Today's Readings and Stuff -- Sunday, 31 March 2019

We're both of us "out of it" today.  She's barely slept in about 4 days, and I'm not too far behind her.  I got a couple (and not much more than that) hours of sleep last night, but that was about it, and don't have much "gumption" today.  And neither of us feel real good, possibly partially a result of the storm fronts that came through:  the weather map that I saw earlier stretched from the Texas/Mexico/Gulf line up to Quebec City, Quebec, Canada.  A biggie by any definition.  So I missed church services this morning, something I rarely do. 
It doesn't help that today is the last day of March, ten days into "spring" around here, with rain and storms last evening and night which changed to snow at some point.  Looking out the window now, I see snowflakes falling.  Not a huge onslaught, but I hate the very sight of them, and the sight of even the slight amount on the ground, probably (almost certainly) concealing a glaze of ice doesn't help.  It is still below the freezing point here, though we are told that the air will be above that point Real Soon Now.  Yeah.  And snow would be "a thing of the past "after around 2000 or so.  You see how that turned out.  Supposedly going to be better by Wednesday or so, but we shall see.
We did have at least one reverse this week.  She'd had a follow-up with the pain doctor Tuesday ref the terrible nerve pain that has plagued her for years, worsened by the surgeries back in 2015.  Doc had prescribed a (non-opiate) pain med, which seemed to be doing some good.  With one side effect: visible swelling in both ankles, feet, and knees.  The P.A. that we saw Tuesday seemed OK with that, and a new prescription refill was authorized.  But by Wednesday afternoon, she could barely walk with the swelling:  her ankles seemed to have doubled in circumference and the feet and knees heading that way fast.  So she backed off from the 3-per-day on the original prescription to 2 on Wednesday, and a total avoidance on Thursday.  By this morning, her feet and ankles are back to normal size and she can walk.  We'd called the doc office Friday afternoon, but "of course" they shut down after noon on Friday, so we await a callback tomorrow.  Getting by on non-prescription pain meds until we know more.  Just another part of our life.


So it's day for quiet thought and meditation.
In this case, on parts of Psalm 23, and with reinforcement from a song I linked to the other day, "Surely Goodness And Mercy".  It's right from the Psalm, of course.  I was thinking in particular about the phrase "He leads me beside the still waters".  Now, I've been around sheep a little bit (when much younger) though I've never been in the desert wilderness such as David had.   But I do know a few things.  The first is that sheep aren't real bright, hence the role of shepherds.  We aren't either sometimes, certainly not wise despite an I.Q. in triple digits.  But another thing is that deserts, pretty much by definition, are not places you will find ponds and lakes and gentle streams.  Just doesn't work that way, with the exceptions of oases, locations where sub-surface water comes up.  Another exception being when rain, sometimes very heavy rain, falls at some distance, and then rushes like a flood through the desert along channels the locals call a wadi.  The flow can be sudden, heavy, and dangerous.  Not a good place for sheep or people.  But for the thirsty sheep, the instinct to go get water can be overwhelming.  And lead to disaster.  So one of the roles of the shepherd is to know where the still waters, the safe locations, are, and to guide the sheep to them.  It may aggravate the sheep who want, and need, water NOW!, but it's the right approach.  And it means the sheep must trust and obey the shepherd, no matter the temptation.
We're like that, sometimes.  We have a situation, a genuine need, even one we've prayed over.  And then, sometimes, what looks like an answer.  STOP!  Is it in line with what the Lord has revealed in His word?  Is it right?  Or does it just look that way in a moment of stress?  Sometimes that provision, that "answer" is not from the Lord, just the opposite.  Some of us have seen this occur, may even have fallen into that trap.  Sometimes, we're not much wiser than those sheep. 
I remember the title of a book, and some articles and sermons, on the subject of "Counterfeit Christianity".  It is a real thing, and dangerous as well.  And rampant.  Quite popular in some circles as well.  Counterfeit "blessings" are also real. 


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Deuteronomy 25

1If there be a controversy between men, and they come unto judgment, that the judges may judge them; then they shall justify the righteous, and condemn the wicked.

2And it shall be, if the wicked man be worthy to be beaten, that the judge shall cause him to lie down, and to be beaten before his face, according to his fault, by a certain number.

3Forty stripes he may give him, and not exceed: lest, if he should exceed, and beat him above these with many stripes, then thy brother should seem vile unto thee.

4Thou shalt not muzzle the ox when he treadeth out the corn.

5If brethren dwell together, and one of them die, and have no child, the wife of the dead shall not marry without unto a stranger: her husband's brother shall go in unto her, and take her to him to wife, and perform the duty of an husband's brother unto her.

6And it shall be, that the firstborn which she beareth shall succeed in the name of his brother which is dead, that his name be not put out of Israel.

7And if the man like not to take his brother's wife, then let his brother's wife go up to the gate unto the elders, and say, My husband's brother refuseth to raise up unto his brother a name in Israel, he will not perform the duty of my husband's brother.

8Then the elders of his city shall call him, and speak unto him: and if he stand to it, and say, I like not to take her;

9Then shall his brother's wife come unto him in the presence of the elders, and loose his shoe from off his foot, and spit in his face, and shall answer and say, So shall it be done unto that man that will not build up his brother's house.

10And his name shall be called in Israel, The house of him that hath his shoe loosed.

11When men strive together one with another, and the wife of the one draweth near for to deliver her husband out of the hand of him that smiteth him, and putteth forth her hand, and taketh him by the secrets:

12Then thou shalt cut off her hand, thine eye shall not pity her.

13Thou shalt not have in thy bag divers weights, a great and a small.

14Thou shalt not have in thine house divers measures, a great and a small.

15But thou shalt have a perfect and just weight, a perfect and just measure shalt thou have: that thy days may be lengthened in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.

16For all that do such things, and all that do unrighteously, are an abomination unto the Lord thy God.

17Remember what Amalek did unto thee by the way, when ye were come forth out of Egypt;

18How he met thee by the way, and smote the hindmost of thee, even all that were feeble behind thee, when thou wast faint and weary; and he feared not God.

19Therefore it shall be, when the Lord thy God hath given thee rest from all thine enemies round about, in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance to possess it, that thou shalt blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven; thou shalt not forget it.

Deuteronomy 26

1And it shall be, when thou art come in unto the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance, and possessest it, and dwellest therein;

2That thou shalt take of the first of all the fruit of the earth, which thou shalt bring of thy land that the Lord thy God giveth thee, and shalt put it in a basket, and shalt go unto the place which the Lord thy God shall choose to place his name there.

3And thou shalt go unto the priest that shall be in those days, and say unto him, I profess this day unto the Lord thy God, that I am come unto the country which the Lord sware unto our fathers for to give us.

4And the priest shall take the basket out of thine hand, and set it down before the altar of the Lord thy God.

5And thou shalt speak and say before the Lord thy God, A Syrian ready to perish was my father, and he went down into Egypt, and sojourned there with a few, and became there a nation, great, mighty, and populous:

6And the Egyptians evil entreated us, and afflicted us, and laid upon us hard bondage:

7And when we cried unto the Lord God of our fathers, the Lord heard our voice, and looked on our affliction, and our labour, and our oppression:

8And the Lord brought us forth out of Egypt with a mighty hand, and with an outstretched arm, and with great terribleness, and with signs, and with wonders:

9And he hath brought us into this place, and hath given us this land, even a land that floweth with milk and honey.

10And now, behold, I have brought the firstfruits of the land, which thou, O Lord, hast given me. And thou shalt set it before the Lord thy God, and worship before the Lord thy God:

11And thou shalt rejoice in every good thing which the Lord thy God hath given unto thee, and unto thine house, thou, and the Levite, and the stranger that is among you.

12When thou hast made an end of tithing all the tithes of thine increase the third year, which is the year of tithing, and hast given it unto the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, that they may eat within thy gates, and be filled;

13Then thou shalt say before the Lord thy God, I have brought away the hallowed things out of mine house, and also have given them unto the Levite, and unto the stranger, to the fatherless, and to the widow, according to all thy commandments which thou hast commanded me: I have not transgressed thy commandments, neither have I forgotten them:

14I have not eaten thereof in my mourning, neither have I taken away ought thereof for any unclean use, nor given ought thereof for the dead: but I have hearkened to the voice of the Lord my God, and have done according to all that thou hast commanded me.

15Look down from thy holy habitation, from heaven, and bless thy people Israel, and the land which thou hast given us, as thou swarest unto our fathers, a land that floweth with milk and honey.

16This day the Lord thy God hath commanded thee to do these statutes and judgments: thou shalt therefore keep and do them with all thine heart, and with all thy soul.

17Thou hast avouched the Lord this day to be thy God, and to walk in his ways, and to keep his statutes, and his commandments, and his judgments, and to hearken unto his voice:

18And the Lord hath avouched thee this day to be his peculiar people, as he hath promised thee, and that thou shouldest keep all his commandments;

19And to make thee high above all nations which he hath made, in praise, and in name, and in honour; and that thou mayest be an holy people unto the Lord thy God, as he hath spoken.