{"id":4806,"date":"2015-12-22T06:00:33","date_gmt":"2015-12-22T13:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/devonline.us\/dailyevotional\/?p=4806"},"modified":"2015-12-22T08:59:36","modified_gmt":"2015-12-22T15:59:36","slug":"the-greatest-gift","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/the-greatest-gift\/","title":{"rendered":"THE GREATEST GIFT!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Romans 6:23<\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"color: #c40000;\"><em>\u201cFor the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.\u201d<\/em><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Back in the dark ages when I was attending college, I supported my family by working as a police officer. I worked 48 hours a week and my salary, as I recall, was $120 per month. When I received my paycheck it was not a gift &#8212; I had earned it!<\/p>\n<p>There is a vast difference between wages and gifts. Wages are paid for performing a service as required. Gifts are not given on the basis of performance, but rather as an expression of love. The most precious gifts are those into which a person has poured their heart and soul.<\/p>\n<p>Above my desk hangs an 18\u201d x 12\u201d wall plaque that\u00a0is one of my most precious gifts. It was given to me by our oldest daughter, Brenda, shortly before her death in 1991. It is a counted cross stitch of Isaiah 40:31: <strong><em>\u201cThey that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In order to enjoy that precious gift, I had to open the package. The joy on Brenda\u2019s face when she watched me open her gift was priceless! It brought her joy just to see how much it pleased me. It brings joy to the Lord when we open His gifts. Please do not leave God\u2019s greatest gift unopened!<\/p>\n<p>May God richly bless you as you bless others by your words and actions!<\/p>\n<p><strong>&#8211; &#8211; &#8211; Pastor Cecil\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Romans 6:23 \u201cFor the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.\u201d Back in the dark ages when I was attending college, I supported my family by working as a police officer. I worked 48 hours a week and my salary, as I recall, was [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4806","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-romans"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4806","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4806"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4806\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}