradicated. Those who fail to understand the joy of the fight fail to grasp the fun of the story we are in.

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

Because God is good and a perfect Author, our stories are full of conflict. These adventures are are joy to endure, but a hell if avoided. Life is a miserable truce. If you make your peace with evil, you will never know the vitality of dying for goodness's sake. Beds of ease make for eternal difficulties.

"The history of the world since that time {Genesis 3) has been a struggle between the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman. The antipathy between them is settled and nothing can be done about it. People can switch sides, but they cannot make the two sides one. There is a final and complete enmity between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent. The nature of this ongoing struggle is two-fold. One is the active struggle itself, and the other is the battle over the narrative. The first concerns the armies on the field, and the second concerns what we might call 'the media.' There is fighting, and then there is the narrative about the fighting. Who wins the battle, and who controls the narrative? The answers to these questions are not always the same." — Douglas Wilson, Mere Fundamentalism

Faith is the active struggle of life against death, goodness against evil, the joy of the Lord against the drugs of the Devil, the glory of God against the dinge of the darkness.

The feud is a fairy tale to the faithful and a nightmare to the nominal. The battle is the banner of the brave and the bane of the bland. The fight is the faith and the faith is the fight.

day no. 16,747: Laurelai is ELEVEN

Happy Birthday, Lolo!

You are a beautiful, smart, funny, young lady and I love being your dad.

Here is a list of things I like about you:

I like it when you and Penelope sing harmony.

I like when you pop my toes before bed.

I like listening to you pray every night.

I like your long hair.

I like your smile.

I like how much love to bake.

I like that you are particular about food and have refined taste.

I like that you like Baldwin IV.

I like that you love bolt action rifles.

I like that you are a good big sister.

I like that you are a good little sister.

I like seeing all the crafts you make.

I like your sense of humor.

I like watching you help Oey potty train.

I like that you make tuna for lunch.

I like your hugs.

I like seeing you have fun with your friends at church and at Psalm sings.

I like how much you love Snake Eyes.

I like your drawings.

I like how much you like Story Club.

I like being your dad.

I love you, Lolo.

Happy Birthday!

day no. 16,746: ye who are warriors of God

Ye who are God's warriors and of his law,

Pray to God for help and have faith in Him;

That always with Him you will be victorious.

Christ is worth all your sacrifices,

He will pay you back an hundredfold.

If you give up your life for Him you will receive eternal life.

Happy is he who dies fighting for the truth.

The Lord commandeth you not to fear those who harm the body,

And commandeth you to even put your life down for the love of your brothers.

Therefore, archers, crossbowmen, halberdiers of knightly rank,

Scythemen and macebearers from all walks of life,

Remember always the Lord benevolent.

Do not fear your enemies, nor gaze upon their number,

Keep the Lord in your hearts; for Him fight on,

And before enemies you need not flee.

Since ages past Czechs have said and had proverbs which state,

That if the leader is good, so too is the journey.

Remember all of you the password which was given out.

Obey your captains and guard one another.

Stay sharp and everyone keep formation.

You beggars and wrongdoers, remember your soul!

For greed and theft don't lose your life.

And pay no heed to the spoils of war.

And with this happily cry out – saying, "At thee! Have at thee!"

Grasp the weapon in your hands and shout, "God is our Lord!"

— Ktož jsú boží bojovníci (Ye Who Are Warriors of God), 15th century Czech song

Love puts itself between the danger and the beloved. It looks to the Lord and lets loose on His foes and those who oppose those for whom the man is responsible.

Nehemiah 4:14

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

Christian men are filled with faith and ferocity. They are meek and full of mettle. They are strong, but under control. The love of Christ compels them to action. His praises fill their lungs as His honor fills their hearts. They take up a song as they take up their swords.

Psalm 149

Praise ye the Lord. Sing unto the Lord a new song, and his praise in the congregation of saints. Let Israel rejoice in him that made him: let the children of Zion be joyful in their King. Let them praise his name in the dance: let them sing praises unto him with the timbrel and harp. For the Lord taketh pleasure in his people: he will beautify the meek with salvation. Let the saints be joyful in glory: let them sing aloud upon their beds. Let the high praises of God be in their mouth, and a two-edged sword in their hand; To execute vengeance upon the heathen, and punishments upon the people; To bind their kings with chains, and their nobles with fetters of iron; To execute upon them the judgment written: this honour have all his saints. Praise ye the Lord.

This is the honor of the saints. This is the high privilege of those positioned in Christ. This is the joy of those found in Jesus: His kingdom come, His will be done, the leaven spread, the nations led, the generations fed, the law of God admired and adhered to, the grace of God enjoyed and leaned into... world without end, and amen.

day no. 16,745: adjectival invective

"Don't use a noun and then an adjective that crosses out the noun. An adjective qualifies, it cannot contradict. Don't say, 'Give me a patriotism that is free from all boundaries.' It is like saying, 'Give me a pork pie with no pork in it.' Don't say, 'I look forward to that larger religion that shall have no special dogmas.” It is like saying, “I look forward to that larger quadruped who shall have no feet.' A quadruped means something with four feet; and a religion means something that commits a man to some doctrine about the universe. Don't let the meek substantive be absolutely murdered by the joyful, exuberant adjective." — G.K. Chesterton, A Miscellany of Men

The wrong complement is not a compliment. You do not honor a thing by qualifying it out of existence. Those who help religion along by remodeling do not end with a religion. Those who want to honor honesty by lying about it cancel out their efforts. You do not respect a triangle by giving it an extra angle.

Modifications matter.

There are those who want to have the benefits of being associated with something without being associated with the costs of that same thing. So, one will acknowledge the positive weight of religion, but lighten the load by redefining it, while another acknowledges the gravity of equality by placing his thumb firmly on one side of the scale.

An adjective can rape a reality of its substance. Those who speak this way wish to appear on the side of virtue while enjoying the mischief of vice. They hold out saying they will get on board with the rhythm of things once it gets a bit more off the beaten path. They assure us that they will have faith once there is nothing to question. They will dare to hope once it is realized. They will call a spade a spade once they look a little more heart-shaped.

day no. 16,744: gathering gods is hoarding hellfire

Psalm 16:4

The sorrows of those who run after another god shall multiply; their drink offerings of blood I will not pour out or take their names on my lips.

Those who run after other gods run up a tab of tribulation for themselves. Gathering other gods is like hoarding hellfire, it is storing up wrath against yourself.

Romans 2:5

By your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed.

The more names you take on your lips the more blood you bring down upon your head. The more women you marry, they more you disappoint each one of them. You cannot multiply idolatries without also multiplying sorrows for yourself.

“Those that multiply gods multiply griefs to themselves; for, whoever thinks one God too little, will find two too many, and yet hundreds not enough.” — Matthew Henry, Commentary on Psalm 16:4

Where one God is not enough, two will be too many, and more too much. The one, true God has commanded us to love Him with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. There is no heart, soul, mind, or strength left for another. When you break the first commandment, you break the second. If you do not give your all to God, you give some where it doesn't belong and the moment you multiply your main efforts, you minimize your effort for any.

day no. 16,743: in bad shape is not the same as shapeless

"Don't say, 'There is no true creed; for each creed believes itself right and the others wrong.' Probably one of the creeds is right and the others are wrong. Diversity does show that most of the views must be wrong. It does not by the faintest logic show that they all must be wrong... They are all serious, and most of them are wrong. But one of them is right. One of the faiths is justified; one of the horses does win; not always even the dark horse which might stand for Agnosticism, but often the obvious and popular horse of Orthodoxy. The Favourite has been known to come in first. But the point here is that something comes in first. That there were many beliefs does not destroy the fact that there was one well-founded belief. I believe (merely upon authority) that the world is round. That there may be tribes who believe it to be triangular or oblong does not alter the fact that it is certainly some shape, and therefore not any other shape. Therefore I repeat, with the wail of imprecation, don't say that the variety of creeds prevents you from accepting any creed. It is an unintelligent remark." ― G.K. Chesterton, A Miscellany of Men

An abundance of creeds is not a valid excuse for abandoning all of them. One may feel overwhelmed by the number of doctrines in the world, but one cannot use this as a reason to get out from under all of them. The waters may be muddied by many creeds, but that doesn't mean that clear springs are a fiction. Muddy waters may make things unclear, but a credence of clear waters can make for a revival.

Jeremiah 12:5

If thou hast run with the footmen, and they have wearied thee, then how canst thou contend with horses? 

All creeds cannot all be right, of course, but one of them sure can be. Some can't keep up, but others can, and one outpaces them all. Some horse is going to win and someone will have been betting on it. A dark horse could win, but if it doesn't, another will.

John 5:37

And the Father himself, which hath sent me, hath borne witness of me. Ye have neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his shape.

The world may be, as far as you're concerned, in bad shape, but it most certainly is, regardless of what you may think of it, in a shape of some kind. Something can be out of shape, but that merely means it isn't the shape that it should be, not that it is now shapeless. 

Orthodoxy is not a product of preference. It is that which would be whether or not you ever were. It was true before you got here and will be true after you are gone. It is true whether you like it or not. It is true whether you have warm feelings toward it or cold indifference. It does not change, and therefore some are saved.

Malachi 3:6

For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.

day no. 16,742: the grace of God is getting caught

Proverbs 5:21-23

For a man’s ways are before the eyes of the LORD, and he ponders all his paths. The iniquities of the wicked ensnare him, and he is held fast in the cords of his sin. He dies for lack of discipline, and because of his great folly he is led astray.

The grace of God is getting caught before it's too late. Everyone gets caught eventually. No one gets away with anything. It is the grace of God to catch us out. Discipline is being caught and corrected in sin. Folly is being caught up in the cords of sin and calling it freedom. Foolishness is being bound to unbelief and believing that you're getting away with it.

day no. 16,741: marriage militant

"Now I do not compare marriage with war, but I do compare marriage with law or liberty or patriotism or popular government, or any of the human ideals which have often to be defended by war. Even the wildest of those ideals, which seem to escape from all the discipline of peace, do not escape from the discipline of war. The Bolshevists may have aimed at pure peace and liberty; but they have been compelled, for their own purpose, first to raise armies and then to rule armies. In a word, however beautiful you may think your own visions of beatitude, men must suffer to be beautiful, and even suffer a considerable interval of being ugly. And I have no notion of denying that mankind suffers much from the maintenance of the standard of marriage; as it suffers much from the necessity of criminal law or the recurrence of crusades and revolutions. The only question here is whether marriage is indeed, as I maintain, an ideal and an institution making for popular freedom; I do not need to be told that anything making for popular freedom has to be paid for in vigilance and pain, and a whole army of martyrs." ― G.K. Chesterton, The Superstition of Divorce

It is precisely because marriage is meaningful that is must also be costly. It is too valuable a thing to be honored by trifles. It is painful and difficult and glorious and beautiful, like childbirth. No one advocating for the value of marriage should be surprised that some don't see that value or want to pay a premium for it, but neither should anyone advocating for the value of marriage try to remedy this sales resistance by marketing a knock-off version of marriage for cheapskates. 

Hebrews 13:4

Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled; for God will judge the immoral and adulterous.

You do not honor marriage by underselling it. You do not elevate it in the eyes of others by making it less necessary to enter into or easier to exit if regretted. In other words, marriage cannot be rightly pursued on a lay-away plan or lightly returned on an extended warranty.

"The man who makes a vow makes an appointment with himself at some distant time or place. The danger of it is that himself should not keep the appointment." ― G.K. Chesterton

Marriage does a man the honor of taking him at his word. It holds him to what he said. The danger is that the man may ask others to treat him less nobly. He might beg to void his vow and strike his integrity from the record and only hate for him would grant such a request.

"Marriage is a duel to the death which no man of honour should decline.” ― G.K. Chesterton

Marriage is rightly fought for and defended because marriage is a fight. It is a war against selfishness and will require sacrifice. The history of marriage is littered with martyrs. Many have lived and died for the sake of marriage. They gladly kept their vows till death did them part. Martyrs love something enough to die for it and marriage is a duel to the death.

day no. 16,740: the case against attempted murder

"The wisest thing in the world is to cry out before you are hurt. It is no good to cry out after you are hurt; especially after you are mortally hurt. People talk about the impatience of the populace; but sound historians know that most tyrannies have been possible because men moved too late. It is often essential to resist a tyranny before it exists. It is no answer to say, with a distant optimism, that the scheme is only in the air. A blow from a hatchet can only be parried while it is in the air." — G.K. Chesterton, Eugenics and Other Evils

Men often move too late.

Sure, men can move too soon too, but that isn't a reason to call the opposite vice a virtue. Making waste through haste is not ideal, but neither is being hamstrung by being harangued by fussbudgets.

The time to cry out is at the first crime scene. Whatever is being done there out in the open is only going to accelerate once behind closed doors. A scheme once seen must be cut off before it comes to fruition. You do not have to wait for the hatchet to fall before being justified in taking evasive maneuvers.  Some will only sign off on your skepticism once it's a proven fact. But you cannot protest your murder after the fact. At that point it becomes irrefutable as a fact, it is impossible for you to refute due to the fact of our demise. You must protest your murder while it is still being attempted presently if it is going to have any impact on your living into the future.

Tyrannies require lethargy. They need time to grow large enough to fend off an active attack. So, they take two steps forward and one step back until they are far enough along to advance without push back. The time to push back is at inch one, not mile forty.

day no. 16,739: an enjoyable fight, but a miserable truce

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

Pluralism cannot comprehend purity and polytheism cannot make sense of monotheism. Enmity is hard-wired into existence by Christ (Gen. 3:15) and one of the most effective offensives the enemy has launched is convincing his adversaries that a ceasefire is not only possible, but ideal. But the one who multiplies idols only multiplies sorrows.

Psalm 16:4

Their sorrows shall be multiplied that hasten after another god: their drinking offerings of blood will I not offer, nor take up their names into my lips.

There are some offerings that cannot be rejected too impolitely. Imposition is impolite. The enemy is banking on your commitment to the code. It is what allows his impoliteness to impose upon your polity.

"If I conceived it best to put my foot through through a law of etiquette, I should feel gratified in having it to do." — Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Lectures to My Students

If you're going to kick back, do so with the intent of putting your foot through it.

"Those who worship idols are simply multiplying sorrows for themselves. As Matthew Henry put it, ;those who find one God too little will rush off into idolatry, only to find two gods far too many, and one hundred gods too few.' Every idol is an additional sorrow, every graven image is an additional grief." — Douglas Wilson, Blog & Mablog, Pleasures Forevermore/Psalm 16

There is no peace treaty to be had with polytheism. To what standard could you hold them? There is no ceasefire possible with pluralism. Pluralism is a single-minded idea imagining itself a diversity. It is laser pointed, but parading as a rainbow. It is focused, yet marketed as undefined.

Imposition is inescapable and compromise is a sad way to die, while fighting is a glorious way to live, even if we die fighting.

day no. 16,738: right worship by what standard? (aka worship wars)

Colossians 2:5

For though I am absent in body, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the firmness of your faith in Christ.

Worship is warfare: it is organized, intentional, and lethal against those who oppose it. It is not haphazard, sporadic, or poisonous, however, to those engaged rightly in it.

“'Let all things be done decently and in order' (1 Cor. 14:40). We want nothing to do with those who walk disorderly (2 Thess. 3:6-7, 11). 'For though I be absent in the flesh, yet am I with you in the spirit, joying and beholding your order, and the stedfastness of your faith in Christ' (Col. 2:5). That word for order in Colossians is taxis, a military term. Think regimentation. Christian worship should be disciplined, focused, intentional, trained, and powerful." — Douglas Wilson,  Christ and the Gods of Chaos

We have fallen prey to thinking that authenticity is the most important aspect of any emotive action and that authenticity is best tested by an action's spontaneity. In other words, we have been tricked into thinking that standing with everyone else and turning to #93  in your Cantus Christi to sing Psalm 47 is not worship.

"The gods of chaos are going to be cut into pieces, and it is going to be Christian worship that does it. So we do not want an ordered worship service because we are tidy-minded people who simply want an ordered worship service. We want an ordered worship service because we are putting the world in order. We do not fight against flesh and blood, but rather with the gods of chaos." — Douglas Wilson,  Christ and the Gods of Chaos

Right worship is not merely for right-brained saints and it is not right merely because right-brained saints might prefer it. Some might not. But that is beside the point. Right worship is not the kind that any particular personality type likes, it is the type that God likes. He commands what He enjoys. He isn't impressed by any and every act of spontaneity. He isn't against originality, but He is opposed to pride.

"The chief aim of order is to make room for good things to run wild." -- G.K. Chesterton

In my house, we have two rules: (1) obey, and (2) have fun! If you obey, I promise you'll have fun. If you refuse to obey, I promise you no one will be having fun. When discipline must be applied, I remind the kids that I don't want to discipline them, I want them to obey. What I want is alacrity: brisk, cheerful readiness to obey. When that happens, everyone is guaranteed to have a blast.

It is the same with worship. If you try to manufacture fun without obeying, it may be fun for a while... but then Dad shows up. And all the fun is gone. But if you do what Dad says, He promises us that we will have fun. We have no idea the joy He has planned for those who walk in His ways. He withholds no good things from those who love Him and one of the first and most obvious blessings is that His commandments are not burdensome, but a blessing in themselves. David delighted in the Law. He likened it to honey, only better. Honey is sweet, but it borrows its sweetness from God. So, if He can make something that good, how much better is He? All that said, God is a God of order, not of chaos. Chaos isn't as fun as it looks. You can only burn down the city for so long before you burn through all the real estate. But in Christ, the fun is sitting at the Father's right hand and His pleasures are inexhaustible, inextinguishable, and eternal.

"So if we are talking about worship of the God of the Bible, disorderly worship, unstructured worship, froth and bubble worship, is therefore oxymoronic. Right worship is stable, structured, firm, and formed."  — Douglas Wilson,  Christ and the Gods of Chaos

A saint may experience an extemporaneous emotion in the midst of his regular, right worship, but he doesn't push the buttons in the right order in order to produce it or feverishly try to go back after the fact to capture the recipe for replication. He doesn't trying to catch the wind and he doesn't confirm the value of order by its ability to produce the occasional spark. 

"The nations of men, with all their tumults, are a great ocean. This is a figure that Scripture uses for them often. The oceans stand in for the turbulent transformations and upheavals among the nations of the world (Dan. 7:3; Rev. 13:1). And so the difference between structured worship that is God-centered, Christ-honoring, and Bible-believing, and worship that is not, is the difference between an island in the middle of the ocean, like Hawaii, and a huge raft made out of balsa wood.” — Douglas Wilson,  Christ and the Gods of Chaos

Right worship is not aimed at eliminating our emotions, it is aimed at bringing joy and honor to God. He has, in His grace, told us what He likes. We may enjoy our right worship of Him, but we may not use our enjoyment as the metric by which we determine what is right in worship. The standard by which worship is measured is, "Would God like it?" If the answer is, "No," it does not matter how much we might enjoy it.

This all being said, orderly is not godly. Aaron had to fashion the golden calf, but that didn't make it any better. 

Exodus 32:4-8

He [Aaron] received the gold at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, and made a molten calf; and they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!” When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation and said, “Tomorrow shall be a feast to the Lord.” And they rose up early on the morrow, and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play. And the Lord said to Moses, “Go down; for your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves; they have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them; they have made for themselves a molten calf, and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it, and said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!’”

So, here we see that order can be heretical and personal fulfillment can be chaos. The golden calf was orderly and unorthodox. The dancing was decadent and unorthodox. The calf required special attention and the celebrating gave way to special inattention. There is a way to honor God in order and emotion and there is a way to dishonor Him in order and emotion. This is why it is particularly important to obey Him in order to delight in Him.

day no. 16,737: prison culture

"If the capitalists are allowed to erect their constructive capitalist community, I speak quite seriously when I say that I think Prison will become an almost universal experience. It will not necessarily be a cruel or shameful experience: on these points (I concede certainly for the present purpose of debate) it may be a vastly improved experience. The conditions in the prison, very possibly, will be made more humane. But the prison will be made more humane only in order to contain more of humanity... We no longer lock a man up for doing something; we lock him up in the hope of his doing nothing. Given this principle, it is evidently possible to make the mere conditions of punishment more moderate, or—(more probably) more secret." — G.K. Chesterton, Utopia of Usurers

When we equate prison with inhumane conditions, we allow ourselves to be imprisoned by luxuries. If we think prison unpleasant simply because of its ambiance, we will think it suitable if someone lights a candle. 

In short, the State has made slavery more humane in order to enslave more of humanity.

Free room and board, internet access, education, exercise, etc... all have become the standard accommodations of convicts and all of them are now being offered by the State to citizens. These, however, are the razor wire fences going up all around us. A bill passes, an amenity is added or upgraded, a check point is installed. We have watched the walls go up around us like a frog in a warming pot. The prison is under construction and the watchtowers are being installed. Snipers are now climbing the stairs. And we are enjoying movie night in the yard.

When we take the warden's coin we become the warden's men.

Free stuff does not produce free men. Freedom is the ability to fend for yourself. The fact that these words conjure up an image of scrounging only goes to show how catechized by our wardens we have been. The freedom to fend for yourself is the same as the freedom to prosper. Yes, it could fail. But it might not. Prison may guarantee that you never go without a roof over your head or a meal on your plate, but it does so at the price of guaranteeing the roof will never be yours and the menu will never be up for discussion.

day no. 16,736: a foreshadowing of the Lord's prayer

1 Chronicles 29:10-11

Therefore David blessed the LORD in the presence of all the assembly. And David said: “Blessed are you, O LORD, the God of Israel our father, forever and ever. Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is yours. Yours is the kingdom, O LORD, and you are exalted as head above all.”

The kingdom belongs to Christ. He is the Head and to Him belong greatness, power, glory, victory, and majesty. He has all authority in heaven and on earth. David's kingly prayer points us to the greater David's kingly prayer:

Matthew 6:9-13

Our Father which art in heaven,

Hallowed be thy name.

Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done

in earth, as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread.

And forgive us our debts,

as we forgive our debtors.

And lead us not into temptation,

but deliver us from evil:

For thine is the kingdom, and the power,

and the glory, for ever.

Amen.

We pray for Christ's kingdom to come, not go.

We pray for His reign to cover every other thing wherever it is.

We confess His kingdom and power and glory as eternal.

David's prayer foreshadowed Christ. 

Christ's prayer foreshadows Christendom.

day no. 16,735: seventeen years

Today is my marriage's golden birthday.

17 years ago my wife and I were married on the 17th of August in the year of our Lord, 2007.

...

Proverbs 18:22

Whoso findeth a wife findeth a good thing,

and obtaineth favour of the LORD.

...

O happy man, whose soul is filled

With zeal and reverent awe!

His lips to God their honors yield,

His life adorns the law.

A careful providence shall stand

And ever guard thy head,

Shall on the labors of thy hand

Its kindly blessings shed.

[Thy wife shall be a fruitful vine;

Thy children round thy board,

Each like a plant of honor shine,

And learn to fear the Lord.]

The Lord shall thy best hopes fulfil

For months and years to come;

The Lord, who dwells on Zion's hill,

Shall send thee blessings home.

This is the man whose happy eyes

Shall see his house increase;

Shall see the sinking church arise,

Then leave the world in peace.

 —Psalm 128, Isaac Watts

...

My Savior and my King,

Thy beauties are divine;

Thy lips with blessings overflow,

And every grace is thine.

Now make thy glory known,

Gird on thy dreadful sword,

And ride in majesty to spread

The conquests of thy word.

Strike through thy stubborn foes,

Or melt their hearts t' obey,

While justice, meekness, grace, and truth,

Attend thy glorious way.

Thy laws, O God, are right;

Thy throne shall ever stand;

And thy victorious gospel proves

A sceptre in thy hand.

[Thy Father and thy God

Hath without measure shed

His Spirit, like a joyful oil,

T' anoint thy sacred head.]

[Behold, at thy right hand

The Gentile church is seen,

Like a fair bride in rich attire,

And princes guard the queen.]

Fair bride, receive his love,

Forget thy father's house;

Forsake thy gods, thy idol gods,

And pay thy Lord thy vows.

O let thy God and King

Thy sweetest thoughts employ;

Thy children shall his honors sing

In palaces of joy.

 —Psalm 45, Isaac Watts

day no. 16,734: a well-deserved win

"The events of war are uncertain, We cannot ensure success, but we can deserve it." — John Adams

A win can be well-deserved even when it is lost.

Courage cannot guarantee an outcome, but it can confirm success as deserved or defeat as undeserved. If a man was guaranteed a particular outcome, courage would no longer be required. But courage is the application of a moral obligation to fight for what is right whether or not one wins. Courage can lose the war, but it cannot lose respect. We cannot ensure an outcome by being the kind of men we ought to be, but by doing so, we ensure that we were the kind of men who could win without blushing.

2 Chronicles 19:11

Deal courageously, and may the LORD be with the upright!

We fight for the Lord is with us. We lay our lives down for His Name and pray that He protects them through the fray, but whatever the result of the fray, we say, "Thy will be done," and prove ourselves worthy of victory or legacy... or both.

"No one can guarantee success in war, but only deserve it." — Winston Churchill

By grace through faith in Christ alone, we can be the kind of men who wear the title of saint well. Saints sometimes shut the mouths of lions and sometimes are shut inside them. Saints sometimes escape from prison and sometimes die inside one. The saint is not determined by the outcome of his circumstances but the outcome of his faith, which saves his soul and sends a message to all onlookers that Christ is King for whom we count it an honor to live or die.

Revelation 12:11, 1 Peter 1:9

They have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death... obtaining the outcome of [their] faith, the salvation of [their] souls.

Sometimes a saint saves his skin, but he always saves his soul. He is prepared to lose his life because in Christ he already has eternal life.

Daniel 3:16-18

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.”

Courage is facing down temptations and tempters with certainty of faith and uncertainty of outcome. The saint knows that God can save and so sticks by Him though fully prepared to suffer for a moment at the hands of men if it comes to that.

2 Samuel 10:12

Be of good courage, and let us play the men for our people, and for the cities of our God: and the LORD do that which seemeth Him good.

day no. 16,733: an aristocracy of globe-trotters

"Internationalism is in any case hostile to democracy. I do not say it is incompatible with it; but any combination of the two will be a compromise between the two. The only purely popular government is local, and founded on local knowledge. The citizens can rule the city because they know the city; but it will always be an exceptional sort of citizen who has or claims the right to rule over ten cities, and these remote and altogether alien cities. All Irishmen may know roughly the same sort of things about Ireland; but it is absurd to say they all know the same things about Iceland, when they may include a scholar steeped in Icelandic sagas or a sailor who has been to Iceland. To make all politics cosmopolitan is to create an aristocracy of globe-trotters." — G.K. Chesterton, What I Saw In America (1921)

God loves nations and Christendom will eventually conquer each and every one of them. This will occur without them being absorbed into one meta-nation. Nations are as different as individuals, but can form leagues like people can form alliances and marriages. No two people could be more different than any man and any woman, but any two of them can come together in covenant before Christ to form a union. The same can be said for nations. They cannot create the same kind of covenant per se, but they can covenant. This, however, does not require them to dissolve their idiosyncrasies, rather it codifies and protects them.  A marriage does not force the man to surrender his masculinity or the woman her femininity, rather it requires them to retain them respectively for the benefit of the union. Nations do not need to mirror each other in order to be in covenant, but they do need to rally back to an agreed upon center. That center is Christ, the arche. He is the only One who can support that kind of pressure and relieve that kind of tension.

"It is a wild folly to suppose that nations will love each other because they are alike. They will never really do that unless they are really alike; and then they will not be nations. Nations can love each other as men and women love each other, not because they are alike but because they are different." — G.K. Chesterton, What I Saw In America (1921)

Internationalism assumes that a few well-traveled tourists should be in charge of a world full of well-established citizens. It elevates wanderlust to wisdom and cliff's notes to commandments. 

"What we should try to do is make politics as local as possible. Keep the politicians near enough to kick them." — G.K. Chesterton

Politicians should be local enough to be kicked, instead of foreign enough to be forgotten. No one has the know how of a nation not their own. There is much one nation may learn from another, but one of those things is certainly not how to be native.

Revelation 7:9

After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands.

In the end, nations will be retained for Christ's sake and the salvation of its citizens. These individuals will be unique from each other over all and similar to their fellow citizens in nationality and custom, and covenantally the same as those from other nations who worship the Lamb of God. Their respective words for "Lord" may sound different in their native tongues, but their translation will be the same, i.e. "Jesus Christ, King of all kings, Lord of all lands, Head of all nations, Ruler of all creation."

day no. 16,732: a legacy is leaving behind what you first sought

1 Chronicles 28:8

Now therefore in the sight of all Israel, the assembly of the LORD, and in the hearing of our God, observe and seek out all the commandments of the LORD your God, that you may possess this good land and leave it for an inheritance to your children after you forever.

The legacy of those who love the Lord is a good land left to their loved ones. Those who seek the Lord and His commandments love their descendants well. A good man will possess the land and his children will inherit it from him. A good man, however, ensures his children inherit more than the land, but also the love of the Lord that secured it in the first place. No land can be held without the land's Lord permitting it. A good inheritance includes the good habit of observing God's laws as good and the gratitude for the goodness that comes from keeping them. A legacy, then, is something you leave behind by putting the law of God before everything else and seeking it with all your heart, soul, mind, and might.

A legacy is leaving behind what you first sought.

Matthew 6:33

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

day no. 16,731: the educrats achieve what they want

“The word success can of course be used in two senses. It may be used with reference to a thing serving its immediate and peculiar purpose, as of a wheel going around; or it can be used with reference to a thing adding to the general welfare, as of a wheel being a useful discovery. It is one thing to say that Smith’s flying machine is a failure, and quite another to say that Smith has failed to make a flying machine. Now this is very broadly the difference between the old English public schools and the new democratic schools. Perhaps the old public schools are (as I personally think they are) ultimately weakening the country rather than strengthening it, and are therefore, in that ultimate sense, inefficient. But there is such a thing as being efficiently inefficient. You can make your flying ship so that it flies, even if you also make it so that it kills you. Now the public school system may not work satisfactorily, but it works; the public schools may not achieve what we want, but they achieve what they want. The popular elementary schools do not in that sense achieve anything at all.” — G.K. Chesterton, What’s Wrong With The World

Government schools are good at what they do. The educrats achieve what they want. They produce the kind of person they want. They are good at catechizing kids into the kind of citizens they desire. It is a very successful method of discipleship. They may not achieve what the parents of the children wanted, but they achieve what the State wanted, so by that metric, they are very successful.

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

When it comes an educated public, State schools are a failure; when it comes to a truncated public, they are a success. If their goal had been to train free men in liberal arts, their failure would be obvious, but since their goal has been to create lackeys for the State, their success is equally obvious.

"In a word, we may reasonably hope for the virtual abolition of education when 'I'm as good as you' has fully had its way. All incentives to learn and all penalties for not learning will be prevented; who are they to overtop their fellows? And anyway the teachers – or should I say, 'nurses' – will be far too busy reassuring the dunces and patting them on the back to waste any time on real teaching. We shall no longer have to plan and toil to spread imperturbable conceit and incurable ignorance among men. The little vermin themselves will do it for us. Of course, this would not follow unless all education became state education. But it will. That is part of the same movement. Penal taxes, designed for that purpose, are liquidating the Middle Class, the class who were prepared to save and spend and make sacrifices in order to have their children privately educated. The removal of this class, besides linking up with the abolition of education, is, fortunately, an inevitable effect of the spirit that says 'I’m as good as you.'" — C.S. Lewis, Screwtape Proposes A Toast

Egalitarianism produces the kind of citizens Democracies desires. Despotic Democracies cannot survive free thinking free men and women, so they grab them early to ensure they never become them.

 "A democracy does not want great men.” — C.S. Lewis, Screwtape Proposes A Toast

State education is designed to produce a lowest common denominator citizenry.

Christians, of all peoples, who ought to know better, have no business subjecting their children to this kind of dehumanizing catechism.

Ephesians 6:4

Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up with the training and instruction of the Lord.

day no. 16,730: prevention is worse than disease

"This is the fundamental fallacy in the whole business of preventive medicine. Prevention is not better than cure. Cutting off a man's head is not better than curing his headache; it is not even better than failing to cure it. And it is the same if a man is in revolt, even a morbid revolt. Taking the heart out of him by slavery is not better than leaving the heart in him, even if you leave it a broken heart. Prevention is not only not better than cure; prevention is even worse than disease. Prevention means being an invalid for life, with the extra exasperation of being quite well. I will ask God, but certainly not man, to prevent me in all my doings. But the decisive and discussable form of this is well summed up in that phrase about the health adviser of society. I am sure that those who speak thus have something in their minds larger and more illuminating than the other two propositions we have considered. They do not mean that all citizens should decide, which would mean merely the present vague and dubious balance. They do not mean that all medical men should decide, which would mean a much more unbalanced balance. They mean that a few men might be found who had a consistent scheme and vision of a healthy nation, as Napoleon had a consistent scheme and vision of an army. It is cold anarchy to say that all men are to meddle in all men's marriages. It is cold anarchy to say that any doctor may seize and segregate anyone he likes. But it is not anarchy to say that a few great hygienists might enclose or limit the life of all citizens, as nurses do with a family of children. It is not anarchy, it is tyranny." — G.K. Chesterton, Eugenics and Other Evils

Preventive Medicine is not merely the suggestion that most men could be healthy, but that all men ought to be. It presumes to know what healthy is for every man and how to produce it in any man and that some men have the authority to force all men to conform their habits accordingly. But prevention fails to take into account that health is a balance. Too much vitamin C for one person may not be enough for another. Not enough fresh air for one man could be too much for another. This isn't to say that there are no factors worth considering when it comes to health per se, but it is to say that we should not mandate them. First of all, the scientists do not know as much as they imagine that they do; and secondly, even if they did, why are all men required to be as healthy as they can be. Some men might choose to risk their health to explore the seas or to dig deep into the heart of the earth. Some men might rather risk their health on glory then hoard it for getting older. Blood and snot are not hygienic, but they are part of being born and growing up. Skinned knees grow character even if they cause an infection. Birth may be risky, but so is enforced infertility. In the end, a man must have the freedom to lay down his life and lose it if he is ever going to have it taken up in finding it.

Matthew 16:25

For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.

day no. 16,729: property is the art of democracy

“The average man cannot cut clay into the shape of a man; but he can cut earth into the shape of a garden; and though he arranges it with red geraniums and blue potatoes in alternate straight lines, he is still an artist; because he has chosen. The average man cannot paint the sunset whose colors he admires; but he can paint his own house with what color he chooses, and though he paints it pea green with pink spots, he is still an artist; because that is his choice. Property is merely the art of the democracy. It means that every man should have something that he can shape in his own image, as he is shaped in the image of heaven. But because he is not God, but only a graven image of God, his self-expression must deal with limits.” — G.K. Chesterton, What’s Wrong With The World

A man must tend his own garden because it really is his to tend to and because God has told him to do it. Animated clay must act upon inanimate clay according to the commands of Christ. No man can make land, but any man can make his land something that it wasn't before. What that something is should come from what God has commanded, but because we live in a fallen world where the animated clay presumes the place of its Animator, we see men attempting to create the world in their own image according to their muddied desires. Men were made to shape things. God charged man with the task of ruling and subduing the entire earth. God fashioned him for such a time and for such a purpose as that. His ability may be limited because he is not God, but his responsibility is limitless because it comes from God. He has not forgotten His charge and He does not abandon His charges. He loves man, remembers His frame, forgives his sin, and commands him to get back to the good works prepared beforehand for him.

day no. 16,728: saving a nation to save the world

Their dead are marked on English stones,

their loves on English trees, 

How little is the prize they win,

how mean a coin for these -- 

How small a shrivelled laurel-leaf

lies crumpled here and curled: 

They died to save their country and

they only saved the world. 

by G.K. Chesterton, The English Graves

A man who loves his nation loves the world. In living or dying for his homeland, he defends the love of all homelands and the earth that they all call home. A man cannot love another nation if he does not first love his own. He cannot import patriotism without first cultivating his own. 

Matthew 19:19

Honor your father and mother, and, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

We cannot honor another's father and mother by dishonoring our own. A man who loves his parents appreciates another man who loves his. While their fatherlands may be at odds, their sons are in sync in their respective loyalties.

By dying for a land one dies for all lands. By fighting for the fatherland, one fights for the Father of all lands and His respective assignments of time and boundary unique to each person.

"For it is a wild folly to suppose that nations will love each other because they are alike. They will never really do that unless they are really alike; and then they will not be nations. Nations can love each other as men and women love each other, not because they are alike but because they are different." -- G.K. Chesterton, What I Saw In America

Nations are different by necessity as men and women are different by design. A man loves a woman precisely because she is different. We ought to expect our neighbors to value their nations the way we do our own and in so doing develop an appreciation of nations not their own. A man must be at home in his masculinity in order to receive a woman's attraction to it. If he despises his manliness, he will despise any woman who is attracted to it.

All that to say, the best way to learn to love all nations is by first loving your own and then looking not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.

"In order to teach internationalism we must talk nationalism. We must make the nations as nations less odious or mysterious to each other. We do not make men love each other by describing a monster with a million arms and legs, but by describing the men as men, with their separate and even solitary emotions." -- G.K. Chesterton, What I Saw In America

As much as nations of men have at variance, they have in common. While they may differ in customs as nations, they are similar in composition as men. Any man who honors his father and mother can immediately appreciate another man who honors his own. Nations must be different enough to retain nationalities, but similar enough to remember their humanities.

day no. 16,727: the hierarchy of grace

“For the very nature of grace is to unite all things to the main thing . . . Then the Spirit of grace, seeing there are many useful things in this world, has a uniting, knitting, subordinating power to rank all things so they may agree to and help the main thing . . . Little streams help the main stream by running into it; so grace has a subordinating power over all things in the world, so that they help the main. ‘One thing have I desired’ and I desire other things if they help the main thing.” — Richard Sibbes, A Breathing After God

Grace is an agent of order. It gives not only the respective graces, but places them in right relation respective to the others. Children are, for example, a great grace of God; but the grace of God cannot permit them to rule the roost. God, in His grace, has commanded the father and mother to instruct their children and forbade them from being disciplined by the baby. The parents honor the child by not submitting to it because they're in submission to God's decretive order. Discipline is simply learning how to order our affections. It is instruction on what goes where and to what degree it goes anywhere.

"St. Augustine defines virtue as ordo amoris, the ordinate condition of the affections in which every object is accorded that kind of degree of love which is appropriate to it." — C.S. Lewis, The Abolition of Man

The grace of God would keep you from loving some things to certain degrees. God has determined that certain things merit more love than others with respect to each other. It is His grace that reveals this and enables us to conform our hearts to this by His Spirit according to His Word.

Colossians 3:5

Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry:

By the grace of God, we can put inordinate affections to death. This does not require the killing of all affections, but rather the reconstitution of required affections. You cannot love without loving, but you can love something in a way or to a degree that is unloving to it. Idolatry is assigning more to something than it deserves. We can make an idol of anything by revering, fearing, desiring, or wanting it more than it merits. But in Christ, we better appreciate everything else. We love things better by loving them less if we have previously held them with inordinate affection.

Matthew 6:33

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

Other things are only safe when they play second fiddle to the kingdom of God and Christ its King.

2 Chronicles 27:6

So Jotham became mighty, because he ordered his ways before the LORD his God.

day no. 16,726: a softball question

"Bret Harte tells the truth about the wildest, the grossest, the most rapacious of all the districts of the earth—the truth that, while it is very rare indeed in the world to find a thoroughly good man, it is rarer still, rare to the point of monstrosity, to find a man who does not either desire to be one, or imagine that he is one already." — G.K. Chesterton, Varied Types

A good man may be hard to find, but a man who wants to be good is hardly rare. Furthermore, a good man is a hard man. He is hard for his people. A bad man is soft, effeminate; but make no mistake, he is hard on his people. He has conquered his fear of failure by celebrating his shame. He calls attention to his courage in embracing his cowardice. And modern man has, in the process, accomplished what Chesterton warned... he has become a monster.

"If you think tough men are dangerous, wait until you see what weak men are capable of." — Jordan B. Peterson

day no. 16,725: the whole world to ourselves

"Is it not true that Christianity was meant to conquer the whole world for Christ? Yes it is. We have already said that we think of Christian theism, when we think of Christianity. That covers the whole earth. If we can successfully defend the fortress of Christian theism we have the whole world to ourselves. There is then no standing room left for the enemy. We wage offensive as well as defensive warfare. The two cannot be separated. But we need not leave the fort in order to wage offensive warfare.” — Cornelius Van Til, In The Intellectual Battle, Apologetics Coordinates and Forewarns

All of Christ's enemies are being assembled as His footstool. They, therefore, have no leg to stand on, but will only be stood upon. Christ's feet will step on their necks. There is no foundation for them to stand on. The ones who do not keep Christ's commands, remember, are like sinking sand. They cannot endure the coming of His Kingdom. The flood of the knowledge of the glory of God overwhelms their strongholds and the collapse of their greatness is great. When they clash with Christ their crash is catastrophic.

The meek with have the world to themselves. There is no future for the froward. The entire earth is the Lord's, so wherever we go, we have the home court advantage. There is no standing room for the enemy. Therefore, when we go out to take the fight to him, we don't have to leave the fort to do so. We never have to forfeit the comfort of His presence to fight the presence of the enemy. We live under His dominion wherever we go to dominate. The Christian never plays away games. He is always at home wherever he fights, for God is his fortress and His fortifications encompass everything.

day no. 16,724: a ticker-tape parade for the patriarchy

On this day in history my grandfather welcomed his first son into the world and on this day 39 years later that son married my mother and established the household into which I would be born 14 months later. Here's to the birth of my father and the vows of my parents, without which I would not be. These words and this gratitude is a result of their fruitfulness and God's faithfulness. He is the Father of all fathers and establishes that which is established.

Ephesians 3:14-15

For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named.

1 Peter 5:10

But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, establish, strengthen, settle you.

Psalm 90:16-17

Let thy work appear unto thy servants, and thy glory unto their children. And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us: and establish thou the work of our hands upon us; yea, the work of our hands establish thou it.

day no. 16,723: our production and our passing

"If the Queen had stood for any novel or fantastic imperial claims, the whole would have seemed a nightmare; the whole was successful because she stood, and no one could deny that she stood, for the humblest, the shortest and the most indestructible of human gospels, that when all troubles and troublemongers have had their say, our work can be done till sunset, our life can be lived till death." — G.K. Chesterton, Varied Types

Man was born from trouble as the sparks fly upward (Job 5:7), but some see this as a license to make more trouble than necessary. Troubles we will have, troublemongers we must have none of. Christian government is limited. This limits the amount of trouble it can cause. Because we have troubles, we must have government, but because all have sinned, we must be on guard against governors. It turns out that many of their attempts to address our troubles actually creates more trouble than it addresses. This is why we are to pray for our governors to mind their own beeswax and mind ours a lot less.

1 Timothy 2:1-3

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. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour.

We pray for peace and quiet which begins with a government that doesn't disturb the peace. Kings provide peace for their people most often by simply leaving their people alone. When the government serves as God's deacon of wrath, it shouldn't show up much unless called upon. The kind of State we are called to pray for is one that isn't constantly tripped over or bumped into.

When we have this, we are able to work until we go to bed and live until we go home. Every man should be left to do his own work and his own dying without much interference or involvement from his government. Our production and our passing should be ours.

God, make it so and give us governors with self-control so that we might be free to control our days and our destinies in peace and quiet before Christ, the King. Amen.