I will sing of the Lord’s unfailing love forever!
….Young and old will hear of your faithfulness.
Your unfailing love will last forever.
….Your faithfulness is as enduring as the heavens. Psalm 89:1-2 NLT
John 20:19-23 (<<click here to read the passage)
One Sunday a minister with arms extended toward heaven and a rapturous look on his upturned face, began by saying, “Dear Lord, without you, we are but dust…” He would have continued but at that moment one very obedient daughter who was listening leaned over to her mom and asked quite audibly in her shrill little four-year-old girl voice, “Mom, what is butt dust?”
Yes, it’s potty humor, but you probably at least smiled a little!
Way back at the beginning we were created. God didn’t just snap His fingers and we appeared. Genesis 2:7 states,
…the Lord God formed [that is, created the body of] man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being [an individual complete in body and spirit]. AMP
There is life in the breath of God. And as the above minister began “we are but dust” and without God breathing into us the breath of life that’s all we would be…dust. We live because God’s breath is in us, whether we acknowledge that fact is beside the point. And that fact is what sets us apart from all other forms of creation.
God declared in Genesis 1:31 that His creation was very good but, as I said, that was just the beginning – God had much more planned for us! His ultimate goal was to bring about our completion and that would come through His Son.
In verse 22 of today’s passage, John wrote,
…he [Jesus] breathed on them [His disciples] and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. v22 NLT [emphasis mine]
My study Bible goes on to say,
…through the breath of Jesus, God imparted eternal, spiritual life. With this inbreathing came the power to do God’s will on earth.*
God’s full intent was to enable us to be like Him in all ways. God planned it all before His creation even came into being.
My favorite verse, Ephesians 1:4, from the Amplified Bible,
…[in His love] He chose us in Christ [actually selected us for Himself as His own] before the foundation of the world, so that we would be holy [that is, consecrated, set apart for Him, purpose-driven] and blameless in His sight. [emphasis mine]
All praise to our Creator and Redeemer! We are only who and what we are because of His great love!
*Life Application Study Bible New Living Translation
Nov 15th, 2021, Mon, 7:33 pm
