John 20:21,22 “Again Jesus said, ‘Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.’ And with that he breathed on them and said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit’.”
“The disciples were together with the doors locked for fear of the Jews” (verse 19) when Jesus appeared to them. He was preparing his disciples for tough times ahead. Soon he would ascend to heaven, and they would be left to fend for themselves – but not quite by themselves because the promised Holy Spirit would be given to empower them to live out their God-given mandate to change the world.
Back in 1520, Ferdinand Magellan spent a whole year trying to find a passage around South America. There at the very southernmost tip of the continent, he and his crew were overwhelmed by towering ice floes, raging seas, and bitter gales. The crew threatened mutiny, but eventually they made it, and quickly the violent weather was replaced by peaceful waters. The straits they had just been through are named after him to this day – the Straits of Magellan – but he also chose the name of the new body of water that his ship had now entered. Having praised God for their deliverance, he named the new ocean ‘The Peaceful One – the Pacific Ocean’.
Oswald Chambers wrote: “When you really see Jesus, I defy you to doubt Him. When He says ‘Let not your hearts be troubled,’ if you see Him I defy you to trouble your mind, it is a moral impossibility to doubt when He is there. Every time you get into personal contact with Jesus, His words are real. “My peace I give you,” it is a peace all over from the crown of the head to the sole of the feet, an irrepressible confidence. ‘Your life is hid with Christ in God,’ and the imperturbable peace of Jesus Christ is imparted to you.”
“Lord, I receive your Holy Spirit and choose to live from the place of peace today, not fear. Amen!
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