{"id":4462,"date":"2022-12-29T15:37:51","date_gmt":"2022-12-29T21:37:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nazareneblogs.org\/pastorscott\/?p=4462"},"modified":"2022-12-29T15:37:51","modified_gmt":"2022-12-29T21:37:51","slug":"devotional-on-judges-14","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/devotional-on-judges-14\/","title":{"rendered":"Devotional on Judges"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure style=\"width: 1600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/-At-t3iH63H4\/XatkimiURAI\/AAAAAAABCKE\/7bvnxamQEc4rtf9CrcjADWpbxC2-5PYdgCKgBGAsYHg\/s1600\/100_3341.JPG\" width=\"1600\" height=\"901\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">2014 &#8211; Grand Canyon, AZ<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>So how\u2019s that \u201cignoring God\u201d thing working out for you?<br \/>\nJudges 10: They just walked off and left God, quit worshiping him.<br \/>\nIt&#8217;s been over 60 years since Gideon died. We have short paragraphs mentioning two other leaders who have judged Israel and now, once again, the wheels have fallen off. The word picture is graphic. &#8220;They just walked off.&#8221; This was definitely one of those, &#8220;If God seems far away, who moved?&#8221; scenarios. The people aren\u2019t kidnapped and carried away from God. They don&#8217;t accidentally wander off. Instead, we see them pull the plug, deciding that they\u2019re no longer going to worship the One who has been so faithful to them. However, that\u2019s not the most sobering part of this story. You see, God doesn&#8217;t chase after them. When they come to him in their distress, he replies, &#8220;I&#8217;m not saving you anymore. Go ahead! Cry out for help to the gods you&#8217;ve chosen over me.&#8221; It\u2019s when they repent that the Lord reconnects with their lives. God always honors our free will. He doesn\u2019t force us to serve him and he\u2019ll allow us to face the consequences of our choices. The good news here is that he remains true to his character. While he won\u2019t force us to live our lives in a relationship with him, he\u2019s always ready to forgive and welcome us back into that relationship.<br \/>\nTake Away: We\u2019ll either live in a relationship with the Lord of our own free will or we won\u2019t live in a relationship with him at all&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>So how\u2019s that \u201cignoring God\u201d thing working out for you? Judges 10: They just walked off and left God, quit worshiping him. It&#8217;s been over 60 years since Gideon died. We have short paragraphs mentioning two other leaders who have judged Israel and now, once again, the wheels have fallen off. The word picture is [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1511,7],"tags":[137,336,373,958],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4462"}],"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=4462"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4462\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14154,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4462\/revisions\/14154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}