{"id":9947,"date":"2021-10-28T06:37:21","date_gmt":"2021-10-28T11:37:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/devotional-on-matthew-26\/"},"modified":"2021-10-02T13:20:39","modified_gmt":"2021-10-02T18:20:39","slug":"devotional-on-matthew-26","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/devotional-on-matthew-26\/","title":{"rendered":"Devotional on Matthew"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_15690\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-15690\" style=\"width: 960px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/P5049344.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/P5049344-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"960\" height=\"720\" class=\"size-large wp-image-15690\" srcset=\"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/P5049344-1024x768.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/P5049344-300x225.jpg 300w, http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/P5049344-768x576.jpg 768w, http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/P5049344-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/P5049344.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-15690\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">2014 &#8211; On the road to Dead Horse Point State Park &#8211; also Canyonlands NP<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Church camp commitment<\/p>\n<p>Matthew 26: I\u2019m ready.  Do it your way.<\/p>\n<p>When I was growing up a high point of my summers was attending church camp.  I loved playing ball and taking hikes and all the other things associated with camp.  The ministry at children\u2019s camp focused on the plan of salvation.  Many children first gave their hearts to Jesus at camp.  At teen camp, though, the focus was more on full surrender, sanctification, accepting a call to the ministry.  Teens, more than any other group, grasp the idea of radical commitment.  Still, there was a sort of insider\u2019s secret shared by \u201cold timers\u201d like me who had been going to camp through our childhood years.  It worked something like this: the Lord will ask you if you\u2019re willing to be a missionary or a pastor but it\u2019s just a test.  Once you say \u201cyes\u201d and mean it with all your heart, he won\u2019t actually call you.  With that tidbit of information buried in one\u2019s mind, even a sincere seeker had a little bit easier time making a full surrender.  When I work with teens I still see in them a willingness to go all out in their commitment to the Lord.  Adults carry baggage (jobs, bills to pay, family responsibilities) that has to be sorted through so it\u2019s a more thoughtful process for them.  However, adults also have a more realistic attitude concerning what it means to sign on the dotted line.  If I commit myself to making monthly mortgage payments I\u2019m really going to have to pay them; there\u2019s nothing theoretical about it!  When I see Jesus praying in the Garden I hear him making a full commitment to do his Father\u2019s will.  No doubt, Jesus is emotional at this point but there\u2019s more.  He knows that this \u201cyes\u201d is the real deal.  With his eyes wide open Jesus commits to go to the cross.  His full commitment to do the Father\u2019s will both challenges and instructs me as I live the Christian life.<\/p>\n<p>Take Away: The call to full surrender is a real call and needs to be taken seriously.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Church camp commitment Matthew 26: I\u2019m ready. Do it your way. When I was growing up a high point of my summers was attending church camp. I loved playing ball and taking hikes and all the other things associated with camp. The ministry at children\u2019s camp focused on the plan of salvation. Many children first [&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":[1188,192,945,1054],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9947"}],"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=9947"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9947\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15691,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9947\/revisions\/15691"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}