Mary Lindow ~ The Messenger Podcast

“God Is Fully With Us In These Strange Days”   By Mary Lindow   Just over 2,000 years ago, Emmanuel, also called the Christ, changed the world.  In that moment when God became flesh, humanity watched prophecies unfold as hope was born. Jesus, our Emmanuel, provided hope that sin and death wouldn’t always win and mankind wouldn’t always feel so painfully alone.    What Does Emmanuel Mean in the Bible? It’s a word written on countless Christmas cards and sung in some of our most-loved carols.  In Scripture, it first appears in the Old Testament in Isaiah 7:14, which says,    “Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign;  The virgin will conceive, and give birth to a Son, and will call Him Emmanuel”.   The Lord Himself will do this, Scripture says.  In other words, this act, which occurred in the birth of Christ, was God-ordained and God-accomplished.    This points to grace, which doesn’t come through human effort but rather through relying on God to do what we humans cannot. This was the reason Christ cam