We got out of the house this morning and headed back to the park for our family devotional time. Spent a few minutes reading in the Indian Summer about pride.
Pride is an evil thing, and Cassian was correct when he noted that of all sins, Pride has God as its chief opponent.
And then he added, “It is what comes from inside that defiles you. For from within, out of a person’s heart, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, wickedness, deceit, lustful desires, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness. All these vile things come from within; they are what defile you.” (Mar 7:20-23 NLT)
Too often, holiness people focus on the outside – the length of the skirt, the unshorn hair (seemingly, most of these rules apply to women) – without too much focus on the inside of the person. Heaven help the woman who walks into church with pants, because if she does, the rest will gossip about her.
We, my family and I, are ‘holiness people’ but I try to infuse into this compassion and humility, which should be the focus on near about everyone. A skirt dragging the floor will not ease the entry into heaven no more than a pair of slacks will prevent you. For me, however, the appearance will betray the heart, and the tongue all of us.
Every week, I write what I plan to do. I rarely get half of it done. So, this week, I’ll just say this:
- I have the second part of the review on Karen Armstrong’s, The Case for God, to complete
- I have written several posts on Fourth Century Christianity already written and will be posting them
- I have a post on Tertullian’s Formula written
- I have a post on the development of the Doctrine of the Holy Spirit written
- I plan on posting lots of articles, etc… as they pop into my head or across the screen
That is it.
I hope each of you have a blessed and wonderful week – and I am very happy to have made a reconnection to a friend (You know who you are 
)
Joel Landon Watts is a Masters of Theological Studies student with a focus in Mimetic Criticism of the Gospel of Mark. His interests include exploring the role of mimesis in human civilization, specifically in the study of religion and media, as well as science fiction and the way in which it has allowed mythology to be explored in light of scientific ideals of the past century. Currently, he is a TA for Old Testament at United Theological Seminary under Dr. Vivian Johnson, Associate Professor of Old Testament. His first book, Rhetorical Strategies of the Evangelist: Mimetic Criticism of the Gospel of Mark, is expected to be published by Wipf and Stock early next year. He is currently co-editing a book on moving from Fear to Faith (Energion, 2013).
New blog posting, Sunday Thoughts – 11/8 – http://tinyurl.com/ybf5884