The Breath of New Life
By Rev. Dr. Harold Hammond

(dhammond2@cox.rr.com)

It is Sunday evening in Jerusalem and the men are hiding behind locked doors for fear the police will come and take them to jail, and perhaps kill them.

They tremble in fear for their lives.
Then suddenly, with all the doors locked tight, a man appears before them, out of nowhere, and stands there smiling at them. How could he get in? The doors are still closed and locked? It is terrifying!

The man looks sort of like Jesus, but Jesus is dead. Crucified on Friday. Perhaps it is a vision, perhaps it is a ghost! The men are frozen in place, and their minds cannot understand what their eyes are beholding.

Then the vision speaks. They can see him with their eyes and hear him with their ears. But how can this be?
The man says, "Shalom be with you!" Shalom. That voice, those eyes. It can't be. It sounds like Jesus. It looks like Jesus. Those are his words of greeting, the words he always uses.

The man is standing right there, in the midst of them. Then the man shows them a wound in his side, and wounds in both of his hands. Jesus was nailed to the cross through his hands, and a soldier had pierced his side with a spear.

Then the reality breaks through to the men. It is Jesus, dead on Friday, somehow alive on Sunday. As they realize that he had truly risen from the dead, the disciples all cheer, and raise a shout that could be heard all across Jerusalem.

"JESUS, JESUS, JESUS! It really is you! You have risen from the dead."

There are no words to describe the joy in the hearts of the men as they looked upon Jesus.

Then Jesus says, "As the Father sent me, I also send you." Jesus is saying that just as the heavenly Father sent him, so he sends you and me. Jesus was sent to the world, and now Jesus sends us into the world to share the wonderful Good News!

Then Jesus breathes on each of them and says, "Receive the Holy Spirit." And in doing this, the Lord Jesus breathed on the men with the Breath of New Life and made them a new creation.

Many years ago, the Lord Jesus breathed on me and changed my life, and gave me a new start and I can tell you the truth from my own experience:
"., if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new"
(2 Cor. 5:17).
Blessings in Jesus,
Father Harold

Visit us at my church's website, (www.shepherdsheartcec.org) or send me a note at (dhammond2@cox.rr.com). I like to hear from you.

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