April 4: Read through the Holy Bible in a year

Mark 6:1-13, In Mark 6 Jesus proclaimed ”A Prophet is not without honor, but in his own hometown, and among his own kin.” Jesus sent out the Twelve, and they were amazed they could heal too.

Joshua 20 lists the cities of refuge, three West of Jordan and three East of Jordan.

Joshua 21 lists the 48 towns given to the Levites, they received no land. God’s promise to Israel was Finally fulfilled and the land had rest for a while.

Joshua 22. The Eastern tribes returned to their lands. On their way they built an altar by the Jordan. The Western Tribes thought by doing so they were abandoning the LORD, not so, they were confirming “it shall be a witness between us that the LORD is God.”

Psalm 30, for the dedication of the Temple. Of David. ( An alternate translation : For the dedication of the House of David.) It was written at the time of the completion of building David’s palace, but Charles Spurgeon, amoung others, thought that it was actually written prophetically for the dedication of the Temple – which David prepared for, but Solomon built. You decide.

Luke 24:1-31, the Resurrection, the Road to Emmaus.

Luke 24:1-31, the Resurrection, the Road to Emmaus.

April 3: Read through the Holy Bible in a year

Mark 5 is a chapter full of action. On a hillside east of the sea of Galilee a demon possessed man met Jesus and recognized him as “The Son of the Most High God” and begged him not to torture him. The demons in the man asked Jesus to send them into a herd of pigs, about 2000 or so. Jesus let the demons go into the swine, and they promptly rushed down the hill and into Lake Galilee and drowned. This was too much for the people living in the area, so they begged Jesus to leave. Jesus did depart, and doing so he met Jarius, who had a daughter that was dying. As they went to Jarius’ house a large crowd followed them, and a woman with a bleeding issue for twelve years touched his garment. This Jesus noticed, and said to the woman “Daughter, your faith has healed you”. While still at a distance from Jarius’ house the news arrived that Jarius’ daughter had died, they were too late for healing. Jesus ignored them, saying: “Be not afraid, only believe.” Then he told the child “Talitha koum”, she rose up, and that is the end of the chapter.

Joshua 17 describes in more detail the land that would belong to the half tribe of Manasseh, west of Jordan, and also the land of Ephraim.

Joshua 18 gives a description of how the rest of the land was to be divided, beginning with the land of Benjamin, continuing with

Joshua 19, Simeon’s inheritance with Judah, the land of Zebulon, the land of Issachar, the land of Asher, the land of Naphtali, the land of Dan and finally Joshua’s Inheritance..

Luke 12:1-34, beware of hypocrisy, the Fear of God, confess Christ, the Rich Fool, do not Worry.

Luke 12:1-34, beware of hypocrisy, the Fear of God, confess Christ, the Rich Fool, do not Worry.

This rendition of “His Eye is on the Sparrow” by Whitney Houston shows deep pain and emotion and transmits what she went through in the later parts of her short life,

April 2: Read through the Holy Bible in a year

Mark4:21-41. Jesus spoke in parables He told the parable of the lamp on a stand, not under a bushel, and the parable of the seed in the ground, followed by the parable of the faith of a mustard seed, all parables relating to the Kingdom of God. Finally Jesus calmed the storm while in a boat on lake Genesareth, and chastised the disciples for their lack of faith.

Joshua 14 describes the land west of the Jordan river, and that Caleb, still in his strength at the age of 85 wanted to inherit the hilly land of Hebron.

Joshua 15 defines geographical borders: The land of Judah, Caleb occupies Hebron and Debir and a listing of the cities of Judah.

Joshua 16 describes the land that belongs to the half tribe of Manasseh, west of Jordan, and also the land of Ephraim.

Psalm 28, of David. As so often with David, he began with a petition, asking for deliverance, then turned to praise.

Psalm 29, of David. A song of praise. This Psalm gives us a vivid description of a storm, and how the voice of God speaks through it.

Mask mandate or not. Are masks even helpful?

I am a believer in science, and as such I want to get as much information as possible before making a judgement regarding masks. So I took the official statistics of coronavirus 19 cases and deaths for the 50 states and some territories for the seven day period between March 22 thru March 28, divided them up into states with mask mandates and states with no current mask mandates, totaled them up, and this is what I found:

The total death rate for states with mask mandates: 1.46%. The total death rate for states with no mask mandates: 2.02%. This seems to indicate that wearing masks reduce deaths by 28%.

The counter argument to this is that the State of California, one of the most restrictive state in the union had a death rate of 7.63%, while South Dakota, a state that never had a lockdown, nor a mask mandate had a death rate of 0.5%. This seems to indicate that not having a mask mandate is 15 times better.

Obviously the truth is somewhere in between, wearing masks may or may not improve the situation.

These are the U.S. states and territories with mask mandates:

State Cases Deaths Death rate

Last seven days

California 2635 201 7.63%

Kentucky 600 29 4.83%

Arkansas 182 8 4.40%

Louisiana 349 14 4.01%

Alabama 419 16 3.82%

Nevada 281 9 3.20%

New Mexico 191 5 2.62%

Kansas 188 4 2.13%

Massachusetts 2123 36 1.70%

Utah 424 7 1.65%

North Carolina 1819 26| 1.43%

Indiana 848 11 1.30%

Ohio 1703 22 1.29%

New York 8171 102 1.25%

Hawaii 91 1 1.10%

Maryland 1146 12| 1.05%

Illinois 2281 23 1.01%

West Virginia 412 4 0.97%

New Hampshire 339 3 0.88%

Virginia 1506 12| 0.80%

Delaware 253 2 0.79%

Pennsylvania 4019 30 0.75%

District of Columbia 135 1 0.74%

New Jersey 4462 31 0.69%

Wisconsin 468 3 0.64%

Vermont 167 1 0.60%

Washington 1022 6 0.59%

Oregon 351 2 0.57%

Colorado 1132 6 0.53%

Maine 197 1 0.51%|

Michigan 4662 21 0.45%

Minnesota 1405 6 0.43%

Connecticut 1217 5 0.41%

American Samoa 0 0 0.00%

Total 45201 660 1.46%

These are the states and territories without mask mandates:

State Cases/day Deaths Death rate

Last seven days

Georgia 1434 58 4.04%

Arizona 547 20 3.66%

Texas 3359 100 2.98%

Montana 152 4 2.63%

Oklahoma 343 9 2.62%

Mississippi 252 6 2.38%

Nebraska 315 5 1.59%

Florida 5137 69 1.34%

South Carolina 1108 14 1.26%

Missouri 699 8 1.14%

Iowa 607 8 1.32%

Alaska 102 1 0.98%

Tennessee 1149 9 0.78%

North Dakota 134 1 0.75%

Idaho 287 2 0.70%

Wyoming 62 0.4 0.62%

South Dakota 200 1 0.50%

Total 15877 320 2.02%

Luke 23:26-56, the Crucifixion, the “Seven Last Words”, Jesus’ Death, Jesus’ Burial.

Luke 23:26-56, the Crucifixion, the “Seven Last Words”, Jesus’ Death, Jesus’ Burial.

https://lenbilen.com/2017/04/14/when-was-the-crucifixion-of-jesus/

Luke 23:1-25, Jesus before Herod and Pilate.

Luke 23:1-25, Jesus before Herod and Pilate.

April 1: Read through the Holy Bible in a year

Mark 4:1-20. Jesus told the parable of the sower, and he also provided the explanation of it, and with that the key to all parables.

Joshua 10 speaks of further battles, in the battle with the Amorites the sun stood still for a full day. After the LORD gave Israel the victory, the Amorite Kings were executed, followed by the conquest of the Southern cities.

Joshua 11 tells of the Northern Conquest and gives a summary of all the conquests.

Joshua 12 sums up the Kings conquered by Moses and the Kings conquered by Joshua.

Joshua 13 describes the land to be conquered; the land divided East of Jordan: The land of Reuben, the land of Gad and the land of Manasseh East of Jordan.