{"id":106164,"date":"2022-12-27T14:29:24","date_gmt":"2022-12-27T19:29:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thedailygouge.com\/?p=106164"},"modified":"2022-12-27T14:29:30","modified_gmt":"2022-12-27T19:29:30","slug":"the-daily-gouge-archive-sunday-december-25th-christmas-day-2022","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thedailygouge.com\/?p=106164","title":{"rendered":"The Daily Gouge Archive, Sunday, December 25th, Christmas Day 2022"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>It&#8217;s Sunday, December 25th, 2022&#8230;and here&#8217;s our traditional Christmas edition of <em>The Gouge<\/em>, marking a joyous celebration of love and sacrifice which is for all people.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>First, for any Charlie Browns out there, <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><em>this<\/em><\/span>\u00a0truly <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><em>is<\/em><\/span>&#8230;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/eff0cqYefYY\" width=\"420\" height=\"235\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><span data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>&#8230;what Christmas\u00a0is all about!<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>So <em><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">this<\/span><\/em> December 25th, recall what finally dawned on the Grinch as he observed all the Whos down in Whoville celebrating Christmas despite all their gifts, decorations and food having been stolen:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"quoteText\" style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><strong><span style=\"color: #008000;\">&#8220;&#8230;And the Grinch, with his Grinch-feet ice cold in the snow, stood puzzling and puzzling, how could it be so? <span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">It came without ribbons.<\/span> It came without tags. <span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">It came without packages, boxes or bags.<\/span> And he puzzled and puzzled &#8217;till his puzzler was sore. <span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn&#8217;t before.<\/span> What if Christmas, he thought, doesn&#8217;t come from a store. <span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">What if Christmas, <em>perhaps<\/em>, <em>means a <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">little bit more<\/span><\/em>.&#8221;<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Then consider the true import of Christmas as noted by John in his Gospel&#8230;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><strong><span style=\"color: #008000;\">&#8220;For God <em>so loved the world<\/em> that <em>He gave<\/em> <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><em>His only begotten Son<\/em><\/span>, that whosoever <em>believeth on Him<\/em> shall not perish but <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><em>have everlasting life<\/em><\/span>.&#8221;<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>&#8230;and Paul in\u00a0his letter to the Phillipians:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"lang-en\" style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"color: #008000;\"><strong>&#8220;In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:\u00a0Who, being in very nature\u00a0God,\u00a0did not consider equality with God\u00a0something to be used to His own advantage;\u00a0rather, He made himself <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><em>nothing<\/em><\/span>\u00a0by taking the very nature\u00a0of a servant,\u00a0<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><em>being made in human likeness<\/em><\/span>.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"lang-en\" style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"color: #008000;\"><strong><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself\u00a0by becoming obedient to death\u2014<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><em>even death on a cross<\/em><\/span>!<\/span>\u00a0Therefore God exalted Him\u00a0to the highest place\u00a0and gave Him the name that is above every name,<em>\u00a0<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">that at the name of Jesus<\/span> <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">every knee should bow<\/span>,\u00a0in heaven and on earth and under the earth,\u00a0<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord<\/span>,\u00a0<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">to the glory of God the Father<\/span><\/em>.&#8221;<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span id=\"en-NIV-29397\" class=\"text Phil-2-5\"><\/span><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><b><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Here&#8217;s the juice: <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><em>Christmas<\/em><\/span> is <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><em>all about<\/em><\/span> the child whose birth Isaiah foretold&#8230;<\/span><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"color: #008000;\"><strong>&#8220;Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.&#8221;<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>&#8220;For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government will be on His shoulders.\u00a0 <span style=\"color: #008000;\">And He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.<\/span>\u00a0 Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end.&#8221;<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><b><span style=\"color: #000000;\">&#8230;the <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><em>one and only<\/em><\/span>\u00a0Son of God.<\/span><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><b><span style=\"color: #000000;\">And\u00a0<strong>though Christ indeed is <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><em>the <\/em><em>reason<\/em> <em>for the season<\/em><\/span>,\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/b><\/span><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><b><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><em>we<\/em><\/span>\u00a0are the reason He humbled Himself by taking on human form in obedience to God the Father, obedience which ultimately led to the cross.\u00a0 Borrowing from words written millennia apart by King David and Charles Wesley respectively, &#8220;<em>Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain<\/em>&#8221; and &#8220;<em>Amazing love; how can it be, that <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Thou<\/span>, <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">my God<\/span>, shouldst die for <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">me<\/span><\/em>?&#8221;\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>We&#8217;ll conclude by offering two versions of our favorite song proclaiming the Savior&#8217;s birth&#8230;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/v5mdybeyLVc\" width=\"420\" height=\"235\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><span data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/wSwgnvHj45Y\" width=\"420\" height=\"235\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><span data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><\/iframe><\/p>\n<div class=\"UH8R2\" style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong><em>Gloria in excelsis Deo<\/em>: <em>Glory to God in the highest&#8230;and on earth, peace, goodwill toward men<\/em>.<\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n<p><strong>&#8230;and offer our heartfelt wishes for a VERY merry and blessed Christmas and a safe, healthy and prosperous 2022 from <em><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">our<\/span><\/em> home to <em><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">yours<\/span><\/em>!<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Magoo<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s Sunday, December 25th, 2022&#8230;and here&#8217;s our traditional Christmas edition of The Gouge, marking a joyous celebration of love and sacrifice which is for all people. First, for any Charlie Browns out there, this\u00a0truly is&#8230; \ufeff &#8230;what Christmas\u00a0is all about! So this December 25th, recall what finally dawned on the Grinch as he observed all [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1988,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"no","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-106164","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thedailygouge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106164","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thedailygouge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thedailygouge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thedailygouge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1988"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thedailygouge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=106164"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thedailygouge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106164\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":106165,"href":"https:\/\/www.thedailygouge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106164\/revisions\/106165"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thedailygouge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=106164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thedailygouge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=106164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thedailygouge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=106164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}