{"id":36698,"date":"2015-12-25T09:23:31","date_gmt":"2015-12-25T14:23:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/trinities.org\/blog\/?p=36698"},"modified":"2015-12-25T09:23:31","modified_gmt":"2015-12-25T14:23:31","slug":"merry-christmas-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/trinities.org\/blog\/merry-christmas-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Merry Christmas!"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote><p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-36699\" src=\"http:\/\/trinities.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/angels-glory-to-god.png\" alt=\"angels glory to god\" width=\"418\" height=\"305\" srcset=\"https:\/\/trinities.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/angels-glory-to-god.png 418w, https:\/\/trinities.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/angels-glory-to-god-300x219.png 300w, https:\/\/trinities.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/angels-glory-to-god-90x66.png 90w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 418px) 100vw, 418px\" \/>In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. Then <strong>an angel of the Lord<\/strong> stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, \u201cDo not be afraid; for see\u2014I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is <strong>born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord<\/strong>. \u00a0This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.\u201d And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying,<\/p>\n<p>\u201c<strong>Glory to God<\/strong> in the highest heaven,<br \/>\nand on earth peace among those whom he favors!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, \u201cLet us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us.\u201d So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and <strong>the child<\/strong> lying in the manger. When they saw this, they made known what had been told them about this child; and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them. (Luke 2)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-36701\" src=\"http:\/\/trinities.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/the-grinch.jpg\" alt=\"the grinch\" width=\"235\" height=\"258\" srcset=\"https:\/\/trinities.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/the-grinch.jpg 374w, https:\/\/trinities.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/the-grinch-273x300.jpg 273w, https:\/\/trinities.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/the-grinch-90x99.jpg 90w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 235px) 100vw, 235px\" \/>Are you <strong>a Christian who doesn&#8217;t celebrate Christmas? <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s fine with me; I have no objection.<\/p>\n<p>Christmas is a catholic tradition, not an apostolic one, so while it is <a href=\"http:\/\/trinities.org\/blog\/podcast-67-is-christmas-a-pagan-holiday\/\" target=\"_blank\"><em>arguably<\/em> allowable and overall good<\/a>, it is not required.<\/p>\n<p>To you, then: Happy Friday. I&#8217;m sure you will thank God in your own way for sending us his Son and Messiah.<\/p>\n<p>(<a href=\"http:\/\/trinities.org\/blog\/?s=Christmas\" target=\"_blank\">Previous trinities posts on Christmas<\/a>.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, \u201cDo not be afraid; for see\u2014I am bringing you good&hellip;&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/trinities.org\/blog\/merry-christmas-2\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">Read More &raquo;<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Merry Christmas!<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":36699,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[21,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36698","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bible","category-quotes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/trinities.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36698","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/trinities.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/trinities.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trinities.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trinities.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36698"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/trinities.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36698\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36704,"href":"https:\/\/trinities.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36698\/revisions\/36704"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trinities.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36699"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/trinities.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trinities.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trinities.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}