GOD PAUSE DAILY DEVOTIONS

Looking for spiritual refreshment? God Pause email devotions are short, meaningful reflections on the following Sunday's lessons and gospel delivered directly to your email box. By Sunday, you'll be ready for an extra meaningful worship experience. 

Our devotion writers are Luther Seminary alumni. Their reflections are a gift to you and to the church.

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Sunday, October 14, 2012

"Breathe on Me, Breath of God"

The text for this hymn is John 20:21-22: "As the Father sent me, I am sending you. And with that Jesus breathed on them and said, 'Receive the Holy Spirit.'"

As Lutherans, we are sometimes thought not to be to be very spiritual. I have found the opposite to be true. I have found the people that I have served to be very spiritual beings, although not all are demonstrative. Being filled with the Spirit is not necessarily some emotional mystical event.

This prayer to the Holy Spirit, desiring a unity between our earthly will and God's divine will, first appeared in 1878 in a pamphlet entitled "Between Doubt and Prayer." The hymn in its present form appeared later in the Psalmist Hymnal published in 1886.

This hymn invites us into a stronger relationship with the Holy Spirit and empowers us as ambassadors for the Triune God.

Breathe on me, breath of God; fill me with life anew, that I may love what Thou dost love and do what Thou wouldst do. Breathe on me, breath of God, so shall I never die, but live with Thee the perfect life of Thine eternity. Amen.

Charles Axness
First Lutheran Church, Fremont, Neb.
Master of Divinity , 1993

"Breathe on Me, Breath of God"

Breathe on me, Breath of God; fill me with life anew,
that I may love what Thou dost love and do what Thou Dost do.

Breathe on me, Breath of God, until my heart is pure,
until with Thee I will one will -- to do and to endure.

Breathe on me, Breath of God, till I am wholly Thine,
till all this earthly part of me glows with Thy fire divine.

Breathe on me, Breath of God, so I shall never die,
but live with Thee the perfect life of Thine eternity.

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This week's devotions are offered by a Luther Seminary alum from the graduating class of 1993.

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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