Brother Monk, you are so faithful in reading through the Holy Bible, something you seem to do each year.  Not only that, Brother Monk, but you are steadfast in your Morning and Evening prayer devotionals!  O, that the rest of Christendom would do likewise, how much better all would be!

Here is something to ponder, Father Monk:

After King Solomon, the former Kingdom of Israel was divided into the Northern Kingdom-Israel, and the Southern Kingdom, Judah, each with their own king.  Under these two kings, they went away from the LORD their God and went after demons whom they worshiped as idols made with human hands, and they sacrificed to them, and they even sacrificed their very own children and burnt them in the fire to Molech, the pagan god!  They did evil in the sight of the LORD! Their hands and hearts were bloody, as was the land! These were evil, wicked kings!

But when there arose good kings, who believed and sought the Lord their GOD,the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and walked in His commandments, and did good, the LORD protected them and blessed them, and there was peace and joy and abundance in all the land!

And that principle is still in effect today!  Seek the Lord Jesus, the Son of the Living and eternal God, the Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth, and all things, and by His power all things consist and work together in harmony. He rules…He is sovereign over all things-the earth, the weather, life, kingdoms, new ideas and events, mankind!  Take heed, and look up!

In Romans, chapter nine, Paul wrote:

“As it is written Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.

What shall we say then?  Is there unrighteousness with God?  God forbid!

For He said to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.

So then it is not of him that wills, nor of him that runs, but of God that shows mercy

For the Scripture said unto Pharaoh,

Even for this same purpose have I raised you up, that I might show My power in you, and that My name might be declared throughout all the earth.

Therefore has He mercy on whom He will have mercy, and whom He will He hardens.

Thou will say then unto Me, why does He yet find fault?  For who has resisted His will?

No, but, O man, who art thou that replies against God?  Shall the thing formed say unto Him that formed it, Why have You made me thus?

Has not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honor, and another unto dishonor?

What if God, willing to show His wrath, and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction:

And that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had before prepared unto glory, Even us, whom He has called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?”

Think about it.

In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

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