{"id":9961,"date":"2021-11-08T06:37:04","date_gmt":"2021-11-08T12:37:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/devotional-on-mark-12\/"},"modified":"2021-10-26T15:19:57","modified_gmt":"2021-10-26T20:19:57","slug":"devotional-on-mark-12","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/devotional-on-mark-12\/","title":{"rendered":"Devotional on Mark"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_15735\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-15735\" style=\"width: 577px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/100_2665.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/100_2665-577x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"577\" height=\"1024\" class=\"size-large wp-image-15735\" srcset=\"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/100_2665-577x1024.jpg 577w, http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/100_2665-169x300.jpg 169w, http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/100_2665-768x1364.jpg 768w, http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/100_2665-865x1536.jpg 865w, http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/100_2665.jpg 1153w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 577px) 100vw, 577px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-15735\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">2014 &#8211; Dead Horse Point State Park, UT<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>You\u2019re getting warmer<\/p>\n<p>Mark 12: You\u2019re almost there, right on the boarder of God\u2019s kingdom.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve been in a few discussions with people who want to play \u201cstump the pastor.\u201d  The exchange usually starts with something like, \u201cBeing that you\u2019re a preacher, let me ask you this&#8230;\u201d and off we go to some burning theological issue like where Cain\u2019s wife came from.  In this passage, Jesus deals with the same level of discussion.  The Sadducees bring him their old worn out \u201cwhose wife is she?\u201d question that they\u2019ve used for years.  Others want Jesus to go out of a limb about paying taxes.  Standing on the sidelines is a religion scholar with a question.  It too is an old one that the rabbis like batting around.  Of all the commandments of the Old Testament, which is the most important?  Jesus looks the man in the eye and gives him a serious answer.   The number one command is that we\u2019re to love God with every fiber of our being.  Jesus even goes so far as to throw in a bonus answer.  The number two command is to love our neighbor as we love ourselves.  This scholar deals with issues like this every day and he responds that he\u2019s concluded the same thing and, in fact, he\u2019s never heard the answer stated so well.  Jesus says to him that he\u2019s almost there, just a short step from the kingdom of God.  This exchange is so refreshing.  On a day when people are lining up to play \u201cstump Jesus\u201d we meet a man who\u2019s on a legitimate spiritual journey.  He\u2019s done a lot of thinking about these things and needs just a gentle nudge to close the deal and commit his life to the Lord.  Jesus instantly recognizes the difference between the cat and mouse game of the Sadducees and a sincere question from a real seeker of the truth.  My prayer for all those who sincerely seek that they\u2019ll find not only the answers to their questions, but, even better, as it was for this good man so long ago, the Answer to the greatest need of life.<\/p>\n<p>Take Away: Those who aren\u2019t playing games but are serious about God will find real answers in Jesus Christ.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>You\u2019re getting warmer Mark 12: You\u2019re almost there, right on the boarder of God\u2019s kingdom. I\u2019ve been in a few discussions with people who want to play \u201cstump the pastor.\u201d The exchange usually starts with something like, \u201cBeing that you\u2019re a preacher, let me ask you this&#8230;\u201d and off we go to some burning theological [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1517,1428],"tags":[1210,691,882,941],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9961"}],"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=9961"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9961\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15737,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9961\/revisions\/15737"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}