{"id":3313,"date":"2014-12-14T04:51:41","date_gmt":"2014-12-14T09:51:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.brethren.org\/?p=3313"},"modified":"2014-12-14T04:51:41","modified_gmt":"2014-12-14T09:51:41","slug":"parting-words","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/2014\/12\/14\/parting-words\/","title":{"rendered":"Parting Words"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"font-size: small\"><em>Not seeing today\u2019s post? Hit the \u201crefresh\u201d button on your browser.<\/em><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-3193 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/AWAKE_ADVENT_4-214x300.jpg\" alt=\"AWAKE_ADVENT_4\" width=\"214\" height=\"300\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #993366\"><strong>1 Thessalonians 5:16-24<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #993366\"><strong>To ponder:<\/strong><\/span><br \/>\nSometimes we place such high expectations on ourselves and others as Christmas approaches! We strive to decorate our homes, prepare tasty holiday treats, and finish shopping for everyone on our lists even as we carry out our everyday tasks and responsibilities. No wonder we are stressed to the max some days. As we continue to prepare for Christmas, may we take Paul\u2019s words to heart: rejoice always, pray without ceasing, and<sup>\u00a0<\/sup>give thanks in all circumstances. The Lord Jesus Christ is coming!<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #993366\"><strong>Prayer for the day:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>God of wholeness and well-being, help us remember what is truly important this Advent season and keep us ever full of joy, prayer, and thanksgiving as we prepare for Christ\u2019s coming. Amen.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px\">~ Kim Ebersole, Director of Family Life and Older Adult Ministries<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 60px\"><em>Congregational Life Ministries of the Church of the Brethren is offering these simple prayers and questions in connection to this year&#8217;s<span style=\"color: #333399\"> <strong><span style=\"color: #993366\">Advent Devotional<\/span> <\/strong><\/span>written by Sandy Bosserman,\u00a0a former district executive and ordained minister in the Church of the Brethren. (Available from<span style=\"color: #e39649\">\u00a0<\/span><strong><span style=\"color: #993366\"><a style=\"color: #993366\" href=\"http:\/\/www.brethrenpress.com\/\">Brethren Press<\/a><\/span>\u00a0<\/strong>in print and E-Book formats). Join us as we look and listen for the coming of the Word through the reading of scripture, Sandy&#8217;s reflections, times of prayer, and conversations on t<\/em><em>his\u00a0<\/em><em>blog.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Not seeing today\u2019s post? Hit the \u201crefresh\u201d button on your browser. 1 Thessalonians 5:16-24 To ponder: Sometimes we place such high expectations on ourselves and others as Christmas approaches! We strive to decorate our homes, prepare tasty holiday treats, and finish shopping for everyone on our lists even as we carry out our everyday tasks<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[54,228,651,921,1111,1143,1210],"class_list":["post-3313","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-devotional","tag-advent","tag-christmas","tag-joy","tag-prayer","tag-stress","tag-thanksgiving","tag-whole"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3313","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3313"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3313\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}