{"id":9932,"date":"2021-10-13T06:37:12","date_gmt":"2021-10-13T11:37:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/devotional-on-matthew-11\/"},"modified":"2021-10-02T13:09:53","modified_gmt":"2021-10-02T18:09:53","slug":"devotional-on-matthew-11","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/devotional-on-matthew-11\/","title":{"rendered":"Devotional on Matthew"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_15660\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-15660\" style=\"width: 960px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/P5029301.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/P5029301-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"960\" height=\"720\" class=\"size-large wp-image-15660\" srcset=\"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/P5029301-1024x768.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/P5029301-300x225.jpg 300w, http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/P5029301-768x576.jpg 768w, http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/P5029301-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/P5029301.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-15660\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">2014 &#8211; Arches National Park, Utah<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The sweetest invitation <\/p>\n<p>Matthew 11: Come to me.<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s no sweeter invitation than what we hear from the Lord: \u201cCome to me.\u201d  This invitation is directed to people who are weary and beaten down by life.  It\u2019s for people who\u2019ve tried to find satisfaction in sometimes self-destructive ways and, in the end, realize that all they have is a handful of sand.  Specifically, this invitation is for people who\u2019ve tried religion and been hurt, maybe even abused, there.  To all who are hurting, disappointed, tired, and empty Jesus says, \u201cCome to me.\u201d  It\u2019s not about church rituals and rules; although such things have been found by many to be helpful.  It\u2019s not about turning over a new leaf, making a New Year\u2019s resolution, or simply trying harder; although there\u2019s room here for self-improvement.  Beyond all that, though, is Jesus.  I respond to his sweet invitation by giving up my own claims to righteousness and reordering all other relationships to something less than number one.  In response to this invitation to \u201ccome\u201d I turn my attention to Jesus and lay all else, including myself, at his feet.  From that point on, I walk with him and learn from him, how to really live.<\/p>\n<p>Take Away: Jesus is the only one who can truly make this offer, and he does make it to all who will come.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The sweetest invitation Matthew 11: Come to me. There\u2019s no sweeter invitation than what we hear from the Lord: \u201cCome to me.\u201d This invitation is directed to people who are weary and beaten down by life. It\u2019s for people who\u2019ve tried to find satisfaction in sometimes self-destructive ways and, in the end, realize that all [&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":[1188,564,604,713,918,1100],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9932"}],"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=9932"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9932\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15661,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9932\/revisions\/15661"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9932"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9932"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9932"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}