{"id":10086,"date":"2022-03-13T05:37:31","date_gmt":"2022-03-13T10:37:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/devotional-on-galations-3\/"},"modified":"2022-02-24T10:52:11","modified_gmt":"2022-02-24T16:52:11","slug":"devotional-on-galations-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/devotional-on-galations-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Devotional on Galations"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_16122\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-16122\" style=\"width: 960px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/P7209612.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/P7209612-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"960\" height=\"720\" class=\"size-large wp-image-16122\" srcset=\"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/P7209612-1024x768.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/P7209612-300x225.jpg 300w, http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/P7209612-768x576.jpg 768w, http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/P7209612-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/P7209612.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-16122\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">2014 &#8211; Along Oregon Hwy 101 &#8211; north of Florence &#8211; sea lions sunning<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Jesus only <\/p>\n<p>Galatians 3: Anyone who tries to live by his own effort, independent of God, is doomed to failure.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s astounding to read the writings of this once exemplary Pharisee as he takes on the failure of rule keeping.  Paul was, at one time, a Pharisee\u2019s Pharisee.  He was cheered for his dedication to a thousand-and-one rules; zealous for that way of life to the point that he hunted down and imprisoned any who threatened it.  Now, years later, he\u2019s making a lawyerly case against that approach, urging his friends at Galatia back from the brink of yielding to a \u201cJesus-and\u201d approach to God.  When a past Pharisee says rule keeping dooms a person to spiritual failure I\u2019m wise to listen.  Paul says the key to spiritual life isn\u2019t trying harder, rather it\u2019s trusting God more.  He says this secret has always been out there, hidden in plain view.  After all father Abraham is counted as righteous, not because he\u2019s so good at always doing just what God wants (in fact, he\u2019s notoriously bad at it) but rather because he trusts God.  Rather than creating a human powered way to God the rules prove to me once and for all that that approach will never work.  I\u2019m left in a hopeless condition unless a superior way is made available to me.  And that\u2019s exactly what happens.  Jesus, the Son of God, accepts my failure as his own.  What rule keeping can\u2019t do, he does.  The door to righteousness is opened wide.  To surrender to a \u201cJesus and\u201d approach is to take a step backward to a failed system.  My hope is firmly fixed on \u201cJesus only.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Take Away: There\u2019s no other way to God than through faith in Jesus.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jesus only Galatians 3: Anyone who tries to live by his own effort, independent of God, is doomed to failure. It\u2019s astounding to read the writings of this once exemplary Pharisee as he takes on the failure of rule keeping. Paul was, at one time, a Pharisee\u2019s Pharisee. He was cheered for his dedication to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1496,1428],"tags":[1323,564,933,1324,941,1077],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10086"}],"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=10086"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10086\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16124,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10086\/revisions\/16124"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}