Fresh Air

L-R my daddy, brother, Mark, and friend, Steve
sailing (and paddling) the Tennessee River in the late 1960s

"The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit." (John 3:8)

In the 1960s in Fort Payne, Alabama, my hometown, most businesses closed on Thursday afternoons, Saturday afternoons, and all day Sundays, of course. Many a breezy Thursday afternoon, we'd drive over Sand Mountain to the Boat Club near Scottsboro and sail the Tennessee River. (Now don't go imagining some fancy, highfalutin Country Club where women sip mint tea and man play golf. The Boat Club was simply a boat ramp, three wooden docks, and a concrete-block restroom and shower house.)

In a message on the Holy Spirit, Pastor Chris Hodges taught that, in John 3:8, both "wind" and "Spirit" are the same Greek word: "pneuma" meaning breath, breeze, or blast of fresh air.

Life smothering you, beloved? Need a blast of fresh air? May the God of fresh hope fill you up with joy, fill you up with peace, fill you up with His life-giving Spirit till you brim over with the fruit of Him.

View Holy Spirit Part 1: www.churchofthehighlands.com