“Two questions for today: The first is this: Does God want to be known? And the second: do we really want to know God in return?”

And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger. And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart.

“Jesus is not just Immanuel – God with us. He is also our Savior – God delivering us, bringing all things round to good for us in the end.”

“When we broke our relationship with Him in sin – He did not, in mercy, let it break His relationship to us.”

Israel is not to live like the other nations around them, but Israel is to live for God alone. No longer conformed to the world around them, but now transformed by the grace of God and in accord with the Ten Commandments.