01-17-2021 - "Breath of Life"

Genesis 2:4–7 ESV

4 These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens. 5 When no bush of the field was yet in the land and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up—for the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground, 6 and a mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground— 7 then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.

God, and God Alone CREATED Mankind

God and God Alone is the SOURCE of Life

God Makes Man a LIVING SOUL

Job 27:3 ESV

3 as long as my breath is in me, and the spirit of God is in my nostrils,

Job 33:4 ESV

4 The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life.

Likewise, Death is Referred to as “breath departs...” beginning in Genesis 7 where all flesh “in whose nostrils was the breath of life died” as well as

Job 34:14–15 ESV

14 If he should set his heart to it and gather to himself his spirit and his breath, 15 all flesh would perish together, and man would return to dust.

Psalm 104:29 ESV

29 When you hide your face, they are dismayed; when you take away their breath, they die and return to their dust.

Psalm 146:4 ESV

4 When his breath departs, he returns to the earth; on that very day his plans perish.

As Jesus the Christ is the CREATOR of LIFE, He is also the PROVIDER of ETERNAL Life

Children of God - Born of the will of God

John 1:9–13 ESV

9 The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. 12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

Children of the Kingdom of God - Born of the Spirit

John 3:1–8 ESV

1 Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. 2 This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.” 3 Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” 4 Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” 5 Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

Children of Joy - Born out of the Suffering of Jesus (John 16:19-24)

Mark 15:37–39 ESV

37 And Jesus uttered a loud cry and breathed his last. 38 And the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. 39 And when the centurion, who stood facing him, saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said, “Truly this man was the Son of God!”

The One who Breathed the breathe of life into Adam, and who will breath out the Spirit upon those who choose to believe - Here He lets that Breath of Life, that which came from Him in the beginning, passed down to His earthly body from parent to child, now as his own mother and other whom He loves and who love Him watch, He yields up His breath, and thus His life so that His death as the FINAL payment for our sins might be complete.

Children of Proclamation -

STEADIED by our Peace with God,

SANCTIFIED because Jesus has made us to be at Peace with God,

SENT to be Heralds of Forgiveness, Ambassadors of Peace for our God

John 20:19–23 ESV

19 On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” 20 When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. 21 Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” 22 And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.”