Life and Breathe

DEVOTION

THE BOOK OF ACTS

LIFE AND BREATHE

Acts 17:24-28

24 "The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. 25 And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. 26 From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. 27 God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. 28'For in him we live and move and have our being.' As some of your own poets have said, 'We are his offspring.'

NIV

A whole lot of sermons could be preached just from this passage alone, so how do we focus for a singular life lesson? To begin with we should note it is an unworthy task to build great edifices, calling them churches. There is no value in having a gleaming palace to visit in order to visit with God, as he does not reside in any of them. These places are not any more holy than any other building built by men. Yes, it is good to have a place to gather together and worship God, but as we know he is already with us and it is not needed to be there to be with or worship him. He is God. What can we give to him except our heart? Any material resources of our never actually goes to God, but it simple pays to maintain a building and all the staff employed within. Other resources are shipped out to other staff elsewhere hired to share the gospel in some way. Perhaps that is the modern way of doing business as a church. But that does not seem to be the New Testament church we see here. The point is we all should be telling the story of Jesus Christ to all men. If we have been born at the exact time and place that God determined for us then he has a plan for us to do. We are living right now because that is when God determined us to live, and we are living exactly where he wants us to live at this time and so we have a mission that must be accomplished for the kingdom of God. It is not acceptable to simple be a payer for others to do some work, we must do the work as well. It is not acceptable to just meet with God in a church, as we must walk with him each and every day of our lives. It is in him we live and move and have our being. If God stopped thinking about us, we might just vanish into thin air. Surely we would die. He is the sustaining of our life, he is God. We cannot make church our god, or even the good deeds we do in his name. He is God, we are his children, his offspring, and we will inherit everything that which is his. We should be only focused on God, on Jesus Christ as our Savior. There is no other god, but God himself. Thank you Lord for being our God and for being so close to us. It is because of you we have life and breathe.