Words of Grace

By Rev. Mahlon Nevel

The Apostle Paul was spending some time in the city of Athens. He was waiting for Silas and Timothy to join up with him there.

Paul was grieved when he saw that the city was completely given over to idolatry. There were idols everywhere, and even one that was dedicated to the unknown God. He began to tell them about the God they didn’t know.(Acts 17:23)

God made the world and everything in it. God is Lord of heaven and earth. (v.24) God gives life and breath to all.(v.25) God enables all to live, and move, and to have their being.(v.28)

It is God who has made us to be living, breathing human beings. When God created the first man, he breathed into him the breath of life, and he became a living soul. (Genesis 2:7)

So everyone who has breath should praise the Lord, according to Psalm 150:6. And when we use the breath that God has given us, we glorify the one who made us. (Psalm 50:23)

Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, was replaced by his son,. Belshazzar. He, just like his father lifted up himself against the Lord of heaven.

At a great feast prepared for a thousand of his lords, he praised the false gods made of silver, gold, brass, iron, wood, and stone. The prophet Daniel condemned the king, saying to him: “The God in whose hand your breath is, and all your ways, you have not glorified” (David 5:23).

Let us all use the breath God has given us to praise the Lord.