The Breath of Life

"It's been three minutes.  Do you want to start chest compression?"

I stood next to my wife, who had just given birth to our son, as the nurses and doctors, swarmed my son and tried to get him to breathe.  I knew almost immediately that something was wrong.  I never got to cut his umbilical chord and I had yet to hear him cry.

I never prayed harder in my life.  I just watched as they scrambled to get my son to take his first breath.  Thankfully, a few seconds before chest compression began, he took a breath and let out a scream.  His heart rate climbed too.  After a brief 24-hour stay in the NICU, he was right as rain.

I share that story to emphasize the importance of breath.  Breath gives life and without it, we cannot live.  Breathing allows us to move and function and provides necessary oxygen for our brain, organs and tissue.  Getting full breaths makes us awake, alert, and active.

In 2 Timothy 3:16, Paul writes that scripture--the Bible--is God-breathed.  God literally breathed life into the Bible much as he breathed life into Adam.  God's breath gives life, and so the Bible is living and active and vibrant.  

Since God breathed it, it carries his authority and power.  Through scripture, we know how to have a relationship with God through Jesus Christ.  With scripture, we know God's thoughts on any subject.  Scripture has the power to change us and mold us into the person God intends for us to be.  

In a word, scripture is POWERFUL.

But before we can access that power, we have to understand what is says.  That only happens by careful study of it.

You see, as much as we like to shape things into our point of view, the Bible has a clear meaning.  God didn't create the Bible to mean what we think.  He created it to mean what he thinks.  We can't usurp that authority.  It is his and his alone.

Our job is discern God's meaning.  That's not left for us to interpret individually.  We can't say the Bible means different things to different people.  The Bible means precisely what God intends it to mean.

How do we determine that?  From studying to find out HIS intent.

Once we understand God's intent, the scriptures become a powerful tool for change in our lives and the lives of others.


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