Luke 9:1-27. Jesus sent out the twelve apostles. Herod tried to meet with Jesus because his fame was rising, at one time Jesus fed the Five Thousand (besides women and children). Peter Confessed that Jesus is “The Christ of God”.
2 Samuel 16 tells of Mephibosheth’s servant. Shimel sided with Absalom and cursed David. Absalom listened to the advice of Ahithopel, a supposed man of God.
2 Samuel 17 records the advice of Hushai to Absalom. Hushai also warned David to escape, which he did, and some people provided food and supplies for David and his men.
2 Samuel 18. Absalom suffered an inglorious death (read about it). David heard of Absalom’s death and mourned for Absalom.
Luke 8:26-56. After crossing Lake Galilee Jesus healed a demon possessed man and later a woman with a bleeding issue. Finally Jesus raised a dead girl back to life.
2 Samuel 14. Absalom returned to Jerusalem, and David forgave Absalom.
2 Samuel 15. Rather than thanking him Absalom revolted against David, and David escaped from Jerusalem.
Luke 8:1-25. Jesus told the Parable of the Sower, followed by the parable of a lamp on a stand. His Mother and Brothers came to see Jesus, but he declared that his mother and brothers are those who do God’s will. While Sailing across Lake Genesareth a storm arose, Jesus calmed the storm and rebuked his disciples for their lack of faith.
2 Samuel 12. Nathan confronted David about his sin and David Confessed: “I have sinned against the LORD.” It tells of the death of David’s son with Bathsheba, after which a second son, Solomon was born to Bathsheba. Finally, the chapter reverts back to war and David’s men captured Rabbah, a city of the Ammonites.
2 Samuel 13 describes the seedy story of Amnon and Tamar, all within David’s family. David’s son Absalom then killed Amnon, after which Absalom fled to Geshur.
Luke 7:24-50, Luke 7. Jesus stated about John the Baptist: “Among those that are born of women there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist: but he that is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.” Jesus was later anointed by a sinful woman, and Jesus forgave her with these words: “Thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace.”
2 Samuel 9. Saul’s remaining son, Mephibosheth was paralyzed in both feet. David showed kindness and invited him to be part of David’s household.
2 Samuel 10. David defeated the Ammonites and when they fled David defeated the Arameans (Syrians).
2 Samuel 11 is very important, it tells of the adultery of David with Bathsheba, and how he had her husband Uriah killed in battle to cover it up. This displeased God.
Luke 7:1-23. Jesus praised the Centurion’s faith and raised a widow’s son back to life in the town of Nain. Meanwhile John the Baptist sent two of his disciples to Jesus to ask if Jesus was “the one”. After all, John the Baptist was put in prison and his future looked bleak.
in 2 Samuel 7 God established the covenant with David. The writer also recorded David’s Prayer of Thanksgiving.
In Samuel 8 is recorded of how David’s Kingdom expanded. The chapter also lists David’s Officials.
Luke 6:17-49. Luke recorded a shorter version of the Beatitudes than is found in the gospel of Matthew. Jesus added: Love your enemies, do not judge, a tree is known by its fruit, and finally he told the parable of the foolish and the wise builder.
2 Samuel 4 records how Saul’s son Ish-Bosheth was murdered.
2 Samuel 5. David consolidated power and reigned over all Israel and captured Jerusalem. After Jerusalem was established as the City of David the Philistines were defeated.
165 years ago Mark Twain coined the phrase: Whiskey is for drinking, water is for fighting over. So it was for the Pima Indians in the Phoenix valley in Arizona.
They had built a very intricate but functioning set of canals, unequaled in the Southwest America. Around the Salt River and the Gila river.
Then the white men came and took the water rights. Let Johnny Cash tell about one of the Pima Indians in the form of a ballad:
It was soo good. Listen to it again without the distraction of all the text and let it sink in.
Yes, the land is just as dry, even drier as Maricopa County was the fastest growing county in U.S. in the last decade. Even the aquifers are starting to run dry. And Lake Mead can no longer supply enough water for the Central Arizona Project aqueduct. More than anything the Indians need to have their water rights restored, so they can again be a functional society. These are the reparations they need.
6:1-16. Jesus showed he is the Lord of the Sabbath and showed it by healing a man with a shriveled hand on the Sabbath. Then Jesus called the twelve Apostles.
2 Samuel 1. After David got the report of Saul’s death he lamented of the death of Saul and his son, known as the Song of the Bow.
In 2 Samuel 2 David was anointed King of Judah, and Ishboseth, son of Saul was made King of Israel, which led to Israel and Judah waging war against each other.
2 Samuel 3 starts out with a genealogy of David’s sons. Abner joined forces with David, Joab murdered Abner, and finally is recorded how David mourned Abner.
The western half of United States is experiencing a multi-year drought with no end in sight. Has the desertification of the American southwest started? Will farmers have to abandon their farms and orchards for lack of water? Will this and the shortage of fertilizer be the trigger point for a worldwide hunger, since now Ukraine is no longer the food basket of Europe?
These are worrying questions? The situation in the American South is dire:
The only saving grace is that thanks to increasing CO2, the vegetation needs less water to do the photosynthesis, so the harvests will not decrease as much even though fertilizer will be rationed.
Southern California was first to cut off water to thousands pf farmers:
The next step is to forbid watering of lawns and plants and fine people for violating HOA regulations that state that that lawns must be well fertilized and watered and free from weeds. The native weeds (I call them wildflowers) are the only thing that will survive the drought.
But back to the drought situation.
The solution:
Build a transcontinental aqueduct from the Mississippi River to the Colorado River capable of transporting 12 million acre-ft of water yearly through Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico and Arizona. It will be built similar to the Central Arizona Project aqueduct, supplying water from the Colorado river to the Phoenix and Tucson area, but this aqueduct will be carrying four times more water over four times the distance and raise the water nearly twice as high before returning to near sea level. The original Central Arizona Project cost $4.7 billion in 1980’s money, the Transcontinental Aqueduct will in Phase 1 cost around $200 Billion in 2022 money applying simple scaling up principles.
The Mississippi River has a bad reputation for having polluted water, but since the clean water act the water quality has improved drastically. Fecal coli-form bacteria is down by a factor of more than 100, the water is now used all the way down to New Orleans for drinking water after treatment. The lead levels are down by a factor of 1000 or more since 1979. Plastic pollution and pharmaceutical pollution is still a problem, as is the case with most rivers. The Ph is back to around 8 and salt content is negligible. Mississippi water is good for irrigation, and usable for drinking water after treatment. The Arkansas River is used as a drinking water source.
But the aqueduct will do more than provide sweet Mississippi water to the thirsty South-west, it will make possible to provide peak power to Texas, New Mexico and Arizona. In fact, it is so big it will nearly triple the pumped Hydro-power storage for the nation, from 23 GW for 5 hours a day to up to 66 GW when fully built out.
The extra pumped hydro-power storage will come from a number of dams built as part of the aqueduct or adjacent to it. The water will be pumped from surplus wind and solar power generators when available. This will provide up to 50 GW of power for 5 hours a day. If not enough extra power has been generated during the 19 pumping hours, sometimes power will be purchased from the regular grid. The other source of pumped hydro-power storage is virtual. There will be up to 23 GW of LFTR (Liquid Fluoride salt Thorium Rector) power stations strategically stationed along the waterway providing pumping of water for 19 hours and providing virtual hydro-power output for the remaining 5, when the aqueduct is fully built. Read more about it here.
Luke 5, Jesus called his first Disciples, cleansed a leper, healed and forgave a Paralytic his sins and called Levi (Matthew). At the end of the chapter Jesus was questioned about fasting. My discourse about old and new wineskins is very interesting. Rea it and see if you agree.
Proverbs 3 continues to tell of the benefits of wisdom. The verses most often quoted are ”Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will direct your paths.”
Len Bilén's blog, a blog about faith, politics and the environment. 