You faced a host of temptations to sin this past week, and it is certain that you did give way to one degree or another to those temptations. If that weren’t enough, you live in a world that’s unraveling and is full of wars, blasphemies, and hard consequences. To top things off, the Devil prowls around looking to bring about your destruction. Not the most cheery thoughts. This may convince you to adopt a survivalist mentality. Bunker down, just try to make it through life, and then go see Jesus in heaven.

But this isn’t the salvation which Jesus won for you. He ascended into heaven. And this means a few things. All things are now placed under His nail-scarred feet, and by the covenant union you have with Him, you are made (both individually and corporately) embassies of His global dominion. Sin shall not have the victory over you, because Christ is seated on high. The world shall not overcome you, for Christ is seated on high. The devil shall not devour you, for Christ is seated on high.

So then, cast off any disposition of fearful survivalism. By faith, acknowledge the great salvation which Christ’s death, resurrection and ascension brought about for you. You are not at the mercy of your fleshly desires, for the Spirit of Christ gives you new desires. You must deal with your sin in the light of the reality that Christ is subduing all His enemies; that includes every last nagging temptation that rears its vile head in the dark corners of your heart. That envy must go, because Christ ascended. That lust can’t stay, because Christ is King. That fearfulness must pack its bags, because Jesus has been given the Name above all names. Christ is King. Our task is to live accordingly.

Ben Zornes – May 12, 2024

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Men, you are called to strength. In Hebrew 11 we’re exhorted to emulate men who through faith became mighty. Out of weakness they were made strong. When fights came they waxed valiant. Out of the soil of evangelical faith grow the cedar trees of strength.

This strength isn’t isolated to our inner life; as if we can tuck away our faith in Jesus deep into some inner crypt. No, the strength that arises from faith forms throughout our body, soul, and mind. Furthermore, it must be trained and maintained through disciplined diligence. You won’t be resilient in the day of testing if you don’t practice resilience every day of your life. And fathers, you won’t have sons resembling the aforementioned cedars if you fail to teach them self-denial, endurance, and long-suffering. 

Physical strength training is a determined willingness to die. Your body desires to not do any more reps; but if you kill that desire and do one more rep, one more lap, one more drill your strength will grow. Likewise, you fight sin by getting up early each day, putting to death the desire to linger in bed, and hardening yourself with a little less sleep but a little more Scripture.

Especially in these times of madness, you men must erect walls of security around your family time and time and time again. St. Paul’s simple words embody the life of Christian faith: “I die daily.” Provide for your family by hard labor one more day. Lead them with gentle steadiness one more time. Instruct your children in faithfulness once more. Do not grow weary. This is a command. But since it’s a command of Scripture it’s also a promise. By faith in Christ, God promises that you shall go, as the Psalmist says, from strength to strength with hands trained for war.

We live in a day similar to Ezekiel’s where all hands are feeble, and all knees are weak as water. Men have abdicated and grown weary of the warfare. Our currency is devalued through the vanity of our cultural greed. Our bodies are afflicted with the diseases of unbridled appetites. Our minds polluted with wicked imaginations. Many men have lost their nerve and have capitulated to the godless despair of our age. May God forgive men who claim the name of Christ for where we have compromised and joined in the follies of our society. And may our Lord raise up men who are girt for the combat, men who are grit to the core.

Ben Zornes – May 5, 2024

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Feminine virtues are under serpentine assault. Our culture is spraying the fields of femininity with herbicides of laziness, immodesty, and impudence. This salting of the fields is deceptively heralded as liberation. But wherever the Gospel takes root it becomes a vineyard in which both male and female virtues grow and flourish. A woman who trusts in Christ and obeys His Word is called a virtuous woman, and such a woman becomes praiseworthy. Our culture insists that women need to be praised simply for being women; Scripture teaches that praise is reserved for a woman who can be described as virtuous.

What does that little word contain? A whole lot, it turns out. A virtuous woman, among other things, is marked by hard-work, attentiveness to her own sphere while keeping her nose out of others’, and a contentment which gives no place to guilt, shame, and insecurity.

Many of you moms are hard-working women. But perhaps you’ve grown frazzled with the grind of diapers, school runs, disciplining the toddler, art assignments, prepping meals that are half-eaten, disciplining the toddler, mopping up a spill, laundry, gardening, helping a teen with homework, meal planning, and disciplining the toddler again.

Leaning against the feminine vices of our age––like laziness and self-centered self-care––isn’t a summons to having a frazzled soul. Some days the dishes don’t get done, but this doesn’t mean that you’ve failed to honor the Lord. It isn’t self-centered to take a quick inventory with your husband of both your chores and the standards for them. Make sure your standards are attainable and realistic; make adjustments during various life-seasons. What does it profit a woman to clean all her baseboards but lose her soul? By God’s grace you will find strength for all the duties, wisdom in managing the margins, and contentment in fulfilling your duties. This is how virtuous women become praiseworthy, and in due time, get the baseboards cleaned.

Ben Zornes – April 28, 2024

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As a ship on stormy seas, the Church has often swayed back and forth between two emphases: the head and the heart. Regrettably, she has also taken into her mind the notion that these two are polar opposites. But our intellect and our affections are not enemies, anymore than your two eyes are enemies. Our faith is not the analytical evaluation by our intellect of brute facts. Nor is our faith the throbbing emotions of reaction to pleasant stimuli.

Our faith is the result of God making us new, giving us a new heart by the mighty and gracious working of His Spirit. Because He called unto us, opened our ears, and made us alive we respond to Him by faith. This new life causes us to think God’s thoughts after Him. This new life gives us holy affections, where our delight is in the Lord as He satisfies our sanctified desires.

So then, if by grace you have trusted in Christ, both your mind and emotions should be enflamed with holy thoughts and feelings. You ought to sing songs of praise jubilantly, enthusiastically, and heartily; but you can sing all the more jubilantly if what you are singing is the truth in poetry with razor sharp wit and wisdom. If you wrestle by faith with the dark sayings of God’s word, you won’t come away weaker, but with the perspiring glow of a triumphant athlete.

Grace doesn’t dull our intellect it illumines it. Grace doesn’t numb our emotions it warms them. The words of that Narnian lion ring true, we are not quite as happy as he intends us to be. Intellectual rigor and emotional vibrancy are the fruits of God’s Spirit at work within us. So set your mind and affections upon Christ, and think and feel rightly.

Ben Zornes – April 21, 2024

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Hypocrisy is one of the most hated sins. There are Pride parades, Pro-Choice rallies, Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, and anxiety support groups. But you’ll have a hard time recruiting folks to show support for “Hypocrites Rights.”

Hypocrisy is, of course, claiming to hold up some virtue or set of virtues while secretly violating those virtues. Some examples come to mind. The pro-life politician who is exposed for making his mistress get an abortion.The Pastor using tithe dollars for secret trips to Vegas. The Instagram trad-wife whose perfectly curated online image doesn’t match her real life image of laziness in homemaking and bitter snappiness in mothering. All such hypocrites will soon find their secrets out in the open, and their hidden sins made public, and God will judge it.

But amongst Christians there is a silly but dangerous temptation when it comes to hypocrisy. We know how we ought to live and the standards we ought to uphold. And if we have sinned in some arena we are tempted to think we must protect God’s reputation by not confessing our sin, bringing it into the light, and making things right. We reason that we wouldn’t want to embarrass God with a confession of our sin. As if He would need to rush a PR statement to the press when one of His people confess their sin.

God has already informed us what His position is in regards to confessed sin: He delights in mercy. That’s why there’s a bloody cross after all. He gives that mercy to those who humble themselves and confess their sin. So don’t hide your sin out of fear of what it might do to God’s reputation. His mercy is wide enough to swallow up your worst sin, and for His holiness to remain unsullied.

Our pride convinces us that God needs us to hide our sins, so as to not to bring shame upon Him. But He calls us to bring it out into the light, denounce it, be ashamed of it so that by His mercy our shame might be turned into the uplifted face of those who have received forgiveness. So then, we ought to be swift to confess our sins, so that by God’s grace we might be kept from presumptuous sins in order that we might not give way to great transgressions. If our desire is to bring honor to name of the Lord we must remember that the Word teaches us that it honors Him when we confess our sin and sinfulness. So then put your certain hope in Him, trusting in His character and nature which is a deep ocean of tender-mercies to those who put their trust in Him. This is your only hope in life and in death, that God has made a way for your sins to be confessed and for Him to forgive them all without compromising His righteousness.

Ben Zornes – April 14, 2024

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