Scotland

Was thinking today
about my Aunty Sheila

I remember once
Mum was paying for something
In the Inverness Tourism Shop

[Mum likes to buy these little trinkets
From random non-shopping shops]

And either I spotted it first
Or she was playing on the stereo

But I picked up Karine Polwart
and I knew I wanted to buy her
music

So today
I was thinking about
My Aunty Sheila

And here are three Karine Polwart songs
That got me through my adolescence

this good year

me: 2 kings 10:28-32

28 So Jehu destroyed Baal worship in Israel. 29 However, he did not turn away from the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, which he had caused Israel to commit—the worship of the golden calves at Bethel and Dan.

30 The Lord said to Jehu, “Because you have done well in accomplishing what is right in my eyes and have done to the house of Ahab all I had in mind to do, your descendants will sit on the throne of Israel to the fourth generation.”31 Yet Jehu was not careful to keep the law of the Lord, the God of Israel, with all his heart. He did not turn away from the sins of Jeroboam, which he had caused Israel to commit.

32 In those days the Lord began to reduce the size of Israel. Hazaeloverpowered the Israelites throughout their territory 33 east of the Jordan in all the land of Gilead (the region of Gad, Reuben and Manasseh), from Aroer by the Arnon Gorge through Gilead to Bashan.

ynccf: acts 11:19-26

19 Now those who were scattered because of the persecution that arose over Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, speaking the word to no one except Jews. 20 But there were some of them, men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who on coming to Antioch spoke to the Hellenists[c] also, preaching the Lord Jesus. 21 And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number who believed turned to the Lord. 22 The report of this came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch. 23 When he came and saw the grace of God, he was glad, and he exhorted them all to remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast purpose, 24 for he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. And a great many people were added to the Lord. 25 So Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul, 26 and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. For a whole year they met with the church and taught a great many people. And in Antioch the disciples were first called Christians.

life: exodus 14:14 + Moses' song

14 The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.”

15 Then Moses and the people of Israel sang this song to the Lord, saying,

“I will sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously;
    the horse and his rider[a] he has thrown into the sea.
2 The Lord is my strength and my song,
    and he has become my salvation;
this is my God, and I will praise him,
    my father's God, and I will exalt him.
3 The Lord is a man of war;
    the Lord is his name.

4 “Pharaoh's chariots and his host he cast into the sea,
    and his chosen officers were sunk in the Red Sea.
5 The floods covered them;
    they went down into the depths like a stone.
6 Your right hand, O Lord, glorious in power,
    your right hand, O Lord, shatters the enemy.
7 In the greatness of your majesty you overthrow your adversaries;
    you send out your fury; it consumes them like stubble.
8 At the blast of your nostrils the waters piled up;
    the floods stood up in a heap;
    the deeps congealed in the heart of the sea.
9 The enemy said, ‘I will pursue, I will overtake,
    I will divide the spoil, my desire shall have its fill of them.
    I will draw my sword; my hand shall destroy them.’
10 You blew with your wind; the sea covered them;
    they sank like lead in the mighty waters.

11 “Who is like you, O Lord, among the gods?
    Who is like you, majestic in holiness,
    awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders?
12 You stretched out your right hand;
    the earth swallowed them.

13 “You have led in your steadfast love the people whom you have redeemed;
    you have guided them by your strength to your holy abode.
14 The peoples have heard; they tremble;
    pangs have seized the inhabitants of Philistia.
15 Now are the chiefs of Edom dismayed;
    trembling seizes the leaders of Moab;
    all the inhabitants of Canaan have melted away.
16 Terror and dread fall upon them;
    because of the greatness of your arm, they are still as a stone,
till your people, O Lord, pass by,
    till the people pass by whom you have purchased.
17 You will bring them in and plant them on your own mountain,
    the place, O Lord, which you have made for your abode,
    the sanctuary, O Lord, which your hands have established.
18 The Lord will reign forever and ever.”

19 For when the horses of Pharaoh with his chariots and his horsemen went into the sea, the Lord brought back the waters of the sea upon them, but the people of Israel walked on dry ground in the midst of the sea. 20 Then Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a tambourine in her hand, and all the women went out after her with tambourines and dancing. 21 And Miriam sang to them:

“Sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously;
the horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea.”

habitat: 1 corinthians 3

3 But I, brothers,[a] could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. 2 I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready, 3 for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way? 4 For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not being merely human?

5 What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. 6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. 7 So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. 8 He who plants and he who waters are one, and eachwill receive his wages according to his labor. 9 For we are God's fellow workers. You are God's field, God's building.

10 According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it. 11 For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12 Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw— 13 each one's work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. 14 If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. 15 If anyone's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.

16 Do you not know that you[b] are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you? 17 If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him. For God's temple is holy, and you are that temple.

18 Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. 19 For the wisdom of this world is folly with God. For it is written, “He catches the wise in their craftiness,” 20 and again, “The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile.” 21 So let no one boast in men. For all things are yours, 22 whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, 23 and you are Christ's, and Christ is God's.

The wrath of God

James 4: 13-17 
Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.

---- --- -----

I believe in God, the Father almighty,
      creator of heaven and earth.

I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,
      who was conceived by the Holy Spirit
      and born of the virgin Mary.
      He suffered under Pontius Pilate,
      was crucified, died, and was buried;
      he descended to hell.
      The third day he rose again from the dead.
      He ascended to heaven
      and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty.
      From there he will come to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit,
      the holy catholic* church,
      the communion of saints,
      the forgiveness of sins,
      the resurrection of the body,
      and the life everlasting. Amen.

*that is, the true Christian church of all times and all places

Amen.

For the children

http://bible.com/59/jos.1.1-18.ESV After the death of Moses the servant of the Lord , the Lord said to Joshua the son of Nun, Moses’ assistant, “Moses my servant is dead. Now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, into the land that I am giving to them, to the people of Israel. Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given to you, just as I promised to Moses. From the wilderness and this Lebanon as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites to the Great Sea toward the going down of the sun shall be your territory. No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life. Just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you or forsake you. Be strong and courageous, for you shall cause this people to inherit the land that I swore to their fathers to give them. Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go. This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”  And Joshua commanded the officers of the people, “Pass through the midst of the camp and command the people, ‘Prepare your provisions, for within three days you are to pass over this Jordan to go in to take possession of the land that the Lord your God is giving you to possess.’”  And to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh Joshua said, “Remember the word that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded you, saying, ‘The Lord your God is providing you a place of rest and will give you this land.’ Your wives, your little ones, and your livestock shall remain in the land that Moses gave you beyond the Jordan, but all the men of valor among you shall pass over armed before your brothers and shall help them, until the Lord gives rest to your brothers as he has to you, and they also take possession of the land that the Lord your God is giving them. Then you shall return to the land of your possession and shall possess it, the land that Moses the servant of the Lord gave you beyond the Jordan toward the sunrise.”  And they answered Joshua, “All that you have commanded us we will do, and wherever you send us we will go. Just as we obeyed Moses in all things, so we will obey you. Only may the Lord your God be with you, as he was with Moses! Whoever rebels against your commandment and disobeys your words, whatever you command him, shall be put to death. Only be strong and courageous.”

The God of Circles

http://bible.com/59/job.9.1-35.ESV Then Job answered and said:  “Truly I know that it is so: But how can a man be in the right before God?  If one wished to contend with him, one could not answer him once in a thousand times.  He is wise in heart and mighty in strength —who has hardened himself against him, and succeeded?—  he who removes mountains, and they know it not, when he overturns them in his anger,  who shakes the earth out of its place, and its pillars tremble;  who commands the sun, and it does not rise; who seals up the stars;  who alone stretched out the heavens and trampled the waves of the sea;  who made the Bear and Orion, the Pleiades and the chambers of the south;  who does great things beyond searching out, and marvelous things beyond number.  Behold, he passes by me, and I see him not; he moves on, but I do not perceive him.  Behold, he snatches away; who can turn him back? Who will say to him, ‘What are you doing?’  “God will not turn back his anger; beneath him bowed the helpers of Rahab.   How then can I answer him, choosing my words with him?   Though I am in the right, I cannot answer him; I must appeal for mercy to my accuser.  If I summoned him and he answered me, I would not believe that he was listening to my voice.  For he crushes me with a tempest and multiplies my wounds without cause;  he will not let me get my breath, but fills me with bitterness.  If it is a contest of strength, behold, he is mighty! If it is a matter of justice, who can summon him?  Though I am in the right, my own mouth would condemn me; though I am blameless, he would prove me perverse.  I am blameless; I regard not myself; I loathe my life.  It is all one; therefore I say, ‘He destroys both the blameless and the wicked.’  When disaster brings sudden death, he mocks at the calamity of the innocent.   The earth is given into the hand of the wicked; he covers the faces of its judges— if it is not he, who then is it?  “My days are swifter than a runner; they flee away; they see no good.  They go by like skiffs of reed, like an eagle swooping on the prey.  If I say, ‘I will forget my complaint, I will put off my sad face, and be of good cheer,’  I become afraid of all my suffering, for I know you will not hold me innocent.  I shall be condemned; why then do I labor in vain?  If I wash myself with snow and cleanse my hands with lye,  yet you will plunge me into a pit, and my own clothes will abhor me.  For he is not a man, as I am, that I might answer him, that we should come to trial together.   There is no arbiter between us, who might lay his hand on us both.   Let him take his rod away from me, and let not dread of him terrify me.  Then I would speak without fear of him, for I am not so in myself.

The God of Circles

http://bible.com/59/job.9.1-35.ESV Then Job answered and said:  “Truly I know that it is so: But how can a man be in the right before God?  If one wished to contend with him, one could not answer him once in a thousand times.  He is wise in heart and mighty in strength —who has hardened himself against him, and succeeded?—  he who removes mountains, and they know it not, when he overturns them in his anger,  who shakes the earth out of its place, and its pillars tremble;  who commands the sun, and it does not rise; who seals up the stars;  who alone stretched out the heavens and trampled the waves of the sea;  who made the Bear and Orion, the Pleiades and the chambers of the south;  who does great things beyond searching out, and marvelous things beyond number.  Behold, he passes by me, and I see him not; he moves on, but I do not perceive him.  Behold, he snatches away; who can turn him back? Who will say to him, ‘What are you doing?’  “God will not turn back his anger; beneath him bowed the helpers of Rahab.   How then can I answer him, choosing my words with him?   Though I am in the right, I cannot answer him; I must appeal for mercy to my accuser.  If I summoned him and he answered me, I would not believe that he was listening to my voice.  For he crushes me with a tempest and multiplies my wounds without cause;  he will not let me get my breath, but fills me with bitterness.  If it is a contest of strength, behold, he is mighty! If it is a matter of justice, who can summon him?  Though I am in the right, my own mouth would condemn me; though I am blameless, he would prove me perverse.  I am blameless; I regard not myself; I loathe my life.  It is all one; therefore I say, ‘He destroys both the blameless and the wicked.’  When disaster brings sudden death, he mocks at the calamity of the innocent.   The earth is given into the hand of the wicked; he covers the faces of its judges— if it is not he, who then is it?  “My days are swifter than a runner; they flee away; they see no good.  They go by like skiffs of reed, like an eagle swooping on the prey.  If I say, ‘I will forget my complaint, I will put off my sad face, and be of good cheer,’  I become afraid of all my suffering, for I know you will not hold me innocent.  I shall be condemned; why then do I labor in vain?  If I wash myself with snow and cleanse my hands with lye,  yet you will plunge me into a pit, and my own clothes will abhor me.  For he is not a man, as I am, that I might answer him, that we should come to trial together.   There is no arbiter between us, who might lay his hand on us both.   Let him take his rod away from me, and let not dread of him terrify me.  Then I would speak without fear of him, for I am not so in myself.