day no 17,432: cut to the quick

"Wit is a fighting thing and a working thing. A man may enjoy humor all by himself; he may see a joke when no one else sees it; he may see the point and avoid it. But wit is a sword; it is meant to make people feel the point as well as see it." — G.K. Chesterton

It is one thing to know how to make someone see and understand the point of something and quite another to make them feel the point of it.

Acts 5:29-35

Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, "We ought to obey God rather than men. The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom ye slew and hanged on a tree. Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins.  And we are his witnesses of these things; and so is also the Holy Ghost, whom God hath given to them that obey him." When they heard that, they were cut to the heart, and took counsel to slay them.

You can speak in a pointed way, but you cannot poke someone's soul. The Word of God can cut to the division of joint and marrow, soul and spirit, however.

Hebrews 4:12

For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

It is the grace of God that gives us the ability to see the point and it is the grace of God that gives us the ability to feel its poke in our souls.

"All good things come to a point, swords for instance" — G.K. Chesterton

All good and perfect gifts come down to us from above, including the words that cut us to the quick. Thank God for His surgical precision in doing reconstructive heart surgery on us after having already performed a heart transplant on us. 

day mo. 17,230: envasion

“At the core of liberalism is the spoiled child — miserable, as all spoiled children are, unsatisfied, demanding, ill-disciplined, despotic and useless. Liberalism is a philosophy of sniveling brats.” — P.J. O'Rourke, Give War a Chance: Eyewitness Accounts of Mankind's Struggle Against Tyranny, Injustice, and Alcohol-Free Beer

The more the spoiled child gets what they want they less satisfied they are with what they have. Discontent cannot be cured by the danegeld. It keeps coming back for more. Envy cannot assuaged by olive branches. It resents the peacemaker's privilege position.

Proverbs 27:4

Wrath is cruel, and anger is outrageous; 

but who is able to stand before envy?

Envy is more cruel than wrath and more outraged than rage. It is not merely zealous for itself, it is anxious for the destruction of others. It does not want to have as much as it wants to take away. It is less about self-promotion and more about the demolition of others.

"He would rather have the poor poorer provided the rich were less rich. That is the Liberal policy. Yes it came out. He didn’t intend it to but it did." — Margaret Thatcher

Envy does not want everyone to be rich, it wants no one else to have anything. It is not a matter of equity that drives its concerns, but a matter of disparity. It would prefer everyone to go without than any to go on. It rejoices when others weep and weeps when others rejoice.

Romans 12:15

Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.

Envy is an inversion of the law of Christ. It cannot stand seeing someone else prosper and it delights in seeing others deprived.

1 Clement 38:2

Let not the strong man despise the weak, and let the weak pay regard to the strong. Let him that is rich minister to him that is poor. Let him that is poor praise God that he hath given unto him one by whom his want may be supplied. 

In a God-fearing economy, the weak praise God for the productivity of the strong and the strong do not despise the inability of the weak. The weak are taken care of and the strong are honored. In a perverse society, the weak use their weakness to abuse the strong and the strong surrender their strength to the whims of the weak. It is an enversion. 

"When you elevate victimhood as virtue, you will create a culture in which people are tripping over themselves to be oppressed." — Allie Beth Stuckey

When being oppressed becomes the new medal of honor, you will find the honorable opting out and the dishonorable receiving awards. That is a world where envy has invaded. That is an envasion.

day no. 17,140: wisdominion (men may be strong, but God is stronger)

“A return to sanity will be a return to an unapologetic acceptance of the fact that men are of necessity going to be dominant. The only choice we have as a society is between whether the dominance is going to be constructive or destructive. Because the poobahs in charge have spent the last generation or so outlawing every form of constructive male dominance they can identify, we are now discovering that—far from empowering women—they have actually empowered destructive male dominance. Put another way, when constructive male dominance is outlawed, only outlaws will have male dominance.” — Douglas Wilson, Virgins and Volcanoes 

Men were made to dominate. They were put on this planet to rule and subdue the world. This will either be done with wisdom from above (wisdominion) or it will be informed by wisdom from below (wisdumb).

Proverbs 20:29

The glory of young men is their strength:

and the beauty of old men is the grey head. 

Men will either be strong and productive or they will be strong and destructive. They will either conquer evil or they will conquer the innocent. They will either plant and prune or they will rape and pillage. Either way, men will rule. The question is not if men will rule, how will they rule.

“And if you think tough men are dangerous, wait until you see what weak men are capable of.” — Jordan B. Peterson

We cultivate what we celebrate. Men were made to conquer and called to cultivate. When we thank God for the gift of men, we cultivate good men who are good at being men. When we force men to apologize for what God did (in making them masculine), we cultivate weak men who are only good at being better at masculinity than women are. This is why we see men competing in women's sports and not women competing in men's sports. This is why feminism is for weak men. Women are not as good at being men as women are so feminism makes masculinity the standard so that it can win. It cannot compete with men, so it goes to war with women, just like the serpent in the garden.

1 Peter 3:7

Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honour unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered.

Women are weaker than men. Men must remember this without taking advantage of this. Men were made strong in order to protect the weakness of women, not to force its strength upon them. When men forget their place and use their strength to abuse women rather than protect them, God uses His strength to stop them. Men may be strong, but God is stronger. If a man uses his God-given strength for evil, he should not be surprised to discover that God uses His strength to restrain him and take his borrowed strength back.

day no. 17,139: emasculinity

“Women really do need to be protected and guarded from men. They need this because there really is a thing called toxic masculinity. But the only ones who are capable of protecting women from men are the men. The only thing capable of protecting women from toxic masculinity is masculinity.” — Douglas Wilson, Virgins and Volcanoes

Feminism cannot protect women even if it wanted to, which it doesn't. Feminism is the brain child of weak men who needed even weaker women in order to remain top dog in the gender wars. The only thing capable of delivering women from wicked weaklings is good strongmen. Evil men can sway good women because men are stronger than women, but good men can defeat evil men because they are better men. As such, they are capable of resisting the strength of weak men in order to save even weaker women and children.

Proverbs 20:29

The glory of young men is their strength: 

and the beauty of old men is the grey head.

The world does not need less masculinity, it needs redeemed masculinity (and much more of it). Men were made to be strong and if they are not good, they will be evil and strong or in the case of feminism, evil and weak, but stronger than women.

Masculinity is only toxic in deficiency, not in excess. Only men can protect women from other men. Only masculinity can guard femininity from emasculinity. 

Emasculinity seeks to make second rate women into fifth rate men so that third rate men can rule over them.

day no. 17,133: the grammar hammer

When asked about the rules of English grammar and the insistence that a sentence must not be ended with a preposition, Winston Churchill had this to say,

"This is the kind of nonsense up with which I will not put!"

They say you should not end a sentence with a preposition, but they don't know about what they are talking.

day no. 17,104: the calm and the cry

“A man is less articulate when he is humming than when he is calling for help.” — G.K. Chesterton, The Victorian Age in Literature

A good mood may produce mindless mumbles, but a bad place produces clear cries. The atmosphere of a man lost in good thoughts may resemble a melody, but the air of a man who feels lost is overcast with screaming.

If you are having a good day, you do not feel a compulsion to articulate it. You just sit back and enjoy. If you are having a rough go of it, you are highly motivated to put it into words. You cannot sit on it.

day no. 17,084: brutalitarian

"If comfort gives men virtue, the comfortable classes ought to be virtuous—which is absurd. Then, again, we do hear of the yet weaker and more watery type of sentimentalists: I mean the sentimentalist who says, with a sort of splutter, 'l Flog the brutes!' or who tells you with innocent obscenity ‘what he would do’ with a certain man—always supposing the man’s hands were tied. This is the more effeminate type of the two; but both are weak and unbalanced. And it is only these two types, the sentimental humanitarian and the sentimental brutalitarian, whom one hears in the modern babel. Yet you very rarely meet either of them in a train. You never meet anyone else in a controversy. The man you meet in a train is like this man that I met: he is emotionally decent, only he is intellectually doubtful.” — G. K. Chesterton, Tremendous Trifles 

The brutalitarian is always rough with people in theory and often hiding from people in reality. Social media has only exacerbated this type of behavior by giving this type of a person a platform where they can be as rough as they like with actual people in a simulated environment without ever having to be in the same physical room as another tangible person.

"Two things to remember in life. Take care of your thoughts when you are alone, and take care of your words when you are with people." — Anonymous

Ideas have consequences, but ideas do not knock on our front door. Ideas do not come over for dinner or ask to talk to us after service. Ideas do not text us in the middle of the night or ask us to help them move this weekend. Ideas do not take our orders or leave their blinkers on in traffic. People have ideas, but they are rarely one idea incarnate. They have all kinds of ideas about all kinds of things and those ideas influence them, of course, but when you interact with the person, you are not interacting with any particular idea in isolation. The online option has changed all that, however. People are still people, but it is now possible to isolate certain ideas in them when posting or replying to them. Instead of sitting across from them and their ideas over a pot roast, we are able to roast them over the airwaves for their ideas.

day no. 17,073: cross-examination and homophobiaphobia

1 Peter 3:15-16

In your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame.

If you are a Christian, you are called to the witness stand. This should not surprise anyone. He’s telling us beforehand. So, you should not be caught off guard when your name is called to the stand. 

Be prepared to be cross-examined. This will often include slander. Peter says “when you are slandered” not “if you are slandered.” It is going to happen. So, your job is not to keep them from slandering you, your job is to keep their slander from being true.  They may call you a “racist.” Fine. As long as you’re not one. The charge will come, but it must not stick. So, don’t be a racist or a sexist according to God’s standard and don’t give a fig for the measurements they use.

Most Christians are not homophobes, but all too many are homophobiaphobic. That is, they are scared of being called “homophobes.” So, they do whatever they can to avoid being accused of that. We’ve seen this recently with the Chip and Johanna Gaines dust up. But sin is not a fixer upper, it is condemned. It doesn’t need a new coat of paint, it needs to be repented of.

day no. 17,068: microwave majesty

“What is hurried has to be hackneyed.” — G.K. Chesterton

You cannot create something original on a whim. It takes time and energy to come up with something truly novel. The extemporaneous is touted as original and authentic, but it's easy to imagine. While I don't always know the precise script, I can pretty quickly imagine someone spouting off. But I cannot, even now, after much thought, imagine a different color. That creation, if it were possible, would take a great deal of thought and intention. In other words, true creativity takes time. It is not the product of ejaculatory, unchecked impulse. Anyone can do that. And most people do.

"Be regular and orderly in your daily affairs that you may be violent and original in your work." — Gustave Flaubert

An original idea is often the product of disciplined mind. One cannot merely be spontaneous without falling into tropes. There is nothing more unnatural than being told to act natural. And nothing is less cool than being caught trying. The stream of consciousness is polluted by the corporate dumpings of drivel. Insight and inspiration is nowhere to be found in that brackish. Creativity is purified by the process of filtration. And that takes time and intention.

There is no microwavable version of majesty. You cannot build an original world in a moment. Like Rome, original stories are not written in a day. So, if you want to be a hack, do it all in a hurry, but if you want to be a legend, invest in the creative process like it's a luxury. No one rushes a bubble bath. A hurried tale is a harried one. Like the vapor of your breath on a crisp morning, it is not long for this world.

day no. 17,060: boomerancor

“I have had many occasions in my life when I have thanked God for the caliber of my friends, but even more occasions when I have thanked Him for the caliber of my enemies.” — Douglas Wilson, Israel, Iran, and Good Old Vermont

Sometimes our enemies are our best publicity team. When fools broadcast their folly, they often compliment their target. Let's call it boomerancor based on the way it flies in the face of the one who threw it. Boomerancor is the smack that smacks back.

1 Corinthians 15:33

Do not be deceived: "Evil company corrupts good habits."

Running with bad folk can run down your street cred, but being run down by bad actors can establish your credibility.

Proverbs 12:23

One who is clever conceals knowledge,

but the mind of a fool broadcasts folly.

The one who keeps quiet might be condemned as a fool, but the one who podcasts his ignorance confirms that he is one and perhaps even exonerates the intended victim of his vitriol. The quality of your haters can often confirm the caliber of your character as it discredits theirs.

day no. 17,043: when the wit comes too late

"This latter phenomenon is something the French have a phrase for—l’esprit de l’escalier. And please, for those of you who listen to my blog posts, pardon my French—which I accomplish by means of rusty hedge clippers. This refers to the “wit of the staircase,” and refers to things you think of later on that you should have said. The perfect point you ought to have made occurs to you, but it does so on the staircase, as you are making your way to bed. Oh well.” — Douglas Wilson, Smashmouth Compromise?

The wit of the staircase is that thing you think of in the shower the morning after the big fight. It is the perfect comeback that comes to you too late. It is brilliant and baffling. How could you not have thought of that before? And why think of it now? You cannot drop it now without bringing up old stuff and beside, the timing would be off. Zingers don't count after the bell. Ripostes are best as counter punches, not as a sucker punch a day later. You cannot pin someone after the match. I mean, you can, but it doesn't count as a win. Instead, it will only highlight the loss that took place on the mat.

Proverbs 17:28

Even a fool, when he holdeth his peace, is counted wise:

and he that shutteth his lips is esteemed a man of understanding.

So, do not make a habit of rehashing the past. You cannot go back and say what you wish you would have said. That is, unless you are circling back to say, "I'm sorry." You will not improve your position by revisiting your response in order to edit it after the fact. You cannot look cool by circling back, but you can be humble in going back to say, "I'm sorry." If you find yourself in the shower thinking, "I was an idiot. I should have said, 'sorry,'" by all means, dry off and find that someone and say it. But if you find yourself replaying your previous loss in order to find a way to win it in retrospect, give it up and save your staircase wit for the next next engagement.

day no. 16,975: on topic, off white

“The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter—it's the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning.” — Mark Twain 

The difference between white and off white is the difference between right and wrong.

Hebrews 5:14

Strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.

Anyone can see the difference between pure evil and very good, but discernment is needed to tell the difference between the lesser of two evils and the good that's isn't good enough.

Isaiah 5:20-21

Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!

The fact of black and white is fixed by God. Because there is black and white, however, there is also gray. All gray is merely some ratio of black to white.

Genesis 3:1

Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made.

Subtlety is the sweet spot of sin. It thrives in the ill-defined. All the more reason to have your reasoning in good shape. 

1 Peter 1:13

Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind.

Exercise your discernment. Practice. Lift heavy topics. Get after mental gains. 

Don't let your brain be the belly fat of your head. Flex the facts and get your brain in shape. Your mind is a muscle. Don't let it atrophy. Stay sharp. Stay fit.

day no. 16,877: wark and workship

Exodus 17:10-13

So Joshua did as Moses had said to him, and fought with Amalek: and Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill. And it came to pass, when Moses held up his hand, that Israel prevailed: and when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed. But Moses hands were heavy; and they took a stone, and put it under him, and he sat thereon; and Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands, the one on the one side, and the other on the other side; and his hands were steady until the going down of the sun. And Joshua discomfited Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword.

Joshua went to the work of war while Moses stayed to the work of praying. Both required work. Joshua's hands grew sore under the weight of his sword while Moses' hands grew weary under the work of praying. 

All good and godly work is worship and warfare. It is glorifying to God and it gives the darkness the fits.

2 Corinthians 10:3-5

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

Our work is warfare. It is wark! When we walk with the Lord, war is waged.

Our worship is warfare. It is warship! When we lift the name of the Lord on high, the high-minded come crashing down. 

Our worship is work. It is workship! It takes effort. A man rises to his fullest height when he falls to his knees before Christ.

day no. 16,834: misattributaries and indignantaries

Proverbs 14:30

A sound heart is the life of the flesh:

but envy the rottenness of the bones.

Envy may come in many forms, but it dissolves any form it takes.

"Nominalism is the tribute that the lukewarm pays to hot and cold." — Douglas Wilson

The lukewarm envies the conviction of the hot by signing up for the sweat without showing up in the heat of battle.

“Hypocrisy is a tribute that vice pays to virtue.” — Francois Duc De La Rochefoucauld

The hypocrite envies the reputation of the virtuous by acting respectable while indulging in disrespectful acts.

"Jealousy is the tribute mediocrity pays to genius" — Fulton J. Sheen

The jealous envy the genius by despising the disparity in their gift sets.

The lukewarm knows enough to act hot. The hypocrite knows enough to act virtuous. The jealous knows enough to wish for more. In other words, the lukewarm, the hypocrite, and the jealous all know two things: (1) they are not what they pretend to be, and (2) they ought to pretend to be it rather than wear what they are proudly.

"No man who says 'I’m as good as you' believes it. He would not say it if he did. The St. Bernard never says it to the toy dog, nor the scholar to the dunce, nor the employable to the bum, nor the pretty woman to the plain. The claim to equality, outside the strictly political field, is made only by those who feel themselves to be in some way inferior. What it expresses is precisely the itching, smarting, writhing awareness of an inferiority which the patient refuses to accept. And therefore resents. Yes, and therefore resents every kind of superiority in others; denigrates it; wishes its annihilation." — C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters

day no. 16,829: deviled eggs

Genesis 3:15

And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

Today (9/15/23) , while working on a poetic verse commentary on Revelation 12, I came up with the term, "deviled eggs," to refer to the serpent's seed and its opposition to the seed of the woman.

day no. 16,783: pharaoh feared a family (FLF edition)

read online HERE

Fight Laugh Feast Magazine

Issue 4.2: American Marriage Sodomized

Written/Edited: May 8/June 27, 2023

Published: Summer 2023

…

Pharaoh Feared a Family

By: Todd H. Van Voorst

A NATION OF GENERATIONS

“‘Behold, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we: Come on, let us deal wisely with them; lest they multiply, and it come to pass, that, when there falleth out any war, they join also unto our enemies, and fight against us.’” – Exodus 1:9b-10

One family can make a difference. Before Israel was the bane of a nation, it was just Abraham and his one, true son. That one grew to two after he had twins and one of those two then turned into twelve. That dozen became seventy and several centuries later, scads became scores putting points on the board. One household had become a harbinger… Pharaoh feared a family.

NATIONS ARE BUILT ONE FAMILY AT A TIME

“Thy fathers went down into Egypt with threescore and ten persons; and now the Lord thy God hath made thee as the stars of heaven for multitude.” – Deuteronomy 10:22

As one family began flooding his phonebook, Pharaoh began to ask, “What can be done about all these Bar-Jacobs?” Imagine the White House losing sleep over your surname or worrying about the number of your nephews. Imagine legislation being drafted to address the growing problem of your people growing. That was the scene in Egypt. The king was anxious about one man’s family reunion and their prospective role in an upcoming election.

COVENANTAL CONTINUITY

"The people gathered themselves together as one man.” – Nehemiah 8:1

Concentration of force, however, is not a given. A lot of descendants does not necessarily a lot of panic produceth. A man can have a gaggle of grandkids without getting name-dropped in his governor’s group chats. That kind of racket only comes with a consensus of the census – many generations, under God, and indivisible. Covenantal continuity is concentration of force.

Covenantal continuity is more than merely keeping the customs of your father’s God, it is loving the God of your father’s customs. Tyrants take notice of that kind of buy-in because, as Chesterton once observed, the first rule of fight club is “you cannot love a thing without wanting to fight for it.”

COVENANTAL SUCCESSION

“Remember the Lord, which is great and terrible, and fight for your brethren, your sons, and your daughters, your wives, and your houses.” – Nehemiah 4:14

A man must fight for his God before he fights for anything else (cf. Matt 6:33). When he does so, however, one of the first things God commands him to do is fight for his wife and children. In fact, the man who fails to do so is said to have no love for God. (1 Tim. 5:8)

A father is charged with bringing up his children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord and one of the first instructions a son should receive is his duty to one day teach his own children (Deut 6:7, Eph. 6:4). In this way, God commands a man to preach to his great grandchildren by teaching his children to teach their children to teach their children.

RAISING GODLY SEED

“Train up a child in the way he should go: And when he is old, he will not depart from it.” – Proverbs 22:6

Raising godly seed is not sitting the battle out; it is the battlefield. A father training his children is not forsaking the frontlines; he’s refusing to abandon them. He is in the trenches, not on the sidelines. He begins by fighting for his children, transitions to fighting alongside them, and ends by fighting through them for generations.

"Men who raise families that remain in fidelity to tradition will end up with descendants ruling the world.” – E.H. Looney (cf. Psalm 112:1-2)

Pharaoh feared a family because their last name and their first priorities were inseparable. A family tree with firm roots is formidable. While a house divided cannot stand, a house united can. It withstands outside forces. Israel was a threat because Israel was one.

ONENESS AS A WEAPON

“The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened.” – Matthew 13:33

When leaven refuses to get lumpy, it will always leave an impression. To remain leaven, however, it must differentiate itself from the rest of the lump, and that does not happen by accident. Yeast mode is not a factory default. Oneness comes on purpose by purpose.

“All good things come to a point, swords for instance.” – G.K. Chesterton

Oneness is a weapon. Covenantal continuity can curb the ferocities of Pharaoh’s cities, but cognitive dissonance cannot do that; it cannot change anything except its mind. Disparate notions do not build nations. A common worldview, widely and intentionally held, however, can change the world.

COVENANTAL CUSSEDNESS

“Thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor with their gods.” – Exodus 23:32

Israel did not conform to the customs of Cairo. They kept their vows and their kids by remembering the Lord and their responsibilities. They did not walk like an Egyptian despite all the signage and songs that suggested it. They kept their covenants by avoiding other ones. It was this angularity that bent Egypt out of shape. If Israel had simply settled into Egyptian molds, Pharaoh would not have batted a mascaraed eye; but their covenantal cussedness required a response.

NUPTIAL NATIONALISM 

“A little one shall become a thousand, and a small one a strong nation: I the LORD will hasten it in his time.” – Isaiah 60:22

One marriage can make a world of difference; in fact, it can make a world. The histories of nations can be altered at one altar and the geopolitical landscape of an entire continent can be compelled to curtsy before the covenant children of one faithful family. Ceremonies can be the seeds of civilizations. Nuptials can build nations.

Kingdoms are built around common tables: families sitting down for dinner and congregations communing around the Lord’s Table. As these work their way through the rest of the lump, family trees become forests, local churches become city centers, and communities become kingdoms.

THE END OF THE WORLD

“This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.” – Ephesians 5:32

One marriage can make a difference. Church history is the bride of Christ walking down the aisle. That one marriage is moving the world, and our marriages should march in step.

"So fight the good fight. Go home, build a house, and if you do it in the right way, you will give the world a glimpse of things to come. There is nothing more terrifying to the principalities than this. Because in the end, the principalities will bow and confess the Lordship of Christ, and if your house is ordered well, it is a reminder of that glorious day.” – C.R. Wiley

MAKE PHARAOH FEAR AGAIN

“Be ye mindful always of His covenant; the word which He commanded to a thousand generations.” – 1 Chronicles 16:15

Imagine if those who bore your last name were someday such a large constituency of common belief and committed practice that they could move magistrates to madness. Imagine your descendants dancing in time to the glory of God and the good of their neighbors. A family like that could do serious damage to the darkness. That family tree would be a battering ram against the gates of hell.

Pharaoh once feared a family. Let’s make Pharaoh fear again.

day no. 16,543: aiming to miss

Genesis 1:26-27

And God said, "Let us make man in Our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth." So God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him; male and female.

God is the source of all gender. Male and female are made in the image of God. Man was made the glory of God and woman was made the glory of man (1 Cor. 11:3). These find their expression by His definition. They were made separately, but for each other. They are unique, but also uniquely fitted for each other: key and lock, bow and string, wax and seal.

The Effeminatti is a force conspiring against Biblical masculinity. It often attempts to convince men to make feminine ideals the universal ideals while doing away with or asking men to apologize for their masculine instincts and ideals.

The Sisterhood of the Sophisticatti is a force at work against Biblical femininity. It is the attempt to convince women to believe that masculine ideals are the only ideals while doing away with or asking women to apologize for their feminine instincts and ideals.

In our twisted world of egalitarian androgyny, men are being made to feel inferior for having a proclivity for punchiness while women are being made to feel inferior for having a desire for domesticity. So, both ideals are being run down, but from different directions. Both ideals are idealized only in their respective improper and inadequate manifestations.

The aim, overall, appears to be androgyny, a meeting in the middle with complete erasure of both genders by forcing each one to lean into the opposite. By convincing women to be men and men to be women, you make a mess of gender because everyone, in the end, is bad at what they're doing. Everyone is aiming at someone else's target, so, no one is hitting their own... or the other.

If falling short is a cipher for sin, and it is, e.g. Romans 3:23, how much more so when the aim is to miss?

Women are better at being women than men are. 

Men are better at being men than women are.

day no. 16,445: gafforism

While listening to The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde on the treadmill last night (3/15/22), I came up with phrase "gafforism." It is a combination of gaffe + aphorism:

gaffe /ɡaf/ noun. an unintentional act or remark causing embarrassment to its originator; a blunder.

aph·o·rism /ˈafəˌrizəm noun. a pithy observation that contains a general truth, such as, “if it ain't broke, don't fix it.” a concise statement of a scientific principle, typically by an ancient classical author.

A gafforism is then the wisdom of the world, that is to say, folly. There really are better ways to pick up girls than others, but that kind of wisdom is wayward, it descends by excelling -- the better it is at that kind of the thing, the worse off it ends up.

James 3:14-16

If ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth. This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work.

Gafforisms may help the worldly exploit the fallen world, but it does not help them lay claim to the world to come. Meekness is not a fruit of ignorance, but of repentance. The worldly wise will cool-shame and mock talk the meek, but the world they lust after will be taken from them and all the counterfeit joys they've experienced along with it.

All that said, here are some gafforisms acquired by Wilde. Witty or wise as they may be in assessing the worldly situation, they profit nothing on the day of judgment; in fact, they not only DO NOT profit, they produce more debt.

"There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written. That is all.”

False: there are badly written moral books, well written moral books, badly written immoral books, and well written immoral books (case and point)

“To define is to limit.” 

True, but misapplied: This fact is reported as though it were a bad thing, and that definitions, therefore, should be resisted instead of embraced and obeyed. Ironically, Wilde misses the fact that for him to define "limit" as a negative is for him to limit himself to what limitations can be. Wilde cuts himself off from the liberty of the law by insisting only on the lawlessness of licentiousness.

“Nowadays people know the price of everything and the value of nothing.”

True: even the worldly wise can see through the lies of other worldly wisdom. But pitting one type of worldliness against another does not produce other-worldliness. Wilde rightly sees through materialism, but cannot see his sensualism. He rails against paying for things by rallying around free pleasure. He does not resist the prostitute for her profession, but would deny her the paycheck.

“The only way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it.” 

False: this is akin to saying you can only get rid of a headache by decapitation. It does get rid of the headache, but it kills the patient rather than curing him.

“There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.” 

False: the maxim that any publicity is good publicity is only true of those who seek justification in the public eye. For them, to be ignored by the popularazzi is to be dead in the sin of obscurity with the rush of being thrust back into the public spotlight the equivalent of a miraculous resurrection. Their lives and livelihoods hang in the balance of public opinion, but your life is more than merely whether or not other people happen to notice it.

“When one is in love, one always begins by deceiving one's self, and one always ends by deceiving others. That is what the world calls a romance.” 

False: love is not blind, it is bound. Lust is blind. It wants what it wants without seeing what it doesn't. But love is anything but blind or deceived. It has its eyes wide open and pledges purity and fidelity with the intention of keeping its vows. Romance, in the worldly sense, is without decision. It is driven by passion and defiance of forethought. Romance, in the Christian sense, is intentional. It is driven by covenant and diligence in duty.

“Never marry at all, Dorian. Men marry because they are tired, women, because they are curious: both are disappointed.” 

False: Christian men marry because they are fired up and Christian women because they are certain. The world may encourage men to marry once they've given up chasing tail and women to marry to prove to them how good independence really was, and in that sense, Wilde rightly observes, they do end up disappointed. Worldly marriage mocks at covenant and wonders why sharing an address is so difficult sometimes.

There are more examples, of course, but these are sufficient in showing the amount of wit and wisdom the worldlings are capable of seeing without having eyes to adequately describe what they're observing. It is one thing to see what is around you and another to to see your own eyeballs. For that, you need wisdom outside of your field of vision. You need the wisdom that is from above.

day no. 16,443: duck duck gross

Duck duck gross, n. a game played by large families where one member passes their sickness along to the next member so that someone is always running and so that no one in the circle is ever safe.

Talking to a friend recently (3/12/22), I mentioned that we would be an abbreviated force on Sunday at church since some of my clan were still down and out with the crud. I mentioned how it began with me a few weeks back and then began cycling through the house from one member to the next like a game of duck duck gross.

Galatians 6:1

Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.

Sin, like sickness, can be contagious and in similar fashion, masking up or sheltering in place does not slow the spread.

day no. 16,431: the logophile's lexicon

Inspired by my ongoing maiden voyage through Ambrose Bierce's The Devil's Dictionary (3/8/22), I dreamed last night of a definition for the word, "tuition."

Tuition, n. 1. the price one pays to acquire the inability to pay back an even greater debt.

That thought experiment led me to concoct the following, related definition for, "intuition."

Intuition, n. the price one pays for a mistake prior to making it.

I've previously spent most of my wordsmithing efforts on puns, but these could be fun too. I created the tag "the logophile's lexicon" should I chase any more down or should any more come to visit me in dreamland.

Here are a few more definitions for "tuition" concocted in the course of crafting this post:

2. the sum one pays for a summary of someone else's sums.

3. the amount one must acquire and count out in order to be taught how to count your acquired tastes