Today's Readings and Stuff -- Friday, 21 February, 2014

this is the next-to-last Friday in February.  Tomorrow shows on the calendar as being the last Saturday in the month, making eight days from now as the first of March.  And March has within it the first day of Spring.  Can't come soon enough for me.  There is still snow on the ground here, a great deal of it, despite two days of rain and highs above 40 degrees.  Incidentally, there's some nasty flooding associated with that. We've been spared that, so far.
Dear Wife is talking about going to a local shopping mall and getting some heavy duty walking in in a non-snow, non-cold environment.  Might be worth a try.  Will see if I'm up to it.  Doc the other day put me on a prescription -- first one I've had in quite a long time -- to deal with the LDL and it's sapping my strength and making me feel lousy.  We'll see if things settle out.

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The Old Testament reading for today in our annual trip through the Bible, is chapters 5 and 6 in the book of Numbers.

Numbers 5

1	The Lord spoke to Moses, saying,
2	“Command the people of Israel that they put out of the camp everyone who is leprous or has a discharge and everyone who is unclean through contact with the dead.
3	“You shall put out both male and female, putting them outside the camp, that they may not defile their camp, in the midst of which I dwell.”
4	And the people of Israel did so, and put them outside the camp; as the Lord said to Moses, so the people of Israel did.
5	And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying,
6	“Speak to the people of Israel, When a man or woman commits any of the sins that people commit by breaking faith with the Lord, and that person realizes his guilt,
7	“he shall confess his sin that he has committed. And he shall make full restitution for his wrong, adding a fifth to it and giving it to him to whom he did the wrong.
8	“But if the man has no next of kin to whom restitution may be made for the wrong, the restitution for wrong shall go to the Lord for the priest, in addition to the ram of atonement with which atonement is made for him.
9	“And every contribution, all the holy donations of the people of Israel, which they bring to the priest, shall be his.
10	“Each one shall keep his holy donations: whatever anyone gives to the priest shall be his.”
11	And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying,
12	“Speak to the people of Israel, If any man’s wife goes astray and breaks faith with him,
13	“if a man lies with her sexually, and it is hidden from the eyes of her husband, and she is undetected though she has defiled herself, and there is no witness against her, since she was not taken in the act,
14	“and if the spirit of jealousy comes over him and he is jealous of his wife who has defiled herself, or if the spirit of jealousy comes over him and he is jealous of his wife, though she has not defiled herself,
15	“then the man shall bring his wife to the priest and bring the offering required of her, a tenth of an ephah of barley flour. He shall pour no oil on it and put no frankincense on it, for it is a grain offering of jealousy, a grain offering of remembrance, bringing iniquity to remembrance.
16	“And the priest shall bring her near and set her before the Lord.
17	“And the priest shall take holy water in an earthenware vessel and take some of the dust that is on the floor of the tabernacle and put it into the water.
18	“And the priest shall set the woman before the Lord and unbind the hair of the woman’s head and place in her hands the grain offering of remembrance, which is the grain offering of jealousy. And in his hand the priest shall have the water of bitterness that brings the curse.
19	“Then the priest shall make her take an oath, saying, ‘If no man has lain with you, and if you have not turned aside to uncleanness while you were under your husband’s authority, be free from this water of bitterness that brings the curse.
20	“‘But if you have gone astray, though you are under your husband’s authority, and if you have defiled yourself, and some man other than your husband has lain with you,
21	“‘then’ (let the priest make the woman take the oath of the curse, and say to the woman) ‘the Lord make you a curse and an oath among your people, when the Lord makes your thigh fall away and your body swell.
22	“‘May this water that brings the curse pass into your bowels and make your womb swell and your thigh fall away.’ And the woman shall say, ‘Amen, Amen.’
23	“Then the priest shall write these curses in a book and wash them off into the water of bitterness.
24	“And he shall make the woman drink the water of bitterness that brings the curse, and the water that brings the curse shall enter into her and cause bitter pain.
25	“And the priest shall take the grain offering of jealousy out of the woman’s hand and shall wave the grain offering before the Lord and bring it to the altar.
26	“And the priest shall take a handful of the grain offering, as its memorial portion, and burn it on the altar, and afterward shall make the woman drink the water.
27	“And when he has made her drink the water, then, if she has defiled herself and has broken faith with her husband, the water that brings the curse shall enter into her and cause bitter pain, and her womb shall swell, and her thigh shall fall away, and the woman shall become a curse among her people.
28	“But if the woman has not defiled herself and is clean, then she shall be free and shall conceive children.
29	“This is the law in cases of jealousy, when a wife, though under her husband’s authority, goes astray and defiles herself,
30	“or when the spirit of jealousy comes over a man and he is jealous of his wife. Then he shall set the woman before the Lord, and the priest shall carry out for her all this law.
31	“The man shall be free from iniquity, but the woman shall bear her iniquity.”

Numbers 6

1	And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying,
2	“Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When either a man or a woman makes a special vow, the vow of a Nazirite, to separate himself to the Lord,
3	“he shall separate himself from wine and strong drink. He shall drink no vinegar made from wine or strong drink and shall not drink any juice of grapes or eat grapes, fresh or dried.
4	“All the days of his separation he shall eat nothing that is produced by the grapevine, not even the seeds or the skins.
5	“All the days of his vow of separation, no razor shall touch his head. Until the time is completed for which he separates himself to the Lord, he shall be holy. He shall let the locks of hair of his head grow long.
6	“All the days that he separates himself to the Lord he shall not go near a dead body.
7	“Not even for his father or for his mother, for brother or sister, if they die, shall he make himself unclean, because his separation to God is on his head.
8	“All the days of his separation he is holy to the Lord.
9	“And if any man dies very suddenly beside him and he defiles his consecrated head, then he shall shave his head on the day of his cleansing; on the seventh day he shall shave it.
10	“On the eighth day he shall bring two turtledoves or two pigeons to the priest to the entrance of the tent of meeting,
11	“and the priest shall offer one for a sin offering and the other for a burnt offering, and make atonement for him, because he sinned by reason of the dead body. And he shall consecrate his head that same day
12	“and separate himself to the Lord for the days of his separation and bring a male lamb a year old for a guilt offering. But the previous period shall be void, because his separation was defiled.
13	“And this is the law for the Nazirite, when the time of his separation has been completed: he shall be brought to the entrance of the tent of meeting,
14	“and he shall bring his gift to the Lord, one male lamb a year old without blemish for a burnt offering, and one ewe lamb a year old without blemish as a sin offering, and one ram without blemish as a peace offering,
15	“and a basket of unleavened bread, loaves of fine flour mixed with oil, and unleavened wafers smeared with oil, and their grain offering and their drink offerings.
16	“And the priest shall bring them before the Lord and offer his sin offering and his burnt offering,
17	“and he shall offer the ram as a sacrifice of peace offering to the Lord, with the basket of unleavened bread. The priest shall offer also its grain offering and its drink offering.
18	“And the Nazirite shall shave his consecrated head at the entrance of the tent of meeting and shall take the hair from his consecrated head and put it on the fire that is under the sacrifice of the peace offering.
19	“And the priest shall take the shoulder of the ram, when it is boiled, and one unleavened loaf out of the basket and one unleavened wafer, and shall put them on the hands of the Nazirite, after he has shaved the hair of his consecration,
20	“and the priest shall wave them for a wave offering before the Lord. They are a holy portion for the priest, together with the breast that is waved and the thigh that is contributed. And after that the Nazirite may drink wine.
21	“This is the law of the Nazirite. But if he vows an offering to the Lord above his Nazirite vow, as he can afford, in exact accordance with the vow that he takes, then he shall do in addition to the law of the Nazirite.”
22	The Lord spoke to Moses, saying,
23	“Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying, Thus you shall bless the people of Israel: you shall say to them,
24	“The Lord bless you and keep you;
25	“the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you;
26	“the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.
27	“So shall they put my name upon the people of Israel, and I will bless them.”

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The New Testament passage for today is verses 1-20 from the 4th chapter in the Gospel of Mark.

Mark 4:1-20

1	Again he began to teach beside the sea. And a very large crowd gathered about him, so that he got into a boat and sat in it on the sea, and the whole crowd was beside the sea on the land.
2	And he was teaching them many things in parables, and in his teaching he said to them:
3	“Listen! Behold, a sower went out to sow.
4	“And as he sowed, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured it.
5	“Other seed fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil, and immediately it sprang up, since it had no depth of soil.
6	“And when the sun rose, it was scorched, and since it had no root, it withered away.
7	“Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain.
8	“And other seeds fell into good soil and produced grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.”
9	And he said, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”
10	And when he was alone, those around him with the twelve asked him about the parables.
11	And he said to them, “To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside everything is in parables,
12	“so that ‘they may indeed see but not perceive, and may indeed hear but not understand, lest they should turn and be forgiven.’”
13	And he said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables?
14	“The sower sows the word.
15	“And these are the ones along the path, where the word is sown: when they hear, Satan immediately comes and takes away the word that is sown in them.
16	“And these are the ones sown on rocky ground: the ones who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy.
17	“And they have no root in themselves, but endure for a while; then, when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately they fall away.
18	“And others are the ones sown among thorns. They are those who hear the word,
19	“but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful.
20	“But those that were sown on the good soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.”