<\/p>\n

The message of Christmas is simply expressed, yet enormous in impact and miraculous in execution. Since the miracle at Bethlehem, God is now with us in a universal, savior of the world, sense as well as a God is with me personally sense. For this there is amble evidence. For the universal evidence, \u00a0there are stars in the east, skies filled with angels, travelling wise men, and a stack of fulfilled prophecies.<\/p>\n

The personal proofs are, of course, various and individual but just as convincing. Last April, for example, I was cured of rotator cuff tears in both shoulders<\/a>. I don’t know if the tears are still present. All I know is I can now raise either arm, lift a reasonable amount, and swim as much as I want without pain. That’s God individually present. I have experienced God providing escape routes out of situations that seemed hopeless. I have known nearly sixty-seven years of faithful provision. I have seen God in loving eyes, felt him in reassuring hugs, and heard him during dark times of doubt.<\/p>\n

God’s task of keeping us aware of his presence is tricky. He doesn’t allow the lives of his children to be so problem free that we never feel the need to call on him. Yet He never let’s us get so far down the river that the rapids kill us or that we lose\u00a0confidence of his nearness. He keeps us in a sweet spot of faith-based living. Maybe that’s why it’s so hard for a rich man to experience the kingdom. He calls us to live by faith, but we are often more comfortable relying on bank accounts, self-interest focused employers, credit cards or government largess.<\/p>\n

I could go on but I have potatoes to peel, grand kids to hug, presents to open, in short a wonderful Christmas to enjoy. I hope you do to. God is with us as always it just seems more real this day.<\/p>\n

Merry Christmas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The message of Christmas is simply expressed, yet enormous in impact and miraculous in execution. Since the miracle at Bethlehem, God is now with us in a universal, savior of the world, sense as well as a God is with me personally sense. For this there is amble evidence. For the universal evidence, \u00a0there are stars in the east, skies filled with angels, travelling wise men, and a stack of fulfilled prophecies. The personal proofs are, of course, various and individual but just as convincing. Last April, for example, I was cured of rotator cuff tears in both shoulders. I don’t know if the tears are still present. All I know is I can now raise either arm, lift a reasonable amount, and swim as much as I want without pain. That’s God individually present. I have experienced God providing escape routes out of situations that seemed hopeless. I have known nearly sixty-seven years of faithful provision. I have seen God in loving eyes, felt him in reassuring hugs, and heard him during dark times of doubt. God’s task of keeping us aware of his presence is tricky. He doesn’t allow the lives of his children to be so […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"chat","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8908","post","type-post","status-publish","format-chat","hentry","category-the-spiritual","post_format-post-format-chat"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nicksigur.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8908","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nicksigur.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nicksigur.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nicksigur.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nicksigur.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8908"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nicksigur.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8908\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8909,"href":"https:\/\/nicksigur.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8908\/revisions\/8909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nicksigur.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nicksigur.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nicksigur.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}