The mystery and the miracle of the birth of Christ was the fulfillment of the promise that God would be with his people.

The very name Emmanuel means God with us, and Jesus Christ is our Emmanuel. In this study, Scott Pauley reminds us

of our ever-present Savior, God with us.

Sometimes we just need a different perspective. In fact, what we really need is a divine perspective.

Remember that God's ways are higher than our ways. His thoughts are higher than our thoughts.

Might I say to you, his perspective is higher than our perspective? He's looking down from heaven.

He sees the end from the beginning. He sees things

differently than we do. I remember a few years ago watching a documentary about a person who had

lived his entire life colorblind. There was no distinguishing of any color. It was a black and white.

It was a gray world.

And then he was provided a very special set of glasses that permitted him to see

color for the first time in his life.

And I remember watching the overwhelming emotion that welled up in this man.

A grown man wept like a child, just overtaken with the beauty of it all,

the wonder of it all. He was looking at the same things, but he was looking at them through a totally

different lens. I want you to know that the Word of God is that lens. That's why God gave us the Scripture so that instead of looking at

ourselves and others in the world and circumstances through our eyes, we would begin to look

through God's eyes. That's exactly what the Lord does for Gideon in Judges chapter number six.

Now, we've read this passage already where the angel shows up under the oak,

begins to talk to Gideon, says to him twice. Judges chapter 6, verse 12, the Lord is with thee,

thou mighty man of valor. And again, in verse 16, surely I will be with thee. You see the word of

assurance there? I love that. Gideon didn't quite believe it

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