When he prayed to him, the Lord was moved.

2 Chronicles 33, verse 13.

Welcome to today's encouragement from our daily bread.

Our reading titled, God of the Fresh Start, was written and read by James Banks.

Second Chronicles, chapter 33, verses 10 through 17.

The Lord spoke to Manasseh and his people, but they paid no attention.

So the Lord brought against them the army commanders of the king of Assyria, who took Manassah prisoner, put a hook in his nose, bound him with bronze shackles, and took him to Babylon.

In his distress, he sought the favor of the Lord His God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his ancestors.

And when he prayed to him, the Lord was moved by his entreaty and listened to his plea.

So he brought him back to Jerusalem and to his kingdom.

Then Manasseh knew that the Lord is God.

Afterward, he rebuilt the outer wall of the city of David, west of the Gihon's spring in the valley,

as far as the entrance of the fish gate and encircling the hill of Ophel.

He also made it much higher.

He stationed military commanders in all the fortified cities in Judah.

He got rid of the foreign gods and removed the image from the temple of the Lord as well

as all the altars he had built on the

temple hill and in Jerusalem. And he threw them out of the city. Then he restored the altar

of the Lord and sacrificed fellowship offerings and thank offerings on it and told Judah to serve the Lord, the God of Israel.

The people, however, continued to sacrifice at the high places, but only to the Lord their God.

God of the Fresh Start

The Merchant of Death is Dead!

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