Pray the Word with David Platt is a resource from radical.net.

Isaiah chapter 7, verse 14.

Therefore, the Lord himself will give you a sign.

Behold, the Virgin shall conceive and bear a son,

and shall call his name Emmanuel.

We know, looking back, that this prophecy from Isaiah, although it clearly had application

in Isaiah's day, also had application far beyond Isaiah's day. For centuries after Isaiah said those words,

Jesus was born from a virgin, conceived, gave birth to a son, and his name called Emmanuel,

which means God with us.

One of the most startling truths of the Bible, that God, the creator of the world, the

owner of the universe, the one who has all power and all authority, he is not distant from us.

This God has come to us in Jesus, that Jesus is God in the flesh, God in the flesh with us,

his presence with us, which is astounding when you think about it. We sinful people

in a world marked by sin that God and His grace would condescend, would stoop to come to us in the

person of Jesus, to live among us. And then, as if that was not

enough to die for us, to take the payment of sin upon himself in our place. Oh, we deserve to be cast away from the presence of God, to not be close to God ever for all of

eternity to be separated from Him, yet God has come to us and made a way for us to be with Him,

him to be with us, forever and ever and ever.

That's the whole picture we see in the end of the Bible, with heaven.

What makes heaven heaven is that we will be with God.

He will be with us forever and ever and ever.

And all of that is possible because of the virgin who gave birth to a son whose name

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