the reformation (for the upteenth time)

Somewhere I've gotten this odd idea that cataloging my attempts at living healthier will lead to more success if I make it public. Maybe it's because it worked for me in the past (and by "past" I mean a solid eight years ago, when I went from 210 to 135). My healthy living has gradually declined since getting married, which isn't surprising; just as you have the "Freshman Fifteen," you're also faced with the "Married Twenty." Granted I haven't gained that much since Ashley and I tied the knot, but I've definitely drifted from where I want to be. Though, to be honest, my weight doesn't really concern me. One's weight, after all, is just an arbitrary number. What matters to me is getting back to the strength I used to have. My goal in these "reformations" isn't to lose weight but to make major strides in becoming fitter and healthier (though if I were able to get down to 160, my Wedding Day Weight, I would count that as a victory). Ashley's super supportive, but she's adamant about me not losing too much weight. She likes a little thickness (as do I!), and let's be real: when I dropped down to 135 I looked like a thirteen year old. My bearded scruff and thickness around the waist does wonders to help me look more than half my age.

In order to get healthier, I've been slowly adopting a more natural diet, cutting out fast food, limiting processed foods, and increasing fruits and vegetables while trying to ingest only complex grains. I've been dabbling with a hybrid version of the Mediterranean diet, focusing on fish (particularly tuna and salmon), lean proteins such as chicken, and lots of healthy fats (with a generous amount of eggs; we go through a carton of 120 eggs in about two weeks!). So far I've dropped from 180 to 173 (the picture above is from when I started seven pounds ago), so I think the diet's working. In addition to dieting I've been gradually bringing weight lifting back into the picture (cardio is pretty much out thanks to a bad knee; my doctor thinks my knee pain is due to my leg bones not lining up right with my knee joints, and only breaking my leg and realigning it can solve that problem). My current exercise regimen is as follows:

   Monday - chest and shoulders

   Tuesday - abdomen and back

   Wednesday - arms and legs

   Thursday - rest day

   Friday - chest and shoulders

   Saturday - abdomen and back

   Sunday - arms and legs

My aim is to post updates at the end of each month.

(But if I fall off the wagon, don't expect any updates, due to shame)

[books i've been reading]

"The Adversary"

by Mark Bubeck

Mark Bubeck's The Adversary is the third in a series of books I've been reading on spiritual warfare. While the last two books focused heavily on spiritual warfare against the spirit world (Satan, demons, fallen angels, and such ilk), Bubeck's book (though focusing on that subject, too) delves deeper into two of the other main enemies Christian face: the flesh and the devil. While Bubeck doesn't bring much more to the table regarding the spirit world as the previous two books, his explorations of the flesh and the world stand out. Below I've added some quotes from the Introduction, and then I've added three links to some of my favorite quotes from the rest of the book.

“For too long the work of demons has been dismissed by most of us as a curious, vaguely understood phenomenon in animistic, heathen cultures, but it was not considered a problem which might invade our lives, our homes, our churches. Such willful ignorance of biblical teaching seems inexcusable and is long overdue for correction.”

“The prince of this world sees to it that the world he controls laughs him off with indifferent levity. Christians ought never to enter into joke-making about Satan or hell. While believers do need to exercise care in not assigning all of their wrongdoings as Satan’s responsibility, we must with biblical insight appreciate the diabolical power of Satan’s kingdom to influence us.”

“It is important that we keep a biblical balance in our [spiritual] warfare. We must be careful not to develop a ‘demon behind every bush’ spiritual mentality. The old nature of man and its bent for evil, together with the world system, must be understood in biblical perspective.”

Warfare Against the Flesh

Warfare Against the World

The Devil & Demons: A Biblical Survey

[books i've been reading]

"The Bondage Breaker" 

by Neil T. Anderson

Neil Anderson’s The Bondage Breaker works off the foundation he laid in his previous book, Victory Over the Darkness. In the first book Anderson looked at why Christians so often fail to live the life God wants for us. One of his main arguments was that Christians fail to perceive themselves as they really are in Christ: forgiven, sanctified, redeemed, chosen by God, adopted by God, alive in the Spirit, no longer condemned but alive to God. In that book Anderson argued that one of the reasons we fail to comprehend who we truly are in Christ (and consequently fail to live the victorious life Christ has secured for us) is because we are deceived by the devil, who is the “father of lies.” The devil and his minions are opposed to God and His people, and they work day and night to draw us away from God or, at the least, to make us impotent for the kingdom. The Bondage Breaker takes these tenets and fleshes them out. Here Anderson argues for the existence of a spiritual realm that is all around us, and he explores the nature of Satan and his compatriots, how the devil works against God and His people, and how Christians can stand against Satan’s lies and deceptions. He writes:

“The kingdom of God is a major theme of the Bible, but it has to be understood in contrast to the kingdom of darkness. The battle from Genesis to Revelation is between those two kingdoms, between the Christ and the Antichrist, between the Spirit of Truth and the father of lies, between the prophets of God and the false prophets, between the wheat (sons of the kingdom) and the tares (sons of the evil one—see Matthew 13:38). Wrestling against dark spiritual forces is not a first-century phenomenon, nor is it merely optional for the Christian today. The kingdom of darkness is still present, and the devil still ‘prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour’ (1 Peter 5:8). In light of this, Peter instructs us to ‘be of sober spirit, be on the alert… resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world’ (1 Peter 5:8,9). If your biblical worldview does not include the kingdom of darkness, then either God or you will have to take a bump rap for all the corruption Satan is foisting on you and the rest of the world.”  (19)

There is a lot to be commended in The Bondage Breaker, though Anderson is quite repetitive at times (though this may not be a bad thing, as repetition promotes retention). Here are a few “subjects” Anderson addresses and some quotes pertaining to them:

The Reality of the Spirit World

Misconceptions about Demons andthe Devil

On the Devil and his Minions

How Does the Devil Attack Us?

Spiritual Warfare: The Nuts ‘nBolts

"Daddy Tried" (II)

“Fatherhood is everywhere, and not because God is a chauvinist. Fatherhood is everywhere, and not because Scripture was written in ancient patriarchal times. Fatherhood is everywhere, and not because it was written when men were the ones who learned how to write and women were stuck at home at the hearth birthing babies. Fatherhood is everywhere because God is the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and He created man to testify to His glorious nature… [The] healing of fatherhood is the fruit of true Christian faith… By the love of God the Father we are restored to loving fellowship with Him as His adopted sons; and from that restoration come other restorations infinitely deep and joyful and healing. We are restored to forgive and love our own fathers; and as godly fathers ourselves, we are restored to loving our own sons and daughters.”

“It becomes clear that all responsibility and authority delegated by God to man points back to God’s archetypal Fatherhood—not just in the home but also in the church and society. We get it that every man is a father, whether he is single or married, childless or with quiver-full, just as every woman is a mother whether she is childless or has a houseful of little ones that are the fruit of her womb. No man can escape the weight of responsibility and authority God placed in his sex. By virtue of his manhood, he is a father and God will judge his stewardship of this dignity intrinsic to his sex. The only question is whether his fatherhood is good or bad, righteous or evil.”

“God is fruitful and has written fruitfulness into every part of His creation. From birds to apple trees to the marriage bed, the fruitfulness of His creation reflects the fruitfulness of the Godhead. Fatherhood begins with fruitfulness and without fruitfulness there is no fatherhood.”

“[Think] of the hardship that raising sons and daughters entails. First there’s the work of marriage. Then there’s the work of supporting your wife and children. Then the work of discipline. The work of love. The work of instruction. The work of leading your sons and daughters to see their sin and hate it, to turn to Jesus in repentance. Think of the pain of believing God’s covenant promises—that He will be a God to us and to our children’s children to the thousandth generation—as we watch our sons rebel against God and spend months, years, and sometimes decades slopping pigs in a far land. Now you’re ready to consider why it is that so many couples choose to have dogs rather than children; why so many choose never to marry at all; why so many fathers abandon their wives and children; why divorced dads show up late—or never—for visitations. Fatherhood is hard, hard work and we’re never released from it until death separates us. Fatherhood is painful. Fatherhood brings us to our knees. Fatherhood is not all joy. It’s also a heavy dose of blood, sweat, fears, and tears.”

“Fathers and mothers are paying so-called ‘physicians’ to cut their babies to pieces while the little ones are still alive and nestled in their mothers’ wombs. Abortion is fathers and mothers consuming the flesh of their own sons and daughters and it’s a horror beyond imagination. This is the depth to which God’s curse has taken us. God blesses man through fruitfulness. God curses man through fruitlessness. Which is to say, zero population growth, one-child policies, gender-selective abortion, ECPs, and all the rest of the progressives’ agenda for their so-called ‘liberated women’ are not at all what they’re sold to be. They are not women exercising their own very personal right to private choices. Rather, each of these tragedies is one more aspect of God’s curse of fruitlessness carried out against a wicked people.”

“In our soft and effeminate culture where every man, including the Christian father, is working hard to be thought well of by his wife and all those predisposed to judge and condemn fathers and fatherhood, you will have to remind yourself of the simple fact stated over and over again in the Word of God, that discipline is love… To neglect discipline is to be loveless. When God disciplines us, He is bearing testimony—precious testimony—that we are His sons. We belong to Him and He loves us. Jesus rightly says that we, ‘being evil, know how to give good gifts to our children.’ Thus we must give our sons and daughters the good gift of discipline. This is the life of faith.”

“It’s so important for children to grow up hearing their fathers confess their own sinfulness, and thus coming to understand that God disciplines Daddy just as Daddy disciplines his son. One tragic statement I hear regularly from college students in our church is that they’ve never heard their Christian father admit particular sins or ask his wife or family to forgive him. I simply cannot fathom how a husband and father can be a faithful Christian without humbling himself before his family by asking for their forgiveness. How do we glorify God before our families if we refuse to humble ourselves?”

“Satan is the evil slave master. He will tell you that [spanking] is an act of conformity to old, defective norms that will crush and destroy your children. He’ll tell you that spanking produces compliant children, conformists, mindless cogs in the machine of American culture. But he lies. And his goal is for you to produce children with no fear of God, no understanding of consequences, and no ability to fight their sin. No ability to say no to their passions and lusts. Conformists. Cogs in his machine. Slaves. Jesus is the Great Abolitionist. Jesus came to heal fatherhood and sonship so that fathers will be agents of reconciliation and liberation to our sons. The goal of fatherhood is to work with the Holy Spirit to set our children free. Rebellion always produces greater conformity to the patterns of this evil world whereas obedience produces freedom in Christ.”

“God’s patience has an end and fathers should be like Him in this also. Our children must not be raised in a home where their father is fickle or thin-skinned. They must not be raised by a father who is inconsistent in his standards and punishments. They must not be raised by a father who disciplines out of irritation. Must I go on? They must not be raised by a father who disciplines with an eye to his wife’s or in-law’ or son’s approval. They must not be raised by a father who disciplines out of a fear of appearing weak… Father, train your sons and daughters to know the character of God. And not the god of psychologists and school counselors and the talking heads of evangelical inspirational radio and family conferences, but the God of the Flood and fire and brimstone, and the deaths of Ananias and Sapphira.”

“As a father, [discipline] is your greatest work and you will die surrounded by its fruit, good or bad. You will do the hard work of instruction, training, and discipline, and die surrounded by godly children, spouses, and grandchildren; or you will neglect your duties and die surrounded by covenant breakers. Now don’t get wrapped up in the exception that proves the rule. Sure, in some of our homes there are Esaus whose rebellion is not because of, but in spite of, our faithful discipline. But right now I’m not talking about them. Do the work of discipline that will allow you to die in peace.”

“There’s only so much time in life and your years with your children will soon be over. Even fathers and mothers of large families will live most of their lives without children in their homes. The years of child rearing are quickly over, so how do you redeem the time? Priorities, priorities. You have received God’s command to teach His words to your children diligently. You’re to be a harp of ten thousand strings that harps on one string relentlessly, and that string is the Word of God. You may think you can trust other Christians, and particularly your wife, to have the same priority you’ve been given by God, but you can’t. You have to fight for the right priority in the raising and training and education and discipline of your children, and your battle is not simply with the world. There will be times when you must also fight the church and your children’s precious mother. The Word and words of God are to be preeminent among all the good things clamoring for the minds and hearts and hours of your home and your children. So put on your mud boots, roll up your sleeves, and dig in.”

“How many things are necessary? One. What is that one thing? Sitting at the Lord’s feet, listening to His Word. Fathers are to govern their homes by Scripture… Every word of the Bible is the Word of our Lord. Thus the one thing necessary is for us and our children to be devoted to the Word of God. This begins by our faithfully attending the preaching and teaching of Scripture by the officers of Christ’s church. It continues by our taking every step possible to make His Word the very center of our family life. And yes, it is still true today as it was true in the time of our Lord Jesus that doing dishes and cutting the grass and doing homework and cleaning the bathroom and cooking and doing the laundry and practicing the piano and writing papers get in the way of that one thing necessary.”

“Fathers, it is your work to protect your home from the practical-mindedness and efficiency of your precious wife when, like Martha, she obstructs the one thing necessary for your marriage and children and household to be fruitful for God. She means well. You married her for her intellectual gifts and administrative abilities and sober-mindedness and frugality… You have been blessed by her schedules, by her loving prodding about how you spend money and why you’re so often late for dinner. Almost everything about this prudent wife God gave you is a blessing beyond your wildest dreams, yet sometimes you have to admit she gets between you and the children when you are trying to lead your household into greater faith, greater submission to God, greater sacrifice for the Kingdom of Heaven, growth in hospitality, and changed priorities putting some specific commands of Scripture back at the center of your home. But what did Jesus say—how many things are necessary? One thing. And what is that one thing? The Word and words of God—that’s the one thing absolutely necessary. God has made your wife an efficiency machine able to juggle twenty batons and thirty balls at a time, but you are the father of her children and you’re useless to her if you don’t reorder her priorities in order to protect the pride of position of the one thing necessary. Don’t fail your children. Don’t fail your wife. Guard your home from Martha’s attempt to change her home’s priorities. Exercise your authority.”

"Daddy Tried" (I)

select quotes from Tim Bayly's 

Daddy Tried: 

Overcoming the Failures of Fatherhood

“We have not been glorified yet. We are being sanctified. We are being made holy, but it’s a long and winding and painful road. That’s the nature of the life of faith. A Christian is a man who, by faith, has committed himself to failing in the right direction.”

“God faulted Adam for listening to his wife and following her into sin (Gn 3:17). Adam was the head of his wife, but their relationship got flipped upside down when Eve led and Adam followed. Eve’s superior became her subordinate. He listened to her voice and followed her into sin. God’s progression is straightforward: God commands Adam. Then Adam himself obeys and leads his wife into obedience. Together they honor the Father through obedience to His Word, and thus Satan is defeated.”

“Fathers who despise God’s Fatherhood inevitably abdicate their responsibilities: they do not provide, they fail to protect, they do not lead their wives and children into the safety of righteousness, and what happens? Women pick up the pieces. Yet it’s hard for woman to do the work and bear the responsibility God delegated to man. By divine design, woman is unsuited to the authority and responsibility God placed in man by His order of creation.”

“When we love as fathers, our love must be like the love of God. We are not to wait to love our wife, sons, and daughters until they prove their love for us. If we did this, we would be lying about the character of our heavenly Father. ‘But God demonstrated His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us’ (Rom 5:8)… Don’t make your love for your wife and kids conditional on their love for you. Love them like God has loved you, while you were still His enemy.”

“Fathers are to love their wives and children with tenderness. We are to take into account the weakness of our wives since they are the ‘weaker vessel’ and tend toward ‘fear’… A tender husband does not make fun of his wife’s weaknesses or fears. He doesn’t dwell on failures that are the result of her weakness as if each of those failures is the result of a lack of submission or respect for her husband. He doesn’t ask her to lift the other side of the refrigerator or crawl under the lawn mower with him. He doesn’t ask her to be the one to call and haggle with the cable company over the increase in the bill. He doesn’t ask her to picket the abortuary to satisfy his conscience without dirtying his own hands. He doesn’t ask her to write the letter to the pastor asking him to shore up the biblical content or applications in his sermons. He doesn’t spend all the family’s money and demand she work to keep them solvent. He doesn’t leave her alone among pagans at the dinner table of the family reunion while he goes to the bedroom and reads a book. He doesn’t demand sexual intimacy during that time of month or late in pregnancy.”

“Discipline without tenderness is intolerable and will drive your sons and daughters to exasperation, bitterness, sarcasm, cynicism, and despair. You must not do that, and to protect against it you must spend more time with your sons and daughters. More time doesn’t mean sitting in front of the computer screen or television with them. It means time listening. It means holding them in your arms and scratching their back and tousling their hair and wrestling with them on the floor. It means taking walks with them and asking them what they’re looking forward to—and if it’s something you promised you would do with them, it means doing what you promised, and not delaying it.”

“The jealousy of God is a wonderful truth, but why spend time on it in a book on fatherhood? Because God commands us to put no idol before Him and one of the biggest idols in the Christian church today is the family. Of course, the Word of God commands husbands to love their wives and wives their husbands, fathers and mothers to love their children and children to love and obey their fathers and mothers; and so on. Still, we are not fully biblical until we face and obey God’s command that we never put our wives, husbands, fathers, mothers, sons, or daughters in the place of God. It’s impossible to misunderstand Jesus on this. He put it bluntly [in Luke 14:26] and it’s as difficult for us to listen to His words today as it was for His disciples two thousand years ago… God will not tolerate us putting our sons and daughters above Him in our honor and love.”

“As a father you must teach your children that only God is God. You, their beloved father, most certainly are not God. Nor are you ever to displace God in their love, allegiance, and obedience. How to teach this precious truth? Well, there’s no better way than to confess your own sins to your family and ask their forgiveness. Pop the balloon of your great dignity as their Christian father. Or maybe more to the point, pop the myth your dear wife has inculcated in your children, that Daddy is the best daddy in the world and they should adore him. Bunk, and double bunk!”

“To make a Christian home, it’s not enough to simply put a man and a woman together—rather than, say, two homosexual men or two lesbian women. It’s not enough to stay faithful to your wife and not abandon her for younger flesh. It’s not enough to belong to a conservative Christian church and have your children in a Christian school or home-school them. It’s not enough to read the Bible in the morning and do devotions at night. To have your children in a Wednesday night Awana program. It’s not enough for your children to know the Westminster Shorter Catechism. A Christian home is made by a father who teaches his children, ‘the Lord is our God, the Lord is one, and we must love the Lord our God with all our hearts and with all our souls and with all our might’ (Dt 6:4-5).”

from waffle house

On Mondays I run down to the office in Norwood to drop off paperwork, and on days when I don't become enveloped in conversations at the office, I'm able to make a pit-stop at Waffle House on the way back home to enjoy my "staple" breakfast of a bacon, egg, and cheese biscuit with a side of grits paired with a glass of orange juice. Usually I enjoy my breakfast while reading whatever book (or books) I'm currently working on, but today I had my computer and decided to do a little "catch up" with things going on in my life.

The process of bringing our new house into order--turning it from a house into a home--continues, albeit at a snail's pace. Ashley and I rolled up our shirtsleeves and spent several hours working on the finished basement over the weekend, finally unpacking boxes, squaring the girls' playroom away, and generally making it livable. The garage continues to be a vast repository of boxes, but at least the house's insides are coming together. Our bedroom may still be a mess, but I've finally gotten my side mostly organized (pics to come in time!), and I found time to piece together the nautical rope shelves for the living room. I saw them on Pinterest and decided to take a stab at making my own, and I must say I'm not disappointed (you could even say I'm surprised they turned out decent, as carpentry isn't really my thing and I bumbled through most of the process):

granted, they're uneven, and the one on the right kinda tilts, but... whatever.

Work with Walk of Joy has been going well, but I've begun feeling out other positions elsewhere. It isn't that I don't love my job (I really do!), but within the next twelve months we'll likely need more income. Walk of Joy has been a fantastic place to work, and over the past five years I've gone from a lowly direct care service provider to house manager, oversight over remote clients, spearheading dealings with client guardians, working directly with the state, and being a part of the organization's leadership. I told one of my management co-workers that I was considering other jobs, and she told the CEO and the CEO called me and told me he was holding an emergency meeting with HR to try and find ways to keep me on while providing for my family's increasing needs. When the rest of the leadership team found out I was looking for other jobs, they gasped and exclaimed, almost in unison, "We can't lose Anthony!" For a long while I've been called a rock and anchor; my joy and peace has been infectious, and my mere presence in the office is like a cooling breeze. On top of all that, I actually get stuff done, and those projects under my hand run seamlessly. Needless to say, they aren't excited about me looking for other jobs, but they understand. Hopefully the CEO can work something out so I can stay on. Walk of Joy has been fantastic, and the idea of leaving nauseates me. But when you're the head of a family, you can't just stay at a job because you like it. I'm praying for guidance and opportunities; I know God wanted me at Walk of Joy, but I'm not sure if that will remain the case in the immediate future.

In the meantime Ashley, the girls, and I have been enjoying the summer (even if the heat index crawls up to 100 degrees most days). I have lots of ambitions for this summer: canoeing with Chloe, paddle boating with Zoey, and lots of hiking and a few days of fishing. Ashley and I may be taking a vacation to Denver late next month, and we're spit-balling taking the girls to Gatlinburg (they've never been). It'd be a cheap couple-day vacation to escape the hustle and bustle of everyday life and just unwind. A temporary escape is a park we found adjacent to our neighborhood. The Shawnee Nature Park has a butterfly house, lots of trails, a creek filled with snakes, marshes, and multiple playgrounds and picnic areas. Chloe and I like to play basketball on the courts, and Zoey's all about going 'off the grid' and exploring the woods and the creek. On one of our last adventures I took a few snapshots of the girls on one of the trails:

My time here is running short.

(Or, rather, my battery is running low.)

But before I go, I must commend the girls for a wonderful Father's Day.

This is technically my first "real" Father's Day, since I adopted the girls last September, and it was filled with lots of tickling, wrestling, and cuddling. We went out to eat at Smokey Bones so I could get my loaded chicken and jalapeno nachos (I crave them at least once a month), and for once the girls got along and didn't fight. That was a Father's Day gift all its own! I kept doing goofy things to embarrass Chloe, and then Zoey jumped in with some of her antics, and we got a lot of smiles and laughs from nearby patrons. Chloe hung her head in shame and Zoey, feeding off the attention, just amped up the goofiness. It was a wonderful meal. Chloe got me a Best Dad Ever beer stein that she filled with sharpie pens (she knows what I love!), and Zoey got me yet another Star Wars mug; this one is emblazoned with the Millennium Falcon, and when it gets hot the Falcon jumps into hyperspace. While at the store she had a difficult time deciding between that mug and one that was a bust of Chewbacca; she forgot the Wookie's name, so she explained it to me as "The brown one. The sloth." She still thinks R2D2 is a robot, thanks to Ashley insisting that it's so just to tease me and mislead our children. "It's a droid, Zoey, a droid. It's significantly different from a robot." But when I begin to mark the differences, she gets bored and leaves. *SIGH* Such is fatherhood.

*sermon notes*

What kind of a father is our God?

John 1.12-13 tells us that all who believe in Jesus become children of God. God adopts us as His children—we take on His name, receive the blessings (and responsibilities) of family membership, and are granted a share in His inheritance, which is the future new heavens and new earth. Some people have the idea that everyone is a “child of God,” because God created us, but the Bible tells us that only those who believe in Jesus are God’s children; the rest are children of the devil (1 John 3.10).

All Christians have God as their Father, but we would do well to understand what kind of Father God is. The Bible is clear about the kind of Father God is, but many Christians fail to comprehend just how wonderful He is towards us. Many Christians have wrong ideas about the kind of Father God is, and we must ask why. One reason is that we look to our own fathers not merely as examples of fatherhood but as templates of fatherhood; when we hear that God is our father, we understand that through the lens of our experiences with our earthly (and sinful) fathers. A second reason is that many Christians don’t read the Scriptures as they should; the Bible tells us quite clearly what sort of Father God is, but if we don’t read the Bible, we’re left to our own ideas (and the often wrong ideas of others) about God. A third reason is that we have an enemy who wants us to believe lies about God. If he can deceive us into believing wrong things about our heavenly Father, He can hinder us in growing in our love for God.

There are a lot of wrong ideas about God’s Fatherhood, but there are three that run rampant within Christianity today. The first idea is that God holds our sins against us. Many earthly fathers exasperate their children and hold onto their mistakes, bringing them up time and again. But God isn’t like that! In Lamentations 3.22-23 we’re told that God’s mercies are new every morning. If we are in Christ, our sins (past, present, and future) have been forgiven. God knows the ways that I will sin tomorrow, and He has already forgiven them because Jesus already paid for them! In Psalm 103.8-12, we find a beautiful promise of the extent of God’s forgiveness:

The LORD is compassionate and gracious,

  slow to anger, abounding in love.

He will not always accuse,

  nor will he harbor his anger forever;

he does not treat us as our sins deserve

  or repay us according to our iniquities.

For as high as the heavens are above the earth,

  so great is his love for those who fear him;

as far as the east is from the west,

  so far has he removed our transgressions from us.

Another wrong idea a lot of Christians have is that God expects perfection and punishes us severely when we don’t measure up. In the next two verses following the passage above, the psalmist tells us that “[as] a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear them; for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust.” (vv. 13-14) God knows that even though we have new hearts and new desires to obey His will and grow in Him, we won’t do it perfectly. All of us will stumble in many ways. Just as I don’t expect my daughters to act like adults, so God doesn’t expect us to live as if we are already glorified. Just as I know my girls are just kids, God knows we are living on this side of heaven and constantly in conflict with our sinful inclinations, the allures of the world, and the deceptions of the devil. As a father it’s my job to train up my girls so that when they come to adulthood they can flourish, and this often involves discipline; in the same way, God’s aim is to train us up in righteousness to develop us into the sort of people He created us to be, the sort of people who will flourish in His new heavens and new earth. Just as discipline is integral in the raising of my daughters, so God disciplines us when it’s needed. When we persistently disobey God and live in ways that are contrary to His will, He disciplines us, and His discipline is a mark of family membership.

A third wrong idea that people often have regarding God’s fatherhood is that He will eject us from His family if we don’t measure up. Some people believe that though we are saved by grace through faith, we have to stay in faith by works. There are those who don’t believe this but still fear it and live in fear of being ejected from God’s family if they mess up too badly. Sometimes we treat our relationship with God like a contract; “God will save me so long as I do A, B, and C.; if we fail to uphold our part of the contract, the contract is null and void.” But our relationship with God isn’t contractual; it’s foundation isn’t a business-like contract but a family adoption! When I adopted the girls, the lawyer told me that there was no going back. I would always be their dad. There’s nothing the girls can do to not be my daughters. It doesn’t matter how much they mess up, they’ll always be mine; for the rest of their lives, I’ll always be their father. End. Of. Story. And it’s the same when God adopts us—there’s no external force, no sin we can commit, that will eject us from His family. The story of the Prodigal Son in Luke 15 paints a beautiful portrait of God’s love for His children even when they mess up horribly. The Prodigal Son ran off, disobeying his father and living life his own way, even though he hated it; and all the while he remained his father’s son. When he returned to his father saying, “Wow, I messed up, can you at least let me just crash here in the servant’s quarters?” his father didn’t have to re-adopt him—he embraced his son and celebrated. The son belonged to his father, even if he didn’t act like it, and the father never stopped loving him.

It can be hard to be a Christian. It’s a fight. We have to fight against our sinful desires, a culture that hates God and wants us to buy into their damnable lies, and we fight against spiritual forces that seek to destroy us at worst and render us impotent at best. There are times when we sin, and we sin greatly; there are times when we struggle to live the life that God wants us to live; there are times when we go our own way for a season; there are things we struggle with on a daily basis. But none of this—NONE OF THIS—changes who we are if we have faith in Jesus. The devil points out our sins and condemns us; God forgives our sin, prompts us to repentance, and loves us even when we don’t have it together.

These three wrong ideas about God—that He holds our sins against us, that He expects perfection and punishes us severely when we mess up, and that God will reject us if we don’t measure up—are damnable lies straight from hell. Our enemy the devil wants us to believe these lies, because he knows that if we begin to grasp who we are in Jesus, we’ll be empowered to stand against him and grow in Christ.

At the heart of our identity as children of God is the precious reality that God loves us. And even more than, He actually likes us. He likes you. He likes me. His love isn’t some contractual obligation; He doesn’t love us because He has to. His love is genuine and real. God didn’t have to send Jesus. He didn’t have to save us from our sins. He didn’t have to adopt us into His family. He didn’t have to give us the gift of His Spirit. He didn’t have to welcome us into His inheritance. He could have condemned us all to hell, and who could say a word against Him? He would’ve been right to do so. The fact that He didn’t is evidence of His great love for us, a love that led Him to call His people “his portion” and the “apple of His eye” (Deut 32.9-10).

[books i've been reading]

"Victory over the Darkness" 

by Neil T. Anderson

Neil Anderson's book rests on the premise that if we are in Christ, then we can experience true freedom. We can, in the here and now, experience the abundant life Christ has promised. Freedom doesn't mean a license to do as we please; true freedom is liberty, and it's found in the power to become the people God wants us to be. It's said of a sailing ship that when its sails are filled with the wind, and the tack is right with the wind, the ship is at 'liberty'--it's sailing as it was intended to sail, and the result is freedom on the waves. When ships are turned against the wind, the ship fails to live up to its full potential. So it is with Christians: when we are living the way God wants us to live--walking by the Spirit rather than the flesh, living in truth rather than in lies, and submitting ourselves to God rather than the devil--we are able to truly flourish as God intends. God's ultimate desire is that we become like Christ, and Christ shows us what humanity is supposed to look like. 

The Bible teaches that all those who are outside Christ are enslaved by sin; we serve the 'god of this world,' and though we may believe we are free, we are actually living in chains. The 'fruit' of this life is restlessness, anxiety, butterness, anger, and disjointedness inside and out. When we become Christians, we are 'in Christ,' and we are not only justified (made right with God) but also sanctified (made righteous by Christ's righteousness being imputed to us, and we are given the Holy Spirit who breaks the chains of sin in our lives and enables us to live holy lives that are pleasing to God). The sad reality of modern evangelicalism is that many Christians (most Christians) stop at justification. We believe that we are made right with God, but we fail to own the truth that we are filled with the Holy Spirit and empowered to resist the world, the flesh, and the devil. We fail to comprehend that God's grace doesn't just forgive us of our sin but also enables us to live righteous and holy lives in greater and growing degrees. When we 'walk by the Spirit', as St. Paul commands, we are changed from the inside out. We who are holy are changed on the inside to reflect our holiness in everyday living, and this is beautiful and liberating. Christians who 'walk by the Spirit' resist the world, the flesh, and the devil, and they are marked by the 'fruit of the Spirit' in Galatians 5: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. 

But the reality is that few Christians live the abundant life Christ offers.

And the question must be asked: "Why?"

It certainly isn't because it is impossible--God has made it possible through Christ.

The answer, I believe, lies in a lack of knowledge.

As the prophet Hosea said, "My people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge."

As I made my way through Anderson’s book, I spied at least four ways we fail to comprehend, and thus appropriate, the freedom and flourishing that is available to us in Christ.

First, we often stop at justification. Any Christian who pays attention to Sunday sermons can understand what it means to be justified, to be made right with God because of the forgiveness of sins purchased by Christ’s death. Christ’s death brought us peace with God, and when we share in His death our sins are forgiven, our slate is wiped clean, and we stand before God as we had never sinned. We are fully and completely justified—but that’s not the end of the story. We are also sanctified—we are made righteous by Christ’s righteousness being imputed to us, we are broken from our enslavement to sin, and we are filled with the Spirit and enabled to live a victorious life in obedience to God and against the evil patterns of the flesh, the world, and the demonic forces that are at work in the world. But if we stop at justification, and sum up Christ’s work by simply making us right with God, our Christian life becomes one of simply trying to ‘measure up’ to what God desires of us, and we can easily become overwhelmed by the triumvirate of enemies that stand against us (I speak, of course, of the flesh, the world, and the devil).

Second, we are unaware of what God desires for us. The Apostle Paul is clear when he writes in Romans that it is God’s desire that we be conformed to the image of His Son. This is God’s greatest goal for His children. He isn’t in the business of pampering us, spoiling us, or making our lives easy. He is in the business of changing us from the inside out. It is His desire that we grow in Christ and develop into the sort of people He wants us to be, the kind of people He created us to be. Too many of us, in our obsession with heaven, believe this life prior to death is a “vale of tears” that must be endured until God takes us to our ultimate destination; we fail to comprehend that this life is a training ground for the new heavens and new earth, and that the struggles we go through—“trials and tribulations” in Bible speak—are allowed or orchestrated by God to hammer us into the kind of people who will flourish in his new creation.

Third, we fail to recognize that life in the Spirit is far superior to any other kind of life. In Galatians 5 Paul tells us that those who walk by the Spirit will be fertile ground for the growing of the Spirit’s fruit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control. On first glance, absent any genuine pondering, such a life may appear stale, especially since we’ve spent so long living according to the works of the flesh; but the more we imagine what a life of love, joy, peace, and so on would actually look life, the more appetizing it becomes. After all, love, joy, and peace is what we all crave, deep down, and it is what we are aiming for (and missing) in our worldly, fleshly pursuits. When we come to understand that life according to the Spirit is far superior to life lived in the flesh, we will be filled with a growing desire to experience that life.

But can we truly experience it? A fourth reason many Christians fail to experience the abundant life in Christ is because, deep down, we fear that it isn’t possible. It may be possible for others, but certainly not for us! Such doubts, while understandable, go against what the Bible clearly teaches. We are told in 2 Timothy 1:7 that God has given us a spirit not of fear but of power, love, and self-control. We are filled with the Spirit, and the Spirit enables us to put to death the works of the flesh, and as we walk in the Spirit—pursuing obedience to God, diligently bringing every thought captive to Christ, and being renewed in our minds as we spend quality time with God and in His Word—we are, more and more, enabled to live and experience the sort of life God wants us to live, the abundant life that is available in Christ.

Much of Anderson’s book tackles Spiritual Warfare, our day-to-day struggle against the flesh, the world, and the devil (a more recent book, The Bondage Breaker, deals more specifically with the latter, and that book will be reviewed in a subsequent post). Regarding the devil (and demonic forces/fallen angels), the Bible is clear that these spiritual enemies are opposed to God’s people and work against Christians. Often, when pondering the devil’s work against Christians, our first thoughts leap to temptation. Sure, demonic forces may tempt us, but more often our temptations are the results of our fleshly desires and worldly cravings (which must be put to death). More often, the devil’s work against Christians is that of deception. He aims to deceive us, filling our minds with lies, promoting false teachings within the church, and accusing us before God. Because of the devil’s activities, many Christians fail to walk by the Spirit and embrace the abundant life because they are filled with false beliefs about God and themselves. If the devil cannot steal our salvation, he can at least aim to make us impotent.

The heart of Anderson’s book is the declaration that Christ offers us freedom and an abundant life, and that abundant life must be seized in the context of a day-to-day war against our flesh, the world, and the devil, in which we put to death the works of the flesh, walk by the Spirit, and dispel Satan’s lies through the truth of God’s Word. We are more than conquerors in Christ, and God has given us everything we need to live victoriously and to flourish. In the links below are some of my favorite quotes from his book.

Victory over the Darkness (I)

Victory over the Darkness (II)

Victory over the Darkness (III)

Victory over the Darkness (IV)

Victory over the Darkness (V)

the fear of God vs. the fear of Man

the fear of God vs. the fear of man

~ notes and meditations from a sermon by Douglas Wilson ~

Jesus tells us not to be fearful of men but to be shrewd when around them. We shouldn't fear those who slander us or accuse us, because God is going to tell the whole story one day, and we who belong to Him will be vindicated. Our enemies may try to "kill the body," but if all they can do is give us a one-way ticket to paradise, why should we fear them? 

There are two kinds of fear: the fear of God and the fear of man. The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom; the fear of man is the beginning of folly. Fear isn't bad by itself; fear is a good thing, but it becomes bad when it's misdirected. We are wired to fear God, and as human beings we flourish best when we live in the fear of God. That kind of fear is good. But the fear of man is good fear gone awry. Fearing anything in life is a sign that we need to fear God more. Indeed, Ecclesiastes tells us that fearing God and obeying His commandments is the whole duty of man.

The fear of God spurs us to renounce sin and to live humbly before Him. The fear of God is to hate evil, and it's the fear of God that leads us to preach the gospel. Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians that holiness is perfected in the fear of God; the fear of God compels us to holiness. Rebellious, stubborn, and sinful living is symptomatic of a heart that doesn't appropriately fear God. 

Fearing God isn't the same as being afraid of Him. We're not to have a craven, crawling sort of fear, even in God's presence; we stand before God as sons and daughters. A cowing, shaking fear before God is antithetical to the gospel. 1 John 4.18 tells us that God's perfect love casts out fear. We needn't fear punishment from God because the punishment we deserve is not ours; that's why Paul can say in Romans 8.1 that there's NO condemnation for those who belong to God in Christ. All our punishment has been paid. Thus we are instructed in the Book of Hebrews to come boldly before God, looking for mercy. We need mercy, because we are screw-ups; God tells us to come boldly before His throne (not crawling in fear, guilt, or shame), and He tells us to come boldly because of His grace. We can come boldly before Him because we are adopted and grace & mercy is ours because of Christ. We own it because Christ purchased it--we don't need to grovel for it. Grace and mercy is our covenant right in Christ. We need to have the mindset of the forgiven, the mindset that provoked Luther to say, "Sin, and sin boldly; and repent even more boldly, too." When we come before God, we are 100% justified, declared "in the right," perceived by our Father as righteous because of Christ's righteousness in us.

The confession of sin involves gratitude for the forgiveness we already have. We don't need to have extra forgiveness; we're already wholly forgiven. We are liberated, forgiven, justified--and that's why we can come boldly before God, confessing our sins and embracing His mercy. We aren't to fear God as Executioner or Punisher. Our fear of God is a familial, rather than a slaveish, fear. Hebrews tells us that it's a terrifying things to fall into the hands of the living God, but this is not our lot or portion: Christ has already absorbed our execution and punishment.

joy & sin

Joy & Sin

~ notes and meditations from a sermon by Douglas Wilson ~

The Bible tells us that disobedience sabotages our joy, and that sin is the enemy of joy. Thus it's easy for the pious to assume that any disruptions in our joy are always due to sin. In this way, the pious emulate our forefathers, those who believed that one's fortune--good or ill--was dependent on "hard karma": whatever happens to us happens because we deserve it. Jesus speaks against such a worldview, but the polar opposite of "hard karma"--that of the therapeutic age--does no better. We live in a therapeutic age where we shift blame and evade responsibility. We're victims no matter what, and even in the church we feel pressure to not name sin's role in life's ups-&-downs because we don't want to hurt anyone's feelings. The reality is that sin DOES bring problems; that doesn't mean, of course, that all life's afflictions (or even a lack of joy) is caused by sin. Sin may very well be the culprit; but it isn't always the culprit.

Why does sin corrode our joy? Joy is a function of our unimpeded fellowship with God; sin disrupts that fellowship, and consequently our joy is affected. Disobedience before God and clinging to sin kills joy. Hebrews 12 teaches us that God disciplines His children. Indeed, an absence of discipline is worrisome! What form does discipline take? How does God deal with us when we've strayed into sin? Oftentimes He does this by eradicating our joy. A lack of joy can sometimes (though not always) be a sign that we are being disciplined by God because of our stubborn persistence in continuing in our sin. Sometimes God will trip us up, put obstacles in our way, make things go wrong, and make things not go right. This isn't a sign that God is angry with us; it's a sign that He loves us, cares for us, and identifies us as His children. Divine discipline is fatherly chastisement to provoke us to repentance. God isn't upset that we've broken a few arbitrary rules; when He sees us living in sin, persisting in sin, and stubbornly clinging to sin, He sees it in its truest light. As an addict clings to his fix, so we cling to our sin; and as a good father mourns to see his son dehumanizing and destroying himself by his addiction, so, too, God mourns when His children stubbornly engage in dehumanizing and destructive sin. Only a bad father would tolerate or excuse such behavior; a good father takes drastic measures to get the child back on track not because he's angry but because He loves the child who belongs to him. Remember: the motive behind discipline, in whatever form it takes, isn't God's anger towards us. His anger has been exhausted on the cross. We are 100% justified, declared "in the right," and our sins aren't held against us in any way, shape, or form. God's wrath has been satisfied upon Christ. God's discipline of us is fatherly and loving, and the absence of discipline is worrisome: if it seems God never gives you a break, take heart! He's treating you as His children.

Psalm 51 is King David's meditation on his forgiveness after confessing his sin to God. David, remember, committed adultery and then arranged the murder of the married woman's husband. For months he tried to hide this sin from the world and from God, but God sent the prophet Nathan to rebuke him. Nathan's rebuke provoked David's confession and repentance. In Psalm 51 we see, by David's own testimony, how harboring sin in our heart disrupts our joy. David pleads of God, Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit. (Ps 51.12) Unrepentant sin and joy don't go together. Good bedfellows they do not make. Of course, we are all sinners and will continue to be so until the day we die; the Apostle John says in 1 John 1 that if we claim we don't have any sin, we're liars. It isn't hidden or unconscious sins that necessarily strip away our joy; sometimes there are sins in our lives that we know are sins, but because we love them and can't bear to part ways with them, we harbor them close to our heart. When we do this, we're setting ourselves in opposition to God and His desires for us; David writes in Psalm 32.3-4, When I refused to confess my sin, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer. David connects his emotional misery not with unrepentant sin but with God's opposition to him. Those who refuse to repent of their sins are proud, and God opposes such as these; the humble, however, are the ones He exalts.

Why do we as Christians so often hesitate to confess our sins and turn from them? One answer is PRIDE. The attitude of those who refuse to repent and confess is the sort of attitude that refuses to humble itself. This pride is an adversary of joy, because if you're proud in this world, then you cover up your sin, disrupting any fellowship to may have with God. Another reason is FEAR. We fear that if we confess our sins to those we sinned against, they'll think negatively about us. Sometimes this is true: scandalous sins, such as adultery and embezzlement, make great gossip. Most of the time, however, those we fear confessing to are those who already know the sin. They're not surprised by the sin so much as they're surprised by the confessor's sorrow and repentance. When you repent, the change is noticeable. Repentance humbles us not by making the sin visible but by making the humility visible. 

What are some traits of a true confession of sin? First, true confession Names the Sin. In 1 John 1.9, the Greek word for "confess" means "to speak the same." If God calls it adultery, we shouldn't call it an episode of sexual indiscretion. We need to call sin what sin is and own up to it. When this happens, we are cleansed of ALL unrighteousness; our fellowship with God is totally restored. Second, true confession is brutally honest. Some people can be harder on themselves than God is in some areas, and often such people are less hard on themselves in areas where they consciously do wrong. We can be hypersensitive to the point of usurping the Spirit's role, convicting ourselves of sin and unrighteousness. This should be avoided, but that doesn't mean we ought not to take the time to reflect on our sin and take it seriously, praying for guidance; and if restitution is needed, then pursue that restitution. A third characteristic of genuine confession is that it deals with YOUR sins and not the sins of others. For example: say someone spreads lies about you. You're understandably angry, and when you go before God, you pray that God will forgive that person for what they did to you. It sounds pious, but that isn't true confession: true confession is admitting that you've been spiteful and malicious towards the one who slandered you. Confessing other people's sins, even when done in what seems to be the right light, doesn't change the bitterness and resentment seething in our hearts. Fourth, true confession happens in the present. We can know we sin, we can know we need to confess, but sometimes we put it off. We can stand on the high dive without jumping, without doing what we know we need to do. Confession of sin is a choice, not knowledge. True confession happens the moment the Spirit convicts us of sin; it doesn't wait until Sunday, or Wednesday night services, or even bedtime prayers. It happens NOW.

What can we expect when we confess our sin and repent of it? First, we can expect exaltation. James 4 tells us that God opposes the proud but exalts the humble; those who humble themselves under God, repenting of their sin, experience exaltation. Second, we can expect a restoration of our joy. David cried out for a restoration of the joy of his salvation, and he received it. We would do well to note that David didn't long for a restoration of his salvation but for a restoration of the joy of his salvation. His salvation wasn't lost because of his adultery, clever murder, and stubborn refusal to confess. His communion with God was affected, but He was still a part of God's family. When Christians come under God's discipline, it's not a sign of God's anger but a sign of our membership in His family. When we confess our sins and repent, God longs to restore to us the joy of our salvation. Third, we can expect restoration. If God disciplines His children by removing something, He will restore that which was removed upon repentance; sometimes this is the thing itself, or something of the same type. It's always an act of grace. Fourth, we can expect to prosper. The Bible is adamant that those who humble themselves before God will prosper, while those who are haughty and proud will be shown up for what they are and take a terrible fall. Sometimes, of course, this doesn't always flesh itself out the way we want; but we can rest assured that on the eschatological timetable, the story isn't over until it's over.

Wilson asks, "What happened to your original joy, that joy you had when you first became a Christian?" As a general rule, the longer you're a Christian, the less joy you feel. Why would God grant joy to baby Christians but deny it to mature ones? The answer is simple: HE WOULDN'T. God wants to give us joy. Joy is part of the Spirit's fruit in our lives. But to experience that joy, we need to have an unimpeded relationship with God. And in order to have an unimpeded relationship with Him, any sin to which we're clinging has go to go. Harboring sin in our heart, contextualizing sin, clinging to bitterness or unforgiveness, and shifting blame away from the self... All of these dismember joy.

joy & affliction

Joy & Affliction

~ notes and meditations from a sermon by Douglas Wilson ~

An unrepentant heart and unconfessed sin can disrupt joy. 

Another disruptor of joy can be affliction. 

In 2 Corinthians 6.3-10, St. Paul offers his resume, showcasing the reality of affliction in his own life and saying, in the same breath, that he is sorrowful yet rejoicing. Life with Christ is no walk in the park, and God isn’t a genie in a bottle whose biggest priority is to give us our hopes and dreams on a silver platter. Those who teach that membership in God’s family results in a rose garden experience of life turn a blind eye to the fact that the strongest and most devoted saints have undergone trials and tribulations that often make ours pale in comparison. 

Having God on your side doesn’t give you a Free Ride out of life’s inevitable tragedies and afflictions. Joy, however, isn’t dependent on life’s circumstances. We must be careful to define joy. Douglas Wilson is adamant that genuine biblical contentment isn’t a trivial, bubblegum type of joy; it isn’t “Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy” all the time. Rather, biblical joy is bedrock that goes a thousand feet down and is grounded in a deep satisfaction in the will of the sovereign God who orders all things according to His purpose and for our good. 

This kind of joy isn’t affected by life’s events. A fickle, superficial joy doesn’t fare too well in the face of what life has on offer. This world is a messed up place. Trials are trials. Cancer is cancer. Death is death. Some Christians try to say that these things—disease, death, and destruction—aren’t really that bad after all. No, they ARE that bad. They are REAL storms. But if you have a strong house, you can stand against the storms. 

True biblical joy is built on a cliff facing the sea. The storms will come, but the house will stand. Joy in the midst of affliction isn’t stoicism; joy doesn’t pretend that things aren’t so bad after all, or that there’s no storm buffeting the house. We see in 2 Corinthians 6.3-10 that Paul gets over his afflictions by getting under the One who is in control. We must affirm the biblical testimony: God sends both rain and drought, health and sickness, life and death. In the words of Job, “Are we to accept only the good things out of God’s hand and not the bad?” God, in His providence and control, either dictates all that happens or permits it to happen. Either way, we can rest in His sovereignty: He is in control, and nothing comes to pass that He doesn’t decree or permit; everything He decrees or permits is for His glory and for our good. We find joy by resting in this truth and trusting that the God who sends the rain knows what He is doing. 

Paraphrasing Thomas Watson, Wilson says, “Sometimes we lose perspective on our trials when we focus on the one who brought the trials rather than on the One who sent them.” The idea that God can send affliction into our lives doesn’t rest well with us. Affliction from the hand of God may make us doubt His disposition towards us, but it only shows that God’s concerns are different than our concerns. God’s chief concern is His glory; our chief concern is our glory. God cares about who we are as people; we care about our life going according to plan. God’s at work in our lives for our good, but that doesn’t mean He has the same agenda we have. God sends trials into our lives, using them to further conform us to Christ and to mold us into the sort of people He wants us to be. God has a plan for all of us, and that plan is summed up like this: “that we may be like Christ.” THAT is His plan for our lives, and He uses all of life’s good and bad to chisel us into the people He desires us to be.

God is our fortress, and He sends the tempest, often so that we will simply seek refuge in Him. When we run to Him, the affliction is still affliction. Pain is still pain. Disease is still disease. The challenges are still challenges. The situation is what it is; joy enables us to come at the situation differently, but it doesn’t in and of itself change the circumstances. Afflictions can tear at our joy when we focus on the afflictions rather than on the One who sent them; by resting in God’s providence and sovereignty and trusting that He knows what He’s doing (even if it’s not what we expect or want Him to do), we can experience the joy and peace of God that surpasses all understanding.

#mars

NASA has unveiled some new photos of Mars, and they are "off the hook" (as the kids say, or used to say; I'm not up to date with all the kuul kid lingo). Here are a few for your enjoyment and for the sake of posterity: