{"id":34745,"date":"2022-12-25T03:30:59","date_gmt":"2022-12-25T11:30:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/?p=34745"},"modified":"2022-12-06T14:16:23","modified_gmt":"2022-12-06T22:16:23","slug":"december-25-2022","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/2022\/12\/25\/december-25-2022\/","title":{"rendered":"December 25, 2022"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div><\/div><\/div>

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cHear the voice of my supplications when I cry to You, when I lift up my hands toward Your holy sanctuary.\u201d<\/em> Psalm 28:2<\/p>\n

Reaching for Jesus<\/strong><\/h2>\n

I see the Bethlehem star above me shining bright. The sky lights up with a brilliant glow like the world has never seen before, and angels fill the sky. Thousands of voices sing, “Glory to God in the highest and peace on earth, goodwill toward men.”<\/em><\/p>\n

I reach up toward the heavens, but it suddenly feels just beyond my reach. I push and pull against my restraints\u2014what is holding me down here?! I want to be lifted up to holy moments with the Lord. Look! He came for us all! Our deliverer is born. But I can’t break free.<\/p>\n

Then I see myself. I am sitting in a pile of beautiful trash. I\u2019m covered in it. Gift boxes wrapped in pretty paper, shopping bags and receipts. Paper cup upon paper cup filled with warm treats. Cookies. A perfectly cooked meal surrounds me. Gift cards, more gift wrap. And I don’t hear the angels anymore. I can only hear the crooning of pop artists singing about Santa and snow.<\/p>\n

I strain my ear to hear. I stretch my arms up. Bring me up, Lord. I’m drowning in pretty things and it feels like a mountain of trash now because You have something better for me. I’m reaching. I need You! I want Jesus! I receive the King of the world!<\/p>\n

Lord, open my ears. Open my eyes! Let these pretty things not be my aim. You are my highest blessing and great reward. I will not lose You, Jesus, this Christmas!!!<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>

<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_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","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34745","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-women"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p92wjD-92p","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34745","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34745"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34745\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34747,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34745\/revisions\/34747"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34745"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34745"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34745"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}