I don’t know what ‘s up with this week, but I’ve consistently been hearing about the notion of “breathing life.” Last night, I was listening to a message on the internet from Pastor Tyson Coughlin in North Carolina. He was discussing how we’ve become so engrossed in today’s materialistic culture that we aren’t paying attention to the message being said to us. But one of the things that really took me by surprise was when he said, “the word breath means to give up what’s inside.” And then he went further in depth with this when he related it to the creation of man. He described how “God gave up what was inside of Him, and breathed it into us.” At first, the magnitude of this statement didn’t sink in. Then, he reiterated it and that’s when it hit me. Jesus gave up what was inside of Him in order to give us LIFE. He sacrificed his breath so that we could LIVE. I don’t know if that hit you as hard as it did me, but I hope it makes you rethink how you’re using the life you’ve been given to share the love of Christ. I know I haven’t been doing everything I could, so I’m just as guilty.
Another thing that had my mind going crazy was when I watched the music video for the song “Grace Amazing” by Jimmy Needham. Each of his songs is beautifully written, but this one had the concept of breathing life. One verse of the song says, “You breathe life into me. Now I finally feel my dead heart beating.” Basically, he’s saying that we aren’t alive until Christ breathes life into us. We may think we’re living, but unless Christ lives in us, we’re just walking vessels. Every vessel needs a captain to direct our lives and that captain is Jesus. I hope this doesn’t come across the wrong way but the truth shouldn’t be sugarcoated. Knowing that He’s willing to give up something as precious as a breath so that someone as undeserving as me can be given life, is powerful within itself.
-B
bethanyshirley 