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Culture Saturday: Tame the Lions

Let’s close out Spurgeon’s sermon on Psalm 57. Two weeks ago we looked at finding comfort when lions— vicious, blood-thirsty, non-believers— abound. Last week was patience, “[t]he less they love you, love them all the more. Baffle the lions.”

The ungodly are lions, and you are not; do not try to meet them in their own line. You will never roar as well as they do. If you are a Christian man, you have not the knack of roaring. Leave them to do it. Your way of meeting them is not by losing your temper and abusing your antagonists, and so becoming a lion yourself; but you must conquer them with gentleness, patience, kindness, love. I pray you, dear brothers and sisters who have to bear a good deal for Christ’s sake, do not get soured in spirit. There is a tendency in a martyr age to become obstinate and pugnacious. You must not be so. Love, love, love; and the more you are provoked, love the more. Overcome evil with good. I think it necessary to mention these cautions, because I know many require them.

Among Lions, sermon by Charles Spurgeon

I want to call out a few things here.

“Your way of meeting them is not by losing your temper and abusing your antagonists, and so becoming a lion yourself; but you must conquer them with gentleness, patience, kindness, love.”

Don’t become a lion to deal with the lions. Ill-tempered, abusive, taunting. You should be gentle, patient, kind, and loving. That is how we are to conquer.

There is a tendency in a martyr age to become obstinate and pugnacious.

Stubborn and quick to argue. Pugnacious is a juicy word. Sorry, I’m a word nerd. We cannot, as Christians, be these things. Proverbs is full of advice on how to argue, how to avoid arguments, when to argue, and probably more important than anything: when to shut up. The human ability to talk ourselves into arguments that we do not belong in and then stubbornly stay in those arguments when we do not belong there and have no ability to either win or bring glory to God through them is hubris.

Love, love, love; and the more you are provoked, love the more.

Christian, we are called to be unlike the world. We are called to do many things that go against the grain of the world. Loving no matter what and loving more when the world hates is quintessentially Christian.

[T]he braver thing is to ask for grace to stop with the lions and tame them.

Sometimes you are called to endure persecution— the taunting, the backstabbing, the slander, the lies— because you are there to show Christ’s love. You are there to show Christ’s patience. Christ’s mercy. Christ’s grace. And slowly soften the lion. Beg their curiosity.

Sometimes the Christian man should say, “No: God has made me strong in grace; and I will stop here, and fight it out. These are lions, but I will tame them. I believe that God has put me here on purpose to bring my fellow-workmen to the Saviour, and by his grace I will do it.”

Steadfast. Christian, be steadfast. Loyal to the cause. Steady and resolute. If God calls you to stand amongst lions— whether they are coworkers, classmates, or family members— then you stand amongst the lions.

I hope that we have some drops of that grand Christian blood still in our veins; and if we have, we shall feel that we could go to the gates of hell to win a sinner. You are not like your Master unless you would die to save men from hell.

Spurgeon is a world-favorite preacher and this makes me think of another quote from him.

If sinners be damned, at least let them leap to Hell over our dead bodies. And if they perish, let them perish with our arms wrapped about their knees, imploring them to stay. If Hell must be filled, let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions, and let not one go unwarned and unprayed for.

If Hell must be filled, let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions, and let not one go unwarned and unprayed for. One of the many reasons you continue here after finding Christ— instead of just being yoinked into Heaven for safekeeping— is to reach others for Christ. Tame the lions. Pray for them. Warn them. Preach the word to them. We should be willing to do everything to win a sinner including dying. Look to your history Christian, look to the martyrs of our faith. How many walked into plague-ridden hospitals to win sinners, how many walked into cannibal tribes to win sinners, how many traveled to distant lands and faced down those that wished them dead just to win sinners. Look at how many of our brothers have had their throats slit by Muslims, how many were used as candles by Nero, and how many have been burned alive at the stake for not rescinding their Lord’s name and worshiping gods of wood and stone. Christian, that grand blood is still in our veins. And it calls for you to die to show others that they may live. To truly live.

It will be a grand thing for you to come one day to the church-meeting with two or three of your neighbours whom you have been the means of converting to Christ. I like to see a man march, if he can do it, with a tame lion on each side. When a man has by God’s grace brought some of those that were drunkards and swearers to the feet of Jesus, oh, it is a grand triumph.

Christian, tame the lions. Bring them to the feet of Jesus.

This sermon should be read in full if you have the time. Charles Spurgeon was a man of good words. I could grab so many words and phrases from just this one sermon and learn. But I find it is very important in an age where the lions are begging more for our blood, demanding that we lose our jobs because of our views— views that remain unchanged over thousands of years—, demand that medical licenses be removed, demand that they not be allowed to teach students, and even dreaming of us being burned alive at the stake. Yes, this sermon is as important as it was the day it was preached, just as true today.

New Music Fridays. It’s been a couple months since anything really good dropped. Today I’ve got a couple new albums. Let’s start with Wilder Woods, the solo act of Bear Rineheart, lead singer of Needtobreathe. My youngest is nicknamed Bear because of this man, so needless to say, we’re fans. His new album Fever/Sky is just dripping with character and songwriting excellence. The guitar too. This man is Americana in a nutshell and the instrumentation is just everything I need.

And to continue in the Americana, Chris Thile of Punch Brothers got back with his early 2000’s band to release a new album. These guys were the Backstreet Boys of bluegrass. I didn’t listen to them then, but as I got out of college I became more and more a fan of Americana through the likes of Needtobreathe and Mumford and Sons. Then someone recommended Punch Brothers and I became a mandolinist. I got hooked because of Chris. Celebrants brings the chops, the fiddle, and the falsettos you expect with Chris and his Nickel Creek bandmates.

I was talking with someone the other day about “new” music. He said he doesn’t really listen to new music and is stuck in stuff from a decade ago. While I don’t feel the need to be listening to new music for relevance sake, music is experiential and new music brings new experience. New words, new lyrics, new thoughts. It’s like reading a book. I could reread an old book. There is value to that. But I also love to read new books. I’m no Top 50 kinda guy— never was— but I pay attention to specific artists and genres. So Fridays are something to look forward to with music. Go soak in some good music.

Really impressive demo. First, this is for single-page applications. Second, there is an API for multi-page applications. Check it out in Chrome Canary and look at the code. I discussed this with my team yesterday. The demo is built on Astro. All that is shipped to the browser is 301kB. Of that 291kB is images. Less than 5.5kB for the document, CSS, and JS. CSS is powering the transitions and only a bit of JS intercepts the navigation event, loads the fragment of HTML, injects it into the DOM, and adds the necessary classes to trigger the animations.

This is a truly impressive demonstration. With very minimal effort, one can use an SSG like Astro— which can run as an SSR too— and deliver a fully working application that requires no JavaScript but progressively enhances to dynamic page transitions with easy— something that is extremely difficult even for SPA libraries— and asynchronous page loading. Only 150 lines of JS are in this project— 150 lines that ship to the browser.

For an old curmudgeonly standards guy like myself, this gives me some hope that we can get back to the days of the largest assets we send to the browser are images instead of hundreds of kilobytes of JavaScript.

Source: Bramus

“I just posted something benign on social media and now have a ton of people saying I’m a genocidal monster!

If you’ve been accused of genocide for saying putting anchovies on pizza should be a crime or that boys cannot become girls, this video is for you. Laugh at the stupidity of it and recognize that everyone is collectively going through this stupidity, not just you.

Demon Hunter: Exile

Every Monday we drive over 2 hours for the kid’s music lessons. Sometimes we fill this time with audiobooks. Sometimes podcasts. Sometimes we just catch up on conversations. Last night was music and it had been a while since I listened to Demon Hunter’s album Exile straight through, so we put that on and screamed out.

Much of this album is counter-culture— specifically political and social media culture. Take Master, which screams:

You need a lesson in loyalty
No need to suffer alone
You violate your humanity
When you recoil away from the tone

If all you want is just a master
We could be everything you need
If flesh and bone is what you’re after
Then let the foolish take the lead

Drop your Jesus, Christian. If all you want is just a master, the world is more than willing to fulfill every need you have. Just follow the tone.

They tell me God is not enough for war
Take a lesser man and bleed for him

In the words of the band, this is a concept album “[s]et in the aftermath of civilized society’s collapse, the 12 songs examine modern life through the lens of a nonconformist, contemplating a life untethered.” Social media is killing us. Specifically algorithm-powered feeds. The algorithm wants engagement and extreme content gets engagement. In Ryan Clark’s words, “[e]ven when it seems people have pinpointed things like social media as destructive, the concept of abstaining from it is quickly excused away.”

How do I silence the world?
How do I live through the noise?

We gave you this voice
A freedom you don’t deserve
Resounding with all of the noise
Dying to strike a nerve

Whatever happened to indifference?
Whatever happened to divided views?
It reads a lot like intolerance
When every word that you write says
freedom is dead

I saw an extreme far Leftist calling for the guillotining of Republicans on Twitter a few weeks ago. When he was responded to with “what happened to tolerance?” his response was “who ever said I was tolerant?” The tolerance bullshit was just to ram through the only allowed views. Now the facade is coming down. Whatever happened to indifference? To divided views? If dissent is not allowed, then freedom is dead.

I am a longtime fan of Demon Hunter and this album is no different. Ryan Clark is a great songwriter, and a great singer, and this album is full of great riffs and great lyrics when you slow down and listen.

Culture Saturday: The Anvil Never Strikes in Return

When there is a hard word spoken do not notice it; or if you must hear it, forget it as quickly as ever you can. Love others all the more the less they love you: repay their enmity with love. Heap coals of fire upon them by making no return to a hard speech except by another deed of kindness. Very seldom defend yourself: it is a waste of breath, and casting pearls before swine.

Among Lions, sermon by Charles Spurgeon

Love others all the more the less they love you. This doesn’t feel like the way of the world. It didn’t when I was a kid and it’s gotten even more, unlike the world. Enmity today is cyclical. Both sides spew lies about each other, both sides slander and demonize. But, Christian, we are called to repay enmity with love. We are called to break from the circle. Because often a response other than love is a “waste of breath”. Those with hate in their hearts cannot hear. They have already drawn their conclusions because they are being drawn to their conclusions, like pawns in a game. So love them. They may shout back. They may still swing their flimsy swords. But love them.

The anvil is struck by the hammer, and the anvil never strikes in return, and yet the anvil wears the hammer out. Patience baffles fury and vanquishes malice.

Patience.

Something that smacks me frequently is that the reason I am called to patience, mercy, and grace for those that raise spears against me is that when I raised my spear against God, he showed patience, mercy, and grace for me. In high school, I raged against His people. I didn’t believe the Bible to be true. I argued for hours with Christians. And they showed great patience with my curiosity, my arrogance, my strong-headedness. Why? Because God was doing His thing in His time. And that time came for me in college when I heard His voice: read Genesis. And so, after a bit of protest, I consumed His Word. I learned. And all those arguments came back and what should have appeared as pearls before swine all those times were all sowing to the moment when God knocked.

Christian, have patience. Slow your heart and remember your Savior. He forgave you. You did nothing for that forgiveness. You couldn’t. You were but a slave to sin. You were unforgivable by all worldly terms. But He went to the cross for you nonetheless. Be patient.

God will not quench the fire of persecution, for it consumes our dross, but he will moderate its power so that not a grain of pure metal shall be lost. The lions are chained, dear friend; they can go no farther than God permits.

God permits. No one acts of their own will. Not truly. Your God has a plan, dear Christian. And that plan is good. For some, you will be on the run until you are called Home. For others, it will come in waves. But this is to plan. The lions are only permitted to do that which God permits. Trust your Lord.

In this country the most they can do, as a rule, is to howl, they cannot bite; and howling does not break bones; why, then, be afraid? […] Talking will not hurt you. Harden your spirit against it, and bear it gallantly. Go and tell your Lord of it if your heart fails you; and then go forward[…] The lions can roar, but they cannot rend— fear them not.

Recollect here that Spurgeon is not speaking in the figurative, the metaphorical. He is speaking in the context of London in 1879. As of that time, the drunkards could do no more than howl. They were bound by law. This is not meant figuratively in that “during the age of the Church, the lions are chained and can only howl,” as he acknowledged earlier that the old howl of “Christians to the lions” would return to the streets of London. Slander is one thing, but now Christians are being arrested in London for praying silently on the street. Now Christian students are being arrested from Canadian Catholic schools for not worshipping gods of wood and stone. There is a difference here. But even so, the lions are only permitted that which God permits. God permitted Paul to be in prison. He had a plan.

Christian, if your heart is hurting take it to Him. Pour it out. Cast your burdens. And then move forward. That’s not to say that is easy. For some it is. For others, it is not. I can say that I continue to struggle here. But bury yourself in His Word. Get closer to Him. He has you.

[W]hen your soul is among lions, there is another lion there as well as the lions that you can see. […] If your faith be as it should be, it will be a great joy to you to know that he is always with you, that he is always near you. If he is ever absent from others of his servants, he is never away from his persecuted servants.

Flimsy swords and dragons. Your Lord is with you. Feel His warm breath. Feel His peace. If He is not afraid, why would you be? Take a big deep breath.

There can be comfort among the lions. That comfort comes from God and His people. Yes, there will be gnashing teeth. Yes, there will be howls that shake you to your core. Go forward, good Christian, and love. And the less they love you, love them all the more. Baffle the lions.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day, y’all. Like St. Nicholas, I absolutely revel in the stories of St. Patrick.

St. Patrick was tremendously effective and saw many pagans turn to put their faith in Christ. Despite how his extant writings testify to how much he missed his homeland, he chose to live and serve among the Irish he grew to love. He even suffered imprisonment and persecution at the hands of the Druids. But his dedicated and tireless evangelistic efforts, according to tradition, resulted in his baptizing 120,000 new believers and building over 300 churches in Ireland. He served and worked among the people for 30 years before he died on March 17, 461, and was buried in Ireland.

Answers in Genesis

Love the story of St. Patrick, a man after God’s heart, sharing the Gospel to the natives of a dark land. Happy St. Patrick’s Day. Stay safe.

My life flows on in endless song
Above earth´s lamentation
I hear the sweet, though far-off hymn
That hails a new creation
Through all the tumult and the strife
I hear that music ringing
It finds an echo in my soul
How can I keep from singing?

pugnacious (adjective)
having a quarrelsome or combative nature

Pugnacious individuals are often looking for a fight. While unpleasant, at least their fists are packing an etymological punch. Pugnacious comes from the Latin verb pugnare (meaning “to fight”), which in turn comes from the Latin word for “fist,” pugnus.

Merriam-Webster

I love looking up words that I come across. Looking into the origins. And then you’ll catch me laughing because your said porcelain. I know, I am weird. This word came up in reading through an old Spurgeon sermon this morning.

You are in a public place, praying silently. No one else around. The police approach you and ask the nature of your prayer. They then arrest you because you are not allowed to pray in this public space. Clearly this is a Muslim country where Shariah Law is enforced, right?

No, it is Britain.

Watch the video. I’m not exaggerating this. This isn’t a case of a Christian “praying” but also screaming at people or blocking sidewalks.

Christian, the old howl of “Christians to the Lions” is returning to London, just as Spurgeon feared. Not long before it is here in the States.