{"id":13859,"date":"2025-12-21T15:31:23","date_gmt":"2025-12-21T20:31:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/?post_type=message&#038;p=13859"},"modified":"2026-01-08T09:44:19","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T14:44:19","slug":"the-incarnation","status":"publish","type":"message","link":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/message\/the-incarnation","title":{"rendered":"The Incarnation"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The INFINITE became an INFANT. The ETERNAL ONE entered human history. At Christmas, we celebrate the staggering truth that the One who CREATED all things stepped into His own CREATION. God did not send a MESSAGE from heaven, He sent the MESSIAH, His one and only Son, Jesus Christ\u2013\u2013God in the flesh!<\/p>\n<p>But here\u2019s the question: Why does the incarnation matter to us today? Why should it move our hearts and change the way we live? Because too often the true meaning of Christmas gets buried under shopping lists, wrapping paper, and holiday festivities. We enjoy the celebration, but miss the meaning. If we\u2019re not careful, we can celebrate Christmas and overlook Christ.<\/p>\n<p>In the second chapter of Luke\u2019s gospel, he gave a historical account of the incarnation, describing the humble birth of God\u2019s Son and the angelic announcement to shepherds watching their flocks nearby. In this birth announcement, we can see the true meaning of Christmas revealed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":13860,"template":"","tags":[2015],"series":[2985],"scripture-book":[1309],"scripture-chapter":[1335],"speaker":[2007],"class_list":["post-13859","message","type-message","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-christmas","series-christmas-according-to-luke","scripture-book-luke","scripture-chapter-1335","speaker-gary-combs"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/message\/13859","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/message"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/message"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/message\/13859\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13862,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/message\/13859\/revisions\/13862"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13859"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=13859"},{"taxonomy":"scripture-book","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/scripture-book?post=13859"},{"taxonomy":"scripture-chapter","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/scripture-chapter?post=13859"},{"taxonomy":"speaker","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/speaker?post=13859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}