17 August 2019

Today's Readings and Stuff -- Sunday, 18 August 2019

I had intended to relate some things here.

But right now, we are under a truly nasty severe storm condition.  We still have power, but others in the region do not, so we may experience the same.  
Probably nothing important is lost by my silence.  
Wife and I have the "watch the kids next door" duty tomorrow, this being the last week before school starts here.  We shall treasure it,  and hope the little ones will have good memories of us in their lives as a result.


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Job 17

1My breath is corrupt, my days are extinct, the graves are ready for me.
2Are there not mockers with me? and doth not mine eye continue in their provocation?
3Lay down now, put me in a surety with thee; who is he that will strike hands with me?
4For thou hast hid their heart from understanding: therefore shalt thou not exalt them.
5He that speaketh flattery to his friends, even the eyes of his children shall fail.
6He hath made me also a byword of the people; and aforetime I was as a tabret.
7Mine eye also is dim by reason of sorrow, and all my members are as a shadow.
8Upright men shall be astonished at this, and the innocent shall stir up himself against the hypocrite.
9The righteous also shall hold on his way, and he that hath clean hands shall be stronger and stronger.
10But as for you all, do ye return, and come now: for I cannot find one wise man among you.
11My days are past, my purposes are broken off, even the thoughts of my heart.
12They change the night into day: the light is short because of darkness.
13If I wait, the grave is mine house: I have made my bed in the darkness.
14I have said to corruption, Thou art my father: to the worm, Thou art my mother, and my sister.
15And where is now my hope? as for my hope, who shall see it?
16They shall go down to the bars of the pit, when our rest together is in the dust.



Job 18

1Then answered Bildad the Shuhite, and said,
2How long will it be ere ye make an end of words? mark, and afterwards we will speak.
3Wherefore are we counted as beasts, and reputed vile in your sight?
4He teareth himself in his anger: shall the earth be forsaken for thee? and shall the rock be removed out of his place?
5Yea, the light of the wicked shall be put out, and the spark of his fire shall not shine.
6The light shall be dark in his tabernacle, and his candle shall be put out with him.
7The steps of his strength shall be straitened, and his own counsel shall cast him down.
8For he is cast into a net by his own feet, and he walketh upon a snare.
9The gin shall take him by the heel, and the robber shall prevail against him.
10The snare is laid for him in the ground, and a trap for him in the way.
11Terrors shall make him afraid on every side, and shall drive him to his feet.
12His strength shall be hungerbitten, and destruction shall be ready at his side.
13It shall devour the strength of his skin: even the firstborn of death shall devour his strength.
14His confidence shall be rooted out of his tabernacle, and it shall bring him to the king of terrors.
15It shall dwell in his tabernacle, because it is none of his: brimstone shall be scattered upon his habitation.
16His roots shall be dried up beneath, and above shall his branch be cut off.
17His remembrance shall perish from the earth, and he shall have no name in the street.
18He shall be driven from light into darkness, and chased out of the world.
19He shall neither have son nor nephew among his people, nor any remaining in his dwellings.
20They that come after him shall be astonished at his day, as they that went before were affrighted.
21Surely such are the dwellings of the wicked, and this is the place of him that knoweth not God.

Today's Readings and Stuff -- Saturday, 17 August 2019

Very quiet day around here today.  The next door niece and husband and kids are off at a public event, an annual "thing" that the Antique Tractor Club puts on.  Her mom and step-dad are heavily involved in that group, and she and her sister-in-law also have some sort of a "craft show" table there.  All of them have been posting photos on "social media" with the kids on small tractors, with pictures in the back of some interesting antique real farming tractors.  I hope that they have a good time.  We'd have liked to go, but Wife simply isn't up to it and I just can't leave her for very long.  So it's been pretty quiet here.  I've put the antibiotic ointment on her infected eyelids several times.  Too early yet to see if it's doing any good at all.  We shall see, I guess.


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Job 15

1Then answered Eliphaz the Temanite, and said,
2Should a wise man utter vain knowledge, and fill his belly with the east wind?
3Should he reason with unprofitable talk? or with speeches wherewith he can do no good?
4Yea, thou castest off fear, and restrainest prayer before God.
5For thy mouth uttereth thine iniquity, and thou choosest the tongue of the crafty.
6Thine own mouth condemneth thee, and not I: yea, thine own lips testify against thee.
7Art thou the first man that was born? or wast thou made before the hills?
8Hast thou heard the secret of God? and dost thou restrain wisdom to thyself?
9What knowest thou, that we know not? what understandest thou, which is not in us?
10With us are both the grayheaded and very aged men, much elder than thy father.
11Are the consolations of God small with thee? is there any secret thing with thee?
12Why doth thine heart carry thee away? and what do thy eyes wink at,
13That thou turnest thy spirit against God, and lettest such words go out of thy mouth?
14What is man, that he should be clean? and he which is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?
15Behold, he putteth no trust in his saints; yea, the heavens are not clean in his sight.
16How much more abominable and filthy is man, which drinketh iniquity like water?
17I will shew thee, hear me; and that which I have seen I will declare;
18Which wise men have told from their fathers, and have not hid it:
19Unto whom alone the earth was given, and no stranger passed among them.
20The wicked man travaileth with pain all his days, and the number of years is hidden to the oppressor.
21A dreadful sound is in his ears: in prosperity the destroyer shall come upon him.
22He believeth not that he shall return out of darkness, and he is waited for of the sword.
23He wandereth abroad for bread, saying, Where is it? he knoweth that the day of darkness is ready at his hand.
24Trouble and anguish shall make him afraid; they shall prevail against him, as a king ready to the battle.
25For he stretcheth out his hand against God, and strengtheneth himself against the Almighty.
26He runneth upon him, even on his neck, upon the thick bosses of his bucklers:
27Because he covereth his face with his fatness, and maketh collops of fat on his flanks.
28And he dwelleth in desolate cities, and in houses which no man inhabiteth, which are ready to become heaps.
29He shall not be rich, neither shall his substance continue, neither shall he prolong the perfection thereof upon the earth.
30He shall not depart out of darkness; the flame shall dry up his branches, and by the breath of his mouth shall he go away.
31Let not him that is deceived trust in vanity: for vanity shall be his recompence.
32It shall be accomplished before his time, and his branch shall not be green.
33He shall shake off his unripe grape as the vine, and shall cast off his flower as the olive.
34For the congregation of hypocrites shall be desolate, and fire shall consume the tabernacles of bribery.
35They conceive mischief, and bring forth vanity, and their belly prepareth deceit.




Job 16

1Then Job answered and said,
2I have heard many such things: miserable comforters are ye all.
3Shall vain words have an end? or what emboldeneth thee that thou answerest?
4I also could speak as ye do: if your soul were in my soul's stead, I could heap up words against you, and shake mine head at you.
5But I would strengthen you with my mouth, and the moving of my lips should assuage your grief.
6Though I speak, my grief is not assuaged: and though I forbear, what am I eased?
7But now he hath made me weary: thou hast made desolate all my company.
8And thou hast filled me with wrinkles, which is a witness against me: and my leanness rising up in me beareth witness to my face.
9He teareth me in his wrath, who hateth me: he gnasheth upon me with his teeth; mine enemy sharpeneth his eyes upon me.
10They have gaped upon me with their mouth; they have smitten me upon the cheek reproachfully; they have gathered themselves together against me.
11God hath delivered me to the ungodly, and turned me over into the hands of the wicked.
12I was at ease, but he hath broken me asunder: he hath also taken me by my neck, and shaken me to pieces, and set me up for his mark.
13His archers compass me round about, he cleaveth my reins asunder, and doth not spare; he poureth out my gall upon the ground.
14He breaketh me with breach upon breach, he runneth upon me like a giant.
15I have sewed sackcloth upon my skin, and defiled my horn in the dust.
16My face is foul with weeping, and on my eyelids is the shadow of death;
17Not for any injustice in mine hands: also my prayer is pure.
18O earth, cover not thou my blood, and let my cry have no place.
19Also now, behold, my witness is in heaven, and my record is on high.
20My friends scorn me: but mine eye poureth out tears unto God.
21O that one might plead for a man with God, as a man pleadeth for his neighbour!
22When a few years are come, then I shall go the way whence I shall not return.


16 August 2019

Today's Readings and Stuff -- Friday, 16 August 2019

The day is not over by any means, but it's been one of "those days" already.  Neither of us slept much last night, both of us are dragging.  She was in a great deal of pain from the eyelid infection/ stye/ whatever it is.  So at 08:30 she was on phone to doctor office. by 09:10 we were out the door, by 10:00 we were in the exam room.  Doc confirmed what we already knew, wrote prescription for some antibiotic ointment to be applied several times per day for the next 10 days, with a refill available.  I stopped to get a little bit of gas, home.  Wait through stuff until we got OK from pharmacy.  Off to the pharmacy.  Back home.  Pushing 4 p.m., hope to have lunch soon.  See what I mean?

Spending some more time thinking about Job.  I do not know all of the purposes for his pain and struggles.  Might not really know what any of them are.

But the issues laid out in the first two chapters here involved more than Job alone.  What about Job's kids, wife, servants, etc?  Whatever else the Grand Plan was, it certainly affected them as well.  Were his children, his servants, just "collateral damage"?  Was the Lord punishing them?  Without getting into the arguments about the normal state of humans being, not good as the liberals tell us, but evil by nature, had any of them so transgressed as to justify their destruction in this whole series?  Scripture is full of references to judgment on the nations, with some pretty horrific descriptions of children being smashed against stones, pregnant women being ripped open so as to kill both them and the unborn babies, of all sorts of bloody stuff.  Yes, the innocent -- by human measure -- do suffer, and always have.  As we've seen here.  The "why" of it all is beyond me, and is for some a sufficient excuse to deny the Lord's love and mercy.  At the same time, we recognize that bad things in this life don't imply eternal punishment.  I doubt somehow that those unborn children are subject to eternal punishment.  So the account of Job is, in many ways, a snapshot of human reality, which is not always a pretty picture.

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Job 13

1Lo, mine eye hath seen all this, mine ear hath heard and understood it.
2What ye know, the same do I know also: I am not inferior unto you.
3Surely I would speak to the Almighty, and I desire to reason with God.
4But ye are forgers of lies, ye are all physicians of no value.
5O that ye would altogether hold your peace! and it should be your wisdom.
6Hear now my reasoning, and hearken to the pleadings of my lips.
7Will ye speak wickedly for God? and talk deceitfully for him?
8Will ye accept his person? will ye contend for God?
9Is it good that he should search you out? or as one man mocketh another, do ye so mock him?
10He will surely reprove you, if ye do secretly accept persons.
11Shall not his excellency make you afraid? and his dread fall upon you?
12Your remembrances are like unto ashes, your bodies to bodies of clay.
13Hold your peace, let me alone, that I may speak, and let come on me what will.
14Wherefore do I take my flesh in my teeth, and put my life in mine hand?
15Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him: but I will maintain mine own ways before him.
16He also shall be my salvation: for an hypocrite shall not come before him.
17Hear diligently my speech, and my declaration with your ears.
18Behold now, I have ordered my cause; I know that I shall be justified.
19Who is he that will plead with me? for now, if I hold my tongue, I shall give up the ghost.
20Only do not two things unto me: then will I not hide myself from thee.
21Withdraw thine hand far from me: and let not thy dread make me afraid.
22Then call thou, and I will answer: or let me speak, and answer thou me.
23How many are mine iniquities and sins? make me to know my transgression and my sin.
24Wherefore hidest thou thy face, and holdest me for thine enemy?
25Wilt thou break a leaf driven to and fro? and wilt thou pursue the dry stubble?
26For thou writest bitter things against me, and makest me to possess the iniquities of my youth.
27Thou puttest my feet also in the stocks, and lookest narrowly unto all my paths; thou settest a print upon the heels of my feet.
28And he, as a rotten thing, consumeth, as a garment that is moth eaten.



Job 14

1Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble.
2He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down: he fleeth also as a shadow, and continueth not.
3And dost thou open thine eyes upon such an one, and bringest me into judgment with thee?
4Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not one.
5Seeing his days are determined, the number of his months are with thee, thou hast appointed his bounds that he cannot pass;
6Turn from him, that he may rest, till he shall accomplish, as an hireling, his day.
7For there is hope of a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that the tender branch thereof will not cease.
8Though the root thereof wax old in the earth, and the stock thereof die in the ground;
9Yet through the scent of water it will bud, and bring forth boughs like a plant.
10But man dieth, and wasteth away: yea, man giveth up the ghost, and where is he?
11As the waters fail from the sea, and the flood decayeth and drieth up:
12So man lieth down, and riseth not: till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep.
13O that thou wouldest hide me in the grave, that thou wouldest keep me secret, until thy wrath be past, that thou wouldest appoint me a set time, and remember me!
14If a man die, shall he live again? all the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come.
15Thou shalt call, and I will answer thee: thou wilt have a desire to the work of thine hands.
16For now thou numberest my steps: dost thou not watch over my sin?
17My transgression is sealed up in a bag, and thou sewest up mine iniquity.
18And surely the mountain falling cometh to nought, and the rock is removed out of his place.
19The waters wear the stones: thou washest away the things which grow out of the dust of the earth; and thou destroyest the hope of man.
20Thou prevailest for ever against him, and he passeth: thou changest his countenance, and sendest him away.
21His sons come to honour, and he knoweth it not; and they are brought low, but he perceiveth it not of them.
22But his flesh upon him shall have pain, and his soul within him shall mourn.



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Psalm 143

A Psalm of David.
1Hear my prayer, O Lord, give ear to my supplications: in thy faithfulness answer me, and in thy righteousness.
2And enter not into judgment with thy servant: for in thy sight shall no man living be justified.
3For the enemy hath persecuted my soul; he hath smitten my life down to the ground; he hath made me to dwell in darkness, as those that have been long dead.
4Therefore is my spirit overwhelmed within me; my heart within me is desolate.
5I remember the days of old; I meditate on all thy works; I muse on the work of thy hands.
6I stretch forth my hands unto thee: my soul thirsteth after thee, as a thirsty land. Selah.
7Hear me speedily, O Lord: my spirit faileth: hide not thy face from me, lest I be like unto them that go down into the pit.
8Cause me to hear thy lovingkindness in the morning; for in thee do I trust: cause me to know the way wherein I should walk; for I lift up my soul unto thee.
9Deliver me, O Lord, from mine enemies: I flee unto thee to hide me.
10Teach me to do thy will; for thou art my God: thy spirit is good; lead me into the land of uprightness.
11Quicken me, O Lord, for thy name's sake: for thy righteousness' sake bring my soul out of trouble.
12And of thy mercy cut off mine enemies, and destroy all them that afflict my soul: for I am thy servant.



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Galatians 2

1Then fourteen years after I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, and took Titus with me also.
2And I went up by revelation, and communicated unto them that gospel which I preach among the Gentiles, but privately to them which were of reputation, lest by any means I should run, or had run, in vain.
3But neither Titus, who was with me, being a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised:
4And that because of false brethren unawares brought in, who came in privily to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage:
5To whom we gave place by subjection, no, not for an hour; that the truth of the gospel might continue with you.
6But of these who seemed to be somewhat, (whatsoever they were, it maketh no matter to me: God accepteth no man's person:) for they who seemed to be somewhat in conference added nothing to me:
7But contrariwise, when they saw that the gospel of the uncircumcision was committed unto me, as the gospel of the circumcision was unto Peter;
8(For he that wrought effectually in Peter to the apostleship of the circumcision, the same was mighty in me toward the Gentiles:)
9And when James, Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given unto me, they gave to me and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship; that we should go unto the heathen, and they unto the circumcision.
10Only they would that we should remember the poor; the same which I also was forward to do.
11But when Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face, because he was to be blamed.
12For before that certain came from James, he did eat with the Gentiles: but when they were come, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing them which were of the circumcision.
13And the other Jews dissembled likewise with him; insomuch that Barnabas also was carried away with their dissimulation.
14But when I saw that they walked not uprightly according to the truth of the gospel, I said unto Peter before them all, If thou, being a Jew, livest after the manner of Gentiles, and not as do the Jews, why compellest thou the Gentiles to live as do the Jews?
15We who are Jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles,
16Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.
17But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is therefore Christ the minister of sin? God forbid.
18For if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor.
19For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God.
20I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
21I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.