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Emmanuel: God With Us

Emmanuel: God With Us

by | Dec 24, 2013 | Blog

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Image courtesy of dan at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

 

Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us. Matthew 1:23

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was in the beginning with God.  All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.  In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.  And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.  John 1:1-5

Jesus.  There is no other name quite like it.  He is God with us.  He is the Alpha and the Omega–the beginning and the end.  He is the Word of God.  He came to be with us, to live among us, to save us, to free us, to deliver us.  He is Emmanuel.

Emmanuel: God with us.

Think on that.  Really think on that.  He chose to come to live among us.  Did you know that during the 33 years that Christ lived on the earth that there was “peace on earth?”  There were no wars.  There was peace.  I think that is so beautiful.  And I relate that to my heart: when I am in Christ and Christ is in me, I have peace.  When I am in the Word (Christ is the Word), I have peace.  He is with me.  He is with us.

Jesus.  The Son of God.  Our Deliverer.  Our Savior.  Our peace.

We know that the true meaning of Christmas is Christ.  It’s to celebrate His birth, that He was sent to the world as the Father’s greatest gift, so that ‘whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life’ (John 3:16).  And we take hold of that gift and unwrap it when we acknowledge and accept Christ as our savior and ask Him to forgive us of our sin.

But there’s more to the gift.  There’s healing, freedom, comfort, beauty, deliverance, peace, joy, love, and the list goes on and on.  Every single aspect of our life is touched by Christ’s love, by the Father’s love.  All we have to do is accept that gift and reach into that wellspring of life of God’s Word.

When I thought of writing this post, I thought about how much the Lord has done in my life this year in regards to eating and how I think about food.  I’ve thought about the amazing transformation that has taken place in my heart and mind–which has also become evident in my life and eating.  And I know I’ve talked so much about this, but I attribute that to being in His Word and Him being so faithful to watch over His Word to perform it.  It was faith in action.  I believed what God said (took a little while at first), but after awhile His Words became so real in my heart and then I saw the evidence of that in my life.

It says in John 1 that Christ is the Word, and the Word (Christ) is life.  His Word is a wellspring of life.  Christ is our life.  He is the reason we truly live.  I am seeing that I am not truly living unless I have Christ as the Lord of my life.  He is the One I fix my eyes upon.  He is my strength.  I lean upon Him.

And so that means I lean upon Him when it comes to my eating habits.  And one of the ways I do that is by being in His word.  This isn’t a task I cross of my “to-do” list each day.  This is an essential part of my daily walk with Him.  Somewhere along the way I gave food, weight, and body image a place in my life that God never meant it to be, but through Christ I have overcome and continue on this journey of finding peace and satisfaction in this area.

And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.  John 8:32

So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.  Romans 10:17

One of the ways He speaks to us is through His Word.  And when we read the Word, the Holy Spirit brings that word back to our remembrance.  And in a sense, His Word is in us.  Emmanuel: God with us.  He may not be physically right here with us that we can reach out and physically touch Him, but when we read His Word, He touches our hearts, minds, and souls.  He breathes His life into us.  This is so beautiful!

I’m so thankful the Father sent His Son.  Jesus is the BEST gift of all!

How about you?

How can you embrace that gift (Jesus) this Christmas and every day of your life?  Do you look at spending time with God as a “have to” or a “get to”?  He wants to be with you: have you invited Him into your life?  And if you have invited Him into your life, have you invited Him into the area of eating?  He wants to be with you!  He is Emmanuel.

Written by: Christina

Our Wild and Wonderful God!

by | Sep 24, 2013 | Blog

Image Source: iStockPhoto

Image Source: iStockPhoto

For when you did awesome things that we did not expect, you came down,

and
the mountains trembled before you.

Since ancient times no one has heard, no
ear has perceived,

no eye has seen any God besides you,

who acts on behalf
of those who wait for him.

-Isaiah 64:3 ,4


Our God is unpredictable. Unchanging, yes, but tamed, no. He is wild and 
wonderful. The path we are on is filled with adventure. He does that which we 
don’t expect. His power is beyond imagining. From the very beginning, He 
has not “behaved” according to the expectations of man. Does it really 
surprise me so much that now as I seek to honor Him with my body, heart,
mind, soul, and spirit that He would do that which is so much different 
than what I might expect?? 

As I wait on Him for physiological hunger and allow Him to meet the
 hungering of my heart and mind, this powerful, awesome, wild and untamed hero will act on my behalf. His desire for me is beyond my ability to fathom. His willingness to come to my rescue rivals any of the best fairy tales–except for the one wonderful Truth. THIS fairy tale is TRUE. He will act on my behalf as I wait on Him.

I eagerly wait, knowing that I will see the face of my Lord.

Lord, thank you that while you may not be predictable, you are reliable. You come to my rescue. I look to you for your rescue today. Your ways are so beyond my ways. Thank you! Amen.

They are Searching Google For God…

by | Jan 15, 2008 | Uncategorized

It is a fascinating thing to “blog.” In fact it is fun to check the stats every day to see what visitors have stopped in…Have they been new visitors? Repeat visitors? Have they (you) browsed multiple pages while here? I so want to KNOW you! 🙂

My favorite thing to check is what is called “referrer.” It tells me where on the web the visitor came from just before landing at my blog.

For the past three weeks, I have noticed that the most commonly referring website after ThinWithin.ORG is Google. In fact, my guess is that 60% or more people come to this blog after doing a search at Google. Sometimes the search parameters are “Thin Within,” appropriately enough.

But of all the people that come from Google, I would say 90% of them come after the following (or words like them) have been typed into the search field…

“Is God Doing a New Thing?”



My heart has been stirred by snooping this way…by looking at the referring websites that have brought people here.

So many people want to know if God is doing a new thing. At first, I just assumed it was pastors preparing messages for the first Sunday of the New Year. I figured they might be looking for Isaiah 43:18-19 and just not know where to find it. So, thinking of Google as a sort of broad bible concordance, they have typed in “God Doing New Thing” and up has popped the results including my blog.

Two Sundays have come and gone since the New Year began, though, and the traffic from these “God is Doing a New Thing” searches has tapered off only slightly.

People are still on a quest to know more about the New Thing God is Doing.

I feel so moved. As the people of God, let’s stand up and be counted. Let’s testify! God says He IS doing a new thing. Do we believe what God says? We may not perceive the new thing…but He says He IS DOING it! Verse 18 encourages us to FORGET THE FORMER THINGS. DO NOT DWELL ON THE PAST.

Which are we doing more of? Dwelling on the past? Or looking eagerly for the surprise that God is about to reveal! The joy of God’s new thing that he is doing!

Let’s join Him in this new thing! There is a hungry world out there…they are using Google to find out if God is at work!!!! Let’s SHOW THEM THAT HE IS!!!! That He LOVES all of us! That He can flood full all the empty places of our lives…causing us to overflow with his abundance.

He IS making ways in the desert and streams in the wasteland!