potter and clay

Good morning friends,
First, I'd like to remind you that Jack Dennis's memorial service is tomorrow at 2pm at Laurelton. Please keep Betty and the rest of their family in prayer in this time of grief.

Our passage for today picks up on the end of yesterday's passage where Paul talked about God's choice of Jacob and rejection of Esau. Today he tackles the question of whether that kind of choice is unfair. He argues that God has the right to choose to have mercy on whoever he wants. Like a potter can make whatever he wants and is free to make some pots for everyday use and others for holy use, so God can choose to have mercy on some of God's creations and not on others. The time God waits to judge creation is to allow those who are far away to repent and to come back to God. God is loving, so let's take the time we have to seek God's path.

God bless,
Sam

Romans 14-24

14What then are we to say? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means! 15For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” 16So it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God who shows mercy. 17For the scripture says to Pharaoh, “I have raised you up for the very purpose of showing my power in you, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth.” 18So then he has mercy on whomever he chooses, and he hardens the heart of whomever he chooses.


19You will say to me then, “Why then does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?” 20But who indeed are you, a human being, to argue with God? Will what is molded say to the one who molds it, “Why have you made me like this?” 21Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one object for special use and another for ordinary use? 22What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience the objects of wrath that are made for destruction; 23and what if he has done so in order to make known the riches of his glory for the objects of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory— 24including us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles?