Today's Readings and Stuff -- Sunday, 29 July 2018

Happy Sunday!

Been a relatively quiet day, one with some time for prayer, contemplation, reading, and rest. 
Appropriate use of the time the Lord granted me.
But .....  not all of it.  When I left the church worship service, there were a few errands to be run, and Yours Truly was the designated servant.  So, first, stop by one of the truck stops en route home (there are three of them, appropriate at an exit for one of the most heavily traveled Interstate highways in the country.  There, to locate an make use of a UPS drop box to send out the non-fitting knee brace that Wife had acquired for her newest maladay, apparently a torn meniscus in the one knee.  Ok, that's done.  Then, Across The Line to the Pharmacy at the Big Box store, there to pick up the prescriptions for Wife that I'd intended to get yesterday en route home from that get-together, but she just wasn't up to the trip, even just sitting in the car after already enduring a 35-minute drive and 2-1/2 hours without her leg not elevated and 35 minute drive before that.  So, didn't do it yesterday and she was out of the one pill, so it was a Command Performance.
But it bothers me.  Like many in my age cohort, particularly those of use who grew up in the strict religious community of my youth, doing commerce of ANY kind on a Sunday was Just Not Done.  Normally, stores were closed, save for those deemed to be essentials.  Now, pretty much Anything Goes (except for Chick Fil A) .   And, I confess, I was in a situation for many years such that working 7 days a week was the norm.  When you work two low-wage jobs, and sometimes a third, honoring the Lord's day wasn't felt to be a high priority.  That's no longer the case, and I don't have the excuse any more.  Judging from the huge crowd at the local grocery store that I pass on the way from church to home, that doesn't seem to be an issue for many:  the clerks there tell me that Sunday noonish is one of their very busiest times of the week.
But I'm supposed to know better.  It doesn't always show.  My fault.

Made it home ok.  Started on this, through many fits and starts.  Then got called outside.  Big hubub on the street.  MAJOR waterline break, just 1-1/2 doors down the hill.  "Major" meaning the pavements buckling and the water is coming up THROUGH the pavement about the whole width of the street, and now from the edge of the street coming UP the hill!  Local police showed up and blocked the road from through traffic, while trying to reach the street department and the water company.  Took more than an hour to get someone from the water company to even answer the phone.  Still the only appearance was a few minutes ago as they had someone shutting off ALL the water on our street!  Fortunately, I'd filled two 5-gallon buckets earlier for "flushing" needs and filled water pitchers with another 1-1/2 gallons for coffee, etc.  I suspect no morning showers.
So things are discombobulated, to borrow a term.

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Today, another big change.  We begin the book of Nehemiah.  BIG change.

Nehemiah 1

1The words of Nehemiah the son of Hachaliah. And it came to pass in the month Chisleu, in the twentieth year, as I was in Shushan the palace,

2That Hanani, one of my brethren, came, he and certain men of Judah; and I asked them concerning the Jews that had escaped, which were left of the captivity, and concerning Jerusalem.

3And they said unto me, The remnant that are left of the captivity there in the province are in great affliction and reproach: the wall of Jerusalem also is broken down, and the gates thereof are burned with fire.

4And it came to pass, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned certain days, and fasted, and prayed before the God of heaven,

5And said, I beseech thee, O Lord God of heaven, the great and terrible God, that keepeth covenant and mercy for them that love him and observe his commandments:

6Let thine ear now be attentive, and thine eyes open, that thou mayest hear the prayer of thy servant, which I pray before thee now, day and night, for the children of Israel thy servants, and confess the sins of the children of Israel, which we have sinned against thee: both I and my father's house have sinned.

7We have dealt very corruptly against thee, and have not kept the commandments, nor the statutes, nor the judgments, which thou commandedst thy servant Moses.

8Remember, I beseech thee, the word that thou commandedst thy servant Moses, saying, If ye transgress, I will scatter you abroad among the nations:

9But if ye turn unto me, and keep my commandments, and do them; though there were of you cast out unto the uttermost part of the heaven, yet will I gather them from thence, and will bring them unto the place that I have chosen to set my name there.

10Now these are thy servants and thy people, whom thou hast redeemed by thy great power, and by thy strong hand.

11O Lord, I beseech thee, let now thine ear be attentive to the prayer of thy servant, and to the prayer of thy servants, who desire to fear thy name: and prosper, I pray thee, thy servant this day, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man. For I was the king's cupbearer.

Nehemiah 2

1And it came to pass in the month Nisan, in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes the king, that wine was before him: and I took up the wine, and gave it unto the king. Now I had not been beforetime sad in his presence.

2Wherefore the king said unto me, Why is thy countenance sad, seeing thou art not sick? this is nothing else but sorrow of heart. Then I was very sore afraid,

3And said unto the king, Let the king live for ever: why should not my countenance be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers' sepulchres, lieth waste, and the gates thereof are consumed with fire?

4Then the king said unto me, For what dost thou make request? So I prayed to the God of heaven.

5And I said unto the king, If it please the king, and if thy servant have found favour in thy sight, that thou wouldest send me unto Judah, unto the city of my fathers' sepulchres, that I may build it.

6And the king said unto me, (the queen also sitting by him,) For how long shall thy journey be? and when wilt thou return? So it pleased the king to send me; and I set him a time.queen: Heb. wife

7Moreover I said unto the king, If it please the king, let letters be given me to the governors beyond the river, that they may convey me over till I come into Judah;

8And a letter unto Asaph the keeper of the king's forest, that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the palace which appertained to the house, and for the wall of the city, and for the house that I shall enter into. And the king granted me, according to the good hand of my God upon me.

9Then I came to the governors beyond the river, and gave them the king's letters. Now the king had sent captains of the army and horsemen with me.

10When Sanballat the Horonite, and Tobiah the servant, the Ammonite, heard of it, it grieved them exceedingly that there was come a man to seek the welfare of the children of Israel.

11So I came to Jerusalem, and was there three days.

12And I arose in the night, I and some few men with me; neither told I any man what my God had put in my heart to do at Jerusalem: neither was there any beast with me, save the beast that I rode upon.

13And I went out by night by the gate of the valley, even before the dragon well, and to the dung port, and viewed the walls of Jerusalem, which were broken down, and the gates thereof were consumed with fire.

14Then I went on to the gate of the fountain, and to the king's pool: but there was no place for the beast that was under me to pass.

15Then went I up in the night by the brook, and viewed the wall, and turned back, and entered by the gate of the valley, and so returned.

16And the rulers knew not whither I went, or what I did; neither had I as yet told it to the Jews, nor to the priests, nor to the nobles, nor to the rulers, nor to the rest that did the work.

17Then said I unto them, Ye see the distress that we are in, how Jerusalem lieth waste, and the gates thereof are burned with fire: come, and let us build up the wall of Jerusalem, that we be no more a reproach.

18Then I told them of the hand of my God which was good upon me; as also the king's words that he had spoken unto me. And they said, Let us rise up and build. So they strengthened their hands for this good work.

19But when Sanballat the Horonite, and Tobiah the servant, the Ammonite, and Geshem the Arabian, heard it, they laughed us to scorn, and despised us, and said, What is this thing that ye do? will ye rebel against the king?

20Then answered I them, and said unto them, The God of heaven, he will prosper us; therefore we his servants will arise and build: but ye have no portion, nor right, nor memorial, in Jerusalem.