Today's Readings and Stuff - Monday, 27 January 2014

happy Monday to all.
Yesterday was a tough day.  Dear Wife has been sick for a week and we've been stuck in an endless loop of pain and poverty throughout.  Early in the morning, she was able to locate a local walk-in clinic that would accept her Medicaid card.

{for what it's worth, most of these clinics do not take it.  Emergency Rooms do, which may explain why some hospitals are closing their ER's, just can't afford to keep treating patients who can't pay, or who have coverage like Medicaid with its grossly inadequate reimbursements.  Obamacare is making all of that much, much worse.}

So we missed church, again, and drove over icy roads in a time of snow squalls to the clinic.  They were nice, and efficient, and all, but we were there a few hours.  Which is what it took to get her in, and to verify that, yes, she has an infection in her jawbone that originated from two broken teeth that need to come out.  Actually, she's got seven or eight broken teeth, largely a result of her underlying autoimmune diseases and in part from the side effects of the meds she must take daily to live.  Still waiting to hear back from the dentist office that solemnly promised, Thursday, to work her in somehow.  Still have not called back.  The clinic waived the co-pay which was wonderful.  And they called the prescription for the antibiotic into the pharmacy of a local grocery.  We found that the pharmacy was providing this antibiotic, free.  FREE!!  Thank You, Lord!  So, other than the gasoline used, that cost us nothing.  Which, considering we were down to around $16 to last the next three weeks, is a blessing.  And, since we were out of bread, butter, eggs, and almost out of  dry cat food, let us pick a few things up.  That few things being what I just listed, plus a bottle of cheap pancake syrup.  Pancake mix we have, and she can chew them and so can I.   Cheap and filling.  

Came home and warmed up some home made chicken noodle soup, gave her an antibiotic and a pain pill, she ate and went to bed.   I let her niece, the one next door whose baby daughter Dear Wife "watches" normally, that this would probably not work at all this week.  Baby doesn't need to be around sick people, and best to avoid a problem.

So this is going to be a rough week.
And then there is the weather.  Right now, Global Warming seems like a good idea.  Too bad it's a lie, but it would be nice.  I'm told that tonight's low, and tomorrow night's as well, are likely to be around -12 degrees, or thereabout.  Tomorrow's high is expected to be around zero.  The high.  And the 7-day outlook is for the highs to remain no more than around 25.  I keep reminding myself that this is the last week of January, we are now more than 5 weeks into Winter, and are picking up roughly a minute of daylight every day.  My other self reminds me that the first day of Spring is not until March 20, which is about 59 days away.  That does not mean flowers and warm breezes, but it should mark an end of the horrid sub-zero conditions we are now "enjoying".  Some people like cold weather.  They're demented.

We have some real challenges facing us.  The Lord has brought us through such in the past, He can do it again.  I won't pretend that we're not concerned, and that there is no pain or frustration or even anger.  But I know He is faithful, no matter what.

===============

Speaking of the Lord being there in unexpected ways that change the world and the people.  The children of Israel took refuge in Egypt in response to famine, needing a source of food, and their brother Joseph prepared a place for them.  Fast forward about 430 years. and those few refugees ar now a very large group, a nation in itself.  And the rulers of what was at the time probably the most powerful nation in the world, being worried about this bunch, chose to oppress them, and there seemed to be no hope. Until a woman set her baby boy in a basket in a river, and many years later, comes Moses, bearing a message to Pharaoh, "let My people go".  Tough situation.  Where's your army?  Didn't need one, the Lord had this covered.  Now, in the sections we are in now, after a series of plagues, Pharaoh let them leave.  And the process of turning a clan of escaping slaves into a nation following the Lord into an unknown future, begins.  Not the way I would have imagined it.

Our reading is chapters 13, 14, and 15 from the Exodus.

Exodus 13

1	The Lord said to Moses,
2	“Consecrate to me all the firstborn. Whatever is the first to open the womb among the people of Israel, both of man and of beast, is mine.”
3	Then Moses said to the people, “Remember this day in which you came out from Egypt, out of the house of slavery, for by a strong hand the Lord brought you out from this place. No leavened bread shall be eaten.
4	“Today, in the month of Abib, you are going out.
5	“And when the Lord brings you into the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, which he swore to your fathers to give you, a land flowing with milk and honey, you shall keep this service in this month.
6	“Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day there shall be a feast to the Lord.
7	“Unleavened bread shall be eaten for seven days; no leavened bread shall be seen with you, and no leaven shall be seen with you in all your territory.
8	“You shall tell your son on that day, ‘It is because of what the Lord did for me when I came out of Egypt.’
9	“And it shall be to you as a sign on your hand and as a memorial between your eyes, that the law of the Lord may be in your mouth. For with a strong hand the Lord has brought you out of Egypt.
10	“You shall therefore keep this statute at its appointed time from year to year.
11	“When the Lord brings you into the land of the Canaanites, as he swore to you and your fathers, and shall give it to you,
12	“you shall set apart to the Lord all that first opens the womb. All the firstborn of your animals that are males shall be the Lord’s.
13	“Every firstborn of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb, or if you will not redeem it you shall break its neck. Every firstborn of man among your sons you shall redeem.
14	“And when in time to come your son asks you, ‘What does this mean?’ you shall say to him, ‘By a strong hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt, from the house of slavery.
15	“‘For when Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go, the Lord killed all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both the firstborn of man and the firstborn of animals. Therefore I sacrifice to the Lord all the males that first open the womb, but all the firstborn of my sons I redeem.’
16	“It shall be as a mark on your hand or frontlets between your eyes, for by a strong hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt.”
17	When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them by way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near. For God said, “Lest the people change their minds when they see war and return to Egypt.”
18	But God led the people around by the way of the wilderness toward the Red Sea. And the people of Israel went up out of the land of Egypt equipped for battle.
19	Moses took the bones of Joseph with him, for Joseph had made the sons of Israel solemnly swear, saying, “God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones with you from here.”
20	And they moved on from Succoth and encamped at Etham, on the edge of the wilderness.
21	And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them along the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, that they might travel by day and by night.
22	The pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night did not depart from before the people.

Exodus 14

1	Then the Lord said to Moses,
2	“Tell the people of Israel to turn back and encamp in front of Pi-hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea, in front of Baal-zephon; you shall encamp facing it, by the sea.
3	“For Pharaoh will say of the people of Israel, ‘They are wandering in the land; the wilderness has shut them in.’
4	“And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and he will pursue them, and I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his host, and the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord.” And they did so.
5	When the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled, the mind of Pharaoh and his servants was changed toward the people, and they said, “What is this we have done, that we have let Israel go from serving us?”
6	So he made ready his chariot and took his army with him,
7	and took six hundred chosen chariots and all the other chariots of Egypt with officers over all of them.
8	And the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and he pursued the people of Israel while the people of Israel were going out defiantly.
9	The Egyptians pursued them, all Pharaoh’s horses and chariots and his horsemen and his army, and overtook them encamped at the sea, by Pi-hahiroth, in front of Baal-zephon.
10	When Pharaoh drew near, the people of Israel lifted up their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians were marching after them, and they feared greatly. And the people of Israel cried out to the Lord.
11	They said to Moses, “Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us in bringing us out of Egypt?
12	“Is not this what we said to you in Egypt: ‘Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians’? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.”
13	And Moses said to the people, “Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will work for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again.
14	“The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.”
15	The Lord said to Moses, “Why do you cry to me? Tell the people of Israel to go forward.
16	“Lift up your staff, and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it, that the people of Israel may go through the sea on dry ground.
17	“And I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they shall go in after them, and I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his host, his chariots, and his horsemen.
18	“And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I have gotten glory over Pharaoh, his chariots, and his horsemen.”
19	Then the angel of God who was going before the host of Israel moved and went behind them, and the pillar of cloud moved from before them and stood behind them,
20	coming between the host of Egypt and the host of Israel. And there was the cloud and the darkness. And it lit up the night without one coming near the other all night.
21	Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the Lord drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided.
22	And the people of Israel went into the midst of the sea on dry ground, the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left.
23	The Egyptians pursued and went in after them into the midst of the sea, all Pharaoh’s horses, his chariots, and his horsemen.
24	And in the morning watch the Lord in the pillar of fire and of cloud looked down on the Egyptian forces and threw the Egyptian forces into a panic,
25	clogging their chariot wheels so that they drove heavily. And the Egyptians said, “Let us flee from before Israel, for the Lord fights for them against the Egyptians.”
26	Then the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the sea, that the water may come back upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots, and upon their horsemen.”
27	So Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to its normal course when the morning appeared. And as the Egyptians fled into it, the Lord threw the Egyptians into the midst of the sea.
28	The waters returned and covered the chariots and the horsemen; of all the host of Pharaoh that had followed them into the sea, not one of them remained.
29	But the people of Israel walked on dry ground through the sea, the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left.
30	Thus the Lord saved Israel that day from the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore.
31	Israel saw the great power that the Lord used against the Egyptians, so the people feared the Lord, and they believed in the Lord and in his servant Moses.

Exodus 15

1	Then Moses and the people of Israel sang this song to the Lord, saying, “I will sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea.
2	“The Lord is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation; this is my God, and I will praise him, my father’s God, and I will exalt him.
3	“The Lord is a man of war; the Lord is his name.
4	“Pharaoh’s chariots and his host he cast into the sea, and his chosen officers were sunk in the Red Sea.
5	“The floods covered them; they went down into the depths like a stone.
6	“Your right hand, O Lord, glorious in power, your right hand, O Lord, shatters the enemy.
7	“In the greatness of your majesty you overthrow your adversaries; you send out your fury; it consumes them like stubble.
8	“At the blast of your nostrils the waters piled up; the floods stood up in a heap; the deeps congealed in the heart of the sea.
9	“The enemy said, ‘I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil, my desire shall have its fill of them. I will draw my sword; my hand shall destroy them.’
10	“You blew with your wind; the sea covered them; they sank like lead in the mighty waters.
11	“Who is like you, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders?
12	“You stretched out your right hand; the earth swallowed them.
13	“You have led in your steadfast love the people whom you have redeemed; you have guided them by your strength to your holy abode.
14	“The peoples have heard; they tremble; pangs have seized the inhabitants of Philistia.
15	“Now are the chiefs of Edom dismayed; trembling seizes the leaders of Moab; all the inhabitants of Canaan have melted away.
16	“Terror and dread fall upon them; because of the greatness of your arm, they are still as a stone, till your people, O Lord, pass by, till the people pass by whom you have purchased.
17	“You will bring them in and plant them on your own mountain, the place, O Lord, which you have made for your abode, the sanctuary, O Lord, which your hands have established.
18	“The Lord will reign forever and ever.”
19	For when the horses of Pharaoh with his chariots and his horsemen went into the sea, the Lord brought back the waters of the sea upon them, but the people of Israel walked on dry ground in the midst of the sea.
20	Then Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a tambourine in her hand, and all the women went out after her with tambourines and dancing.
21	And Miriam sang to them: “Sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea.”
22	Then Moses made Israel set out from the Red Sea, and they went into the wilderness of Shur. They went three days in the wilderness and found no water.
23	When they came to Marah, they could not drink the water of Marah because it was bitter; therefore it was named Marah.
24	And the people grumbled against Moses, saying, “What shall we drink?”
25	And he cried to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a log, and he threw it into the water, and the water became sweet. There the Lord made for them a statute and a rule, and there he tested them,
26	saying, “If you will diligently listen to the voice of the Lord your God, and do that which is right in his eyes, and give ear to his commandments and keep all his statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you that I put on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord, your healer.”
27	Then they came to Elim, where there were twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees, and they encamped there by the water.

==================

The New Testament reading is verses 1-15 in the 19th chapter in the Gospel of Matthew.  We don't realize it, perhaps, but Jesus' words here were revolutionary at the time.

Matthew 19:1-15

1	Now when Jesus had finished these sayings, he went away from Galilee and entered the region of Judea beyond the Jordan.
2	And large crowds followed him, and he healed them there.
3	And Pharisees came up to him and tested him by asking, “Is it lawful to divorce one’s wife for any cause?”
4	He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female,
5	“and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’?
6	“So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”
7	They said to him, “Why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce and to send her away?”
8	He said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so.
9	“And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.”
10	The disciples said to him, “If such is the case of a man with his wife, it is better not to marry.”
11	But he said to them, “Not everyone can receive this saying, but only those to whom it is given.
12	“For there are eunuchs who have been so from birth, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by men, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Let the one who is able to receive this receive it.”
13	Then children were brought to him that he might lay his hands on them and pray. The disciples rebuked the people,
14	but Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.”
15	And he laid his hands on them and went away.