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