{"id":107580,"date":"2020-12-25T03:50:03","date_gmt":"2020-12-25T09:50:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/?p=107580"},"modified":"2020-12-22T08:04:00","modified_gmt":"2020-12-22T14:04:00","slug":"18-b","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/2020\/12\/25\/18-b\/","title":{"rendered":"18.b.  Merry Christmas!!!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p2\"><i>Luke 2:10-12<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span>\u201cThen the angel said to them, \u2018Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.\u2019\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">Imagine you are a shepherd in ancient Israel: Your job is mundane, dirty, and maybe even a little frightening. You\u2019re out in the wilderness, away from town, and the only light you see at night comes from the fire around which you are huddled and the moon hanging overhead. With that small field of vision, you\u2019re supposed to not only keep track of your sheep, but also protect them from attack.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">Suddenly, a supernatural brightness\u2014\u201cthe glory of the Lord\u201d\u2014blinds your eyes, and there\u2019s somebody there, unlike anything you\u2019ve seen before. Perhaps you immediately realize that it\u2019s the angel of the Lord, or maybe you are so consumed with confusion that it takes a minute to sink in that this being is from the heavenly realm. Either way, you\u2019re so awe-struck that the angel\u2019s first words are, \u201cDo not be afraid.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">\u201cBehold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.\u201d<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">The first people who were given this great news was lowly shepherds, not Jewish leaders.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>The first thing they did was go straight to Bethlehem to see.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>They hurried to Joseph, Mary, and baby Jesus.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>They reported the message proclaimed to them by the angels.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>The shepherds returned to the flock and were glorifying and praising God.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">We celebrate Jesus Christs\u2019 birth today.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Let it be in remembrance of the gift of God.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>\u00a0\u201cFor God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.\u201d<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Let us glorify and praise God in our tradition of gift exchange.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Luke 2:10-12\u00a0 \u00a0 \u201cThen the angel said to them, \u2018Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be the sign &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/2020\/12\/25\/18-b\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;18.b.  Merry Christmas!!!&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-107580","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-prayers"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107580","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107580"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107580\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":107583,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107580\/revisions\/107583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}