Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

Woe to the city of oppressors,
    rebellious and defiled!
She obeys no one,
    she accepts no correction.
She does not trust in the Lord,
    she does not draw near to her God.
Her officials within her
    are roaring lions;
her rulers are evening wolves,
    who leave nothing for the morning.
Her prophets are unprincipled;
    they are treacherous people.
Her priests profane the sanctuary
    and do violence to the law.
The Lord within her is righteous;
    he does no wrong.
Morning by morning he dispenses his justice,
    and every new day he does not fail,
    yet the unrighteous know no shame.

• Zephaniah 3:1-5

The Scripture refers to Jerusalem.  She is rebellious against the Lord.  Yet, Jerusalem is stupid, as stated in Proverbs 12:1 that he who hates correction is stupid.

Yet, in the short term, that statement from Proverbs seems so counter intuitive.  When you are being punished, there seems to be nothing that you can like about the process.

Yet, in my fog that I talked about recently, have I written a post or commented on someone else’s post while in that fog, saying something that I might regret?  If so, I apologize.

One reader commented a couple of months ago that they liked reading my blog but did not agree with everything that I write.  I can live with that.  When Beth Moore was criticized by someone on Twitter, she commented that she disagrees with some of the stuff that she writes, too.  Interpreting the Tweet-Speak, that could mean that Beth Moore may have hit send before she thought her tweet through, or Beth Moore could have written something years ago, but as she as progressed along her faith journey, she realizes that what she had written years ago was a bit … off.

I could agree with both sentiments.  I have rarely gotten a comment telling me that I am off in my interpretation of Scripture, but that has happened.  In reading those words, gently given by another blog writer, I have grown and learned.  My blog is called “Thoughts of Mark ‘Hat’ Rackley,” not to shine the light on me, but to say that I do not represent a denomination or an organized religion.  In other words, I could be wrong, so please comment.  I’m just me, trying to find my way down the path with the Lord by my side, but with a more fully understanding of my Lord as the result.  In some cases, I walk in a very dim light.

One of the problems that I anticipated when I first started the blog was what to do about those who complained about what I wrote.  How do you handle personal attacks, attacks against God, attacks against the Bible?

For the most part, those fears have not materialized.  I have had many readers come and go.  If I said something wrong or something against how they believed – causing them to move on – maybe a critical note might have sparked a conversation in comments.  Maybe both of us could grow as a result.

Now if you don’t like my sense of humor, then you might have to move on.  Humor is my means of working my way through tough issues.  I hope it softens the blow, if I am being critical of a concept, idea, or statement made by someone else.

But how do we know when we are on the path that God has designed for us?  The Scripture quoted above says that we must embrace correction, trust the Lord, and draw near to God.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.