you have always been, you will always be, Emmanuel

Advent is coming Sunday 30 November — time to get ready by worshiping the One who has saved us from our sins.

The birth of Jesus

This was how the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place. His mother, Mary, was engaged to Joseph; but before they came together she turned out to be pregnant—by the holy spirit. Joseph, her husband-to-be, was an upright man. He didn’t want to make a public example of her. So he decided to set the marriage aside privately. But, while he was considering this, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared to him in a dream.

‘Joseph, son of David,’ the angel said, ‘don’t be afraid to get married to Mary. The child she is carrying is from the holy spirit. She is going to have a son. You are to give him the name Jesus; he is the one who will save his people from their sins.’

All this happened so that what Yahweh said through the prophet might be fulfilled: ‘Look: the virgin is pregnant, and will have a son, and they shall give him the name Emmanuel,’—which means, in translation, ‘God with us’.

When Joseph woke up from his sleep he did what the Lord’s angel had told him to. He married his wife, but he didn’t have sexual relations with her until after the birth of her son. And he gave him the name Jesus.

— Matthew 1:18-25, from The Bible for Everyone

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