Today's Readings and Stuff -- Monday, 15 December 2014

today is a day of mourning and sorrow.  yes, it's my birthday, a catastrophe from which the world has not yet recovered.  And may never recover.  Oh, well.

I needed to run over to the doctor office, time for MY periodic visit.  Did.  First appointment of the morning, I believe.  Things very quiet there, I got the impression that some appointments had been cancelled.  Normally, there's one physician and two nurses.  Today, only one nurse there.  Doc told me one of the nurses had left for a better job, which he understood.  No information on the other.  Did the appointment, made a side trip over to the BMV office to get the license plates renewed, came home.  After that, really not much.  Too nasty outside to do anything, too broke to do much at all.  Retirement check is supposed to hit the bank in the morning.  We shall see.

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The Old Testament passage today is chapters 4, 5, and 6 of the book of Amos.

Amos 4 

1	Hear this word, ye kine of Bashan, that are in the mountain of Samaria, which oppress the poor, which crush the needy, which say to their masters, Bring, and let us drink.
2	The Lord GOD hath sworn by his holiness, that, lo, the days shall come upon you, that he will take you away with hooks, and your posterity with fishhooks.
3	And ye shall go out at the breaches, every cow at that which is before her; and ye shall cast them into the palace, saith the LORD.
4	Come to Bethel, and transgress; at Gilgal multiply transgression; and bring your sacrifices every morning, and your tithes after three years:
5	And offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving with leaven, and proclaim and publish the free offerings: for this liketh you, O ye children of Israel, saith the Lord GOD.
6	And I also have given you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and want of bread in all your places: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the LORD.
7	And also I have withholden the rain from you, when there were yet three months to the harvest: and I caused it to rain upon one city, and caused it not to rain upon another city: one piece was rained upon, and the piece whereupon it rained not withered.
8	So two or three cities wandered unto one city, to drink water; but they were not satisfied: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the LORD.
9	I have smitten you with blasting and mildew: when your gardens and your vineyards and your fig trees and your olive trees increased, the palmerworm devoured them: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the LORD.
10	I have sent among you the pestilence after the manner of Egypt: your young men have I slain with the sword, and have taken away your horses; and I have made the stink of your camps to come up unto your nostrils: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the LORD.
11	I have overthrown some of you, as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and ye were as a firebrand plucked out of the burning: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the LORD.
12	Therefore thus will I do unto thee, O Israel: and because I will do this unto thee, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel.
13	For, lo, he that formeth the mountains, and createth the wind, and declareth unto man what is his thought, that maketh the morning darkness, and treadeth upon the high places of the earth, The LORD, The God of hosts, is his name.

Amos 5 

1	Hear ye this word which I take up against you, even a lamentation, O house of Israel.
2	The virgin of Israel is fallen; she shall no more rise: she is forsaken upon her land; there is none to raise her up.
3	For thus saith the Lord GOD; The city that went out by a thousand shall leave an hundred, and that which went forth by an hundred shall leave ten, to the house of Israel.
4	For thus saith the LORD unto the house of Israel, Seek ye me, and ye shall live:
5	But seek not Bethel, nor enter into Gilgal, and pass not to Beersheba: for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, and Bethel shall come to nought.
6	Seek the LORD, and ye shall live; lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph, and devour it, and there be none to quench it in Bethel.
7	Ye who turn judgment to wormwood, and leave off righteousness in the earth,
8	Seek him that maketh the seven stars and Orion, and turneth the shadow of death into the morning, and maketh the day dark with night: that calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth: The LORD is his name:
9	That strengtheneth the spoiled against the strong, so that the spoiled shall come against the fortress.
10	They hate him that rebuketh in the gate, and they abhor him that speaketh uprightly.
11	Forasmuch therefore as your treading is upon the poor, and ye take from him burdens of wheat: ye have built houses of hewn stone, but ye shall not dwell in them; ye have planted pleasant vineyards, but ye shall not drink wine of them.
12	For I know your manifold transgressions and your mighty sins: they afflict the just, they take a bribe, and they turn aside the poor in the gate from their right.
13	Therefore the prudent shall keep silence in that time; for it is an evil time.
14	Seek good, and not evil, that ye may live: and so the LORD, the God of hosts, shall be with you, as ye have spoken.
15	Hate the evil, and love the good, and establish judgment in the gate: it may be that the LORD God of hosts will be gracious unto the remnant of Joseph.
16	Therefore the LORD, the God of hosts, the LORD, saith thus; Wailing shall be in all streets; and they shall say in all the highways, Alas! alas! and they shall call the husbandman to mourning, and such as are skilful of lamentation to wailing.
17	And in all vineyards shall be wailing: for I will pass through thee, saith the LORD.
18	Woe unto you that desire the day of the LORD! to what end is it for you? the day of the LORD is darkness, and not light.
19	As if a man did flee from a lion, and a bear met him; or went into the house, and leaned his hand on the wall, and a serpent bit him.
20	Shall not the day of the LORD be darkness, and not light? even very dark, and no brightness in it?
21	I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies.
22	Though ye offer me burnt offerings and your meat offerings, I will not accept them: neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat beasts.
23	Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs; for I will not hear the melody of thy viols.
24	But let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream.
25	Have ye offered unto me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years, O house of Israel?
26	But ye have borne the tabernacle of your Moloch and Chiun your images, the star of your god, which ye made to yourselves.
27	Therefore will I cause you to go into captivity beyond Damascus, saith the LORD, whose name is The God of hosts.

Amos 6 

1	Woe to them that are at ease in Zion, and trust in the mountain of Samaria, which are named chief of the nations, to whom the house of Israel came!
2	Pass ye unto Calneh, and see; and from thence go ye to Hamath the great: then go down to Gath of the Philistines: be they better than these kingdoms? or their border greater than your border?
3	Ye that put far away the evil day, and cause the seat of violence to come near;
4	That lie upon beds of ivory, and stretch themselves upon their couches, and eat the lambs out of the flock, and the calves out of the midst of the stall;
5	That chant to the sound of the viol, and invent to themselves instruments of musick, like David;
6	That drink wine in bowls, and anoint themselves with the chief ointments: but they are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph.
7	Therefore now shall they go captive with the first that go captive, and the banquet of them that stretched themselves shall be removed.
8	The Lord GOD hath sworn by himself, saith the LORD the God of hosts, I abhor the excellency of Jacob, and hate his palaces: therefore will I deliver up the city with all that is therein.
9	And it shall come to pass, if there remain ten men in one house, that they shall die.
10	And a man's uncle shall take him up, and he that burneth him, to bring out the bones out of the house, and shall say unto him that is by the sides of the house, Is there yet any with thee? and he shall say, No. Then shall he say, Hold thy tongue: for we may not make mention of the name of the LORD.
11	For, behold, the LORD commandeth, and he will smite the great house with breaches, and the little house with clefts.
12	Shall horses run upon the rock? will one plow there with oxen? for ye have turned judgment into gall, and the fruit of righteousness into hemlock:
13	Ye which rejoice in a thing of nought, which say, Have we not taken to us horns by our own strength?
14	But, behold, I will raise up against you a nation, O house of Israel, saith the LORD the God of hosts; and they shall afflict you from the entering in of Hemath unto the river of the wilderness.

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The New Testament reading is chapter 6 of the Revelation.

Revelation 6

1	And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard, as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, Come and see.
2	And I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer.
3	And when he had opened the second seal, I heard the second beast say, Come and see.
4	And there went out another horse that was red: and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another: and there was given unto him a great sword.
5	And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand.
6	And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine.
7	And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see.
8	And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.
9	And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held:
10	And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?
11	And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellowservants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled.
12	And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood;
13	And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind.
14	And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places.
15	And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains;
16	And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb:
17	For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?