Amid the hustle and bustle of the Christmas season, there is at least one way time has ground to a halt for me this year. We are in the unfamiliar circumstance of seeking God’s next ministry assignment, but in most cases during this time of year churches are busy with Christmas celebrations and their pastor searches have been put on hold until after the first of the year.

Even those not involved in ministry searches know how it feels for life to seemingly stand still, and many of us experience times in our lives when it seems as though “nothing” is going on. There is never a time in our lives when “nothing” is happening, because God is always at work around us.

Zechariah and Elizabeth had prayed for years that God would give them a son, but now well beyond childbearing age they remained childless. You can read their story in Luke 1:5-25.

Zechariah was a priest and priests were divided in to 24 companies of 300-350 priests. Each company had the opportunity to serve in the Temple two weeks each year. About 50 priests were chosen each day to perform the various Temple tasks assigned to the priest, so over the course of a week each priest had the opportunity to do something in the Temple.

The plum assignment, however, was the opportunity given to 2 priests each day to enter the Holy Place and burn incense on the Altar of Incense. Lots were cast to determine who got the opportunity, and no one had the opportunity to do it more than once. Only 28 received this privilege each year and in his long life, Zechariah had never had the chance.

To summarize the story, the angel Gabriel appeared to Zechariah while he was in the Holy Place and assured him his prayer had been heard and that he and Elizabeth would have a child, even in their advanced years. Those were 5 powerful words in verse 13 – “your prayer has been heard.”

Chances are because of what seemed biological limitations, Zach and Liz had not prayed for a child in YEARS. It had seemed as though God had not heard their prayer, or at the very least He had answered “no.” It seemed NOTHING WAS HAPPENING. We know now though that God was working behind the scenes to show His glory at the right moment – in the fullness of time.

If there is something in your life for which you’ve been praying, if there is some circumstance in your life where it seems God refuses to work, rest assured, God is at work. At just the right moment – for your good and for HIS glory – God will act. He may not act in a way you ask or expect but He will act in the best way.  Pray, trust, stay faithful, and look to the Lord. NOTHING IS NEVER HAPPENING in your life.

What do you do when life doesn’t go the way you expected? Those surprises come in different forms at different times and for different people – a bad health report, a relationship breakup, a financial shortfall, a job loss. I am sure you could add more that list. This Christmas marks the first time in 17 years that I am not the pastor of a local congregation during this special time of year. To say the least, it feels odd.

As I’ve read through the Christmas story the last several days, however, I find that I am in good company when it comes to unwanted and unexpected life circumstances. Also at no fault of his own and against his wishes, Joseph found himself somewhere he never thought he would be.

An angel appeared to give Joseph some very good advice for how to handle this unexpected turn of events. From Joseph’s example in Matthew 1:18-25, we can learn three actions that help us handle these unwanted circumstances.

First of all, when faced with unexpected and unwanted circumstances, TRUST THE WORK of GOD. In verse 20, we see that while Joseph was trying to figure out what to do, God sent His messenger with a word of hope for Joseph. God was the One who impregnated Mary…He was actively involved in their circumstance. When life surprises us, we can rest assured our all-knowing God knows no surprises. He sees and orchestrates circumstances in our lives before we even experience them.

Second, we can TURN TO THE WORD of GOD. The message of the angel was an application of Isaiah 7:14. God acts consistently with His Word, the Bible. So many Scriptures remind us to remain faithful in difficult circumstances. God is at work, and His Word prepares us and equips us to be effective in that work. Consider 2 Timothy 3:16-17. During your unexpected circumstances, turn to God’s Word often for guidance and instruction. Through the Bible, God will safely guide you through your circumstances and accomplish His purposes in and through you.

Finally, we can ENGAGE THE WILL of GOD. Verse 24 seems such a simple statement that we may easily pass it over without considering its implications – Joseph immediately went and did what the angel told him. It does little good for us to experience hardship and remain unchanged. James 1:2-4, 1 Peter 1:6-7 remind us that God uses our circumstances to bring us to places of obedience. God works in us through our circumstances so He can work through us because of our circumstances. So when circumstances surprise you, do what you know you should be doing.  Be faithful in your obedience.

So if you are experiencing difficult circumstances during this holiday season, I understand. I am too. This will be my family’s “weird Christmas” that we will fondly look back to in years to come. We will recount how God glorified Himself in our hardship, and how He brought us through all of this. Remember that God not only knows what you are going through, He is at work in it. Turn to His Word and obey what He tells you. This may be the Merriest Christmas ever.

“Hey, were you born in a barn?” I wish I had a dollar for every time I heard that growing up. Leaving doors open was a major taboo in my upbringing. But reckon Mary ever said that to Jesus? The stable and manger are prominent features in the most important event in human history. God demonstrated His love for common man by introducing His Son in the strangest environment; not a place of privilege or prominence, but a place obscure and unexpected.

We sing songs like “Away in a Manger, “Silent Night,” and “What Child Is This” to celebrate the coming of Jesus to earth – born a child, born of a virgin. But are we guilty of leaving Him in the manger and never letting Him grow up in our lives. I think the inclusion of the Magi in the Christmas narrative reminds us of the reason the Baby was born.

We are not sure how many Magi there were, who they were, or exactly where they were from, but we are sure that they came from a great distance to worship Jesus. And, in an act of true worship, they brought gifts.You see, worship is not something we experience, it is something we give. Worship is not singing songs, feeling spiritual goose bumps, and following a well designed order of service. Worship is what we GIVE JESUS. Worship can involve songs, prayers, sermons, offerings, and such if those activities are heartfelt means we use to ascribe to Him the honor and glory He deserves. But they are just that – means, not ends in themselves.

The particular gifts the Magi brought Jesus are significant as well. They brought Him gold which symbolized His royal position as King of Kings. While I doubt they fully recognized the spiritual nature of His kingdom, they nevertheless recognize His sovereignty and gave gifts that promised their allegiance to Him. We get the Baby out of the manger and give Him the gift of Kingship when we submit to His rule in our lives.

They also brought frankincense which symbolized His spiritual position as Lord. Frankincense was a fragrant powder used in worship. The Magi recognized that this Baby was unlike any other and was the One ultimately worthy of worship. We get the Baby out of the manger and give Him the gift of Lordship when we make Him the ultimate pursuit of our lives.

Additionally they brought a most unusual gift for a baby – a burial spice called myrrh. Even at His birth, the Bible foreshadowed His sacrificial death. We get the Baby out of the manger and give Him the gift of our lives when we recognize His place as Redeemer, trust Him as our Savior, and share the good news of salvation with anyone we get the opportunity.

Don’t you think it’s time for Jesus to grow up in your life? This Christmas, allow Jesus to get out of the manger and take His rightful place on the throne of your life. Recognize His Lordship and make Him the passionate pursuit of your life.

You know the story. You call Tech Support and spend an hour going through a series of “self-help” steps directed by an assumed expert on the other end of the line. All the while, you hear the click of the keyboard as your expert “googles” the answer to your question. After the series of self-help steps fails, the technician finally relents and promises to “send someone out to take a look.”

When it came to redeeming His creation, God did not offer a “series of self-help steps,” He did not promise to “send someone right out,” but instead He sent Himself. Consider these two verses:

“Therefore, the Lord Himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive, have a son, and name Him Immanuel – ‘God is with us.'” Isaiah 7:14

“The Word (Jesus) became flesh and took up residence among us. We observed His glory, the glory as the One and Only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” John 1:14

Let that truth really sink in . . . God came down and got in a human body!!! For hundreds of years He had sent His leaders, teachers, and prophets to do His work, but when the time was just right, He showed up on the scene HIMSELF. God WITH US. Immanuel is not just a Christmas word, but a living reality for those of us in God’s family. God is here, within us. He knows how we feel, what we face, what we need. He is more than acquainted with our concerns and more than able to address them and handle them. He is STILL IMMANUEL!

And don’t miss that line from the John 1 passage: “we beheld His glory.” Beheld it, gazed at it, saw it often, looked at it with the purpose of analyzing, learning, being blessed by it. And what a unique glory it was . . . One and Only are the words John used to describe it. Have you seen the glory of God around you? I mean really, do we look for God to operate in “One and Only” kind of ways? I think we rather prefer the usual, the explainable, the expected. We do not look for God to do something new around us. But, brothers and sisters, I don’t know about you, but as for me this Christmas, I am making it my prayer, my aim, my passion to see the unique glory of Jesus Christ. I have grown weary of the “same old same old,” and I am holding up some new wineskins into which I want God to pour new wine.

Please, Lord, this Christmas, let me see you in new and fresh ways. Let me see your glory in such a way that it is unmistakably YOU.

As a rule, we humans are poor at following instructions. We’ve all heard the anecdotes of the dad who assembled the Christmas presents and didn’t “need” the accompanying instructions, the user who called tech support before consulting the user’s manual, and the kitchen “expert” who didn’t need the recipe. As I write this, I have been observing drivers blatantly ignore a sign in a parking lot marked “exit only.” The particular portal is marked for exit only for very good reasons – the angle of the parking places, the flow of traffic around the restaurant, the location of the drive-through. While a directional sign in a restaurant parking lot is trivial in the grand scheme of life, my observations plunged my thoughts deeper into the daily, observable behavior of people. I don’t believe we fail to follow instructions because we neither have them nor understand them, but because we believe that we are smarter than those who made the rules and know a better way. We place ourselves above the rules. Solomon observed the same pattern of behavior and indicated that pattern’s inevitable outcome.

There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death – Proverbs 16:25

We may have some successes with the minute decisions of life, but when it comes to worldview or our matrix for decision-making, we cannot depend on human understand apart from the truth of God’s Word. Yet, how often do we fail to consider God’s counsel, rationalize Gods Word to say what we want it to say, or worse yet, ignore it all together, when deciding what we believe to be the right thing to do? God’s Word provides everything we need for a successful life. We are wise to consider the counsel of others, BUT ONLY if their counsel is shaped by the truth of God’s Word also.

So I challenge you to read, study, and live God’s Word regularly. It is our only sure and infallible instruction book for a successful life. What practical steps are you taking today to order your life around God’s Word? Where in God’s Word are you reading? Do you journal to keep a record of what God is teaching you and how you are learning to live His truths?  And then, what will you do when God’s Word instructs you in the way you should life?  Will you follow it or your own understanding?

This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. – Joshua 1:8

“See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil. If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God that I command you today, by loving the Lord your God, by walking in His ways, and by keeping His commandments and His statutes and His rules, then you shall live and multiply, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to take possession of it.” – Deuteronomy 30:15-16

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. 2 Timothy 3:16-17

The Bible teaches us that God is a Spirit, not a human being like us.  Yet the Bible also speaks of God in bodily terms we understand – we call these anthropomorphisms. The Bible speaks of God having eyes, heart, hands, feet, a face, etc.  Having said all that, I firmly believe most of seek the wrong “body part” of God.  We are more concerned with seeking the HAND of God when we need to seek the FACE of God instead.

We pray for health, material possession, relief from our problems, and answers to our questions.  We ask God for many things, yet we do not seem to ask God to make us more like Jesus.  We want God to give us things, but we do not want God to take away those attitudes, actions, and affections that displease Him.

We all know what it is like for someone to befriend us because of what they perceive we have to offer them.  Sadly, we often approach God with the same utilitarian approach.  We want God to give us His best while we offer Him our leftovers. We want the blessings of God, but we loathe the possibility of Him calling us to take up our crosses and follow Him.

Our greatest need is to seek the FACE of God – His presence.  Rather than God’s pleasing blessings, we need His cleansing presence in our lives.  We need the Holy Spirit to convict us of sins in our lives that we might forsake them and draw closer to God.  Rather than asking God to give us more of His blessings, we need to offer Him more of ourselves.

Will you join me in changing our prayers from praying primarily for things and praying instead for the manifest presence of God to move in and through us?

Hear, O Lord, when I cry aloud; be gracious to me and answer me! You have said, “Seek My face.” My heart says to You, “Your face, Lord, do I seek.”

Hide not Your face from Me. Turn not Your servant away in anger, O You who have been my help. Cast me not off; forsake me not, O God of my salvation! – Psalm 27:7-9

Seek the Lord while He may be found; call upon Him while He is near; let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, that He may have compassion on him, and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon. For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts. – Isaiah 55:6-9

The sultry seductress has done it again. She’s been at it for hundreds of years, thousands actually. She has brought down the mightiest of men and caused the downfall of the most powerful of empires. For some reason she is irresistible to most. Ensuing generations read about her wiles and should be duly warned, but for some reason they cannot escape her enticements.

Who is this vixen who has victimized God’s people down through the ages? Her name is Contemporary Culture. In the wilderness, God’s people fell to her appeal through the cultures of the Moabites and Edomites. In Canaan, it was the Gibeonites through whom she beguiled God’s people. During the years of settled national strength, both Israel and Judah could not resist the attraction of Baal and constantly visited her “high places,” choosing an empty non-existent god over the one true God, Jehovah. Because they could not resist her temptation, they suffered greatly.

Today, Jesus followers, forsake our commitment to our bridegroom Jesus and attempt look for satisfaction while flirting with her – Contemporary Culture. The Bible warns us about her.

Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever. – 1 John 2:15-17

She promises fulfillment but delivers emptiness. She offers to make our life better. Even our own preachers do her bidding all in the name of God wanting us to be rich, happy, successful, or any other promise in her bag of tricks. What she offers is temporary and fleeting at best. Her greatest pleasures are but for a season, but what God wants to give you is forever.

Beware, Christian. We need to love and reach out to the culture in which we live, but we cannot become one with her for we are betrothed to another – Jesus. He bids us to bring her to Himself but instead we look for ways to have her and still have Him.

Have you fallen victim to her alluring spell? Do you find yourself more interested in conforming to her image rather than being transformed into the image of Jesus? Happens to all of us at times. I challenge you to love your culture but do not seek to please or become one with your culture. Do the most loving thing for culture that you can – live a life of distinction and show her Jesus.

I want to ask you to pray for a very special family. They are all heroes in their own way.

Madi is a 16-month-old hero. She was born with Downs Syndrome, a heart defect, and pulmonary hypertension. Growing is a challenge for her. She struggles to take in enough nutrition to sustain herself, but she is a fighter. She already has exhibited a lion-hearted determination. She needs our prayers today because she is in the hospital bravely fighting e coli.

But she is not the only hero in her family. Her big sister Grace is a hero also. Grace has adapted so well to being big sister to a sibling who has required a lot of mom and dad’s attention. Grace is a fine Christian young lady who prays for and supports her sister, mom, and dad through this difficult time even though circumstances have created a unique situation for her. She doesn’t complain, but encourages everyone who encounters her each day with a beautiful smile and even more beautiful heart. She needs our prayers that she will continue to experience and share the joy of the Lord.

There is another hero in this family and it is Ashley. Ashley has bravely taken care of her family in the face of adversity while demonstrating a strong faith in the Lord to see them through this trial. Most mothers deserve hero status…Ashley stands out with honors. What a strong encourager she has been as she has allowed us to grow in our faith through her own journey. Pray for Ashley that God will remind her often that He will never put more on her than HE can handle.

Please pray for this family as often as God brings them to mind. They are precious people. Feel free to link this blog or share it with others so that we can create a tsunami of prayer. To God be the glory.