Today's Readings and Stuff -- Saturday, 12 March 2016

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Last night we were down to 28 degrees.  36 now.  Supposed to hit 60 today.  Quite a swing!
In a short while, off to a family gathering -- Dear Wife's nephew has a son turning 9 years old, so A Big Deal will be made of it, they've reserved (paid for) space at a local roller skating rink.  Probably can't do much damage there if it's survived a few generations of the locals, Dear Wife having been one of them at a much earlier age.
It leaves me a bit disconnected: we NEVER had such things when I was a kid.  A cake, sure, at home, with the immediate family.  Nothing more. We did a bit more than that with our daughters, but nothing to compare with some of these things. 
But we'll go, smile, and wait for the blasted thing to be over.  Sorry.  Just not really into this stuff.

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The morning's Old Testament reading is chapters 17, 18, and 19 of Deuteronomy.  A whole lot of this comes down to whole-heartedly following the Lord, and Him ONLY.  None of that syncretism that has infected too much of western "christianity" (small-c deliberate).

Deuteronomy 17

1	Thou shalt not sacrifice unto the LORD thy God any bullock, or sheep, wherein is blemish, or any evilfavouredness: for that is an abomination unto the LORD thy God.
2	If there be found among you, within any of thy gates which the LORD thy God giveth thee, man or woman, that hath wrought wickedness in the sight of the LORD thy God, in transgressing his covenant,
3	And hath gone and served other gods, and worshipped them, either the sun, or moon, or any of the host of heaven, which I have not commanded;
4	And it be told thee, and thou hast heard of it, and inquired diligently, and, behold, it be true, and the thing certain, that such abomination is wrought in Israel:
5	Then shalt thou bring forth that man or that woman, which have committed that wicked thing, unto thy gates, even that man or that woman, and shalt stone them with stones, till they die.
6	At the mouth of two witnesses, or three witnesses, shall he that is worthy of death be put to death; but at the mouth of one witness he shall not be put to death.
7	The hands of the witnesses shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterward the hands of all the people. So thou shalt put the evil away from among you.
8	If there arise a matter too hard for thee in judgment, between blood and blood, between plea and plea, and between stroke and stroke, being matters of controversy within thy gates: then shalt thou arise, and get thee up into the place which the LORD thy God shall choose;
9	And thou shalt come unto the priests the Levites, and unto the judge that shall be in those days, and inquire; and they shall show thee the sentence of judgment:
10	And thou shalt do according to the sentence, which they of that place which the LORD shall choose shall show thee; and thou shalt observe to do according to all that they inform thee:
11	According to the sentence of the law which they shall teach thee, and according to the judgment which they shall tell thee, thou shalt do: thou shalt not decline from the sentence which they shall show thee, to the right hand, nor to the left.
12	And the man that will do presumptuously, and will not hearken unto the priest that standeth to minister there before the LORD thy God, or unto the judge, even that man shall die: and thou shalt put away the evil from Israel.
13	And all the people shall hear, and fear, and do no more presumptuously.
14	When thou art come unto the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, and shalt possess it, and shalt dwell therein, and shalt say, I will set a king over me, like as all the nations that are about me;
15	Thou shalt in any wise set him king over thee, whom the LORD thy God shall choose: one from among thy brethren shalt thou set king over thee: thou mayest not set a stranger over thee, which is not thy brother.
16	But he shall not multiply horses to himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt, to the end that he should multiply horses: forasmuch as the LORD hath said unto you, Ye shall henceforth return no more that way.
17	Neither shall he multiply wives to himself, that his heart turn not away: neither shall he greatly multiply to himself silver and gold.
18	And it shall be, when he sitteth upon the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write him a copy of this law in a book out of that which is before the priests the Levites:
19	And it shall be with him, and he shall read therein all the days of his life: that he may learn to fear the LORD his God, to keep all the words of this law and these statutes, to do them:
20	That his heart be not lifted up above his brethren, and that he turn not aside from the commandment, to the right hand, or to the left: to the end that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he, and his children, in the midst of Israel.

Deuteronomy 18

1	The priests the Levites, and all the tribe of Levi, shall have no part nor inheritance with Israel: they shall eat the offerings of the LORD made by fire, and his inheritance.
2	Therefore shall they have no inheritance among their brethren: the LORD is their inheritance, as he hath said unto them.
3	And this shall be the priest's due from the people, from them that offer a sacrifice, whether it be ox or sheep; and they shall give unto the priest the shoulder, and the two cheeks, and the maw.
4	The firstfruit also of thy corn, of thy wine, and of thine oil, and the first of the fleece of thy sheep, shalt thou give him.
5	For the LORD thy God hath chosen him out of all thy tribes, to stand to minister in the name of the LORD, him and his sons for ever.
6	And if a Levite come from any of thy gates out of all Israel, where he sojourned, and come with all the desire of his mind unto the place which the LORD shall choose;
7	Then he shall minister in the name of the LORD his God, as all his brethren the Levites do, which stand there before the LORD.
8	They shall have like portions to eat, beside that which cometh of the sale of his patrimony.
9	When thou art come into the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of those nations.
10	There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch.
11	Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer.
12	For all that do these things are an abomination unto the LORD: and because of these abominations the LORD thy God doth drive them out from before thee.
13	Thou shalt be perfect with the LORD thy God.
14	For these nations, which thou shalt possess, hearkened unto observers of times, and unto diviners: but as for thee, the LORD thy God hath not suffered thee so to do.
15	The LORD thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken;
16	According to all that thou desiredst of the LORD thy God in Horeb in the day of the assembly, saying, Let me not hear again the voice of the LORD my God, neither let me see this great fire any more, that I die not.
17	And the LORD said unto me, They have well spoken that which they have spoken.
18	I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him.
19	And it shall come to pass, that whosoever will not hearken unto my words which he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him.
20	But the prophet, which shall presume to speak a word in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or that shall speak in the name of other gods, even that prophet shall die.
21	And if thou say in thine heart, How shall we know the word which the LORD hath not spoken?
22	When a prophet speaketh in the name of the LORD, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the LORD hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him.

Deuteronomy 19

1	When the LORD thy God hath cut off the nations, whose land the LORD thy God giveth thee, and thou succeedest them, and dwellest in their cities, and in their houses;
2	Thou shalt separate three cities for thee in the midst of thy land, which the LORD thy God giveth thee to possess it.
3	Thou shalt prepare thee a way, and divide the coasts of thy land, which the LORD thy God giveth thee to inherit, into three parts, that every slayer may flee thither.
4	And this is the case of the slayer, which shall flee thither, that he may live: Whoso killeth his neighbor ignorantly, whom he hated not in time past;
5	As when a man goeth into the wood with his neighbor to hew wood, and his hand fetcheth a stroke with the axe to cut down the tree, and the head slippeth from the helve, and lighteth upon his neighbor, that he die; he shall flee unto one of those cities, and live:
6	Lest the avenger of the blood pursue the slayer, while his heart is hot, and overtake him, because the way is long, and slay him; whereas he was not worthy of death, inasmuch as he hated him not in time past.
7	Wherefore I command thee, saying, Thou shalt separate three cities for thee.
8	And if the LORD thy God enlarge thy coast, as he hath sworn unto thy fathers, and give thee all the land which he promised to give unto thy fathers;
9	If thou shalt keep all these commandments to do them, which I command thee this day, to love the LORD thy God, and to walk ever in his ways; then shalt thou add three cities more for thee, beside these three:
10	That innocent blood be not shed in thy land, which the LORD thy God giveth thee for an inheritance, and so blood be upon thee.
11	But if any man hate his neighbor, and lie in wait for him, and rise up against him, and smite him mortally that he die, and fleeth into one of these cities:
12	Then the elders of his city shall send and fetch him thence, and deliver him into the hand of the avenger of blood, that he may die.
13	Thine eye shall not pity him, but thou shalt put away the guilt of innocent blood from Israel, that it may go well with thee.
14	Thou shalt not remove thy neighbor's landmark, which they of old time have set in thine inheritance, which thou shalt inherit in the land that the LORD thy God giveth thee to possess it.
15	One witness shall not rise up against a man for any iniquity, or for any sin, in any sin that he sinneth: at the mouth of two witnesses, or at the mouth of three witnesses, shall the matter be established.
16	If a false witness rise up against any man to testify against him that which is wrong;
17	Then both the men, between whom the controversy is, shall stand before the LORD, before the priests and the judges, which shall be in those days;
18	And the judges shall make diligent inquisition: and, behold, if the witness be a false witness, and hath testified falsely against his brother;
19	Then shall ye do unto him, as he had thought to have done unto his brother: so shalt thou put the evil away from among you.
20	And those which remain shall hear, and fear, and shall henceforth commit no more any such evil among you.
21	And thine eye shall not pity; but life shall go for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.

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The New Testament reading is verses 1-25 in Mark 14
Things are moving faster and faster now.  This passage will end with the Last Supper.
But before that, we have the moving story, too often one we race past, of the woman who pours an alabaster box of very precious ointment on His head.  She had reason to do so.  She held nothing back, just as He was about to.  Someone made a song out of that interlude, and I love it. Today's song "The Alabaster Box".

Mark 14:1-25

1	After two days was the feast of the passover, and of unleavened bread: and the chief priests and the scribes sought how they might take him by craft, and put him to death.
2	But they said, Not on the feast day, lest there be an uproar of the people.
3	And being in Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at meat, there came a woman having an alabaster box of ointment of spikenard very precious; and she brake the box, and poured it on his head.
4	And there were some that had indignation within themselves, and said, Why was this waste of the ointment made?
5	For it might have been sold for more than three hundred pence, and have been given to the poor. And they murmured against her.
6	And Jesus said, Let her alone; why trouble ye her? she hath wrought a good work on me.
7	For ye have the poor with you always, and whensoever ye will ye may do them good: but me ye have not always.
8	She hath done what she could: she is come aforehand to anoint my body to the burying.
9	Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world, this also that she hath done shall be spoken of for a memorial of her.
10	And Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve, went unto the chief priests, to betray him unto them.
11	And when they heard it, they were glad, and promised to give him money. And he sought how he might conveniently betray him.
12	And the first day of unleavened bread, when they killed the passover, his disciples said unto him, Where wilt thou that we go and prepare that thou mayest eat the passover?
13	And he sendeth forth two of his disciples, and saith unto them, Go ye into the city, and there shall meet you a man bearing a pitcher of water: follow him.
14	And wheresoever he shall go in, say ye to the goodman of the house, The Master saith, Where is the guestchamber, where I shall eat the passover with my disciples?
15	And he will shew you a large upper room furnished and prepared: there make ready for us.
16	And his disciples went forth, and came into the city, and found as he had said unto them: and they made ready the passover.
17	And in the evening he cometh with the twelve.
18	And as they sat and did eat, Jesus said, Verily I say unto you, One of you which eateth with me shall betray me.
19	And they began to be sorrowful, and to say unto him one by one, Is it I? and another said, Is it I?
20	And he answered and said unto them, It is one of the twelve, that dippeth with me in the dish.
21	The Son of man indeed goeth, as it is written of him: but woe to that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed! good were it for that man if he had never been born.
22	And as they did eat, Jesus took bread, and blessed, and brake it, and gave to them, and said, Take, eat: this is my body.
23	And he took the cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them: and they all drank of it.
24	And he said unto them, This is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many.
25	Verily I say unto you, I will drink no more of the fruit of the vine, until that day that I drink it new in the kingdom of God.