Today's Readings and Stuff -- Tuesday, 19 December 2017

And another day dawns.  Well, that was several hours ago that it did, but now I'm back at it.

Fun day, of course.  Thankfully, the Social Security check that we live on hit the bank this morning.  The phone bill was overdue, the gas bill was overdue, and they've been paid.  Wife sent me to the nearby grocery store to pick up a few items on "sale" that will be a big part of our diet for the next month.  And I was able to get some gas, finally.  (When I left the house, the gauge said just over 1/4.  Two miles later, or so, it was a gnat's eyelash above E.  Not good).  Set the pre-pay for $40 (21 gallon tank, remember).  It took $32.  They refunded the remainder.  So we have some gas, anyway, and a questionable fuel gauge.
Niece next door told us we could use her clothes dryer, rather than haul half a ton of wet clothes to the laundromat.  So I started laundry when heading to grocery, two done and one in washer now.  Another load in the dryer now with one other over there waiting.  And at least two, probably three more loads to go.
And, more fun.  Problem with the washer, the little "dogs" that cause the upper part of agitator to turn are, suddenly, worn out.  Cheap to buy, and I replaced them about 5 years ago, so doable.  But a delay in getting them, that's the issue.  But we shall get through it.  Both my grandmothers used a washboard when my parents were growing, and thought they "were in tall cotton" when they acquired wringer-type washers.  Which my mom used for most of her life.  So it's not so bad, better than beating things on rocks and hanging long johns out on a line in sub-freezing weather.

Dear Wife has just gone next door to "watch" the great-niece and great-nephew while she heads out to her part-time job.  Her husband will be a bit later than normal (normally home by 6:30 or so) so Wife will have the urchins for a few hours.

I've been thinking on some things (gasps of astonishment, I know).
In the Old Testament readings for several months now, we've been going over prophecies of judgment, doom, and disaster in response to the sins of the nation and the rulers thereof.  Some of those sins are given in detail. and sound all too much like what goes on in our nation and culture as well.  No, America is not Israel nor Judah.  But, while history doesn't necessarily repeat itself, it often rhymes, as one sage put it.  A culture that. like ours, has rotted from within, can't survive forever.  It can't go on.  And, if it can't go on, at some point, it will stop.  Not good.
I have, unfortunately, enough imagination and awareness to have a glimpse of what that could mean for the world, and the neighborhoods and daily lives of people around us, and for our own descendants.  It's not a pretty sight.  And it would take less than you realize, believe me.

For whatever reasons, we have perhaps a sense of what we imagine "justice" looks like.  In a retail sense, perhaps that is true.  There are penalties, known ones, for everything from overstaying a parking meter to murder for hire, and quite a lot in between.  What does justice and judgment against a culture look like?  Well, we have some records, some  pretty awful stuff, when the descendants of Jacob went astray.  Can we expect better?  Keep in mind the verse or verses that I sometimes refer to as being the scariest ones in all the Bible:  "My Name is blasphemed daily among the heathens, because of you!".   Not quite what we want to hear, is it?  No, not at all.
Go back to the theories of justice.  The retail level, against an offending individual or small group, we understand I think.  What happens when an entire nation or culture is under the Lord's judgment?
Inevitably, in such a case, there is a lot of what I sometimes call the "splash effect".  When the dam breaks, the good are swept away, just as are the wicked.  That makes us uncomfortable.  One of the oldest cries in human history is along the lines of "why do the 'righteous' suffer?".  Sometimes, there just is no good answer.  And perhaps, sometimes, the righteous suffer because, while personally righteous (and that is a rabbit I don't want to chase right now), they ceased (or refused, or failed) to be salt and light in their world.  It happens.  I'm guilty, certainly. 
Ray Vanderlaan  pointed out something that we sometimes overlook in this matter.  Our timeline is too short.  Suffering in this life does not necessarily imply the Lord's eternal condemnation.  Look, for example, at the martyrs.  Look at the episode we call "Herod's slaughter of the innocents".  Look at the experiences of Job.  And, clearly. look at the Crucifixion.  Those martyrs were in Paradise that very day.  What scares us,  rightfully perhaps, is that we fear that such a reception is not to be ours, that we are suffering for unconfessed sins or the like.  And, likewise, church members are all too prone to judging their fellows, imagining that the tribulations another member suffers were their just desserts.  I've seen it,  perhaps you have too.  Sometimes, close up.
I have believed my whole life that I will hear the Trumpet.  I believe it today.  And, yes, I could be wrong.  I could die a "normal" death, as others have for centuries.  That's OK.  He has a plan.  But, likewise, I can't , I dare not, be blind to the sufferings of others, and should not be.

Thoughts for the day.


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Our reading portion from the Old Testament today is chapters 1, 2, and 3 in the book of Micah.
To break a rule of mine, I will quote from Wikipedia on the text

It records the sayings of Micah, whose name is Mikayahu,(Hebrew: מִיכָיָ֫הוּ ) meaning "Who is like Yahweh?",^[2] an 8th-century B.C. prophet from the village of Moresheth in Judah (Hebrew name from the opening verse: מיכה המרשתי).^[3] The book has three major divisions, chapters 1–2, 3–5 and 6–7, each introduced by the word "Hear," with a pattern of alternating announcements of doom and expressions of hope within each division.^[4] Micah reproaches unjust leaders, defends the rights of the poor against the rich and powerful;^[5] while looking forward to a world at peace centered on Zion under the leadership of a new Davidic monarch.

Micah 1

1 The word of the LORD that came to Micah the Morasthite in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem. 2 Hear, all ye people; hearken, O earth, and all that therein is: and let the Lord GOD be witness against you, the LORD from his holy temple. 3 For, behold, the LORD cometh forth out of his place, and will come down, and tread upon the high places of the earth. 4 And the mountains shall be molten under him, and the valleys shall be cleft, as wax before the fire, and as the waters that are poured down a steep place. 5 For the transgression of Jacob is all this, and for the sins of the house of Israel. What is the transgression of Jacob? is it not Samaria? and what are the high places of Judah? are they not Jerusalem? 6 Therefore I will make Samaria as an heap of the field, and as plantings of a vineyard: and I will pour down the stones thereof into the valley, and I will discover the foundations thereof. 7 And all the graven images thereof shall be beaten to pieces, and all the hires thereof shall be burned with the fire, and all the idols thereof will I lay desolate: for she gathered it of the hire of an harlot, and they shall return to the hire of an harlot. 8 Therefore I will wail and howl, I will go stripped and naked: I will make a wailing like the dragons, and mourning as the owls. 9 For her wound is incurable; for it is come unto Judah; he is come unto the gate of my people, even to Jerusalem. 10 Declare ye it not at Gath, weep ye not at all: in the house of Aphrah roll thyself in the dust. 11 Pass ye away, thou inhabitant of Saphir, having thy shame naked: the inhabitant of Zaanan came not forth in the mourning of Bethezel; he shall receive of you his standing. 12 For the inhabitant of Maroth waited carefully for good: but evil came down from the LORD unto the gate of Jerusalem. 13 O thou inhabitant of Lachish, bind the chariot to the swift beast: she is the beginning of the sin to the daughter of Zion: for the transgressions of Israel were found in thee. 14 Therefore shalt thou give presents to Moreshethgath: the houses of Achzib shall be a lie to the kings of Israel. 15 Yet will I bring an heir unto thee, O inhabitant of Mareshah: he shall come unto Adullam the glory of Israel. 16 Make thee bald, and poll thee for thy delicate children; enlarge thy baldness as the eagle; for they are gone into captivity from thee.

Micah 2

1 Woe to them that devise iniquity, and work evil upon their beds! when the morning is light, they practise it, because it is in the power of their hand. 2 And they covet fields, and take them by violence; and houses, and take them away: so they oppress a man and his house, even a man and his heritage. 3 Therefore thus saith the LORD; Behold, against this family do I devise an evil, from which ye shall not remove your necks; neither shall ye go haughtily: for this time is evil. 4 In that day shall one take up a parable against you, and lament with a doleful lamentation, and say, We be utterly spoiled: he hath changed the portion of my people: how hath he removed it from me! turning away he hath divided our fields. 5 Therefore thou shalt have none that shall cast a cord by lot in the congregation of the LORD. 6 Prophesy ye not, say they to them that prophesy: they shall not prophesy to them, that they shall not take shame. 7 O thou that art named the house of Jacob, is the spirit of the LORD straitened? are these his doings? do not my words do good to him that walketh uprightly? 8 Even of late my people is risen up as an enemy: ye pull off the robe with the garment from them that pass by securely as men averse from war. 9 The women of my people have ye cast out from their pleasant houses; from their children have ye taken away my glory for ever. 10 Arise ye, and depart; for this is not your rest: because it is polluted, it shall destroy you, even with a sore destruction. 11 If a man walking in the spirit and falsehood do lie, saying, I will prophesy unto thee of wine and of strong drink; he shall even be the prophet of this people. 12 I will surely assemble, O Jacob, all of thee; I will surely gather the remnant of Israel; I will put them together as the sheep of Bozrah, as the flock in the midst of their fold: they shall make great noise by reason of the multitude of men. 13 The breaker is come up before them: they have broken up, and have passed through the gate, and are gone out by it: and their king shall pass before them, and the LORD on the head of them.

Micah 3

1 And I said, Hear, I pray you, O heads of Jacob, and ye princes of the house of Israel; Is it not for you to know judgment? 2 Who hate the good, and love the evil; who pluck off their skin from off them, and their flesh from off their bones; 3 Who also eat the flesh of my people, and flay their skin from off them; and they break their bones, and chop them in pieces, as for the pot, and as flesh within the caldron. 4 Then shall they cry unto the LORD, but he will not hear them: he will even hide his face from them at that time, as they have behaved themselves ill in their doings. 5 Thus saith the LORD concerning the prophets that make my people err, that bite with their teeth, and cry, Peace; and he that putteth not into their mouths, they even prepare war against him. 6 Therefore night shall be unto you, that ye shall not have a vision; and it shall be dark unto you, that ye shall not divine; and the sun shall go down over the prophets, and the day shall be dark over them. 7 Then shall the seers be ashamed, and the diviners confounded: yea, they shall all cover their lips; for there is no answer of God. 8 But truly I am full of power by the spirit of the LORD, and of judgment, and of might, to declare unto Jacob his transgression, and to Israel his sin. 9 Hear this, I pray you, ye heads of the house of Jacob, and princes of the house of Israel, that abhor judgment, and pervert all equity. 10 They build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity. 11 The heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money: yet will they lean upon the LORD, and say, Is not the LORD among us? none evil can come upon us. 12 Therefore shall Zion for your sake be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of the forest.

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The day's New Testament passage is chapter 10 in the Revelation

Revelation 10

1 And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud: and a rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire:  

2 And he had in his hand a little book open: and he set his right foot upon the sea, and his left foot on the earth,  

3 And cried with a loud voice, as when a lion roareth: and when he had cried, seven thunders uttered their voices.  

4 And when the seven thunders had uttered their voices, I was about to write: and I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Seal up those things which the seven thunders uttered, and write them not. 

5 And the angel which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the earth lifted up his hand to heaven,  

6 And sware by him that liveth for ever and ever, who created heaven, and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things which are therein, that there should be time no longer:  

7 But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets.  

8 And the voice which I heard from heaven spake unto me again, and said, Go and take the little book which is open in the hand of the angel which standeth upon the sea and upon the earth.  

9 And I went unto the angel, and said unto him, Give me the little book. And he said unto me, Take it, and eat it up; and it shall make thy belly bitter, but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey.  

10 And I took the little book out of the angel's hand, and ate it up; and it was in my mouth sweet as honey: and as soon as I had eaten it, my belly was bitter.  

11 And he said unto me, Thou must prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings.