{"id":9942,"date":"2021-10-23T06:37:05","date_gmt":"2021-10-23T11:37:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/devotional-on-matthew-21\/"},"modified":"2021-10-02T13:15:54","modified_gmt":"2021-10-02T18:15:54","slug":"devotional-on-matthew-21","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/devotional-on-matthew-21\/","title":{"rendered":"Devotional on Matthew"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_15680\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-15680\" style=\"width: 960px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/100_2623.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/100_2623-1024x577.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"960\" height=\"541\" class=\"size-large wp-image-15680\" srcset=\"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/100_2623-1024x577.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/100_2623-300x169.jpg 300w, http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/100_2623-768x432.jpg 768w, http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/100_2623-1536x865.jpg 1536w, http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/100_2623.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-15680\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">2014 &#8211; Arches National Park, Utah<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Is your testimony brighter than your life?<\/p>\n<p>Matthew 21: He answered, \u201cSure, glad to.\u201d But he never went.<\/p>\n<p>Jesus tells us the story of two sons.  Both are given the same directions from their father.  The first son turns his father down.  Then, thinking better of it, does what his father asked.  The second son immediately says he\u2019ll obey but then never gets around to it.  The key question is \u201cWhich of the two sons did what the father asked?\u201d  Everyone knows the answer.  I fear that people raised in church are in danger of being \u201ceasy yes\u201d folks.  The very fact that they know what it\u2019s all about, that they know the answers to all the Sunday School questions, and can slip into \u201cchurch mode\u201d without a thought places them, above others, in danger of playing the role of the second son.  For others, there has to be a conscious admission that their first response to God was the wrong one.  They have to make a radical change in their lives.  However, for \u201cinsiders\u201d the seeming \u201cyes\u201d on the surface of their lives blurs spiritual reality for them.  I, for one, don\u2019t want to live my life merely giving lip service to God.  I want to be committed to him and living in obedience to him at every level.  I\u2019d rather that my life shine brighter than my testimony than have things the other way around.<\/p>\n<p>Take Away: Living the Christian life requires more than mere lip service.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Is your testimony brighter than your life? Matthew 21: He answered, \u201cSure, glad to.\u201d But he never went. Jesus tells us the story of two sons. Both are given the same directions from their father. The first son turns his father down. Then, thinking better of it, does what his father asked. The second son [&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":[1188,342,772,1069],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9942"}],"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=9942"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9942\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15681,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9942\/revisions\/15681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}