{"id":5561,"date":"2026-07-07T08:28:44","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T12:28:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/?p=5561"},"modified":"2026-07-07T08:28:44","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T12:28:44","slug":"god-breathed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/07\/god-breathed\/","title":{"rendered":"God-Breathed"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast<\/em>,\u00a0click here<\/a>

There\u2019s an old story about a businessman who got quite a surprise when he was served his in-flight dinner.

Tucked into the corner of his reheated food tray was a roach.

That experience did more than just kill his appetite.\u00a0It prompted him to write a sharply worded letter to the airline\u2019s customer service department.

His expectations weren\u2019t particularly high.\u00a0He figured his letter would disappear into File 13.

Imagine his surprise when a few days later he received this personal note from the airline\u2019s CEO:

Dear sir, we are truly grieved by your recent experience on one of our flights.\u00a0The comfort and safety of our clients is our highest priority.\u00a0<\/em>

Therefore I want you to be aware of the steps that we have taken to ensure that this never happens again.<\/em>

The jet in which you traveled has been taken out of service and will be thoroughly fumigated.\u00a0We have canceled our contract with our food provider.\u00a0The entire flight crew has been grounded.\u00a0They can return to their jobs only after completion of sensitivity training.<\/em>

Again, please accept my heartfelt apology.\u00a0It would be the greatest privilege for us to win you back as a customer.<\/em>

The letter was personally signed by the CEO.

The businessman was impressed.\u00a0He had never received a personally signed note from his own boss, let alone from the chief executive of a major airline.

That\u2019s when he noticed there was an inter-office Post It note apparently accidentally stuck to the back of the letter. It was addressed to the CEO’s administrative assistant, included his own name and address, and was also in the CEO\u2019s handwriting:\u00a0

Dear Natalie:\u00a0When you get the chance, please send this jerk the standard roach letter.<\/em>

For God so loved the world that he did not send us a standard roach letter.\u00a0

The Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are not cold, impersonal, one-size-fits-all bromides from a Cosmic CEO who frankly could care less what we\u2019re facing this week.

There\u2019s a reason that a particular Bible verse, on a particular day, so often seems to be the precise thing we need to hear.

The apostle Paul writes in 2 Timothy 3:16, \u201cAll Scripture is theopneustos<\/em>\u2026\u201d

This term is a hapax legomenon<\/em> \u2013 literally, \u201conce-spoken\u201d \u2013 a word that appears only once in the original Greek text of the New Testament. For that matter, it\u2019s never been found in any other Greek documents of the period \u2013 a strong hint that Paul coined this word in order to communicate precisely what he wanted to say.

Theopneustos<\/em> means \u201cGod-breathed.\u201d\u00a0

Scripture is somehow associated with respiration.\u00a0People traditionally say they believe in \u201cthe inspired Word of God.\u201d\u00a0And others point out that the Bible is a truly \u201cinspiring\u201d book.\u00a0

But that\u2019s not what Paul is saying.\u00a0Theopneustos<\/em> is not a description of the Bible\u2019s effect on its readers.\u00a0It\u2019s an assertion concerning Scripture\u2019s origin and nature.

While a variety of human authors (at least 40 of them) put pen to paper in order to create the Bible \u2013 and their particular personalities definitely shine through \u2013 Paul asserts that God is ultimately responsible for the Bible\u2019s contents.\u00a0God breathed his Word into existence and then breathed life into every page.\u00a0

The \u201cbreath of God\u201d is an important theme in Scripture.\u00a0

Genesis tells us that God breathed the breath of life into the first human being.\u00a0Ezekiel reports that God breathed life into the dry bones of the people of Israel.\u00a0Every time we hold a Bible in our hands, we\u2019re clutching something that was breathed out<\/em> from the heart and mind of God.\u00a0 \u00a0

And God\u2019s Spirit personalizes <\/em>those ancient words and applies them directly to our fears, our doubts, our hopes, and our expectations.

Which, when it comes to filling our souls, makes God\u2019s Word much more like a banquet than airplane food.

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0click here There\u2019s an old story about a businessman who got quite a surprise when he was served his in-flight dinner. Tucked into the corner of his reheated food tray was a roach. That experience did more than just kill his appetite.\u00a0It prompted him to write a sharply worded letter to the airline\u2019s… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5562,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[854],"class_list":["post-5561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-gods-word-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5561"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5561\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5563,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5561\/revisions\/5563"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}