𝑰𝒎𝒎𝒂𝒏𝒖𝒆𝒍~”𝑮𝒐𝒅 𝓦𝓲𝓽𝓱 𝑼𝒔.”🤍

“ℐ𝓂𝓂𝒶𝓃𝓊ℯ𝓁~𝒢ℴ𝒹 𝔀𝓲𝓽𝓱 𝒰𝓈.”

I’ve been completely intrigued with this topic for quite a while now. I think December 2019 is when it began~I was starting to dive in deep. Then Christmas 2020 and 2021 were no different~the concept of 𝗜𝗺𝗺𝗮𝗻𝘂𝗲𝗹-𝗚𝗼𝗱 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝 𝘂𝘀, was beginning to solidify. I was finally beginning to understand what that really means for us. Now here we are, 2022, and the message has never been more clear.🌟

So over these past few years, God has been showing me this theme: “𝗜𝗺𝗺𝗮𝗻𝘂𝗲𝗹, God 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝 us.” And, this particular verse~“God is 𝕝𝕚𝕘𝕙𝕥, 𝗉𝗎𝗋𝖾 𝗅𝗂𝗀𝗁𝗍; there is not a 𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒄𝒆 of 𝗱𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀 in him.” (1 John 1:5 The Message.)

What does that mean to you? The fact that God has not even a 𝗧𝗥𝗔𝗖𝗘 of 𝗱𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀 in him at all? It makes me think about a lot of different attributes we ascribe to God that don’t belong to him. 🥺

I was in the kitchen one day and a song came on. I paused and thought to myself~’there it is again.’ It was talking about that very thing~In God there is 𝗻𝗼 𝗱𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀. 𝗡𝗢 darkness.

“𝗜𝗺𝗺𝗮𝗻𝘂𝗲𝗹, God with us,” is a very familiar phrase of course, especially at Christmas. We quote it and read it repeatedly throughout the season, but I wonder if we even begin to 𝗴𝗿𝗮𝘀𝗽 the depth of its meaning. My humble opinion is~no, we don’t even know what we’re really saying. If we did, there would be more evidence of us living our lives in this 𝗧𝗿𝘂𝘁𝗵.

After I heard the song that day, something else popped up about the very same topic. And then another person talking about the same theme, and then another song. Then my friend sent me a text about the same subject. And I continued to notice it 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆, in various forms, throughout the month. I’m kinda 𝗼𝗯𝘀𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗲𝗱 with it because of what it 𝘁𝗿𝘂𝗹𝘆 means for us.

Our Advent Calendar always sparks a lot of interesting conversations this season. 🎄🌟

Each night they took turns opening one of the little doors, and carefully took out the ornament. Then they pass it around to each other, and everyone looks at it and tries to guess what the story is about. Then whoever’s turn it is, they hang it delicately on the tree. We read the story, say the scripted prayer, and talk about it.♥️

And the other night…guess what? Yep-same theme in the form of a question by Samuel. He’s my deep thinker. 💭

Some may think that because of our lack of and/or sporadic church attendance since our exodus from previous church, that our kids aren’t getting much in the way of ‘teaching’ about God, etc. Completely the opposite. Maybe not always in the form of sitting at a table in a class with an open Bible~but~𝗝𝗲𝘀𝘂𝘀 is always a part of our conversations. Even some well-meaning women from previous church have sent cards and/or verse cards in the mail, underlining certain 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗺𝗲𝘀 I’m assuming they want me to ‘get.’ I do get it. And I talk about Jesus/God all the time with my kids. I always have, nothing has changed.♥️

What’s interesting is that I don’t even agree with some of the way the Christmas story is presented in this little advent book, only because my perspective is 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓-𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒊𝒏𝒈 based on what the Holy Spirit is showing me. Nor am I into scripted prayers too much. But, I’m mature enough to realize that everyone has a different perspective on God, and…it’s 𝑶𝑲𝑨𝒀. So, we read it anyway, because my kids will be exposed to a lot of different religious ideas throughout their life, and eventually they’ll have to figure things out and separate 𝒍𝒊𝒆𝒔 from 𝒕𝒓𝒖𝒕𝒉 on their own as God leads them in a way they’ll understand it.♥️

Samuel’s question:

“How did God become a baby when he lives in Heaven? He lives in the sky.”

Me: “God doesn’t 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 live in the sky Samuel, he lives everywhere. And Heaven may not be 𝙟𝙪𝙨𝙩 “up in the sky” like we think.”

Samuel~”So who took over Heaven when God came down as a baby, the Holy Spirit?”😆

Me: “Well…sure. Maybe. But He kinda brought Heaven 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 him.”💛

He seemed satisfied with my answers for now.♥️

The word ‘Emmanuel’ means “God is with us.” Not Jesus with us, 𝙂𝙤𝙙 𝙒𝙞𝙩𝙝 𝙐𝙨. That means God was the baby lying in the manger. Jesus yes, but God.

Up to this point in history, people didn’t understand who God was, they were assigning all sorts of characteristics to him that were not accurate. We say “God 𝒊𝒔 Love”, yes~but we also indirectly say that he’s mean, angry, vengeful, retributive, condemning, and judgemental…? That’s rather 𝒅𝒊𝒇𝒇𝒊𝒄𝒖𝒍𝒕 to understand.🥺

You can’t 𝘽𝙀 the actual definition of Love and also 𝘽𝙀 those other things. So he had to come 𝙡𝙞𝙫𝙚 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝 𝙪𝙨, do life 𝙒𝙄𝙏𝙃 𝙪𝙨, so we could have a better picture of who God really is. 𝐉𝐞𝐬𝐮𝐬.

If God hadn’t been so 𝗺𝗶𝘀𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗼𝗱 in the Old Testament, He wouldn’t have had to come as a baby and live with us, showing us who He was in human form~𝗝𝗲𝘀𝘂𝘀.

I know I can’t convince anyone of the 𝙪𝙧𝙜𝙚𝙣𝙘𝙮 to really understand this, and that when we do, it has the potential to change everything. For years and years I recited “Emmanuel, God with us,” but didn’t have the slightest clue what it really meant.😕

Now I’m 𝙗𝙚𝙜𝙞𝙣𝙣𝙞𝙣𝙜 to understand it.♥️𝗘𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆 question, thought, bewilderment, uncertainty, confusion, etc, that we have about God..can be clarified by simply studying the person of 𝙅𝙚𝙨𝙪𝙨 and how he Iived his life on Earth. 💚 Let’s be careful to attribute 𝗮𝗻𝘆 characteristic to God that has even the slightest resemblance of 𝒅𝒂𝒓𝒌𝒏𝒆𝒔𝒔.

Some things to think about~💭

▪️Jesus repeatedly got frustrated with the religious people.

▫️That means God did too.

▪️Jesus valued women, and considered them 💯 equal to men.

▫️That means God did too.

▪️Jesus exhibited qualities like humility, kindness, compassion, meekness, peace, patience, gentleness, and self-control.

▫️That’s means God did too.

▪️Jesus was never angry, vengeful, retributive, wrathful, condemning or judgmental.

▫️That means…God isn’t those things either.

If we ever wonder what God is like…the best way we can get a solid answer is simply by looking at the life of Jesus. Why?

“He [Jesus] is the 𝗶𝗺𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗶𝗻𝘃𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗚𝗼𝗱.”

Colossians 1:15🤍

𝗛𝗼𝘄.𝗺𝘂𝗰𝗵.𝗰𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗿.𝗰𝗮𝗻.𝗶𝘁.𝗴𝗲𝘁?🤔

And I Iove this straight from scripture~👇🏼

“I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.”

[John 5]

Again, crystal clear.🤍 So if we see Jesus doing or saying something, we can know 💯it came from God, because Jesus said himself that he only does 𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒇𝒂𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒅𝒐𝒆𝒔.

One more:👇🏼

“I and the Father are 𝗢𝗡𝗘.” [John 10:30]

A post I saw and 𝗹𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗱👇🏼

God is 𝗟𝗼𝘃𝗲, and that is the very essence of his being. He’s not 𝗟𝗼𝘃𝗲 AND….he’s 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗹𝗼𝘃𝗲.

The Jesus of the New Testament was nothing like the God of the Old Testament. Yet, scripture tells us that Jesus was “God 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 us.” Jesus was 𝗚𝗼𝗱 𝗜𝗡 the flesh. And he was never anything like the OT describes God. The NT is how I choose to view God, like Jesus, because Jesus 𝘄𝗮𝘀 God in the flesh.♥️

God was portrayed a certain way in the OT, but then Jesus comes to reveal who He really is. So while you had people attributing evil and death and destruction to God in the OT, we have to remember they had a veil over them. Jesus said no man has seen the Father but Him. He only did what He saw the Father do, and said what He said. So if something is said to be God in the OT, if it contradicts Jesus~you have to question it.

In 2023, consider changing your perspective of who God is. There’s no wondering or questioning needed. All that’s needed to know who God is~what he does, how he acts, what he says, is all on full display for us in the life of Jesus. Once you are able to embrace this, you’ll start to notice your light getting brighter and brighter.🌟☀️ ☺️