\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Happy Birthday, Jesus! Joy to the world the Lord is come! Let earth receive her King! Many joys and blessings to my dear, encouraging, and supportive, friends and family! Up and at \u2018em is the full-of-life-and-joy kiddos this morning. Maybe the rest of us are moving at a slower pace, seeking just a few more minutes of sleep. But whether sleep deprived or a long winter\u2019s nap, we can be up and at \u2018em this day and every day, because of the gift of abundant life that we AND those precious kiddos have this morning.
The sweet little baby, Jesus child, born in the manger really showed up to GIVE. John 10:10 says \u201cHe came to GIVE us life and have it abundantly.\u201d Now that is a concept \u2013 especially that Jesus came to Planet Earth on purpose, with a purpose to be our Life-Giver. Instead of us showing up with gifts for Him, He showed up with the greatest gift load possible \u2013 an abundant and full life. So, let\u2019s unload the heaviness of burdens and worry and fear this miraculous Christmas Day and live that abundant life.
This Christmas Day, I wish you the awe and wonder felt by the shepherds, and I wish you many moments with our \u201cGood Shepherd\u201d. Just think of it. The angels and shepherds started the grand celebration when the Good Shepherd, Giver of Life, was born!
I wish you an encounter with the Baby Boy grown up and Who is our Savior, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. It is His birth-day. If ever a party should be thrown with pizazz and fireworks and pledges of allegiance to He Who deserves the celebration, it is Jesus.
I wish you an abundantly full-of-life day. Even more, I wish you an abundantly joy-filled life. Christmas was never supposed to be about a day. Christmas is for every day and about forever and always.
Interestingly, when Jesus spoke the words in John 10, He was speaking to Pharisees and other Jewish unbelievers. Jesus wanted them to know He was their Messiah, the \u201cGood Shepherd.\u201d Jesus wanted them to know joy in their faith, not just the rules of religion.
Maybe there is someone that you will spend time with today who needs to know Jesus is the \u201cGood Shepherd\u201d and needs His joy. And though there may be presents exchanged between friends and family today, I urge you to give them Jesus in some way. Bless someone with words from Jesus. He would love to speak through you. Bless someone today with His kindness. Bless someone today with His love. Put on a happy, joy-filled face and countenance that exudes Christ’s abundant life in you. Whatever gifts you give, include the gift of Jesus. \u201cGod loved you so much, He gave you that first Christmas.\u201d (John 3:16)
May this day be a reminder of how much you are loved by the One Who is love. Merry Christmas. I wish you Him and His countless blessings for today and every other day.|It is a privilege to call you all my friends, my co-celebrators of this remarkable miracle day when a mere baby changed everything about our todays and tomorrows. Remember those sweet little baby hands in the manger became the hands nailed to the cross for you and me. The story doesn\u2019t end here\u2026.it only begins and we will live happily ever after \u2013 because of Him and His birthday\u2026.today!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 Happy Birthday, Jesus! Joy to the world the Lord is come! Let earth receive her King! Many joys and blessings to my dear, encouraging, and supportive, friends and family! Up and at \u2018em is the full-of-life-and-joy kiddos this morning. Maybe the rest of us are moving at a slower pace, seeking just a few…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15345,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[15922,15937,15946,15934],"tags":[143,18,156,837,1210,1769,94,562,40,22414,159,593,498,12021,433,9139,500,11086,544],"class_list":["post-15344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-abundant-life","category-gifts","category-happy-birthday-jesus","category-merry-christmas","tag-abundant-life","tag-angels","tag-birthday","tag-blessings","tag-blog","tag-christian","tag-good-shepherd","tag-happy-birthday-jesus","tag-inspiration","tag-jesus-came-to-give","tag-john-1010","tag-john-316","tag-joy-to-the-world","tag-king","tag-king-of-kings","tag-lord-of-lords","tag-merry-christmas","tag-miraculous","tag-shepherds"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15344","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15344"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15344\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15346,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15344\/revisions\/15346"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15345"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}