Today's Readings and Stuff -- Friday, 27 April 2018

yes, this got messed up.  I was so weary yesterday (Thursday) from all of our activities that I forgot that I'd gotten up early (VERY) and already posted.  So, originally, this post was one of the two labeled as being for yesterday.  Yes, my brain wasn't working well.  Too much running around inside that empty skull.  My apologies.
So there are some things that pertained to yesterday's running around, not today's.
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Just a note:  the injection/infusion into her knees that was performed yesterday  (Thursday) was the first of three.  So, for the ensuing two weeks, we're set to be going to the rheumatologist, same day, same time, same station.  In normal circumstances (if there is such a thing), she's detailed to "watch" the kids the same afternoon.  

Had a meeting a few  hours ago with a friend from many years ago.  We met back around 1972 or so, maintained some contact as acquaintances, and became friends about 5 years thereafter.  He was, for several years, married to another friends cousin before she sought alternatives, four or five times.  We'd maintained good relations, though both of us were relocating re-re-relocating several times into several parts of the country.  He's retired now, after a major heart attack, and the diabetes hasn't helped.  He comes into town a few times a year, and this "pass" we've had opportunity to meet for coffee twice.  Makes it nice.  And I needed the break from rearranging the furniture in our place: I'm downright weary from it as I have to move everything myself. 

Just got done with load of dishes (by hand) and started a load of laundry, hoping that the new "safety switch" further "assisted" with a nail clipper jammed in there, will enable proper function.  I'd had a very kind offer to come assist, which meant and means a great deal to me.  But, among other things, Wife doesn't like visitors of any kind, ever: she barely handles it when her own sister stops by for 5 minutes or so, every 6 or 8 weeks.  So, I have to honor her wishes, and her.  No matter what.

We have two windows open, for a little bit, to air the place out.  Be closing them again soon.  Tonight's low temperature is predicted for 41°, with tomorrow's "high" only 45° with a low of 31°.  And we're almost into May!!  But next week, the first 3 days of May shows predictions into the 70's, which sounds much better.


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Today, chapter 21 of the book of the Judges, completing it.
I've mentioned on occasion that I find Judges to be a bit grim, a bit depressing, but also a warning as the hopes and plans of great men (and women) like Moses, Caleb, Joshua, and many others, foundered on the shoals of the sin to be found in the DNA of all of us.  The results, as we've been seeing in the text, as well as on the news today, is not supportive of those who somehow still regard all people as being essentially good.  Which is not true.  In the coming weeks, we will observe in the texts, the alternative routes to the situation.  Which will, in the main, fail.  Human strength does not and can not overcome spiritual rot.  As we are observing in the world around us.  And I note, to my sorrow, that it can and probably will get far worse. 

Judges 21

 1  Now the men of Israel had sworn in Mizpah, saying, There shall not any of us give his daughter unto Benjamin to wife.

2 And the people came to the house of God, and abode there till even before God, and lifted up their voices, and wept sore;

3  And said, O Lord God of Israel, why is this come to pass in Israel, that there should be to day one tribe lacking in Israel?

4  And it came to pass on the morrow, that the people rose early, and built there an altar, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings.

5  And the children of Israel said, Who is there among all the tribes of Israel that came not up with the congregation unto the Lord? For they had made a great oath concerning him that came not up to the Lord to Mizpah, saying, He shall surely be put to death.

6  And the children of Israel repented them for Benjamin their brother, and said, There is one tribe cut off from Israel this day.

7  How shall we do for wives for them that remain, seeing we have sworn by the Lord that we will not give them of our daughters to wives?

8  And they said, What one is there of the tribes of Israel that came not up to Mizpah to the Lord? And, behold, there came none to the camp from Jabesh–gilead to the assembly.

9  For the people were numbered, and, behold, there were none of the inhabitants of Jabesh–gilead there.

10  And the congregation sent thither twelve thousand men of the valiantest, and commanded them, saying, Go and smite the inhabitants of Jabesh–gilead with the edge of the sword, with the women and the children.

11  And this is the thing that ye shall do, Ye shall utterly destroy every male, and every woman that hath lain by man.

12  And they found among the inhabitants of Jabesh–gilead four hundred young virgins, that had known no man by lying with any male: and they brought them unto the camp to Shiloh, which is in the land of Canaan.

13  And the whole congregation sent some to speak to the children of Benjamin that were in the rock Rimmon, and to call peaceably unto them.

14  And Benjamin came again at that time; and they gave them wives which they had saved alive of the women of Jabesh–gilead: and yet so they sufficed them not.

15  And the people repented them for Benjamin, because that the Lord had made a breach in the tribes of Israel.

16  Then the elders of the congregation said, How shall we do for wives for them that remain, seeing the women are destroyed out of Benjamin?

17  And they said, There must be an inheritance for them that be escaped of Benjamin, that a tribe be not destroyed out of Israel.

18  Howbeit we may not give them wives of our daughters: for the children of Israel have sworn, saying, Cursed be he that giveth a wife to Benjamin.

19  Then they said, Behold, there is a feast of the Lord in Shiloh yearly in a place which is on the north side of Beth–el, on the east side of the highway that goeth up from Beth–el to Shechem, and on the south of Lebonah

20  Therefore they commanded the children of Benjamin, saying, Go and lie in wait in the vineyards;

21  And see, and, behold, if the daughters of Shiloh come out to dance in dances, then come ye out of the vineyards, and catch you every man his wife of the daughters of Shiloh, and go to the land of Benjamin.

22  And it shall be, when their fathers or their brethren come unto us to complain, that we will say unto them, Be favourable unto them for our sakes: because we reserved not to each man his wife in the war: for ye did not give unto them at this time, that ye should be guilty.

23  And the children of Benjamin did so, and took them wives, according to their number, of them that danced, whom they caught: and they went and returned unto their inheritance, and repaired the cities, and dwelt in them.

24  And the children of Israel departed thence at that time, every man to his tribe and to his family, and they went out from thence every man to his inheritance.

25  In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes.

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Psalm 85

To the chief Musician, A Psalm for the sons of Korah.

 

1   Lord, thou hast been favourable unto thy land: thou hast brought back the captivity of Jacob.

2  Thou hast forgiven the iniquity of thy people, thou hast covered all their sin. Selah.

3  Thou hast taken away all thy wrath: thou hast turned thyself from the fierceness of thine anger.

4  Turn us, O God of our salvation, and cause thine anger toward us to cease.

5  Wilt thou be angry with us for ever? wilt thou draw out thine anger to all generations?

6  Wilt thou not revive us again: that thy people may rejoice in thee?

7  Shew us thy mercy, O Lord, and grant us thy salvation.

8  I will hear what God the Lord will speak: for he will speak peace unto his people, and to his saints: but let them not turn again to folly.

9  Surely his salvation is nigh them that fear him; that glory may dwell in our land.

10  Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other.

11  Truth shall spring out of the earth; and righteousness shall look down from heaven.

12  Yea, the Lord shall give that which is good; and our land shall yield her increase.

13  Righteousness shall go before him; and shall set us in the way of his steps.

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Today, John 17.  This is Jesus, in the Garden of Gethsemane, just before the soldiers come to haul him off.  Which He knew.  This prayer to the Father is significant, of course, and deserving of our attention and meditation.
But note something else.  As the storm is about to hit, He is praying.  Not for Himself, but for His followers.   That includes us!  And I believe that this very moment, He is at the right hand of the Father, interceding on our behalf.  Spend some  time on that !

John 17

1  These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee:

2  As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him.

3  And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.

4   I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.

5 And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.

6 I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world: thine they were, and thou gavest them me; and they have kept thy word.

7 Now they have known that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee.

8 For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me.

9 I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine.

10 And all mine are thine, and thine are mine; and I am glorified in them.

11 And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are.

12 While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled.

13 And now come I to thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves.

14 I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.

15 I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.

16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.

17 Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.

18 As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world.

19 And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth.

20 Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word;

21 That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.

22 And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one:

23 I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.

24 Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.

25 O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee: but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me.

26 And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them.