{"id":9933,"date":"2021-10-14T06:37:19","date_gmt":"2021-10-14T11:37:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/devotional-on-matthew-12\/"},"modified":"2021-10-02T13:10:27","modified_gmt":"2021-10-02T18:10:27","slug":"devotional-on-matthew-12","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/devotional-on-matthew-12\/","title":{"rendered":"Devotional on Matthew"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_15662\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-15662\" style=\"width: 960px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/P5029304.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/P5029304-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"960\" height=\"720\" class=\"size-large wp-image-15662\" srcset=\"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/P5029304-1024x768.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/P5029304-300x225.jpg 300w, http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/P5029304-768x576.jpg 768w, http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/P5029304-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/P5029304.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-15662\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">2014 &#8211; Arches National Park, Utah<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The way to forgiveness <\/p>\n<p>Matthew 12: If Satan banishes Satan is there any Satan left?<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s really about the Sabbath.  The religious leaders have taken \u201cRemember the Sabbath day\u201d and turned it into a heavy burden laid on the backs of the people.  Even picking a piece of fruit to eat is considered to be a transgression.  Jesus responds with examples from their own law and history proving that they\u2019re wrong.  He goes on healing people, even on the Sabbath.  When a demon-afflicted woman is set free the critics of Jesus sputter that he must be in cahoots with the devil.  Our Lord responds that if they say that about him what do they say about their own exorcists?  Beyond that, it\u2019s a silly contention anyway.  If Satan casts out Satan there wouldn\u2019t be anything of Satan left.  He then deals with the opposite side of the same coin.  If the Holy Spirit is the One who forgives sins and we cast the Holy Spirit out of lives, how can we ever expect to be forgiven our sins?  Its serious business isn\u2019t it.  We\u2019re sinners in need of forgiveness.  There\u2019s one who forgives.  Throw him out and we\u2019re left without hope.  Stated differently, there\u2019s one road to forgiveness, if I refuse to travel that road, there\u2019s no way I can ever arrive at forgiveness.  The way to God is abundant and grace-filled, offering hope to the worst sinner.  Still, it\u2019s the only way.  I can take it or leave it, but if I leave it, I\u2019m left with nothing.<\/p>\n<p>Take Away: We have, in Christ, hope abundant, but aside from Christ we have no hope at all.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The way to forgiveness Matthew 12: If Satan banishes Satan is there any Satan left? It\u2019s really about the Sabbath. The religious leaders have taken \u201cRemember the Sabbath day\u201d and turned it into a heavy burden laid on the backs of the people. Even picking a piece of fruit to eat is considered to be [&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":[1188,369,518,558,564,713,941],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9933"}],"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=9933"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9933\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15663,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9933\/revisions\/15663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}