{"id":260,"date":"2018-12-26T14:09:30","date_gmt":"2018-12-26T14:09:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/curwensvillealliance.org\/podcasts\/?p=260"},"modified":"2018-12-26T14:09:41","modified_gmt":"2018-12-26T14:09:41","slug":"why-did-god-come-near-anyway-reflections-at-advent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.curwensvillealliance.org\/podcasts\/?p=260","title":{"rendered":"Why Did God Come Near, Anyway? :: Reflections at Advent"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Presented by Pastor Steve Shields at Curwensville Alliance on 12\/24\/2018<\/h5>\n\n\n\n<p>What is the real meaning of Christmas? When you ask that, most people I know will answer with something like  this: <br>&#8211; Jesus<br>&#8211; Love<br>&#8211; Giving<br>&#8211; Family<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"574\" src=\"http:\/\/curwensvillealliance.org\/podcasts\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/image-2-1024x574.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-261\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.curwensvillealliance.org\/podcasts\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/image-2.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.curwensvillealliance.org\/podcasts\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/image-2-300x168.png 300w, https:\/\/www.curwensvillealliance.org\/podcasts\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/image-2-768x431.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 767px) 89vw, (max-width: 1000px) 54vw, (max-width: 1071px) 543px, 580px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>I like those answers, but I think sometimes we give them because that&#8217;s what we&#8217;ve heard. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>If you want to know whether you honestly know the real meaning of Christmas, ask yourself these kinds of questions: <\/strong><em>Why\u00a0was\u00a0this\u00a0Jesus,\u00a0whose\u00a0birth\u00a0we\u00a0celebrate\u00a0at\u00a0Christmas,\u00a0born?\u00a0<\/em><br><em>Why\u00a0did\u00a0God\u00a0come\u00a0near?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This podcast of the Curwensville Alliance Christmas Eve Devotional addresses those questions.<\/p>\n<div class=\"powerpress_player\" id=\"powerpress_player_3840\"><audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-260-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"http:\/\/curwensvillealliance.org\/mp3s\/2018\/20181224ChristmasEveGodCameNear.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/curwensvillealliance.org\/mp3s\/2018\/20181224ChristmasEveGodCameNear.mp3\">http:\/\/curwensvillealliance.org\/mp3s\/2018\/20181224ChristmasEveGodCameNear.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/div><p class=\"powerpress_links powerpress_links_mp3\" style=\"margin-bottom: 1px !important;\">Podcast: <a href=\"http:\/\/curwensvillealliance.org\/mp3s\/2018\/20181224ChristmasEveGodCameNear.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_pinw\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Play in new window\" onclick=\"return powerpress_pinw('https:\/\/www.curwensvillealliance.org\/podcasts\/?powerpress_pinw=260-podcast');\" rel=\"nofollow\">Play in new window<\/a> | <a href=\"http:\/\/curwensvillealliance.org\/mp3s\/2018\/20181224ChristmasEveGodCameNear.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_d\" title=\"Download\" rel=\"nofollow\" download=\"20181224ChristmasEveGodCameNear.mp3\">Download<\/a><\/p><p class=\"powerpress_links powerpress_subscribe_links\">Subscribe: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.curwensvillealliance.org\/podcasts\/?feed=podcast\" class=\"powerpress_link_subscribe powerpress_link_subscribe_rss\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Subscribe via RSS\" rel=\"nofollow\">RSS<\/a><\/p><!--powerpress_player-->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Presented by Pastor Steve Shields at Curwensville Alliance on 12\/24\/2018 What is the real meaning of Christmas? When you ask that, most people I know will answer with something like this: &#8211; Jesus&#8211; Love&#8211; Giving&#8211; Family I like those answers, but I think sometimes we give them because that&#8217;s what we&#8217;ve heard. If you want &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.curwensvillealliance.org\/podcasts\/?p=260\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Why Did God Come Near, Anyway? :: Reflections at Advent&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[94,98],"class_list":["post-260","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-podcasts","tag-advent","tag-christmas"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9XvIY-4c","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curwensvillealliance.org\/podcasts\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curwensvillealliance.org\/podcasts\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curwensvillealliance.org\/podcasts\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curwensvillealliance.org\/podcasts\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curwensvillealliance.org\/podcasts\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=260"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.curwensvillealliance.org\/podcasts\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":262,"href":"https:\/\/www.curwensvillealliance.org\/podcasts\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260\/revisions\/262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curwensvillealliance.org\/podcasts\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curwensvillealliance.org\/podcasts\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curwensvillealliance.org\/podcasts\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}