Which of the following are similar to the ways you've served Christ in your family? [check all that apply]
• Taught your kids to see God's glory in nature
• Washed the dishes without being asked
• Played a board game with your kids
• Encouraged your wife to finish her master's degree
• Attended a child's open house at school
• Worked fewer hours to be with your family
• Set an example of a godly prayer life for your children
• Held a crying child
• Swung on the tire swing with your daughter
• Told your wife why you're still in love with her
• Told your son he's got what it takes
• Coached soccer
• Let you child correct you now and then
• Fixed the vacuum cleaner
• Taught your sons to ride a bike
• Listened patiently to a complaint of your wife
• Taped your child's artwork to your office wall
• Admitted to your kids that you were wrong
• Told your children how Christ entered your life
• Cleaned up vomit
• Taught your children to love books
• Been romantic without expecting sex
• Told your daughter she's smart/beautiful
• Set standards for your kids and stuck to them
• Dealt graciously with a busybody neighbor
• Peeled carrots
• Watched movies together
Getting Real Theme of the Week: Getting Down and Getting Human Wednesday, December 22, 2004
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Men of IntegrityNovember/December 2004Getting RealTheme of the Week: Getting Down and Getting HumanWednesday, December 2276
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.
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