Today's Readings and Stuff -- Tuesday, 15 October 2013

the relocation mess continues.  We were promised, faithfully promised, that our place would be move-in ready before we arrived.  Not quite.  We've been -- thank you Lord -- sleeping on a bunk bed (fortunately, the lower level is a twin-sized mattress) at niece's house next door for two weeks now.  But our place still has no electricity.  Or gas.  Or phone or cable or internet.  All of which need electricity for turn on.  Even the gas.  And, considering that the stove is gas, is a problem.  So is the furnace.  And, since it's now mid-October and we're a LOT further north than we've been since 1992, is a real concern.  Getting to be a real concern.  We know that the Lord knew, a million years ago, that this would be the case, we know it isn't taking Him by surprise.  But we confess to just a wee bit of concern.  Anyway, we were promised (again) yesterday that the electrical inspector would be here first thing this morning.  We shall see.

The reading, the Old Testament reading, for the morning, is chapters 56, 57, 58 of Isaiah.  More of the warnings of imminent disaster, amply warned and fully fulfilled.  An example we should be heeding, but aren't. 

Isaiah 56

1	Thus saith the LORD, Keep ye judgment, and do justice: for my salvation is near to come, and my righteousness to be revealed.
2	Blessed is the man that doeth this, and the son of man that layeth hold on it; that keepeth the sabbath from polluting it, and keepeth his hand from doing any evil.
3	Neither let the son of the stranger, that hath joined himself to the LORD, speak, saying, The LORD hath utterly separated me from his people: neither let the eunuch say, Behold, I am a dry tree.
4	For thus saith the LORD unto the eunuchs that keep my sabbaths, and choose the things that please me, and take hold of my covenant;
5	Even unto them will I give in mine house and within my walls a place and a name better than of sons and of daughters: I will give them an everlasting name, that shall not be cut off.
6	Also the sons of the stranger, that join themselves to the LORD, to serve him, and to love the name of the LORD, to be his servants, every one that keepeth the sabbath from polluting it, and taketh hold of my covenant;
7	Even them will I bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer: their burnt offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted upon mine altar; for mine house shall be called an house of prayer for all people.
8	The Lord GOD, which gathereth the outcasts of Israel saith, Yet will I gather others to him, beside those that are gathered unto him.
9	All ye beasts of the field, come to devour, yea, all ye beasts in the forest.
10	His watchmen are blind: they are all ignorant, they are all dumb dogs, they cannot bark; sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber.
11	Yea, they are greedy dogs which can never have enough, and they are shepherds that cannot understand: they all look to their own way, every one for his gain, from his quarter.
12	Come ye, say they, I will fetch wine, and we will fill ourselves with strong drink; and to morrow shall be as this day, and much more abundant.

Isaiah 57

1	The righteous perisheth, and no man layeth it to heart: and merciful men are taken away, none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil to come.
2	He shall enter into peace: they shall rest in their beds, each one walking in his uprightness.
3	But draw near hither, ye sons of the sorceress, the seed of the adulterer and the whore.
4	Against whom do ye sport yourselves? against whom make ye a wide mouth, and draw out the tongue? are ye not children of transgression, a seed of falsehood.
5	Enflaming yourselves with idols under every green tree, slaying the children in the valleys under the clifts of the rocks?
6	Among the smooth stones of the stream is thy portion; they, they are thy lot: even to them hast thou poured a drink offering, thou hast offered a meat offering. Should I receive comfort in these?
7	Upon a lofty and high mountain hast thou set thy bed: even thither wentest thou up to offer sacrifice.
8	Behind the doors also and the posts hast thou set up thy remembrance: for thou hast discovered thyself to another than me, and art gone up; thou hast enlarged thy bed, and made thee a covenant with them; thou lovedst their bed where thou sawest it.
9	And thou wentest to the king with ointment, and didst increase thy perfumes, and didst send thy messengers far off, and didst debase thyself even unto hell.
10	Thou art wearied in the greatness of thy way; yet saidst thou not, There is no hope: thou hast found the life of thine hand; therefore thou wast not grieved.
11	And of whom hast thou been afraid or feared, that thou hast lied, and hast not remembered me, nor laid it to thy heart? have not I held my peace even of old, and thou fearest me not?
12	I will declare thy righteousness, and thy works; for they shall not profit thee.
13	When thou criest, let thy companies deliver thee; but the wind shall carry them all away; vanity shall take them: but he that putteth his trust in me shall possess the land, and shall inherit my holy mountain;
14	And shall say, Cast ye up, cast ye up, prepare the way, take up the stumblingblock out of the way of my people.
15	For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.
16	For I will not contend for ever, neither will I be always wroth: for the spirit should fail before me, and the souls which I have made.
17	For the iniquity of his covetousness was I wroth, and smote him: I hid me, and was wroth, and he went on frowardly in the way of his heart.
18	I have seen his ways, and will heal him: I will lead him also, and restore comforts unto him and to his mourners.
19	I create the fruit of the lips; Peace, peace to him that is far off, and to him that is near, saith the LORD; and I will heal him.
20	But the wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt.
21	There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked.

Isaiah 58

1	Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins.
2	Yet they seek me daily, and delight to know my ways, as a nation that did righteousness, and forsook not the ordinance of their God: they ask of me the ordinances of justice; they take delight in approaching to God.
3	Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou seest not? wherefore have we afflicted our soul, and thou takest no knowledge? Behold, in the day of your fast ye find pleasure, and exact all your labours.
4	Behold, ye fast for strife and debate, and to smite with the fist of wickedness: ye shall not fast as ye do this day, to make your voice to be heard on high.
5	Is it such a fast that I have chosen? a day for a man to afflict his soul? is it to bow down his head as a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? wilt thou call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the LORD?
6	Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?
7	Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?
8	Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the LORD shall be thy rereward.
9	Then shalt thou call, and the LORD shall answer; thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am. If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking vanity;
10	And if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noon day:
11	And the LORD shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.
12	And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places: thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in.
13	If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the LORD, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words:
14	Then shalt thou delight thyself in the LORD; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.

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the New Testament reading is chapter 3 in 1st Thessalonians.  Messages to a new christian group.

I Thessalonians 3

1	Wherefore when we could no longer forbear, we thought it good to be left at Athens alone;
2	And sent Timotheus, our brother, and minister of God, and our fellowlabourer in the gospel of Christ, to establish you, and to comfort you concerning your faith:
3	That no man should be moved by these afflictions: for yourselves know that we are appointed thereunto.
4	For verily, when we were with you, we told you before that we should suffer tribulation; even as it came to pass, and ye know.
5	For this cause, when I could no longer forbear, I sent to know your faith, lest by some means the tempter have tempted you, and our labour be in vain.
6	But now when Timotheus came from you unto us, and brought us good tidings of your faith and charity, and that ye have good remembrance of us always, desiring greatly to see us, as we also to see you:
7	Therefore, brethren, we were comforted over you in all our affliction and distress by your faith:
8	For now we live, if ye stand fast in the Lord.
9	For what thanks can we render to God again for you, for all the joy wherewith we joy for your sakes before our God;
10	Night and day praying exceedingly that we might see your face, and might perfect that which is lacking in your faith?
11	Now God himself and our Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ, direct our way unto you.
12	And the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all men, even as we do toward you:
13	To the end he may stablish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints.