{"id":726,"date":"2008-12-07T20:51:10","date_gmt":"2008-12-08T01:51:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/192.185.166.32\/~davidfoster\/?p=726"},"modified":"2009-10-16T20:53:53","modified_gmt":"2009-10-17T01:53:53","slug":"today-the-gathering-december-7","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/today-the-gathering-december-7\/","title":{"rendered":"Today @ The Gathering – December 7"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"SurvivingChristmasIconLarge\"Today @ The Gathering<\/a> we officially kicked off the Christmas season as we began our brand new series entitled, \u201cSurviving Christmas: How to get through Christmas in one Peace.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The whole theme of Christmas is Peace.<\/span> The world needed peace, cried out for peace, was dying for peace, destroying itself for peace, and what did God do?\u00a0 He sent us, in His Son, the Prince of Peace.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s simply unacceptable that this time of year should lead us to depression.\u00a0 It should lead us to joy.\u00a0 So during this season, in this series, we will use five culturally relevant movies that illustrate the true meaning of Christmas, the provision of peace.<\/p>\n

This week we dealt with the movie called, \u201cChristmas With The Cranks,\u201d<\/span> a movie made for the great book, \u201cSkipping Christmas,\u201d by John Grisham.<\/p>\n

The whole point of the movie and the book is that a family decides they will skip Christmas.\u00a0 They\u2019ll not give presents, or celebrate, or decorate, or contribute; that they will exclude themselves from their normal community or tribe, and stand alone.\u00a0 It\u2019s an illustration of how important Christmas is to our lives.\u00a0 And though we get weary of the hustle and bustle, we would lose so much without it.<\/p>\n

We were asked this question: \u201cWhat is Christmas to you?\u201d<\/span> There are five ways people answer it.\u00a0 For some, Christmas is a season of hurry and worry<\/span>.\u00a0 For others, it is a season of unmet expectations<\/span>.\u00a0 Still others see it as a season of firsts<\/span>.\u00a0 Some people view Christmas as a season of forced spending<\/span>.\u00a0 Then there are those of us who see Christmas as a season of celebration and anticipation<\/span>.<\/p>\n

We also talked about what we would be without Christmas.\u00a0 And we listed four things:<\/p>\n

We would be without permanence of hope<\/span>.<\/p>\n

We would be without the Prince of Peace<\/span>.<\/p>\n

We would be without a plan of salvation.<\/span><\/p>\n

We would be without the promise of love.<\/span><\/p>\n

Be sure to join us next weekend at either the 9:00 or 10:30 for the message entitled, \u201cHow the Grinch Stole Christmas,\u201d when we talk about how everyday generosity can save the world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today @ The Gathering we officially kicked off the Christmas season as we began our brand new series entitled, \u201cSurviving Christmas: How to get through Christmas in one Peace.\u201d The whole theme of Christmas is Peace. The world needed peace, cried out for peace, was dying for peace, destroying itself for peace, and what did … Continue reading “Today @ The Gathering – December 7”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"series":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/726"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=726"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/726\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=726"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=726"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=726"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}