{"id":7446,"date":"2016-03-10T00:05:08","date_gmt":"2016-03-10T08:05:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/?p=7446"},"modified":"2016-03-09T13:39:05","modified_gmt":"2016-03-09T21:39:05","slug":"just-believing-wont-make-it-happen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/2016\/03\/10\/just-believing-wont-make-it-happen\/","title":{"rendered":"Just Believing Won&#8217;t Make It Happen"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote><p><em>\u201cStand now with your enchantments <br \/>\nAnd the multitude of your sorceries, <br \/>\nIn which you have labored from your youth\u2014 <br \/>\nPerhaps you will be able to profit, <br \/>\nPerhaps you will prevail. <br \/>\nYou are wearied in the multitude of your counsels; <br \/>\nLet now the astrologers, the stargazers, <br \/>\nAnd the monthly prognosticators <br \/>\nStand up and save you <br \/>\nFrom what shall come upon you. <br \/>\nBehold, they shall be as stubble, <br \/>\nThe fire shall burn them; <br \/>\nThey shall not deliver themselves <br \/>\nFrom the power of the flame; <br \/>\nIt shall not be a coal to be warmed by, <br \/>\nNor a fire to sit before! <br \/>\nThus shall they be to you <br \/>\nWith whom you have labored, <br \/>\nYour merchants from your youth; <br \/>\nThey shall wander each one to his quarter. <br \/>\nNo one shall save you.  (Isaiah 47:12-15)<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>What you put your faith in matters.  Israel had turned to other gods, hoping that they would provide the answers to the puzzles of life.  The Israelites had been influenced badly by the peoples around them. They imagined that their neighbors who worshipped moon and stars, sun and sea, together with their enchanters and astrologers, had something worthwhile to say to them. They believed that wisdom dwelled in the ancient mysteries that the people of Canaan put their trust in.  <\/p>\n<p>But it would all prove to be worthless. Lies cannot be transformed  into reality just because you believe hard enough.  Astrologers imagine that the placement of the planets among the stars, and the placement of the stars in the sky somehow influence the paths of human beings.  They think that the motions of the sky can predict the directions of people on earth.  God challenged the false gods to save his people as they faced their invaders.  But the conquering Assyrians were not stopped by paying attention to horoscopes.   When the bad times came, the enchanters and false gods and everything else that the Israelites had trusted in proved incapable of rescuing them.<\/p>\n<div class='kindleWidget kindleLight' ><img src=\"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-content\/plugins\/send-to-kindle\/media\/white-15.png\" \/><span>Send to Kindle<\/span><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cStand now with your enchantments And the multitude of your sorceries, In which you have labored from your youth\u2014 Perhaps you will be able to profit, Perhaps you will prevail. You are wearied in the multitude of your counsels; Let &hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/2016\/03\/10\/just-believing-wont-make-it-happen\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_s2mail":"yes"},"categories":[18,17,16],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7446"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7446"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7446\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7448,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7446\/revisions\/7448"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}