{"id":10030,"date":"2022-01-16T06:37:15","date_gmt":"2022-01-16T12:37:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/devotional-on-acts-20\/"},"modified":"2021-12-28T15:13:09","modified_gmt":"2021-12-28T21:13:09","slug":"devotional-on-acts-20","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/devotional-on-acts-20\/","title":{"rendered":"Devotional on Acts"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_15955\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-15955\" style=\"width: 960px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/P6199546.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/P6199546-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"960\" height=\"720\" class=\"size-large wp-image-15955\" srcset=\"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/P6199546-1024x768.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/P6199546-300x225.jpg 300w, http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/P6199546-768x576.jpg 768w, http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/P6199546-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/P6199546.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-15955\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">2014 &#8211; Mt Rainier National Park<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Taking care of God\u2019s people <\/p>\n<p>Acts 20: God\u2019s people they are&#8230;God himself thought they were worth dying for.<\/p>\n<p>As did Jesus several years earlier, now Paul \u201csets his face toward Jerusalem\u201d knowing that his arrival there will result in hardship.  To speed his journey the Apostle doesn\u2019t go back into Ephesus but, instead, sends word to the church leaders to meet him in Miletus, located about fifty miles south of Ephesus.  Here he has an emotional meeting with his dear friends and co-workers.  He charges them to guard and protect God\u2019s people in Ephesus, reminding them that \u201cGod himself thought they were worth dying for.\u201d  Even as this great Apostle is going to go through trials so will this great church.  As I study this passage I can\u2019t help but think of the role of the ministry.  Paul, I see, isn\u2019t worried about the organization and program of the church.  He doesn\u2019t urge the leaders to focus on current worship trends or new technology.  Rather, he reminds them that they\u2019re to guard and protect the \u201csheep\u201d placed under their watch care.  They\u2019re to value God\u2019s people as God, himself, values them.  Happily, Paul has good news for these leaders of Ephesus and for church leaders across the ages.  He tells them that God \u201ccan make you into what he wants you to be and give you everything you could possibly need in this community of holy friends.\u201d  The work of the ministry includes guarding and protecting God\u2019s people from false teaching.  The power for accomplishing that task comes from a gracious God who works in our lives, giving us everything we need to successfully do the work to which we\u2019re called.<\/p>\n<p>Take Away: The Lord not only calls people to spiritual leadership, he also empowers them for that task.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Taking care of God\u2019s people Acts 20: God\u2019s people they are&#8230;God himself thought they were worth dying for. As did Jesus several years earlier, now Paul \u201csets his face toward Jerusalem\u201d knowing that his arrival there will result in hardship. To speed his journey the Apostle doesn\u2019t go back into Ephesus but, instead, sends word [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1485,1428],"tags":[1268,464,518,668,720,1290],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10030"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10030"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10030\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15957,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10030\/revisions\/15957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10030"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}