day no. 16,999: stand fast and stay free

“Worship is the highest form of liberal arts” — C.R. Wiley

Liberal arts are designed to set men free. They are the tools of liberty for free men and women. In that sense, they are not, in the modern use of the term, liberal at all. They are conservative in that sense for they retain the old paths of liberty and piety.

2 Corinthians 3:17

Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. 

Worship is a narrow door to a wide open space. Learning about the Lord opens up the possibilities. Every decision cuts you off from something. That is what the word "decide" means. But choosing God cuts you off from sin, while choosing sin cuts you off from God and the never-ending pleasures sitting at His right hand.

John 10:9

I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.

Outside of Christ, there is no freedom, but with Him is deliverance and pasture to play in.

"The more I considered Christianity, the more I found that while it had established a rule and order, the chief aim of that order was to give room for good things to run wild." — G.K. Chesterton

Good things are free to go wild provided they are protected and overseen by Christ.

“I wouldn’t have felt very safe with Bacchus and all his wild girls if we’d met them without Aslan.” — C.S. Lewis, Prince Caspian

Freedom is fun and forever in the backyard of our Father, but it is fleeting and finite when falling from great heights. You are free to fall, but only for so long; but you are free to play in the path of God as long as you live, which in His house is forever.

Galatians 5:1

Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.

Do not submit to slavery. Worship of the one, true God is the highest form of education. That said, those who should know better don't always do what they know to be better. 

Don't be that guy. 

Stand fast.

Stay free.

day no. 16,935: the house of God rules over the houses of men

Psalm 87:2

The Lord loves the gates of Zion

more than all the dwelling places of Jacob.

The Lord God loves the assembled families of men in worship at His house more than He does the individual families of men leading their times of family worship in their homes. This is not to say that He does not love families. He does. To love one thing more than another is not to have no love for the first. But it does highlight a particular emphasis or order.

You cannot make an omelet without eggs and you cannot have a congregation without families, but neither can you have an omelet if the eggs stay in the carton or a congregation if all the families stay home. There is something special about everyone getting out of their own bed, getting dressed in their own clothes, driving their own vehicles, and gathering together to a common place on a common day to worship a common God. The gathering of the saints on the Lord’s Day to worship God with His people is unique. It does not happen on a Tuesday evening. That isn’t to say that your Tuesday night with your family in worship is unimportant. If anything, it is to say that family worship at home is all the more important because it prepares your particular people to better worship your God with the rest of His people the following Sunday. 

Ephesians 3:14

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.

We are grateful for the gifts of God and for godly families, but families are derivative, not substantive. They are important because God is important. Fathers matter because God the Father Almighty matters. Families matter because the family of God matters. Your house matters because the House of God matters. Family worship is special because the family of God is special.

day no. 16,898: God is tenderer to His torturers than we are to our admirers

Thou wilt not break as we have broken

The towers we reared to rival Thee.

More true to England than the English

More just to freedom than the free.

O trumpet of the intolerant truth

Thou art more full of grace and truth

For the hopes of the world than the world that made them,

The world that murdered the loves of our youth.

Thou art more kind to our dreams, Our Mother,

Than the wise that wove us the dreams for shade.

God is more good to the gods that mocked Him

Than men are good to the gods they made.

Tenderer with toys than a boy grown brutal, 

Breaking the puppets with which he played.

— The Towers of Time by G. K. Chesterton

God is more kind to His accusers than men are to their flatterers. Jesus offers more forgiveness to His murderers than men do to their fan clubs.

Luke 6:35

Love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for He is kind to the ungrateful and the evil.

God is good to those who are bad to His good gifts. He provides good things to bad people despite their mistreatment of them. He sent His one and only Son to people who took Him for granted instead of taking Him with gratitude.

God is tenderer to His torturers than we are to our admirers.

God gives good things to those who confuse stewardship with ownership. We imagine ourselves the rightful owners of the gifts we've been given and presume that we merited God's grace.

"We teach them not to notice the different sense of the possessive pronoun .. . Even in the nursery a child can be taught to mean by 'my Teddy-bear' not the old imagined recipient of affection to whom it stands in a special relation (for that is what the Enemy will teach them to mean if we are not careful) but 'the bear I can pull to pieces if I like.'" — C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters

God is more tender with us than we are with our toys. We make idols so that we can break them. We love to own things for the sake of doing with them as we please, but God owns everything and does what is best for it. Despite His claims to complete dominion, He leverages His power for the good of the creation. Man, however, often makes things merely to have something to rule ruthlessly.

Matthew 5:45

For He maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.

Despite our desire to destroy His gifts, He continues to lavish His kindness upon us. Even though we use rainwater to waterboard, He continues to send Spring showers. Even when we use the warmth of the sun to cook our neighbors, He makes the sun rise in the morning.

day no. 16,878: strange days

Leviticus 10:1-3

And Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took either of them his censer, and put fire therein, and put incense thereon, and offered strange fire before the Lord, which he commanded them not. And there went out fire from the Lord, and devoured them, and they died before the Lord.

The practice of participating in strange fire will be incinerated.

Jude 1:7

Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.

The practice of partaking of strange flesh will be utterly estranged.

1 Corinthians 6:9-11

Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.

Such were some of us.

We too were once strangers in a strange land, but now we are known at home in the Lord.

May these strange days and their strange ways be washed away by the grace of God and the flood of His Spirit as the knowledge of the Lord covers the earth and its inhabitants as the waters cover the seas.

Habakkuk 2:14

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

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. 16,820: taxis versus chaos

Exodus 13:18

So God led the people around byway of the wilderness of the Red Sea. And the children of Israel went up in orderly ranks out of the land of Egypt

Israel marched out of Egypt. They did not slink away. They did not sprint. They did not saunter. They did not stumble. They did not scatter.

They marched. 

Colossians 2:4-5

Now this I say lest anyone should deceive you with persuasive words. For though I am absent in the flesh, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ.

"Good order" is a translation of the Greek word taxis. It is a military term referring to marching and assembling in an orderly fashion. It is lethal because it is lined up. It is potent because it is plumb

God is glorified by good order. He rejoices in seeing His people assemble. His church is a marching band of jolly warriors that subdue as they sing their respective parts in holy harmony..

1 Corinthians 14:33

God is a God not of disorder but of peace.

Worship is warfare. God’s people march into the promised land and face the adversities of the gates of hell with military precision and prevail because order and peace make short work of chaos. Chaos does not stand a chance because chaos cannot stand. It falls because it prides itself on its fallenness.

Taxis will inherit the earth while chaos will be condemned. Those who inherit the world will be those whose strength is under control and they shall receive the kingdom of Christ and all things. The proud are those whose weakness corrodes the container in which its chaos brews.

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. 16,701: the freedom to pay what we owe

"Freedom is not just so we can do what we want but so that God gets what He deserves: pure worship and a righteous society that acknowledges Him." — Raymond Simmons, The Confessional County

The freedom to do whatever you want is not the freedom to not do whatever you don't want. You may be permitted do whatever you like and still not be able to stop yourself from doing whatever you don't like. 

Romans 7:19, 24

For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do... O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?

There will always be good things you want to do, but can't quite and evil things you want to stop doing, but can't quite discontinue. There is no hope in personal will power. That is no freedom found in felling all the fences. Liberty requires limits. Liberated from what? Liberated by whom? Liberated for what?

Romans 7:25

I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

We are saved from sin by Christ for the glory of God.

John 10:9

I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.

He alone is the door. He is the access point to the gates of Heaven. It is Heaven because the gates keep the evil out. It is Heaven because inside the gates are pasture to play to our hearts' content.

Galatians 5:1

Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.

Don't go poking around the fence or spend too much time wondering what's outside the door. Whatever it is, it is outside of Christ, outer darkness where the soundtrack is weeping and gnashing of teeth.

God deserves more than your attendance. He is owed your participation in celebration.

day no. 16,604: a holy hubbub

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

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

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

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

day no. 16,472: grateful men guard the house of God

Nehemiah 12:40, 45

So stood the two companies of them that gave thanks in the house of God… both the singers and the porters kept the ward of their God

Tolkien rightly observed that, "Men are better than gates" and better men make even greater gates. Those entrusted with the singing of songs and the carrying of cargo could be trusted to keep the door of their Lord. Two choirs kept watch. Songs and strong backs made secure the house of God.

Christians need not shout anyone down when they can just as easily sing them to the ground. Plus, it's better style.

God appoints grateful men to guard His house. And their gratitude does more than keep the door, it keeps the men. It provides the power and the perseverance to keep the post. Grateful men guard the house of God as a great God guards the hearts of men.

day no. 16,426: the power of magnification

Psalm 34:3

Oh, magnify the LORD with me,

and let us exalt his name together!

Because we live in an age of science, we tend to imagine microscopes and magnifying glasses when we think of the word, “magnify.” In other words, we imagine blowing a small thing out of proportion in order to get a better look at it. So when we think about magnifying the Lord, we smuggle in the idea of making a big deal out of a rather trivial thing. We think we are making much of God by making a big deal out of His idiosyncrasies which can only be seen by those with special equipment. However, when we magnify the Lord, we are not blowing Him out of proportion, we are merely playing catch up. He is infinite and our worship is microscopic by comparison. He must squint to see it. We magnify the Lord by increasing our appreciation of the scope of His glory.

Ephesians 1:17-23

May the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which He has called you, what are the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His great might that He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And He put all things under His feet and gave Him as head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.

day no. 16,337: singing psalms may wake sleeping lions

“Because the final reward is found in the resurrection, in the city to come, and not here, we are set free to attempt great things here. To different kinds of cowardice this looks positively reckless, but reckless in different ways. Some are afraid that our psalm singing will wake up the lions, while others are afraid that the psalm singing will stop the mouths of those same lions.” — Douglas Wilson, Empires of Dirt

Some would rather remain lame than run with the big dogs. Some prefer the peace and quiet of being irrelevant to the sweat and tears of making a difference.

Singing psalms may wake the sleeping lions, but it also just might shut them up forever.

Let us sing like we mean it and leave the results to the Lord. Whether our worship draws fire or causes fire to fall down from Heaven, let us sing like we know the words. We are Christians. We know the Word. We have placed our hope in His life, death, and resurrection not so we can avoid our life, death, or resurrection, but so that we might attain to them. 

Romans 14:7-9

For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.

Some powers and principalities slew soundly under the assumption that Christianity is a thing of the past. But when we sing so that they can hear it, they wake up well aware that we haven’t gone anywhere and must still be dealt with. This may lead to more trouble for us, but only because we’re finally troubling them.

Any light worth it’s salt is proud to give the darkness fits and considers it a badge of honor to be so bright as to have shade thrown at it. But the dark doesn’t stick.

John 1:5

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

If the darkness decides to dark even harder, it can’t win. The darkness is fading and the light is growing ever brighter.

Proverbs 4:18-19

The path of the righteous

is like the light of dawn,

which shines brighter

and brighter until full day.

The way of the wicked

is like deep darkness;

they do not know

over what they stumble.

day no. 16,208: everyone gives their first and best to something

Proverbs 3:9

Honour the LORD with thy substance,

and with the firstfruits of all thine increase.

Everyone tithes to what they worship 

Everyone gives their first and their best to what they most prioritize. They find a way to give to it. They go without other things in order to give to it. They endure other difficulties in order to avoid the difficulty of going without it. Everyone tithes because everyone worships and giving your first and best is the most natural expression of sacrifice. 

Everyone gives financially to what they value spiritually. They give the most to what they value the most. They give their time, energy, worship, money, and mind. We are all worshipers and where our treasure is our heart is also. Our dollars follow our adoration and our adoration follows our dollars. We give to what we love and we love to give to it. 

We stand in lines for hours to be the first to pay homage to it. We pay top dollar to be as close to it or have the best view of it as possible. We find a way. We make room in our budget for what occupies the board room of our hearts. We promote certain passions to the corner office and then bend over backwards to provide them with the choicest portions of our life and livelihood. We sacrifice with a smile on our face. We go to great lengths. We cheerfully set aside our best in order to offer it. 

Everyone gives to and glorifies something.

day no. 16,157: lex orandi lex credendi

Lex orandi lex credendi,

"The law of prayer is the law of faith."

Formal worship forms us. We are becoming what we worship and arriving where we're going more and more with each passing day. Liturgy shapes us. The way we worship establishes us. What we do in worship affects what we do elsewhere. Everything is going somewhere and sooner or later it is going to get there.

day no. 16,107: the how and the Who

Exodus 20:1-6

And God spake all these words, saying,

"I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments."

God commands the HOW as well as the WHO when it comes to worship.

The first commandment states WHO.

The second commandment states HOW.

In other words, God commands that we worship Him alone as Lord and Savior. So far, so good. You are not permitted to worship anyone or anything else other than Him.

But you cannot fashion for yourself something to worship and justify it by calling it God. You cannot mold a golden calf, call it YHWH, and expect the God and Creator of heaven and earth to receive that kind of worship.

Worship is not just about WHO we're honoring, but HOW we're doing it. If you love another, you forsake the Lord. If you love Him by doing something He hates, you forsake the Lord, even if you address the card to Him.

God has not been unclear about WHO He is and HOW He is to be approached.

John 14:6

I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me.

day no. 15,983: pipe in teeth, pencil in hand

"For my own part I tend to find the doctrinal books often more helpful in devotion than the devotional books, and I rather suspect that the same experience may await many others. I believe that many who find that 'nothing happens' when they sit down, or kneel down, to a book of devotion, would find that the heart sings unbidden while they are working their way through a tough bit of theology with a pipe in their teeth and a pencil in their hand." -- C.S Lewis, Introduction to Athanasius' On the Incarnation

Original works inspire grateful hearts to write devotional works. While there might be much benefit in reading their insights, they would in turn and in concert urge us to spend more time in the original works that inspired their delight rather than spend our time meditating upon their meditations of them. Their meditations were meant to draw more attention to the source, not to their summaries.

"The dogma is the drama." -- Dorothy L. Sayers

We should read books of good reflections, but we should never neglect reading the source of light and substance that made the reflection possible. Drinking from the bucket should lead us to draw from the well.

"Visit many good books, but live in the Bible." -- Charles Haddon Spurgeon

day no. 15,981: serving your neighbor with singing

Colossians 3:16

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

You serve your neighbor by singing so that he can hear you. Your neighbor does not benefit merely from knowing that you're off somewhere singing. He needs to hear your voice, lifted up, and singing. He needs to hear the sound of your gratitude out loud, in person, and ringing in his ears.

day no. 15,964: duplicity is a dastard's policy

I will cut off them that worship and that swear by the Lord, and that swear by Malcham.

- Zephaniah 1:5

"Such persons thought themselves safe because they were with both parties: they went with the followers of Jehovah, and bowed at the same time to Malcham. But duplicity is abominable with God, and hypocrisy his soul hateth. The idolater who distinctly gives himself to his false god, has one sin less than he who brings his polluted and detestable sacrifice unto the temple of the Lord, while his heart is with the world and the sins thereof. To hold with the hare and run with the hounds, is a dastard's policy." -- C.H. Spurgeon, Morning and Evening

Duplicity is a dastard's policy. It hedges its bets and applauds the one present. It plays the field instead of playing the game. For the fear of missing out on something it refuses to give itself entirely to any one thing. It spreads itself thin and develops a backbone in kind. Duplicity does not please God. He is not appeased when you bow your knees in His presence and raise your middle finger to Him in your absence.

To swear by conflicting principles is to offend them both.

To pledge allegiance to rival flags is to promise treason twice.

To multiply kisses is to divide loyalties.

To be mostly faithful is to be unfaithful.

day no. 15,805: right premise, wrong conclusion

"Instinctively we do know that true beauty proceeds only from Deity. Our problem is that we have deified ourselves and have assumed, contrary to the visible results, that whatever proceeds from us must be beautiful." -- Douglas Wilson, Angels in the Architecture

We rightly understand that beauty is divine, but we wrongly understand divinity. We proclaim ourselves children of God, but not in order to honor our Father, but in order to assume His divine prerogative. When we assume a sort of sacred inner spark, we presume all sorts of sinful urges are begotten of God. Our theology falls off of our fingertips. We create and call whatever comes from inside us “beautiful” because we misunderstand who and what we are on the inside. Because we believe ourselves to be gods, we believe our creations to possess our attributes of truth, goodness and beauty. While we're right to presume that truth, beauty and goodness only derive from divinity, we're wrong to assume ourselves a source of divinity: right premise, wrong conclusion.

Human nature is not supernatural. Humanity is not divinity. But divinity by the grace of God took on humanity when the Word became flesh and as a result the flesh can be resurrected a newborn child of God.

John 1:9-14

The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

day no. 15,774: we are that heel

Sometimes someone just says something so well that it requires no comment. Such was one of those times on Saturday, June 20, 2020.

"Our worship services are a weekly celebration of that great coronation that happened two thousand years ago. And coronation celebrations always spell trouble for all pretenders to the throne. This is what Adonijah discovered to his dismay. His coronation party was quite overshadowed.

'And Zadok the priest took an horn of oil out of the tabernacle, and anointed Solomon. And they blew the trumpet; and all the people said, God save king Solomon. And all the people came up after him, and the people piped with pipes, and rejoiced with great joy, so that the earth rent with the sound of them. And Adonijah and all the guests that were with him heard it as they had made an end of eating . . . And Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet have anointed him king in Gihon: and they are come up from thence rejoicing, so that the city rang again. This is the noise that ye have heard. And also Solomon sitteth on the throne of the kingdom . . . And all the guests that were with Adonijah were afraid, and rose up, and went every man his way.' 1 Kings 1:39–49 (KJV)

One celebration ruined the other celebration.

God established the antithesis at the very beginning of human history (Gen. 3:15). There is therefore a constant state of war between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent. The Lord Jesus crushed the serpent’s head in His crucifixion and resurrection, but by His grace He permits us to participate in that struggle (Rom. 16:20). He crushes the adversary badly, bruising him under His heel. But remember, as His body, we are that heel.

'And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church.' Eph. 1:22 (KJV)

But there is more. Jesus promised us that in this conflict, the gates of Hades would never prevail against us (Matt. 16:18). But please note that the gates of Hades are not an offensive weapon. We are not besieged by the gates of Hades. We are the besiegers. We are not manning our tiny little Alamo, fighting desperately until we finally go under. It is the other way around.

Every faithful sermon that declares Christ as Savior and Lord is a proclamation, but not just to the gathered believers. The message is also for unbelievers, as well as all the principalities and powers. Every time we celebrate the Lord’s Supper, which we do every seven days, we proclaim the vicarious death that conquers the whole world (1 Cor. 11:26). And every time we open our mouths and our psalters to sing, we want to do so in a way so that Adonijah can hear it." -- Douglas Wilson, What Worship Accomplishes