{"id":115,"date":"2008-02-14T14:55:50","date_gmt":"2008-02-14T13:55:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.christlutheranchurch.org.uk\/site\/?p=115"},"modified":"2008-02-14T14:58:15","modified_gmt":"2008-02-14T13:58:15","slug":"lent-devotions-2008-wednesday-13th-february","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.christlutheranchurch.org.uk\/site\/2008\/02\/14\/lent-devotions-2008-wednesday-13th-february\/","title":{"rendered":"Lent Devotions 2008: Wednesday 13th February"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Far be it from me to boast except in The Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.<\/em> (Galatians 6:14)<\/p>\n<p>In this day and age it is clear that the world is full of enticements and pressure to conform to a standard defined by others. We are constantly reminded that \u2018image is everything\u2019 and we must think about how something will look before we act. Even when it comes to being \u2018green\u2019 which is admirable as stewards of God\u2019s gifts, it is often the image that is considered most important. Many people are more concerned about looking \u2018green\u2019 than whether they are making a positive difference. Ensuring that there are labels on \u2018green\u2019 products or that their \u2018green\u2019 car stands out as being different is very important to some people. Surely, however, if the end result is positive, how can a little boasting be so bad?<\/p>\n<p>It is clear from Galatians 6 that when it comes to our faith, Paul states that image is nothing. Outward boasting and the image of being a good or religious person are meaningless if not accompanied by true faith in Christ. We are of course called to provide an example to the world, but as a result of our faith guiding our actions, not to impress anyone. With the pressures of the world bombarding us, our only hope is to ask God to \u201ccrucify our sinful nature\u201d (Galatians 5:24) and keep our eyes on the only true focus, Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Lord help us to remember that:<em><br \/>\nOur hope is built on nothing less<br \/>\nThan Jesus&#8217; Blood and Righteousness;<br \/>\nWe dare not trust the sweetest frame,<br \/>\nBut wholly lean on Jesus&#8217; Name.<br \/>\nOn Christ, The Solid Rock, we stand;<br \/>\nAll other ground is sinking sand. Amen.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>(Toplady, TLH #370)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Far be it from me to boast except in The Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. (Galatians 6:14) In this day and age it is clear that the world is full of enticements and pressure to conform to a standard defined [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lent-devotions-2008"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christlutheranchurch.org.uk\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christlutheranchurch.org.uk\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christlutheranchurch.org.uk\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christlutheranchurch.org.uk\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christlutheranchurch.org.uk\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=115"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.christlutheranchurch.org.uk\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christlutheranchurch.org.uk\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christlutheranchurch.org.uk\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christlutheranchurch.org.uk\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}