From the Editor Nov/Dec 2020
It’s confession time. I possess a peculiar ability that annoys everyone, even my husband. I listen to the same music over and over. When I find a song I like, I wear it out. I keep the same CD running in my car (no, I don’t carry music on my iPhone) for months. That’s why I’m still listening to Christmas music in June!
Back in the day of cassettes, there was one song in particular I adored at Christmastime. It was the title song to Sandi Patty’s fabulous album of the same name: “The Gift Goes On.” I rewound the cassette so often to replay that song that the tape snapped.
Apart from its uplifting, happy melody, the lyrics impart a beautiful message about God’s love. They tell us the Father gave us His Son, who gave us His Spirit, who gives us life.
Some people don’t believe God cares about His creation. In fact, some see God as an impersonal Creator who never intervenes in human affairs and leaves us to fend for ourselves.
Nothing could be further from the truth. The marvelous thread of redemption that runs throughout Scripture emphasizes God’s love and His desire to dwell among us. Because our sin separates us from Him (Isa. 59:2), He intervened profoundly by giving us His Son as a final blood sacrifice for our sin (53:4–6, 10).
This issue of Israel My Glory is devoted to Immanuel, Hebrew for “God with us.” What better time to look at how God visited His people than at Christmas, when we celebrate the incarnation? We cover aspects of how He dwelt among people in the past and how He will dwell with us in the future.
Today, those of us who have placed our faith in Jesus Christ are indwelt by the Holy Spirit, “who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory” (Eph. 1:14). God not only dwells with us, but He also dwells in us.
Someday, all of Israel will experience the blessing of Immanuel through the New Covenant: “But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people” (Jer. 31:33).
This season, may we all give thanks for Immanuel, His gift that goes on: “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col. 1:27).
Merry Christmas!
Waiting for His Appearing,
Lorna Simcox
Editor-in-Chief
