Immanuel—God with Us.

We’ve talked about Looking for God in the everyday moments of our Life.
We’ve talked about Letting God make our decision by first recognizing we are needy.
We’ve shown how having a relationship with God is not just for those in the Bible.
Today I’d like to develop that idea.

When God created man in His own image, He made man to have fellowship and enjoy Him forever 
Man broke that fellowship when he sinned.
But God promised to redeem him, and restore that broken fellowship.
Throughout Israel’s history, God makes a way for Him to be with man.
He communicated with Moses through the burning bush and spoke to Him on the mountain.
When the tabernacle was built, God designated a room just for His Name, the holy of holies.
When the kings  obeyed God, they cleaned out the tabernacle. 
Hezekiah and Josiah found the Law and realized how far Israel had displeased God. 
When the Israelites ignored God, He allowed other nations to bring them into bondage.

Between the Old and New Testaments, God didn’t speak through any prophet or king for 400 years. 
The people waited without word from God for their promised Messiah.

When the angel told Mary to call the Child Immanuel, “God with us” we again see God reaching toward man to bring him into fellowship.
This was no longer just His Name that would preside in a room, but God Himself Who became flesh.
God wanted man to know Him.
When the shepherds were told, they worshiped.
When the wise men recognized the telling star, they came.
That Presence that God is with us brought them to their knees in worship and adoration.

It’s that “God with us” fellowship we seek, that makes us complete.
Moses had it with that touch of seeing the back of God.
Isaiah had it when he saw God.
Enoch had it when he walked with God.
Noah was a righteous man who heard God tell him to build an ark.
Elijah raised the widow's son.
Paul saw God in the vision.

God is still seeking men who will allow His presence in their lives.
Not just His presence, but His way.
God with us—it’s that fellowship that we were made to have.
That communion designed in perfection.
But there’s our sin—keeping us apart.
Not just our actions, but our self-reliance and self-rebellion that fight God, saying, “I’ll do it my way.”
But our thirst for His fellowship brings us to ask, “I’ll do it my way, but bless it.” 
But God did not come for us to continue our own self-destructive ways.

God came to redeem us, to remove our self, not just because His holiness demands it, but because His holiness lived out in us pleases Him.
By making us holy, God prepares His bride, His church, to please Him.
God with us is not just a Christmas message, but a message of hope for all time. 
With God here with us, we experience life with meaning, purpose, and lasting pleasure.
With God in us, we find His ways shine through us to show a lost world Who He is.
“God with us” is not just a theme for Christmas, but a pursuit for the rest of our life.

I write about what matters...to you---
women, wives and moms---
about your family, faith and future.
I write about what's hard, what helps and what heals.
I show you how it's done. And not done.
I hold your hand as you find what matters to the Savior.
And let go of those things that mattered to you, but not to Him.
I write about what matters...to Him.
               Sonya Contreras

Faith
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More faith articles are found here:

under the Table of Contents. Also available in book form.
Or here:

under the Table of Contents. Also available in book form.
Articles on Suffering can be found  here, 

under Table of Contents. Also available in book form.
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