{"id":10040,"date":"2022-01-26T06:37:07","date_gmt":"2022-01-26T12:37:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/devotional-on-romans-2\/"},"modified":"2021-12-28T15:19:04","modified_gmt":"2021-12-28T21:19:04","slug":"devotional-on-romans-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/devotional-on-romans-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Devotional on Romans"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_15985\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-15985\" style=\"width: 960px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/P6239582.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/P6239582-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"960\" height=\"720\" class=\"size-large wp-image-15985\" srcset=\"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/P6239582-1024x768.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/P6239582-300x225.jpg 300w, http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/P6239582-768x576.jpg 768w, http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/P6239582-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/P6239582.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-15985\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">2014 &#8211; Mt St Helens, WA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>God at work here <\/p>\n<p>Romans 2: There is something deep within them that echoes God\u2019s yes and no, right and wrong.<\/p>\n<p>Paul hasn\u2019t spent his time locked up in some ivory tower thinking about hypothetical situations.  Rather, more than anyone else, he\u2019s gone out into the real world dealing with people from all walks of life and a variety of religious beliefs.  We think that if we have a spirited exchange with a friend who\u2019s a Catholic or a Pentecostal or a Baptist that we\u2019ve been debating religion.  Paul has encountered a variety of religious views that reveal our denominational differences to be as trivial as they really are.  He\u2019s worked with idol worshipers and with a wide variety of pagans.  In all that, Paul has never backed away from his faith in Jesus Christ and he\u2019s proclaimed that faith at considerable personal cost.  Still, even in the most non-Christian settings he\u2019s discovered in people the image of God.  He\u2019s seen in those who\u2019ve never heard of the Ten Commandments or the Sermon on the Mount an innate understanding of the concepts taught to God\u2019s people by them.  This, Paul says, is a proof of God\u2019s hand in their lives and a reminder that their coming to Christ isn\u2019t as distant a journey as one might think.  On one hand, I don\u2019t want to drift into the dangerous waters of universalism.  Among other things, that diminishes the sacrifice our Lord made on the cross.  On the other hand, I want to appreciate the good things I see in people who haven\u2019t yet come to the Lord.  On every human heart, follower of Jesus or not, a sign can be hung declaring \u201cGod at work here.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Take Away: Before I ever think of God he thinks of me and before I ever respond to him, he\u2019s already at work in my life.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>God at work here Romans 2: There is something deep within them that echoes God\u2019s yes and no, right and wrong. Paul hasn\u2019t spent his time locked up in some ivory tower thinking about hypothetical situations. Rather, more than anyone else, he\u2019s gone out into the real world dealing with people from all walks of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1529,1428],"tags":[1299,320,439,466,796,905],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10040"}],"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=10040"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10040\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15987,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10040\/revisions\/15987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}