{"id":459,"date":"2015-06-24T20:20:18","date_gmt":"2015-06-25T00:20:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/?p=459"},"modified":"2015-06-13T21:33:19","modified_gmt":"2015-06-14T01:33:19","slug":"thursday-june-25","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/?p=459","title":{"rendered":"Thursday, June 25"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>MATTHEW 11\u00a0 <sup>7\u00a0<\/sup>As they departed, Jesus began to say to the multitudes concerning John: \u201cWhat did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? <sup>8\u00a0<\/sup>But what did you go out to see? A man clothed in soft garments? Indeed, those who wear soft <em>clothing<\/em> are in kings\u2019 houses. <sup>9\u00a0<\/sup>But what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I say to you, and more than a prophet. <sup>10\u00a0<\/sup>For this is <em>he<\/em> of whom it is written: \u2018Behold, I send My messenger before Your face, Who will prepare Your way before You.\u2019<sup> 11\u00a0<\/sup>\u201cAssuredly, I say to you, among those born of women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist; but he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. <sup>12\u00a0<\/sup>And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force. <sup>13\u00a0<\/sup>For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John. <sup>14\u00a0<\/sup>And if you are willing to receive <em>it,<\/em> he is Elijah who is to come. <sup>15\u00a0<\/sup>He who has ears to hear, let him hear! <sup>16\u00a0<\/sup>\u201cBut to what shall I liken this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to their companions, <sup>17\u00a0<\/sup>and saying: \u2018We played the flute for you, \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0And you did not dance; We mourned to you, \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0And you did not lament.\u2019 <sup>18\u00a0<\/sup>For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, \u2018He has a demon.\u2019 <sup>19\u00a0<\/sup>The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, \u2018Look, a glutton and a winebibber, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!\u2019 But wisdom is justified by her children.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>PRACTICAL APPLICATION: \u00a0John denied himself almost everything; Jesus ate and drank normally. \u00a0The Pharisees condemned them both. \u00a0If someone isn&#8217;t open to the call of God in their life, nothing we can say or do will be effective. \u00a0We should act as God directs us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>MATTHEW 11\u00a0 7\u00a0As they departed, Jesus began to say to the multitudes concerning John: \u201cWhat did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-orthodox-daily-devotional","has_no_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=459"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":460,"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459\/revisions\/460"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}