Today's Readings and Stuff -- Sunday, 11 August 2019

2nd Sunday in August.  Three weeks from now we'll have --- Lord willing of course -- entered into the month of Septemberrrrrr!  Rhymes with "Brrrr!"  Some people like that part of the year.  I am not one of them, never have been, never ever will be.    If only I could be as clever as bears are, and hibernate until Mayday.  Oh , well.

When I was in school, lo these many years ago, school began the first weekday after Labor Day.  This year, that would be September 3rd.  That is no longer always the case:  I see from things far-off friends have made known to me, that their kids' school started this last week.  For us, August was our last fling at Summer, and the annual effort to buy paper and notebooks and all that stuff was in progress.  Stuff generally gotten from discount stores, most of them long out of business (names like Hill's, S.S. Kresge as it became K-Mart before the new whiz kid owners ran it into the ground, F. W. Woolworth before it became Woolco and before the whiz kids ran it into the ground, etc. etc.) and all the trading down of hand-me-down clothes began.  I guess that if any schools still are on our old schedule, parents can get stuff cheaper on the seasonal closeout sales.  Maybe.
Our great-niece from next door will be starting 1st grade this year.  A big event as we watch her grow and develop.  When we moved in next door, she was less than a year old, with all that involves.  So we've had the pleasure of watching all of it.  It's a joy to see.
But now we will be watching to see if we've been able to be a good influence, strong enough to withstand the pressures and propaganda that is, all too often, entrenched in the public school systems and regimens.  It is they, often in conjunction with the public libraries, all tax-supported by the way, who are pushing the homosexual agenda.  Or socialism.  And atheism.  And all the rest of that.
We will not, likely, survive to see her attain adulthood.  We can only hope and pray and be the ones trying to stand in the gap.  That's part of the duties of all of us.

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Today, chapters 3 and 4 in the book of Job.  Just when  you might think that things had gotten as bad as they possibly can, guess again.  Now he was afflicted with "friends".

Job 3

1After this opened Job his mouth, and cursed his day.

2And Job spake, and said,

3Let the day perish wherein I was born, and the night in which it was said, There is a man child conceived.

4Let that day be darkness; let not God regard it from above, neither let the light shine upon it.

5Let darkness and the shadow of death stain it; let a cloud dwell upon it; let the blackness of the day terrify it.

6As for that night, let darkness seize upon it; let it not be joined unto the days of the year, let it not come into the number of the months.

7Lo, let that night be solitary, let no joyful voice come therein.

8Let them curse it that curse the day, who are ready to raise up their mourning.

9Let the stars of the twilight thereof be dark; let it look for light, but have none; neither let it see the dawning of the day:

10Because it shut not up the doors of my mother's womb, nor hid sorrow from mine eyes.

11Why died I not from the womb? why did I not give up the ghost when I came out of the belly?

12Why did the knees prevent me? or why the breasts that I should suck?

13For now should I have lain still and been quiet, I should have slept: then had I been at rest,

14With kings and counsellors of the earth, which built desolate places for themselves;

15Or with princes that had gold, who filled their houses with silver:

16Or as an hidden untimely birth I had not been; as infants which never saw light.

17There the wicked cease from troubling; and there the weary be at rest.

18There the prisoners rest together; they hear not the voice of the oppressor.

19The small and great are there; and the servant is free from his master.

20Wherefore is light given to him that is in misery, and life unto the bitter in soul;

21Which long for death, but it cometh not; and dig for it more than for hid treasures;

22Which rejoice exceedingly, and are glad, when they can find the grave?

23Why is light given to a man whose way is hid, and whom God hath hedged in?

24For my sighing cometh before I eat, and my roarings are poured out like the waters.

25For the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me, and that which I was afraid of is come unto me.

26I was not in safety, neither had I rest, neither was I quiet; yet trouble came.

Job 4

1Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said,

2If we assay to commune with thee, wilt thou be grieved? but who can withhold himself from speaking?

3Behold, thou hast instructed many, and thou hast strengthened the weak hands.

4Thy words have upholden him that was falling, and thou hast strengthened the feeble knees.

5But now it is come upon thee, and thou faintest; it toucheth thee, and thou art troubled.

6Is not this thy fear, thy confidence, thy hope, and the uprightness of thy ways?

7Remember, I pray thee, who ever perished, being innocent? or where were the righteous cut off?

8Even as I have seen, they that plow iniquity, and sow wickedness, reap the same.

9By the blast of God they perish, and by the breath of his nostrils are they consumed.

10The roaring of the lion, and the voice of the fierce lion, and the teeth of the young lions, are broken.

11The old lion perisheth for lack of prey, and the stout lion's whelps are scattered abroad.

12Now a thing was secretly brought to me, and mine ear received a little thereof.

13In thoughts from the visions of the night, when deep sleep falleth on men,

14Fear came upon me, and trembling, which made all my bones to shake.

15Then a spirit passed before my face; the hair of my flesh stood up:

16It stood still, but I could not discern the form thereof: an image was before mine eyes, there was silence, and I heard a voice, saying,

17Shall mortal man be more just than God? shall a man be more pure than his maker?

18Behold, he put no trust in his servants; and his angels he charged with folly:

19How much less in them that dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, which are crushed before the moth?

20They are destroyed from morning to evening: they perish for ever without any regarding it.

21Doth not their excellency which is in them go away? they die, even without wisdom.