{"id":23580,"date":"2014-12-24T00:45:21","date_gmt":"2014-12-24T05:45:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/?p=23580"},"modified":"2014-12-24T00:46:46","modified_gmt":"2014-12-24T05:46:46","slug":"love-action","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/2014\/12\/24\/love-action\/","title":{"rendered":"Love In Action"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Christmas\u2014the time of year our focus shifts to the birth of Christ. \u00a0That Holy baby Boy born in a manger.<\/p>\n

This year, I have been thinking of it in a different light. \u00a0This year, God has been speaking to me about love<\/strong><\/span>. \u00a0Christmas is when unconditional, self-sacrificing, all-forgiving love<\/span> was shown to us. \u00a0Christmas is when the ultimate Love<\/strong> <\/span>came to earth in human form.<\/p>\n

Christmas is love<\/span> in action.<\/h4>\n

For God loved the world in this way: He gave His One and Only Son,
\nso that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.
\nJohn 3:16 HCSB<\/p>\n

Who does that? \u00a0Who gives up their one and only Child for a group of stubborn, stiff necked people? \u00a0And it was voluntary! \u00a0Look at John 10:18 HCSB…<\/p>\n

No one can take My life from me. I sacrifice it voluntarily.
\nFor I have the authority to lay it down when I want to and also to take it up again.
\nFor this is what My Father has commanded.<\/p>\n

Christ made the ultimate sacrifice, knowing all the while we were not worthy. He came for us because He loved<\/span> us. \u00a0Romans 5:8 (NLT) makes that clear – “But God showed his great love<\/span> <\/strong>for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.” \u00a01 John 3:16a (NLT) ties it up in a neat little bow:<\/p>\n

We know what real love<\/span> <\/strong>is because Jesus gave up His life for us.<\/p>\n

This year for Christmas I want to focus not only on the miraculous birth but also on the love<\/span> <\/strong>that was made real in a tiny manger in Bethlehem. \u00a0I want that real love<\/strong> <\/span>to flow through me to those around me. \u00a0I want His love<\/strong> <\/span>and His light to shine through me.<\/p>\n

\n

That’s the reason He came.
\nThat’s the reason for Christmas.
\nTo put love<\/span> in action.<\/h4>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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

Father, thank You for putting love<\/span><\/strong> into action all those many years ago. \u00a0You have shown us what real love<\/strong><\/span> is. \u00a0Please let Your love<\/strong><\/span> flow through me each day but especially during this wondrous time of year. \u00a0In Your Holy name I pray, Amen – so be it!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Christmas\u2014the time of year our focus shifts to the birth of Christ. \u00a0That Holy baby Boy born in a manger. This year, I have been thinking of it in a different light. \u00a0This year, God has been speaking to me about love. \u00a0Christmas is when unconditional, self-sacrificing, all-forgiving love was shown to us. \u00a0Christmas is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":164,"featured_media":23511,"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":[3020],"tags":[1834,4866,4651,8102,5889,3367,1287,425,8097,8101,566,620,5908,3174],"class_list":["post-23580","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-devotions","tag-1-john-316","tag-4th-week-of-advent","tag-advent","tag-christmas-is-love-in-action","tag-cynda-cottrill","tag-daily-devotions-2","tag-gch","tag-girlfriends-coffee-hour","tag-jesus-is-love","tag-john-1018","tag-john-316","tag-love","tag-romans-58","tag-seeking-him-devotional","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/SHadventlovegraphic.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p39pHp-68k","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23580","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\/164"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23580"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23580\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23582,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23580\/revisions\/23582"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}