Today's Readings and Stuff -- Tuesday, 06 November 2018

Happy Tuesday  to all.  Today is Election Day.  We voted.  The Board of Elections had, earlier, mailed us absentee ballot applications and we could have used them, but knowing as we do the nearly incredible levels of incompetence and utter corruption in the local systems, we chose to vote in person.  Doesn't mean that they can't or won't muck it up, but it's a bit more visible.  So we got to be in a place with our fellow citizens.  Had a guy in line behind me complaining about having to show I.D. to vote, claiming it to be "voter suppression".  Yeah, right.  In my mildest voice (yes, I have one), I responded that the matter had largely come about as a result of people voting three or more times in the same election but at different polling sites.  He responded with a  "yeah, I used to do that.  For years.  So?".  Yeah.  That's the attitude, and pretty open practice for decades.  Want to play the "guess the party" game? 

Looking at the weather forecasts, we'll be having sub-freezing lows real soon, possibly one or two occasions in the next 10 days of "highs" being at or near the freezing point.  And real "good" chances for that evil stuff, snow.  Yuck!  Our "day" portion of the current 24 hours is 10 hours 12 minutes, losing another 2 minutes 18 seconds by tomorrow.  Also YUCK!  I want the month of May again.  No such luck.


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Ezekiel 11

1Moreover the spirit lifted me up, and brought me unto the east gate of the Lord's house, which looketh eastward: and behold at the door of the gate five and twenty men; among whom I saw Jaazaniah the son of Azur, and Pelatiah the son of Benaiah, princes of the people.

2Then said he unto me, Son of man, these are the men that devise mischief, and give wicked counsel in this city:

3Which say, It is not near; let us build houses: this city is the caldron, and we be the flesh.

4Therefore prophesy against them, prophesy, O son of man.

5And the Spirit of the Lord fell upon me, and said unto me, Speak; Thus saith the Lord; Thus have ye said, O house of Israel: for I know the things that come into your mind, every one of them.

6Ye have multiplied your slain in this city, and ye have filled the streets thereof with the slain.

7Therefore thus saith the Lord God; Your slain whom ye have laid in the midst of it, they are the flesh, and this city is the caldron: but I will bring you forth out of the midst of it.

8Ye have feared the sword; and I will bring a sword upon you, saith the Lord God.

9And I will bring you out of the midst thereof, and deliver you into the hands of strangers, and will execute judgments among you.

10Ye shall fall by the sword; I will judge you in the border of Israel; and ye shall know that I am the Lord.

11This city shall not be your caldron, neither shall ye be the flesh in the midst thereof; but I will judge you in the border of Israel:

12And ye shall know that I am the Lord: for ye have not walked in my statutes, neither executed my judgments, but have done after the manners of the heathen that are round about you.

13And it came to pass, when I prophesied, that Pelatiah the son of Benaiah died. Then fell I down upon my face, and cried with a loud voice, and said, Ah Lord God! wilt thou make a full end of the remnant of Israel?

14Again the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,

15Son of man, thy brethren, even thy brethren, the men of thy kindred, and all the house of Israel wholly, are they unto whom the inhabitants of Jerusalem have said, Get you far from the Lord: unto us is this land given in possession.

16Therefore say, Thus saith the Lord God; Although I have cast them far off among the heathen, and although I have scattered them among the countries, yet will I be to them as a little sanctuary in the countries where they shall come.

17Therefore say, Thus saith the Lord God; I will even gather you from the people, and assemble you out of the countries where ye have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel.

18And they shall come thither, and they shall take away all the detestable things thereof and all the abominations thereof from thence.

19And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them an heart of flesh:

20That they may walk in my statutes, and keep mine ordinances, and do them: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God.

21But as for them whose heart walketh after the heart of their detestable things and their abominations, I will recompense their way upon their own heads, saith the Lord God.

22Then did the cherubims lift up their wings, and the wheels beside them; and the glory of the God of Israel was over them above.

23And the glory of the Lord went up from the midst of the city, and stood upon the mountain which is on the east side of the city.

24Afterwards the spirit took me up, and brought me in a vision by the Spirit of God into Chaldea, to them of the captivity. So the vision that I had seen went up from me.

25Then I spake unto them of the captivity all the things that the Lord had shewed me.

Ezekiel 12

1The word of the Lord also came unto me, saying,

2Son of man, thou dwellest in the midst of a rebellious house, which have eyes to see, and see not; they have ears to hear, and hear not: for they are a rebellious house.

3Therefore, thou son of man, prepare thee stuff for removing, and remove by day in their sight; and thou shalt remove from thy place to another place in their sight: it may be they will consider, though they be a rebellious house.

4Then shalt thou bring forth thy stuff by day in their sight, as stuff for removing: and thou shalt go forth at even in their sight, as they that go forth into captivity.

5Dig thou through the wall in their sight, and carry out thereby.

6In their sight shalt thou bear it upon thy shoulders, and carry it forth in the twilight: thou shalt cover thy face, that thou see not the ground: for I have set thee for a sign unto the house of Israel.

7And I did so as I was commanded: I brought forth my stuff by day, as stuff for captivity, and in the even I digged through the wall with mine hand; I brought it forth in the twilight, and I bare it upon my shoulder in their sight.

8And in the morning came the word of the Lord unto me, saying,

9Son of man, hath not the house of Israel, the rebellious house, said unto thee, What doest thou?

10Say thou unto them, Thus saith the Lord God; This burden concerneth the prince in Jerusalem, and all the house of Israel that are among them.

11Say, I am your sign: like as I have done, so shall it be done unto them: they shall remove and go into captivity.

12And the prince that is among them shall bear upon his shoulder in the twilight, and shall go forth: they shall dig through the wall to carry out thereby: he shall cover his face, that he see not the ground with his eyes.

13My net also will I spread upon him, and he shall be taken in my snare: and I will bring him to Babylon to the land of the Chaldeans; yet shall he not see it, though he shall die there.

14And I will scatter toward every wind all that are about him to help him, and all his bands; and I will draw out the sword after them.

15And they shall know that I am the Lord, when I shall scatter them among the nations, and disperse them in the countries.

16But I will leave a few men of them from the sword, from the famine, and from the pestilence; that they may declare all their abominations among the heathen whither they come; and they shall know that I am the Lord.

17Moreover the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

18Son of man, eat thy bread with quaking, and drink thy water with trembling and with carefulness;

19And say unto the people of the land, Thus saith the Lord Godof the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and of the land of Israel; They shall eat their bread with carefulness, and drink their water with astonishment, that her land may be desolate from all that is therein, because of the violence of all them that dwell therein.

20And the cities that are inhabited shall be laid waste, and the land shall be desolate; and ye shall know that I am the Lord.

21And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,

22Son of man, what is that proverb that ye have in the land of Israel, saying, The days are prolonged, and every vision faileth?

23Tell them therefore, Thus saith the Lord God; I will make this proverb to cease, and they shall no more use it as a proverb in Israel; but say unto them, The days are at hand, and the effect of every vision.

24For there shall be no more any vain vision nor flattering divination within the house of Israel.

25For I am the Lord: I will speak, and the word that I shall speak shall come to pass; it shall be no more prolonged: for in your days, O rebellious house, will I say the word, and will perform it, saith the Lord God.

26Again the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

27Son of man, behold, they of the house of Israel say, The vision that he seeth is for many days to come, and he prophesieth of the times that are far off.

28Therefore say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God; There shall none of my words be prolonged any more, but the word which I have spoken shall be done, saith the Lord God.

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Today marks our final day in the Song of Solomon and our final read through the "Poetry" section of our schedule.

Song of Solomon, Chapter 8

1O that thou wert as my brother, that sucked the breasts of my mother! when I should find thee without, I would kiss thee; yea, I should not be despised.

2I would lead thee, and bring thee into my mother's house, who would instruct me: I would cause thee to drink of spiced wine of the juice of my pomegranate.

3His left hand should be under my head, and his right hand should embrace me.

4I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, that ye stir not up, nor awake my love, until he please.

5Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved? I raised thee up under the apple tree: there thy mother brought thee forth: there she brought thee forth that bare thee.

6Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm: for love is strong as death; jealousy is cruel as the grave: the coals thereof are coals of fire, which hath a most vehement flame.

7Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it: if a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would utterly be contemned.

8We have a little sister, and she hath no breasts: what shall we do for our sister in the day when she shall be spoken for?

9If she be a wall, we will build upon her a palace of silver: and if she be a door, we will inclose her with boards of cedar.

10I am a wall, and my breasts like towers: then was I in his eyes as one that found favour.

11Solomon had a vineyard at Baal–hamon; he let out the vineyard unto keepers; every one for the fruit thereof was to bring a thousand pieces of silver.

12My vineyard, which is mine, is before me: thou, O Solomon, must have a thousand, and those that keep the fruit thereof two hundred.

13Thou that dwellest in the gardens, the companions hearken to thy voice: cause me to hear it.

14Make haste, my beloved, and be thou like to a roe or to a young hart upon the mountains of spices.

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This completes the reading in the book of James.  When I was first saved, listening daily during my morning commute to teaching on the book of James, the teacher referred to James as "practical and authentic".  I think that description is appropriate.


James 5

1Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you.

2Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten.

3Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days.

4Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth.

5Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; ye have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter.

6Ye have condemned and killed the just; and he doth not resist you.

7Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain.

8Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.

9Grudge not one against another, brethren, lest ye be condemned: behold, the judge standeth before the door.

10Take, my brethren, the prophets, who have spoken in the name of the Lord, for an example of suffering affliction, and of patience.

11Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.

12But above all things, my brethren, swear not, neither by heaven, neither by the earth, neither by any other oath: but let your yea be yea; and your nay, nay; lest ye fall into condemnation.

13Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms.

14Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord:

15And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.

16Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.

17Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months.

18And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.

19Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him;

20Let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.

Today's Readings and Stuff -- Wednesday, 31 October 2018

Well, the end of the month.  November is tomorrow.  But today is the 31st, meaning today will be full of the Hallowe'en stuff.  I'm not a big fan, knowing all too well some of the bad behavior that is always going on behind the scenes and under the cover of the candy binges.  I know more than a few people who have for more than 40 years been involved in the occult stuff, one of them being a sister-in-law who is "into" all the Wicca stuff.  This is one of the two biggest events of the year (there are several), the other being six months hence beginning on the sundown of April 30.
I like candy too.  Who doesn't?  And there is something to be said for trying to dilute the pagan context into something else.  But something about it all troubles me.


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Today concludes the Lamentations.  This is a sad, tragic work.  It is not made easier when it is understood that all of this catastrophe was deserved, warned of,  and for quite a long time too.  It is still hard to imagine, for most of us anyway, the extent of the disaster.  Ever seen everything that was once considered normal and proper, gone?  They did.  Ever see people so terribly hungry that they would kill, cook, and eat their own children?  It happened, and more than once.  Ever seen babies dashed against rocks to kill them?  Happened.  Ever imagine your wives and sisters raped before your eyes, or your young daughters hauled off screaming to become sex slaves?  That too, and that is happening this very day in fact, at the hands of the demon-besotted Moslem heathens.  Including in places like England, Germany,  France, Greece, Italy, and Michigan.  Judgment.  It's a subject that makes us uncomfortable.  It should.  Does it make us uncomfortable enough to change our ways?  That does not seem to be the case.

The book has traditionally been ascribed to Jeremiah, although that is not certain.  The entire book is recited every year on the occasion of the fast day of  Tisha B'Av, which will next be commemorated beginning at sunset on August 10, 2019.

Lamentations 5

1Remember, O Lord, what is come upon us: consider, and behold our reproach.

2Our inheritance is turned to strangers, our houses to aliens.

3We are orphans and fatherless, our mothers are as widows.

4We have drunken our water for money; our wood is sold unto us.

5Our necks are under persecution: we labour, and have no rest.

6We have given the hand to the Egyptians, and to the Assyrians, to be satisfied with bread.

7Our fathers have sinned, and are not; and we have borne their iniquities.

8Servants have ruled over us: there is none that doth deliver us out of their hand.

9We gat our bread with the peril of our lives because of the sword of the wilderness.

10Our skin was black like an oven because of the terrible famine.

11They ravished the women in Zion, and the maids in the cities of Judah.

12Princes are hanged up by their hand: the faces of elders were not honoured.

13They took the young men to grind, and the children fell under the wood.

14The elders have ceased from the gate, the young men from their musick.

15The joy of our heart is ceased; our dance is turned into mourning.

16The crown is fallen from our head: woe unto us, that we have sinned!

17For this our heart is faint; for these things our eyes are dim.

18Because of the mountain of Zion, which is desolate, the foxes walk upon it.

19Thou, O Lord, remainest for ever; thy throne from generation to generation.

20Wherefore dost thou forget us for ever, and forsake us so long time?

21Turn thou us unto thee, O Lord, and we shall be turned; renew our days as of old.

22But thou hast utterly rejected us; thou art very wroth against us.

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Song of Solomon, Chapter 4

1Behold, thou art fair, my love; behold, thou art fair; thou hast doves' eyes within thy locks: thy hair is as a flock of goats, that appear from mount Gilead.

2Thy teeth are like a flock of sheep that are even shorn, which came up from the washing; whereof every one bear twins, and none is barren among them.

3Thy lips are like a thread of scarlet, and thy speech is comely: thy temples are like a piece of a pomegranate within thy locks.

4Thy neck is like the tower of David builded for an armoury, whereon there hang a thousand bucklers, all shields of mighty men.

5Thy two breasts are like two young roes that are twins, which feed among the lilies.

6Until the day break, and the shadows flee away, I will get me to the mountain of myrrh, and to the hill of frankincense.

7Thou art all fair, my love; there is no spot in thee.

8Come with me from Lebanon, my spouse, with me from Lebanon: look from the top of Amana, from the top of Senir and Hermon, from the lions' dens, from the mountains of the leopards.

9Thou hast ravished my heart, my sister, my spouse; thou hast ravished my heart with one of thine eyes, with one chain of thy neck.

10How fair is thy love, my sister, my spouse! how much better is thy love than wine! and the smell of thine ointments than all spices!

11Thy lips, O my spouse, drop as the honeycomb: honey and milk are under thy tongue; and the smell of thy garments is like the smell of Lebanon.

12A garden inclosed is my sister, my spouse; a spring shut up, a fountain sealed.

13Thy plants are an orchard of pomegranates, with pleasant fruits; camphire, with spikenard,

14Spikenard and saffron; calamus and cinnamon, with all trees of frankincense; myrrh and aloes, with all the chief spices:

15A fountain of gardens, a well of living waters, and streams from Lebanon.

16Awake, O north wind; and come, thou south; blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out. Let my beloved come into his garden, and eat his pleasant fruits.

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And now the book of James.  This has been a contentious work in Christianity for quite a long time.  I saw a discussion just the other day, roundly denouncing it as a bit of "works righteousness".  Martin Luther regarded it as "a right strawy book", and generally ignored it.
It has some meaning for me.  When I had first surrendered to the Lord, I was in a difficult life situation.  My long-time job had ended with the corporation's major restructure that took the local operation from around 13,000 employees and status as a major division of a major manufacturer, to around 350 today and just recently restructured yet again under a new name.  We had been married only about two years, I had a wife, baby daughter, and 5-year-old step-daughter to provide for.  I was just a few classes short of a degree.  Times were tough.  I found a job nearly an hour's distance, so I had lots of "windshield time" with the Lord, and with the car radio.  I found myself listening every morning to a program on a Christian station that was a teaching program.  And, for a period of several months, the text was chapter 4 in  the book of James.  So this has some reall strong personal meaning for me.
A good bit of what is involved in James, and much of the New Testament, gets us into the questions that new believers, and older ones too, involving the "how should I live now?" matters.  If we are following Christ, shouldn't it show?  Shouldn't we be different, and shouldn't that be evidenced in our language, our conduct, our general attitudes?  Sadly, all too often, it's not happening.

James 1

1James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting.

2My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations;

3Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.

4But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.

5If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.

6But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.

7For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord.

8A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.

9Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted:

10But the rich, in that he is made low: because as the flower of the grass he shall pass away.

11For the sun is no sooner risen with a burning heat, but it withereth the grass, and the flower thereof falleth, and the grace of the fashion of it perisheth: so also shall the rich man fade away in his ways.

12Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.

13Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man:

14But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.

15Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.

16Do not err, my beloved brethren.

17Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.

18Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.

19Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath:

20For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.

21Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.

22But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.

23For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass:

24For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.

25But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.

26If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain.

27Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.