Reading from Friday, July 2

Hey friends. So today is Kreacher's third birthday. Kreacher is my dog. He's a bulldog and he's real ugly. He's also the cutest baby in the world. I mean look at this:

That little guy is three years old today! Let's hear it for him! WOOOO!!! Kreacher, yeah!!

He got a new toy from the dollar store which he thinks is the best thing in the world right now, so he's havin a pretty slammin birthday.

Reading for July 2
2 Kings 20:1-22:2
So now with Israel handed over to other nations, God's focus seems to be squarely on Judah. Hezekiah, who had been a good and faithful king, was getting ready to die of an infection. God allowed this infection to be healed and Hezekiah lived another fifteen years when he was previously told to get his affairs in order because he would not recover.

Then Manasseh takes the throne of Judah and he corrupts the throne like the Isareli kings before him. This was the last straw. His beloved nation of Judah now had a corrupt king? His cherished nation of David's ancestors had now been sullied. So in the same way God "got rid of" Israel, he promises to do the same thing to Judah here in this chapter. He says, "I will wipe out Jerusalem as one wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down." That's pretty intimidating.

This whole scene also lends credibility that God is not all knowing. Operating under the assumption that these kings were divinely chosen, there is no way that God would have picked a king, knowing he was going to be corrupt and then punishing the people for following their corrupt king which he supposedly put into power. Again. God has plans, people have other plans. Those plans suck. God's plans are awesome.

Acts 21:18-36
So Paul makes it back to Jerusalem - the center of our whole story. When he arrives, he hears from the other disciples that the Jews are making stuff up about him; saying that he had been preaching against the laws of Moses and against the customs of the Jewish people. Paul, on his was out into town, was spotted by a few people who incited a huge uproar and were about to kill him. A Roman soldier heard the commotion and came out and tried to arrest him, but because of the crowd, he couldn't converse with Paul so he had him put in what I suppose is like a holding cell temporarily.

This is the third time, I think, that Paul has been in jail. That's pretty crazy.

Psalm 150:1-6
Hey - this is the last Psalm in the Bible! The plan has me reading through the entire book again now as I finish the rest of the other books, so it will be cool to read through them again with a fresh perspective. This one, however isn't anything new or terribly exciting. I do like this line though:

 ⁵ praise him with the clash of cymbals,
       praise him with resounding cymbals.
 ⁶ Let everything that has breath praise the LORD.
       Praise the LORD.

If I was a drummer I would hang verse 5 above my drumset. 


Proverbs 18:9-10
 ⁹ One who is slack in his work
       is brother to one who destroys.
 ¹⁰ The name of the LORD is a strong tower;
       the righteous run to it and are safe.

OK, I'm fairly exhausted. Time for bedso yo yo.