Today's Readings and Stuff -- Wednesday, 18 December 2013

the sun is shining today.  That seems rather pedestrian, but in this corner of the world, it is a rarity.  Something of the location with respect to prevailing winds and the Great Lakes, combine to make this area the most overcast part of the USA.  Skies are almost ALWAYS gray and dismal, makes the place look like a monchrome horror movie, and the behavior of some of the citizenry is in keeping with that.  I woke up to a temperature of about 22 degrees.  I am told that the prediction for Sunday is a high of 61, but on Monday the high is predicted to be 27.  Floip-flops in the morning, arctic wear at night.  And you wonder why sinus trouble is so prevalent.
Dear Wife and family have planned a "girl's day" today, off making Christmas cookies or the like for a Great Occasion on Christmas Day, location still not revealed.  I'm epecting some calls, so plan to stay home by the phone.    -- mid-paragraph update:  18 months ago or so, she took a fall and broke an ankle.  A few months later, she re-broke it at the same place.  Brittle bones form the underlying medical issues, and side effects of the meds.  She got out of tub limping, is purple and swollen - and painful - from the toes to half-way up the lower leg.  She's staying home.  Sister is coming by to pick up the good Kitchen-Aid mixer, remnant of a long-gone restaurant she owned, and Dear Wife is planning to stay on the recliner the rest of the day.
Headhunter that called the other day said I'm to have a phone interview with a prospective employer this week.  Promised to send e-mail with details.  Nothing received so far.  I called him, got voice mail.  Left message.  Sent HIM an e-mail.  No response as of now, so am not sure what to expect at this point.

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The Old Testament reading for today is the book of Jonah.  Most people in the USA are generally familiar with parts of the story, the account of "Jonah and the Whale" rings a bell.  Bible doesn't actually SAY "whale", it says big fish.  I guess whale would do, but I guess the Lord could have prepared a very large bass as well.  Jonah doesn't come off all that well in this story, actually.  Far from being an eager and obedient servant of the Lord, when given an important mission, he runs the other way.  The result is the storms and damage that hurt other people,innocent bystanders really.  And doesn't work, he ends up at Ninevah anyway.  Somehow, being puked up by a fish doesn't sound like my every dream come true.  Knowing what I know about digestive systems, anyone caught in on for a couple days would look pretty frightful coming out, and I don't want to think about the odor.  He must have been quite a sight on the streets of the city.  You had to be able to "sense" he was there. And not happy about it either.  Not only for his adventures, but for the message he carried.  The message of repentance with the possibility of forgiveness was one he did not wish to carry.  These were the enemy, those "other people" over there.  He dearly wanted the Lord to smite and destroy them.  They deserved it.
So do I. 
The message of grace and forgiveness is a hard one to take, sometimes.  We like it for ourselves.  For others, for those who have done us wrong, not so much.

Jonah 1

1	Now the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the son of Amittai, saying,
2	Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me.
3	But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD, and went down to Joppa; and he found a ship going to Tarshish: so he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD.
4	But the LORD sent out a great wind into the sea, and there was a mighty tempest in the sea, so that the ship was like to be broken.
5	Then the mariners were afraid, and cried every man unto his god, and cast forth the wares that were in the ship into the sea, to lighten it of them. But Jonah was gone down into the sides of the ship; and he lay, and was fast asleep.
6	So the shipmaster came to him, and said unto him, What meanest thou, O sleeper? arise, call upon thy God, if so be that God will think upon us, that we perish not.
7	And they said every one to his fellow, Come, and let us cast lots, that we may know for whose cause this evil is upon us. So they cast lots, and the lot fell upon Jonah.
8	Then said they unto him, Tell us, we pray thee, for whose cause this evil is upon us; What is thine occupation? and whence comest thou? what is thy country? and of what people art thou?
9	And he said unto them, I am an Hebrew; and I fear the LORD, the God of heaven, which hath made the sea and the dry land.
10	Then were the men exceedingly afraid, and said unto him. Why hast thou done this? For the men knew that he fled from the presence of the LORD, because he had told them.
11	Then said they unto him, What shall we do unto thee, that the sea may be calm unto us? for the sea wrought, and was tempestuous.
12	And he said unto them, Take me up, and cast me forth into the sea; so shall the sea be calm unto you: for I know that for my sake this great tempest is upon you.
13	Nevertheless the men rowed hard to bring it to the land; but they could not: for the sea wrought, and was tempestuous against them.
14	Wherefore they cried unto the LORD, and said, We beseech thee, O LORD, we beseech thee, let us not perish for this man's life, and lay not upon us innocent blood: for thou, O LORD, hast done as it pleased thee.
15	So they look up Jonah, and cast him forth into the sea: and the sea ceased from her raging.
16	Then the men feared the LORD exceedingly, and offered a sacrifice unto the LORD, and made vows.
17	Now the LORD had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.

Jonah 2

1	Then Jonah prayed unto the LORD his God out of the fish's belly,
2	And said, I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the LORD, and he heard me; out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice.
3	For thou hadst cast me into the deep, in the midst of the seas; and the floods compassed me about: all thy billows and thy waves passed over me.
4	Then I said, I am cast out of thy sight; yet I will look again toward thy holy temple.
5	The waters compassed me about, even to the soul: the depth closed me round about, the weeds were wrapped about my head.
6	I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; the earth with her bars was about me for ever: yet hast thou brought up my life from corruption, O LORD my God.
7	When my soul fainted within me I remembered the LORD: and my prayer came in unto thee, into thine holy temple.
8	They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy.
9	But I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay that that I have vowed. Salvation is of the LORD.
10	And the LORD spake unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land.

Jonah 3

1	And the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the second time, saying,
2	Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee.
3	So Jonah arose, and went unto Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days' journey.
4	And Jonah began to enter into the city a day's journey, and he cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.
5	So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them.
6	For word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.
7	And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste any thing: let them not feed, nor drink water:
8	But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God: yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands.
9	Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not?
10	And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not.

Jonah 4

1	But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry.
2	And he prayed unto the LORD, and said, I pray thee, O LORD, was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish: for I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil.
3	Therefore now, O LORD, take, I beseech thee, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live.
4	Then said the LORD, Doest thou well to be angry?
5	So Jonah went out of the city, and sat on the east side of the city, and there made him a booth, and sat under it in the shadow, till he might see what would become of the city.
6	And the LORD God prepared a gourd, and made it to come up over Jonah, that it might be a shadow over his head, to deliver him from his grief. So Jonah was exceeding glad of the gourd.
7	But God prepared a worm when the morning rose the next day, and it smote the gourd that it withered.
8	And it came to pass, when the sun did arise, that God prepared a vehement east wind; and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah, that he fainted, and wished in himself to die, and said, It is better for me to die than to live.
9	And God said to Jonah, Doest thou well to be angry for the gourd? And he said, I do well to be angry, even unto death.
10	Then said the LORD, Thou hast had pity on the gourd, for the which thou hast not laboured, neither madest it grow; which came up in a night, and perished in a night:
11	And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more then sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much cattle?

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The New Testament reading is chapter 9 of the Revelation.

Revelation 9

1	And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit.
2	And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit.
3	And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power.
4	And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads.
5	And to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months: and their torment was as the torment of a scorpion, when he striketh a man.
6	And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them.
7	And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle; and on their heads were as it were crowns like gold, and their faces were as the faces of men.
8	And they had hair as the hair of women, and their teeth were as the teeth of lions.
9	And they had breastplates, as it were breastplates of iron; and the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle.
10	And they had tails like unto scorpions, and there were stings in their tails: and their power was to hurt men five months.
11	And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon.
12	One woe is past; and, behold, there come two woes more hereafter.
13	And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God,
14	Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates.
15	And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men.
16	And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand: and I heard the number of them.
17	And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them, having breastplates of fire, and of jacinth, and brimstone: and the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone.
18	By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths.
19	For their power is in their mouth, and in their tails: for their tails were like unto serpents, and had heads, and with them they do hurt.
20	And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk:
21	Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts.