I’m pretty sure I broke his ribs. As the first on the scene it was my responsibility to begin CPR. The elderly gentleman had no pulse. He wasn’t breathing. The Speakers blared out, "CODE BLUE" and a team of doctors and nurses would soon be there. But, for now it was my responsibility to literally breathe life into this man and to massage his heart back into rhythm again.

Even after the team arrived, the doctor told me to keep doing compressions. After what seemed like an eternity, he had a pulse. His EKG showed that his heart had begun to beat again. After I was relieved, I took a break and tried to process what had just happened. I had revived someone.

The apostle Paul once wrote, "If the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He shall quicken your mortal bodies . . . if the Spirit dwell in you."

That is a pretty big "IF." If the Bible is true, then we have to come to grips with what it says about our condition. We are, in fact, dead--spiritually dead--unless and until the Spirit of God "quickens" us. I still get teary eyed when I remember how it felt when I first heard my daughter’s heartbeat. I was no less awed by the wonder I felt when I first felt my son kick in his mother’s womb.

This morning, it is my prayer that my communication will be as clear as possible and that you will give a fair hearing to what I say. I will, in point of fact, be giving you an opportunity to pass from death to life. Does that sound a little melodramatic? Take that up with Jesus. It was His clear assertion that unless a man was born again, he was dead in his trespasses.

Pastor Jim
April 12, 2009