Emmanuel God with Us?

"Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a Son, and they shall call His name Emmanuel," which translated means, "God with us." -Matthew 1:23

Did you ever think about what it means for God to be with us? The one who mixed the stars with His fingers, who called light into shining. The God who with a word separated the oceans from the land. This God comes to earth, and He doesn't ride down on a falling star, He is born. Its hard to think about, i think because it seems so vast and bigger than anything we see in our daily lives. (little tangent.)

Anyway, this God wants us to call Him "God with us." Take a second and think, how do you respond to a God that wants to be with you? Close your eyes, take a deep breath, and imagine God with you.

We know how the world responded to Jesus or Emmanuel when He was born.
Take your pick, no room at the inn, or Herod killing all the baby boys under two years old. Not a very welcoming environment for the Creator of all. It's almost like the world is saying, "God go away, we don't want you, we don't need you, leave us alone, or we will kill you!"

How arrogant does that sound? Why would we react this way to a Holy God?
I think it has to do with the fall in the garden, and our sin that separates us from God. We get used to being separated from Him, then when He shows up its kinda awkward.
Ever see someone when you were on bad terms, or you make that eye contact from a far. We try to avoid that don't we, because its awkward.

What does that mean for our worship, this Christmas?
God came to us, to bring us back to Him, and to conquer death! Jesus fulfilled all the prophecies, He didn't come just to save us, He came to take back all that belongs to Him. We like to think His only purpose was to save us, but God was writing the end of the story. When Jesus conquers death at Easter, all of creation and the keys of death are His. Those keys he uses to unlock our hearts, He send the spirit to be with us, and gives us HOPE.

"Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband.
And i heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, "Behold the tabernacle of God is among men, and He weill dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death, there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain, the first things have passed away."
-Revelation 21:1-3

Hope, Hope is born

Our God is a Jealous God

Today i wanted to look at God's Jealousy, and why its important to us as Christians, and in our worship of a Holy God.

"They made Him jealous with strange gods;
With abominations they provoked Him to anger.
They sacrificed to demons who were not God,
To gods whom they have not known,
New gods who came lately,
Whom your fathers did not dread.
You neglected the Rock who begot you,
And forgot the God who gave you birth."
-Deuteronomy 32:16-18

I think the first impression we have is,
"how can God be jealous, he has emotions like this?"
It can be hard to understand God having negative emotions, after all He is perfect. Yet He gets angry, jealous, and wrathful.
Imagine this with me, you are a parent of a teenager (big imagination i know.) One day your kid comes home from school and doesn't talk to you, which could be normal. Then over time still no contact with you, no words shared no eye contact, nothing. One day they bring home someone claiming to be their parent, which you know is false. Your kid has taken this other person as a parent, neglecting who gave them birth, cared and provided for them and loves them unconditionally. The worst part is this "new parent" is someone they just met, and no matter how "nice" they are, its false, you are the parent. Doesn't something boil inside of us?
I wonder if this is how God feels when he is jealous?

What does this mean for our Worship?
When we look to idols God is jealous, and we all know our own idols well. But i would go one step further, even when we aren't focused on our idols, are we avoiding God?
Funny thing about jealousy is, it doesn't matter where someone is spending their time, if its not with you. Just like young lovers calling and texting constantly, God wants our attention, affection, and obsession. Can you imagine if the only thing people said about you was,
"he/she is obsessed with God, always talking about Him, Praying, Worshiping Him with his/her attitude."
I think God wouldn't be jealous if we were obsessed with Him.

I think our Worship has a lot to do with Obsession

Psalm 46

Georgia day 4

Georgia Day 3, now come on

Georgia Day 2, ya hear

Georgia Day 1

Not sure about Worship

"Meanwhile, the eleven disciples were on their way to Galilee, headed for the mountain Jesus had set for their reunion. The moment they saw him they worshiped him. Some, though, held back, not sure about worship, about risking themselves totally."
-Matthew 28:16-17

To get an idea where this is, this is at the end of the book of Matthew, right after Jesus rose from the dead. These are the eleven disciples, that were with Jesus during the gospel, his ministry, these are the guys who saw all his miracles. They heard all his teaching breathed the same air, walked in his footprints. If anyone should have known he was God in flesh it was them.
Just to clarify Jesus did just rise from the dead, a culminating victory. I would expect that any lingering doubts would be dissipated at this point. So we are left with eleven guys who know Jesus is God. What do they do when they see him for the first time since the cross? Worship him, well most of them do. The bible says some "held back." Remember who these guys are, what they have seen, what they know. Yet some held back from worshiping him, Jesus. Afraid to risk themselves totally.

What does this mean for our worship?
We have all heard people say "If only, i could see him, touch him, experience a miracle, hear his voice, then i would know he is real, and i could worship him, Jesus, God. This is an excuse we use to distance our selves from God. The disciples for crying out loud "held back," and the bible tells us their motivation, their risk.
They knew it was all or nothing, either worship Jesus who they know is God and give your entire life to him. Or they could hold back, restrain themselves, keep it repressed in their hearts. The risk is too big, in this sacred moment they clung to themselves instead of the cross.

How much do we hold back? What is it we keep from God, that keeps us from fully worshiping him. Excuses aren't important, repentance is, cleansing and healing, selflessness.
Worship is not always easy, because the risk is so big, the obstacle, the divide. But the reward is life, Jesus, the truth, and victory. In our surrender, sacrifice of our selfishness, is victory in our hearts. We tend to think of surrender as loss, failure, in this case it is Victory.

The Initiative to serve others

"Here is a simple, rule-of-thumb guide for behavior: ask yourself what you want people to do for you, then grab the initiative and do it for them." -Matthew 7:12 (Message)

I did research project a few months ago on, "How to determine those who take initiative in an interview." There were a few companies who have some interesting methods. An example would be the interviewer would be let into the room he was to be interviewed in and find that there are no chairs. The interviewer would then say something like, "Ohh they were cleaning the carpet i think the chairs are in the room next to us." Weather or not this person was hired depended on how they respond to the situation. If they said something like, "well let me go grab two chairs." They were probably in, if they let the interviewer go and get them, they were out.

All this is interesting but how does it relate to scripture? Well the interview-e would have gotten the job every time if they took the attitude Jesus is speaking of here. "What would i want for myself? That's what i need to do for others." We have an easy time knowing what we would like for ourselves. It would for example be nice not to have to open a door for yourself, even more so if the handle is cold in this winter weather. The barrier we run into is thinking of others, then taking the initiative to DO for them. This takes a little courage and boldness. I have found a smile always makes it easier.

What does this mean for our worship?
Jesus is calling us to do for him the things we would want ourselves. I think we would all like to be told by someone every day that we are loved. I think we would all like for others to speak highly of us.
One way to explain worship is as an attitude. To have an attitude of worship would mean maintaining a sensitivity to God's presence carrying yourself with an outlook that gives first to others, and takes initiative for them. Thinking of your wants last, a giving personality, not handing "things" to others, but kind words, encouragement, spreading God's presence. Share Joy. I will share joy with others because i love when people share their joy with me. The wonderful thing about joy is it never runs out when you share it, it multiplies.