Friday, March 8, 2019
Thursday, March 7, 2019
Wednesday, March 6, 2019
day no. 14,744: Finneas says, "see ya later, 6!"
Finneas,
Two nights ago I told you, "Tomorrow is your last day of being 6 ever!" You responded in classic Finneas fashion by saying, "See ya later, 6!"
I love being your dad. You make life more fun. You still like taking naps with me on Sundays and sometimes you even end up sucking your fingers while you are sleeping. You still bring your blankie with you to bed. But you are growing up and finding ways to serve. You regularly take it upon yourself to clean up your sister's room for them or volunteer to complete some task for one of your siblings in order to help them out. You understand the value of doing things for others and looking to their interests.
You and your brother Atticus are a band of brothers, spending your days fighting Nazis in the basement. You love to draw and color and you are getting really good at creatively putting your mind onto paper. You are tagging along with your bigger siblings, learning and growing in wisdom and knowledge through schooling.
You are full of energy and passion and I love that about you. Your "11" is one of my favorite things about you. True, at times, it is one of the harder things about you too, but I would rather have the problems that come with you and your "11" in my life than the problems I would have if I didn't have you. You are worth it. I would choose you every time.
I am getting glimpses of the future man within you and I am very encouraged by what I see. You have a heart that loves God and is fiercely committed to Him being able to do whatever He desires. You see His sovereignty as a non-negotiable and rightfully so, cuz it isn't!
Happy 7th Birthday, Finneas.
I can't wait to see how another year of growing in wisdom, stature and favor with God and man will develop you. You have worn 6 well. I'm excited to see what you look like in your 7 suit.
Love, Dad
Two nights ago I told you, "Tomorrow is your last day of being 6 ever!" You responded in classic Finneas fashion by saying, "See ya later, 6!"
I love being your dad. You make life more fun. You still like taking naps with me on Sundays and sometimes you even end up sucking your fingers while you are sleeping. You still bring your blankie with you to bed. But you are growing up and finding ways to serve. You regularly take it upon yourself to clean up your sister's room for them or volunteer to complete some task for one of your siblings in order to help them out. You understand the value of doing things for others and looking to their interests.
You and your brother Atticus are a band of brothers, spending your days fighting Nazis in the basement. You love to draw and color and you are getting really good at creatively putting your mind onto paper. You are tagging along with your bigger siblings, learning and growing in wisdom and knowledge through schooling.
You are full of energy and passion and I love that about you. Your "11" is one of my favorite things about you. True, at times, it is one of the harder things about you too, but I would rather have the problems that come with you and your "11" in my life than the problems I would have if I didn't have you. You are worth it. I would choose you every time.
I am getting glimpses of the future man within you and I am very encouraged by what I see. You have a heart that loves God and is fiercely committed to Him being able to do whatever He desires. You see His sovereignty as a non-negotiable and rightfully so, cuz it isn't!
Happy 7th Birthday, Finneas.
I can't wait to see how another year of growing in wisdom, stature and favor with God and man will develop you. You have worn 6 well. I'm excited to see what you look like in your 7 suit.
Love, Dad
Tuesday, March 5, 2019
day no. 14,743: clarity, capability and consequences
Genesis 4:7
If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it.”
God is a good Dad.
When He commands, He considers clarity, capability and consequences.
CLARITY
God spells out with meticulous detail what He is after when meticulous detail is what He requires. Don't believe me, read Leviticus and I'll wait for your apology.
CAPABILITY
God does not exasperate His children. He doesn't give them commands that they cannot accomplish. As Augustine once prayed, "Lord, command Thy will and will Thy command." He provides what He requires.
CONSEQUENCES
God provides clear consequences ahead of time. He says what He will do and then He does what He says He will do. He does not give empty threats in order to produce a particular result. He wants us to obey and wants us to use our desire to be accepted as a driver of what we do.
CHRIST
God has clearly communicated that Christ is the way to full and final acceptance before Him. In Christ, all you were incapable of achieving is received. The consequence of faith in Christ is acceptance before God. The consequence of rejecting Christ is finding no regard before God.
If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it.”
God is a good Dad.
When He commands, He considers clarity, capability and consequences.
CLARITY
God spells out with meticulous detail what He is after when meticulous detail is what He requires. Don't believe me, read Leviticus and I'll wait for your apology.
CAPABILITY
God does not exasperate His children. He doesn't give them commands that they cannot accomplish. As Augustine once prayed, "Lord, command Thy will and will Thy command." He provides what He requires.
CONSEQUENCES
God provides clear consequences ahead of time. He says what He will do and then He does what He says He will do. He does not give empty threats in order to produce a particular result. He wants us to obey and wants us to use our desire to be accepted as a driver of what we do.
CHRIST
God has clearly communicated that Christ is the way to full and final acceptance before Him. In Christ, all you were incapable of achieving is received. The consequence of faith in Christ is acceptance before God. The consequence of rejecting Christ is finding no regard before God.
Monday, March 4, 2019
day no. 14,742: a time for choosing
I came across this speech the other day while watching, of all things, an army men versus lego men stop motion video with my kids one night before bed. During the scene where the sides prepared for battle, this excerpt from "A Time for Choosing" by Ronald Reagan on October 27, 1964 was played as a backdrop...
If all of this seems like a great deal of trouble, think what’s at stake. There can be no security anywhere in the free world if there is not fiscal and economic stability within the United States. Those who ask us to trade our freedom for the soup kitchen of the welfare state are architects of a policy of accommodation. They tell us that by avoiding a direct confrontation with the enemy he will learn to love us and give up his evil ways. All who oppose this idea are blanket indicted as war-mongers. Well, let us set one thing straight, there is no argument with regard to peace and war. It is cheap demagoguery to suggest that anyone would want to send other people’s sons to war. The only argument is with regard to the best way to avoid war. There is only one sure way—surrender.
The spectre our well-meaning liberal friends refuse to face is that their policy of accommodation is appeasement, and appeasement does not give you a choice between peace and war, only between fight and surrender. We are told that the problem is too complex for a simple answer. They are wrong. There is no easy answer, but there is a simple answer. We must have the courage to do what we know is morally right, and this policy of accommodation asks us to accept the greatest possible immorality. We are being asked to buy our safety from the threat of “the bomb” by selling into permanent slavery our fellow human beings enslaved behind the Iron Curtain, to tell them to give up their hope of freedom because we are ready to make a deal with their slave masters. Alexander Hamilton warned us that a nation which can prefer disgrace to danger is prepared for a master and deserves one. Admittedly there is a risk in any course we follow. Choosing the high road cannot eliminate that risk. Already some of the architects of accommodation have hinted what their decision will be if their plan fails and we are faced with the final ultimatum. The English commentator [Kenneth] Tynan has put it this way: he would rather live on his knees than die on his feet. Some of our own have said “Better Red than dead.” If we are to believe that nothing is worth the dying, when did this begin? Should Moses have told the children of Israel to live in slavery rather than dare the wilderness? Should Christ have refused the Cross? Should the patriots at Concord Bridge have refused to fire the shot heard ’round the world? Are we to believe that all the martyrs of history died in vain?
You and I have a rendezvous with destiny. We can preserve for our children this, the last best hope of man on earth, or we can sentence them to take the first step into a thousand years of darkness. If we fail, at least let our children and our children’s children say of us we justified our brief moment here. We did all that could be done.
If all of this seems like a great deal of trouble, think what’s at stake. There can be no security anywhere in the free world if there is not fiscal and economic stability within the United States. Those who ask us to trade our freedom for the soup kitchen of the welfare state are architects of a policy of accommodation. They tell us that by avoiding a direct confrontation with the enemy he will learn to love us and give up his evil ways. All who oppose this idea are blanket indicted as war-mongers. Well, let us set one thing straight, there is no argument with regard to peace and war. It is cheap demagoguery to suggest that anyone would want to send other people’s sons to war. The only argument is with regard to the best way to avoid war. There is only one sure way—surrender.
The spectre our well-meaning liberal friends refuse to face is that their policy of accommodation is appeasement, and appeasement does not give you a choice between peace and war, only between fight and surrender. We are told that the problem is too complex for a simple answer. They are wrong. There is no easy answer, but there is a simple answer. We must have the courage to do what we know is morally right, and this policy of accommodation asks us to accept the greatest possible immorality. We are being asked to buy our safety from the threat of “the bomb” by selling into permanent slavery our fellow human beings enslaved behind the Iron Curtain, to tell them to give up their hope of freedom because we are ready to make a deal with their slave masters. Alexander Hamilton warned us that a nation which can prefer disgrace to danger is prepared for a master and deserves one. Admittedly there is a risk in any course we follow. Choosing the high road cannot eliminate that risk. Already some of the architects of accommodation have hinted what their decision will be if their plan fails and we are faced with the final ultimatum. The English commentator [Kenneth] Tynan has put it this way: he would rather live on his knees than die on his feet. Some of our own have said “Better Red than dead.” If we are to believe that nothing is worth the dying, when did this begin? Should Moses have told the children of Israel to live in slavery rather than dare the wilderness? Should Christ have refused the Cross? Should the patriots at Concord Bridge have refused to fire the shot heard ’round the world? Are we to believe that all the martyrs of history died in vain?
You and I have a rendezvous with destiny. We can preserve for our children this, the last best hope of man on earth, or we can sentence them to take the first step into a thousand years of darkness. If we fail, at least let our children and our children’s children say of us we justified our brief moment here. We did all that could be done.
Sunday, March 3, 2019
day no. 14,741: bus boys and bullets
Where the battle rages, the loyalty of the soldier is proved; and to be steady on all the battle-field besides is mere flight and disgrace to him if he flinches at that one point. - E. R. Charles
If you are a soldier, there are days where your duties are ordinary and uninteresting. A soldier who routinely shows up to bus the tables is steady as far as busboys go, but he isn't steady as far as soldiers go... yet. He is faithful as far as ancillary responsibilities of soldiers go, but not with respect to primary responsibilities. If that same soldier flakes when the battle rages, his loyalty and faithfulness as a soldier are suspect. He cannot compensate for his lack of courage at this moment by his abundance of bussing before. A soldier must soldier on when the battle is boring, but he MUST show up when the battle rages. That is the quintessential character of a soldier. Soldiers must be loyal when there are no bullets, but they aren't soldiers at all if they aren't loyal when there are.
Proverbs 24:10
If you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small.
Saturday, March 2, 2019
day no. 14,740: good grief
2 Corinthians 7:8-11
For even if I made you grieve with my letter, I do not regret it-though I did regret it, for I see that that letter grieved you, though only for a while. 9 As it is, I rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because you were grieved into repenting. For you felt a godly grief, so that you suffered no loss through us. 10 For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death. 11 For see what earnestness this godly grief has produced in you, but also what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what longing, what zeal, what punishment! At every point you have proved yourselves innocent in the matter.
Grief x8
Grief is not good in and of itself. But that doesn't mean it is bad. It can be bad, but it isn't always bad. It is good when it leads to repentance.
When you feel godly grief, it leads to repentance which means the grief produces a net gain. You are better off for having felt the grief than if you had never felt its sting. Godly grief produces repentance which leads to salvation without regret.
Worldly grief, by contrast produces death which leads to more death with regret for a net loss. It is a loss that leads to more loss.
Godly grief is a loss that leads to ever increasing gain because what it grasps is Christ who gives abundantly. Repentance leads to innocence.
The worldly approach is to remove the sting of sin by categorically changing the game. If we call evil good, then we can commit evil and call it, "good," without shame, grief or regret. But that leads to ever increasing guilt.
Repenting (agreeing with God) and Confessing (calling sin by its name) leads to salvation without any regret.
So those who own their sin are the ones who are free from it and those who deny their sin are the ones enslaved to it. Those attempting to escape shame by clinging to their sin only ensure the shame they seek to avoid. Those who embrace shame by repenting of their sin ensure their salvation and break free from the shame fully and finally.
For even if I made you grieve with my letter, I do not regret it-though I did regret it, for I see that that letter grieved you, though only for a while. 9 As it is, I rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because you were grieved into repenting. For you felt a godly grief, so that you suffered no loss through us. 10 For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death. 11 For see what earnestness this godly grief has produced in you, but also what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what longing, what zeal, what punishment! At every point you have proved yourselves innocent in the matter.
Grief x8
Grief is not good in and of itself. But that doesn't mean it is bad. It can be bad, but it isn't always bad. It is good when it leads to repentance.
When you feel godly grief, it leads to repentance which means the grief produces a net gain. You are better off for having felt the grief than if you had never felt its sting. Godly grief produces repentance which leads to salvation without regret.
Worldly grief, by contrast produces death which leads to more death with regret for a net loss. It is a loss that leads to more loss.
Godly grief is a loss that leads to ever increasing gain because what it grasps is Christ who gives abundantly. Repentance leads to innocence.
The worldly approach is to remove the sting of sin by categorically changing the game. If we call evil good, then we can commit evil and call it, "good," without shame, grief or regret. But that leads to ever increasing guilt.
Repenting (agreeing with God) and Confessing (calling sin by its name) leads to salvation without any regret.
So those who own their sin are the ones who are free from it and those who deny their sin are the ones enslaved to it. Those attempting to escape shame by clinging to their sin only ensure the shame they seek to avoid. Those who embrace shame by repenting of their sin ensure their salvation and break free from the shame fully and finally.
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