Today's Readings and Stuff -- Tuesday, 24 June, 2014

another long day.
Dear Wife is on Social Security Disability now.  After having worked, often two jobs, since she was 16,  she's now pretty limited.  Near-blindness from glaucoma, cataracts, and effects of autoimmune diseases and some of the meds she must take for them, all combine to knock the heck out of the vision.  The rheumatoid arthritis makes even walking painful and difficult.
She was supposed to be in Physical Therapy this afternoon but just did not feel up to it, and called to cancel.
Meantime, I had to make a 40-mile round trip drive this morning to take possession of a little outside table and chairs for our deck, a whole $19 purchase.  Back home and set it up.  Then I took her, niece, and grand niece down to the DMV.  We've been relocated for six months or more, but still had the old plates on car.  They expire in a few days, so it's Time.   Tried to get the new driver license, but they had to do a vision test and there was a problem with machine, so I'll do that in a few days when my new car title comes through and I go to pick it up.
Ran another errand or two, got some gas, came home.  Her foot and leg are all swollen and she's in great pain.  I made dinner, rubbed the swollen areas for a while, and we're making an early night of it.

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The Old Testament reading is chapters 1, 2, and 3 of Job.  This is one of those books that deserve a lot of attention. It gets into the issue of "why do bad things happen to good people?".  We've all probably asked that, sometimes it gets restated to "why is this happening to me?", or even "where was God when all this awful stuff is happening?".  A fair question. 

and there is a piece of music to go with it.  I like it.

Job 1

1	There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job, and that man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil.
2	There were born to him seven sons and three daughters.
3	He possessed 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, and 500 female donkeys, and very many servants, so that this man was the greatest of all the people of the east.
4	His sons used to go and hold a feast in the house of each one on his day, and they would send and invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them.
5	And when the days of the feast had run their course, Job would send and consecrate them, and he would rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings according to the number of them all. For Job said, “It may be that my children have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts.” Thus Job did continually.
6	Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them.
7	The Lord said to Satan, “From where have you come?” Satan answered the Lord and said, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it.”
8	And the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?”
9	Then Satan answered the Lord and said, “Does Job fear God for no reason?
10	“Have you not put a hedge around him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land.
11	“But stretch out your hand and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face.”
12	And the Lord said to Satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your hand. Only against him do not stretch out your hand.” So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord.
13	Now there was a day when his sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house,
14	and there came a messenger to Job and said, “The oxen were plowing and the donkeys feeding beside them,
15	“and the Sabeans fell upon them and took them and struck down the servants with the edge of the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you.”
16	While he was yet speaking, there came another and said, “The fire of God fell from heaven and burned up the sheep and the servants and consumed them, and I alone have escaped to tell you.”
17	While he was yet speaking, there came another and said, “The Chaldeans formed three groups and made a raid on the camels and took them and struck down the servants with the edge of the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you.”
18	While he was yet speaking, there came another and said, “Your sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house,
19	“and behold, a great wind came across the wilderness and struck the four corners of the house, and it fell upon the young people, and they are dead, and I alone have escaped to tell you.”
20	Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped.
21	And he said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”
22	In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong.

Job 2

1	Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them to present himself before the Lord.
2	And the Lord said to Satan, “From where have you come?” Satan answered the Lord and said, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it.”
3	And the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil? He still holds fast his integrity, although you incited me against him to destroy him without reason.”
4	Then Satan answered the Lord and said, “Skin for skin! All that a man has he will give for his life.
5	“But stretch out your hand and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse you to your face.”
6	And the Lord said to Satan, “Behold, he is in your hand; only spare his life.”
7	So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord and struck Job with loathsome sores from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head.
8	And he took a piece of broken pottery with which to scrape himself while he sat in the ashes.
9	Then his wife said to him, “Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die.”
10	But he said to her, “You speak as one of the foolish women would speak. Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?” In all this Job did not sin with his lips.
11	Now when Job’s three friends heard of all this evil that had come upon him, they came each from his own place, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite. They made an appointment together to come to show him sympathy and comfort him.
12	And when they saw him from a distance, they did not recognize him. And they raised their voices and wept, and they tore their robes and sprinkled dust on their heads toward heaven.
13	And they sat with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his suffering was very great.

Job 3

1	After this Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth.
2	And Job said:
3	“Let the day perish on which I was born, and the night that said, ‘A man is conceived.’
4	“Let that day be darkness! May God above not seek it, nor light shine upon it.
5	“Let gloom and deep darkness claim it. Let clouds dwell upon it; let the blackness of the day terrify it.
6	“That night–let thick darkness seize it! Let it not rejoice among the days of the year; let it not come into the number of the months.
7	“Behold, let that night be barren; let no joyful cry enter it.
8	“Let those curse it who curse the day, who are ready to rouse up Leviathan.
9	“Let the stars of its dawn be dark; let it hope for light, but have none, nor see the eyelids of the morning,
10	“because it did not shut the doors of my mother’s womb, nor hide trouble from my eyes.
11	“Why did I not die at birth, come out from the womb and expire?
12	“Why did the knees receive me? Or why the breasts, that I should nurse?
13	“For then I would have lain down and been quiet; I would have slept; then I would have been at rest,
14	“with kings and counselors of the earth who rebuilt ruins for themselves,
15	“or with princes who had gold, who filled their houses with silver.
16	“Or why was I not as a hidden stillborn child, as infants who never see the light?
17	“There the wicked cease from troubling, and there the weary are at rest.
18	“There the prisoners are at ease together; they hear not the voice of the taskmaster.
19	“The small and the great are there, and the slave is free from his master.
20	“Why is light given to him who is in misery, and life to the bitter in soul,
21	“who long for death, but it comes not, and dig for it more than for hidden treasures,
22	“who rejoice exceedingly and are glad when they find the grave?
23	“Why is light given to a man whose way is hidden, whom God has hedged in?
24	“For my sighing comes instead of my bread, and my groanings are poured out like water.
25	“For the thing that I fear comes upon me, and what I dread befalls me.
26	“I am not at ease, nor am I quiet; I have no rest, but trouble comes.”

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The New Testament reading is verses 1-19 of chapter 7 of the Acts.  This is Steven, the first deacon, speaking.  Worth pondering.

Acts 7:1-19 

1	And the high priest said, “Are these things so?”
2	And Stephen said: “Brothers and fathers, hear me. The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran,
3	“and said to him, ‘Go out from your land and from your kindred and go into the land that I will show you.’
4	“Then he went out from the land of the Chaldeans and lived in Haran. And after his father died, God removed him from there into this land in which you are now living.
5	“Yet he gave him no inheritance in it, not even a foot’s length, but promised to give it to him as a possession and to his offspring after him, though he had no child.
6	“And God spoke to this effect–that his offspring would be sojourners in a land belonging to others, who would enslave them and afflict them four hundred years.
7	“‘But I will judge the nation that they serve,’ said God, ‘and after that they shall come out and worship me in this place.’
8	“And he gave him the covenant of circumcision. And so Abraham became the father of Isaac, and circumcised him on the eighth day, and Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob of the twelve patriarchs.
9	“And the patriarchs, jealous of Joseph, sold him into Egypt; but God was with him
10	“and rescued him out of all his afflictions and gave him favor and wisdom before Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who made him ruler over Egypt and over all his household.
11	“Now there came a famine throughout all Egypt and Canaan, and great affliction, and our fathers could find no food.
12	“But when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent out our fathers on their first visit.
13	“And on the second visit Joseph made himself known to his brothers, and Joseph’s family became known to Pharaoh.
14	“And Joseph sent and summoned Jacob his father and all his kindred, seventy-five persons in all.
15	“And Jacob went down into Egypt, and he died, he and our fathers,
16	“and they were carried back to Shechem and laid in the tomb that Abraham had bought for a sum of silver from the sons of Hamor in Shechem.
17	“But as the time of the promise drew near, which God had granted to Abraham, the people increased and multiplied in Egypt
18	“until there arose over Egypt another king who did not know Joseph.
19	“He dealt shrewdly with our race and forced our fathers to expose their infants, so that they would not be kept alive.