Love Incarnated

The theme of the EC05 was "Love incarnated - this is the way you live". "incarnated" is kind of a strange word to be used in a Christian conference. It sounds almost heretical, because I would normally associate the word incarnation with Buddhism. But I think they used this word on purpose to express the uniqueness of this ministry as a gathering of Japanese Christians, with a little bit of intended shock value. I like the fact that different ethnic groups seek the understanding of God from the frame work of their own culture and concepts. No matter where they start, people seem to find their way to Jesus in search of the truth. And different perspectives reveal different aspects of God, who is too big for the comprehensive understanding by any one culture.

When I see the explanation for the theme "Love incarnated", it's actually quite biblical. They used a picture of a canned "chili con carne - chili with meat" as an explanatory illustration. The word "carne" in Spanish means meat or flesh. So from its Latin origin, the word "in-carna-ted" means "to become flesh". God is love, and the love that became flesh was Jesus, and He is the Way we live. The whole conference revolved around the concept of living the life of Jesus, which revealed the Father's love.