day no. 16,885: Christendom come

Matthew 6:9-10

Pray then like this: 

“Our Father in heaven,

hallowed be your name. 

Your kingdom come,

your will be done,

on earth as it is in heaven.”

Ephesians 1:7-10

In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.

Philippians 2:9-11

Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Colossians 1:15-18

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.

1 Corinthians 15:24-27

Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. For “God has put all things in subjection under his feet.”

Christendom come.

Thy will be done.

On earth as it is in Heaven.

Amen.

day no. 16,884: seeing the battle is only half the battle

"We as Bible-believing evangelical Christians are locked in a battle. This is not a friendly gentleman's discussion. It is a life and death conflict between the spiritual hosts of wickedness and those who claim the name of Christ. It is a conflict on the level of ideas between two fundamentally opposed views of truth and reality. It is a conflict on the level of actions between a complete moral perversion and chaos and God's absolutes. But do we really believe that we are in a life and death battle? Do we really believe that the part we play in the battle has consequences for whether or not men and women will spend eternity in hell? Or whether or not in this life people will live with meaning or meaninglessness? Or whether or not those who do live will live in a climate of moral perversion and degradation? Sadly, we must say that very few in the evangelical world have acted as if these things are true. Rather than trumpet our accomplishments and revel in our growing numbers, it would be closer to the truth to admit that our response has been a disaster." — Francis Schaeffer, The Great Evangelical Disaster (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 1984), pp. 31-32

Christians are called to more than merely acknowledging the battle. It is not enough to recognize the war or calculate the stakes; it requires a fight. It would be a win for most Christians to simply see and acknowledge the extent of the insurrection of Satan, but that alone won't end the siege. Seeing the battle is only half the battle.

Enmity is hard-wired into the battle for Heaven and Earth. Michael was charged by God to evict Satan from Heaven. The Church is now charged with stamping out his presence on earth. 

There can be no peace with evil without making war with sin. Where sin is permitted to exist, the war wages on. Evil will not quit until it is stopped. It will war against goodness, truth, and beauty as long as it's ugly head can siphon gas. 

Romans 16:20

And the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen.

It is the honor and privilege of the saints to hear the death rattle of the rattlesnake as they wash the snake venom off their boots.

day no. 16,883: the dead man who haunted Hitler

"Hitler was obsessed with Kuyper, a man who had been dead for twenty years when Hitler launched his attack on the Netherlands. What high praise for this man whose chief desire was to bring true praise and honor to the Lord Jesus." — George Grant, The Kuyperian Vision of Christ's Lordship

Kuyper was a dead man who haunted Hitler. Kuperian categorical distinction, commonly referred to as sphere sovereignty, and the kingdom of Christ were the bane of Hitler's existence. Kuyper brought the Name of Jesus to bear everywhere and that meant that anyone hellbent on treading anywhere in Christendom would break their own ankles.

"Why did Hitler fear a man that had been dead for twenty years? Hitler feared Kuyper’s view on the role of God in everyday life. For Kuyper believed that God continually influenced the life of believers, and daily events could show his workings. As Kuyper famously said, 'Oh, no single piece of our mental world is to be hermetically sealed off from the rest, and there is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry: ‘Mine!''” — George Grant, The Kuyperian Vision of Christ's Lordship

All of Christ for all of life is a tough nut to crack and people who live that way are not easy to bribe or battle. A people who push Christ to the corner of everything will have a place that is defended from top to bottom, side to side, front to back by the Word of God. A pillar of fire by night and a cloud of smoke by daybreak makes for timid neighbors.

"Kuyper lived out this notion and helped create a culture completely juxtaposed to the world order that Hitler had hoped to impose." — George Grant, The Kuyperian Vision of Christ's Lordship

A culture consumed by Christ is ordered according to His Word. Chaos cannot stand against Christ. Tyranny preys upon disordered people, but well-ordered, free-spirited slaves of Christ cannot be bought or beaten.

"One desire has been the ruling passion of my life. One high motive has acted like a spur upon my mind and soul. and sooner than that I should seek escape from the sacred necessity that is laid upon me, let the breath of life fail me. It is this: That in spite of all worldly opposition, God's holy ordinances shall be established again in the home, in the school and in the State for the good of the people; to carve as it were into the conscience of the nation the ordinances of the Lord, to which Bible and Creation bear witness, until the nation pays homage again to God." — Abraham Kuyper

day no. 16,882: faith in doubt is the reigning orthodoxy

"There is a poisonous snake which seeks to enter the hearts of us all; it sucks the last drop of lifeblood from our veins.That monster has wrapped itself around our age and crept into its breast — addiction to doubt. I have seen its victims, have seen the enervated souls, the weak of heart who float along with the crowd, powerless to resist the tide, people who know only the momentary flush of excitement but are inwardly dying so that only a dissembling life can, for the moment, conceal their spiritual death... Modernism is a fata morgana in the Christian domain." — Abraham Kuyper, 1871

The modern mind takes pride in not knowing. So much so, it attempts to doubt everything other than itself. The only thing which can be known is what the knower wants to retain or finds useful at any particular moment. It takes advantage of what others continue to know while claiming the advantage of being free from their restraints. It claims intellectual superiority in the form of intellectual fluidity. It can know whatever it likes whenever it likes and not be constrained by what others continue to have to know. Modernism is a fairy castle erected by witchcraft. It is wish fulfillment incarnate. It is insidious and serpentine.

In short, faith in doubt is the reigning orthodoxy of the spirit of the age and its acolytes are legion.

day no. 16,881: Christ or Christless?

"When a comprehensive Christian worldview is applied to the whole of life even those who protest the claims of the Gospel must live in accordance with its categories." — George Grant

When a person condemns Christianity for stirring up strife, causing wars, supporting slavery, reinforcing racism, sustaining sexism, or cultural conquest, they can only do so using Christian categories of sin. They can only condemn Christianity under the authority of Christ. Without Christendom, there is no foundation from which to declare any of those things to be wrong. Why should a Christian be ashamed of racism? Because Christ is Lord. If Christ is not Lord, why is racism wrong? Says who?

The fact that warmongering, kidnapping, race baiting, misogyny, and brutality are considered wrong (i.e. sinful) is because Christendom has come to bear heavily upon the individual and collective conscience of the world. Because Christ is King, His categories are codified throughout His Kingdom; and that is an everlasting kingdom without earthen borders.

Daniel 7:14

And to Him was given dominion

and glory and a kingdom,

that all peoples, nations, and languages

should serve Him;

His dominion is an everlasting dominion,

which shall not pass away,

and His kingdom one

that shall not be destroyed.

Deplorable acts are only considered to be so because they are Christless. There is no other standard that can be consistently brought to bear upon any thought, word, or deed.

day no. 16,880: the pen and the playground

"The beginning of freedom is knowing where the lines are drawn." — Abraham Kuyper 

A picture without a frame is not free from borders, but enslaved to the undefined. 

"Art, like morality, consists of drawing the line somewhere." — G.K. Chesterton

Lines will be drawn by someone somewhere. There is no land without lines or lines without lords over them.

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. 

The Lord is the line. The Lord is the door. Pasture is only possible if there is a door. A place without borders cannot be free because it is no longer a place. It is undefined and unrefined. Doors and walls make place possible and only a divine door makes peace and quiet possible.

"And 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

Pasture is the place where friends of the good frolic.

Malachi 4:2

But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall.

The good Shepherd provides both the pen and the playground.

day no. 16,879: God's coffee tables

Proverbs 4:19

The way of the wicked is like deep darkness;

they do not know over what they stumble. 

Wherever the wicked go, they go in God's world and since they walk in darkness, they are constantly banging their shins on God's coffee tables. Reality is a stubborn thing and does not give a fig for 4 in the morning. Just because you can't see, doesn't mean it can't. 

The godless always bang into God's truth, and it leaves bruises. 

Matthew 6:22-23

The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!

Closing your eyes does not make God's world go away. You only make it harder for yourself to make your way around. The coffee table's corners don't get less pointy for your convenience. They still kick back when you kick them.