{"id":4735,"date":"2023-05-03T12:49:07","date_gmt":"2023-05-03T17:49:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nazareneblogs.org\/pastorscott\/?p=4735"},"modified":"2023-05-03T12:49:07","modified_gmt":"2023-05-03T17:49:07","slug":"devotional-on-1-kings-26","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/devotional-on-1-kings-26\/","title":{"rendered":"Devotional on 1 Kings"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><figure style=\"width: 1600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/-r3lwvapPgIQ\/XlFFVpteyEI\/AAAAAAABD1E\/nHO8Ka7ChA4F27kt9-QD9QqR4EUneUXwwCKgBGAsYHg\/s1600\/100_4817.JPG\" width=\"1600\" height=\"901\" class=\"size-large\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">2015 &#8211; Natchez Trace, TN<\/figcaption><\/figure><br \/>\nThe God of Second Chances<br \/>\n1Kings 18: Reveal to this people that you are God&#8230;and that you are giving these people another chance at repentance.<br \/>\nThe &#8220;god-contest&#8221; is about over. Baal&#8217;s priests have prayed for hours. They\u2019ve cried out and they\u2019ve offered their cruel god their own blood. But there\u2019s been no answer. The lone prophet of Jehovah God steps up. Now, it\u2019s his turn. There\u2019s no shouting and Elijah doesn&#8217;t cut himself to get his God&#8217;s attention. Instead, he cries out for God&#8217;s mercy: &#8220;Show them that you are giving them another chance&#8221; he prays. I am glad today that God is the God of Second Chances. Even when we mess up in stupid ways, God offers us second chances to repent and turn. Note that this isn&#8217;t about God turning a blind eye to their sin, offering to take them back on their own terms. The &#8220;second chance&#8221; is the chance to repent and change their ways and return to him. It\u2019s a great offer that gives those of us who\u2019ve crossed over the line away from God the opportunity to return. In this story, the falling fire on the sacrifice is a minor thing in comparison with the mercy of God that falls on these backslidden Hebrews.<br \/>\nTake Away: God is the God of Second Chances and that\u2019s good news because we desperately need a second chance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The God of Second Chances 1Kings 18: Reveal to this people that you are God&#8230;and that you are giving these people another chance at repentance. The &#8220;god-contest&#8221; is about over. Baal&#8217;s priests have prayed for hours. They\u2019ve cried out and they\u2019ve offered their cruel god their own blood. But there\u2019s been no answer. The lone [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1471,7],"tags":[113,301,355,564,713,913,958],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4735"}],"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=4735"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4735\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14428,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4735\/revisions\/14428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}