{"id":35155,"date":"2023-03-15T03:30:43","date_gmt":"2023-03-15T10:30:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/?p=35155"},"modified":"2023-03-13T10:56:51","modified_gmt":"2023-03-13T17:56:51","slug":"march-15-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/2023\/03\/15\/march-15-2023\/","title":{"rendered":"March 15, 2023"},"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;https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/March-2023.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\" style=\"--awb-text-transform:none;\"><h2><strong>Choice and Free Will<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>\u201cMy Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may Your will be done.\u201d<\/em> Matthew 26:42 NIV<\/p>\n<p>I have a quote up in my kitchen that says, \u201cOnly Jesus could build a bridge to Heaven with only two pieces of wood.\u201d As I pondered that, I realized He not only built the bridge, but He also created the tree that the wood came from. Then my thoughts turned to our free will that made that bridge necessary for us to have eternity with our God.<\/p>\n<p>To have free will, we have to have choice. In the Garden of Eden, God gave Adam permission to eat from any tree in the garden but told him not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, <em>\u201c\u2026for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die\u201d<\/em> (Genesis 2:17). God did not say <strong>if<\/strong>, He said <strong>when<\/strong>, you eat of it. God did not set a barrier around the tree\u2014Adam had choice. God, of course, knew we would make poor choices, and the consequences.<\/p>\n<p>When Jesus was in the garden of Gethsemane, He prayed if there was another way that the Father\u2019s will be done. Two gardens, two trees. In one garden, man chose to follow his own will. Sin and broken fellowship with God was the result. In the other garden, Jesus submitted his own will to the Father and allowed Himself to be sacrificed on another tree at Calvary to pay the debt of our sin. The veil was torn, and we can again have close relationship with God.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>God, please help us to make wise choices, to submit to Your will, to value You more than our own selfish desires. Amen.<\/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-35155","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-991","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35155","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=35155"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35155\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35156,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35155\/revisions\/35156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}