I was privileged to be in a Bible study this evening. During the study I made a mental note to ask the senior management at my place of business if I could be allowed to schedule myself so that I don't have to miss any more Wednesday evening Bible studies. At my place of business the department managers, of which I am one, have for a short while now been given the task to look over the work schedules for our own departments and make adjustments for coverage. I have to this point been given permission to shuffle times around so that coverage is complete each day. In my zone we have a new manager who is in charge of such things, so I will have to talk things over with him on Friday to see if I have his OK to continue. If so, I'll also ask if I may schedule myself early on each Wednesday I work, which is only 2 out of every 4. If it isn't possible, I won't make a scene, but it sure would be nice to be able to not miss any more Bible studies. I already am off two Sundays a month and seem to always draw a late shift on the other two Sundays providing me the ability to be in all Sunday morning services. I am very grateful for that.
Tonight's, well OK, last night's study now that it is early Thursday morning, was about words that are synonyms for the birth of Christ. A number were mentioned, all of them thought provoking and could certainly be used to illustrate different points, but Pastor Kerry used the word incarnation.
Most dictionaries will first define incarnation as "embodied in flesh" or "taking on flesh." Which is what God did in the presentation of Jesus in our world. More definitions also familiar to many would be the beginning or inception of a plan or idea. In modern English the word does not only mean God taking on humanity. But, it is a very good word to bring out more of the meaning of the birth of Christ to humans.
I know there are many people in this world that believe Jesus was a good man, but was not divine. That thought process of Christ's birth can not then be described with the word incarnation. With a long stretch of the use of the word, in our modern sense of the word, it could be used to describe the beginning of the earthly life of Christ. But it couldn't apply to the birth of Christ.
If we really wanted to get to the base of this miraculous event we would, in our understanding of things medically and physically today, have to say the incarnation took place at the moment this young woman Mary of Nazareth or Jerusalem, which ever source you believe most, conceived Jesus through the Holy Spirit's involvement. We know now that a child becomes a child, in spite of pro-abortionist's positions, at conception, not at birth.
In the days of Jesus, as even today, the moment of conception is a secret in normal conceptions. I realize it can be observed in a laboratory, but not in the normal sequence of events. Today, through home testing available, we can know far earlier that conception has occurred, but we still have no way to know exactly when. Yes, we know it was sometime after certain conditions were met, but how long is conjecture.
In the time this miracle took place, conception would have been even more unpredictable. So it is not the conception we celebrate, but the birth. The incarnation. The arrival in the world as an individual flesh, muscle and bone, God Himself.
And I keep coming back to the song, "Oh Mary Did You Know?" I just haven't been able to leave that thought process long lately. And it leads me to another thought, far more more serious to me; Oh Bruce, did you know? Did you know that when Christ came into your life, took on you as His robe of flesh in your place and time, that He is Lord of all creation? Did you know, Bruce? Did you know that He still wants to heal the sick through you? Did you know that He still wants to save your sons and daughters through you? Do you know, Bruce? Do you care, Bruce? Do you compose your thought life, your speech, your actions, like you know?
A man's thoughts could keep him awake at night.
