Message board for December

Our theme for the period leading up to Christmas Day is ‘The Wonder of Immanuel’. The accounts of the birth of Jesus inspire a sense of reverence and awe along with a sense of surprised astonishment. The name ‘Immanuel’ simply means ‘God with us’. The wonder of it is twofold. First, that God would come down from heaven to be with us. Second, that in Jesus, God takes on our humanity – He is God and man in one person. What is our response to that? We are lost in wonder, love and praise. But then when we think of why He came, we are just blown away. He came to take away all our wretched sinfulness, the redeem and save us and then to make us partakers of the life of God – to live within us by the Holy Spirit. All this and more in the name ‘Immanuel’.