{"id":7160,"date":"2012-12-25T13:03:10","date_gmt":"2012-12-25T13:03:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/?p=7160"},"modified":"2012-12-25T13:06:52","modified_gmt":"2012-12-25T13:06:52","slug":"the-reason-for-the-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/?p=7160","title":{"rendered":"The Reason for the Season!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Merry Christmas, I pray for you that today is filled with love and peace, and that you enjoy the reason for the season!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

Luke 2:2-38<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

New Living Translation (NLT)<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

2\u00a0<\/sup>(This was the first census taken when Quirinius was governor of Syria.) 3\u00a0<\/sup>All returned to their own ancestral towns to register for this census. 4\u00a0<\/sup>And because Joseph was a descendant of King David, he had to go to Bethlehem in Judea, David\u2019s ancient home. He traveled there from the village of Nazareth in Galilee. 5\u00a0<\/sup>He took with him Mary, his fianc\u00e9e, who was now obviously pregnant.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

6\u00a0<\/sup>And while they were there, the time came for her baby to be born. 7\u00a0<\/sup>She gave birth to her first child, a son. She wrapped him snugly in strips of cloth and laid him in a manger, because there was no lodging available for them.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Shepherds and Angels<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

 <\/p>\n

8\u00a0<\/sup>That night there were shepherds staying in the fields nearby, guarding their flocks of sheep. 9\u00a0<\/sup>Suddenly, an angel of the Lord appeared among them, and the radiance of the Lord\u2019s glory surrounded them. They were terrified, 10\u00a0<\/sup>but the angel reassured them. \u201cDon\u2019t be afraid!\u201d he said. \u201cI bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people. 11\u00a0<\/sup>The Savior\u2014yes, the Messiah, the Lord\u2014has been born today in Bethlehem, the city of David! 12\u00a0<\/sup>And you will recognize him by this sign: You will find a baby wrapped snugly in strips of cloth, lying in a manger.\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

13\u00a0<\/sup>Suddenly, the angel was joined by a vast host of others\u2014the armies of heaven\u2014praising God and saying,<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

14\u00a0<\/sup>\u201cGlory to God in highest heaven,<\/strong><\/span>
\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0and peace on earth to those with whom God is pleased.\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

15\u00a0<\/sup>When the angels had returned to heaven, the shepherds said to each other, \u201cLet\u2019s go to Bethlehem! Let\u2019s see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

16\u00a0<\/sup>They hurried to the village and found Mary and Joseph. And there was the baby, lying in the manger. 17\u00a0<\/sup>After seeing him, the shepherds told everyone what had happened and what the angel had said to them about this child. 18\u00a0<\/sup>All who heard the shepherds\u2019 story were astonished, 19\u00a0<\/sup>but Mary kept all these things in her heart and thought about them often. 20\u00a0<\/sup>The shepherds went back to their flocks, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen. It was just as the angel had told them.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Peace on Earth, Goodwill toward men,<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

the pilgrim<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Merry Christmas, I pray for you that today is filled with love and peace, and that you enjoy the reason for the season!   Luke 2:2-38 New Living Translation (NLT)   2\u00a0(This was the first census taken when Quirinius was governor of Syria.) 3\u00a0All returned to their own ancestral towns to register for this census. […]<\/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-7160","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\/7160","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=7160"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7160\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7165,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7160\/revisions\/7165"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}