day no. 17,536: secular stud farms

“More is involved in raising up a godly seed than for a man to have dogmatic convictions about birth control, matched only by his unwillingness to feed, read to, educate, pay tuition for, bestow upon, and love the results of his dogmatism. There are no promised covenantal blessings for the self-absorbed proprietors of stud farms.” ― Douglas Wilson, Concise and to the Point

Some men have a lot of thoughts about having a lot of kids but do not have a lot of vision or commitment to raising those same kids. They want to be patriarchs, like the godly men of old, but instead they end up like men on the assembly line making widgets for somebody else. Kids are a blessing, but they are not an automatic blessings. They are always a resource, but the question is if they will be a resource for good or for evil. People are productive. They will either produce light or they will produce darkness. Children are compared to arrows. They will either be shot into the heart of darkness or they will blot out of the sun.

Uninvolved fathers of large numbers of children are merely secular studs. They strut around like a bull, but all of their children are taken away and eaten by someone else.

day no. 17,535: fighting to win or striving to survive?

"If you will not fight for the right when you can easily win without bloodshed; if you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance of survival." ― Winston Churchill, The Gathering Storm

Pursuit is perhaps one of the most difficult principles of war to consistently apply. More often than not, people fight to the point of defeating their enemies, not to the point of seeing their principles established. Men argue and fight for the sake of destroying their foe's premises, but they fall short of proving their own.

"Failure to pursue frequently reveals that the objective in the campaign was not victory, but rather some version of the 'upper hand.' Once we have fought to the point where we might be left alone for a while, we stop. This often happens because Christians are peace-loving people, and this sometimes gets them into trouble. Too often we drag a problem out and make the whole thing last ten times longer than it has to last. But when the principle of pursuit is employed, it is clear that victory is the objective." ― Douglas Wilson, Rules for Reformers

Too many settle for the upper hand when they should be striving to have their arms raised in victory. We do not fight when we should because we like peace. Peace is good and it should be preferred to war as a goal, but it should be be picked over war in practice. We must fight for peace, not forfeit peace by refusing to fight. We must wage peace.

"We are not to fight to the point of predominance, we are to fight to the point of complete victory... Pursuit is the principle neglected by the currently strong. Many wars have been prolonged because the victorious army did not press its advantage in the immediate aftermath of a critical battle." ― Douglas Wilson, Rules for Reformers

It is easy to enjoy a victory than it is to keep fighting. It is easier to settle for lesser peace than it is to strive for peach on earth. In this, however, we prove that the love of our neighbor an enemy is not part of our calculus. If it were, we would push harder in order to put an end to the possibility of future wars. We would not kick the can down the road to fight another day, we would rise to our full height and fight now in order to put an end to all the fighting.

"Willingness to pursue when pursuit is a possibility reveals, like nothing else reveals, what the true objective was. An unwillingness to pursue is equally revelatory." ― Douglas Wilson, Rules for Reformers

Our refusal to fight when victory is near is an indictment against us. We do not want to win, but we do want to pop some champagne in the winner's circle. 

day no. 17,529: angel blades

"Not everything can be resolved through kindness, which is why angels carry swords, not flowers.” ― anonymous

We must wage war on earth as it once was waged in Heaven. 

Michael and his angels warred against the Devil and won a great victory. 

Blows were dealt and banishments were dealt out.

Angels do not open carry for the optics, they do so for the practical need. You never know when you will have to put down some demonic dog of Hell. 

Learn from the angels: stay strapped or get clapped.

day no. 17,511: don't run in a hurry

“Don’t run in a hurry, run with a farmer’s patience.” — Brooks Potteiger

Runners should run, but not frantically. They should strive for the finish line, but not grow impatient in the meantime. Running includes a commitment to keep running. It isn't sprinting until you cannot continue, it is persevering in the running. Running is patient diligence.

2 Timothy 2:1-7

You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus, and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also. Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him. An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. It is the hard-working farmer who ought to have the first share of the crops. Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything.

Think it over. Be in it, but be in it for the long haul. Do not lift so little that you do not bring anything across the finish line, but don't lift so much that you cannot reach the finish line. Yoke yourself to Christ and carry what you can and more to the point, keep on going until the end.

Philippians 3:12-15

Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you.

Do not run like someone who doesn't have to run, but do not run like someone who has lost sight of the finish line.

day no. 17,510: national blessings and curses

Revelation 2:14

I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balac to cast a stumblingblock before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication.

If you can't beat them, get them to beat themselves. Balaam could not curse the people of Israel, so he convinced them to curse themselves. God was not out of to get His people, but Balaam knew that there were things He would not tolerate, regardless of who was doing them. So, he enticed them to do that which would obligate God to act against them. 

The long and short of it is this. America was and is a Christian nation established by their covenant with Him. Covenants have blessings and curses that attend them. We are in the predicament we are in because we have obligated God to curse us by violating the terms and conditions of the covenant. Our enemies cannot curse us or conquer us, but we can and will be cursed and conquered if we abandon God and the blessings that come in obeying Him.

day no. 17,508: repent or die

'I will therefore tell you my best advise, and heartily pray God you may earnestly follow it. All these plagues that before you have heard rehearsed, famine, pestilence, sedition, wars, destruction of countries, captivity of people, and alterations of states, are the instruments of God sent and powered on the people for their sins, that they should be sorry and repent them of their former wicked life, call to God for mercy, and lead a new life in holiness and righteousness all the days of their life: which if you will earnestly do, no doubt but as God is merciful, so will He use mercy towards you. For God that never deceived any, but abhors all practices, all deceit, and all practicers (the workers of deceit) promised it by the mouth of His prophet Ezekiel. If (he says) the ungodly will turn away from all his sins that he has done, and will keep all my commandments, and of the thing that is just and right, doubtless he shall live and not die. For all the sins that he did before, shall not be thought upon anymore: but in his righteousness that he has done, he shall live. For I have no pleasure in the death of a sinner (says God) but that he should repent him of his wicked life and live &etc. It follows in the prophet thus: wherefore repent and return from your wickedness, and your wickedness shall not be your destruction. Cast from you all your ungodliness, make you a new heart and a new spirit: wherefore will you die, o you house of Israel (that is, all such as trust to be saved by Christ) seeing I have no pleasure in the death of him that dies, say the Lord God. Turn therefore, and you shall live...

You have innumerable examples of the great mercy of God toward all that repented truly, and called for mercy. As of the city of Nineveh, whom although God had threatened utterly to destroy them, yet when God saw they were penitent for their former wicked life, and called unto him for mercy, He withdrew his plague, and held out His merciful hand over them: even so you (good countrymen and true English hearts) if you will in time earnestly repent you of your sins, leave your idolatry, and honor and worship God truly, as you were taught in blessed King Edward's time, abhor the fantasies and foolish traditions of men, and cleave to the sincere word of God, and be desirous for the knowledge of it: leave your blasphemy and vain swearing and horrible forswearing and perjury, no longer hate your country, but be true and faithful to it, and by all godly means seek the wealth and safety of it: if you will obey God's commandments before your governors, and your governors in that is godly, honest, and just, and nothing else: If you will leave your bawdry, whoredom, and improper relations, and drive out of all places whores, whoremongers, and whorehouses, and all such as favor and maintain them: If you will abstain from cruel murdering of the saints of God and innocents, and rather yourselves to be content to suffer all martyrdom, then you will embrew your fingers in their blood, or consent to it: If you will leave oppressing of your neighbors, you subtlety, craft, and deceit, and yourselves leave to love greediness, and inordinate desire of the trash of this world: If you leave your inward hat reed, grudge and malice one to another, if the nobility will love and cherish the commonality, and the commoners honor and love the nobility: If one will show himself a brother and neighbor indeed to another: than no doubt if you do these things from the bottom of your heart, that the mouth and heart agree together, your sayings and doings be all one: than shall you perceive, that God will be easily entreated to turn. Then may you boldly ask of God in Christ's name, and your desires shall be heard and granted. But you may in no wise dissemble with Him, as the Israelites did, when they said they would commit no more idolatry, and yet kept their idols, as you pulled down you images, but yet kept them secretly in your chambers: not yet as Judas Iscariot did, who lamented his sins and repented, but returned not to God: nor yet as yourselves did dissemble in the last sweat, while God's whip was in your necks, but you must cleanly do away the old man and put on the new: you must refuse and cast away all evils, and do that which is good, and ever study to do that shall pleases God, and in no wise look (as Lot's wife did) backward: but still go forward. And then if you call to God for mercy, putting your full and only trust in Him, He will hear you, and take from you those plagues that lie on you, and the other which most certainly (if you repent not, hang over you, and will come upon you). Then will He send you His benediction for malediction, plenty for famine, health for pestilence, peace for was, quietness for trouble, for cruel tyranny, a godly and just government: for sedition, such force and power, that you being a few, shall be able to withstand all the tyrannies of the world, and enemies of God and our country, and utterly confound them and destroy them. You shall avoid the eternal pains of hell prepared for sinners: and at length you shall be sue also to make a change from your earthly country to the Heavenly Paradise: from variable England, to the constant Jerusalem: from the company of men, to the fellowship of angels: from mutable and frowning countenances of worldly powers, to the unchangeable and most comfortable sight of the King of all Kings, our most merciful Eternal Heavenly Father. To whom with the Son and the Holy Ghost, be all honor, praise, and glory, now and forever. Amen." — John Ponet, A Short Treatise on Political Power

Policies cannot take the place of repentance.

day no. 17,507: lambs with teeth

"When the fox preaches, beware you geese." — John Ponet, A Short Treatise on Political Power

All preachers have an end in mind… some more transparently than others. It is not wrong or selfish to have an end in mind. It is not even wrong or selfish to conceal that end. Sometimes the end requires it. As in a fisherman baiting his hook to deceive the fish. The same can be said when fishing for men.

That said, a hearer would be wise to consider what end the preacher may have and to contemplate whether it is possible that his end is motivating or marring the means he is willing to employ to achieve it.

Belly pinched wolves have a vested interest in securing their dinner and lambs make a captive, if not delicious, audience. 

"Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote." — Benjamin Franklin

Lambs would do well to mitigate their risk by reminding the wolves that they also have teeth. This keeps preachers honest and it accounts for the possibility of mixed motives.

day no. 17,501: entropy and novelty

"We have remarked that one reason offered for being a progressive is that things naturally tend to grow better. But the only real reason for being a progressive is that things naturally tend to grow worse. The corruption in things is not only the best argument for being progressive; it is also the only argument against being conservative. The conservative theory would really be quite sweeping and unanswerable if it were not for this one fact. But all conservatism is based upon the idea that if you leave things alone you leave them as they are. But you do not. If you leave a thing alone you leave it to a torrent of change. If you leave a white post alone it will soon be a black post. If you particularly want it to be white you must be always painting it again; that is, you must be always having a revolution. Briefly, if you want the old white post you must have a new white post." — G. K. Chesterton. Orthodoxy

Entropy and atrophy are the best arguments for being progressive. In other words, we have to advance and change or we will be worse off. If we don't apply a new coat of paint to the white fence, we will have a gray fence, which is bad news for those who loved the old white fence. So, in order to keep the old white fence, we must have a new one; otherwise we will be left with a dull, gray one.

Entropy and atrophy are also the best arguments against being conservative. In other words, we cannot merely seek to keep what we once had because it won't stay the thing we had if we do not do something. You cannot keep the manna overnight. It becomes worms. A living dog is better than a dead lion because a living dog is constantly regenerating itself by breathing, eating, barking, chasing, digging, napping, etc... but a dead dog is merely becoming a pile of maggots.

Christians must be progressive and conservative. We must retain the work of the Spirit and we must by the Spirit go forward. We must preserve the Bible, but not by keeping it quarantined. We keep it by reading it and keeping to it. If we treat its doctrines like dead things perfectly organized like a bunch of dead butterflies, it will look nice, but it won't do anything. On the other hand, if we seek to go ahead Spirit led never knowing what comes next or what we'll do about it, we will end up reinventing some of the oldest heresies without even realizing it. There is nothing new under the Sunday service and blasphemies are especially easy to invent when you haven't read the manual. Novelty can kill just as easily as entropy.

So, all of that to say, we must preserve the good works and movements of the Spirit in our history and we have strive ahead in the Spirit to achieve the good works prepared beforehand for us tomorrow. We must look back on our justification and look forward to our sanctification. This requires a Christ-centered conservatism and progressiveness. 

day no. 17,500: theft is theft

"God ordained that man should get his living by the sweat of the brow: and that he should be the more forced to labor, the distinction of things and property (mine, and yours) was (contrary to Plato's opinion) ordained, being apparent by these two laws: Thou shall not steal: Thou shall not covet your neighbors wife, not his servant, nor his maid, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is his." — John Ponet, A Short Treatise on Political Power

Stuff and my stuff is a great distinction. Some stuff is my stuff. Some stuff is your stuff. The rest of the stuff is someone else's stuff. Knowing where your stuff ends and where someone else's begins is one of the basic foundations of life. Property rights are human rights provided by God Himself. Life, liberty, and property come from God and cannot be taken away by men or magistrates. They may infringe upon those rights, but they cannot annul them. 

Therefore, be content with what you have and work hard for what you want. Do not envy your neighbor or attempt to take what is his. Do what you can with what you have and be grateful for that which you gain through your own your diligence and initiative.

Property rights make charity possible. If nothing is mine, I can't give it. If I'm forced to give it, it isn't charity. If it is stolen from me to give to you, it isn't voluntary. If nothing is yours, I can't acquire it for you. Charity presupposes property rights. Just as we see in the Scriptures.

"There was such charity among people, that of their own free will, they gave and sold all they had, to relieve the misery of their poor brethren: who for impotency, or for multitude of children, were not with their labor able to get sufficient to relieve their necessity. Nor of this so given might every man take as much as lusted for, but to everyone (according to his necessity) sufficient was distributed. So that it stood in the liberality of the giver, and not in the liberty of the taker." — John Ponet, A Short Treatise on Political Power

Charity must be a product of the generosity of the giver, not the lust of the beggar. True charity cannot be extracted by force, be it physical, emotional, or legislative. If it has to be taken by force, it is not charity. Fraternity by force is tyranny. Charity by force is larceny.

"If they do it, while they pretend (but mean it not) to bring others to Heaven, they may be sure to bring themselves to Hell." — John Ponet, A Short Treatise on Political Power

If a tyrant says, "the poor in spirit are closer to Christ," and so takes it conveniently upon himself to usher his people into a closer walk with God by stealing all of their property, God may comfort His people with increased intimacy as they mourn their loss, but He will visit the tyrant with increased hostility when He ushers him to Hell. Only free people can be charitable people.

"Thou shall not steal, thou shall not covet anything that is your neighbors: and so it stabilizes and confirms, that everyone may justly keep that is his own, and none may take it from him by any means against his will, be he king or kaiser."  — John Ponet, A Short Treatise on Political Power

Theft is theft regardless of who the thief is. Whether it be your neighbor or your governor, it is still stealing. Plunder is plunder, even if they pass a law saying they can be pirates.

day no. 17,497: shame faced

"We have deliberately neglected this great heritage of high national sentiment. We have made our public schools the strongest walls against a whisper of the honour of England. And we have had our punishment in this strange and perverted fact that, while a unifying vision of patriotism can ennoble bands of brutal savages or dingy burghers, and be the best thing in their lives, we, who are--the world being judge--humane, honest, and serious individually, have a patriotism that is the worst thing in ours. What have we done, and where have we wandered, we that have produced sages who could have spoken with Socrates and poets who could walk with Dante, that we should talk as if we have never done anything more intelligent than found colonies and kick niggers? We are the children of light, and it is we that sit in darkness. If we are judged, it will not be for the merely intellectual transgression of failing to appreciate other nations, but for the supreme spiritual transgression of failing to appreciate ourselves." — G.K. Chesterton, A Defense of Patriotism

If western civilization falls, it won't be for a lack of interest in other cultures, it will be for a lack of commitment to our own. Our culture is the only one which can appreciate anything good other cultures may have to offer. Other cultures do not value other cultures. If diversity is to be maintained in any God-fearing way, it must be through a Christian society that upholds the ability to value others without forfeiting what makes any kind of varied appreciation possible.

We are not inferior to others in our talents and gifts, but we may be inferior in our love of our own culture. Other cultures know what they are about and they love what they have accomplished. Only ours is sheepish and sometimes even ashamed of what we have accomplished. And even then, it is only by the Christian metric that this shame is produced. Without Christendom, there is no shame in light of any abuses. This is proven by the lack of shame or apology offered from other, invading cultures who have no qualms about extinguishing Christendom from the face of the earth. 

day no. 17,496: parasite princes and suffering servants

"He (i.e. God) has no other way to let the differences appear to men's eyes between His servants and parasite princes, than only by persecution." — John Ponet, A Short Treatise on Political Power

A Christian prince would not dare betray his God by betraying His people. Parasite princes, however, reveal their true nature in oppressing the very ones they have been elected to represent. Persecution reveals which uniforms the sides are wearing.

Philippians 1:28-29

And in nothing terrified by your adversaries: which is to them an evident token of perdition, but to you of salvation, and that of God. For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake.

Do not shrink back from suffering, but instead, lean into it when and if it comes in order to prove who you are and to reveal who your persecutors are in the process.

"If he that is persecuted, feels in his conscience, that he may do God greater service and glorify by suffering than by fleeing, he ought rather to suffer a thousand deaths, that to flee one foot. But if his conscience witnesses with him that he may do God greater glory by fleeing that by tarrying, but is bound by the commandment to depart. 'If they persecute you in one city,' says Christ, 'flee to another.' And he did not only teach it, but did it himself, forsaking Jewry, and going into Galilee, when he heard John the Baptist was laid by the heels, because the time was not yet come, wherein he was appointed to glorify God." — John Ponet, A Short Treatise on Political Power

There is glory in going down with the ship if that is the post God has called you to keep and there is no shame in living to fight another day if God has given you leave and called you to regroup in order to jump back into the fray another day. We can defend the city or we can flee the city to try to save the country and ultimately the city at a later date, but we cannot merely operate out of self-preservation for the one who seeks to save his life will lose it.

"Seeing that God wills princes commandments should not be obeyed in all things, but will have His rather suffer a thousand deaths, than do anything that is evil: and since also many evils and mischiefs may follow in this life, where wicked princes will may stand for laws, men ought, both for God's sake and commandment, abstain to obey such commandments, and cleave unto this maxim: We must obey God rather than man, for whose sake if we lose both goods and life, we ought to rejoice, that we be called to serve him, and not doubt, but as He is able to recompense it, so will He (according to His promise) reward it." — John Ponet, A Short Treatise on Political Power

Disobeying tyrannical orders honors God and loves our neighbor. We do not love God or our neighbor by complying with ungodly demands are wicked restrictions. We must not be hellbent on doing what we want, but we must not be bent over by whatever our overlords dictate. We must be willing to obey things we don't like and we must not disobey things simply because we do not like them. If our first allegiance is to God then we will do what we can to obey the state where and when we can, but we will also remember that the state is God's servant, not our god.

day no. 17,491: nuptial nations

"Instead of the old social distinction between those who are married and those who are unmarried, there will be a distinction between those who are married and those who are really married. Society might even become divided into two societies; which is perilously approximate to Disraeli’s famous exaggeration about England divided into two nations. But whether England be actually so divided or not, this note of the two nations is the real note of warning in the matter. It is in this connection, perhaps, that we have to consider most gravely and doubtfully the future of our own country. Anarchy cannot last, but anarchic communities cannot last either. Mere lawlessness cannot live, but it can destroy life. The nations of the earth always return to sanity and solidarity; but the nations which return to it first are the nations which survive." — G.K. Chesterton, The Superstition of Divorce

No fault divorce has produced no reason marriages, but not every marriage is for no reason and not every married couple would get divorced without a Biblical cause or fault. So, in this sense, we do have two tier marriage. We have those who are married according to vows made before God and men and we have those who are married according to the whims of the State and the state of their current mood. But this produces two societies. One in which men and women keep their promises and one in which they don't. The blessing of God to the faithful is the curse of God on the faithless. That which cannot go on forever, won't. Insanity is not a long term strategy. Anarchy is unsustainable. And so, the fruitless and faithless will cut themselves off from the future. The tragedy is the destruction they cause on their way down. Like a drowning victim, they are dangerous and likely to take some down with them, but they refuse to be saved by those with a foot on solid ground. That is intolerable. It is a lack of empathy and they refuse to receive a helping hand from those who claim to have the high ground.

day no. 17,490: no fault divorce and no reason marriage

"The obvious effect of frivolous divorce will be frivolous marriage. If people can be separated for no reason they will feel it all the easier to be united for no reason. A man might quite clearly foresee that a sensual infatuation would be fleeting, and console himself with the knowledge that the connection could be equally fleeting." — G.K. Chesterton, The Superstition of Divorce

No fault divorce leads to no reason marriage. If there isn't real money on the table, people will risk more than normal because there are no serious consequences attached to it. In other words, the risk is nearly eliminated. No one has any fun playing poker for pieces of candy they don't care about. It may be one way to gamble without "gambling," but it isn't really poker if there isn't anything real at stake.

The same can be said for marriage. If the vows aren't real, the breaking of them isn't a big deal. If everyone knows that no one means it, it means less if they get tired of playing along later. 

If covenants can be dissolved willy nilly they will be entered into willy nilly. If promises can be broken without consequence, they will be made with more regularity. Why not? What's the worst that could happen? Such is the mindset of those who approach covenants lightly and the lay of the land is the worst that could happen: evil is rewarded as good and good is derided as evil.

day no. 17,489: scary godmothers and the divorce cult

"With or without marriage, with or without divorce, with or without any arrangements that anybody can suggest or imagine, it remains a tragedy. The only difference is that by the doctrine of marriage it remains both a noble and a fruitful tragedy; like that of a man who falls fighting for his country, or dies testifying to the truth. But the truth is that the innovators have as much sham optimism about divorce as any romanticist can have had about marriage. They regard their story, when it ends in the divorce court, through as rosy a mist of sentimentalism as anybody ever regarded a story ending with wedding bells. Such a reformer is quite sure that when once the prince and princess are divorced by the fairy godmother, they will live happily ever after. I enjoy romance, but I like it to be rooted in reality; and any one with a touch of reality knows that nine couples out of ten, when they are divorced, are left in an exceedingly different state. It will be safe to say in most cases that one partner will fail to find happiness in an infatuation, and the other will from the first accept a tragedy. In the realm of reality and not of romance, it is commonly a case of breaking hearts as well as breaking promises; and even dishonour is not always a remedy for remorse." — G.K. Chesterton, The Superstition of Divorce

Those who believe divorce to be a better solution than marriage often accuse supporters of marriage of being unrealistic or hopelessly romantic, but Chesterton points out here that the divorce dealer are just as much, if not more, unrealistic and hopelessly romantic. Divorce afforded the credit for a happy ending. Everyone lives more happily ever after now that they are no longer bound to their spouse. But divorce does not lead to happier men, women, or children. It is not the roll credits love fest that it was marketed to be. Fairy godmothers do not grant divorces and if they do, they are fallen fairies. Just an demons are fallen angels, dark fairy tales are the flip side of scary godmothers. 

day no. 17,488: the more things change...

"What is respected, in short, is fidelity to the ancient flag of the family, and a readiness to fight for what I have noted as its unique type of freedom. I say readiness to fight, for fortunately the fight itself is the exception rather than the rule. The soldier is not respected because he is doomed to death, but because he is ready for death; and even ready for defeat. The married man or woman is not doomed to evil, sickness or poverty; but is respected for taking a certain step for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness or in health. But there is one result of this line of argument which should correct a danger in some arguments on the same side." — G.K. Chesterton, The Superstition of Divorce

No one gets married in order to become worse, but everyone who gets married is willing to be worse in order to be married. No one gets married in order to be poorer, but everyone who gets married is willing to be a bit poorer in order to be married. No one gets married to be sicker, but everyone who gets married is willing to be sicker in order to stay married.

A man must be willing to lay down his life for his bride, but he doesn't marry her hoping to be separated from her by martyrdom. Fidelity is a strong desire to keep things the same as they are combined with a strong willingness to endure change in order to keep the same thing.

day no. 17,487: homes and homelands

"Marriage makes a small state within the state, which resists all such regimentation. That bond breaks all other bonds; that law is found stronger than all later and lesser laws. They desire the democracy to be sexually fluid, because the making of small nuclei is like the making of small nations. Like small nations, they are a nuisance to the mind of imperial scope. In short, what they fear, in the most literal sense, is home rule." — G.K. Chesterton, The Superstition of Divorce

Atoms are like bb's in a bag: they can be conformed to any shape an external pressure desires. Molecules have more structural rigidity. They have a shape of their own. They cannot simply be maneuvered into whatever shape someone else wants. They exist on their own and can maintain themselves without outside interference or assistance. 

Democracy wants to isolate the atoms and treat people as individuals. This gives it the ability to move and shape said individuals into whatever shape they like. A bag of bb's does not put up much of a fight. Grease the bb's with the sins of the sexual revolution codified in our legal codes and refuse to enforce the moral law with equity and you get a bean bag incapable of any resistance whatsoever.

The home is a world unto itself. It is under the authority of the magistrate inasmuch as it is subject to the laws of God enforced by them, but other than that, they do not need the state. The home exists under God on its own authority of husband and wife to educate, care for, provide, and nourish its people as it sees fit. The state fears the home for it claims primary citizenship of its people. A man is a husband and a father before he is a citizen and those who have homes, wives, and children act like it. They take care of their own business which means they do not need anything from the state, which means the state does not have any levers on that men or the people for whom he provides.

day no. 17,486: heralds and hellscapes

"If our God were deaf, dumb, and blind — like theirs — this should be of no concern whatever. What should it matter to them if we all gather in a room in order to talk and sing to the ceiling? But this is not what is happening. We worship and serve the living and ruling Christ, and those who try to ignore His sovereignty through lies are thrown into a panic when Christians rediscover the truth." — Douglas Wilson, So Come and Welcome to Jesus Christ

We become like that which we worship. Those who worship idols become like them: deaf, dumb, blind, and dead. Those who worship the living God become like Him: seeing, hearing, speaking, living beings. 

If our worship services were as bland as theirs, they would pay them no mind. But they know, even if we have forgotten, that our worship services move the world. The powers and principalities of darkness know that they cannot combat this head on and that the gates of their fortress will fall to the battering ram of Christian worship, and so they try to convince us to stop worshiping or to treat it as a thing of indifference. Like Balaam and Balak, they cannot curse the people of God, but they can convince them to bring curses upon themselves by refusing to follow the Word of God.

Unbelievers know that the Word of God rules the world and so they try to convince the heralds to stop speaking it. Christians need to rediscover the truth and reality of the power and authority God has placed into their worship. The Lord inhabits the praises of His people and uses them to splinter the holdouts of Hellscapes.

day no. 17,475: the mercies of the wicked

"A good man without strength is only hoping evil has mercy." — Sun Tzu, The Art of War

The seed of the serpent has not forgotten that it is in a war and it has not changed its spots. It will not suddenly adopt the ways of the One it opposes. 

Proverbs 12:10

The tender mercies of the wicked are cruel. 

Evil does not learn by example, it learns by discipline. If you want it to stop, you have to make it. Evil does not respond to reason because it does not have a good reason for being evil. If there was a good reason for it, it wouldn't be evil, it would be good. 

day no. 17,474: votes and bullets

"When you go into the voting booth, you should go into the booth looking like Aragorn at Helm’s Deep. All done fooling around." — Douglas Wilson, The Rise of the Islamo-Commies

Votes are like bullets. They do not always win the war, but they do help. And if you have enough of them, you can lay down suppressive fire for other, more effective means of securing victory.

Psalm 20:7

Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: 

but we will remember the name of the LORD our God.

It is good to have plenty of them and it is good to avoid putting your trust in them, just like votes.

Psalm 146:3

Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, 

in whom there is no help.

So, in summary, vote like your life depended on it, but make sure you remember that it doesn't.

day no. 17,473: the perverts and the prophet (but I repeat myself)

"A man who doggedly believes in something, no matter how wrong it is, will always prevail over the man who believes nothing at all." — Douglas Wilson, The Rise of the Islamo-Commies

Those who know what they believe and why they believe will always trample over those who do not know what they are about. The rise and fall of empires is often punctuated by an aggressively unapologetic people taking over a passive, self-effacing people. Over time, the conquerors become protectors and trade offense for defense and eventually trade all ambition for growth and gain for a fear of losing what it has... and that is why it ends up losing everything.

Matthew 16:25

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

"Secularism had been rotted out by the relativism of postmodern thinking, and their central core values had apparently become pot and porn. They were in no position to stand up to those who had a word from the Prophet." — Douglas Wilson, The Rise of the Islamo-Commies

Islam is wrong, but it is sure of itself. That kind of confidence can carry a movement a long way. It can cross the Atlantic and cold crusade an entire continent. People caught up in and indulging in the luxury of self-actualization paired with a lust for victimization will become actual victims. They imagined grievances will visited upon them incarnate.

"The problem was that the tradition of the Prophet, though far more bombastic and dogmatic than what we were hearing from the hollow men of the West, was a tradition that was bloody and twisted. They too had a yearning for underage girls, only made more grotesque, if that were possible, by means of wedding dresses."  — Douglas Wilson, The Rise of the Islamo-Commies

Our "elites" and the Islamic invaders both like little girls. The one kidnaps, abuses, marries, and consumes them in secret. The other does all of that out in the open. The wickedness of the West, being brewed in the pig sty east of Eden, still knows enough to hide its shame, lie about it, or pretend it isn't real or at least not as bad as they say it is. The wickedness of the East, being brewed up by sand demons, does not pretend. It is bold and brash and it stands firm. It does not blush. It boasts in its evil. And wicked men who don't feel sorry will always be able to outmaneuver wicked men who know that they should feel sorry, even if they don't.