36th Christian Carnival

It's up at Neophyte Pundit. Some recommended reads:

"At first I saw a person..." from Abiding I liked this one because what she describes here is a particular weakness of mine. My so-called (by me!) wit can have a nasty streak. Mostly I censor it; sometimes I don't. But what am I doing thinking those sorts of things in the first place?

These next two posts are complementary, or at least that's the way I see them. Parableman posts Repent and Believe, which I wanted to link yesterday, but I suspected it might be his carnival entry, so I waited. He seems to share my opinion on those two words: that the two are mostly used more or less interchangeably in the New Testament. Read his post and see if you agree. Then, Jollyblogger reminds us that it's all of grace, including our sanctification, in Still Trying to Get the Gospel.

Reasons Why writes

Why is it that we tend to personalize our reading of the text rather then looking for the meaning the author intended? And why, even though we get a vague nagging sensation when someone does it, do we so readily accept any interpretation of scripture that begins "Well, to me this means..."?

and then answers his own questions in A Matter of Meaning. Good stuff.

Last, Ray Pritchard has an article titled Telling the Truth About Yourself that fleshes out one of the applications of God's truthfulness from my entry in the carnival.