{"id":9997,"date":"2021-12-14T06:37:17","date_gmt":"2021-12-14T12:37:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/devotional-on-john-8\/"},"modified":"2021-12-02T09:27:33","modified_gmt":"2021-12-02T15:27:33","slug":"devotional-on-john-8","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/devotional-on-john-8\/","title":{"rendered":"Devotional on John"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_15895\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-15895\" style=\"width: 960px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/P6199509.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/P6199509-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"960\" height=\"720\" class=\"size-large wp-image-15895\" srcset=\"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/P6199509-1024x768.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/P6199509-300x225.jpg 300w, http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/P6199509-768x576.jpg 768w, http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/P6199509-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/P6199509.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-15895\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">2014 &#8211; Mt Rainier National Park<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The power of the cross<\/p>\n<p>John 8: When he put it in these terms, many people decided to believe.<\/p>\n<p>The debate concerns the relationship of Jesus to his Father.  His enemies listen for any misstatement, any slip of the tongue of our Lord, that they might pounce and score some debate points.  Jesus tells them that they need to open their minds and stop thinking in such a small, earthly scale.  Meanwhile, others are listening, considering and trying to decide for themselves about Jesus.  Finally, Jesus says to his enemies, \u201cWhen you raise me up, then you\u2019ll know who I am.\u201d  The \u201craise me up\u201d phrase is crystal clear to his listeners.  Jesus is talking about crucifixion.  In this culture, to be \u201craised up\u201d is a very bad thing.  Even as his enemies prepare for more debate and the crowd tries to digest what Jesus is saying, he continues.  When he is \u201craised up,\u201d as bad as that is, his Father won\u2019t abandon him.  Even to crucifixion Jesus will take joy in pleasing his Father.  At this point, many in the crowd are convinced.  If Jesus is willing to obey his Father even to a cross, and if he believes that even at such a terrible moment the Father will be faithful to him, they will believe in him.  Such confidence and such a level of commitment is compelling.  Once in a while I happen upon some profane, blasphemous use of the cross.  The enemies of Christ are still among us and they think that the cross is silly or proof of weakness and defeat.  For many, though, it\u2019s convincing and compelling.  In this passage, even before Jesus actually goes to the cross, it\u2019s the cross that convinces them to follow.  Never question the power of the cross.<\/p>\n<p>Take Away: The cross convinces us of Christ and his ability to transform our lives.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The power of the cross John 8: When he put it in these terms, many people decided to believe. The debate concerns the relationship of Jesus to his Father. His enemies listen for any misstatement, any slip of the tongue of our Lord, that they might pounce and score some debate points. Jesus tells them [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1507,1428],"tags":[1257,230,232,637,772],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9997"}],"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=9997"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9997\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15897,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9997\/revisions\/15897"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}