Breakfast For Your Soul

Monday, December 7, 2009

Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as My Father has sent Me, even so send I you.  And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, Receive you the Holy Ghost…

(John 20:21-22)

Piece of God = Peace with God

God is so good.  Picture it… Jesus had just been crucified.  The disciples saw Him die (from a distance).  They were hiding in fear that they would be next to suffer the same fate as their Lord.  Suddenly, Jesus appears in the room.  The first thing He says to them is, “Peace, be still” .  Remember how frightened they were when He walked on water through the storm.  They thought He was a ghost then, and as far as they knew He was still alive, so you can imagine how they felt after watching Him die and now… here He is.  They realized after talking with Him that, first of all it was Him… He showed them the nail prints.  Then He gave them clear instructions on what they were supposed to do (basically get out of that room and get to work ), as well as the power to do it.  It is interesting to me that the first words out of the mouth of the Lord was “Peace” and that His first action was to breath on them.  He gave them the Holy Spirit… a piece of Himself.  The onus was on them to receive what He gave them.  Only by the power of the Holy Spirit could they have been enabled to go through what they went through.  They were beaten, tortured, maligned, banished, imprisoned and killed for the name of Jesus… and they felt honored to do so.  They knew the Truth, and the Truth had set them free from what men could do to them.  They went from fearful to faithful.  Their strength was increased.  May God help us to have that same tenacity in times of trouble.  To hold fast to our confession, and trust in the Lord no matter what is happening around us.  This weekend I had what I like to call a teachable moment from on high.  My daughter and I were coming home from church and encountered a road block.  There had just been a five car accident, and the police diverted all traffic on that side.  I am extremely unfamiliar with this particular area.  Add that I was tired, it was late, dark and the roads were icy and you have a recipe for potential disaster.  The GPS was inadvertently left home and no one I called could help me.  I was completely lost.  I could feel fear starting to rise in my heart, and knew that if I ‘lost it’ it would only make a bad situation worse… so I kept on driving…. I started out in Upper Marlboro Maryland and ended up 5 miles from Waldorf in my attempt to reach my destination… Southeast DC!  I was going in the complete opposite direction!  I turned around praying for the little green sign that would say “Washington“.  I saw one… and then nothing but long dark lonely highway after that.  I held on to the last sign I saw and kept straight.  Eventually, I begin to enter into familiar territory and finally we made it home.  A 25 minute trip took 2 hours!  I was so grateful.  The peace of God kept me, because a ‘piece’ of God is in me…