The Stuff of Life -- Saturday, 16 June 2012

To use a phrase that I've used too often this year, apologies for the long gaps in posting.  It's been a bumpy ride and it is not over yet.  And we can discuss, later, what the term "over:" means in context.  Not sure I know.

Let's see. 
In no particular order,

• about 2-1/2 weeks ago, our refrigerator died.  For many, that would be a problem, but not a catastrophe.  It wasn't, QUITE, a catastrophe, but pretty close.  The unit was elderly when we got it, and that was in early 2005.  Another seven years out of an old-and-not-terribly-good unit is nothing to complain about, I guess.  But another year or three would have been nice.  So, lacking the funds to do anything else, we went to the local Ripoff Rent-to-Own joint, got one that had had some brief service and was about the same size, and signed up for a series of payments that, over the course of 24 months, will have us paying out more than twice the price of the item.  Or more.  And we really had no choice.  So, another financial need.
• a day later, en route to work, a log truck (we live in an area near a paper mill) very kindly deposited a bunch of bark, branches, and such in my direction at high speed.  I dodged most of it.  Not all.  And now I have a cracked windshield.
• about a week later,our clothes drier died.  Again.  I'd fixed it once before, this time,what with the bearings and motor going, it was beyond hope.  We worked a deal with a friend who runs a booth at the local flea market emporium, and traded the old drier, the old water heater that died last year, and some work, for an used-but-serviceable one she'd acquired buying the hlouse contents of an older lady's family.  I spent last Saturday afternoon dragging the old one through the back door, across the back yard and to the truck, and reversing the matter for the replacement.  OK so far.
• Until Dear Wife, attempting to help push the replacement in the back door, took a fall.  A bad one.  A REAL bad one.  A broken ankle and toes one.  Getting the car into position so that I could get her up and into the back seat for the trip to the Emergency Room was as tricky a piece of driving as I have ever done.  Called one of the Deacons at the church while en route and told him he was substitute teaching for me the following morning.  NOT quite what he'd planned, but then there's a lot of that going on.
• Dear Wife finally go a cast Thursday morning, and some very heavy-duty pain pills to go with it.  They're needed, she has a very high pain tolerance, but this is beyond her.  Ankle broken in two places and several toes as well, and a contusion of the soft tissue of the hand from trying to break her fall.  Until she got the cast, I was pretty much carrying her back and forth to the bathroom and such.  Tough on both of us.
• and then there's the work situation.  I am grateful to be employed, and even to have some medical coverage as a result.  (for some of the reason, see above).;  But I've been there for nearly 4-1/2 years, am still waiting for the raise I was promised in July.  Of 2009.  And only recently got moved into something resembling the role I was hired for, back in February of 2008.  And it's a rough place.  Turnover is, for that type of operation hideously more than anything I've ever seen or even heard of.  Fired one of the production supervisors three weeks ago.  Rumor has it that it was because she was taking time off work to take her husband in for his cancer treatments.  I guess FMLA doesn't apply here?   Six weeks before, they fired the plant manager for taking time to check on his pregnant wife who had not yet relocated here.  Friday morning, they fired one of the team leads in Shipping, and no one seems to know why, almost a random act.  In four-plus years, they've had four HR managers,  production managers and assistant managers beyond count, half a dozen Quality managers -- the list goes on and on.   That's a worry we really don't need right now. I'm no longer leaving the house around 5:15 p.m. and crawling back in the door the following dawn, but I DO have a two-hour, 90 mile round trip commute every morning and evening.  The very slight reduction in the price of gas is welcome, but I note that it is still TWICE what I was paying shortly before Obumble was inaugurated.

We will get through all of this, somehow, and I know that there is a purpose for it.  But it has been bumpy, very.
That's probably more than anyone really cared to know, but in the event anyone cares to know, there it is.
 ========================
So much for the temporal matters.

-==========
This morning's Old Testament reading is chapters 1, 2, and 3 of the book of Nehemiah.  This is an arresting account.  The Kingdom had fallen, as prophesied, as a result of their abandonment of the Lord.  So He let their enemies have at it.  MUCH destruction, slaughter, pillage, rape, death.  The Laws of War did not yet exist, and would have been ignore in any event.
So.
Now come the stirrings of putting things back together.  The previous work, the book of Ezra, speaks of the rebuilding of the Temple.  Now comes Nehemiah to rebuild the city walls.  That is the proper order of things.  Get the relationship with the Lord right, then the rest of things.  Not the other way around, and too many of us have tried.  See the details here as well.  God knows what we have done for His glory.

Nehemiah 1

1	The words of Nehemiah the son of Hachaliah. And it came to pass in the month Chisleu, in the twentieth year, as I was in Shushan the palace,
2	That Hanani, one of my brethren, came, he and certain men of Judah; and I asked them concerning the Jews that had escaped, which were left of the captivity, and concerning Jerusalem.
3	And they said unto me, The remnant that are left of the captivity there in the province are in great affliction and reproach: the wall of Jerusalem also is broken down, and the gates thereof are burned with fire.
4	And it came to pass, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned certain days, and fasted, and prayed before the God of heaven,
5	And said, I beseech thee, O LORD God of heaven, the great and terrible God, that keepeth covenant and mercy for them that love him and observe his commandments:
6	Let thine ear now be attentive, and thine eyes open, that thou mayest hear the prayer of thy servant, which I pray before thee now, day and night, for the children of Israel thy servants, and confess the sins of the children of Israel, which we have sinned against thee: both I and my father's house have sinned.
7	We have dealt very corruptly against thee, and have not kept the commandments, nor the statutes, nor the judgments, which thou commandedst thy servant Moses.
8	Remember, I beseech thee, the word that thou commandedst thy servant Moses, saying, If ye transgress, I will scatter you abroad among the nations:
9	But if ye turn unto me, and keep my commandments, and do them; though there were of you cast out unto the uttermost part of the heaven, yet will I gather them from thence, and will bring them unto the place that I have chosen to set my name there.
10	Now these are thy servants and thy people, whom thou hast redeemed by thy great power, and by thy strong hand.
11	O LORD, I beseech thee, let now thine ear be attentive to the prayer of thy servant, and to the prayer of thy servants, who desire to fear thy name: and prosper, I pray thee, thy servant this day, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man. For I was the king's cupbearer.

Nehemiah 2

1	And it came to pass in the month Nisan, in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes the king, that wine was before him: and I took up the wine, and gave it unto the king. Now I had not been beforetime sad in his presence.
2	Wherefore the king said unto me, Why is thy countenance sad, seeing thou art not sick? this is nothing else but sorrow of heart. Then I was very sore afraid,
3	And said unto the king, Let the king live for ever: why should not my countenance be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers' sepulchres, lieth waste, and the gates thereof are consumed with fire?
4	Then the king said unto me, For what dost thou make request? So I prayed to the God of heaven.
5	And I said unto the king, If it please the king, and if thy servant have found favour in thy sight, that thou wouldest send me unto Judah, unto the city of my fathers' sepulchres, that I may build it.
6	And the king said unto me, (the queen also sitting by him,) For how long shall thy journey be? and when wilt thou return? So it pleased the king to send me; and I set him a time.
7	Moreover I said unto the king, If it please the king, let letters be given me to the governors beyond the river, that they may convey me over till I come into Judah;
8	And a letter unto Asaph the keeper of the king's forest, that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the palace which appertained to the house, and for the wall of the city, and for the house that I shall enter into. And the king granted me, according to the good hand of my God upon me.
9	Then I came to the governors beyond the river, and gave them the king's letters. Now the king had sent captains of the army and horsemen with me.
10	When Sanballat the Horonite, and Tobiah the servant, the Ammonite, heard of it, it grieved them exceedingly that there was come a man to seek the welfare of the children of Israel.
11	So I came to Jerusalem, and was there three days.
12	And I arose in the night, I and some few men with me; neither told I any man what my God had put in my heart to do at Jerusalem: neither was there any beast with me, save the beast that I rode upon.
13	And I went out by night by the gate of the valley, even before the dragon well, and to the dung port, and viewed the walls of Jerusalem, which were broken down, and the gates thereof were consumed with fire.
14	Then I went on to the gate of the fountain, and to the king's pool: but there was no place for the beast that was under me to pass.
15	Then went I up in the night by the brook, and viewed the wall, and turned back, and entered by the gate of the valley, and so returned.
16	And the rulers knew not whither I went, or what I did; neither had I as yet told it to the Jews, nor to the priests, nor to the nobles, nor to the rulers, nor to the rest that did the work.
17	Then said I unto them, Ye see the distress that we are in, how Jerusalem lieth waste, and the gates thereof are burned with fire: come, and let us build up the wall of Jerusalem, that we be no more a reproach.
18	Then I told them of the hand of my God which was good upon me; as also the king's words that he had spoken unto me. And they said, Let us rise up and build. So they strengthened their hands for this good work.
19	But when Sanballat the Horonite, and Tobiah the servant, the Ammonite, and Geshem the Arabian, heard it, they laughed us to scorn, and despised us, and said, What is this thing that ye do? will ye rebel against the king?
20	Then answered I them, and said unto them, The God of heaven, he will prosper us; therefore we his servants will arise and build: but ye have no portion, nor right, nor memorial, in Jerusalem.

Nehemiah 3

1	Then Eliashib the high priest rose up with his brethren the priests, and they builded the sheep gate; they sanctified it, and set up the doors of it; even unto the tower of Meah they sanctified it, unto the tower of Hananeel.
2	And next unto him builded the men of Jericho. And next to them builded Zaccur the son of Imri.
3	But the fish gate did the sons of Hassenaah build, who also laid the beams thereof, and set up the doors thereof, the locks thereof, and the bars thereof.
4	And next unto them repaired Meremoth the son of Urijah, the son of Koz. And next unto them repaired Meshullam the son of Berechiah, the son of Meshezabeel. And next unto them repaired Zadok the son of Baana.
5	And next unto them the Tekoites repaired; but their nobles put not their necks to the work of their LORD.
6	Moreover the old gate repaired Jehoiada the son of Paseah, and Meshullam the son of Besodeiah; they laid the beams thereof, and set up the doors thereof, and the locks thereof, and the bars thereof.
7	And next unto them repaired Melatiah the Gibeonite, and Jadon the Meronothite, the men of Gibeon, and of Mizpah, unto the throne of the governor on this side the river.
8	Next unto him repaired Uzziel the son of Harhaiah, of the goldsmiths. Next unto him also repaired Hananiah the son of one of the apothecaries, and they fortified Jerusalem unto the broad wall.
9	And next unto them repaired Rephaiah the son of Hur, the ruler of the half part of Jerusalem.
10	And next unto them repaired Jedaiah the son of Harumaph, even over against his house. And next unto him repaired Hattush the son of Hashabniah.
11	Malchijah the son of Harim, and Hashub the son of Pahathmoab, repaired the other piece, and the tower of the furnaces.
12	And next unto him repaired Shallum the son of Halohesh, the ruler of the half part of Jerusalem, he and his daughters.
13	The valley gate repaired Hanun, and the inhabitants of Zanoah; they built it, and set up the doors thereof, the locks thereof, and the bars thereof, and a thousand cubits on the wall unto the dung gate.
14	But the dung gate repaired Malchiah the son of Rechab, the ruler of part of Bethhaccerem; he built it, and set up the doors thereof, the locks thereof, and the bars thereof.
15	But the gate of the fountain repaired Shallun the son of Colhozeh, the ruler of part of Mizpah; he built it, and covered it, and set up the doors thereof, the locks thereof, and the bars thereof, and the wall of the pool of Siloah by the king's garden, and unto the stairs that go down from the city of David.
16	After him repaired Nehemiah the son of Azbuk, the ruler of the half part of Bethzur, unto the place over against the sepulchres of David, and to the pool that was made, and unto the house of the mighty.
17	After him repaired the Levites, Rehum the son of Bani. Next unto him repaired Hashabiah, the ruler of the half part of Keilah, in his part.
18	After him repaired their brethren, Bavai the son of Henadad, the ruler of the half part of Keilah.
19	And next to him repaired Ezer the son of Jeshua, the ruler of Mizpah, another piece over against the going up to the armoury at the turning of the wall.
20	After him Baruch the son of Zabbai earnestly repaired the other piece, from the turning of the wall unto the door of the house of Eliashib the high priest.
21	After him repaired Meremoth the son of Urijah the son of Koz another piece, from the door of the house of Eliashib even to the end of the house of Eliashib.
22	And after him repaired the priests, the men of the plain.
23	After him repaired Benjamin and Hashub over against their house. After him repaired Azariah the son of Maaseiah the son of Ananiah by his house.
24	After him repaired Binnui the son of Henadad another piece, from the house of Azariah unto the turning of the wall, even unto the corner.
25	Palal the son of Uzai, over against the turning of the wall, and the tower which lieth out from the king's high house, that was by the court of the prison. After him Pedaiah the son of Parosh.
26	Moreover the Nethinims dwelt in Ophel, unto the place over against the water gate toward the east, and the tower that lieth out.
27	After them the Tekoites repaired another piece, over against the great tower that lieth out, even unto the wall of Ophel.
28	From above the horse gate repaired the priests, every one over against his house.
29	After them repaired Zadok the son of Immer over against his house. After him repaired also Shemaiah the son of Shechaniah, the keeper of the east gate.
30	After him repaired Hananiah the son of Shelemiah, and Hanun the sixth son of Zalaph, another piece. After him repaired Meshullam the son of Berechiah over against his chamber.
31	After him repaired Malchiah the goldsmith's son unto the place of the Nethinims, and of the merchants, over against the gate Miphkad, and to the going up of the corner.
32	And between the going up of the corner unto the sheep gate repaired the goldsmiths and the merchants.

--
This evening, verses 1-13 of chapter 2 in the Acts of the Apostles.  THIS would have been something to be part of .  But the same Lord is at work today.  Do we let Him?

Acts 2:1-13

1	And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.
2	And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.
3	And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them.
4	And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.
5	And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven.
6	Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language.
7	And they were all amazed and marvelled, saying one to another, Behold, are not all these which speak Galilaeans?
8	And how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born?
9	Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judaea, and Cappadocia, in Pontus, and Asia,
10	Phrygia, and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes,
11	Cretes and Arabians, we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God.
12	And they were all amazed, and were in doubt, saying one to another, What meaneth this?
13	Others mocking said, These men are full of new wine.