![\"\"](\"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/Picture-17.jpg\" "\\"Picture")
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The tree is trimmed, the presents are wrapped, the lights are strung, the garland is up! \u00a0The cookies are in the oven, Christmas music is filtering through the house, we are almost ready for family to arrive! \u00a0Everything possible has been arranged to make them feel welcome and loved. Gifts were carefully selected, food, in abundance, is prepared. \u00a0All is well, but how about my soul? \u00a0Am I ready to receive the new born Savior? \u00a0Do I really want Him to come into my life, to guide my life, and instruct me. \u00a0Do I really need a Savior? \u00a0Do I know I need to be forgiven? \u00a0 Yes!!!, I have accepted who I am, what I’ve done and how much I needed Jesus to be born and die for me!<\/p>\n
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I had a friend once that said, “I might consider being a Christian accept for all those hypocrites in the church!” \u00a0Yes the church is filled with hypocrites and sinners, and people that have done awful things. \u00a0Christians have hurt people, done terrible things, that’s why we are called sinners. Just in case you are wondering why I would say such a thing. it’s because it’s true. \u00a0Scripture teaches us that we “all” are sinners, we have all fallen short of the glory of God. \u00a0Don’t let the fact that others have hurt you, and they were Christians, hold you back from knowing God. \u00a0God didn’t hurt you, He has only loved you. \u00a0There is a big catch in all of this, we all have sinned, we all are forgiven, that makes no one worse than you, you no worse than others, we are all sinners, we are all able to be forgiven, if we can accept it. \u00a0Christmas is the celebration of being set free!<\/p>\n
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Accept the gift of His forgivness, love, and grace, and enjoy the first Christmas of your life………<\/p>\n
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the pilgrim<\/p>\n
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* Special note: \u00a0If you have to go out for any last minute shopping, and i hope you don’t, but if so, drop by any Target and pickup a CD by Jim Brickman call All Is Calm. \u00a0It’s some traditional Christmas Carols and a couple of new beautiful songs that will bring calm and peace to your home this Christmas Season. \u00a0Sit down with some hot chocolate and listen to “I Pray” with your eyes closed, what a devotional…….<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Note Two: \u00a0My dear friend R.C. Concepcion jumped on the blog and fixed our posting, all you have to do now is go to the end of any blog entry and see how man posts or make a post yourself by simply clicking on the link at the bottom! \u00a0Thanks so much R.C. !!!!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The tree is trimmed, the presents are wrapped, the lights are strung, the garland is up! \u00a0The cookies are in the oven, Christmas music is filtering through the house, we are almost ready for family to arrive! \u00a0Everything possible has been arranged to make them feel welcome and loved. Gifts were carefully selected, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4166","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chronicles"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4166","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4166"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4166\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4170,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4166\/revisions\/4170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4166"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}