Today's Readings and Stuff -- Wednesday, 30 October 2013

next to last day of the month, about to enter the next  last month of the year. And then?  Seeking some direction in our life.  Dear Wife is pretty happy -- she's having the opportunity to spend face time with her sister and her husband, her niece and her husband and daughter, her nephew and his wife and son and daughter.  And her cousins and growing-up friends and all.  But I've not yet had any opportunity to see any from my side which is partly a function of money and partly from the poverty that keeps us from making the drives to see my oldest nephew and his wife and son. One brother lives about 90 minutes away, a drive out of our reach currently, a sister lives in central Virginia and is out of range, and the other brother's wife despises us and we are not welcome there.  I have cousins all at least 90 minutes away and it's just going to have to wait.
Have started to send resumes and applications around, looking for some part-time work, even at something approaching minimum wage, because our finances truly are awful.  Got hit with some big unexpected expenses, and haven't yet seen the high heating bills that are surely coming.  So I need to have something coming in, and soon. 
Likewise, we haven't yet found a church.  Several possibilities, nothing certain.  I believe that the Lord had and has a purpose here for us to fill on His behalf.  Don't know yet what it might be.  Prayerfully seeking that guidance and direction.

Had planned a good big of work around the house for yesterday but that did not quite happen.  Monday night, a friend stopped by to lend his and and expertise on a plumbing issue that is beyond my abilities.  Got done, went to leave, dead battery and a jump start was not the fix.  Put it on charge and my sister-in-law came by to give him a ride home (he had me blocked in), promising to bring him back in the morning.  "Morning" in this case turned out to be around 1:30 p,.m., and we had to horse around for several hours to get the thing going.  He promptly left, hoping to get home before it died again.  By which time dusk was falling and no more outside work would happen.  Got some work done inside, but Dear Wife is having a small "flare" in her autoimmune disease, and had to take things easy.  We no longer have any insurance of any kind (except auto liability) so a run to the "doc in a box" is out of the question.  Stepping out in faith?  We have just a bit of experience in that.


The morning's Old Testament reading continues in Jeremiah with chapters 27 and 28.  I rather imagine that any current pastor or evangelist who preached messages of the type that Jeremiah did, probably wouldn't be elected to be leader in the town's ministerial alliance or be asked to address the local Rotary or Chamber of Commerce.  Might even have the IRS conducting an investigation, or have Sean Penn agitating for his imprisonment.  Then again, I doubt that Jeremiah was particularly honored in his time.  Stepping on the toes of the comfortable has a price.

Jeremiah 27

1	In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah came this word unto Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,
2	Thus saith the LORD to me; Make thee bonds and yokes, and put them upon thy neck,
3	And send them to the king of Edom, and to the king of Moab, and to the king of the Ammonites, and to the king of Tyrus, and to the king of Zidon, by the hand of the messengers which come to Jerusalem unto Zedekiah king of Judah;
4	And command them to say unto their masters, Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Thus shall ye say unto your masters;
5	I have made the earth, the man and the beast that are upon the ground, by my great power and by my outstretched arm, and have given it unto whom it seemed meet unto me.
6	And now have I given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant; and the beasts of the field have I given him also to serve him.
7	And all nations shall serve him, and his son, and his son's son, until the very time of his land come: and then many nations and great kings shall serve themselves of him.
8	And it shall come to pass, that the nation and kingdom which will not serve the same Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, and that will not put their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, that nation will I punish, saith the LORD, with the sword, and with the famine, and with the pestilence, until I have consumed them by his hand.
9	Therefore hearken not ye to your prophets, nor to your diviners, nor to your dreamers, nor to your enchanters, nor to your sorcerers, which speak unto you, saying, Ye shall not serve the king of Babylon:
10	For they prophesy a lie unto you, to remove you far from your land; and that I should drive you out, and ye should perish.
11	But the nations that bring their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and serve him, those will I let remain still in their own land, saith the LORD; and they shall till it, and dwell therein.
12	I spake also to Zedekiah king of Judah according to all these words, saying, Bring your necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and serve him and his people, and live.
13	Why will ye die, thou and thy people, by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence, as the LORD hath spoken against the nation that will not serve the king of Babylon?
14	Therefore hearken not unto the words of the prophets that speak unto you, saying, Ye shall not serve the king of Babylon: for they prophesy a lie unto you.
15	For I have not sent them, saith the LORD, yet they prophesy a lie in my name; that I might drive you out, and that ye might perish, ye, and the prophets that prophesy unto you.
16	Also I spake to the priests and to all this people, saying, Thus saith the LORD; Hearken not to the words of your prophets that prophesy unto you, saying, Behold, the vessels of the LORD's house shall now shortly be brought again from Babylon: for they prophesy a lie unto you.
17	Hearken not unto them; serve the king of Babylon, and live: wherefore should this city be laid waste?
18	But if they be prophets, and if the word of the LORD be with them, let them now make intercession to the LORD of hosts, that the vessels which are left in the house of the LORD, and in the house of the king of Judah, and at Jerusalem, go not to Babylon.
19	For thus saith the LORD of hosts concerning the pillars, and concerning the sea, and concerning the bases, and concerning the residue of the vessels that remain in this city.
20	Which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon took not, when he carried away captive Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah from Jerusalem to Babylon, and all the nobles of Judah and Jerusalem;
21	Yea, thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, concerning the vessels that remain in the house of the LORD, and in the house of the king of Judah and of Jerusalem;
22	They shall be carried to Babylon, and there shall they be until the day that I visit them, saith the LORD; then will I bring them up, and restore them to this place.

Jeremiah 28

1	And it came to pass the same year, in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the fourth year, and in the fifth month, that Hananiah the son of Azur the prophet, which was of Gibeon, spake unto me in the house of the LORD, in the presence of the priests and of all the people, saying,
2	Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, saying, I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon.
3	Within two full years will I bring again into this place all the vessels of the LORD's house, that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon took away from this place, and carried them to Babylon:
4	And I will bring again to this place Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah, with all the captives of Judah, that went into Babylon, saith the LORD: for I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon.
5	Then the prophet Jeremiah said unto the prophet Hananiah in the presence of the priests, and in the presence of all the people that stood in the house of the LORD,
6	Even the prophet Jeremiah said, Amen: the LORD do so: the LORD perform thy words which thou hast prophesied, to bring again the vessels of the LORD's house, and all that is carried away captive, from Babylon into this place.
7	Nevertheless hear thou now this word that I speak in thine ears, and in the ears of all the people;
8	The prophets that have been before me and before thee of old prophesied both against many countries, and against great kingdoms, of war, and of evil, and of pestilence.
9	The prophet which prophesieth of peace, when the word of the prophet shall come to pass, then shall the prophet be known, that the LORD hath truly sent him.
10	Then Hananiah the prophet took the yoke from off the prophet Jeremiah's neck, and brake it.
11	And Hananiah spake in the presence of all the people, saying, Thus saith the LORD; Even so will I break the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon from the neck of all nations within the space of two full years. And the prophet Jeremiah went his way.
12	Then the word of the LORD came unto Jeremiah the prophet, after that Hananiah the prophet had broken the yoke from off the neck of the prophet Jeremiah, saying,
13	Go and tell Hananiah, saying, Thus saith the LORD; Thou hast broken the yokes of wood; but thou shalt make for them yokes of iron.
14	For thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; I have put a yoke of iron upon the neck of all these nations, that they may serve Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon; and they shall serve him: and I have given him the beasts of the field also.
15	Then said the prophet Jeremiah unto Hananiah the prophet, Hear now, Hananiah; The LORD hath not sent thee; but thou makest this people to trust in a lie.
16	Therefore thus saith the LORD; Behold, I will cast thee from off the face of the earth: this year thou shalt die, because thou hast taught rebellion against the LORD.
17	So Hananiah the prophet died the same year in the seventh month.

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The day's New Testament passage is chapter 4 of 2nd Timothy, completing the Epistle.

II Timothy 4

1	I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom;
2	Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.
3	For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;
4	And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.
5	But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry.
6	For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand.
7	I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith:
8	Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.
9	Do thy diligence to come shortly unto me:
10	For Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world, and is departed unto Thessalonica; Crescens to Galatia, Titus unto Dalmatia.
11	Only Luke is with me. Take Mark, and bring him with thee: for he is profitable to me for the ministry.
12	And Tychicus have I sent to Ephesus.
13	The cloke that I left at Troas with Carpus, when thou comest, bring with thee, and the books, but especially the parchments.
14	Alexander the coppersmith did me much evil: the Lord reward him according to his works:
15	Of whom be thou ware also; for he hath greatly withstood our words.
16	At my first answer no man stood with me, but all men forsook me: I pray God that it may not be laid to their charge.
17	Notwithstanding the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me; that by me the preaching might be fully known, and that all the Gentiles might hear: and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion.
18	And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom: to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
19	Salute Prisca and Aquila, and the household of Onesiphorus.
20	Erastus abode at Corinth: but Trophimus have I left at Miletum sick.
21	Do thy diligence to come before winter. Eubulus greeteth thee, and Pudens, and Linus, and Claudia, and all the brethren.
22	The Lord Jesus Christ be with thy spirit. Grace be with you. Amen.