New Year's Day ===== Readings and Stuff -- Wednesday, 01 January, 2014

Happy New Year.  I hope the day has found everyone to be in good order.  Have  been scanning the various news sources, seeing the accounts of the bad effects of the use of beverage alcohol and/or "recreational pharmaceuticals".  Lots of wrecks, lots of fights, lots of drunk driving arrests.  And, probably, some behaviors less publicized that will create lucrative opportunities for divorce lawyers and the like.  Have seen considerable of all the above, all too often up close.  There are some memories I could do without.
And yet,
And yet, we begin the annual trek through the Bible with the four words that have often helped to remind me that it ain't over yet.

In the beginning, GOD!

and if we keep that in mind, other matters can take a more correct importance.
The same Lord who invented light, who invented gravity, who spoke the entire seen universe into being with a word, knows me by name, knew me a million years before I was born, knows the count of the hairs on my head and all my sins and failures.  And loves me in spite of all of that, and has a plan for my life.  That is worth quite a lot.


one note:  for th last several years, this site has been a King James version only.  I want to try, for a bit at least, the use of the ESV.  I may or may not try using both for purposes of comparison.  I am not a hard-core KJV-only person, though am more comfortable with it than some.  yet I often use a New King James in my own study.  Be honest:  when was the last time you were in a conversation  and used the phrase, "he waxed wroth"?  Probably it's been a while.  Such a usage may have been ordinary in 1607 or around then, but the English language has changed a bit since then.  And since English in any form did not exist at all at the time of the Patriarchs or of Jesus' time here, it's largely an academic exercise. 
=================================

So, this morning, we begin at the beginning of it all.  Genesis 1 and 2.

Genesis 1

1	In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
2	The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
3	And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.
4	And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness.
5	God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.
6	And God said, “Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.”
7	And God made the expanse and separated the waters that were under the expanse from the waters that were above the expanse. And it was so.
8	And God called the expanse Heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, the second day.
9	And God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.” And it was so.
10	God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good.
11	And God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, on the earth.” And it was so.
12	The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.
13	And there was evening and there was morning, the third day.
14	And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years,
15	“and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth.” And it was so.
16	And God made the two great lights–the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night–and the stars.
17	And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth,
18	to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good.
19	And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day.
20	And God said, “Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens.”
21	So God created the great sea creatures and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.
22	And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.”
23	And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day.
24	And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds–livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds.” And it was so.
25	And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds and the livestock according to their kinds, and everything that creeps on the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.
26	Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
27	So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
28	And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
29	And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food.
30	“And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so.
31	And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

Genesis 2

1	Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.
2	And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done.
3	So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.
4	These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens.
5	When no bush of the field was yet in the land and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up–for the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground,
6	and a mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground–
7	then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.
8	And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed.
9	And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
10	A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers.
11	The name of the first is the Pishon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold.
12	And the gold of that land is good; bdellium and onyx stone are there.
13	The name of the second river is the Gihon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Cush.
14	And the name of the third river is the Tigris, which flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.
15	The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.
16	And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden,
17	“but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
18	Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.”
19	Now out of the ground the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name.
20	The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him.
21	So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh.
22	And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man.
23	Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.”
24	Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.
25	And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.

==  =============

The New Testament reading is chapter 1 of hte Gospel of Matthew.  Another sort of beginning.

Matthew 1

1	The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.
2	Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers,
3	and Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, and Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Ram,
4	and Ram the father of Amminadab, and Amminadab the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon the father of Salmon,
5	and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse,
6	and Jesse the father of David the king. And David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah,
7	and Solomon the father of Rehoboam, and Rehoboam the father of Abijah, and Abijah the father of Asa,
8	and Asa the father of Jehoshaphat, and Jehoshaphat the father of Joram, and Joram the father of Uzziah,
9	and Uzziah the father of Jotham, and Jotham the father of Ahaz, and Ahaz the father of Hezekiah,
10	and Hezekiah the father of Manasseh, and Manasseh the father of Amon, and Amon the father of Josiah,
11	and Josiah the father of Jechoniah and his brothers, at the time of the deportation to Babylon.
12	And after the deportation to Babylon: Jechoniah was the father of Shealtiel, and Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel,
13	and Zerubbabel the father of Abiud, and Abiud the father of Eliakim, and Eliakim the father of Azor,
14	and Azor the father of Zadok, and Zadok the father of Achim, and Achim the father of Eliud,
15	and Eliud the father of Eleazar, and Eleazar the father of Matthan, and Matthan the father of Jacob,
16	and Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ.
17	So all the generations from Abraham to David were fourteen generations, and from David to the deportation to Babylon fourteen generations, and from the deportation to Babylon to the Christ fourteen generations.
18	Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit.
19	And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly.
20	But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.
21	“She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”
22	All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet:
23	“Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us).
24	When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife,
25	but knew her not until she had given birth to her firstborn son. And he called his name Jesus.