{"id":5489,"date":"2021-02-02T09:49:34","date_gmt":"2021-02-02T15:49:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nazareneblogs.org\/pastorscott\/?p=5489"},"modified":"2021-02-04T16:58:51","modified_gmt":"2021-02-04T22:58:51","slug":"devotional-on-isaiah-179","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/devotional-on-isaiah-179\/","title":{"rendered":"Devotional on Isaiah"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><figure style=\"width: 1600px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/-vGIx3Q6GAtU\/YBhLIZHubpI\/AAAAAAABIY4\/cZU9cMnom_gFHFYdUL-eMy53xvjdyXx-QCPcBGAsYHg\/s1600\/GSMNP-Cades-Cove%2B5-23-2008%2B9-47-48%2BAM.JPG\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1200\" class=\"size-large\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><center>2008 &#8211; Great Smoky Mountains National Park &#8211; Cades Cove &#8211; Abrams Falls<\/center><\/figcaption><\/figure><br \/>\nAdmitting personal failure<br \/>\nIsaiah 59: There&#8217;s nothing wrong with God; the wrong is in you.<br \/>\nEver since Adam blamed Eve, and in reality, blamed God, people have tried to pass the buck for their sin.  &#8220;God\u2019s too strict&#8221; or &#8220;the temptation is too great&#8221; or some other lame excuse is used as a defense for spiritual failure.  As a pastor I&#8217;ve probably heard more than most.  I immediately think of lines like: &#8220;I was absent from church for two weeks and no one called me&#8221; or &#8220;the church just isn&#8217;t as spiritual as it ought to be.&#8221;  Isaiah has heard enough and he reacts especially to excuses that place the blame for spiritual failure on the Lord.  He tells his people that the thing that has come between them and God is none other than themselves.  It\u2019s their sin that has messed things up and until they admit that things are only going to get worse.  Listen, I know that the church has a responsibility to reach out to people; even people who know better than what they\u2019re doing.   The church is accountable before God when it fails along this line.  However, Isaiah&#8217;s message places the blame for personal failure directly on the shoulders of the one who willfully sins against God.  Don&#8217;t blame God, the church, your spouse, your boss, or your friends for your sin.  Take responsibility for your own actions, confess, and make it right.   You&#8217;ll find that the grace of God is sufficient and that brings a whole lot more peace than making excuses does!<br \/>\nTake Away: Take responsibility and make things right.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Admitting personal failure Isaiah 59: There&#8217;s nothing wrong with God; the wrong is in you. Ever since Adam blamed Eve, and in reality, blamed God, people have tried to pass the buck for their sin. &#8220;God\u2019s too strict&#8221; or &#8220;the temptation is too great&#8221; or some other lame excuse is used as a defense for [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1502,7],"tags":[131,206,369,518,822],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5489"}],"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=5489"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5489\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15071,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5489\/revisions\/15071"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}