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.

What do prepositions and a light bulb have in common? Let me explain.

All too often when adverse circumstances come our way, we use the wrong prepositions as we evaluate our situation and seek to move on from it. I have asked these questions and you probably have as well:

What about me? . . . Why did this happen to me? . . . What effect will this have on me?
What’s going to become of me? … What’s the next step for me? . . .

The more important prepositions, however, are in and through. Imagine how different our perspective can be if we ask instead

What does God want to do in me?
And, how does God wish to manifest Himself through me?

So what does a light bulb have to do with all of this? The other day, I was changing a light bulb in our carport when I realized that a light bulb is a perfect illustration of “in” and “through.” Think about how a light bulb works. A burst of electricity surges into the light bulb and heats the tungsten filament to such an intense temperature that it glows and emits light.

The electricity provides the heat, and without the heat the glow would not occur. That is the “in” principle. The amazing thing, however, is that the light bulb’s “in” experience creates a “through” effect. Because the filament heats to a glowing hot temperature and emits light, we are able to see more clearly and illumination occurs. That is the “through” principle. The heating of the filament has an effect beyond itself.

As we encounter difficult circumstances in life, we can let God work IN us. God will use the circumstances to refine us, teach us, stretch us, and reveal Himself to us. Then as He works in us, He will – because of how we deal with those circumstances – shine His light THROUGH us so others can see Jesus in us.

For my present painful and challenging season of life, I am choosing to allow God to work IN me in hopes that He will use my experience to manifest Himself THROUGH me. My circumstances are not about, to, on, of, or for me. It’s all about Jesus.

He must increase, but I must decrease. – John 3:30

Because I like to save money where I can, I often find myself shopping at dollar stores. These stores provide “off brands” that are less expensive that the “name brands.”

Unfortunately, some believers in Jesus display a dollar store spiritual life. They settle for something less than a real and vibrant walk with Him. They settle for being believers without being disciples. Emotional highs become substitutes for a consistent devotional life. Business replaces holiness. Legalistic structure replaces spiritual transformation. Good ideas that we can develop on our own replace God’s ideas discovered only through committing to a season of prayer and seeking God.

Consider the words of the Lord through His prophet Amos:

For thus says the LORD to the house of Israel: “Seek me and live; 
but do not seek Bethel, 
and do not enter into Gilgal 
or cross over to Beersheba; 
for Gilgal shall surely go into exile, 
and Bethel shall come to nothing.” – Amos 5:4-5

The pagan shrines at Bethel, Gilgal, and Beersheba amounted to dollar store substitutes for God. God’s people felt the temptation to find satisfaction by fitting in with their contemporaries. God challenged them to trade their substitutes for a real relationship with Him – seek ME, He said.

So where do we find God? First, we find Him in the pages of His Word. God’s Word is His revelation of Himself, His will, and His plan for our lives. There is no substitute for the systematic regular reading and study of the Bible. Every relationship depends on conversation, and God’s Word is His conversation to us.

Second, we find God in the quiet place of prayer and solitude. Even Jesus recognized the need to get away from the activity and the crowds to get alone with His heavenly father. If it was that important to Jesus, how much more vital is prayer and solitude to us? In 1 Kings 19:11-12, when Elijah needed to hear from God, he found God not screaming in a strong wind, earthquake, or fire, but in the low whisper of a still small voice. We can only hear the whispers of God when we quiet ourselves in His presence.

Additionally, we find God in the every day events of our lives. God is at work around us, and we can see His hand if we look for Him. We find God when we serve Him by serving others. Jesus reminds us that in feeding the poor, clothing the naked, giving water to the thirsty, and visiting the afflicted, we also serve Him.(Matthew 25:31-40)

So what are you substituting for the real thing? Why settle for dollar store bargains when you can enjoy a daily, vital relationship with the One who is of inestimable worth? Why settle for a cheap imitation when the real thing is yours . . . for free?