{"id":11152,"date":"2017-07-07T00:10:05","date_gmt":"2017-07-07T07:10:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lccredding.com\/lcc\/?p=11152"},"modified":"2017-07-07T00:10:05","modified_gmt":"2017-07-07T07:10:05","slug":"july-7-2017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/2017\/07\/07\/july-7-2017\/","title":{"rendered":"July 7, 2017"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\u201cBut Paul said to them, \u2018They have beaten us openly, uncondemned Romans, and have thrown us into prison. And now do they put us out secretly? No indeed! Let them come themselves and get us out.\u2019\u201d<\/em> Acts 16:37<\/span><\/p>\n

Open Repentance<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n

Perhaps you experienced a time when someone wronged you or said some hurtful words to you. Another person comes to you and says, \u201cOh, they didn\u2019t mean anything by it. Don\u2019t be so sensitive.\u201d Or they make excuses: \u201cShe was just having a bad day. Can\u2019t you just forget about it?\u201d How does that make you feel? If the \u201capology\u201d comes from someone else, do you believe it?<\/span><\/p>\n

This is the scene in today\u2019s reading. Paul and Silas have been beaten and imprisoned; an earthquake sent by God has released them from their chains, and the jailer, seeing God\u2019s power and mercy in stopping him from taking his own life, has taken them into his own home, washed their wounds, and fed them. Now the ruling authorities have sent someone in their stead to tell Paul and Silas to leave town quietly.<\/span><\/p>\n

Paul won\u2019t have it. He has been wronged, jailed on trumped-up charges, beaten and bound even though he is a Roman citizen, which was against the law. He insists on a personal apology.<\/span><\/p>\n

This is such a picture of how the kingdom of God operates! No one can repent for us; we must individually go to God and tell Him what we\u2019ve done, and ask forgiveness. No one can take our place in interpreting the meaning of our sins before God. Nobody else can go to Him on our behalf and say, \u201cShe didn\u2019t mean anything by it. Can\u2019t You just forget about it? She\u2019s not usually like that.\u201d We have wronged Him, and we must own it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cFather, we pray that You would so convict our hearts that we voluntarily come and fall at Your feet asking forgiveness. We know that no one else can properly interpret our own heart and motives. Thank You for Your patience with us. In Jesus\u2019 Name, Amen.\u201d<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cBut Paul said to them, \u2018They have beaten us openly, uncondemned Romans, and have thrown us into prison. And now […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11152","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-women"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p92wjD-2TS","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11152","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11152"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11152\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}