12 December 2018

Today's Readings and Stuff -- Wednesday, 12 December 2018

Another in a loong string of days with the temperatures 15-20 degrees below the average for this time of year in these parts.  I am told we were to be all the way up to 36° today which is slightly above what we've been suffering lately, but even that is about 14° below the 50° average that one of the weather sites displays.  I'd certainly prefer that higher value.  Would actually prefer the record high, which is around 71°.  But I don't get a vote in these things.  (Or much else).
Do I gripe about the weather around here?  Sure.  Always have:  I was born about 45 minutes south of here and lived in this area until 1992.  Moved then into better climes.  Miss those climes, but I guess there was a reason we were sent back.

We were next door most of the day with the Little Guy, the great-nephew.  Fun for all, but he's a lot more energetic and active than I am these days, certainly more so that Wife is, or that his sister, the great-niece, was at that age.  Hmmm.  Can I get in trouble for saying that boys and girls are different in many ways?  Probably can, but I care not.

"We'll Soon Be Done With Troubles And Trials"
and
What A Meeting In The Air
   just FYI, the three featured singers here had just been notified their brother would not live through the night.  The rest of the crowd knew him well, loved him dearly.   Thus, this song.  The tears you see are real, but the faith in a future is also real.

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Today, the completion of the book of Amos.  Now, remember that we are in that portion of the Old Testament often called the "Minor Prophets".  Now, that does not imply of minor importance:  there's some important stuff here, and, besides, we do wrong considering anyone who is faithfully carrying out the mission the Lord assigned as being of little worth.  But the books themselves tend to be shorter than, say, Isaiah or Genesis or, even, the Psalms.  So we've only been in Amos a few days.  Tomorrow, Lord willing, we will look into the the entire book of Obadiah.  There will be more like it.  But don't regard them as unimportant, for they are not.
By the way, I've occasionally mentioned that some of these names are still with us, some are virtually never used these days, and some are rare except in certain groups.  Well, I have several members of the family tree (though none current, so far as I know) who bear the name of Amos.  Just a mention.
There's some pretty grim stuff here.  But, please note, that even the worst of the judgments do not wipe out the nation totally.  There is a better day coming.  That's always something to hang onto, that no matter how dark the hour, for those who the Lord loves, there is a future.

Amos 7

1Thus hath the Lord God shewed unto me; and, behold, he formed grasshoppers in the beginning of the shooting up of the latter growth; and, lo, it was the latter growth after the king's mowings.
2And it came to pass, that when they had made an end of eating the grass of the land, then I said, O Lord God, forgive, I beseech thee: by whom shall Jacob arise? for he is small.
3The Lord repented for this: It shall not be, saith the Lord.
4Thus hath the Lord God shewed unto me: and, behold, the Lord God called to contend by fire, and it devoured the great deep, and did eat up a part.
5Then said I, O Lord God, cease, I beseech thee: by whom shall Jacob arise? for he is small.
6The Lord repented for this: This also shall not be, saith the Lord God.
7Thus he shewed me: and, behold, the Lord stood upon a wall made by a plumbline, with a plumbline in his hand.
8And the Lord said unto me, Amos, what seest thou? And I said, A plumbline. Then said the Lord, Behold, I will set a plumbline in the midst of my people Israel: I will not again pass by them any more:
9And the high places of Isaac shall be desolate, and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste; and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.
10Then Amaziah the priest of Beth–el sent to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, Amos hath conspired against thee in the midst of the house of Israel: the land is not able to bear all his words.
11For thus Amos saith, Jeroboam shall die by the sword, and Israel shall surely be led away captive out of their own land.
12Also Amaziah said unto Amos, O thou seer, go, flee thee away into the land of Judah, and there eat bread, and prophesy there:
13But prophesy not again any more at Beth–el: for it is the king's chapel, and it is the king's court.
14Then answered Amos, and said to Amaziah, I was no prophet, neither was I a prophet's son; but I was an herdman, and a gatherer of sycomore fruit:
15And the Lord took me as I followed the flock, and the Lordsaid unto me, Go, prophesy unto my people Israel.
16Now therefore hear thou the word of the Lord: Thou sayest, Prophesy not against Israel, and drop not thy word against the house of Isaac.
17Therefore thus saith the Lord; Thy wife shall be an harlot in the city, and thy sons and thy daughters shall fall by the sword, and thy land shall be divided by line; and thou shalt die in a polluted land: and Israel shall surely go into captivity forth of his land.



Amos 8 

1Thus hath the Lord God shewed unto me: and behold a basket of summer fruit.
2And he said, Amos, what seest thou? And I said, A basket of summer fruit. Then said the Lord unto me, The end is come upon my people of Israel; I will not again pass by them any more.
3And the songs of the temple shall be howlings in that day, saith the Lord God: there shall be many dead bodies in every place; they shall cast them forth with silence.
4Hear this, O ye that swallow up the needy, even to make the poor of the land to fail,
5Saying, When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell corn? and the sabbath, that we may set forth wheat, making the ephah small, and the shekel great, and falsifying the balances by deceit?
6That we may buy the poor for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes; yea, and sell the refuse of the wheat?
7The Lord hath sworn by the excellency of Jacob, Surely I will never forget any of their works.
8Shall not the land tremble for this, and every one mourn that dwelleth therein? and it shall rise up wholly as a flood; and it shall be cast out and drowned, as by the flood of Egypt.
9And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord God, that I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in the clear day:
10And I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation; and I will bring up sackcloth upon all loins, and baldness upon every head; and I will make it as the mourning of an only son, and the end thereof as a bitter day.
11Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord:
12And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, and shall not find it.
13In that day shall the fair virgins and young men faint for thirst.
14They that swear by the sin of Samaria, and say, Thy god, O Dan, liveth; and, The manner of Beer–sheba liveth; even they shall fall, and never rise up again.

Amos 9

1I saw the Lord standing upon the altar: and he said, Smite the lintel of the door, that the posts may shake: and cut them in the head, all of them; and I will slay the last of them with the sword: he that fleeth of them shall not flee away, and he that escapeth of them shall not be delivered.
2Though they dig into hell, thence shall mine hand take them; though they climb up to heaven, thence will I bring them down:
3And though they hide themselves in the top of Carmel, I will search and take them out thence; and though they be hid from my sight in the bottom of the sea, thence will I command the serpent, and he shall bite them:
4And though they go into captivity before their enemies, thence will I command the sword, and it shall slay them: and I will set mine eyes upon them for evil, and not for good.
5And the Lord God of hosts is he that toucheth the land, and it shall melt, and all that dwell therein shall mourn: and it shall rise up wholly like a flood; and shall be drowned, as by the flood of Egypt.
6It is he that buildeth his stories in the heaven, and hath founded his troop in the earth; he that calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth: The Lord is his name.
7Are ye not as children of the Ethiopians unto me, O children of Israel? saith the Lord. Have not I brought up Israel out of the land of Egypt? and the Philistines from Caphtor, and the Syrians from Kir?
8Behold, the eyes of the Lord God are upon the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from off the face of the earth; saving that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob, saith the Lord.
9For, lo, I will command, and I will sift the house of Israel among all nations, like as corn is sifted in a sieve, yet shall not the least grain fall upon the earth.
10All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword, which say, The evil shall not overtake nor prevent us.
11In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, and close up the breaches thereof; and I will raise up his ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old:
12That they may possess the remnant of Edom, and of all the heathen, which are called by my name, saith the Lord that doeth this.
13Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that soweth seed; and the mountains shall drop sweet wine, and all the hills shall melt.
14And I will bring again the captivity of my people of Israel, and they shall build the waste cities, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine thereof; they shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them.
15And I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them, saith the Lord thy God.



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Revelation 10

1And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud: and a rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire:
2And he had in his hand a little book open: and he set his right foot upon the sea, and his left foot on the earth,
3And cried with a loud voice, as when a lion roareth: and when he had cried, seven thunders uttered their voices.
4And when the seven thunders had uttered their voices, I was about to write: and I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Seal up those things which the seven thunders uttered, and write them not.
5And the angel which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the earth lifted up his hand to heaven,
6And sware by him that liveth for ever and ever, who created heaven, and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things which are therein, that there should be time no longer:
7But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets.
8And the voice which I heard from heaven spake unto me again, and said, Go and take the little book which is open in the hand of the angel which standeth upon the sea and upon the earth.
9And I went unto the angel, and said unto him, Give me the little book. And he said unto me, Take it, and eat it up; and it shall make thy belly bitter, but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey.
10And I took the little book out of the angel's hand, and ate it up; and it was in my mouth sweet as honey: and as soon as I had eaten it, my belly was bitter.
11And he said unto me, Thou must prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings.

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