{"id":1825,"date":"2024-05-07T00:05:00","date_gmt":"2024-05-07T05:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/trinityslayton.info\/?p=1825"},"modified":"2024-05-06T10:06:49","modified_gmt":"2024-05-06T15:06:49","slug":"lifting-up-the-serpent-part-2-may-7-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/trinityslayton.info\/index.php\/2024\/05\/07\/lifting-up-the-serpent-part-2-may-7-2024\/","title":{"rendered":"Lifting Up the Serpent &#8212; Part 2:  May 7, 2024"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/trinityslayton.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/Recordings\/2024\/Trinity_20240507.mp3\">Broadcast<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<pre class=\"wp-block-code\"><code>                    Lifting Up the Serpent - Part 2\n                             Numbers 21:6\n                              05\/07\/2024\n\n\n        6    Then the LORD sent fiery serpents among the\n             people, and they bit the people, so that many\n             people of Israel died.  (ESV)\n\n        The children of Israel were tired of their nomadic life in\n   the wilderness.  When their travels took them once again away\n   from the land once promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, they\n   began to grumble and complain about God and Moses.  ``Then the\n   LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the\n   people, so that many people of Israel died.''\n\n        How does God call us to account for our sins?  In this case,\n   the children of Israel saw a direct link between their discontent\n   and the venomous snakes.  More often, however, the call to\n   repentance is not as readily apparent.  Yes, when tragedy\n   strikes, we are swift to call upon the name of the Lord, to\n   implore the help and mercy of the almighty God.  But even in\n   normal times, the law accuses us of sin.\n\n        Throughout the Bible we learn that we are to love the Lord\n   our God above all things, and our neighbors as ourselves.  This\n   was written by Moses, and spoken again by Jesus, Himself.  Yet we\n   turn our back on God, and we ignore the needs of our neighbors as\n   we focus on our own selfish desires.\n\n        That wake up call to repent may come in the form of a\n   personal tragedy, or through the proclamation of God's Word.  No\n   matter, we confess that we deserve God's temporal and eternal\n   punishment, for we have sinned against God and neighbor by our\n   thoughts, words, and deeds.  Jesus, in talking with Nicodemus as\n   recorded in the third chapter of John's Gospel, compares the\n   salvation of the world to the forgiveness offered to the children\n   of Israel as they endured the serpents.  May our hearts ever be\n   turned to the love of God, that we repent of our sin and receive\n   the gift of forgiveness.  Amen.<\/code><\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Broadcast<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1825","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-turn-your-radio-on-2024"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/trinityslayton.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1825","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/trinityslayton.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/trinityslayton.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/trinityslayton.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/trinityslayton.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1825"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/trinityslayton.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1825\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1826,"href":"http:\/\/trinityslayton.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1825\/revisions\/1826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/trinityslayton.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/trinityslayton.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/trinityslayton.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}