{"id":3973,"date":"2013-03-03T06:00:38","date_gmt":"2013-03-03T11:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.allandouglas.com\/blog\/?p=3973"},"modified":"2025-04-21T01:56:41","modified_gmt":"2025-04-21T05:56:41","slug":"lost-in-the-woods","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/lost-in-the-woods\/","title":{"rendered":"Lost in the Woods"},"content":{"rendered":"

Perhaps you have been in this situation, if not, use your imagination and follow along, I promise to get you back safe and sound.\u00a0 You are in the woods.\u00a0 Maybe you\u2019re camping, maybe a family picnic, or a hiking trip.\u00a0 You decide to follow a well marked trail, but somewhere along the way, something interesting catches your eye and you step off the path and wander into the wood – just a little ways, just to get a look.<\/p>\n

You pursue the interesting thing a little farther, then a little more.\u00a0 Suddenly you realize that you\u2019ve wandered too far and turn around to find your way back to the hiking trail.\u00a0 But as you walk, nothing looks familiar and you\u2019re not finding signs of your previous passage.\u00a0 You are completely turned around and have no idea which way to go.<\/p>\n

\n
\"compass,<\/dt>\n
Photo by iprole @ stock.xchng<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

At times like this people often say, \u201cI sure wish I had a compass.\u201d\u00a0 Many times people do have a compass, but they left it at home, thinking they would not need it.\u00a0 Maybe they don\u2019t even know where it is, they just know they have one.\u00a0 Who needs it; I have a GPS.<\/p>\n

Of course having a compass does you no good if you don\u2019t know how to work the thing.\u00a0 Oh, the basic premise is simple enough; the needle points north – but is the north-pointing part the red end or the white end?\u00a0 And how does that help you if you have no idea in which direction your camp lies?<\/p>\n

At this point, you may be wishing you\u2019d paid closer attention as a kid when the Scoutmaster went over all this stuff.<\/p>\n

The Bible is very much like a compass.\u00a0 It can be an invaluable tool for finding one\u2019s way.\u00a0 Many people own one, but have no idea how to use it\u2026 or where it is at the moment.\u00a0 Some people dismiss it as unnecessary; they can find their own way through the woods.\u00a0 Some scoff at it; just a clever bit of folklore, completely outdated in this age of modern technology and \u201cenlightened\u201d society. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s strange how these attitudes fit until real trouble comes; until they find themselves lost in the woods of life.\u00a0 At this point, many will find themselves wishing they knew more about this piece of survival equipment\u2026 or at least where they put it.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t wait until you\u2019re lost in a deep, dark woods wondering how God works; pull out your copy of His instruction book, blow off the dust and open your mind and heart to the words.\u00a0 Start in Matthew, first book in the New Testament.\u00a0 Let the Ultimate Scoutmaster speak to you and teach you to use this survival tool.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Perhaps you have been in this situation, if not, use your imagination and follow along, I promise to get you back safe and sound.  You are in the woods.  Maybe you’re camping, maybe a family picnic, or a hiking trip.  You decide to follow a well marked trail, but somewhere along the way, something interesting … Continue reading “Lost in the Woods”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[69],"class_list":["post-3973","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-matters-of-faith","tag-god"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3973","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3973"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3973\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21561,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3973\/revisions\/21561"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3973"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}