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August 23, read through the Holy Bible in a year in Power-point, with comments.

Today we read the third chapter of The Apostle Paul’s letter to the Colossians and three chapters of Isaiah.

August 23: Colossians 3, Isaiah 36, Isaiah 37, Isaiah 38 (click on the chapter to begin reading).

Colossians 3. Paul listed the rules for holy living; not carnality but Christ, the character of the New Man and proper relationships in the christian home.

Isaiah 36. Isaiah broke from prophecy and gave a historical rendition, duplicated in 2 Kings. This is not plagiarism, Isaiah was the scribe during Hezekiah’s reign.

Isaiah 37. Jerusalem’s deliverance is foretold, Hezekiah’s prayer and the word of the LORD concerning Sennacherib is recorded, and Hezekiah’s final fall.

Isaiah 38 describes Hezekiah’s illness and how the LORD added 15 years to his life.

U.S.A. death rate from the corona virus currently at 3.1%, 45 countries have higher death rates.

Here are the Corona-virus death rates for the 11 largest counties in the U.S.A

County population cases deaths percentage deaths

Los Angeles 10,105,518 227,346 5,446 2.4%

Cook, IL 5,180,493 119,000 4,988 4.2%

Harris, TX 4,698,619 95,631 1,122 1.2%

Maricopa, AZ 4,410,824 131,044 2,745 2.1%

San Diego 3,343,364 35, 608 644 1.8%

Orange, CA 3,185,968 44.936 856 1.9%

Miami-Dade 2,761,581 150,305 2,219 1.5%

Dallas 2,637,772 69.343 854 1.2%

Kings, NYC 2,582,830 65,867 7,274 11.0%

Riverside, CA 2,450,758 48,956 922 1.9%

Queens, NYC 2,278,906 70,770` 7,212 10.2%

The total death rates are below 2% for 6 of the 11 largest counties, 2.4% for Los Angeles county and 2.1% for Phoenix in Arizona. Florida has 1.5% and Texas has 1.2%. Brooklyn and Queens in New York City are standouts, their death rates are over 10%. Thanks to Governor Cuomo’s directive to place covid patients back in nursing homes after they tested positive the death rate sky-rocketed in New York State. And Governor Cuomo bragged about how well he handled the Corona virus at the Democratic convention. But he was not alone. The governors of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Michigan did the same, no extra protection for the most vulnerable. The Corona virus death rates could have been much lower. As it is, the cases, deaths and death rates for U.S.A. is 5,784,781 178,972 and 3.1%

The Democratic convention speakers assured us that this was the worst result of any country in the world, thanks to President Trump’s inaction and refusal to accept science. So, how do U.S.A. compare to the rest of the world? The cases, deaths and death rates for all countries with higher death rates are listed below:

1. Yemen 1,899 541 28.5%

2. Italy 257,065 35,467 13.8%

3. France 234,400 30,503 13.0%

4. United Kingdom 323,313 41,405 12.8%

5. Belgium 80,178 9,976 12.4%

6. Hungary 5,098 611 12.0%

7. Mexico 543,806 59,106 10.9%

8. Netherlands 65,589 6,195 9.4%

9. Channel Islands 614 48 7.8%

10. Chad 981 76 7.7%

11. Canada 124,099 9,060 7.3%

12. Spain 407,839 28,838 7.1%

13. Isle of Man 336 24 7.1%

14. Sweden 86,068 5,810 6,7%

15. Sudan 12,623 812 6.4%

16. Liberia 1,284 82 6.4%

17. Ireland 27,755 1,776 6.4%

18. San Marino 704 42 6.0%

19. Ecuador 106,481 6,248 5.9%

20. Niger 1,169 69 5.9%

21. Iran 354,763 20,376 5.7%

22. Egypt 97,025 5,212 5.4%

23. Switzerland 39,332 2,000 5.1%

24. Slovenia 2,574 130 5.1%

25. Andorra 1,045 53 5.0%

26. Peru 567,059 27,034 4.8%

27. Sint Maarten 353 17 4.8%

28. Martinique 336 16 4,8%

29. Mali 2,667 125 4.7%

30. Barbados 157 7 4.5%

31. Indonesia 149,408 6,500 4.4%

32. Burkina Faso 1,297 55 4.2%

33. Finland 7,871 334 4.2%

34. North Macedonia 13,308 557 4.2%

35. Saint Martin 121 5 4.1%

36. Bolivia 106,065 4.305 4.1%

37. Tanzania 509 21 4.1%

38. Germany 233,002 9,328 4.0%

39. Denmark 16,127 621 3.9%

40. Guatemala 66,941 2,532 3.8%

41. Afghanistan 37,894 1,385 3,7%

42. Bulgaria 14962 532 3.6%

43. Brazil 3,513,039 112,670 3.2%

44. Iraq 197,085 6,283 3.2%

45. Poland 60,281 1,938 3.2%

That’s right! U.S.A. ranks as 46th worst country!

Now there are countries that do better, some much better. One group has this in common: They administer a proper therapy of hydroxychloroquine, most often with Zinc and Z-max as soon as symptoms occur, with or without a positive test. Some of the countries are so poor that it is all they can afford. The result?

U.S.A. could do even better by adopting this therapeutic remedy.

Do it! The fact that President Trump has advocated it should not be a hindrance to save lives!

August 22, read through the Holy Bible in a year in Power-point, with comments.

Today we read the second chapter of The Apostle Paul’s letter to the Colossians and three chapters of Isaiah.

August 22: Colossians 2, Isaiah 33, Isaiah 34, Isaiah 35 (click on the chapter to begin reading).

Colossians 2. It is all about Christ, not philosophy but Christ, not legalism but Christ.

Isaiah 33. It begins with a prayer in distress, for there is a coming judgment of Zion, the LORD will be lifted up, and He will deliver his people.

Isaiah 34. A vivid description of the judgment against the nations. There are nine mentions of unicorns in the King James Bible. This is the final mention.

Isaiah 35. A beautiful rendition of the joy of the redeemed.

August 21, read through the Holy Bible in a year in Power-point, with comments.

Today we read the first chapter of The Apostle Paul’s letter to the Colossians and three chapters of Isaiah.

August 21: Colossians 1, Isaiah 30, Isaiah 31, Isaiah 32, (click on the chapter to begin reading).

Colossians 1. Paul began with his customary greeting, continued with a prayer emphasizing faith in Christ and the preeminence of Christ. He told the Colossians to be reconciled in Christ, “Christ in you, the hope of glory” and to perform sacrificial service in Christ.

Isaiah 30 emphasizes “Don’t trust in Egypt!” But they were a rebellious people; in spite of that God will be gracious to Israel but execute judgement on Assyria.

Isaiah 31 proclaims woe to the Egyptophiles. The LORD will pass over Israel, but not Assyria.

Isaiah 32 ushers in the reign of reign of righteousness, warns against complacency, and says (in King James Bible) “The vile person shall be no more called liberal” (NIV translates liberal as noble) so a few verses down it says (in NIV) “But the noble make noble plans, and by noble deeds they stand.” The promise is that the Holy spirit is righteousness and “The fruit of that righteousness will be peace.”

Who gets the vote this year in PA? Does the horse and buggy team make a difference? A Limerick.

Campaigning in Western PA

Is not what you think, this I say

For the Amish take part,

Vote for life, with their heart,

vote Trump, to the left’s great dismay.

I may be wrong on this buggy. The campaigner may not be Amish after all. He may be an Old Order Mennonite. That Order is even more conservative than the Amish. But they used to have one thing in common. They did not mingle with the English, and they did not participate in politics, and they did not vote. You may have seen cute pictures like this, thinking they still live like in the 18th century.

Nothing could be further from the truth. It is true, they didn’t use to vote. But in the 2000 election they started voting, and they voted pro life. They were always law abiding, and were allowed to keep their one room school houses with 8 year education, were allowed to have their own pooled medical services, and maintained their religious exemption from military service and social security. Do they really shun electricity? The picture below shows a recently built Amish homestead with the telltale clothesline, but also a small wind turbine and four solar panels to provide

electricity. Contrary to popular opinion the Amish do not shun electricity, they just want to be left unconnected to the “English”, in other words, live off the grid. Their desire to be independent force them to be resourceful and innovative, since they also follow the law of the land whenever possible. So it was, when the farms were mandated to refrigerate the milk before pickup they installed electric coolers. The electricity was generated by diesel generators, so bingo, they could get electricity for their workshops as well, and turn from primitive hand work to fully modern wood workshops, I know, they provided a first class kitchen for our home in Intercourse. They had a problem, federal law mandated headlights on their buggies to be street legal. The propane lights with gas stockings burned well, but were too fragile to last the bumpy buggy rides so they installed car headlights running on car batteries. They had to be charged often, and it became quite expensive, so the Amish in 2003 made the first commercially available LED headlights for their buggies, thereby extending battery life more than ten–fold for a marine deep-charge lead-acid battery, from six hours to 100 hours.

Even at 120 dollars a piece it made economic sense. How do you charge batteries? This is where the solar panels come in, they are used to charge the batteries. When the sun doesn’t shine the wind may blow, a reasonable backup. Now they have 12 volt electric power. The next step was to wire the house and install 12 V LED lights and provide 12 volt DC or 24 volt AC outlets for small appliances. The lights are great, but many appliances are still run the hard way, diesel engines providing compressed air, which run their wells with jet-pumps and in their hand mixers they take out the motor and replace with a compressed air motor. The LED lights beat kerosene lamps any day for efficiency, and even a compressed air driven refrigerator is much more efficient than a kerosene refrigerator.

So if the grid goes down for an extended period of time, who is better off? The Amish are far ahead of us in preparation for catastrophes.

And the Amish do get together and fellowship for any reason, but mostly for their Sunday services, which are held in the upper room of their workshops, or in the kitchen for the women and the basement for the men. The horse-drawn pew-mobile is in the picture above, to the right. This is a tell-tale sign who hosts the service next time.

August 20, read through the Holy Bible in a year in Power-point, with comments.

In between the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Philippians and his uplifting letter to the Colossians we read three Psalms and two chapters of Isaiah.

August 20: Psalm 81, Psalm 82, Psalm 83, Isaiah 28, Isaiah 29 (click on the chapter to begin reading).

Psalm 81, of Asaph. A Psalm for the Feast of Tabernacles.

Psalm 82, of Asaph. Jesus quotes this Psalm and confounds the people accusing him of blasphemy.

Psalm 83, of Asaph. An urgent prayer for God to help when war is threatening.

Isaiah 28. Woe to Ephraim and Jerusalem! “Thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste.“

Isaiah 29 begins with a woe to David’s City, the people have “the spirit of slumber,” but the deaf will hear, the blind see and the meek shall increase the joy in the LORD.

August 19, read through the Holy Bible in a year in Power-point, with comments.

In between the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Philippians and his uplifting letter to the Colossians we read two Psalms and two chapters of Isaiah.

August 19: Psalm 79, Psalm 80, Isaiah 26, Isaiah 27 (click on the chapter to begin reading).

Psalm 79, of Asaph. A cry for help, for the heathens were devastating Jerusalem, the Temple and the people. The Psalmist confessed their collective sins and pleaded for restoration, always with praise and thankfulness.

Psalm 80, of Asaph. A prayer for restoration of Israel, mentioning the Shepherd of Israel, a heartfelt and urgent plea.

Isaiah 26 is a song of praise full of Messianic prophecy. The song is full of words with double meanings, one obvious and one prophetic.

Isaiah 27 promises the deliverance of Israel.

August 18, read through the Holy Bible in a year in Power-point, with comments.

In between the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Philippians and his encouraging letter to the Colossians we read one chapter of Proverbs and three chapters of Isaiah.

August 18: Proverbs 12, Isaiah 23, Isaiah 24, Isaiah 25 (click on the chapter to begin reading).

Proverbs 12 is one chapter in the collection of Proverbs of Solomon.

Isaiah 23 records a prophecy about Tyre.

Isaiah 24 describes the LORD’s devastation of the earth. (Climate change anyone?)

Isaiah 25. After the dire prophecies of Chapter 24 the prophet Isaiah recorded this song of praise. Read verse 7 carefully and let it sink in!

August 17, read through the Holy Bible in a year in Power-point, with comments.

In between the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Philippians and his equally encouraging letter to the Colossians we take a break and read two Psalms.

August 17: Psalm 77: Psalm 78 (click on the chapter to begin reading).

Psalm 77, of Asaph. No matter how dire the circumstances the believer can still sing God’s praises and recall God’s wonders.

Psalm 78, a maskil of Asaph. “This is the longest of the historical psalms. Its lesson is that history must not repeat itself. The people must never again be unbelieving.” (James Montgomery Boice)

August 16, read through the Holy Bible in a year in Power-point, with comments.

Today we read the last chapter of The Apostle Paul’s letter to the Philippians and four chapters of Isaiah.

August 16: Philippians 4, Isaiah 19, Isaiah 20, Isaiah 21, Isaiah 22 (click on the chapter to begin reading).

Philippians 4. The Apostle Paul’s theme is joy “dearly beloved and longed for, my joy and crown, so stand fast in the Lord, my dearly beloved.” and “Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say, Rejoice.” and this gem “Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.” and this one “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.” This letter of joy and encouragement ends with a greeting: “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.”

Isaiah 19 gives an oracle about Egypt and tells of the future blessing of Assyria, Egypt and Israel.

Isaiah 20 is very short and contains a prophecy against Egypt and Cush.

Isaiah 21. The prophecies continue, this time against Babylon, Edom and Arabia.

Isaiah 22 contains a prophecy about Jerusalem.