Today's Readings and Stuff -- Sunday, 09 December 2018

Quiet today.
Wife and I headed off to bed last night, pretty early for us.  Both of us were having trouble staying awake, so we were certain we'd be in dreamland within minutes.  Not quite.  Wife drifted off in about 20 minutes.  I lay there wide awake for hours.  She woke up around midnight, read on her phone until around 03:00.  I might have gotten a stitched-together two or three hours during the night, but no more.  Don't know why, but those were the results.  We got up when we were both too "achy" to lay any longer.  She made us some breakfast while I did the shower and get dressed thing.  Ate, put dishes in sink, off to church.  Picked up some bananas for her en route home from church.  We opened the lovely Christmas cards that some people handed to me, and that was a joy.  One had a recipe in it, which she likes and may use.  She ate a bit, sat a bit, had me put some pain relieving lotion on some of the affected areas, and she went off and took a 2 hour nap while I washed dishes (by hand of course) and ran the ozone generator gizmo that cleans her CPAP machine.  So that stuff is done.
Got word that we are "watching" the kids on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, so that part of our week is blocked out.  Then, on Saturday, we have a Command Performance.  The 6th birthday party for the next-door Great-Niece is to be held on Saturday at some public swimming pool operation just down from the church.  Naturally, the church's Christmas party is at precisely the same time, which figures.  We pretty much have to go to the Little One's party (and it doesn't help that that very day is the birthday of Yours Truly, a day of national mourning one expects) so my schedule seems to have been set for me.  I seem to be getting dragged in multiple directions all the time.
Wife's up now, but Yours Truly has barely slept in days, and I'm not at my none-too-good-at-best norm.  Going to munch on some leftovers in the fridge and try to snooze.

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Today, the beginning of the book of Amos.

Amos 1

1The words of Amos, who was among the herdmen of Tekoa, which he saw concerning Israel in the days of Uzziah king of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash king of Israel, two years before the earthquake.

2And he said, The Lord will roar from Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the habitations of the shepherds shall mourn, and the top of Carmel shall wither.

3Thus saith the Lord; For three transgressions of Damascus, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they have threshed Gilead with threshing instruments of iron:

4But I will send a fire into the house of Hazael, which shall devour the palaces of Ben–hadad.

5I will break also the bar of Damascus, and cut off the inhabitant from the plain of Aven, and him that holdeth the sceptre from the house of Eden: and the people of Syria shall go into captivity unto Kir, saith the Lord.

6Thus saith the Lord; For three transgressions of Gaza, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they carried away captive the whole captivity, to deliver them up to Edom:

7But I will send a fire on the wall of Gaza, which shall devour the palaces thereof:

8And I will cut off the inhabitant from Ashdod, and him that holdeth the sceptre from Ashkelon, and I will turn mine hand against Ekron: and the remnant of the Philistines shall perish, saith the Lord God.

9Thus saith the Lord; For three transgressions of Tyre, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they delivered up the whole captivity to Edom, and remembered not the brotherly covenant:

10But I will send a fire on the wall of Tyre, which shall devour the palaces thereof.

11Thus saith the Lord; For three transgressions of Edom, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because he did pursue his brother with the sword, and did cast off all pity, and his anger did tear perpetually, and he kept his wrath for ever:

12But I will send a fire upon Teman, which shall devour the palaces of Bozrah.

13Thus saith the Lord; For three transgressions of the children of Ammon, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they have ripped up the women with child of Gilead, that they might enlarge their border:

14But I will kindle a fire in the wall of Rabbah, and it shall devour the palaces thereof, with shouting in the day of battle, with a tempest in the day of the whirlwind:

15And their king shall go into captivity, he and his princes together, saith the Lord.

Amos 2

1Thus saith the Lord; For three transgressions of Moab, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because he burned the bones of the king of Edom into lime:

2But I will send a fire upon Moab, and it shall devour the palaces of Kerioth: and Moab shall die with tumult, with shouting, and with the sound of the trumpet:

3And I will cut off the judge from the midst thereof, and will slay all the princes thereof with him, saith the Lord.

4Thus saith the Lord; For three transgressions of Judah, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they have despised the law of the Lord, and have not kept his commandments, and their lies caused them to err, after the which their fathers have walked:

5But I will send a fire upon Judah, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem.

6Thus saith the Lord; For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they sold the righteous for silver, and the poor for a pair of shoes;

7That pant after the dust of the earth on the head of the poor, and turn aside the way of the meek: and a man and his father will go in unto the same maid, to profane my holy name:

8And they lay themselves down upon clothes laid to pledge by every altar, and they drink the wine of the condemned in the house of their god.

9Yet destroyed I the Amorite before them, whose height was like the height of the cedars, and he was strong as the oaks; yet I destroyed his fruit from above, and his roots from beneath.

10Also I brought you up from the land of Egypt, and led you forty years through the wilderness, to possess the land of the Amorite.

11And I raised up of your sons for prophets, and of your young men for Nazarites. Is it not even thus, O ye children of Israel? saith the Lord.

12But ye gave the Nazarites wine to drink; and commanded the prophets, saying, Prophesy not.

13Behold, I am pressed under you, as a cart is pressed that is full of sheaves.

14Therefore the flight shall perish from the swift, and the strong shall not strengthen his force, neither shall the mighty deliver himself:

15Neither shall he stand that handleth the bow; and he that is swift of foot shall not deliver himself: neither shall he that rideth the horse deliver himself.

16And he that is courageous among the mighty shall flee away naked in that day, saith the Lord.