Today's Readings and Stuff -- Thursday, 13 June 2019

Most of the way through another week.  We had some thoughts of doing some things today, but we've had another day of near monsoon weather.  Even I wasn't interested in swimming out to the garden and pulling weeds.  More determination than I have right now.  Most of the other stuff that we had in mind has had to be shelved due to the very heavy rains that keep marching through the zone.
Tomorrow is supposed to be more amenable, which is a Good Thing, as next-door niece and hubby are trying to get stuff in order for the bit Birthday Party, surely The Event Of The Season or so it appears, which is set for Saturday.  And we are certain to be "volunteered" to assist on some stuff.  So, probably, tomorrow is shot and so is Saturday.  Sunday truly will be a day of rest (we hope). 

Wife is still in great pain in the right knee (twisted in the fall last weekend) and the left foot and ankle (same cause) so she's doing well to hobble around.  So Yours Truly is the hands and feet around here.  At least she's breathing a bit better:  the last couple weeks have been downright scary at times.  She was on the phone with the insurance company earlier, getting some info to do an appeal re coverage denied.  The docs took her off of the oral steroids that she'd been on for 32 years to deal with the asthma she's had for nearly her entire life.  They want the inhaled corticosteroids, the inhalers.  Well, the one inhaler that she'd be taking twice a day would cost around $249 per month, all of it to be borne by us since the insurance people won't cover it unless she's already on the pills that the docs just took her off.  We simply don't have it.  The prednisone pills worked adequately and cost a LOT less.  Ever want to go out and chew on a tree trunk?  I'm in that mode now.



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2nd Kings 11

1And when Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she arose and destroyed all the seed royal.

2But Jehosheba, the daughter of king Joram, sister of Ahaziah, took Joash the son of Ahaziah, and stole him from among the king's sons which were slain; and they hid him, even him and his nurse, in the bedchamber from Athaliah, so that he was not slain.

3And he was with her hid in the house of the Lord six years. And Athaliah did reign over the land.

4And the seventh year Jehoiada sent and fetched the rulers over hundreds, with the captains and the guard, and brought them to him into the house of the Lord, and made a covenant with them, and took an oath of them in the house of the Lord, and shewed them the king's son.

5And he commanded them, saying, This is the thing that ye shall do; A third part of you that enter in on the sabbath shall even be keepers of the watch of the king's house;

6And a third part shall be at the gate of Sur; and a third part at the gate behind the guard: so shall ye keep the watch of the house, that it be not broken down.

7And two parts of all you that go forth on the sabbath, even they shall keep the watch of the house of the Lord about the king.

8And ye shall compass the king round about, every man with his weapons in his hand: and he that cometh within the ranges, let him be slain: and be ye with the king as he goeth out and as he cometh in.

9And the captains over the hundreds did according to all things that Jehoiada the priest commanded: and they took every man his men that were to come in on the sabbath, with them that should go out on the sabbath, and came to Jehoiada the priest.

10And to the captains over hundreds did the priest give king David's spears and shields, that were in the temple of the Lord.

11And the guard stood, every man with his weapons in his hand, round about the king, from the right corner of the temple to the left corner of the temple, along by the altar and the temple.

12And he brought forth the king's son, and put the crown upon him, and gave him the testimony; and they made him king, and anointed him; and they clapped their hands, and said, God save the king.

13And when Athaliah heard the noise of the guard and of the people, she came to the people into the temple of the Lord.

14And when she looked, behold, the king stood by a pillar, as the manner was, and the princes and the trumpeters by the king, and all the people of the land rejoiced, and blew with trumpets: and Athaliah rent her clothes, and cried, Treason, Treason.

15But Jehoiada the priest commanded the captains of the hundreds, the officers of the host, and said unto them, Have her forth without the ranges: and him that followeth her kill with the sword. For the priest had said, Let her not be slain in the house of the Lord.

16And they laid hands on her; and she went by the way by the which the horses came into the king's house: and there was she slain.

17And Jehoiada made a covenant between the Lord and the king and the people, that they should be the Lord's people; between the king also and the people.

18And all the people of the land went into the house of Baal, and brake it down; his altars and his images brake they in pieces thoroughly, and slew Mattan the priest of Baal before the altars. And the priest appointed officers over the house of the Lord.

19And he took the rulers over hundreds, and the captains, and the guard, and all the people of the land; and they brought down the king from the house of the Lord, and came by the way of the gate of the guard to the king's house. And he sat on the throne of the kings.

20And all the people of the land rejoiced, and the city was in quiet: and they slew Athaliah with the sword beside the king's house.

21Seven years old was Jehoash when he began to reign.

2nd Kings 12

1In the seventh year of Jehu Jehoash began to reign; and forty years reigned he in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Zibiah of Beer–sheba.

2And Jehoash did that which was right in the sight of the Lordall his days wherein Jehoiada the priest instructed him.

3But the high places were not taken away: the people still sacrificed and burnt incense in the high places.

4And Jehoash said to the priests, All the money of the dedicated things that is brought into the house of the Lord, even the money of every one that passeth the account, the money that every man is set at, and all the money that cometh into any man's heart to bring into the house of the Lord,

5Let the priests take it to them, every man of his acquaintance: and let them repair the breaches of the house, wheresoever any breach shall be found.

6But it was so, that in the three and twentieth year of king Jehoash the priests had not repaired the breaches of the house.

7Then king Jehoash called for Jehoiada the priest, and the other priests, and said unto them, Why repair ye not the breaches of the house? now therefore receive no more money of your acquaintance, but deliver it for the breaches of the house.

8And the priests consented to receive no more money of the people, neither to repair the breaches of the house.

9But Jehoiada the priest took a chest, and bored a hole in the lid of it, and set it beside the altar, on the right side as one cometh into the house of the Lord: and the priests that kept the door put therein all the money that was brought into the house of the Lord.

10And it was so, when they saw that there was much money in the chest, that the king's scribe and the high priest came up, and they put up in bags, and told the money that was found in the house of the Lord.

11And they gave the money, being told, into the hands of them that did the work, that had the oversight of the house of the Lord: and they laid it out to the carpenters and builders, that wrought upon the house of the Lord,

12And to masons, and hewers of stone, and to buy timber and hewed stone to repair the breaches of the house of the Lord, and for all that was laid out for the house to repair it.

13Howbeit there were not made for the house of the Lordbowls of silver, snuffers, basins, trumpets, any vessels of gold, or vessels of silver, of the money that was brought into the house of the Lord:

14But they gave that to the workmen, and repaired therewith the house of the Lord.

15Moreover they reckoned not with the men, into whose hand they delivered the money to be bestowed on workmen: for they dealt faithfully.

16The trespass money and sin money was not brought into the house of the Lord: it was the priests'.

17Then Hazael king of Syria went up, and fought against Gath, and took it: and Hazael set his face to go up to Jerusalem.

18And Jehoash king of Judah took all the hallowed things that Jehoshaphat, and Jehoram, and Ahaziah, his fathers, kings of Judah, had dedicated, and his own hallowed things, and all the gold that was found in the treasures of the house of the Lord, and in the king's house, and sent it to Hazael king of Syria: and he went away from Jerusalem.

19And the rest of the acts of Joash, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?

20And his servants arose, and made a conspiracy, and slew Joash in the house of Millo, which goeth down to Silla.

21For Jozachar the son of Shimeath, and Jehozabad the son of Shomer, his servants, smote him, and he died; and they buried him with his fathers in the city of David: and Amaziah his son reigned in his stead.

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Psalm 117

1O praise the Lord, all ye nations: praise him, all ye people.

2For his merciful kindness is great toward us: and the truth of the Lord endureth for ever. Praise ye the Lord.

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This is a turn to what many regard as one of the extremely significant books in the New Testament, the Epistle to the Romans.  This is one of those (several) "chew over every word" books.
I've spent some time reading some of the numerous and excellent commentaries on the Romans and on the Acts as well.  By the one account, the epistle to the Romans was written and circulated before the Acts, and had been read by the believers in Rome before Paul appeared in Rome.  I'd not known that, it puts the dynamics in a rather different light.
But the Romans is one of those extremely important sections of Scripture, and it is not  possible to overstate that.  One of the books that I have (somewhere) around here is a Bible with commentary included.  The commentor noted a case where a pastor, new in a congregation, came before the congregation on his first Sunday sermon, and preached Romans 1 verse 1.  The second Sunday, Romans 1 verse 2.  The third, Romans 1 verse 3, and did not quite finish, so that is where he began on the following Sunday.  For three and a half years, he never left the Epistle to the Romans!  And the church exploded!  Yes, there is that much there. 


Romans 1

1Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God,

2(Which he had promised afore by his prophets in the holy scriptures,)

3Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh;

4And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead:

5By whom we have received grace and apostleship, for obedience to the faith among all nations, for his name:

6Among whom are ye also the called of Jesus Christ:

7To all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ.

8First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world.

9For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers;

10Making request, if by any means now at length I might have a prosperous journey by the will of God to come unto you.

11For I long to see you, that I may impart unto you some spiritual gift, to the end ye may be established;

12That is, that I may be comforted together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me.

13Now I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that oftentimes I purposed to come unto you, (but was let hitherto,) that I might have some fruit among you also, even as among other Gentiles.

14I am debtor both to the Greeks, and to the Barbarians; both to the wise, and to the unwise.

15So, as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also.

16For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.

17For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.

18For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;

19Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them.

20For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:

21Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.

22Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,

23And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.

24Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:

25Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.

26For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:

27And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.

28And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;

29Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers,

30Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,

31Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful:

32Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.