Jared Longshore's Blog, page 35
February 9, 2023
A Feast of Fat Things
Isaiah said, “And in this mountain shall the LORD of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things” (Isaiah 25:5). The mountain to which Isaiah referred is the mountain to which we have come. Hebrews says that we are come “unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumberable company of angels” (Hebrews 12:22). You are at no normal assembly this morning. You have gathered today on Mount Zion where the LORD himself now serves up meat and drink. We would be fools not to drink deeply and eat to the full.
But you must be prepared for this feast. So to that end, here is a short list of exhortations so that you would be sent forth from this feast today having taken in the abundance spread out on the table.
First, confess your particular sins. You need not use euphemisms when you kneel in confession. Do not generalize. Search your last week. And admit what you did, and when and where you did it. Do the same with the things you have left undone.
Second, during our time of congregational prayer, pray fervently with your mind fully engaged. We often don’t give the Lord our full attention in prayer. But there he is, giving us His.
Third, sing robustly. The angels are here. And more importantly, the One who beats your heart and washed your sins is here. We sing to Him. So sing aloud with your lips and your soul.
Fourth, receive the Word in hope and lively faith. We stand for the Scripture Readings because we are receiving Truth directly from the source. The Words entering your ears are a fire and a hammer. Listen knowing that you will be warmed, you will be reconstructed. Then heed the Word preached. Hang on every word, looking for applications to your life and family.
You are at a feast on the mountain of the LORD, a feast of fat things and wine well refined.
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February 7, 2023
Parental Horse Sense: Lesson 1 – Raise the Bar and Lighten Up
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" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/jaredrlongshore.com..." data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/jaredrlongshore.com..." decoding="async" width="676" height="451" src="https://i0.wp.com/jaredrlongshore.com..." alt="family preparing crepes together" class="wp-image-1018" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/jaredrlongshore.com... 1880w, https://i0.wp.com/jaredrlongshore.com... 300w, https://i0.wp.com/jaredrlongshore.com... 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/jaredrlongshore.com... 768w, https://i0.wp.com/jaredrlongshore.com... 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/jaredrlongshore.com... 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/jaredrlongshore.com... 676w, https://i0.wp.com/jaredrlongshore.com... 1352w" sizes="(max-width: 676px) 100vw, 676px" data-recalc-dims="1" />One of the problems with being at war is that all of the men have to pick up swords. In Nehemiah’s day, they had the wisdom to take up a sword in one hand and a trowel in the other. But we are tempted today, and understandably so, to take up a sword for each hand. Now there is a young, valiant father out there who upon hearing this double-fisted battle talk replies with, “And let the church say, Amen!” Yes, it is good to be a man. There is a part of me that gives this young father the amen he seeks. We can point to innumerable instances of cowardice and effeminacy that make all of the good men want to fight even harder, perhaps a sword in the right and a double-headed battle axe in the left.
But while we engage in our current culture war, we must raise up the next generation (hence, the trowel). The children are the weapons after all, the arrows in the mighty warrior’s hand. The man who is not diligent to raise up his children doesn’t know the first thing about the culture war he claims to fight. Even a wise man, one familiar with Psalm 127:4, can easily drift from raising up his children in the way they should go given his dismay at the present battles—”They did what at Drag Queen Story Hour?” But sitting in disbelief night after night and actively raising the kids in the nurture and admonition of the Lord are two different things.
These things being what they are, I plan to write a series of posts here covering some up-the-middle parenting practice, some parental horse sense that is always in need of review and especially so given our wackadoo times. As you read and implement these principles, as you do some child-building—something constructive in our deconstructive age—keep saying in the back of your mind as you go about that work, “Not today, Satan.”
Without further ado, our first lesson is Raise the Bar and Lighten Up. I picked up this phrase from Doug Wilson, though I can’t remember where I read it. This is good common sense but it is not easy to implement.
One the one hand you have the parents who raise the bar and tighten up. They know there is a standard. There is a standard for room cleanliness, for grades, for sport performance, for singing, for Latin vocabulary quizzes. These parents know we live in a world of gold and silver medals, and everyone doesn’t get a trophy, Bucko. But dad and mom are wound so tight that they and little Bobby are about to crack. Bobby is headed to a life in which he thinks he never does anything right, what a loser. Or, he is headed to a life where he’s going to cast that standard into the dumpster and give way a belly of passion. Now you don’t want Bobby to take either of those diverging roads do you? Surely not. So take a deep breath, remember we’re living in the new covenant, and you’re not the fourth member of the Trinity.
But this is only one of the ditches into which you might fall. On the other side of the road, you have parents who stay loose and lower the bar. We don’t want too much weight on the little lad. “I remember how hard my dad was on me; I swore I would never be that guy.” So Tim (this is Bobby’s friend from across the street) gets all the bubble gum he wants. He eats ice cream before dinner whenever he pleases. And, oh, yes, don’t worry about your D+ in Math, Tim, all of your classmates making those A’s and B’s are just prideful. Little Tim is being raised to lack self-control. He will find himself in his early twenties way too good at watching porn and playing the latest video game, without the muscles required to endure trial, suffer long, and finish the race. He won’t be able to love anyone with that sacrificial love which is the chief thing (1 Corinthians 13).
Your job as a parent, and particularly a father, is to hold the line joyfully. Acknowledge the standard without the slightest bit of anxiety. Encourage the growth that you see. And take your child from where he is, not from where you wish he’d be. He does have to carry his own load. You can’t diagram the sentence for him. But the father is the covenant head and must carry that load. In short, if your kid is not meeting the bar, then it is your job to go to him (and in a way that he is not cringing to have you there with him) and reassure him of what is true. Remind him of grace, and peace, and truth, and that he will get the job done; you’re sure of it.
The doctrinal foundation to all of this is law and gospel. An old Southern Presbyterian, James Henley Thornwell, once said, “The Gospel, like its blessed Master, is always crucified between two thieves—legalists of all sorts on the one hand and Antinomians on the other.” Our goal is not really to find a middle ground between legalism and lawlessness. The goal is not to hold to the standard and be tight half of the week, and let the standard fall and lighten up for the other half of the week. The goal is to raise the bar and lighten up all the way through, whether we’re talking about personal Bible reading, singing in corporate worship, or setting a pick on the basketball court. No matter which way you turn, you will always be dealing with law and gospel. And your job as a parent is to teach through logos, ethos, pathos, and example how to live well amid law and gospel.
In the first place, the bar—the law—is warranted, ” But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy” (1 Peter 1:15-16). In the second place, the raised bar is fitting, ” When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things” (1 Corinthians 13:11). So a father should beam with delight when his toddler first cleans up her spot at the table. But we don’t dish out high praise when this same child performs the same feat when she is twelve. This means you must have a general sense of where your child is at in the game. You must be a good bar setter and you need to raise the bar in Solomon-like wisdom.
With this knowledge of the standard, you must believe the gospel. You will have no lightness without it. Christ has died for you. Christ has died for your children. We still fall short. But when we do, we don’t experience suffocating, life-sucking condemnation (Romans 8:1). God is our Father and mercy awaits us new every morning (Lamentations 3:21).
The key ingredient to this challenging first lesson in parental wisdom is faith. Faith does not disregard God’s bar, “Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law” (Romans 3:31). But we do not uphold a heavy burden. We have come to Christ, his yoke is easy, his burden is light.
So raise the bar and lighten up.
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February 2, 2023
Aim at Heaven
The Christians who are resolved to make a mark for Christ in this world must be commended for their resolution. You need only open your eyes for a second to see the futility and folly all around us. Amid that folly, our goal is to see salvation spring up from the ground. We anticipate the budding forth of redemption and not without warrant. The prophet Isaiah said, “Let the earth open, and let them bring forth salvation. And let righteousness spring up together” (Isaiah 45:8).
But we must remember what happens prior to the growth of wheat in the fields and grapes on the vine, and that is: rain from heaven. Just before Isaiah spoke of salvation springing forth from the earth, he said, “Drop down, ye heavens, from above, And let the skies pour down righteousness” (Isaiah 45:8).
Christ has ascended into heaven, and our salvation is in him. All blessing comes from the Father through the heavenly seated Son to us by the Spirit. God rains down righteousness upon us. He pours out grace upon grace. He rejoices over us with loud singing. Our job is to listen. He is our Heavenly Father. So turn your ear up. He makes his face to shine upon you. Turn your face up and behold his glory without a veil. If you do, you will be most useful in this life. In other words, C. S. Lewis was just right when he said, “If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next . . . Aim at heaven and you will get earth ‘thrown in’: aim at earth and you will get neither.”
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January 31, 2023
The Brave New World Says Your Children Don’t Belong To You Anymore
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" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/jaredrlongshore.com..." data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/jaredrlongshore.com..." decoding="async" width="676" height="507" src="https://i0.wp.com/jaredrlongshore.com..." alt="group of children walking near body of water silhouette photography" class="wp-image-845" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/jaredrlongshore.com... 1733w, https://i0.wp.com/jaredrlongshore.com... 300w, https://i0.wp.com/jaredrlongshore.com... 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/jaredrlongshore.com... 768w, https://i0.wp.com/jaredrlongshore.com... 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/jaredrlongshore.com... 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/jaredrlongshore.com... 800w, https://i0.wp.com/jaredrlongshore.com... 400w, https://i0.wp.com/jaredrlongshore.com... 200w, https://i0.wp.com/jaredrlongshore.com... 676w, https://i0.wp.com/jaredrlongshore.com... 1352w" sizes="(max-width: 676px) 100vw, 676px" data-recalc-dims="1" />The spirit of the age is not content with you simply forgetting the truth. You must be educated in falsehood. You must say the pronouns. You must speak the error. You must not worship your God and you must worship the false god being presented to you. This debased mind has wormed its way into our legal analysis, particularly and most recently via Obergefell v. Hodges.
Obergefell held that the right for same-sex couples to marry is a fundamental right inherent in the liberty of the person. That reasoning is, of course, nonsensical. It is a fundamental right inherent in the liberty of circles to have no sides. Triangles, according to nature, are free to have points. These liberties are inherent in the shapes themselves. You have such liberties, but the liberty for you to be a giraffe at the zoo is not numbered among them. Moreover, by granting the citizenry a faux and fabricated “right,” the state attempts to strip her citizens of a fundamental one, namely family rights—and this will be explained further momentarily. Obergefell, then, is a gateway drug that results in the state exercising more and illegitimate authority over the people who are strung-out like crackheads needing another faux-right fix. This pattern leads to the dissolving of what truly belongs to you.
Parenthood is inextricably connected to marriage, so if you toy with marriage, scratch that, if you put a stick of dynamite in marriage and blow it to smithereens, then you inevitably do the same to parenthood. Not long after Obergefell ruled that same-sex couples have the constitutional right to marriage, there was an attempt to say that same-sex couples had the right to be parents to children who popped up amid their “marriage.” Now, a normal man would ask, “How in the world does a child pop up in a same-sex ‘marriage?’” Well, in the case of a lesbian relationship, one of the ladies can be artificially inseminated with a random man’s semen. Yes, writing things like that gives you the Orwellian shakes. But, this is what happened in the real world. The Supreme Court case was called Pavan v. Smith.
Coming up to the Supreme Court from the state of Arkansas, Pavan v. Smith involved a lesbian couple, one of whom was artificially inseminated with a random man’s semen. According to Arkansas, the inseminated woman would be listed as a parent on the birth certificate, but not that woman’s lesbian partner. The ladies wanted both of their names listed as parents on the birth certificate. The Supreme Court of the United States found that Arkansas law had made “birth certificates more than a mere marker of biological relationship,” and they ruled in favor of the lesbian couple. In a per curium decision, the Supreme Court said the following:
“For the purposes of birth registration,” that [Arkansas] statute says, “the mother is deemed to be the woman who gives birth to the child.” . . . And “[i]f the mother was married at the time of either conception or birth,” the statute instructs that “the name of [her] husband shall be entered on the certificate as the father of the child.”
. . . There are some limited exceptions to the latter rule—for example, another man may appear on the birth certificate if the “mother” and “husband” and “putative father” all file affidavits vouching for the putative father’s paternity . . . But as all parties agree, the requirement that a married woman’s husband appear on her child’s birth certificate applies in cases where the couple conceived by means of artificial insemination with the help of an anonymous sperm donor.[1]
In other words, the Supreme Court found the Arkansas Code to require the husband of a pregnant woman to be named on the child’s birth certificate, even if he was not the biological father. Then the Supreme Court sunk in the hook, “Arkansas has thus chosen to make its birth certificates more than a mere marker of biological relationships: The State uses those certificates to give married parents a form of legal recognition that is not available to unmarried parents. Having made that choice, Arkansas may not, consistent with Obergefell, deny married same-sex couples that recognition.”[2]
Interestingly, the Arkansas Code stands amid a long legal tradition of assuming that the husband of the pregnant woman is the father. This presumed paternity only stands to reason within the structure of heterosexual marriage. This tradition accords with the sacredness of the marriage institution. But when that sacred institution is mocked and a foolish imposter poses as the genuine article, any attempt to carry over presumed paternity is tomfoolery on its face. The imposter of same-sex marriage lacks the essential components to beget children and thus any natural paternity or maternity for that matter is by nature itself excluded.
The Pavan case signals a rising change in legal reasoning. Parenthood is less and less being conceived of as a natural status, a sacred right and duty. It is being reduced to a status which comes into existence by mere intention. Intent-based parenting means that you can be a father if you intend to be, and this means that humans will be tasked with the job of determining such intent. So you may very well intend to be father to your child, but maybe someone else does, too. That someone else could have more victim identities than you do. Some of you, in fact, are straight, white, and male, which means you need to sit down and be quiet while we elevate other voices.
Now you might object here and say, “Parental rights don’t seem to be based on intent because in the case above the parental rights were based on ‘same-sex marriage.'” But here’s the problem with that objection. “Same-sex marriage” is not real. No such thing exists. It is a vapor. No, vapor is real. “Same-sex marriage” is less than a vapor; it is a no-thing. The objection above amounts to saying, “Parental rights are based on unicorns.” The true basis in Pavan v. Smith is the “want to” of the lesbian couple (not to mention the fear and folly of the justices).
Statism permeates this intent-based parenting for it redefines a pre-political institution into a post-political one. Now conservatives are whole-heartedly against such a set up. But most do not see how we have left the door open for such a development. Say the state comes knocking on your door. They are there for your children, and they explain to you that your children do not belong to you anymore. How do you respond? “Well,” you say, “I would respond by pointing to my 12 gauge and kindly reminding the state that the children do indeed belong to me.” If this is your response, then God bless you and may your tribe increase. But aside from the shotgun, on what grounds do your children belong to you? I see two insufficient ways that conservatives would answer this question.
The first insufficient way, and my guess is this would be the less common response, is to claim that the children belong to you because you claim they do—“I feed them. I’ve agreed to be their father. They’re under my roof, aren’t they?” This claim puts the grounding at the level of individual consent (the parent) rather than state consent. The problem is that such reasoning is still based on intent, albeit individual intent. This individual intent approach will inevitably grow into statism for it founds the very category of fatherhood and motherhood merely on the human will.
The second insufficient way that conservatives would respond to the DCF agent at their door is as follows. The father would say, “These are my kids because they have my eyes, can’t you see?” His argument would run along biological lines, “I don’t need a theology degree. And I don’t need a political science degree. I slept with their mother however many years ago and nine months later this little one came out.” This rationale grounds parental authority in the paternity test and it is rooted in the notion of blood. Americans far and wide maintain the notion that blood is thicker than water. They understand kinfolk. But this approach, while grasping an essential and significant point, is insufficient. Many people may be surprised that I claim this second attempt to ward off the state’s encroachment is insufficient. What is the problem with merely claiming the biological or blood relation?
Let me say first that the biological or blood relation is remarkably important. God has designed the world to run this way. The covenantal solution that I commend is not at odds with the biological or natural family. They are in need of no reconciliation for they are good friends, close friends. I in no way want to introduce discord into a harmonious relationship. Moreover, we are in a time where our nation is being given over to a debased mind to do what is contrary to nature. Christians, then, need to give three cheers for nature, and that includes the natural family. The Apostle Paul understood how important kinfolk is, “For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh” (Romans 9:3). But the Apostle Paul also knew there was something that was more significant even than kinsmen according to the flesh. John the Baptist knew that God had a way of creating children supernaturally, “And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham” (Matthew 3:9). In other words, covenant family and the natural family are intended to be one in the same. Even so, the covenant family entails more than simply the biological.
Let me take another stab at detailing our present predicament, coming at it from another angle. This illustration may seem a little far afield, but stick with me. It will circle back around and hopefully land home. I’m going to tell you about four men in a bar: Christian Man, Rational Man, Postmodern Man, and Pagan Man. The man who grounds his parental authority merely in blood is the same man as Rational Man in the coming illustration. And take careful note of that word merely in the previous sentence. Mere Blood Man and Rational Man (who in essence are the same man) do not have the necessary resources to fight the good fight that is manifestly upon us. Far too many Christians have drifted to think and live as mere Rational and/or Blood Man and hence, we are in the trouble that we are in. Now for the illustration.
A Christian and a Rationalist walk into a bar. As they sit, they observe that there is in fact a blue chair beside them. Both men are agreed on the point, but for very different reasons. The Christian man explains that the chair is blue because God has made it so. God sustains it. And God’s gracious hand so works that the two men can ascertain through human reason that it is so. Rational Man chuckles at the religious fervor of his friend and says, “Bud, the chair is blue, and it is self-evident that the chair is blue. I do not need all of this mumbo jumbo about God, creation, providence, and the present operation of his kindness in order to ascertain the simple fact that this most certainly is a chair and it is blue.” This is the situation in which Americans have found themselves for some time. It was Christians and those who had some common sense. And everything was quite peaceful in this bar.
But eventually Postmodern Man walks into the bar and joins the conversation. He tells the two friends that they need to lighten up. The object in question may be a blue chair to them. But it might be a yellow sofa to someone else, and to another it might even be a green futon. Who is to say? To each their own, as the saying goes. Now Christian Man and Rational Man both know that Postmodern Man is out to lunch. But they have decided to put up with him. It seemed fine enough to put up with him because he was not holding a gun to anybody’s head. He was just being a very strange man. At the end of the day, while the intellectual unity is falling apart in this friendly establishment, no one is throwing chairs or breaking beer bottles yet. We have been meandering along in this situation for a good while now also. But a new development is upon us.
A fourth man has walked into the bar and he goes by the name Pagan Man. As he enters, that old western duel music begins to play, the bartender ducks down behind the bar and the ladies scatter. He looks at the three men in the bar and says, “You are all wrong. That object there is a pink elephant. And you will all acknowledge it to be a pink elephant or off to the Gulag with you.” Postmodern Man, who has been smoking the wonky weed this whole time, stands up to say, “Hey bro, lighten up because . . .” but he was swiftly backhanded in the mouth by Pagan Man, after which he fell to the ground mumbling something about it being OK because to somebody somewhere that slap was an act of love. Rational Man, observing the present threat, begins to inch closer and closer to Christian Man. He’s starting to think he needs to hang his observations on something more than human reason. Christian Man is the only stable citizen in the bar who will stand up to the Pagan who insists that we all now call down up, the sun the moon, and Bruce Jenner a mother.
If I might put it in a nutshell, we Christians have walked far too many miles thinking like mere Rational Man. We have been living as if life on earth is unhitched from the heavenlies. And the chickens have now come home to roost.
With the rise of Pagan Man, we have been reminded that man cannot truly decouple life on earth from the heavenlies. You might as well attempt to disengage the Old and New Testaments, the soul and the body, the Spirit and the Word. It shocks us to see that Pagan Man calls upon his heavenly deities. He is hooked up to the wrong side of the heavenlies, but hooked up he is.
The only way forward is to call upon the Living God, remembering that your children are yours because the God of heaven gave them to you—“Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: And the fruit of the womb is his reward” (Psalm 127:3).
Your children are yours, not by might, nor by power, but by the Spirit of the LORD. The household is supernatural. It is the product of a divine action. To object to it, or to attempt to dissolve it, is not only contrary to nature. It is demonic rebellion against the Living God who rules the kingdom of men. It is an attempt to disband the covenant. One reason the present attempt to undo the family is seeing such success, is because Christians have for some time now disbanded the covenant themselves. The Brave New World says that our children don’t belong to us anymore. And they’re getting away with this heretical doctrine because Christians have forgotten the God of heaven, the One from whom children come.
(This post is an excerpt from my new book The Case for the Christian Family. It is available for purchase here.)
[1] Pavan v. Smith 582 U.S. 2 (2017). https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/16pdf/16-992_868c.pdf.
[2] Ibid., 4.
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January 26, 2023
He Is No Stagnant God
Too often we imagine a stagnant God. We assume that if we come to him all will be bubbling streams and chirping birds on an English countryside. But this is far from what Scripture tells us about our Consuming Fire.
Jesus shows us the Father. And there he is one moment touching lepers; the next walking on water; the next banishing demons into swine; the next riding roughshod over the Pharisees’ sabbath; the next flipping tables in the temple. We forget that the disciples had to keep up with him. We forget that we have to keep up with him.
Christ had and has no problem making his followers lives uncomfortable. It is not that he makes our lives a drudgery, not at all; neither does he place meaningless burdens upon us. But he does keep getting into the fray, not only a conflict mind you, but a conflict on the move, a difficulty that is going somewhere. And on every page of this adventure novel we find the subtext —”Remember Lot’s Wife.” It is always blood on the doorpost or death’s angel, through the Red Sea or Pharaoh’s chariots, into Canaan’s Land or die in the dessert.
Going back is not an option. Standing still isn’t either. But can you really go forward? There’s not only storms ahead, but bigger ones. There’s not only sacrifices out there in front of you, but greater sacrifices than you’ve yet made. And just when you’re thinking there’s no energy left, when you’re about to call it quits, your King rides ahead with a laugh, saying, “Follow me.”
There’s no use delaying. There’s no use doubting. Our King won’t have any of that.
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January 25, 2023
Eleanor Update: Thanks Be to God
We thank you for your prayers for little Eleanor. The Lord has answered them, and quick. In the wake of all the prayers going up, Eleanor began breathing smoothly with high oxygen levels. They have moved her to heavy flow (very good step) and are even weaning her off that with good results. Feeding tube removal and some liquids and solids by mouth are in her near future. All to say, we ask you to turn those petitions into high thanksgivings; and turn those heavy firepower petitions to the next battlefield. All quiet on the Eleanor front.
Below is a short video from our helicopter ride. Eleanor was just behind me on a stretcher receiving great care from two members of the Life Flight medical team. I was not flying this bird, but I was tempted to and resisted manfully.
Thank God for:
Christ Church and the whole Kirker Community in Moscow, Idaho. They were the Marines of this prayer operation, being the first in.Story Family Medicine in MoscowSacred Heart Hospital here in Spokane, Washington. Their medical staff from doctors to nurses and in between have provided great care for Eleanor. The Life Flight team; they are professional and know just what they’re doing.Gritman Medical Center, the hospital in Moscow. Their staff did a great job caring for Eleanor initially.Saints from here to Timbuktu who interceded on our behalf.We asked the Lord to answer our prayers for Eleanor in such a way that the world would know that He is God in heaven and rules the kingdoms of men (Daniel 4:17). He has done that and we are grateful. He is the God of miracles and medicine, BiPAP machines, angels, and nurses fingers. He is the God who sent the Second Adam into the world to save it. And that Adam, laid down his life and rose again to save sinners. He is a Good Savior. He is our King. Lift high the name.
From my household to yours, thank you for your prayers.
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January 19, 2023
Be Converted, O Canada
One year ago, Canada established a law that bans conversion therapy, that is a practice or service designed to get men (who are thinking and acting like women) to think of themselves as men and conduct themselves sexually as men; and the same goes for women (who are thinking and acting like men). You may not convert them. If you provide such a service in Canada, then you could go to prison. You are free, however, to teach men to think of themselves as women and conduct themselves sexually as women; and the same goes for the women, you can teach them to be men all you’d like.
This is a sign that God has handed over Canada’s leadership to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. Romans 1 speaks of this kind of sexual perversion occurring, and it occurred in the wake of people turning away from worshipping the Creator to worship the creature. Such idolatry results in people doing what is contrary to nature. Canada’s leadership is not only in support of doing what is contrary to nature. They have outlawed nature. You may not help men to be men. If this keeps up, expect future legislation to forbid the rain to fall. And soon after, any human breathing whatever will be criminalized.
We have reached day of which G. K. Chesterton testified when he said, “We shall soon be in a world in which a man may be howled down for saying that two and two make four, in which furious party cries will be raised against anybody who says that cows have horns, in which people wil persecute the heresy of calling a triangle a three-sided figure.”
In the face of this brazen attempt to defame the image of God in man, and thereby to strike at God himself, the Christian Church speaks, she embodies the truth that modern man wants to ignore. She is the Bride of Christ. And Christ is the Groomsman. You cannot escape the reality of the marriage supper of the Lamb. But you can escape being left outside, in the outter darkness. If you would join this wedding feast, you must hear and believe: The Spirit and the Bride say, “Come, be converted every one of you, and wash your filthy garments white in the blood of the Lamb.”
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January 18, 2023
That We Would Ride World-Shaking Horses
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" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/jaredrlongshore.com..." data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/jaredrlongshore.com..." decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="676" height="451" src="https://i0.wp.com/jaredrlongshore.com..." alt="brown and white stallions running in a field" class="wp-image-757" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/jaredrlongshore.com... 1880w, https://i0.wp.com/jaredrlongshore.com... 300w, https://i0.wp.com/jaredrlongshore.com... 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/jaredrlongshore.com... 768w, https://i0.wp.com/jaredrlongshore.com... 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/jaredrlongshore.com... 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/jaredrlongshore.com... 676w, https://i0.wp.com/jaredrlongshore.com... 1352w" sizes="(max-width: 676px) 100vw, 676px" data-recalc-dims="1" />“Where our fathers, peering into the future, saw gleams of gold, we see only the mist, white, featureless, cold and never moving. The thought at the back of all this negative spirituality is really one forbidden to Christians. They, of all men, must not conceive spiritual joy and worth as things that need to be rescued or tenderly protected from time and place and matter and the senses. Their God is the God of corn and oil and wine. He is the glad Creator. He has become Himself incarnate. The sacraments have been instituted. Certain spiritual gifts are offered us only on condition that we perform certain bodily acts. After that we cannot really be in doubt of His intention.
To shrink back from all that can be called Nature into negative spirituality is as if we ran away from horses instead of learning to ride. There is in our present pilgrim condition plenty of room (more room than most of us like) for abstinence and renunciation and mortifying our natural desires. But behind all asceticism the thought should be, ‘Who will trust us with the true wealth if we cannot be trusted even with the wealth that perishes?’ Who will trust me with a spiritual body if I cannot control even an earthly body? These small and perishable bodies we now have were given to us as ponies are given to schoolboys. We must learn to manage: not that we may some day be free of horses altogether but that some day we may ride bare-back, confident and rejoicing, those greater mounts, those winged, shining and world-shaking horses which perhaps even now expect us with impatience, pawing and snorting in the King’s stables. Not that the gallop would be of any value unless it were a gallop with the King; but how else—since He has retained His own charger—should we accompany Him?”
C. S. Lewis, Miracles, 265-266The post That We Would Ride World-Shaking Horses appeared first on REFORMATION & REVIVAL.
Food For Your Faith
It indeed is hard to renounce our faith in the static and fixed nature of the created world. You don’t have to look far to find a man who will say, “There are only so many fish in the sea.” Or, “a loaf of bread can only be cut into so many slices.” But the next time you bake that salmon, or the next time you place that sourdough on the cutting board, call to mind that you live in a world where five thousand men, and their households, can be fed from five loaves and two fish. Not to mention, after everyone has eaten their fill, you could take home twelve baskets full of leftovers.
Creation is not a closed system. There is something beyond creation. That something beyond creation is called the Triune God and he has not left his creation to fend for itself. We must shake off this way of thinking. It was the very error the disciples made, “Send the multitude away, that they may go into the villages, and buy themselves food” (Matthew 14:15). But Jesus said, “They need not depart.”
As you hear every week, you must come in faith and welcome to Jesus Christ. But as you examine yourself and discover that you only have five loaves and two fish worth of faith (or for the great ones among us, you have seven loaves and three fish of faith), whatever the size of your faith, the message is not, “Go off into the villages and fend for yourself, and be quick about getting more faith, there is only so much it in the world. No, Scripture says, “Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of Christ” (Romans 10:17). Here is the Word made flesh. You come to eat the Word. And this Word is food for your faith. So come in faith and welcome to Jesus Christ.
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January 17, 2023
5 Magic Arts for Raising Middle Schoolers
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" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/jaredrlongshore.com..." data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/jaredrlongshore.com..." decoding="async" width="676" height="451" src="https://i0.wp.com/jaredrlongshore.com..." alt="woman picking big ripe apples growing in garden" class="wp-image-730" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/jaredrlongshore.com... 1880w, https://i0.wp.com/jaredrlongshore.com... 300w, https://i0.wp.com/jaredrlongshore.com... 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/jaredrlongshore.com... 768w, https://i0.wp.com/jaredrlongshore.com... 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/jaredrlongshore.com... 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/jaredrlongshore.com... 676w, https://i0.wp.com/jaredrlongshore.com... 1352w" sizes="(max-width: 676px) 100vw, 676px" data-recalc-dims="1" />So there you are, having just gotten the toddler discipline thing under your belt. You have trained tiny Tim to say “please” and “thank you.” You have taught him to eat all of the food on his plate. But, just about the time you had a rhythm going, the kid grew. He’s now 9 years old, or 13 years old, let’s take an age range slightly broader than middle school, say 8 to 14 years old. He cleaned his room, but not well. He loaded up in the car for school, but he looked a bit like Eeyore sitting there in the back seat. She’s doing her homework, but it just isn’t up to snuff and you can tell she’s teetering on the edge of doing her best Veruca Salt.
The middle years of child-raising reveal what has always been the case, “not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit says the Lord” (Zechariah 4:6). Or, “Unless the Lord builds the house, the builders lose their pain; unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchmen watch in vain” (Psalm 127:1) .Yes, these truths have always been there. But the middle-years deliver these truths to the soul like the stepped-on nail delivers pain to the foot, like the swiftly opened oven delivers heat to the face. . . singed eyebrows and all.
The first thing that must be done is you have to get Narnia into your bloodstream. None of this, “I’ll read it to the kids because I know it is good for them.” I’m talking about Narnia in the parents’ veins. I’m talking about grasping the magic world we’re really living in where fish can swallow men alive and spit them up on the shore, where the sun stands still while armies battle, and angels march atop the mulberry trees to wage war against humans. Raising middle schoolers requires the help of heaven, and the help of heaven is just what God has given us.
Said another way, we need to grasp what Chesterton did,
“All the terms used in the science books, ‘law,’ ‘necessity,’ ‘order,’ ‘tendency,’ and so on, are really unintellectual …. The only words that ever satisfied me as describing Nature are the terms used in the fairy books, ‘charm,’ ‘spell,’ ‘enchantment.’ . . . A tree grows fruit because it is a magic tree. Water runs downhill because it is bewitched” (Chesterton, Orthodoxy).
Now, you are wondering what this has to do with getting your mid-aged child to have a better attitude. I’m going to get to those five points in just a moment, but it is of the utmost importance that you see these are “magic arts.” Modern man is unaccustomed to thinking like Narnians and Chestertonians. And if we do not adopt this mindset, which is to say if we do not come to grips with the world God made, then the five magic arts below will slip off of us like a well-cooked egg off a greasy frying pan. So, one step back, and then we will get down to the nitty gritty.
Naturalism and Supernaturalism
In his book Miracles, Lewis does some necessary spade work before addressing the topic of miracles. The foundation clearing that he does in that work is also needed for our topic at hand. Lewis explains that one man is a naturalist and the other a supernaturalist. In order to have an honest conversation about the miraculous, you must first distinguish between the naturalist and the supernaturalist.
The naturalist believes that the “ultimate Fact, the thing you can’t go behind, is a vast process in space and time which is going on of its own accord” (Lewis, Miracles, 7). Naturalism then is a complete interlocking system. The naturalist could admit a certain kind of god. But this god would be produced by the “great interlocking event called Nature . . . Such a God would not stand outside Nature or the total system” (Lewis, Miracles, 11). In other words, you have some form of pantheism for “what Naturalism cannot accept is the idea of a God who stands outside Nature and made it” (Lewis, Miracles, 11).
“The Supernaturalist, on the other hand, believes that the one original or self-existent thing is on a different level from, and more important than, all other things” (Lewis, Miracles, 10). This self-existing thing is the Triune God. The Supernaturalist knows this God who is other, holy, and not like man, has not left the world to click on like a watch. Don’t get me wrong. There is an order to creation. There is a flow. But remember Chesterton. That fruit hangs on a magic tree. Those are enchanted apples.
We sow. And there is a sowing and reaping principle. But the middle-aged years are a reminder that the Lord brings the growth; and he brings it however he pleases. Modern man is tempted to forget how sowing and reaping really work. We are tempted to substitute four quarters in a soda machine for four seeds in soil—”Didn’t I teach him to control his emotions just yesterday? How long is a man to wait around for the gears of this machine to produce my soda?”
If a parent drifts into naturalism—and we live in times when naturalism is running wild so beware—he will become a prayerless, micro-managing, manipulating, impatient, burden of a father. A mother who falls prey to this naturalism will be a fault-finding, knit-picking, anxious wreck. Machines, after all, have glitches. What’s to say the cosmic machine—the complete interlocking system with no God outside of it—won’t jam, chew little Tommy up, and spit him out to be a foolish son who is a grief to his father and bitterness to his mother (Proverbs 17:25)?
The answer to that question is Pauline: “Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 7:25). But faith in that Christ requires a full-scale repudiation of naturalism. God is not the greatest created being. He is not the best component of the self-contained system. He is not in the system. He is beyond it. And he is your hope for raising the kiddos. “Oh, it will take miracles, a string of them,” you say. Asaph replies, “Thou art the God that doest wonders” (Psalm 77:14).
With the groundwork of supernaturalism laid, here are those five magic arts for raising mid-range children.
First, ask the Lord for wisdom. Solomon knew the job was too big for him. He wasn’t sure how to keep the people under his care out of the ditches, “And now, O LORD my God, thou hast made thy servant king instead of David my father: and I am but a little child: I know not how to go out or come in . . . Give therefore thy servant an understanding heart to judge thy people, that I may discern between good and bad: for who is able to judge this thy so great a people” (1 Kings 3:7, 9).
Now you are likely familiar with Solomon’s request for wisdom. So it would be easy to file this in your been-there-done-that-Sunday-School file. But recall the foundation we just laid. I’m not merely telling you that you need to ask for wisdom. I’m talking about you actually obtaining heavenly wisdom like the magic apple tree gets its fruit, or coming up empty like the withered fig tree cursed by our Lord. God really gave the requested wisdom to Solomon. He will really give it to you. Would you lead a middle schooler to cheerfully do the dishes? Would you train him so that when he shoots a big, fat, brick-shot in overtime, and loses the game for his team with all of his friends watching, he still controls his emotions? God gives that kind of wisdom. Ask and you shall receive.
Second, lead by example. Paul could say, “Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ” (1 Corinthians 11:1). The truth is you are always leading by example, for better or worse. And middle school eyes watch closely. The eye gate is broader than the ear gate in this season of the child’s life. And something more than a strict science is going on here. You see your temper in them. You see your pride in theirs. There is more going on than meets the eye in this enchanted world we inhabit. Joy is contagious. Laughter spreads faster than the flu. If righteousness exalts a nation (Proverbs 14:34), can it not exalt a home?
Third, talk to the Lord about them. One of Saul’s big problems was that he did not inquire of the Lord. One of David’s keys to success was continual prayer about practical matters. When you see something slightly bent in your child, talk to the Lord about it before you talk to your child about it. Now, if he’s throwing dishes and kicking puppies, go ahead and speak directly with the youngsters. But when the problem is run-of-the-mill, ask the Lord to restore to them the joy of his salvation. Ask the Lord to make them diligent. The naturalist can’t do anything but tinker with the machine. You speak to the God who knows where the Philistines are encamped, and can send his angel by night to hamstring their horses. This is shepherd-like prayer. It requires that you know the sheep, what they’re struggling with, what their temptations are. Keep an eye on what is going on, and talk to the Lord about it.
Fourth, sacrifice for them. Paul told the Corinthians that death was at work in him and life in them (2 Corinthians 4:12). That is quite a transfer. God, of course, has to make the whole thing work. But there is no way of escaping this principle. God has established how things work, how things grow. You have to die for the welfare of your children. You have to deny yourself, clean the house, cook the meals, pack the bags, work the job, haul those soccer players around in the minivan, sing them songs, choose good movies, read the stories, and listen to theirs. All of that dying, that daily dying, requires energy. And the God beyond the stars, the God outside creation, supplies that strength.
Fifth, rejoice over them with loud singing. God does so for his children (Zephaniah 3:17). Just before Zephaniah spoke of God singing over his people, he said, “In that day it shall be said to Jerusalem, ‘Fear thou not:’ and to Zion, ‘Let not thine hands be slack'” (Zephaniah 3:18). Don’t let your hands be slack because God rejoices over you with a song. One of the reasons that children have slack hands is because their father and mother are not singing over them with joy. Nothing gets hands moving like fatherly joy. We are to show them what the Father is like. If he sings over us with gladness, why shouldn’t we rejoice over our children?
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