Today's Readings and Stuff -- mostly "stuff" -- Wednesday, 20 September 2017

The "stuff" first, I guess.
I've been pretty much off-line for several days.  For several reasons at that.

• Today is a somber day for me.  Today is the anniversary of my father's passing.  It was six years ago today that I got the call from my youngest brother that simply said, "dad's gone".  We'd been expecting it for some time: not only was he, by far, the longest-lived male member of the family that we had been able to determine, but we had been up visiting around the 4th of July.  He'd not looked well then, and I pretty much knew it would be our last meeting on this earth.  But it was hard, and it still is.  Affects my outlook on things, sorry.  Doesn't help that when both he and my mother passed (she in spring of 2007), we were living nearly a thousand miles away and were lucky to be able to make the trip once or twice a year to see them.  Hard to escape the feelings of guilt there.
• And then ...  I had an accident with injury Sunday afternoon.  Not a car wreck, but I'd been helping niece's husband, next door, rearrange some kid's play stuff in the yard.  Was carrying a small trampoline, when I stumbled over something and fell, landing with my ribs on the steel frame.  I lay on the ground in pain for a while, was finally able to get back up with difficulty.  It appears that I have either a cracked or a bruised rib now, which will take an appreciable time to heal.  Can barely roll over in bed and getting up is a real challenge.  And, naturally, it's on the side I prefer to lay on:  I've never in my whole life been able to sleep on my back, ever.  So I'm living on heavy doses of wife's 800 mg Ibuprofen, Naprosyn, and aspirin.  It's what we have.
• added to that is that I'd planned to make a short trip this afternoon to help unload boxes of books being donated to a foreign mission organization.  But as it stands, there is simply no way that I can haul much of anything.  No can do.  Big guilt trip there, but simply out of the question.

So I've been out of the mix for several days.  Likely to be so for several more.  I had to, somehow, drive Wife to the store yesterday (retirement check hit, so we were paying bills hoping to do so before the water, electric, and gas companies shut us off, and then pick up a few groceries), but I did the driving and walked beside her as she pushed the buggy.  That was the extent of my involvement, actually, I wasn't even good at helping her carry the bags into our hovel.
Of course, the trip caused the car to overheat, BIG time: red lights flashing and the thing was boiling over as we debarked.  The new radiator arrived, but it's going to be a few days before I'm up to doing the replacing, more than I can do right now.

Sorry for the tale of woe.
Other people are having a pretty rough time of it.  A category 5 hurricane hit Puerto Rico, where we have a few contacts.  A 7.1 earthquake hit just outside of Mexico City, an area that is near the hometown of younger daughter's mother-in-law, with considerable loss of life.  And the "usual" depredations worldwide of the demon-besotten heathen adherents of Islam.  So things are tough all over.
But we have much to give thanks for.  Things are tough, but I had a place to sleep last night and food to eat, and a beautiful woman beside me.  God is good.  Circumstances sometimes aren't but the game isn't over yet.

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The Old Testament readings for the last few days have been in the book of Ecclesiastes.
Today's passage, chapters 10, 11, and 12, completes that journey.
I've chosen to recreate this today in the ESV version, I think it makes some of the terms more understandable:  the implications of some of those terms has changed since 1611 when the King James came out.  Your mileage may vary.

Ecclesiastes 10

1 Dead flies make the perfumer’s ointment give off a stench; so a little folly outweighs wisdom and honor. 2 A wise man’s heart inclines him to the right, but a fool’s heart to the left. 3 Even when the fool walks on the road, he lacks sense, and he says to everyone that he is a fool. 4 If the anger of the ruler rises against you, do not leave your place, for calmness will lay great offenses to rest. 5 There is an evil that I have seen under the sun, as it were an error proceeding from the ruler: 6 folly is set in many high places, and the rich sit in a low place. 7 I have seen slaves on horses, and princes walking on the ground like slaves. 8 He who digs a pit will fall into it, and a serpent will bite him who breaks through a wall. 9 He who quarries stones is hurt by them, and he who splits logs is endangered by them. 10 If the iron is blunt, and one does not sharpen the edge, he must use more strength, but wisdom helps one to succeed. 11 If the serpent bites before it is charmed, there is no advantage to the charmer. 12 The words of a wise man’s mouth win him favor, but the lips of a fool consume him. 13 The beginning of the words of his mouth is foolishness, and the end of his talk is evil madness. 14 A fool multiplies words, though no man knows what is to be, and who can tell him what will be after him? 15 The toil of a fool wearies him, for he does not know the way to the city. 16 Woe to you, O land, when your king is a child, and your princes feast in the morning! 17 Happy are you, O land, when your king is the son of the nobility, and your princes feast at the proper time, for strength, and not for drunkenness! 18 Through sloth the roof sinks in, and through indolence the house leaks. 19 Bread is made for laughter, and wine gladdens life, and money answers everything. 20 Even in your thoughts, do not curse the king, nor in your bedroom curse the rich, for a bird of the air will carry your voice, or some winged creature tell the matter.

Ecclesiastes 11

1 Cast your bread upon the waters, for you will find it after many days. 2 Give a portion to seven, or even to eight, for you know not what disaster may happen on earth. 3 If the clouds are full of rain, they empty themselves on the earth, and if a tree falls to the south or to the north, in the place where the tree falls, there it will lie. 4 He who observes the wind will not sow, and he who regards the clouds will not reap. 5 As you do not know the way the spirit comes to the bones in the womb of a woman with child, so you do not know the work of God who makes everything. 6 In the morning sow your seed, and at evening withhold not your hand, for you do not know which will prosper, this or that, or whether both alike will be good. 7 Light is sweet, and it is pleasant for the eyes to see the sun. 8 So if a person lives many years, let him rejoice in them all; but let him remember that the days of darkness will be many. All that comes is vanity. 9 Rejoice, O young man, in your youth, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth. Walk in the ways of your heart and the sight of your eyes. But know that for all these things God will bring you into judgment. 10 Remove vexation from your heart, and put away pain from your body, for youth and the dawn of life are vanity.

Ecclesiastes 12

1 Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come and the years draw near of which you will say, “I have no pleasure in them”; 2 before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars are darkened and the clouds return after the rain, 3 in the day when the keepers of the house tremble, and the strong men are bent, and the grinders cease because they are few, and those who look through the windows are dimmed, 4 and the doors on the street are shut–when the sound of the grinding is low, and one rises up at the sound of a bird, and all the daughters of song are brought low– 5 they are afraid also of what is high, and terrors are in the way; the almond tree blossoms, the grasshopper drags itself along, and desire fails, because man is going to his eternal home, and the mourners go about the streets– 6 before the silver cord is snapped, or the golden bowl is broken, or the pitcher is shattered at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern, 7 and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it. 8 Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher; all is vanity. 9 Besides being wise, the Preacher also taught the people knowledge, weighing and studying and arranging many proverbs with great care. 10 The Preacher sought to find words of delight, and uprightly he wrote words of truth. 11 The words of the wise are like goads, and like nails firmly fixed are the collected sayings; they are given by one Shepherd. 12 My son, beware of anything beyond these. Of making many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh. 13 The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. 14 For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil.

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The New Testament readings for the last few days have been in 2nd Corinthians,  Sunday's was chapter 9 and the next few days continuing.  Today's reading is verses 16-33 of chapter 11.
 No, the life of a Christian evangelist is not and has never been an easy one.

II Corinthians 11:16-33

16 I say again, Let no man think me a fool; if otherwise, yet as a fool receive me, that I may boast myself a little. 17 That which I speak, I speak it not after the Lord, but as it were foolishly, in this confidence of boasting. 18 Seeing that many glory after the flesh, I will glory also. 19 For ye suffer fools gladly, seeing ye yourselves are wise. 20 For ye suffer, if a man bring you into bondage, if a man devour you, if a man take of you, if a man exalt himself, if a man smite you on the face. 21 I speak as concerning reproach, as though we had been weak. Howbeit whereinsoever any is bold, (I speak foolishly,) I am bold also. 22 Are they Hebrews? so am I. Are they Israelites? so am I. Are they the seed of Abraham? so am I. 23 Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as a fool) I am more; in labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft. 24 Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one. 25 Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep; 26 In journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; 27 In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. 28 Beside those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches. 29 Who is weak, and I am not weak? who is offended, and I burn not? 30 If I must needs glory, I will glory of the things which concern mine infirmities. 31 The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is blessed for evermore, knoweth that I lie not. 32 In Damascus the governor under Aretas the king kept the city of the Damascenes with a garrison, desirous to apprehend me: 33 And through a window in a basket was I let down by the wall, and escaped his hands.