{"id":352552,"date":"2026-08-31T07:15:21","date_gmt":"2026-08-31T11:15:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/universalchurchusa.org\/en\/?p=352552"},"modified":"2026-08-31T19:18:47","modified_gmt":"2026-08-31T23:18:47","slug":"having-the-appearance-of-being-godly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/universalchurchusa.org\/en\/post\/having-the-appearance-of-being-godly\/","title":{"rendered":"Having the Appearance of Being Godly"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote style=\"background-color: #f2f8fc; padding: 2em; border-left: 5px solid #ccc; margin: 1em 0;\"><p>Yet they seek Me daily,<br \/>\nAnd delight to know My ways,<br \/>\nAs a nation that did righteousness,<br \/>\nAnd did not forsake the ordinance of their God.<br \/>\nThey ask of Me the ordinances of justice;<br \/>\nThey take delight in approaching God.<br \/>\n\u2018Why\u00a0have we fasted,\u2019\u00a0they say,\u00a0\u2018and You have not seen?<br \/>\nWhy\u00a0have we\u00a0afflicted our souls, and You take no notice?\u2019<br \/>\n\u201cIn fact, in the day of your fast you find pleasure,<br \/>\nAnd exploit all your laborers. (Isaiah 58:2-3)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>&nbsp;<br \/>\nHaving good intentions, enjoying going to God&#8217;s house, fasting, and knowing His Word is not enough to consider oneself saved. It is necessary to have an encounter with the Lord, repent of one&#8217;s sins, and receive the Holy Spirit to have true life, with fruits of righteousness.<\/p>\n<p>Thus, you will be able to claim the blessings He promised to His children and sanctify His Name with a life worthy of bearing His precious Name, which is above all others.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; Yet they seek Me daily, And delight to know My ways, As a nation that did righteousness, And did not forsake the ordinance of their God. They ask of Me the ordinances of justice; They take delight in approaching God. \u2018Why\u00a0have we fasted,\u2019\u00a0they say,\u00a0\u2018and You have not seen? Why\u00a0have we\u00a0afflicted our souls, and You [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":248,"featured_media":352553,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[323,6248,377],"tags":[],"site":[],"class_list":["post-352552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-a-school-of-faith","category-ester-bezerra","category-women"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/universalchurchusa.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352552","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/universalchurchusa.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/universalchurchusa.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/universalchurchusa.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/248"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/universalchurchusa.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=352552"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/universalchurchusa.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352552\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":352554,"href":"https:\/\/universalchurchusa.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352552\/revisions\/352554"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/universalchurchusa.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/352553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/universalchurchusa.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=352552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/universalchurchusa.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=352552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/universalchurchusa.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=352552"},{"taxonomy":"site","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/universalchurchusa.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/site?post=352552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}