Mark's Views, Perhaps — from behind my eyeballs
Consider King David and God’s ways and purposes in 2 Samuel 24:1…
And again the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he moved David against them to say, Go, number Israel and Judah.
I see God’s sovereignty at work. (I also believe He acted in complete justice and righteousness.)
I read that verse and thought of this one: Read it all
No, not that kind of railing!
My general impression of the term railing has been one that has to do as much with content as with the tone and demeanor of the speaker.
The very day after hearing a definition that was milder than the one I’ve had, I had work-related occasion to check some book sources. Let me show you some of what I found.
OK, so it’s hard to read. See below. Read it all
I could have become +MarkRoth.
After scanning through the various TOS (“Terms of Service,” you know), I decided to go for it. Then I hesitated again when I saw this was free for now only and might cost me something later. But I kept on going.
Then Google required my cell phone number. Required! đŸ˜¯ Read it all
In the course of writing material for the Teacher Guide for an eighth grade Bible course, I’ve come to a lesson titled “Evil Will Lose.” It’s based on portions of 2 Thessalonians 1 & 2.
While researching through some of my previous writing on those chapters, I came to this:
I’m talking about pleasure sources that may be amoral or even moral for the most part but have unrighteousness scattered through them.
I know, I know. Life is life, and life has loads of unrighteousness through it.
But why must my “entertainment” present it?
To be more interesting and realistic.
Fine. My concern stands.
This is a strike against many of contemporary Christian novels.
I wrote that almost eight years ago, but it’s pertinent enough that I’m encouraging you to read the entire piece — My Pleasure.
I still stand there. Or do I need to see something differently?
What do you think of including detailed evil in order to make something real-to-life?
Goody two-shoes? What does that mean?!
It must be something bad. Really, terribly bad. I’ve never heard anything positive about a goody two-shoes. I’ve never heard anyone aspire to being one. Obviously there’s no good in that kind of goody.
Goody two-shoes are mocked, derided, and scorned. They are held in contempt and as a standard of what not to be.
Why?
OK, after writing all that, I looked up the term and found these two helpful entries:
A prudish, self-righteous individual, a goody-goody. For example, Phyllis was a real goody two-shoes, tattling on her friends to the teacher. This expression alludes to the main character of a nursery tale, The History of Goody Two-Shoes (1765), who was so pleased when receiving a second shoe that she kept saying “Two shoes.” The goody in the story is short for goodwife but means “goody-goody” in the idiom.
Source: dictionary.com
That helps. I’ve even met people like that. And people I thought were like that, but I discovered later my own weakness propelled me to a huge leap onto a wrong, unjust conclusion. AndrĂ©e over at World magazine experienced something similar: Read it all
Andrée Seu Peterson
Dreaming of worry-free chickens
This is my Happy Father’s Day! tip to all of us fathers:
This morning, that’s my number one tip for being a successful father. If we don’t walk humbly with the Father, He will resist us instead of helping us.
“But He gives more grace. Therefore He says: ‘God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble'” (James 4:6, NKJV).
And now for links and/or excerpts from five fatherhood posts from the archives… Read it all