Isaiah 7:14

Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel ~ Isaiah 7:14

The meaning of "Immanuel" is interpreted as "God with us." Though Jesus was never called by that title, He is Immanuel. When Mary became pregnant, Joseph was very surprised, for he had not known Mary in this way, so how could he accept this unborn child which was not his? It would be hard for anyone to understand this, and even more so perhaps for what happened next. An angel came to Joseph, just as one had come to Mary, and told him that this child was conceived of the Holy Spirit. In Matthew's account of the Christmas story or the story of Jesus' lineage, he quotes from Isaiah in his writings (1:23) to show that Jesus is indeed the promised one Isaiah had written about so many centuries earlier. Jesus is fully God and fully man. He was not created and infused with the Holy Spirit when He was born, He is God with us in its entirety. Some faith groups believe that Jesus was born human, by human relationship, but then took on the aspect of God as a grown man. This is not so. Jesus, a part of the Trinity of God (Father, Son, Holy Spirit) came down from heaven to be God with us. He took on human flesh so that He might know our sufferings, our temptations, our needs, but as a human He was completely sinless. If you need a God that knows all about you, the only one to go to is the God who created you and this world. Only the True God, the Immanuel, can fully meet you where you are and redeem you. That is the story of Christmas!
Devotion by Pastor Julia

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