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Key Bible Verse: God … sent his own Son in a human body like ours, except that ours are sinful (Romans 8:3). Bonus Reading: 1 Timothy 4:45

Incarnation means getting down and getting human, climbing inside our skin. Since most of us arent very comfortable there, the poets words scandalize:

Good is the body, from cradle to grave,

growing and aging, arousing, impaired,

happy in clothing, or lovingly bared,

good is the pleasure of God in our flesh,

Good is the flesh that the Word has become.

Most Christian carry their sexuality around as if it were a huge burden—one big temptation they wish they could live without. We've become so focused on the wrong use of the sex drive that we've become incapable of finding anything right about it. Was being naked and unashamed reserved only for the garden? Was the gate forever closed to vulnerable goodness? Becoming so preoccupied fighting what is bad, we fail to affirm what is good. But it will be through affirming what is good about the flesh that we'll be better able to reject what's not.

Did Jesus merely tolerate His brief stay on earth? Was His Incarnation just a dirty job somebody had to do, and good thing it was God—or did He actually enjoy it? Can you seem Him smiling, laughing, or bright-eyed?

—John Fischer in BreakPoint WorldView

My Response: What about my body can I thank God for?

Thought to Apply: God had to be embodied, or else people with bodies would never in a trillion years understand about love. —JANE VONNEGUT YARMOLINSKY (author)

Adapted from BreakPoint WorldView (12/03) by permission.

Prayer for the Week

Lord Jesus, help me to fully embrace Your humanity as I do Your deity.

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