Today's Readings and Stuff -- Sunday, 25 March 2018 Palm Sunday

First order of business is my nomination for Song of the Day, Song of the Week, Song of the Month, and  Song of the Year.  Or several.

He's Alive!

This is presented by Don Francisco, who wrote it.  I'm partial to Dolly's presentation (not a performance) of this.  Living near her home as we did for a number of years, has something to do wit h that.  But the message is clear, unmistakable, and oh so true.  Yes, HE IS ALIVE!  I know.  My prayer is that you know that as well.

The gates and doors were barred

And all the windows fastened down

I spent the night in sleeplessness

And rose at every sound

Half in hopeless sorrow

And half in fear the day

Would find the soldiers breakin' through

To drag us all away

And just before the sunrise

I heard something at the wall

The gate began to rattle

And a voice began to call

I hurried to the window

Looked down into the street

Expecting swords and torches

And the sound of soldiers' feet

But there was no one there but Mary

So I went down to let her in

John stood there beside me

As she told me where she'd been

She said they might have moved

Him in the night

And none of us knows where

The stone's been rolled away

And now His body isn't there

We both ran toward the garden

Then John ran on ahead

We found the stone and empty tomb

Just the way that Mary said

But the winding sheet they wrapped Him in

Was just an empty shell

And how or where they'd taken Him

Was more than I could tell

Something strange had happened there

Just what I did not know

John believed a miracle

But I just turned to go

Circumstance and speculation

Couldn't lift me very high

'Cause I'd seen them crucify him

 Then I saw him die

Back inside the house again

The guilt and anguish came

Everything I'd promised Him

Just added to my shame

When at last it came to choices

I denied I knew His name

And even if He was alive

It wouldn't be the same

But suddenly the air was filled

With a strange and sweet perfume

Light that came from everywhere

Drove the shadows from the room

And Jesus stood before me

With his arms held open wide

And I fell down on my knees

And I just clung to Him and cried

Then He raised me to my feet

And as I looked into His eyes

The love was shining out from Him

Like sunlight from the skies

Guilt in my confusion

Disappeared in sweet release

And every fear I'd ever had

Just melted into peace

He's alive yes

He's alive Yes

He's alive and I'm forgiven

Heaven's gates are open wide

(Repeat Chorus 2 More Times)

He's alive

He's alive

He's alive

I believe it

He's alive

Sweet Jesus

No, it's not about colored eggs and bunnies and candy.  I like candy too, more than I should (don't tell the doctor, ok?) but that's not what it's about.  The birth, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus the Christ is the central pivot of all of human history, from the Garden until the Return.  No, even death could not hold Him.  Or you either.





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Our reading today is chapters 13 and 14 of Deuteronomy

Deuteronomy 13

1  If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder,

2  And the sign or the wonder come to pass, whereof he spake unto thee, saying, Let us go after other gods, which thou hast not known, and let us serve them;

3  Thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams: for the Lord your God proveth you, to know whether ye love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.

4  Ye shall walk after the Lord your God, and fear him, and keep his commandments, and obey his voice, and ye shall serve him, and cleave unto him.

5  And that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams, shall be put to death; because he hath spoken to turn you away from the Lord your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed you out of the house of bondage, to thrust thee out of the way which the Lord thy God commanded thee to walk in. So shalt thou put the evil away from the midst of thee.

6  If thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend, which is as thine own soul, entice thee secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which thou hast not known, thou, nor thy fathers;

7  Namely, of the gods of the people which are round about you, nigh unto thee, or far off from thee, from the one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth;

8  Thou shalt not consent unto him, nor hearken unto him; neither shall thine eye pity him, neither shalt thou spare, neither shalt thou conceal him:

9  But thou shalt surely kill him; thine hand shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people.

10  And thou shalt stone him with stones, that he die; because he hath sought to thrust thee away from the Lord thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage

11  And all Israel shall hear, and fear, and shall do no more any such wickedness as this is among you.

12  If thou shalt hear say in one of thy cities, which the Lord thy God hath given thee to dwell there, saying,

13  Certain men, the children of Belial, are gone out from among you, and have withdrawn the inhabitants of their city, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which ye have not known;

14  Then shalt thou enquire, and make search, and ask diligently; and, behold, if it be truth, and the thing certain, that such abomination is wrought among you;

15  Thou shalt surely smite the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, destroying it utterly, and all that is therein, and the cattle thereof, with the edge of the sword.

16  And thou shalt gather all the spoil of it into the midst of the street thereof, and shalt burn with fire the city, and all the spoil thereof every whit, for the Lord thy God: and it shall be an heap for ever; it shall not be built again.

17  And there shall cleave nought of the cursed thing to thine hand: that the Lord may turn from the fierceness of his anger, and shew thee mercy, and have compassion upon thee, and multiply thee, as he hath sworn unto thy fathers;cursed: or, devoted

18  When thou shalt hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, to keep all his commandments which I command thee this day, to do that which is right in the eyes of the Lord thy God.

Deuteronomy 14

1  Ye are the children of the Lord your God: ye shall not cut yourselves, nor make any baldness between your eyes for the dead.

2  For thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God, and the Lord hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people unto himself, above all the nations that are upon the earth.

3  Thou shalt not eat any abominable thing.

4  These are the beasts which ye shall eat: the ox, the sheep, and the goat,

5  The hart, and the roebuck, and the fallow deer, and the wild goat, and the pygarg, and the wild ox, and the chamois

6  And every beast that parteth the hoof, and cleaveth the cleft into two claws, and cheweth the cud among the beasts, that ye shall eat.

7  Nevertheless these ye shall not eat of them that chew the cud, or of them that divide the cloven hoof; as the camel, and the hare, and the coney: for they chew the cud, but divide not the hoof; therefore they are unclean unto you.

8  And the swine, because it divideth the hoof, yet cheweth not the cud, it is unclean unto you: ye shall not eat of their flesh, nor touch their dead carcase.

9  These ye shall eat of all that are in the waters: all that have fins and scales shall ye eat:

10  And whatsoever hath not fins and scales ye may not eat; it is unclean unto you.

11  Of all clean birds ye shall eat.

12  But these are they of which ye shall not eat: the eagle, and the ossifrage, and the ospray,

13  And the glede, and the kite, and the vulture after his kind,

14  And every raven after his kind,

15  And the owl, and the night hawk, and the cuckow, and the hawk after his kind,

16  The little owl, and the great owl, and the swan,

17  And the pelican, and the gier eagle, and the cormorant,

18  And the stork, and the heron after her kind, and the lapwing, and the bat.

19  And every creeping thing that flieth is unclean unto you: they shall not be eaten.

20  But of all clean fowls ye may eat.

21  Ye shall not eat of any thing that dieth of itself: thou shalt give it unto the stranger that is in thy gates, that he may eat it; or thou mayest sell it unto an alien: for thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God. Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother's milk.

22  Thou shalt truly tithe all the increase of thy seed, that the field bringeth forth year by year.

23  And thou shalt eat before the Lord thy God, in the place which he shall choose to place his name there, the tithe of thy corn, of thy wine, and of thine oil, and the firstlings of thy herds and of thy flocks; that thou mayest learn to fear the Lord thy God always.

24  And if the way be too long for thee, so that thou art not able to carry it; or if the place be too far from thee, which the Lord thy God shall choose to set his name there, when the Lord thy God hath blessed thee:

25  Then shalt thou turn it into money, and bind up the money in thine hand, and shalt go unto the place which the Lord thy God shall choose:

26  And thou shalt bestow that money for whatsoever thy soul lusteth after, for oxen, or for sheep, or for wine, or for strong drink, or for whatsoever thy soul desireth: and thou shalt eat there before the Lord thy God, and thou shalt rejoice, thou, and thine household,desireth: Heb. asketh of thee

27  And the Levite that is within thy gates; thou shalt not forsake him; for he hath no part nor inheritance with thee.

28  At the end of three years thou shalt bring forth all the tithe of thine increase the same year, and shalt lay it up within thy gates:

29  And the Levite, (because he hath no part nor inheritance with thee,) and the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, which are within thy gates, shall come, and shall eat and be satisfied; that the Lord thy God may bless thee in all the work of thine hand which thou doest.