Every time I study the Bible since I studied the Book of Revelation a year and 9 months ago something dramatic has developed in the Middle East. And I have to finish my study of the Epistle of the Romans this week. I've gotten through chapters 1 to 4 last night, and tonight I'm hoping to do 5 to 12. This is all while other turmoils and trials have been bearing down on my life. I'm nothing but a man before the Lord, mere flesh, I cannot do this and I never asked for it but somehow the Lord saw that I was fitting for this responsibility in some way, and has set me to live more purely in accordance with His will to that end. I'm not sure why I lament, for it isn't that this world, which is passing away, was something which I found happiness in, nor was it a place which gave God his due honour. Yet of its soil was I made, in all my imperfection, to be taken into some use as an instrument by which this finale seems to be unfolding. Once I thought that I could have a secular life, but there is none for me, nor would it be desirable to seek after one ahead of me, for all the secular glories of this age are fading away in fear of the coming Kingdom. Maranatha, Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me, a sinner, O Son of God. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.