{"id":311,"date":"2015-01-06T15:26:10","date_gmt":"2015-01-06T21:26:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/psvoland\/?p=311"},"modified":"2015-01-06T15:26:28","modified_gmt":"2015-01-06T21:26:28","slug":"while-most-of-the-world-is-tearing-down-christmas-decorations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/psvoland\/2015\/01\/06\/while-most-of-the-world-is-tearing-down-christmas-decorations\/","title":{"rendered":"While most of the world is tearing down Christmas decorations&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"<div dir=\"ltr\">\n<div style=\"text-align: center\">\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/psvoland\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/122\/2015\/01\/1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-312\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/psvoland\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/122\/2015\/01\/1-300x168.jpg\" alt=\"1\" width=\"300\" height=\"168\" srcset=\"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/psvoland\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/122\/2015\/01\/1-300x168.jpg 300w, http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/psvoland\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/122\/2015\/01\/1.jpg 900w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<div>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">While most of the world is tearing down Christmas decorations and gearing up for Winter, many in the Christian church are still\u00a0celebrating Christmas. This is because the &#8220;12 days of Christmas,&#8221; as typically celebrated by the Western Church, does not end until Epiphany on January 6th. Epiphany, or the &#8220;Day of the Kings,&#8221; is the day the Magi arrived to meet the newborn Jesus and present Him with gifts.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">While we remember the birth of Christ on Christmas day, we also remember the world&#8217;s response to Christ at Epiphany. These responses are mixed. While many do respond to the birth of Christ with wonder and worship, many others respond with contempt and disbelief. Sadly, many people in our world only follow the liturgies of consumerism and self-pleasure instead of responding to the birth of Christ by following the path to Him.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">This year, we continued our family tradition of taking the girls to Christkindlmart in Chicago. It&#8217;s a place that is magical.\u00a0 It&#8217;s in the middle of the city (Daley plaza) and\u00a0is set up\u00a0like a small German village Christmas market or &#8220;Nurnburg.&#8221; It has little shops selling German food, Gluehwein, glass ornaments and all kinds of treasures.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">I love how God\u00a0surprised us with a Christkindlmarkt right here in\u00a0Chicago.\u00a0 A little piece of Germany in our backyard.\u00a0\u00a0This experience reminded us of Germany\u00a0and why we are going to serve His people there.\u00a0 Many Germans are lost and searching for the meaning of life. German religious culture is not Post-modern like American culture. It is Post-Christian. Christ is not even an after thought for many Germans. He is simply never thought of at all. Epiphany is just another day and holds no special meaning or relevance.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>We encourage you this\u00a0Christmas season to discover, explore, or journey to the\u00a0calling God has given you.\u00a0 We\u00a0walk this path to the Messiah together as brothers and sisters.<\/p>\n<p>Merry Christmas and a\u00a0blessed Epiphany\u00a0to you.\u00a0May we all respond to the birth of Christ with our\u00a0presence, wonder and worship and be faithful stewards of the gifts we bear.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>P,S,G and C<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"wp-report-this\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/psvoland?moderation_action=report_form&object_type=post&object_id=311&width=250&height=300\" class=\"thickbox\" title=\"Report This Post\">Report This Post<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>While most of the world is tearing down Christmas decorations and gearing up for Winter, many in the Christian church are still\u00a0celebrating Christmas. This is because the &#8220;12 days of Christmas,&#8221; as typically celebrated by the Western Church, does not end until Epiphany on January 6th. Epiphany, or the &#8220;Day of the Kings,&#8221; is the &hellip; <a class=\"read-excerpt\" href=\"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/psvoland\/2015\/01\/06\/while-most-of-the-world-is-tearing-down-christmas-decorations\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&raquo;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":154,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>While most of the world is tearing down Christmas decorations... - Two Hamburgers<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/psvoland\/2015\/01\/06\/while-most-of-the-world-is-tearing-down-christmas-decorations\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"While most of the world is tearing down Christmas decorations... - Two Hamburgers\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"While most of the world is tearing down Christmas decorations and gearing up for Winter, many in the Christian church are still\u00a0celebrating Christmas. This is because the &#8220;12 days of Christmas,&#8221; as typically celebrated by the Western Church, does not end until Epiphany on January 6th. 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