Today's Readings and Stuff -- Tuesday, 18 September 2018

The days are certainly flying past!  Seems like just yesterday that it was mid-May.  Now, we are closer to October (and the rest of the --brrrr! months) than to May.  Autumn (officially, by the standards of the astronomers, not the meteorologists) is  only a few days hence.  Not a Good Thing by my measure, not at all.  I dread the onset of Winter.  We're now at 12 hours 21 minutes of "day", losing nearly 3 minutes more by tomorrow, so the Equinox is nearly upon us.

We spent most of yesterday horizontal.  Both of us needed it.  We were originally planning to spend yesterday with the Great-Nephew, but were simply not up to it.  Sounds  pretty pitiful, and not what we wanted: spending time with those two kids is, essentially, Wife's reason to live right now.  She doesn't really have much else to hold her in this life.  That sounds bad, I guess, and it is, but it's also the plain truth.  So missing those moments with the Little Ones is a sign of how awful she really feels.

But today is another day.  She's feeling a bit better, we're sitting outside, and will "watch" the Little Guy if/when nephew-in-law wants to come outside and put the new sending unit in the gas tank on their Suburban.  Niece gets off at 3 p.m. so our watch schedule is brief at any means.  He doesn't go to work until his 7 p.m. start of a 12 hour shift.

The Lord put us here to serve His purposes.  The specifics of that mission I do not know, but this sitting idly is not our calling I don't believe. 

So , "Where He Leads Me I Will Follow" is the song of the day/week/month/ whenever. (Sometimes titled "I Can Hear My Savior Calling").  We owe Him that, at least.

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Continuing today in the book of Isaiah.  Isaiah is generally regarded as one of those giants in the array of the prophets.  Not my choice to make, that goes on at a Higher Level.  He certainly didn't have an easy time.

Isaiah 37

1And it came to pass, when king Hezekiah heard it, that he rent his clothes, and covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the house of the Lord.

2And he sent Eliakim, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests covered with sackcloth, unto Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz.

3And they said unto him, Thus saith Hezekiah, This day is a day of trouble, and of rebuke, and of blasphemy: for the children are come to the birth, and there is not strength to bring forth.

4It may be the Lord thy God will hear the words of Rabshakeh, whom the king of Assyria his master hath sent to reproach the living God, and will reprove the words which the Lord thy God hath heard: wherefore lift up thy prayer for the remnant that is left.

5So the servants of king Hezekiah came to Isaiah.

6And Isaiah said unto them, Thus shall ye say unto your master, Thus saith the Lord, Be not afraid of the words that thou hast heard, wherewith the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me.

7Behold, I will send a blast upon him, and he shall hear a rumour, and return to his own land; and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.

8So Rabshakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria warring against Libnah: for he had heard that he was departed from Lachish.

9And he heard say concerning Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, He is come forth to make war with thee. And when he heard it, he sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying,

10Thus shall ye speak to Hezekiah king of Judah, saying, Let not thy God, in whom thou trustest, deceive thee, saying, Jerusalem shall not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.

11Behold, thou hast heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands by destroying them utterly; and shalt thou be delivered?

12Have the gods of the nations delivered them which my fathers have destroyed, as Gozan, and Haran, and Rezeph, and the children of Eden which were in Telassar?

13Where is the king of Hamath, and the king of Arpad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivah?

14And Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers, and read it: and Hezekiah went up unto the house of the Lord, and spread it before the Lord.

15And Hezekiah prayed unto the Lord, saying,

16O Lord of hosts, God of Israel, that dwellest between the cherubims, thou art the God, even thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth: thou hast made heaven and earth.

17Incline thine ear, O Lord, and hear; open thine eyes, O Lord, and see: and hear all the words of Sennacherib, which hath sent to reproach the living God.

18Of a truth, Lord, the kings of Assyria have laid waste all the nations, and their countries,

19And have cast their gods into the fire: for they were no gods, but the work of men's hands, wood and stone: therefore they have destroyed them.

20Now therefore, O Lord our God, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou art the Lord, even thou only.

21Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent unto Hezekiah, saying, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Whereas thou hast prayed to me against Sennacherib king of Assyria:

22This is the word which the Lord hath spoken concerning him; The virgin, the daughter of Zion, hath despised thee, and laughed thee to scorn; the daughter of Jerusalem hath shaken her head at thee.

23Whom hast thou reproached and blasphemed? and against whom hast thou exalted thy voice, and lifted up thine eyes on high? even against the Holy One of Israel.

24By thy servants hast thou reproached the Lord, and hast said, By the multitude of my chariots am I come up to the height of the mountains, to the sides of Lebanon; and I will cut down the tall cedars thereof, and the choice fir trees thereof: and I will enter into the height of his border, and the forest of his Carmel.

25I have digged, and drunk water; and with the sole of my feet have I dried up all the rivers of the besieged places.

26Hast thou not heard long ago, how I have done it; and of ancient times, that I have formed it? now have I brought it to pass, that thou shouldest be to lay waste defenced cities into ruinous heaps.

27Therefore their inhabitants were of small power, they were dismayed and confounded: they were as the grass of the field, and as the green herb, as the grass on the housetops, and as corn blasted before it be grown up.

28But I know thy abode, and thy going out, and thy coming in, and thy rage against me.

29Because thy rage against me, and thy tumult, is come up into mine ears, therefore will I put my hook in thy nose, and my bridle in thy lips, and I will turn thee back by the way by which thou camest.

30And this shall be a sign unto thee, Ye shall eat this year such as groweth of itself; and the second year that which springeth of the same: and in the third year sow ye, and reap, and plant vineyards, and eat the fruit thereof.

31And the remnant that is escaped of the house of Judah shall again take root downward, and bear fruit upward:

32For out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, and they that escape out of mount Zion: the zeal of the Lord of hosts shall do this.

33Therefore thus saith the Lord concerning the king of Assyria, He shall not come into this city, nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with shields, nor cast a bank against it.

34By the way that he came, by the same shall he return, and shall not come into this city, saith the Lord.

35For I will defend this city to save it for mine own sake, and for my servant David's sake.

36Then the angel of the Lord went forth, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred and fourscore and five thousand: and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses.

37So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, and went and returned, and dwelt at Nineveh.

38And it came to pass, as he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons smote him with the sword; and they escaped into the land of Armenia: and Esar–haddon his son reigned in his stead.

Isaiah 38

1In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death. And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came unto him, and said unto him, Thus saith the Lord, Set thine house in order: for thou shalt die, and not live.

2Then Hezekiah turned his face toward the wall, and prayed unto the Lord,

3And said, Remember now, O Lord, I beseech thee, how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy sight. And Hezekiah wept sore.

4Then came the word of the Lord to Isaiah, saying,

5Go, and say to Hezekiah, Thus saith the Lord, the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will add unto thy days fifteen years.

6And I will deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria: and I will defend this city.

7And this shall be a sign unto thee from the Lord, that the Lord will do this thing that he hath spoken;

8Behold, I will bring again the shadow of the degrees, which is gone down in the sun dial of Ahaz, ten degrees backward. So the sun returned ten degrees, by which degrees it was gone down.

9The writing of Hezekiah king of Judah, when he had been sick, and was recovered of his sickness:

10I said in the cutting off of my days, I shall go to the gates of the grave: I am deprived of the residue of my years.

11I said, I shall not see the Lord, even the Lord, in the land of the living: I shall behold man no more with the inhabitants of the world.

12Mine age is departed, and is removed from me as a shepherd's tent: I have cut off like a weaver my life: he will cut me off with pining sickness: from day even to night wilt thou make an end of me.

13I reckoned till morning, that, as a lion, so will he break all my bones: from day even to night wilt thou make an end of me.

14Like a crane or a swallow, so did I chatter: I did mourn as a dove: mine eyes fail with looking upward: O Lord, I am oppressed; undertake for me.

15What shall I say? he hath both spoken unto me, and himself hath done it: I shall go softly all my years in the bitterness of my soul.

16O Lord, by these things men live, and in all these things is the life of my spirit: so wilt thou recover me, and make me to live.

17Behold, for peace I had great bitterness: but thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption: for thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back.

18For the grave cannot praise thee, death can not celebrate thee: they that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth.

19The living, the living, he shall praise thee, as I do this day: the father to the children shall make known thy truth.

20The Lord was ready to save me: therefore we will sing my songs to the stringed instruments all the days of our life in the house of the Lord.

21For Isaiah had said, Let them take a lump of figs, and lay it for a plaster upon the boil, and he shall recover.

22Hezekiah also had said, What is the sign that I shall go up to the house of the Lord?

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Proverbs 16

1The preparations of the heart in man, and the answer of the tongue, is from the Lord.

2All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes; but the Lordweigheth the spirits.

3Commit thy works unto the Lord, and thy thoughts shall be established.

4The Lord hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil.

5Every one that is proud in heart is an abomination to the Lord: though hand join in hand, he shall not be unpunished.

6By mercy and truth iniquity is purged: and by the fear of the Lord men depart from evil.

7When a man's ways please the Lord, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him.

8Better is a little with righteousness than great revenues without right.

9A man's heart deviseth his way: but the Lord directeth his steps.

10A divine sentence is in the lips of the king: his mouth transgresseth not in judgment.

11A just weight and balance are the Lord's: all the weights of the bag are his work.

12It is an abomination to kings to commit wickedness: for the throne is established by righteousness.

13Righteous lips are the delight of kings; and they love him that speaketh right.

14The wrath of a king is as messengers of death: but a wise man will pacify it.

15In the light of the king's countenance is life; and his favour is as a cloud of the latter rain.

16How much better is it to get wisdom than gold! and to get understanding rather to be chosen than silver!

17The highway of the upright is to depart from evil: he that keepeth his way preserveth his soul.

18Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.

19Better it is to be of an humble spirit with the lowly, than to divide the spoil with the proud.

20He that handleth a matter wisely shall find good: and whoso trusteth in the Lord, happy is he.

21The wise in heart shall be called prudent: and the sweetness of the lips increaseth learning.

22Understanding is a wellspring of life unto him that hath it: but the instruction of fools is folly.

23The heart of the wise teacheth his mouth, and addeth learning to his lips.

24Pleasant words are as an honeycomb, sweet to the soul, and health to the bones.

25There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.

26He that laboureth laboureth for himself; for his mouth craveth it of him.

27An ungodly man diggeth up evil: and in his lips there is as a burning fire.

28A froward man soweth strife: and a whisperer separateth chief friends.

29A violent man enticeth his neighbour, and leadeth him into the way that is not good.

30He shutteth his eyes to devise froward things: moving his lips he bringeth evil to pass.

31The hoary head is a crown of glory, if it be found in the way of righteousness.

32He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city.

33The lot is cast into the lap; but the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord.

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Today, chapter 4 in the 1st Epistle to the Thessalonians.

1st Thessalonians 4

1Furthermore then we beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God, so ye would abound more and more.

2For ye know what commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus.

3For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication:

4That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour;

5Not in the lust of concupiscence, even as the Gentiles which know not God:

6That no man go beyond and defraud his brother in any matter: because that the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also have forewarned you and testified.

7For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness.

8He therefore that despiseth, despiseth not man, but God, who hath also given unto us his holy Spirit.

9But as touching brotherly love ye need not that I write unto you: for ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another.

10And indeed ye do it toward all the brethren which are in all Macedonia: but we beseech you, brethren, that ye increase more and more;

11And that ye study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you;

12That ye may walk honestly toward them that are without, and that ye may have lack of nothing.

13But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.

14For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.

15For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.

16For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:

17Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

18Wherefore comfort one another with these words.