Short Of Breath

I can remember two separate mornings in my life, when I woke up early because I couldn’t breathe.

When I woke, my lungs had stopped breathing and I realized they weren’t taking commands from my brain. So I darted out of bed, standing in the middle of the room with my mouth wide open, prompting my lungs to breathe in air, and finally, they opened up again and after a few moments I was breathing normally again. Those two moments without breath were terrifying experiences and I never have found out why that happened, but I do have a new appreciation for life, and breath…

When we sing the song, ‘Breathe’ and I hear, “This is the air I breathe. Your very presence living in me… And I’m desperate for you”, it reminds me of my full dependence on God for every breath I breath. It evokes all the emotions of gratitude and passion that I have for the Lord and reminds me of the barrenness of an existence without Him. I’m humbled and honored by God when I’m reminded of all these things…

I can picture a runner, exhausting himself in a race, and gasping for breath just yards from the finish line… His heart is pounding oxygenated blood to the rest of his body. Striving to finish the race, he’s forcing his disciplined body to obey, to push beyond its limits. Especially now, he’s fully dependant on the supply of fresh air he’s receiving from his lungs. If the supply of oxygen were to be cut off at this critical moment, his body would fail and the runner would fall dead, just short of the finish line.

In the same way you and I, the body of Christ, run a race. And we depend on the Lord for every breath we breath. The further along in the race, the more desperate and dependent we are on Him…

His breath is vitally necessary for the finishing of the race we run. Without the breath of God, we the body of Christ would collapse in the very places where we stand. Without the breath of God, and the blood of Jesus coursing through the veins of the church, the body dies and the runner falls short of the finish line. Without God’s breath, everything lays bare and lifeless.

In Geneses chapter 2, we see God giving life to mankind, by His own breath. He breathes this breath into the first man, Adam. Gen 2:7, “the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.”

At the moment he received this breath, Adam was transformed from being a sand castle (essentially a form made from the dust of the earth), to a living being: The Lord’s pride and joy, made after His likeness and in His image for the purpose of carrying on an intimate, respectful and productive relationship with His creator.

Everything God created, He designed for a specific purpose. And everything He breathed life into became a living being with the breath of God inside. Anything He did not breath into has remained dead and will remain lifeless.

Take this balloon for instance… Lifeless and empty. Let’s say the balloon is the first man.

ILLUSTRATE: Balloon & helium tank. God filled Adam with the breath of life… (Draw Adam’s face)

As a person in the congregation draws a man’s face on the front of the balloon, pop it and illustrate how suddenly life can end. It portrays the unpredictability and suddenness of death: the moment the breath of life passes from this earthen vessel and ascends to the heavens like the helium in this balloon did.

In the same way that the bursting of the balloon surprised us, so death will come suddenly and surpisingly to each one here.

“…it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:” Heb 9:27

The Greek word used for judgment here is ‘krisis’ (kree-sis), the word from which we derived ‘crisis.’

It implies that at the end of every life, each man faces a crisis in which we will be judged.

2 Corinthians 5:10, “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.”

Every one of us has an appointment with God in which He will assess the passion of your life based on everything you’ve done, all you’ve said and all you’ve thought. For some of us, that day is remarkably near. And since none of us here knows that day of crisis, when you will stand before God for judgment and be appointed to eternal destination, all of us should be living as though our last day is today. Don’t cast your life to the winds of chance, assuming it will last a few days longer. Don’t waste your breath cursing your brother or seducing your sister because very soon: much sooner than you think, you will stand before the God of absolute Holiness and perfect Righteousness and you will give an account of everything you’ve done with the breath God has entrusted to you.