{"id":134,"date":"2009-12-25T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2009-12-25T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/thinplaces\/2009\/12\/blessings-flow-joy-to-the-world-part-three.html"},"modified":"2009-12-25T08:00:00","modified_gmt":"2009-12-25T08:00:00","slug":"blessings-flow-joy-to-the-world-part-three","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2009\/12\/blessings-flow-joy-to-the-world-part-three.html","title":{"rendered":"Blessings Flow (Joy to the World Part Three)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"font-family: Times;font-size: medium\"><\/p>\n<h2 align=\"center\"><span style=\"font-family:Times New Roman\"><span style=\"font-size:100%\"><i><span class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"color:#FF0000\">No more let sins and sorrows grow,<br \/>Nor thorns infest the ground;<br \/>He comes to make His blessings flow<br \/>Far as the curse is found,<br \/>Far as the curse is found,<br \/>Far as, far as, the curse is found.<\/span><\/i><\/span><\/span><\/h2>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Sin isn&#8217;t a hot topic at Christmastime, or, for that matter, any other time of year here in 21st century America. I believe that sin is real, and yet I still hesitate to talk about sin, and curses, and sacrificial offerings, and all those other seemingly archaic religious words. But I love this verse of &#8220;Joy to the World&#8221; because it combines those two aspects of God that are inseparable and yet incongruous: blessings and curses. <\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Jesus&#8217; ministry involved confrontation. Over and over, he confronted people with their sin (read the Sermon on the Mount for an impossible standard of righteousness, preached by Jesus as the way we must live). And over and over, he comforted people in their need. The one who convicts <i>and<\/i> comforts. The one who demonstrates our need and provides for us in our neediness. The one who acknowledges the curse, and gives blessing in exchange.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>This Christmas, may your blessings flow. <\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>No more let sins and sorrows grow,Nor thorns infest the ground;He comes to make His blessings flowFar as the curse is found,Far as the curse is found,Far as, far as, the curse is found. Sin isn&#8217;t a hot topic at Christmastime, or, for that matter, any other time of year here in 21st century America.&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":88,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-down-syndrome"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Blessings Flow (Joy to the World Part Three) - Thin Places<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2009\/12\/blessings-flow-joy-to-the-world-part-three.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Blessings Flow (Joy to the World Part Three) - Thin Places\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"No more let sins and sorrows grow,Nor thorns infest the ground;He comes to make His blessings flowFar as the curse is found,Far as the curse is found,Far as, far as, the curse is found. Sin isn&#8217;t a hot topic at Christmastime, or, for that matter, any other time of year here in 21st century America.&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2009\/12\/blessings-flow-joy-to-the-world-part-three.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Thin Places\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-12-25T08:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"amyjuliabecker\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Blessings Flow (Joy to the World Part Three) - Thin Places","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2009\/12\/blessings-flow-joy-to-the-world-part-three.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Blessings Flow (Joy to the World Part Three) - Thin Places","og_description":"No more let sins and sorrows grow,Nor thorns infest the ground;He comes to make His blessings flowFar as the curse is found,Far as the curse is found,Far as, far as, the curse is found. Sin isn&#8217;t a hot topic at Christmastime, or, for that matter, any other time of year here in 21st century America.&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2009\/12\/blessings-flow-joy-to-the-world-part-three.html","og_site_name":"Thin Places","article_published_time":"2009-12-25T08:00:00+00:00","author":"amyjuliabecker","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2009\/12\/blessings-flow-joy-to-the-world-part-three.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2009\/12\/blessings-flow-joy-to-the-world-part-three.html","name":"Blessings Flow (Joy to the World Part Three) - Thin Places","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#website"},"datePublished":"2009-12-25T08:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2009-12-25T08:00:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#\/schema\/person\/4dde10eee38770361dc9b46a9413776b"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2009\/12\/blessings-flow-joy-to-the-world-part-three.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2009\/12\/blessings-flow-joy-to-the-world-part-three.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2009\/12\/blessings-flow-joy-to-the-world-part-three.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Blessings Flow (Joy to the World Part Three)"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/","name":"Thin Places","description":"Amy Julia Becker on Faith, Family, and Disability","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#\/schema\/person\/4dde10eee38770361dc9b46a9413776b","name":"amyjuliabecker","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/222\/2222023dcae76abe6e896a3cf80e9836x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/222\/2222023dcae76abe6e896a3cf80e9836x96.jpg","caption":"amyjuliabecker"},"description":"Amy Julia Becker writes about theology, disability, family, and culture. Two major life experiences have shaped her writing and her faith\u00e2\u20ac\u201dcaring for her mother-in-law as she battled cancer and welcoming her daughter Penny into the world after she was diagnosed at birth with Down syndrome. Both experiences expanded and enriched her understanding of what it means to be human and to receive each and every person as a gift.\u00c2\u00a0 A graduate of Princeton University and Princeton Theological Seminary, she is the author of Penelope Ayers: A Memoir, and the forthcoming A Good and Perfect Gift (Bethany House). Her essays have appeared in First Things, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Christian Century, ChristianityToday.com, and Bloom, among other online venues.","sameAs":["http:\/\/amyjuliabecker.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/author\/amyjuliabecker"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/88"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}