Today's Readings and Stuff -- Thursday, 14 Novmbr 2013

Looks like we left Lower Alabama just in time - it was colder there last night than it was here just an hour south of Lake Erie.  When it is colder near the Gulf Coast than it is near the "North Coast", the weather is definitely weird.  I don't like the temps in the lower 20's here.  They were lower than that, and have very very little experience in such things.  I really feel bad for them.  Grin.

Dear Wife is busy today "watching" grand-niece for niece who is at work.  I am pounding the keys and making some calls desperately seking some sort of employment, preferably part-time, though a full-time position paying in the $60's or above would work nicely.  Or even a bit less.  Got to hav something, the SS retirement does not go far and Social Security has been dragging wife's SS Disability application for some two YEARS now.  I keep hearing rumors -- and seeing evidence -- of a whole lot of people drawing disability income , the legitimacy of their claims open to some doubt.  Dar Wife is legally blind, with cataracts and glaucoma, in addition to he failing kidneys, advanced lupus, lack of any thyroid gland or most of the parathyroid glands, high blood pressure, and several other things under the heading of autoimmune disease and complications from same.  Frankly, we're running out of the funds to refill the EIGHTEEN meds she must take daily just to stay alive.  That does not include the pain meds that sometimes become necessary, instead substituting aspirin, naproxyn, acetaminophen, ibuprophen, etc.  So hte need for additional income is very ral.  The disability grant would provide more funds and also put her on the Medicaid rolls.  So I am a bit stressed.

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The Old Testament reading for the day is chapters 7, 8, and 9 from the book of Ezekiel.  Prophecy with imagery.

Ezekiel 7

1	Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
2	Also, thou son of man, thus saith the Lord GOD unto the land of Israel; An end, the end is come upon the four corners of the land.
3	Now is the end come upon thee, and I will send mine anger upon thee, and will judge thee according to thy ways, and will recompense upon thee all thine abominations.
4	And mine eye shall not spare thee, neither will I have pity: but I will recompense thy ways upon thee, and thine abominations shall be in the midst of thee: and ye shall know that I am the LORD.
5	Thus saith the Lord GOD; An evil, an only evil, behold, is come.
6	An end is come, the end is come: it watcheth for thee; behold, it is come.
7	The morning is come unto thee, O thou that dwellest in the land: the time is come, the day of trouble is near, and not the sounding again of the mountains.
8	Now will I shortly pour out my fury upon thee, and accomplish mine anger upon thee: and I will judge thee according to thy ways, and will recompense thee for all thine abominations.
9	And mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity: I will recompense thee according to thy ways and thine abominations that are in the midst of thee; and ye shall know that I am the LORD that smiteth.
10	Behold the day, behold, it is come: the morning is gone forth; the rod hath blossomed, pride hath budded.
11	Violence is risen up into a rod of wickedness: none of them shall remain, nor of their multitude, nor of any of their's: neither shall there be wailing for them.
12	The time is come, the day draweth near: let not the buyer rejoice, nor the seller mourn: for wrath is upon all the multitude thereof.
13	For the seller shall not return to that which is sold, although they were yet alive: for the vision is touching the whole multitude thereof, which shall not return; neither shall any strengthen himself in the iniquity of his life.
14	They have blown the trumpet, even to make all ready; but none goeth to the battle: for my wrath is upon all the multitude thereof.
15	The sword is without, and the pestilence and the famine within: he that is in the field shall die with the sword; and he that is in the city, famine and pestilence shall devour him.
16	But they that escape of them shall escape, and shall be on the mountains like doves of the valleys, all of them mourning, every one for his iniquity.
17	All hands shall be feeble, and all knees shall be weak as water.
18	They shall also gird themselves with sackcloth, and horror shall cover them; and shame shall be upon all faces, and baldness upon all their heads.
19	They shall cast their silver in the streets, and their gold shall be removed: their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the LORD: they shall not satisfy their souls, neither fill their bowels: because it is the stumblingblock of their iniquity.
20	As for the beauty of his ornament, he set it in majesty: but they made the images of their abominations and of their detestable things therein: therefore have I set it far from them.
21	And I will give it into the hands of the strangers for a prey, and to the wicked of the earth for a spoil; and they shall pollute it.
22	My face will I turn also from them, and they shall pollute my secret place: for the robbers shall enter into it, and defile it.
23	Make a chain: for the land is full of bloody crimes, and the city is full of violence.
24	Wherefore I will bring the worst of the heathen, and they shall possess their houses: I will also make the pomp of the strong to cease; and their holy places shall be defiled.
25	Destruction cometh; and they shall seek peace, and there shall be none.
26	Mischief shall come upon mischief, and rumour shall be upon rumour; then shall they seek a vision of the prophet; but the law shall perish from the priest, and counsel from the ancients.
27	The king shall mourn, and the prince shall be clothed with desolation, and the hands of the people of the land shall be troubled: I will do unto them after their way, and according to their deserts will I judge them; and they shall know that I am the LORD.

Ezekiel 8

1	And it came to pass in the sixth year, in the sixth month, in the fifth day of the month, as I sat in mine house, and the elders of Judah sat before me, that the hand of the Lord GOD fell there upon me.
2	Then I beheld, and lo a likeness as the appearance of fire: from the appearance of his loins even downward, fire; and from his loins even upward, as the appearance of brightness, as the colour of amber.
3	And he put forth the form of an hand, and took me by a lock of mine head; and the spirit lifted me up between the earth and the heaven, and brought me in the visions of God to Jerusalem, to the door of the inner gate that looketh toward the north; where was the seat of the image of jealousy, which provoketh to jealousy.
4	And, behold, the glory of the God of Israel was there, according to the vision that I saw in the plain.
5	Then said he unto me, Son of man, lift up thine eyes now the way toward the north. So I lifted up mine eyes the way toward the north, and behold northward at the gate of the altar this image of jealousy in the entry.
6	He said furthermore unto me, Son of man, seest thou what they do? even the great abominations that the house of Israel committeth here, that I should go far off from my sanctuary? but turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations.
7	And he brought me to the door of the court; and when I looked, behold a hole in the wall.
8	Then said he unto me, Son of man, dig now in the wall: and when I had digged in the wall, behold a door.
9	And he said unto me, Go in, and behold the wicked abominations that they do here.
10	So I went in and saw; and behold every form of creeping things, and abominable beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel, pourtrayed upon the wall round about.
11	And there stood before them seventy men of the ancients of the house of Israel, and in the midst of them stood Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan, with every man his censer in his hand; and a thick cloud of incense went up.
12	Then said he unto me, Son of man, hast thou seen what the ancients of the house of Israel do in the dark, every man in the chambers of his imagery? for they say, the LORD seeth us not; the LORD hath forsaken the earth.
13	He said also unto me, Turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations that they do.
14	Then he brought me to the door of the gate of the LORD's house which was toward the north; and, behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz.
15	Then said he unto me, Hast thou seen this, O son of man? turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations than these.
16	And he brought me into the inner court of the LORD's house, and, behold, at the door of the temple of the LORD, between the porch and the altar, were about five and twenty men, with their backs toward the temple of the LORD, and their faces toward the east; and they worshipped the sun toward the east.
17	Then he said unto me, Hast thou seen this, O son of man? Is it a light thing to the house of Judah that they commit the abominations which they commit here? for they have filled the land with violence, and have returned to provoke me to anger: and, lo, they put the branch to their nose.
18	Therefore will I also deal in fury: mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity: and though they cry in mine ears with a loud voice, yet will I not hear them.

Ezekiel 9

1	He cried also in mine ears with a loud voice, saying, Cause them that have charge over the city to draw near, even every man with his destroying weapon in his hand.
2	And, behold, six men came from the way of the higher gate, which lieth toward the north, and every man a slaughter weapon in his hand; and one man among them was clothed with linen, with a writer's inkhorn by his side: and they went in, and stood beside the brasen altar.
3	And the glory of the God of Israel was gone up from the cherub, whereupon he was, to the threshold of the house. And he called to the man clothed with linen, which had the writer's inkhorn by his side;
4	And the LORD said unto him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof.
5	And to the others he said in mine hearing, Go ye after him through the city, and smite: let not your eye spare, neither have ye pity:
6	Slay utterly old and young, both maids, and little children, and women: but come not near any man upon whom is the mark; and begin at my sanctuary. Then they began at the ancient men which were before the house.
7	And he said unto them, Defile the house, and fill the courts with the slain: go ye forth. And they went forth, and slew in the city.
8	And it came to pass, while they were slaying them, and I was left, that I fell upon my face, and cried, and said, Ah Lord GOD! wilt thou destroy all the residue of Israel in thy pouring out of thy fury upon Jerusalem?
9	Then said he unto me, The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is exceeding great, and the land is full of blood, and the city full of perverseness: for they say, The LORD hath forsaken the earth, and the LORD seeth not.
10	And as for me also, mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity, but I will recompense their way upon their head.
11	And, behold, the man clothed with linen, which had the inkhorn by his side, reported the matter, saying, I have done as thou hast commanded me.

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The New Testament reading is verses 24-39 in the 10th chapter in the epistle to the Hebrews

Hebrews 10:24-39

24	And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works:
25	Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.
26	For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins,
27	But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries.
28	He that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses:
29	Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?
30	For we know him that hath said, Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense, saith the Lord. And again, The Lord shall judge his people.
31	It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
32	But call to remembrance the former days, in which, after ye were illuminated, ye endured a great fight of afflictions;
33	Partly, whilst ye were made a gazingstock both by reproaches and afflictions; and partly, whilst ye became companions of them that were so used.
34	For ye had compassion of me in my bonds, and took joyfully the spoiling of your goods, knowing in yourselves that ye have in heaven a better and an enduring substance.
35	Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward.
36	For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise.
37	For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry.
38	Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.
39	But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.