{"id":7231,"date":"2020-12-20T02:31:44","date_gmt":"2020-12-20T08:31:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nazareneblogs.org\/pastorscott\/?p=5395"},"modified":"2020-12-20T02:31:44","modified_gmt":"2020-12-20T08:31:44","slug":"devotional-on-isaiah-134","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/devotional-on-isaiah-134\/","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\/-glim0IxLe4g\/X95vg4Fg3iI\/AAAAAAABH6A\/zGr-Pj1LXzIXayyevULlgm-EE0AA08otwCPcBGAsYHg\/s1600\/P5281816.JPG\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1200\" class=\"size-large\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><center>2007 &#8211; Blanchard Caverns, Arkansas<\/center><\/figcaption><\/figure><br \/>\nJust the facts<br \/>\nIsaiah 36: Be reasonable. Face the facts.<br \/>\nThere\u2019s nothing theoretical about the threat Sennacherib of Assyria and his great army is to Jerusalem. They can crush that city as they have crushed many others. The king sends a spokesman with his terms of surrender and he minces no words in telling them what will come if they don\u2019t give in. He offers them a choice: be starved and then destroyed, or surrender and be relocated to a distant land under the rule of Assyria. The king\u2019s man, Rabshekah, isn\u2019t much of a diplomat. He\u2019s convinced that these pitiful people are in his hands and that either through defeat or surrender his army will win the day. He says to them, \u201cBe reasonable\u2026face the facts\u2026\u201d pointing out that they couldn\u2019t mount an opposing army even if they were given horses and chariots with which to fight. Those words strike terror in the hearts of all who hear them. In that terror all of God\u2019s promises are forgotten and they\u2019re ready to do the \u201creasonable\u201d thing and abandon their faith. I am, I think, a reasonable person and generally do a good job of learning the facts and acting on what I\u2019ve learned. However, there\u2019s a whole set of \u201cfacts\u201d that can only be seen with the eyes of faith. Rabshekah\u2019s facts ignore the fact that these are the people of God and that God has something to say about what happens to them. In the decisions I make I must remember that I\u2019ve surrendered my life to the Lord and, even though some facts aren\u2019t apparent to me, they\u2019re clear to him. When I\u2019ve done my spreadsheet of pluses and minuses, I must remember that there\u2019s a dimension beyond my view and that dimension is every bit as real as the facts and figures I might collect. If I\u2019m going to be truly reasonable, I must carefully listen to the Lord. That\u2019s the only way I can really keep my facts straight.<br \/>\nTake Away: Even though some facts aren\u2019t apparent to me, they\u2019re clear to the Lord.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Just the facts Isaiah 36: Be reasonable. Face the facts. There\u2019s nothing theoretical about the threat Sennacherib of Assyria and his great army is to Jerusalem. They can crush that city as they have crushed many others. The king sends a spokesman with his terms of surrender and he minces no words in telling them [&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":[131,870,887,971],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7231"}],"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=7231"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7231\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14971,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7231\/revisions\/14971"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}