Immanuel--God with Us
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 (NIV)
“’The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him, Immanuel.’ (which means ‘God with us.’)” Matthew 1:23 (NIV)
The message of Christmas is very clear. God was announcing that He was coming to live with us in a manner that he hadn’t done since Adam and Eve. Immanuel was to be born in Bethlehem, and he was going to live with us personally on a daily basis. I think that He was excited about it. GOD WITH US, person to person. He became a man that we could see, we could touch, and we could love one-to-one. This was the first step for eternity of GOD WITH US, His heartfelt desire fulfilled.
Immanuel
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 (NIV)
“’The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him, Immanuel.’ (which means ‘God with us.’)” Matthew 1:23 (NIV)
Before the baby was born:
Luke 1:26-38 tells us how Mary was informed that she was going to have a baby, a very special baby. Matthew 1:10-22 tells us how Joseph found out about the coming birth of his stepson. Both Mary and Joseph were given the news by angels.
They must have been exceptional people, living in God’s will, but also living in obscurity in the little town of Nazareth. But prophecy said that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem. How were they going to get to Bethlehem so that Jesus could be born there? Why would they go there? After all, they had to travel 90 miles, and the normal mode of travel in those days was donkey and human foot. Luke 2:1-7 tells us how this improbable journey took place. The Roman governor made a decree that required Joseph to go to Bethlehem for a census and to be taxed. God’s Word said that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem, so Caesar Augustus just happened to plan for this disruption of Jewish society in time for Jesus to be born in Bethlehem. Let’s just say that God had His way.
All these improbabilities and impossibilities came together to provide us with Immanuel, God with us. God moved heaven and earth to have the Old Testament prophecies concerning the birth of the Messiah to be accurate. In short, God’s will was done.
In Isaiah 7:14 and Matthew 1:23 Jesus is called “Immanuel, God with us.” God seems to be emphasizing the personal coming of God to earth as a man. This encouragement was necessary when Jesus was born, and it is necessary to us, today. That is the message of Christmas, the words spoken by God to His prophet Isaiah: “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son and will call him, Immanuel.” GOD WITH US all the time and everywhere—even today.
Relationship--Marriage
“So embrace, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, a spirit of mercy, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, and longsuffering. Bear with one another and forgive one another. If anyone has a quarrel against anyone, even as Christ forgave you, so you must do. And above all these things, embrace love, which is the bond of perfection.” Colossians 3:12-14 (MEV)
Paul’s instructions in Colossians 3:12-14 certainly should work well in a marriage. Perhaps these verses should be included in the marriage ceremony. I can’t pretend to tell anyone how to have a successful marriage, but Colossians 3:12-14 would be a great start, and I can tell you what has worked for Norma and me.
Within the first year of our marriage, we attended my grandparent’s 50th wedding anniversary party. The emcee asked if anyone there expected to be married for fitty years. Norma and I both said, “Yes, we do,” and everybody laughed. We answered the laughter with the words, “We mean it,” and over 61 years later we still mean it.
We didn’t enter our marriage with the idea of a 50-50 arrangement. We agreed that we were both committed 100% to each other and to our marriage relationship. It’s been great. Encompassed with our love has always been the word, “respect.” We may not often disagree, but we do always respect each other’s opinion. I have sometimes been cautioned by the Holy Spirit to hold my tongue and be patient while my wife disagrees with me. And when I haven’t been patient, Norma has been forgiving, and I am grateful for that.
Friendship is also at the heart of our relationship. Norma is my best friend, and I am her best friend. We do have other friends, and we do enjoy spending time with them—sometimes together and sometimes separately. They often enlarge our vision. Norma and I recognize that we each have individual skills and abilities, and when we combine them we serve our Lord best and we experience the satisfaction of having accomplished something together that neither of us could have done alone.
God has blessed our marriage with our great love for each other, for our mutual love for Him, and His love for us. Without Jesus Christ as our Savior, and without the Holy Spirit as our guide, we would not and could not be as close to each other as we are. Our relationship with our God has been the solid foundation of our marriage.
Verse fourteen of the above passage, “And above all these things, embrace love, which is the bond of perfection.” Love, ours and His, has been the bond of perfection in our marriage.
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Relationship--God and Man
“So embrace, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, a spirit of mercy, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, and longsuffering. Bear with one another and forgive one another. If anyone has a quarrel against anyone, even as Christ forgave you, so you must do. And above all these things, embrace love, which is the bond of perfection.” Colossians 3:12-14 (MEV)
The relationship between God and mankind differs in one magnificent way from all other relationships. In this relationship, the one between God and mankind, one of the participants is ALWAYS faithful, ALWAYS loving, and NEVER changing. We all know which one that is: GOD. So any difficulties in the relationship are because of us. What can we do to keep that relationship on a solid foundation?
We can recognize that God created everything so that He can have fellowship with us. Much of His creation puts us in awe: mountains, lakes, rivers, canyons, plains, elephants, amoebas, the sun, the moon, the stars. We must also stand in awe of His greatest creation—US. In all the billions of people who will have peopled the earth by the time of the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, there are no two people exactly alike. We are different in size, shape, skin color, intellectual ability, and personality, yet He loves each of us the same. I’m loved as much as He loves you, and you are loved as much as He loves Billy Graham, and Billy Graham is loved as much as He loves Josef Stalin.
We can keep our relationship with God on a solid foundation by reading His written Word, the Bible. In this grand book, He shows us how to act so that we keep in good relationship. Jesus was very specific when He was asked to name the greatest commandment: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these.” Mark 12:30,31 (NIV) Jesus was asked for the one greatest commandment, but He answered with two. He specifically mentions the second. In the first, He delineates our responsibilities to Him, and in the second He tells us how to treat each other. He also says, “There is no commandment greater than these.” There we have it—the way to fulfill our part of the relationship, the covenant. In no day have I been able to completely fulfill both of these two greatest commandments. I believe that God understands that and that He understood it when Jesus answered the question. But because He never changes, I am forgiven each day.
Obeying these two commandments does not guarantee us a home with Him for eternity. The one and only action of ours that gives us that guarantee is our acceptance of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Once we have done that, God desires that we fulfill each of these two every day. In fact, He expects us to fulfill them, but because of His forgiving nature, He keeps giving us mercy in our failures. Understand this—God expects us to love Him first, and out of that love He expects us to love our fellow man. When we do these two things, we gladden His heart, and that is my desire—to gladden His heart.
So we have a relationship where one partner is ALWAYS faithful, and the other partner is sometimes faithful, and because of His faithfulness we are forgiven. We fulfill our part of the relationship by doing our best to love Him completely, love our fellow man well, and live in the knowledge of and thankfulness for His TOTAL commitment to us and our relationship.
Thank you, Father God! Thank you, Jesus! Thank you, Holy Spirit!
Relationships--Friendship
“So embrace, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, a spirit of mercy, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, and longsuffering. Bear with one another and forgive one another. If anyone has a quarrel against anyone, even as Christ forgave you, so you must do. And above all these things, embrace love, which is the bond of perfection.” Colossians 3:12-14 (MEV)
How does a friendship begin? We don’t know who of our acquaintances will become actual friends. We don’t know until we have several conversations and get to know the person better. Friendships often develop because of common interests. First, we may listen to someone in a general conversation, and as we listen we discover a common interest. If we listen long enough and carefully enough, we discover that the person has interesting things to say and that we want to hear more. So we speak and join the conversation by offering opinions and probably asking questions. By this time both people may realize that they hold interests in common, and that they would enjoy spending more time together. And as more time is spent together, both parties begin to reveal themselves more deeply and the friendship becomes an active relationship.
It doesn’t always happen that way. Sometimes a friendship occurs almost at the drop of a hat. It may be almost immediate that the realization of a friendly relationship my occur. In either case the exchange of ideas occurs and respect is developed.
So these are ways that friendships begin, but for a friendship, particularly a close friendship, to develop and be pleasant and important to both people, we need to follow Paul’s instructions that he gives us in the above Scripture. Indeed, to be a good friend, we must be both kind and considerate, not trying to dominate conversations, but by showing interest in what the other person is saying. Sometimes, even in friendships, differences happen, and they need to be resolved amicably. In other words, we need to show the love of God even in the times of teasing each other. Being careful not to hurt the other person’s feelings by embarrassing him or her is an important skill to learn.
A friend is also available to help in situations of need--physical, emotional, spiritual, or monetary need. This is where the “rubber meets the road.” If I can’t help a friend in need, I am not a friend indeed, or maybe I should say “a friend in deed.” My deeds show my friendship as much or even more than my words. Proverbs 18:24 is instructive: “One who has unreliable friends soon comes to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.” Reliability is greatly to be desired in a friend, and a friend who is reliable can be of more value than a brother. The question for me is this: Am I being a good friend, one who shows the love of God in a reliable manner?
The Great Commission, given to us by Christ in Mark 16:15, says, “He said to them, ‘Go into all the world and preach the gospel.’” (NIV) Logically, the more friends we have the more people that we can be sure that have heard the Good News of Jesus Christ. Do I know that all my friends have at least heard the Gospel? My friends become prospective ambassadors for Christ. This is the way that the Gospel spreads.
