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Faith By The Holy Spirit

Board for Evangelism Newsletter: June 2006

Did you know that humans typically breathe between 12 and 20 times per minute? Did you know that an average 14 year old takes around 30,000 breaths per day? Breath is very important. Breathing transports oxygen into the body and carbon dioxide out of the body. Breathing is so important, in fact, that breath is sometimes used as a metaphor for life itself, and often “last breath” is the most obvious sign that death has occurred.
In the book of Ezekiel, chapter 37, Ezekiel reports that the Spirit of the Lord set him in a valley of dry bones. Obviously, these bones belonged to people who at one time were alive, but now they had died. All that remained were the bones. The Lord then did a strange thing: He commanded Ezekiel to prophecy to the bones. Ezekiel was to tell them that God would cause breath to enter them, and they would then come alive!
How bizarre!

Yet, we’re told that these bones did come to life and breath did enter them.

This mighty wonder of God is a picture of what happens to each of us. God takes us who are dead (dead because of our sin) and makes us alive, by the power of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit creates and strengthens faith in our hearts by His powerful Means of Grace: His Word, Baptism, and the Holy Supper. This is not our work but the Holy Spirit’s, only by Him is faith created and sustained and we are made alive. The specific faith that He creates in us is the belief and trust that Jesus Christ lived a perfect life in our place and suffered death so that our sins could be taken far from us.

One day, each and every one of us will take our “last breath.” Fortunately for us who believe, this is only an earthly “last breath.” Because of the Christian faith that has been produced in us by the Holy Spirit, we shall live forever with God in heaven.
ev_dove.jpg“Surely I will cause
breath to enter into
you, and you shall live.”
Ezekiel 37:5
Last modified
2006-12-30 11:23 AM
 
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