Breath

I am going to start off by saying that some of what I am about to write is not all from my thoughts, I found the information to be very cool and uplifting.
Over the past few days I have either read or heard people speaking about the Holy Spirit and/or the Spirit of God; I found some very profound statements. Before I get off into some of those statements I would like to ask you about the Holy Spirit. What is the Holy Spirit? Conventionally most would say the Holy Spirit is what resides in us after our conversion, others may say the Holy Spirit is our comforter, still others would say that the Holy Spirit is our conscience. While all these are true statements I believe there is so much more to the Holy Spirit and the work He does.
This week I learned the word “pneuma” the Greek word for the spirit. However I soon learned that there is so much more to this word then just this one meaning and that it was used in various forms in the Greek language. Then I looked up the word in the Hebrew for spirit and learned “ruach”. Now here is where it gets interesting. The word pneuma is used for Holy Spirit and the word ruach translates Spirit; referring to the Spirit of God. Both of these meaning “breath”. The sacred name for God in the Hebrew is YHVH. Unpronounceable if you try to speak the letters, but take a deep breath and exhale and you can hear these letters. Genesis 1:2 “ Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God (ruach) was hovering over the waters.” (I added emphasis) Genesis 2:7 “ And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed (ruach) into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.” (i added emphasis) Acts 2:2 “Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind (pneuma) came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting.” (I added emphasis). Now here is the statement that got me to thinking about these verses. “What is the first thing a baby must do after it is born? Take a breath. What is the last thing you do before you die? Take your last breath.” I think you are beginning to see where I am going with this. What if the very first thing a baby does to live is speak the very name of God “YHVH” (remember just breath), and the very last thing you do is speak the very name of God “YHVH”. For you to receive the Holy Spirit you have to cry out to Jesus, the name of God. I do not care if you are a believer or not just as it says in Romans 14:11
“As I live, says the Lord,
Every knee shall bow to Me,
And every tongue shall confess to God.”

Every breath you take you acknowledge God, before you even knew how to speak you spoke His name. Take a moment get on your knees and thank God for the breath He has given you. (Do not sit there and think this is a good idea, literally get on your knees and no matter where you are and thank Him.) What will you do with your breath today?

Have You Been Measured

Wow what a busy time of the year for me and my family. School is about to wrap up for all of us; Ruth Ann and I have finals over the next few weeks and Zach will be out for the summer. One of the reasons I have not posted in about a week or there about, no making excuses just stating the facts. However along with looking over why I have not made a post in the last few weeks I began to wonder. What do I measure myself against and is what I measure myself with the right things? Here is just a few pondering ideas I explored.




There is an old saying, you have been weighed, you have been measured and been found wanting. I think that this is a great statement to make about the Christian life. Let me ask, when was the last time you spent time reading God’s law? When was the last time you spent time in Church? When was the last time you spent time with those friends you use to hang out with all the time? Think on these question considerably before reading more.
I have found not only in my Christian walk, but in others walk also; we tend to run away from the very thing that is going to make us question our life style. We will make excuses for the things we do, not only do we make these excuses, but we try to justify them by measuring them against the rules of the world. Sometimes we even use the Bible to justify our misconstrued ideas. All the while straying from God and the people that will tell us that we are wrong. This is our human nature; we do not like to be told we are doing something wrong. Now I am not saying that every time someone tells you that you are doing something wrong, that you are doing something wrong. Remember people are human too and will make the same mistakes about life as you yourself will. Take a look in Job and see what advice his friends were giving him; they were totally off base on why God was allowing these things to happen to Job.
What we need to do is stop running and face the Law of God. Weigh yourself, measure yourself against His Law. You know what you will find? You will be found wanting. What do I mean by wanting? You will be found lacking. You may say well that is not a very good message to put out and you may even stop reading. I encourage you to read more. Romans tell use in 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”; if you read more you will find there are many passages telling us that when we measure ourselves against God’s Law that we will always be found wanting. What is the joy in that you may ask? The joy is that if you read and if you measure yourself against God’s Law you find yourself wanting... wanting Jesus, because you will see that even though we find ourselves short and so does God; that there is a hope and joy that can be found in the Law. It will lead you to Jesus and the salvation that comes in accepting Him. For the believer you will find a renewal in the promises of your salvation. So, do not be afraid to weigh, measure yourself and find yourself wanting. Take great joy in God’s Law just as the Psalmist. Psalm 119:97.

Holy holy holy

Just how holy is God? Do we really understand or comprehend this very statement out of Isaiah? Sure we sing the old hymn; Holy holy holy, merciful and mighty. When we say this or sing this are we giving it the reverence that is deserved? Just how important is this statement? To look at the text we have to understand a little about how the Jews show importance to a word. In the English language we have many different types of punctuations that allow the reader to understand the importance of something. For those writing in Hebrew, although they have many of the same punctuations, they used a repeating of a word to show just how important the message or word was. You often see Jesus saying; Amen Amen, or Truly Truly. Show what He is about to say is of some extra importance. In all these cases though the word is only repeated two times, here we see the word repeated three times. Not only is the word holy repeated three times but the words come from a Seraphim angel. This is no ordinary Angel, these are angels that are in the very presence of God. You may be asking yourself; OK so how does this show how holy God is? Let us take a closer look at these angels to get a better understanding. In (Isaiah 6:2) 2 Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. These angels say it all in this description; what gives it away that God is Holy holy holy? Here it says that the Seraphim has two wings that are for nothing but to cover their faces while in the presence of the most high God. These are beings that God created to stand in His presence and they are equipped with the very thing to keep them from seeing all of Gods glory. We know from Moses that no one can look upon the face of the Lord and live. Here we see that this includes any being in the presence of God. We have the repetition of Holy three times and the very make-up of Seraphim angels to give us a small understanding of just how holy of a God we serve. We are not able to understand all the things of God, we are not meant to be able to comprehend all things of God. God does give us great insight into His nature and who He is and how Holy Holy Holy he is. The next time you kneel to pray or lift your voice up in praise, humble yourself low and shout to the heavens for it is being sent to a holy holy holy God.

The Days After

Easter has passed for another year, you went to Church, had lunch with family and friends and watched the children hunt eggs. At the end of the day you were probably think; wow, I am glad that is over and done for another year. That is what you think anyway. For us as Christians I believe that the work is really just beginning. Easter should be a time of renewal for us, a time to reflect on what Jesus really did for us on the Cross. To make sure we do not get too caught up in the worldly things of the season. A renewal of rejoicing in our Salvation in Jesus, that out of all the religions in the world that we serve the only living God. After Jesus arose from the grave His work was complete. Sin had been defeated and even though it has not come to pass for us the battle has been won. The days after Jesus arose He knew that His followers would need a little bit of a confirmation that He is alive. Jesus spent the next 40 days visiting people and still performing miracles. Then at the end of those 40 days He gave His disciples and us a commission to continue the work He had started.
16Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. 17When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. 18Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in[a] the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."
Jesus gave us a job to do and during Easter I believe we should take hold and remember not only what He has done for us, but also what He has commanded us to do in obedience to Him. However as with all things with God He gave us yet another promise. That we do not have to go it alone. He tells us that He will be with us always. Not only this but that He sent us the Holy Spirit to help us along.
So rejoice not only in the spring of the year, the resurrection of Jesus, but also in the promise that He is with you and always will. Begin the work He has commanded you and be renewed.