{"id":23305,"date":"2014-12-12T00:25:08","date_gmt":"2014-12-12T05:25:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/?p=23305"},"modified":"2014-12-11T20:05:00","modified_gmt":"2014-12-12T01:05:00","slug":"dont-leave-manger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/2014\/12\/12\/dont-leave-manger\/","title":{"rendered":"Don’t Leave Him In The Manger"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"encouragementbloggraphicromans15\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The Savior\u2014yes, the Messiah, the Lord\u2014has been born today in Bethlehem, the city of David!<\/span>
\n And you will recognize Him by this sign:<\/span>
\n You will find a baby wrapped snuggly in strips of cloth, lying in a manger.<\/span>
\n Luke 2:11<\/span><\/p>\n

Our first vision of Jesus is a baby lying in a manger, with shepherds and animals and Mary and Joseph all gazing at this beautiful baby. \u00a0It’s the Christmas scene, a beautiful one that we see on greeting cards and church programs. \u00a0But don’t leave Him in the manger.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Tiny, sweet, delicate and small, this helpless baby grew and lived an amazing life…
\nwitnessed to many,
\nfed the five thousand,
\nhealed the sick,
\ngave sight to the blind,
\ngave life to the dead,
\nand ultimately carried His own Cross and died for us.
\nThen He rose again after three days,
\nascended into Heaven,
\nleaving us the gift of the Holy Spirit,
\nand He will come back to earth as King of Kings.<\/p>\n

Out of that manger came a Savior Who came to earth to become a man, to walk the streets as we do, and to experience life before us…so that we could live by His example. \u00a0He was despised and rejected and hated by many. \u00a0And He was followed by crowds of people, longing to be healed. \u00a0He was loved by His Father, yet \u00a0sacrificed for us, God’s children.<\/p>\n

Do you ever wonder what kind of follower you would’ve been? \u00a0Would you have believed that HE was who He said He was? \u00a0Would you have had the faith to touch His garment knowing you would be healed? \u00a0What is so amazing is that even today, your faith can move mountains. \u00a0Your faith in Jesus can still heal sickness. \u00a0Your faith in Him can bring plenty of provision to your family and your belief inHim can save your life.<\/p>\n

Yes, He came as a baby and we still picture Him in the stable in the manger on that first Christmas night with the bright star leading the shepherds to Him. \u00a0But we can’t leave Him in the manger<\/em>.<\/span> We must bring Him into our lives, into our hearts and let Him lead us and guide us into being all that God has created us to be. \u00a0There is so much good that He wants for us, if only we will have the faith and the courage and endurance to walk with Him through the hard and sometimes the impossible. \u00a0And without Him, life is impossible.<\/p>\n

He is for you and He is waiting with His nail pierced hands open to accept you into His Kingdom.<\/p>\n

Do you want Him to be Lord of your life?<\/span><\/h3>\n

I pray, today, that you ask Jesus to come into your heart and to be Lord of your life. \u00a0If you made this decision today, I ask you to pray this prayer.<\/p>\n

\n

Dear God, I know that I am a sinner and I need forgiveness. \u00a0I believe that Jesus is Your Son and He came to earth as a baby and grew to be Son of Man. \u00a0He sacrificed His life on the cross for our sins so that we can live a life of freedom. \u00a0I want this for my life. \u00a0Walk with me now. In Jesus’ name. Amen.<\/p>\n

* \u00a0\u00a0\u2665 \u00a0~ \u00a0\u271d \u00a0~ \u00a0\u2605\u00a0 \u00a0 *<\/span><\/h4>\n<\/blockquote>\n

But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our sins; <\/span>
\nthe punishment that brought us peace was on Him, <\/span>
\nand by His wounds we are healed.<\/span>
\nIsaiah 53:5 NIV<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Savior\u2014yes, the Messiah, the Lord\u2014has been born today in Bethlehem, the city of David! And you will recognize Him by this sign: You will find a baby wrapped snuggly in strips of cloth, lying in a manger. Luke 2:11 Our first vision of Jesus is a baby lying in a manger, with shepherds and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":20533,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6228],"tags":[7988,338,1287,425,7943,7989,4639,589,3401,1547,5980],"class_list":["post-23305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-encouragement-2","tag-dont-leave-him-in-the-manger","tag-encouragement","tag-gch","tag-girlfriends-coffee-hour","tag-isaiah-535","tag-jesus-lord-of-my-life","tag-jesus-birth","tag-kim-spring","tag-luke-211","tag-sinners-prayer","tag-the-cross","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/encouragementbloggraphicromans15.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p39pHp-63T","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23305","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23305"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23305\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23342,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23305\/revisions\/23342"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}