“The Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being”
(Genesis 2: 7)
Allergy season is upon us here in North America and those who suffer from allergies are at the mercy of the pollens swirling around them. The results are sneezing, eyes watering and for some, difficulty in breathing. I was watching a television ad for tablets that promised to rid the sufferers of all their terrible symptoms and one vowed that this particular one would relieve those with breathing problems and give them “good breath”. I thought the phrase was incorrect grammar, but it made me think what good breath was. The following Sunday, we sang a beautiful song with ended with these beautiful words for the repeated chorus;
His breath in our lungs
Then I realised I knew what good breath was!
In the book of John, we understand how we can receive this good breath
“Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.”” (John 20: 21 – 22)
The other beautiful sentence came in the same song we were singing, and as I sang with the rest of the congregation I started to grasp the incredible privilege Jesus bestowed on his disciples and all of us who choose to follow him by breathing on us. Here are the other powerful words;
It’s now your love I am breathing
Breathing love! What a gift to be able to use our very breath to spread love to others. We need breath to speak, so when we are breathing the Lord’s love our words will be filled with love not anger, bitterness or hatred but with understanding, love and sympathy.
Breath ensures life. If we are aware of breathing God’s love our lives will become meaningful. We will be living the way he designed us to live. Lives pleasing to him.
When I was young we sang an old hymn written in 1878 and I was reminded of this hymn while singing the modern version of the same theme. I found an old dog- eared hymn book from my youth, found the hymn and the words were just as beautiful as I remembered. Here they are;
Breathe on me, Breath of God
Fill me with life anew
That I may love what thou dost love
And do what thou wouldst do
Breathe on me, Breath of God
Until my heart is pure
Until my will is one with thine.
To do and to endure
Breathe on me Breath of God
Till I am wholly thine
Until this earthly part of me
Glows with fire divine
Breathe on me, Breath of God
So shall I never die
But live with thee the perfect life
Of thine eternity.
That beautiful word – overflowing – is often used in Scripture, and often to describe God’s gifts to his loved ones in bountiful crops etc., but the most powerful way it is used, is when the Psalmist’s and other writers use it to somehow capture his love. In Psalm 65, the Psalmist recognises God’s love in his gracious abundance of gifts;
We can do exactly that in our lives when we overflow with God’s love. We can in-turn spread that love to others who may be in desperate need of some joy in their lives, bereft of happiness. Others may need to find peace in a turbulent situation and yet others may need hope when they have given up in despair.
Our family learnt a wonderful lesson in expressing love and understanding in a family celebration on Mother’s Day and we all witnessed this through the actions of a small boy, our five-year, old grandson. While my daughter, his mother, was busy preparing to celebrate Mother’s Day, and getting cards and gifts and a cake ready, suddenly my little grandson said. “But what about Aunty, what are we giving her?” This daughter was unable to have children of her own and as soon as he said these words, my younger daughter realised that these words from a little boy had a great depth of meaning so, out they went for him to buy something special for someone who needed an expression of love and understanding.
Once we belong to Jesus Christ, the Lord can use us as his messengers to distribute his love to others. The writer of Hebrew concludes his letter with a powerful prayer for his readers in which he asks the Lord to bless them and equip them with everything good they need to do God’s will.
Mother’s Day is celebrated in many different countries and usually the second Sunday in May is set aside to honour mothers. For some women this can be a difficult day and especially single mothers with young children, who have nobody in their family able to fuss after them. I was delighted to hear from one of my daughters, that the church she attends, sets aside the Saturday before Mother’s Day, as one totally devoted to helping single mothers in a practical way, but also to make them feel loved and pampered. For example, men in the congregation offer to:
which he attributed to people who spoke about caring for people, but only spoke about it without doing anything about it. James addresses this in his letter to the churches, urging them and of course us, not to offer meaningless words to those in need, but to do something about it!
The secret to be able to achieve practical Christian action is to remain firmly attached to the vine. Jesus assured his disciples and all those who would follow him need to stay firmly rooted in him, then we will be able to be fruitful and bear much fruit for him no matter how old we are.
Both my husband and I grew up in homes that had open fireplaces. My grandmother still had a stove that was heated through a wood fire and I can remember her sitting in front of the opening patiently toasting bread for us with a very long pronged fork, carefully turning the piece of bread from one side to the other until it was just the right shade of brown. Delicious to eat!! Building the fire was a very important part of having a successful source of heat and then keeping that small spark going, fanning it, was essential.
Some of us mistakenly believe God must have overlooked us when he was giving out the gifts, but that is not true, just as each person is unique, so are our gifts and discovering those gifts becomes easier and easier the longer we walk closely with the Holy Spirit. Some of what would be described as small gifts can bring about amazing results when they are used to display God’s love to others.
Probably the best way to discover our gifts is to ask the Lord to show us how he would like to use us. When we realise the gifts come from him and we don’t take the credit, our gifts truly will burst into flame and we will remember where the gifts come from;
Recently I was with my family in the Food Court of a busy Mall when I had quite a nasty fall and as I did, a chair that was behind me crashed on to my head. I was stunned for a second and when I opened my eyes a man was kneeling beside me and in a very gentle voice was asking me questions, slowly and clearly, assuring me he was an off-duty fireman, trained as a first responder. His calm voice and confident manner calmed my anxious daughters and his wife handed my daughter a pack of Kleenex to stem the blood flowing from a cut on my head. This man’s confident handling of the whole situation was exactly what our whole family needed. That man was in the right place at the right time to use his skills to help another.
our benefit to help us make big decisions in life. My fall that day gave me a whole different perspective as to what the verse meant. Those who love the Lord need to ask the Lord to direct where they should be, so we can be his hands at a moment’s notice, to be used by the Holy Spirit to comfort, encourage perhaps even rescue someone in need.
Ecclesiastes has a beautiful passage reminding us of the importance of being available for each other and when the director of operations is the Lord we will be truly blessed for being in the right place at the right time.
This horrific headline blazed forth from our morning newspaper, informing us of a terrible tragedy that had taken place between a bus load of young hockey players and a truck. The truck had slammed into the bus carrying the players to a hockey game on a country road in Saskatchewan in Canada. The radio confirmed the story with the frightful details that 15 were dead and the others taken to hospital, some with life threatening injuries. The enormity of grasping the grief, sorrow, pain of loved ones hearing this news, was overwhelming.
One of the powerful messages also heard in that gathering of the town drowning in grief, was to everybody listening. Nobody can struggle through this pain by themselves. Everybody involved needs to be surrounded by loving caring friends who can offer practical help, support, a shoulder to cry on. When we read what Paul was saying to the Corinthians, we can see that those who have received comfort from God are the best helpers to pass on that comfort to others, sharing his love and compassion with those who are hurting. Then they will be able to hear the Lord say;
Some friends and I were discussing how some of our husbands seem to be oblivious to the cost of buying everyday necessities and my husband probably topped the list. Since retiring he frequently accompanies me while doing the weekly grocery shopping and when we reach the check out, I am surprised to see in my buggy, several items not on my list, and when I question him as to how expensive they were, he looks at me in bewilderment, as of course actually checking the labels to see the price had not even occurred to him. At the same time, he is the most generous man I have ever come across, so I pay for his crazy shopping and hold my tongue. (Sometimes!)
Now not all those who were watching were impressed with her generosity and Judas Iscariot immediately began complaining about the waste of money, but as John tells us he had been helping himself from the common money bag.
Jesus tells this story he asks his listeners as to which traveller was a neighbour to the one beset upon by the robbers and of course they must reply.
A few weeks ago, I had a refreshing of my spirit from a message from a faithful servant of the Lord. Lots of much more talented writers than me have written about the discouragement, often referred to as, “writer’s block” that writers experience. Mine was even worse than just not being able to write on a subject, I began to doubt if I should be writing at all! I felt I was failing the Lord somehow by not glorifying him through my weekly blog. I thought I should stop.
All of us mothers have heard many of them
covenants with some specific humans and then with all the children of Israel, but unfortunately, they blithely promised to keep their side, but failed miserably to follow through.
As we approach, Easter, we can echo the words of John Newton’s beautiful hymn as we realise what amazing grace set us free