by Pastor Bryan
It’s Christmas time again and what a blessed time it is. According to Luke 2:14 God is pleased with men and peace has been offered. Luke 2:13-14, “13 And suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, 14 ‘Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased.’” That peace is in the name Jesus Christ. Isaiah 7:14 tells us, “Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel.” And this prophecy is fulfilled with the acknowledgment of Matthew 1:23 “Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which translated means, “God with us.”
עִמָּנוּאֵל/`Immanuw’el—Immanuel = “God with us” or “with us is God”. Symbolic and prophetic name of the Messiah, the Christ, prophesying that He would be born of a virgin and would be ‘God with us’. (Hebrew)
Ἐμμανουήλ/Emmanouēl—Emmanuel = “God with us”. The title applied to the Messiah, born of the virgin, Mt 1:23, Is. 7:14, because Jesus was God united with man, and showed that God was dwelling with man. (Koine Greek)
Remember how blessed you are this Xmas (Christmas) season as a Xian (Christian) and spread the “PEACE” of Xmas through sharing, with “LOVE”, that Ἰησοῦ(Jesus/Iēsous) Χριστός (Christ/Christos: Koine Greek) is the giver of life, the author of peace and the epitome of love. We all know the world will attempt to reject and remove Christ from any area, but instead of driving a wedge of dissension between them and the Gospel say, “Thank you for being more traditional than myself and wishing a Merry Xmas by using the original Greek terminology because you can’t spell Christ in the Greek without an ‘X’. And according to Indiana Jones, “X marks the spot.” In this case “X” marks the spot of Salvation and Peace with God/YHWH/יְהֹוָה.