{"id":22558,"date":"2018-03-05T00:05:53","date_gmt":"2018-03-05T08:05:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/?p=22558"},"modified":"2018-03-01T15:54:16","modified_gmt":"2018-03-01T23:54:16","slug":"march-5-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/2018\/03\/05\/march-5-2018\/","title":{"rendered":"March 5, 2018"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"fusion-fullwidth fullwidth-box fusion-builder-row-1 fusion-parallax-none nonhundred-percent-fullwidth non-hundred-percent-height-scrolling\" style=\"--awb-background-position:center top;--awb-background-repeat:repeat-y;--awb-border-radius-top-left:0px;--awb-border-radius-top-right:0px;--awb-border-radius-bottom-right:0px;--awb-border-radius-bottom-left:0px;--awb-background-image:url(&quot;http:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/March-2018-Devo-Template-2.jpg&quot;);--awb-flex-wrap:wrap;\" ><div class=\"fusion-builder-row fusion-row\"><div class=\"fusion-layout-column fusion_builder_column fusion-builder-column-0 fusion_builder_column_1_6 1_6 fusion-one-sixth fusion-column-first\" style=\"--awb-bg-size:cover;width:16.666666666667%;width:calc(16.666666666667% - ( ( 4% ) * 0.16666666666667 ) );margin-right: 4%;\"><div class=\"fusion-column-wrapper fusion-flex-column-wrapper-legacy\"><div class=\"fusion-clearfix\"><\/div><\/div><\/div><div class=\"fusion-layout-column fusion_builder_column fusion-builder-column-1 fusion_builder_column_3_4 3_4 fusion-three-fourth fusion-column-last\" style=\"--awb-padding-top:40px;--awb-padding-right:10px;--awb-padding-bottom:40px;--awb-padding-left:10px;--awb-bg-size:cover;width:75%;width:calc(75% - ( ( 4% ) * 0.75 ) );\"><div class=\"fusion-column-wrapper fusion-flex-column-wrapper-legacy\"><div class=\"fusion-text fusion-text-1\"><p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>\u201cCan a virgin forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire? Yet My people have forgotten Me days without number.\u201d<\/em> Jeremiah 2:32<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Forgetting God<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>When I got married in the early 1980\u2019s, I still had a bit of the \u201cflower child\u201d in me. I wanted a wreath of flowers in my hair, and a simple long, white dress (not a wedding gown) embellished with just a bit of peach ribbon. Nothing silky, nothing flowing, nothing trailing behind. I chose the pattern, and my mother and grandmother created the dress I saw in my mind. It suited me. It spoke of who I was. It was exactly what I wanted.<\/p>\n<p>Can you imagine, then, if on my wedding day, I forgot to wear it? What if that day came and I failed to remember that I had this specially-made dress to wear, and I just put on my usual jeans and t-shirt? \u201c<em>Can a bride forget her attire?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>I doubt this has ever happened to anyone. If I had shown up at my wedding wearing anything less than that dress so lovingly made for me, my mother would have dismissed me at once to go get it and put it on. It would be impossible to forget the dress. So much time had been spent on it, so much love had gone into making it perfect, so much attention to detail had been given\u2014and, of course, the day was so significant\u2014that to forget the dress would be an absurdity.<\/p>\n<p>This is what God is saying in today\u2019s verse. Every day of our lives, we remember lesser things. But we sometimes forget God.<\/p>\n<p>When I was a new believer, I was caught up in the lifestyle of being what was called then a \u201cJesus freak.\u201d That term may be a bit derogatory, but our lives were immersed in a new culture. For me, that\u2019s all it was: a new identity with new friends and a new place to spend my time (church) and new, wholesome activities to be engaged in (sing-alongs with Christian lyrics, accompanied by guitar-strummers and bongo-thumpers, around the beach campfires). I forgot that God was the center. It took a long time to get to know Him and to remember Him every day.<\/p>\n<p>God has written Himself into our lives. He should be central. All we do, say, and think should be because of Him<em>. \u201cIn Him we live, and move, and have our being\u201d <\/em>(Acts 17:28). We live because He breathes His breath into us. We are saved by His grace. We are indwelt by His Spirit because He wants us to have a Guide and Teacher (Himself).<\/p>\n<p>In Jeremiah 2:2, God says, <em>\u201cI remember you.\u201d<\/em> Do we remember Him? <em>\u201cThen those who feared the LORD spoke to one another, and the LORD listened and heard them; so a book of remembrance was written before Him for those who fear the LORD and who meditate on His name\u201d<\/em> (Malachi 3:16).<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>\u201cLord God, may we remember You every day, all day, and think of You when we retire at night. May our lives be centered on You forever. Amen.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><div class=\"fusion-clearfix\"><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","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-22558","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-5RQ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22558","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=22558"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22558\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22560,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22558\/revisions\/22560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}