Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Immanuel, God with us!

The cry is still permeating this season, "Keep Christ in Christmas!". We do need to remember that He is the reason that we celebrate at this time of the year. If we remember and honor Him as that babe in the manger and honor Him and remember Him as the Savior who died during the Easter season, we tend to think we have done our part. Those above mentioned acts are a definite part of the Christian faith and yet, we tend to by-pass God's ultimate plan. Since the Garden when Adam and Eve chose to eat from the wrong tree and to follow their own desires rather than Father's, God's plan was to provide a way for mankind to be able to enjoy a relationship with Him. Not a religious way of life with its rules and regulations, but a relationship with our loving Father, Son and Holy Spirit. All the way back to Isaiah in the Old Testament we are told that a virgin will conceive and give birth to a son. That son would be called Immanuel which means God with us. God with us! God having such sweet fellowhip with us that we know Him, trust Him, talk with Him, listen to Him and love Him. No other God has ever been able to do that and never will! Our God with us - never having to cover ourselves in shame, never having to hide our faces from His glory - but God with us in all His glory leading us ever closer into a deeper relationship with Him! Wow! What love and what a Savior! Now, thats a reason to be excited and desire to honor Him this Christmas! Celebrate His coming as that babe and celebrate and honor His sacrifice at the cross, but get excited about the fact that Emmanuel has come to dwell in us and to reveal His glory through us to the whole world! The world continues to wait and groan for that revelation to come. We need to seek hard after Him and make a relationship with Him our first priority so the world will see Him and get to know Him through us. Now, that is an extraordinary gift we ordinary ones can bless our world with this Christmas! Be blessed, dear ones, with the love and glory of a relationship with Emmanuel this season and throughout the rest of your lives.