Theology That Bites Back
“‘Be diligent to present yourself approved to God’ (v. 15, emphasis ours) As a young preacher, Timothy was exhorted to exert every effort to present himself to God as one approved. That term comes from the world of industry and coinage; it has to do with the testing of metals”
Olford, Anointed Expository Preaching, (p. 53).
“He had felt as though he were going up before an implacable and terrible feminine tribunal. In his imagination, he was going to walk up to a table, with her standing behind it, a stern and beautiful expression on her face. He was going to spread all his innards out on the table before her, and he was then going to give her a huge wooden mallet, and she would do as she pleased. Given the high insult his declaration of love would naturally be to someone as noble as she was, he was confident that she would wield that heavy mallet with a will. And yet he loved her still.”
“He was the kind of man who thought that he never gave offense because people liked him enough to forgive him for a great deal.”
“While he was coming up the head table, she had decided, firmly and with all the resolve she had that she would be courteous, friendly, and tart . . . She felt as though she were on the verge of a fencing match, and she had been flexing her rapier.”
“Taking one thing with another, the line-up of the head table, with the notable exception of Savannah, was a well-groomed collection of dignified eyesores. Savannah kind of stood out and a number of people had already decided instinctively where they would be looking during the course of the speeches and toasts.”
“Lambeth tried to court her last year and was turned down flat, flatter than a pancake made with really thin batter.”
“‘But if you failed to ask it, you might miss out on the fact that the pulchritudinous Miss Westmoreland lives there.’ He pronounced it pulchritoooodinous, savoring the word as it came out, treating it like it was a butterscotch lozenge.”
“Her worries fluttered for a moment, the way her parakeet had done once in her hand for a moment. But she just put it back in the cage, and dropped the cloth over the top of it.”
“A certain kind of beauty flourishes when another kind is diminished.”
“Lambeth actually knew how to be charming if he had a willing audience. If anybody was watching who knew what actual charm was, the effect was totally other than charming, but whenever someone wanted to be charmed—as Elizabeth most certainly did—he knew how to ladle it out of the pot.”
