Mark's Views, Perhaps — from behind my eyeballs
Do you know how to have fun at Dollar Tree?
Check out this cropped image I just “lifted” there:
Hold it, hold it.
We’re allowed to do that at Dollar Tree?!
Ruby and I were there less than an hour ago…and I had no idea!
Oh well.
Disclaimer: The link above is where the full image is for the cropped image above. Well, it was there at the time of my visit, anyway.
Josiah Boss, the Man of the EPCS 2011 Graduating Class:
His dad graduated from the same school in 1981. Said father has the unfortunate distinction of being “my” very first graduate.
Thirty years ago!
Where’s my cane?
PS: The applause may have been an historic first for such events at our school.
In my circles, branding someone a “self-professing” anything generally doesn’t rise to the level of a compliment.
I find that odd.
I profess to be a Christian.
Does that make me a self-professing Christian?
I believe so.
You got a problem with that?
Maybe you think I’m suspect as a Christian because I profess to be one?
Really, though, it’s weird to read or hear one self-professing Christian use self-professing to speak of another self-professing Christian.
I just read another instance of that in Issue 100 of the newsletter from Faith builders. In an otherwise excellent article (The Anabaptist Advantage Among Muslims) by self-professing Christian TDW, this:
Then in 2001 the self-professing “born-again” President George Bush called for another round of violence against the Muslims when he said…
OK.
Like I said, TDW’s article is excellent. I hope to secure permission to republish it on one or more of my sites. I truly do expect them to grant me permission, even though I plan to chide them for the above reference to the President.
After all, how can I possibly believe that my self-profession is more accurate than anyone else’s?
And, still, I use self-professing on others, though less and less intentionally so.
And when I do, it’s less easy to overlook the importance — the urgent necessity — of making sure that my own self-profession is under-girded and made believable by the evidence blooming fragrantly from my own life.
PS: I understand that we adjective-ize someone with self-professing when we have reason to question the sincerity and depth of his commitment to Christ. But still…
Yesterday I posted an urgent-must-read piece about drowning in water.
The take-away lesson: Not all people who are drowning look like they are drowning.
The same applies to other kinds of drowning.
They can no longer help themselves.
Nor can they reach out for someone else’s help.
And they even seem incapable of crying out.
Might someone near you be drowning … and you don’t realize their mortal danger?
When you do realize they’re drowning, will you rescue them?
May God sharpen my vision, increase my awareness, and deepen my compassion.
Never mind the meaning of is.
Tell us instead what this means:
–Mark Roth
I’ve never seen anyone drowning.
This article is sobering to me in a stunning sort of way. Read it all
Some of what President Obama had to say today regarding Israel is extremely alarming (though hardly surprising) to me.
But my quibble in this post is with what is being reported about part of what he said.
Did he really call for “Israel’s return to pre-1967 borders” as the headline states above?
I didn’t listen to the speech, so I’ll stick my neck out and quote the President from the story headlined above:
“We believe the borders of Israel and Palestine should be based on the 1967 lines with mutually agreed swaps, so that secure and recognized borders are established for both states.”
That seems to me to say something different than what the headline says.
What say you?