{"id":10035,"date":"2022-01-21T06:37:14","date_gmt":"2022-01-21T12:37:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/devotional-on-acts-25\/"},"modified":"2021-12-28T15:16:02","modified_gmt":"2021-12-28T21:16:02","slug":"devotional-on-acts-25","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/devotional-on-acts-25\/","title":{"rendered":"Devotional on Acts"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_15970\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-15970\" style=\"width: 960px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/P6239568.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/P6239568-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"960\" height=\"720\" class=\"size-large wp-image-15970\" srcset=\"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/P6239568-1024x768.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/P6239568-300x225.jpg 300w, http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/P6239568-768x576.jpg 768w, http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/P6239568-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/P6239568.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-15970\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">2014 &#8211; Mt St Helens, WA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>My appeal <\/p>\n<p>Acts 25: I appeal to Caesar<\/p>\n<p>Paul has been confined in Caesarea for two years as Governor Felix ignores his innocence and hopes for some kind of bribe that never comes.  It isn\u2019t that Paul is chained in a dungeon; in fact, he\u2019s invited to chat with Felix several times.  Then, a new Governor is appointed.  Festus is immediately approached by Paul\u2019s enemies who want him moved to Jerusalem, supposedly to stand trial in their courts, but actually that he might be removed from Roman protection and murdered.  The new Governor knows the kind of people he\u2019s dealing with and, instead, invites them to come to Caesarea and make their case there.  In less than two weeks, Paul finds himself being wildly accused once again, this time before Festus.  When this new Governor wavers and asks Paul if he\u2019s willing to face these people (who obviously can\u2019t wait to get their hands on him) he surprises everyone by playing the trump card available to a Roman citizen: he requests that his case be heard by Caesar, himself.  This takes the Jews of Jerusalem out of play and places Paul under the scrutiny of the Emperor.  In this case, Caesar isn\u2019t an especially nice guy and he certainly isn\u2019t known for his mercy.  From Paul\u2019s point of view, though, it\u2019s better to take his chances with Caesar than face certain death from the Jewish leadership.  I\u2019m glad today that when I face the accusations of my failure, guilt, and sin that, rather than face the consequences, that I can appeal to a Higher Court.  This Court is known for its grace and mercy.  This is a place where love and forgiveness abounds.  As my life is on the line and my sin moves to condemn me, I appeal to God, not for justice, but for mercy.<\/p>\n<p>Take Away: Its mercy I need from God and its mercy I receive.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>My appeal Acts 25: I appeal to Caesar Paul has been confined in Caesarea for two years as Governor Felix ignores his innocence and hopes for some kind of bribe that never comes. It isn\u2019t that Paul is chained in a dungeon; in fact, he\u2019s invited to chat with Felix several times. Then, a new [&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":[1268,1293,518,713],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10035"}],"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=10035"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10035\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15972,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10035\/revisions\/15972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}