Day of Praise

Mo, 09/23/13, "Day of Praise"

"And when [Jesus] had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, 'Receive the Holy Spirit.'" - John 20:22

Yaaay! It's Monday! I'm cheering because I have a secret formula in order for you to have a great Monday.

Are you ready? Are you sure? I mean this is heavy stuff. It's pretty complicated. Drum rooooooooooll!

Okay, the secret formula in order for you to have a great Monday iiiiiiis...

Breathe!

Yes, breathe; breathe in, and breathe out!

In the spirit of simplicity, in today's Bible verse, Jesus came into a situation that was not what he liked. It was not ideal, so he breathed life into it.

In our case, when we come to a situation today that we don't like, then we start by breathing in, which is, as Jesus puts it, receiving the Holy Spirit that God is breathing onto the situation. Then after we take a deep breath, believing that God and God's Holy Spirit alone can truly change anything for good, we then breathe out, which is simply to speak life into a situation. Just as the Bible book of Proverbs contains verse after verse testifying to the death that we negatively breathe into situations when we lie and deceive and have a sour attitude, so too does God's word testify to the life that we positively breathe into situations when we encourage and speak honestly and have a cheerful attitude.

In sum, because God has already poured out his spirit and continues to do so, the quality of your Monday is in your hands, er, I mean, breath.

God has breathed out life so that we can breathe in life from God, and then we can breathe out life to others through the day.

Happy Monday!

"And when [Jesus] had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, 'Receive the Holy Spirit.'" - John 20:22

Praise God!


Pastor Chris
"The gospel is the story of Jesus [what God's only Son has done for us that we can't do for ourselves], spoken as a promise." - Robert Jenson