{"id":6110,"date":"2016-12-25T00:01:24","date_gmt":"2016-12-24T23:01:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gfhlive.tv\/freshfire\/?p=6110"},"modified":"2016-12-24T15:33:03","modified_gmt":"2016-12-24T14:33:03","slug":"god-came-for-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gfhlive.tv\/freshfire\/2016\/12\/25\/god-came-for-us\/","title":{"rendered":"God Came For Us"},"content":{"rendered":"<!--[if lt IE 9]><script>document.createElement('audio');<\/script><![endif]-->\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-6110-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.gfhlive.tv\/freshfire\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/December-25.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gfhlive.tv\/freshfire\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/December-25.mp3\">https:\/\/www.gfhlive.tv\/freshfire\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/December-25.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>\u201cBut the angel reassured them. \u201cDon\u2019t be afraid!\u201d he said. \u201cI bring you <strong><u>good news<\/u><\/strong> that will bring <strong><u>great joy<\/u><\/strong> to <strong><u>all people<\/u><\/strong> . <sup>\u00a0<\/sup><strong><u>The Savior<\/u><\/strong>\u2014yes, <strong><u>the Messiah<\/u><\/strong>, the Lord\u2014has been born today\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bible.com\/bible\/116\/luk.2.10-11\">Luke 2:10-11<\/a>[emphasis added].<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Since Christmas is about good news, what then is the good news about Christmas? Is the good news the supernatural birth by a virgin? Or is the good news the fact that there is a lot of feasting in this season? Or is the good news the gifts you have received or are about to receive? What is the good news about Christmas? I will illustrate this with a story. I went to a boarding school in <!--more-->my first two years of secondary school. And I was there until my mother delivered me from that school for which I am grateful. Some were not so privileged.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The school was a military school and so everything was military style. Every offense was also punished military style &#8211; frog jumps, press ups, and the likes. Imagine just being fresh out of primary school and having to go through that. It was torture. However, each term you go to school, you are loaded with food supplies [provisions] from home. I do not know why parents never understood that those provisions only lasted for about two weeks. When you have your own personal supply, the school meals lose their appeal. So you feed on those supplies until they finish. And then you will be the first to queue up at the cafeteria when it is meal time.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">However, there is a day called the visiting day when provisions are replenished. It is like cold water to a thirsty soul. On visiting day, parents come to check on their children and bring more supplies for them. So everyone looks forward to the visiting day. And on that day, the place is packed with students on the lookout for their parents and visitors. Let me just say this; for the fathers that never go to see their children in school on visiting day, it is not a good thing. The children will not forget it; believe me.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">But mothers are fantastic; I do not know how they do it but they always show up with replenishment, no matter what. But that fateful day, everyone\u2019s parents came and one after the other, the parents left. And I was standing there alone waiting but no one came for me. The feeling of loneliness, of emptiness, of rejection, latches on to you very strongly at such times. But the good news about Christmas is that God came for us.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Prayer<\/strong>: Lord Jesus, I thank You because in You I do not ever have to struggle with loneness, rejection, or emptiness. Thank You, Jesus, for always being here for me, in Jesus Name<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cBut the angel reassured them. \u201cDon\u2019t be afraid!\u201d he said. \u201cI bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people . \u00a0The Savior\u2014yes, the Messiah, the Lord\u2014has been born today\u201d Luke 2:10-11[emphasis added]. &nbsp; Since Christmas is about good news, what then is the good news about Christmas? Is the good news [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[179,53,165,81],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-advantage","category-christmas","category-elect","category-fellowship"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gfhlive.tv\/freshfire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6110","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gfhlive.tv\/freshfire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gfhlive.tv\/freshfire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gfhlive.tv\/freshfire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gfhlive.tv\/freshfire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6110"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/gfhlive.tv\/freshfire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6110\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6269,"href":"https:\/\/gfhlive.tv\/freshfire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6110\/revisions\/6269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gfhlive.tv\/freshfire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gfhlive.tv\/freshfire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gfhlive.tv\/freshfire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}