{"id":14651,"date":"2023-12-26T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-12-25T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifefmfiji.org\/?p=14651"},"modified":"2023-11-23T08:43:50","modified_gmt":"2023-11-22T22:43:50","slug":"celebrate-christmas-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifefmfiji.org\/celebrate-christmas-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Celebrate Christmas! (2)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>\u2018This day is holy.\u2019 Nehemiah\u00a08:9\u00a0KJV<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The word<i> holiday<\/i> comes from the Old English word<i> haligd\u00e6g<\/i>, which means \u2018holy day\u2019. So, when Nehemiah announced, <i>\u2018This day is holy,\u2019<\/i> he was declaring a celebration; a time to<i> \u2018eat and drink before the Lord.\u2019<\/i> (1\u00a0Chronicles\u00a029:22\u00a0KJV)  <\/p>\n<p>Today, over eating and overspending have become a sad part of Christmas for many people. Jack Hayford writes: \u2018Often it is from those newly associated with our fellowship who have allowed themselves\u2014perhaps for the first time\u2014to enter into the wonder and fullness of Christmas joy and celebration\u2026Christmas is more than merely \u201cmerry\u201d. Christmas is<i> mighty. <\/i> Celebration\u2014unfettered enjoyment, love\u2026laughter\u2026gifts and giving, trees and tinsel\u2026carols and bells\u2026all of it\u2014has an inherent potential for mightiness. The qualifying factor is<i> the presence of the Holy Spirit. <\/i> When He is present, the accoutrements [features] of Christmas\u2026can bless, strengthen, heal, [and] restore\u2026When He is absent, carols ring hollow. Greetings, wishes and smiles lie on the surface, like glitter glued on a flat card. Lights and decorations\u2026can leave the heart more desolate than ever. But where the Holy Spirit is there is power\u2026to change entrenched habits\u2026transform cold hearts\u2026grudges and expectations\u2026lift lives out of the shadow\u2026This Christmas, let Him come upon you. Welcome the\u2026Holy Spirit\u2026to move upon your life, and then make your<i> own<\/i> move\u2026into the season\u2019s best opportunities to bask in the wonder of it all\u2026Reach out to those around: encourage, bless, bake, give, visit, invite, share, and lift hearts wherever you can. By\u2026New Year\u2026you\u2019ll find Christmas to\u2026have been marvellously, and even miraculously, mighty.\u2019<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/lifefmfiji.org\/soulfood\/\">SoulFood<\/a>: Zech 1\u20135, John 20:1\u20139, Ps 113, Pro 31:14\u201317<\/p>\n<p><em style=\"color: #41423d; font-family: arial, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; line-height: 18px;\">The Word for Today<\/em><span style=\"color: #41423d; font-family: arial, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; line-height: 18px;\"> is authored by Bob and Debby Gass and published under licence from UCB International Copyright \u00a9<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u2018This day is holy.\u2019 Nehemiah\u00a08:9\u00a0KJV The word holiday comes from the Old English word haligd\u00e6g, which means \u2018holy day\u2019. So, when Nehemiah announced, \u2018This day is holy,\u2019 he was declaring a celebration; a time to \u2018eat and drink before the Lord.\u2019 (1\u00a0Chronicles\u00a029:22\u00a0KJV) Today, over eating and overspending have become a sad part of Christmas for [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[36,35,34,37],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifefmfiji.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14651"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifefmfiji.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifefmfiji.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifefmfiji.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifefmfiji.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14651"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lifefmfiji.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14651\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34515,"href":"https:\/\/lifefmfiji.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14651\/revisions\/34515"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifefmfiji.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifefmfiji.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifefmfiji.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}