{"id":2245,"date":"2009-12-22T09:46:35","date_gmt":"2009-12-21T22:46:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/?p=2245"},"modified":"2009-12-22T09:46:35","modified_gmt":"2009-12-21T22:46:35","slug":"my-christmas-message","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/2009\/12\/22\/my-christmas-message\/","title":{"rendered":"My Christmas message"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>My CHRISTMAS MESSAGE has been sent off to the media. Here &#8217;tis, \u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong>Enjoying God, enjoying life<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0Apparently, coming to a bus near you is a Tasmanian version of the UK bus ads, \u2018There\u2019s probably no god. Now stop worrying and enjoy life.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0While Christians are enjoying life and celebrating Christmas precisely because there is a loving God [the Christmas message is \u2018Emmanuel, God with us\u2019]; some atheists are worrying that there is probably no God.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0This is sad.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0It\u2019s sad because life is to be enjoyed. How do we know this? Jesus Christ of Christmas fame told us, \u2018I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance \u2013 to the full, till it overflows.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0And what of the bus drivers and passengers in buses carrying this sad message. Give them a wave, a knowing wink and a smile. Pray for folk burdened by the possibility of the existence of a god who doesn\u2019t want them to enjoy life; this god is the opposite of the God Christians know. Pray they may see \u2018God with us\u2019, Jesus of Nazareth.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0Jesus brings answers to life\u2019s BIG questions:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Who am I? \u2013 a child of a loving God.<\/li>\n<li>Where am I? \u2013 in God\u2019s world.<\/li>\n<li>What am I here for? \u2013 to love God and my neighbour.<\/li>\n<li>Where am I going? \u2013 to share eternal life with all those who share in Jesus\u2019 resurrection life.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\u00a0Jesus Christ, \u2018God with us\u2019, gives life, enjoyment, fulfillment, freedom to live wholeheartedly.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0The sure confidence that the God of love made us in love and for love gives Christmas its \u2018Let\u2019s party\u2019 tune.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0Enjoy Christmas. Know that \u2018God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself\u2019 and enjoy life.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0Happy Christmas, Tasmania.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0\u00a0John Harrower<\/p>\n<p>Anglican Bishop of Tasmania<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>My CHRISTMAS MESSAGE has been sent off to the media. Here &#8217;tis, \u00a0 Enjoying God, enjoying life \u00a0Apparently, coming to a bus near you is a Tasmanian version of the UK bus ads, \u2018There\u2019s probably no god. Now stop worrying &hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/2009\/12\/22\/my-christmas-message\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2245"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2245"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2245\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2254,"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2245\/revisions\/2254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}