Tried With Fire

Slang, n . The grunt of the human hog ( Pignoramus intolerabilis ) with an audible memory. The speech of one who utters with his tongue what he thinks with his ear, and feels the pride of a creator in accomplishing the feat of a parrot. A means (under Providence) of setting up as a wit without a capital of sense. Novel, n . The short story padded. Pie, n . An advance agent of the reaper whose name is Indigestion. Man, n . An animal so lost in rapturous contemplation of what he thinks he is as to overlook what he indubitably ought to be. His chief occupation is extermination of other animals and his own species, which, however, multiples with such insistent rapidity as to infest the whole habitable earth and Canada. Pedigree, n. The known part of the route from an arboreal ancestor with a swim bladder to an urban descendent with a cigarette. Adage, n . Boned wisdom for weak teeth. (Thanks to the InkSlinger 's recommendation, I borrowed a copy of The Unabridged Devil'...

The English language is strange.  Perhaps it's because the words originate from so many other languages, new words have been coined over the years, and they've all been thrown into one big vocabulary pot. Take for example the prefix "dis" which is added to the front of a word to form its opposite. Examples would be disarm and arm, disappear and appear, etc. But what do you do with comfit and discomfit? A  comfit is a confection consisting of a piece of fruit, a root, or a seed coated and preserved with sugar.  So does one discomfit someone by forbidding the consumption of sugar-coated roots?  No, discomfit is to defeat in battle, frustrate plans, or thwart. Also there's discombobulate , which means to upset and confuse.Yet one does not  combobulate to bring order or clarity to a situation.  However, it might be the perfect text to send to your friend Robert who is tardy. :)

From Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll Words seem to have lost their meaning nowadays, particularly the vocabulary of Christianity.  The meanings of  God and Jesus are up for grabs, and God's attributes and works are as malleable as a ball of play-dough to be shaped according to our whims.   There are those who would say, "Shouldn't we take people at their word?  We shouldn't be judging their hearts."  But I would respectfully reply that we are charged with more than  taking someone just at their word.  We've been charged to judge a tree by its fruit.  (Matthew 7: 15-20) So forgive me if I'm skeptical when a big name uses Christian vocabulary in a manner contradictory to the scriptures or if a celebrity casually invokes the G or J word.  And forgive me, when I press you to clearly define what you mean for the sake of my own understanding. These words are too important to be misused or misunderstood.