Christmas 2012: God With Us

...the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the 

virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
and shall call his name
Immanuel.
-The Prophet Isaiah

Jesus is given many names or titles throughout Scripture, which makes sense, as the entire Bible is about Him. But lately I am stuck on one of those titles in particular, a title given hundreds of years before He was born on Earth, when the Prophet Isaiah said He would be called “Immanuel.”

As Matthew 1:21-23 provides some information surrounding Jesus’ birth, this prophecy is explained in more detail, “‘She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.’ All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: ‘Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel’ (which means, God with us).”

I love that the name Jesus means “God saves,” which is what He does. Jesus is the God who saves His people from their sins, which is anything we do or say or even think which God says we should not. It is when we stop trusting God and trust something else. We all fall short of God’s perfection, and yet “God saves.”

Immanuel, however, gives us a glimpse of who He is. The very personal God who is with us, who came to live among us at first in order to do that saving, to live the perfect life we can’t and even to die to take the punishment for His people’s imperfections, only to live again.

Now He can be with us in a different way, not currently in the flesh, but dwelling within those who trust Him, and uniting His people in a way we could not otherwise know. He promises He will never leave or forsake us, that He is with us always, and that one day we will be with Him in person and eternally.

This Christmas I pray Jesus will draw you to know Him in this amazing way, either deeper or for the first time, giving you the desire to stop trusting anything but Him, and the privilege of knowing “God with us” forever.

Merry Christmas & a blessed New Year :)

Scripture quotes: ESV • Art: creationswap.com • ©2012 miniministry.com