{"id":10100,"date":"2022-03-27T05:37:11","date_gmt":"2022-03-27T10:37:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/devotional-on-colossians\/"},"modified":"2022-03-23T10:54:55","modified_gmt":"2022-03-23T15:54:55","slug":"devotional-on-colossians","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/devotional-on-colossians\/","title":{"rendered":"Devotional on Colossians"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_16166\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-16166\" style=\"width: 960px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/PHOTO_20140715_104310.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/PHOTO_20140715_104310-1024x578.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"960\" height=\"542\" class=\"size-large wp-image-16166\" srcset=\"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/PHOTO_20140715_104310-1024x578.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/PHOTO_20140715_104310-300x169.jpg 300w, http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/PHOTO_20140715_104310-768x433.jpg 768w, http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/PHOTO_20140715_104310-1536x866.jpg 1536w, http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/PHOTO_20140715_104310.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-16166\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">2014 &#8211; Pacific City, OR Thousand Trails<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The heart of it all <\/p>\n<p>Colossians 1: We preach Christ.<\/p>\n<p>The Apostle sits in a jail as he writes this letter to the Christians in the city of Colossi, located in what is now the nation of Turkey.  He wants his readers to stand firm for Jesus over the long haul, not in some grim, miserable, \u201cunto death\u201d sort of a way, but with joy and confidence and strength.  In fact, Paul wants them to be absolutely focused on Jesus and not allow themselves to journey down \u201cdead-end alleys.\u201d  They\u2019re to be so in love with Jesus, so impressed with him, that they can\u2019t imagine anything but living in him and for him.  Actually, all Paul wants for them is what he has for himself.  He\u2019s bought into Jesus, \u201chook, line, and sinker.\u201d  In his mind Jesus towers above all else; always has \u2013 always will.  He tells them, and us, that the world exists only by Jesus.  He\u2019s \u201csupreme,\u201d \u201cGod\u2019s original purpose,\u201d and gives everything in creation \u201cits proper place.\u201d  When Paul preaches, he has only one subject: Jesus.  When his ministry is finished, the result, he hopes, will be many mature, settled followers of Jesus.  How important this message is today.  We\u2019re pulled this way and that.  Decisions are demanded of us.  The circumstances of life threaten to erode our souls.  At the end of the day \u2013 at the end of life \u2013 what\u2019s going to matter?  In Paul\u2019s words I find the answer: \u201cChrist! No more, no less.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Take Away: I want the compass of my life to always point to Jesus.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The heart of it all Colossians 1: We preach Christ. The Apostle sits in a jail as he writes this letter to the Christians in the city of Colossi, located in what is now the nation of Turkey. He wants his readers to stand firm for Jesus over the long haul, not in some grim, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1487,1428],"tags":[1336,361,863],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10100"}],"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=10100"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10100\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16168,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10100\/revisions\/16168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}