Today's Readings and Stuff -- Saturday, 28 March 2020

In the midst of all the other stuff going on, we have storms.  The weather kind, I mean.  We've been having awful rain, some hail hitting not far from here, and heavy gusting winds.  Just what we (don't) need, right?  Then I got word via former co-workers back in Arkansas, that a pretty nasty tornado hit NE Arkansas, not far from some of them.  The one guy even shared some video of it.  No word yet on casualties, but some pretty awful property damage of a sort hat leads one to suspect the casualty  list will be a real one.

And so, "In Times Like This" is appropriate/

1. In times like these you need a Savior, In times like these you need and anchor; Be very sure, be very sure Your anchor holds and grips the Solid rock! This Rock is Jesus, Yes, He’s the One; This Rock is Jesus, The only One! Be very sure, be very sure Your anchor holds and grips the Solid rock! 2. In times like these you need the Bible, In times like these O be not idle; Be very sure, be very sure Your anchor holds and grips the Solid rock! This Rock is Jesus, Yes, He’s the One; This Rock is Jesus, The only One! Be very sure, be very sure Your anchor holds and grips the Solid rock! 3. In times like these I have a Savior, In times like these I have an anchor I’m very sure, be very sure Your anchor holds and grips the Solid rock! This Rock is Jesus, Yes, He’s the One; This Rock is Jesus, The only One! I’m very sure, be very sure Your anchor holds and grips the Solid rock!


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Deuteronomy 19

Cities of Refuge

1“When the Lord your God annihilates the nations whose land He is giving you,  so that you drive them out and live in their cities and houses, 2you are to set apart three cities for yourselves within the land the Lord your God is giving you to possess.  3You are to determine the distances  and divide the land the Lord your God is granting you as an inheritance into three regions, so that anyone who commits manslaughter can flee to these cities. 

4“Here is the law concerning a case of someone who kills a person and flees there to save his life, having killed his neighbor accidentally without previously hating him: 5If he goes into the forest with his neighbor to cut timber, and his hand swings the ax to chop down a tree, but the blade flies off the handle and strikes his neighbor so that he dies, that person may flee to one of these cities and live. 6Otherwise, the avenger of blood in the heat of his anger  might pursue the one who committed manslaughter, overtake him because the distance is great, and strike him dead. Yet he did not deserve to die,  since he did not previously hate his neighbor. 7This is why I am commanding you to set apart three cities for yourselves. 8If the Lord your God enlarges your territory as He swore to your fathers, and gives you all the land He promised to give them — 9provided you keep every one of these commands I am giving you today and follow them, loving the Lord your God and walking in His ways at all times — you are to add three more cities to these three. 10In this way, innocent blood will not be shed, and you will not become guilty of bloodshed in the land the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance.  11But if someone hates his neighbor, lies in ambush for him, attacks him, and strikes him fatally, and flees to one of these cities, 12the elders of his city must send for him, take him from there, and hand him over to the avenger of blood and he will die. 13You must not look on him with pity but purge from Israel the guilt of shedding innocent blood, and you will prosper.

Boundary Markers

14“You must not move your neighbor’s boundary marker,  established at the start in the inheritance you will receive in the land the Lord your God is giving you to possess.

Witnesses in Court

15“One witness cannot establish any wrongdoing or sin against a person, whatever that person has done.  A fact must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses. 

16“If a malicious witness  testifies against someone accusing him of a crime, 17the two people in the dispute must stand in the presence of the Lord before the priests and judges in authority at that time. 18The judges are to make a careful investigation, and if the witness turns out to be a liar who has falsely accused his brother, 19you must do to him as he intended to do to his brother. You must purge the evil from you. 20Then everyone else will hear and be afraid, and they will never again do anything evil like this among you.  21You must not show pity: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, and foot for foot. 

Deuteronomy 20

Rules for War

1“When you go out to war against your enemies and see horses, chariots, and an army larger than yours,  do not be afraid of them, for the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt,  is with you. 2When you are about to engage in battle, the priest is to come forward and address the army.  3He is to say to them: ‘Listen, Israel: Today you are about to engage in battle with your enemies. Do not be cowardly. Do not be afraid, alarmed, or terrified because of them. 4For the Lord your God is the One who goes with you to fight for you  against your enemies to give you victory.’

5“The officers are to address the army, ‘Has any man built a new house and not dedicated it? Let him leave and return home. Otherwise, he may die in battle and another man dedicate it. 6Has any man planted a vineyard and not begun to enjoy its fruit?  Let him leave and return home. Otherwise he may die in battle and another man enjoy its fruit.  7Has any man become engaged to a woman and not married her? Let him leave and return home. Otherwise he may die in battle and another man marry her.’ 8The officers will continue to address the army and say, ‘Is there any man who is afraid or cowardly? Let him leave and return home, so that his brothers’ hearts won’t melt like his own.’  9When the officers have finished addressing the army, they will appoint military commanders to lead it.

10“When you approach a city to fight against it, you must make an offer of peace. 11If it accepts your offer of peace and opens its gates to you, all the people found in it will become forced laborers for you and serve you.  12However, if it does not make peace with you but wages war against you, lay siege to it. 13When the Lord your God hands it over to you, you must strike down all its males with the sword.  14But you may take the women, children, animals, and whatever else is in the city — all its spoil — as plunder. You may enjoy the spoil of your enemies that the Lord your God has given you. 15This is how you are to treat all the cities that are far away from you and are not among the cities of these nations. 16However, you must not let any living thing survive among the cities of these people the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance. 17You must completely destroy them — the Hittite, Amorite, Canaanite, Perizzite, Hivite, and Jebusite — as the Lord your God has commanded you, 18so that they won’t teach you to do all the detestable things they do for their gods, and you sin against the Lord your God. 

19“When you lay siege to a city for a long time, fighting against it in order to capture it, you must not destroy its trees by putting an ax to them, because you can get food from them. You must not cut them down. Are trees of the field human, to come under siege by you? 20But you may destroy the trees that you know do not produce food. You may cut them down to build siege works against the city that is waging war against you, until it falls.

Today's Readings and Stuff -- Friday, 27 March 2020

For more than a week, actually, during the whole of this COVID-19 "thing", and really even before that, one of the things I've been considering, awake and asleep even (OK, I get weird dreams, ok?) is the whole issue of how the Lord upsets the nice world we had, that we somehow think we are owed, even that He owes it to us.  And jumbles it all up.  Takes some getting used to.  Takes a bit more to realize that, whatever it is, has happened with His permission and that, out of it all, His plan will be accomplished.
One of the aspects of that, something that keeps coming to the forefront in my poor head, are those "accidental" encounters, often with people we don't know, that have impacts and results far after the fact. Very often, just in my time on this earth, some of these "coincidences" have affected my own life, and in turn the lives of others, for decades.
Which leads to one of the real issues.  Am I being that positive influence in these "coincidental" encounters that will lead to the Lord's glorification, to others coming to know Him, to leave a legacy more worthwhile than granite monuments or a tower up to Heaven?  Am I acting on His behalf at all times, and seeking further opportunities to do so?

I had a verse in mind in that odd time while not quite awake and not quite asleep.  " The lot is cast onto the lap , but the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord."

Proverbs 16:33



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Deuteronomy 17

1Thou shalt not sacrifice unto the Lord thy God any bullock, or sheep, wherein is blemish, or any evilfavouredness: for that is an abomination unto the Lord thy God.

2If there be found among you, within any of thy gates which the Lord thy God giveth thee, man or woman, that hath wrought wickedness in the sight of the Lord thy God, in transgressing his covenant,

3And hath gone and served other gods, and worshipped them, either the sun, or moon, or any of the host of heaven, which I have not commanded;

4And it be told thee, and thou hast heard of it, and enquired diligently, and, behold, it be true, and the thing certain, that such abomination is wrought in Israel:

5Then shalt thou bring forth that man or that woman, which have committed that wicked thing, unto thy gates, even that man or that woman, and shalt stone them with stones, till they die.

6At the mouth of two witnesses, or three witnesses, shall he that is worthy of death be put to death; but at the mouth of one witness he shall not be put to death.

7The hands of the witnesses shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterward the hands of all the people. So thou shalt put the evil away from among you.

8If there arise a matter too hard for thee in judgment, between blood and blood, between plea and plea, and between stroke and stroke, being matters of controversy within thy gates: then shalt thou arise, and get thee up into the place which the Lord thy God shall choose;

9And thou shalt come unto the priests the Levites, and unto the judge that shall be in those days, and enquire; and they shall shew thee the sentence of judgment:

10And thou shalt do according to the sentence, which they of that place which the Lord shall choose shall shew thee; and thou shalt observe to do according to all that they inform thee:

11According to the sentence of the law which they shall teach thee, and according to the judgment which they shall tell thee, thou shalt do: thou shalt not decline from the sentence which they shall shew thee, to the right hand, nor to the left.

12And the man that will do presumptuously, and will not hearken unto the priest that standeth to minister there before the Lord thy God, or unto the judge, even that man shall die: and thou shalt put away the evil from Israel.

13And all the people shall hear, and fear, and do no more presumptuously.

14When thou art come unto the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, and shalt possess it, and shalt dwell therein, and shalt say, I will set a king over me, like as all the nations that are about me;

15Thou shalt in any wise set him king over thee, whom the Lord thy God shall choose: one from among thy brethren shalt thou set king over thee: thou mayest not set a stranger over thee, which is not thy brother.

16But he shall not multiply horses to himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt, to the end that he should multiply horses: forasmuch as the Lord hath said unto you, Ye shall henceforth return no more that way.

17Neither shall he multiply wives to himself, that his heart turn not away: neither shall he greatly multiply to himself silver and gold.

18And it shall be, when he sitteth upon the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write him a copy of this law in a book out of that which is before the priests the Levites:

19And it shall be with him, and he shall read therein all the days of his life: that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, to keep all the words of this law and these statutes, to do them:

20That his heart be not lifted up above his brethren, and that he turn not aside from the commandment, to the right hand, or to the left: to the end that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he, and his children, in the midst of Israel.

Deuteronomy 18

1The priests the Levites, and all the tribe of Levi, shall have no part nor inheritance with Israel: they shall eat the offerings of the Lord made by fire, and his inheritance.

2Therefore shall they have no inheritance among their brethren: the Lord is their inheritance, as he hath said unto them.

3And this shall be the priest's due from the people, from them that offer a sacrifice, whether it be ox or sheep; and they shall give unto the priest the shoulder, and the two cheeks, and the maw.

4The firstfruit also of thy corn, of thy wine, and of thine oil, and the first of the fleece of thy sheep, shalt thou give him.

5For the Lord thy God hath chosen him out of all thy tribes, to stand to minister in the name of the Lord, him and his sons for ever.

6And if a Levite come from any of thy gates out of all Israel, where he sojourned, and come with all the desire of his mind unto the place which the Lord shall choose;

7Then he shall minister in the name of the Lord his God, as all his brethren the Levites do, which stand there before the Lord.

8They shall have like portions to eat, beside that which cometh of the sale of his patrimony.

9When thou art come into the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of those nations.

10There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch,

11Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer.

12For all that do these things are an abomination unto the Lord: and because of these abominations the Lord thy God doth drive them out from before thee.

13Thou shalt be perfect with the Lord thy God.

14For these nations, which thou shalt possess, hearkened unto observers of times, and unto diviners: but as for thee, the Lord thy God hath not suffered thee so to do.

15The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken;

16According to all that thou desiredst of the Lord thy God in Horeb in the day of the assembly, saying, Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God, neither let me see this great fire any more, that I die not.

17And the Lord said unto me, They have well spoken that which they have spoken.

18I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him.

19And it shall come to pass, that whosoever will not hearken unto my words which he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him.

20But the prophet, which shall presume to speak a word in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or that shall speak in the name of other gods, even that prophet shall die.

21And if thou say in thine heart, How shall we know the word which the Lord hath not spoken?

22When a prophet speaketh in the name of the Lord, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him.

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Psalm 63

A Psalm of David, when he was in the wilderness of Judah.

1O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is;

2To see thy power and thy glory, so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary.

3Because thy lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall praise thee.

4Thus will I bless thee while I live: I will lift up my hands in thy name.

5My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness; and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips:

6When I remember thee upon my bed, and meditate on thee in the night watches.

7Because thou hast been my help, therefore in the shadow of thy wings will I rejoice.

8My soul followeth hard after thee: thy right hand upholdeth me.

9But those that seek my soul, to destroy it, shall go into the lower parts of the earth.

10They shall fall by the sword: they shall be a portion for foxes.

11But the king shall rejoice in God; every one that sweareth by him shall glory: but the mouth of them that speak lies shall be stopped.

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Luke 19

1And Jesus entered and passed through Jericho.

2And, behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus, which was the chief among the publicans, and he was rich.

3And he sought to see Jesus who he was; and could not for the press, because he was little of stature.

4And he ran before, and climbed up into a sycomore tree to see him: for he was to pass that way.

5And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up, and saw him, and said unto him, Zacchaeus, make haste, and come down; for to day I must abide at thy house.

6And he made haste, and came down, and received him joyfully.

7And when they saw it, they all murmured, saying, That he was gone to be guest with a man that is a sinner.

8And Zacchaeus stood, and said unto the Lord; Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have taken any thing from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold.

9And Jesus said unto him, This day is salvation come to this house, forsomuch as he also is a son of Abraham.

10 For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.

11And as they heard these things, he added and spake a parable, because he was nigh to Jerusalem, and because they thought that the kingdom of God should immediately appear.

12He said therefore, A certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom, and to return.

13 And he called his ten servants, and delivered them ten pounds, and said unto them, Occupy till I come.

14 But his citizens hated him, and sent a message after him, saying, We will not have this man to reign over us.

15 And it came to pass, that when he was returned, having received the kingdom, then he commanded these servants to be called unto him, to whom he had given the money, that he might know how much every man had gained by trading.

16 Then came the first, saying, Lord, thy pound hath gained ten pounds.

17 And he said unto him, Well, thou good servant: because thou hast been faithful in a very little, have thou authority over ten cities.

18 And the second came, saying, Lord, thy pound hath gained five pounds.

19 And he said likewise to him, Be thou also over five cities.

20 And another came, saying, Lord, behold, here is thy pound, which I have kept laid up in a napkin:

21 For I feared thee, because thou art an austere man: thou takest up that thou layedst not down, and reapest that thou didst not sow.

22 And he saith unto him, Out of thine own mouth will I judge thee, thou wicked servant. Thou knewest that I was an austere man, taking up that I laid not down, and reaping that I did not sow:

23 Wherefore then gavest not thou my money into the bank, that at my coming I might have required mine own with usury?

24 And he said unto them that stood by, Take from him the pound, and give it to him that hath ten pounds.

25 (And they said unto him, Lord, he hath ten pounds.)

26 For I say unto you, That unto every one which hath shall be given; and from him that hath not, even that he hath shall be taken away from him.

27 But those mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring hither, and slay them before me.

28And when he had thus spoken, he went before, ascending up to Jerusalem.

29And it came to pass, when he was come nigh to Bethphage and Bethany, at the mount called the mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples,

30Saying, Go ye into the village over against you; in the which at your entering ye shall find a colt tied, whereon yet never man sat: loose him, and bring him hither.

31 And if any man ask you, Why do ye loose him? thus shall ye say unto him, Because the Lord hath need of him.

32And they that were sent went their way, and found even as he had said unto them.

33And as they were loosing the colt, the owners thereof said unto them, Why loose ye the colt?

34And they said, The Lord hath need of him.

35And they brought him to Jesus: and they cast their garments upon the colt, and they set Jesus thereon.

36And as he went, they spread their clothes in the way.

37And when he was come nigh, even now at the descent of the mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen;

38Saying, Blessed be the King that cometh in the name of the Lord: peace in heaven, and glory in the highest.

39And some of the Pharisees from among the multitude said unto him, Master, rebuke thy disciples.

40And he answered and said unto them, I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out.

41And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it,

42Saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes.

43 For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side,

44 And shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation.

45And he went into the temple, and began to cast out them that sold therein, and them that bought;

46Saying unto them, It is written, My house is the house of prayer: but ye have made it a den of thieves.

47And he taught daily in the temple. But the chief priests and the scribes and the chief of the people sought to destroy him,

48And could not find what they might do: for all the people were very attentive to hear him.