Today's Readings and Stuff -- Wednesday, 30 October 2019

Another long day.  Next-to-last day in October, so November is nearly here.  I just hauled the week's trash to the road for tomorrow's pickup.  Had to run Across The Line this morning to get another of Wife's prescription refills.  And some scurrying around the house before and after.  Then, across the back yard to "watch" the Little Guy while mom and great-niece were at their cheerleader practice.  We never had 1st and 2nd grade cheerleaders when I was in school, so many years ago.  But with the increased emphasis on sports, primarily for boys, they have the "cheer" thing for the girls.  And next-door Niece is the coach, so A Great Time is ordained.  This is, I guess, the last week of this, so tonight's practice was the last one before the big Competition for Saturday.  And, tonight was picked as a time for two of the girls' mothers to inform Niece that their daughters were quitting, effective immediately.  Makes practice for the competition a bit awkward.  Sometimes, the parents (primarily the mothers) are less well behaved than the girls.  But not my problem.
Tomorrow is marked as Halloween.  So Wife and I will be detailed to pass out treats while Niece and Nephew-in-law, Great-Niece, and Great-Nephew roam the streets, costumed, to get freebie treats.  The weathercasters tell us that there will be heavy rain and gusty winds, so some area towns have re-scheduled the "official" trick-or-treat times.  Not here, at least as of this moment.
I'm not a huge fan of the whole Halloween thing.  Yes, we did it when we were kids, and our kids did as well.  Perhaps I'm more sensitive to things now, but the increasingly evident movement towards celebrating the demonic, the dark, the evil, just bothers me.  I know that many churches get involved in the thing too, perhaps as an "outreach" effort.  I'm not sure what is right on this.

We're getting some reports back to Wife from the recent doctor visits.  It appears that this next month (meaning the next SS check cycle) we'll need to be getting her into not one but two $peciali$t$.  The pulmonologist visit is one of the periodic ones to maintain the prescription for her CPAP machine and the refills of masks, hoses, etc.  The worrisome one is a need to see a nephrologist re her kidney disease.  She really only has one and its function is none too good.  It appears from the figures that she's transitioning from Stage 2 kidney disease into  Stage 3.  Not a drastic change, but a real one.  So we need to see a doc that knows the field.  Just one more thing.

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Lamentations 3

1I am the man that hath seen affliction by the rod of his wrath.

2He hath led me, and brought me into darkness, but not into light.

3Surely against me is he turned; he turneth his hand against me all the day.

4My flesh and my skin hath he made old; he hath broken my bones.

5He hath builded against me, and compassed me with gall and travail.

6He hath set me in dark places, as they that be dead of old.

7He hath hedged me about, that I cannot get out: he hath made my chain heavy.

8Also when I cry and shout, he shutteth out my prayer.

9He hath inclosed my ways with hewn stone, he hath made my paths crooked.

10He was unto me as a bear lying in wait, and as a lion in secret places.

11He hath turned aside my ways, and pulled me in pieces: he hath made me desolate.

12He hath bent his bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow.

13He hath caused the arrows of his quiver to enter into my reins.

14I was a derision to all my people; and their song all the day.

15He hath filled me with bitterness, he hath made me drunken with wormwood.

16He hath also broken my teeth with gravel stones, he hath covered me with ashes.

17And thou hast removed my soul far off from peace: I forgat prosperity.

18And I said, My strength and my hope is perished from the Lord:

19Remembering mine affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall.

20My soul hath them still in remembrance, and is humbled in me.

21This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope.

22It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.

23They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.

24The Lord is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him.

25The Lord is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him.

26It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord.

27It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.

28He sitteth alone and keepeth silence, because he hath borne it upon him.

29He putteth his mouth in the dust; if so be there may be hope.

30He giveth his cheek to him that smiteth him: he is filled full with reproach.

31For the Lord will not cast off for ever:

32But though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies.

33For he doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men.

34To crush under his feet all the prisoners of the earth,

35To turn aside the right of a man before the face of the most High,

36To subvert a man in his cause, the Lord approveth not.

37Who is he that saith, and it cometh to pass, when the Lord commandeth it not?

38Out of the mouth of the most High proceedeth not evil and good?

39Wherefore doth a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins?

40Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the Lord.

41Let us lift up our heart with our hands unto God in the heavens.

42We have transgressed and have rebelled: thou hast not pardoned.

43Thou hast covered with anger, and persecuted us: thou hast slain, thou hast not pitied.

44Thou hast covered thyself with a cloud, that our prayer should not pass through.

45Thou hast made us as the offscouring and refuse in the midst of the people.

46All our enemies have opened their mouths against us.

47Fear and a snare is come upon us, desolation and destruction.

48Mine eye runneth down with rivers of water for the destruction of the daughter of my people.

49Mine eye trickleth down, and ceaseth not, without any intermission,

50Till the Lord look down, and behold from heaven.

51Mine eye affecteth mine heart because of all the daughters of my city.

52Mine enemies chased me sore, like a bird, without cause.

53They have cut off my life in the dungeon, and cast a stone upon me.

54Waters flowed over mine head; then I said, I am cut off.

55I called upon thy name, O Lord, out of the low dungeon.

56Thou hast heard my voice: hide not thine ear at my breathing, at my cry.

57Thou drewest near in the day that I called upon thee: thou saidst, Fear not.

58O Lord, thou hast pleaded the causes of my soul; thou hast redeemed my life.

59O Lord, thou hast seen my wrong: judge thou my cause.

60Thou hast seen all their vengeance and all their imaginations against me.

61Thou hast heard their reproach, O Lord, and all their imaginations against me;

62The lips of those that rose up against me, and their device against me all the day.

63Behold their sitting down, and their rising up; I am their musick.

64Render unto them a recompence, O Lord, according to the work of their hands.

65Give them sorrow of heart, thy curse unto them.

66Persecute and destroy them in anger from under the heavens of the Lord.

Lamentations 4

1  How is the gold become dim! how is the most fine gold changed! the stones of the sanctuary are poured out in the top of every street.

2The precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold, how are they esteemed as earthen pitchers, the work of the hands of the potter!

3Even the sea monsters draw out the breast, they give suck to their young ones: the daughter of my people is become cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness.

4The tongue of the sucking child cleaveth to the roof of his mouth for thirst: the young children ask bread, and no man breaketh it unto them.

5They that did feed delicately are desolate in the streets: they that were brought up in scarlet embrace dunghills.

6For the punishment of the iniquity of the daughter of my people is greater than the punishment of the sin of Sodom, that was overthrown as in a moment, and no hands stayed on her.

7Her Nazarites were purer than snow, they were whiter than milk, they were more ruddy in body than rubies, their polishing was of sapphire:

8Their visage is blacker than a coal; they are not known in the streets: their skin cleaveth to their bones; it is withered, it is become like a stick.

9They that be slain with the sword are better than they that be slain with hunger: for these pine away, stricken through for want of the fruits of the field.

10The hands of the pitiful women have sodden their own children: they were their meat in the destruction of the daughter of my people.

11The Lord hath accomplished his fury; he hath poured out his fierce anger, and hath kindled a fire in Zion, and it hath devoured the foundations thereof.

12The kings of the earth, and all the inhabitants of the world, would not have believed that the adversary and the enemy should have entered into the gates of Jerusalem.

13For the sins of her prophets, and the iniquities of her priests, that have shed the blood of the just in the midst of her,

14They have wandered as blind men in the streets, they have polluted themselves with blood, so that men could not touch their garments.

15They cried unto them, Depart ye; it is unclean; depart, depart, touch not: when they fled away and wandered, they said among the heathen, They shall no more sojourn there.

16The anger of the Lord hath divided them; he will no more regard them: they respected not the persons of the priests, they favoured not the elders.

17As for us, our eyes as yet failed for our vain help: in our watching we have watched for a nation that could not save us.

18They hunt our steps, that we cannot go in our streets: our end is near, our days are fulfilled; for our end is come.

19Our persecutors are swifter than the eagles of the heaven: they pursued us upon the mountains, they laid wait for us in the wilderness.

20The breath of our nostrils, the anointed of the Lord, was taken in their pits, of whom we said, Under his shadow we shall live among the heathen.

21Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom, that dwellest in the land of Uz; the cup also shall pass through unto thee: thou shalt be drunken, and shalt make thyself naked.

22The punishment of thine iniquity is accomplished, O daughter of Zion; he will no more carry thee away into captivity: he will visit thine iniquity, O daughter of Edom; he will discover thy sins.

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Song of Solomon chapter 3

1By night on my bed I sought him whom my soul loveth: I sought him, but I found him not.

2I will rise now, and go about the city in the streets, and in the broad ways I will seek him whom my soul loveth: I sought him, but I found him not.

3The watchmen that go about the city found me: to whom I said, Saw ye him whom my soul loveth?

4It was but a little that I passed from them, but I found him whom my soul loveth: I held him, and would not let him go, until I had brought him into my mother's house, and into the chamber of her that conceived me.

5I charge you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes, and by the hinds of the field, that ye stir not up, nor awake my love, till he please.

6Who is this that cometh out of the wilderness like pillars of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and frankincense, with all powders of the merchant?

7Behold his bed, which is Solomon's; threescore valiant men are about it, of the valiant of Israel.

8They all hold swords, being expert in war: every man hath his sword upon his thigh because of fear in the night.

9King Solomon made himself a chariot of the wood of Lebanon.

10He made the pillars thereof of silver, the bottom thereof of gold, the covering of it of purple, the midst thereof being paved with love, for the daughters of Jerusalem.

11Go forth, O ye daughters of Zion, and behold king Solomon with the crown wherewith his mother crowned him in the day of his espousals, and in the day of the gladness of his heart.

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Hebrews 13

1Let brotherly love continue.

2Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.

3Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them; and them which suffer adversity, as being yourselves also in the body.

4Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.

5Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.

6So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me.

7Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God: whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation.

8Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.

9Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines. For it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace; not with meats, which have not profited them that have been occupied therein.

10We have an altar, whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle.

11For the bodies of those beasts, whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin, are burned without the camp.

12Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate.

13Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach.

14For here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come.

15By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name.

16But to do good and to communicate forget not: for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.

17Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that is unprofitable for you.

18Pray for us: for we trust we have a good conscience, in all things willing to live honestly.

19But I beseech you the rather to do this, that I may be restored to you the sooner.

20Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant,

21Make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is wellpleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

22And I beseech you, brethren, suffer the word of exhortation: for I have written a letter unto you in few words.

23Know ye that our brother Timothy is set at liberty; with whom, if he come shortly, I will see you.

24Salute all them that have the rule over you, and all the saints. They of Italy salute you.

25Grace be with you all. Amen.