{"id":7771,"date":"2021-09-02T06:37:03","date_gmt":"2021-09-02T11:37:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/?p=7771"},"modified":"2021-08-23T14:10:34","modified_gmt":"2021-08-23T19:10:34","slug":"devotional-on-haggai-14","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/devotional-on-haggai-14\/","title":{"rendered":"Devotional on Haggai"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><figure id=\"attachment_15536\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-15536\" style=\"width: 960px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/100_4820.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/100_4820-1024x577.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"960\" height=\"541\" class=\"size-large wp-image-15536\" srcset=\"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/100_4820-1024x577.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/100_4820-300x169.jpg 300w, http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/100_4820-768x432.jpg 768w, http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/100_4820-1536x865.jpg 1536w, http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/100_4820.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-15536\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">2015 &#8211; Natchez Trace, TN<\/figcaption><\/figure><br \/>\nThe correct focus in worship<br \/>\nHaggai 1: The little you have brought&#8230;I\u2019ve blown away.<br \/>\nThe people being addressed in Haggai\u2019s short story aren\u2019t pagans who have turned their backs on God to worship another.  They aren\u2019t godless people at all.  Despite their having ruins instead of a Temple they have worship services.  As faithful Jews they bring sacrifices and observe the feasts and regulations of their religion.  Yet, somehow, their worship experience is dissatisfying to them.  As they leave these events they feel they\u2019ve been faithful in keeping all that which is required of them but they remain empty inside.  Haggai puts his finger on the problem.  In reframing their religion to suit themselves they&#8217;ve blundered into a religion that the God they worship rejects.  Failure to rebuild the Temple is the symptom of this larger problem.  This situation speaks to me today and its tone isn\u2019t soothing!  How much of my religious life is founded on obligation and tradition and how much of it is about a living, vital relationship with God?  While I\u2019m busy being sure all the details of worship are taken care of have I forgotten that it isn\u2019t me who\u2019s in charge?  What makes me think God will accept a self-centered worship effort from me in the first place?  The thing is that as I picture the people of Haggai\u2019s day walking out of a worship service feeling that somehow something is missing, I can identify with them.  That, my friends, makes me very uncomfortable.<br \/>\nTake Away: Our religious lives are to be founded on a living, vital relationship with God.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The correct focus in worship Haggai 1: The little you have brought&#8230;I\u2019ve blown away. The people being addressed in Haggai\u2019s short story aren\u2019t pagans who have turned their backs on God to worship another. They aren\u2019t godless people at all. Despite their having ruins instead of a Temple they have worship services. As faithful Jews [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1499,6,7],"tags":[129,905,948,1169],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7771"}],"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=7771"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7771\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15537,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7771\/revisions\/15537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}