{"id":9931,"date":"2021-10-12T06:37:05","date_gmt":"2021-10-12T11:37:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/devotional-on-matthew-10\/"},"modified":"2021-10-02T13:09:20","modified_gmt":"2021-10-02T18:09:20","slug":"devotional-on-matthew-10","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/devotional-on-matthew-10\/","title":{"rendered":"Devotional on Matthew"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_15658\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-15658\" style=\"width: 768px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/P5029300.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/P5029300-768x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"768\" height=\"1024\" class=\"size-large wp-image-15658\" srcset=\"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/P5029300-768x1024.jpg 768w, http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/P5029300-225x300.jpg 225w, http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/P5029300-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/P5029300.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-15658\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">2014 &#8211; Arches National Park, Utah<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Practical instruction<\/p>\n<p>Matthew 10: It\u2019s best to start small.<\/p>\n<p>Jesus now settles on twelve men to be his core team.  They don\u2019t know it yet, but they (with one exception) will become Apostles who will lead the infant church.  He sends them out on a mission to spread word of Kingdom come.  Interestingly, he spends as much time telling them what not to do as he does telling them what they are to do.  For instance, he tells them not to head off for distant places.  Rather, they\u2019re to stay local.  He tells them that they don\u2019t need to take a lot of stuff with them.  Their changed lives are the best \u201cshow and tell\u201d imaginable.  They\u2019re to stay in modest places, to be gentle and not argumentative with those they encounter, and to leave a place rather than stay for a fight.  They aren\u2019t to worry about what they will say but, instead, to trust the Lord to give them the right words at the right times.  He tells them not to be afraid or intimidated.  His example of Kingdom ministry is offering \u201ca cup of water to someone who&#8217;s thirsty.\u201d  It occurs to me that I tend to make complicated what the Lord made simple.  Maybe instead of spiritualizing all this stuff I need to do something simple like buying some bottled water to give out to anyone who looks like they might be thirsty.  <\/p>\n<p>Take Away: Let\u2019s not complicate simple matters\u2026if we keep it simple, we\u2019ll find an abundance of ministry opportunities.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Practical instruction Matthew 10: It\u2019s best to start small. Jesus now settles on twelve men to be his core team. They don\u2019t know it yet, but they (with one exception) will become Apostles who will lead the infant church. He sends them out on a mission to spread word of Kingdom come. Interestingly, he spends [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1518,1428],"tags":[1188,320,796],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9931"}],"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=9931"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9931\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15659,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9931\/revisions\/15659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}