LESSON 08:
Air
Power
1: How would you like a cheap, easy to follow prescription to help keep you in good health? That is what I am going to share with you in this lesson.
2: You know, most people do not become tired of being sick until they are about forty years of age. In early childhood we take for granted common colds, mumps, measles, bumps, falls, and even broken bones. During adolescence there may be some vague joint pains. During the twenties we seem to have constitutions as tough as steel. We can eat anything, go without sleep, follow irregular, inconsistent programs of daily living, nothing seems to bother us too much! Then, gradually we become aware that there is rust in what we thought was stainless steel! Vague symptoms annoy us. Allergies bother us. We can no longer eat everything, and go without sleep. Our memory is not so good. We are often tired out.
3: It is surprising how few people think of using the prescription I am going to give you to help keep in top health. The prescription is simply this: "Breathe deeply of pure, fresh air!
4: You may recall that we earlier mentioned the wonderful respiratory system and that our cells need oxygen. Otherwise the cells cannot utilize the fuel that must be carried to be burned in doing their work.
5: The cells that carry oxygen to all parts of the body are the red blood cells. There are about 25 million red blood cells in every drop of blood! Each cell carries a substance called hemoglobin. This hemoglobin combines with the oxygen in your lungs and carries it back to the body cells. From the body cells it carries carbon dioxide back to the lungs.
6: If you could see these microscopic cells on their way to your lungs, you would notice that they are darker in color than when they left. Why? Because the carbon dioxide they are carrying changes their color. You can see this by looking at the veins in your wrist. They look blue under your skin.
7: But the blood that comes from your lungs should be bright red in color as the hemoglobin carries oxygen away to the body cells. Oxygen is absolutely essential to the proper functioning of your body cells. Your brain is the first organ to suffer if you are riot getting enough oxygen. Reasoning, will power, and judgment are affected when oxygen is lacking. More than this, your brain is the electric current of the body and detects disturbances in its flow. Where does this electricity come from? How does the brain keep up the supply? One source is the air we breathe.
8: Your lungs are composed of millions of tiny thin-walled air sacs. If these were all spread out flat, they would cover abut 600 square feet, that is the area of a tennis court! Now, if you sit or stand in a stooped position, you decrease the amount of oxygen that can enter your lungs, and you cheat yourself of this life-giving substance. In fact, shallow breathing may keep parts of your lungs idle so much of the time that germs such as TB can find a good place to grow undisturbed! Probably you sat up straight at the mention of good posture. Now, let us go one step further: Are you breathing correctly?
9: Your most important breathing muscle is located at the base of your lungs and above your stomach. It is called the diaphragm. When your lungs fill properly with air, this muscle is pushed down. When you breathe out, the diaphragm goes back up into the chest cavity. For a moment, practice doing it.
10: You have all noticed that when you run or climb the stairs you breathe more rapidly. This is another reason why regular exercise is so important. It supplies more oxygen to your lungs, and pushes your blood around faster at the same time. The result is that you give yourself a real tonic as your cells get their extra nourishment and life-giving oxygen. The cells that are a bit sluggish and idle from lack of oxygen get flushed out and cleaned up!
11: There is another important factor: The air that you breathe should be as fresh as possible. We are all aware that the air in our big cities is becoming more and more polluted. How sad this is. Often when we are forced to go through dust we quickly cover our noses and mouths with a handkerchief, this may keep out some of the dust but it cannot keep out the poisonous gases, such as carbon monoxide that are increasingly filling our wonderful God-given air. This pollution not only robs you of needed oxygen, but it is also carried into the blood and to the body cells. Breathing polluted air is a definite handicap to good health. In great cities such as London, Los Angeles, Calcutta and Tokyo the air has become a real medical hazard. The smog is so bad in Tokyo that the city has installed oxygen dispensers for the traffic policemen so they can get a few clean breaths from time to time. In other dispensers, pedestrians can insert a coin and breathe clean air when they feel overcome by the terrible fumes in the air.
12: If you are a resident of a big city you may not be able to avoid breathing contaminated air. But by not smoking, you can at least do your part to avoid more needless self-destruction and self-contamination. You can also rise early in the morning before the traffic is heavy and get some good exercise and deep breathing to start the day right. If you could go to the parks of our large cities early in the morning you would find that there are hundreds of citizens of all ages who are using this prescription for better health. Others do it by means of stationery jogging right in their own yards.
13: As God looks down on the world which was originally surrounded with pure, clear fresh air, He must feel sad to see it invaded by poison gases and filth which are such serious enemies to health. Smoke, smog, dust, germs, all these things are detrimental to your health and mine. As they increase, they make it more difficult to live as God originally planned.
14: Man's God-given air is being invaded. The pure, fresh air is being filled with enemies to good health. Our planet is increasingly becoming invaded by bad air and dangerous impurities and poisons. There is a desperate need of another invasion in the air, an invasion of good, for your good and mine. Such an invasion is coming, for Jesus Christ said, "I will come again." John 14:1. Our air will be purified and life will be livable again without the present dangers. And this is what we want, is it not?
15: As this world gets older, there will be more troubles. God, through the prophet Daniel, predicted, "And there shall be a time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered."
16: Many years later, Jesus, talking to His disciples, said, "For there shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of this world to this time, no, nor ever shall be."
17: As Jesus was returning to heaven, He looked at His sorrowing disciples and comforted them by saying, "Let not your heart be troubled: Ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions: If it were not so, I would have told you, I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself; that where I am there ye may be also." John 14:1:3.
18: Jesus came from heaven to be born into this world as a man. He was a man, a God-man. He lived for thirty-three and a half years on this world. Of Him it is said, "He did no sin." This is why He can be our Saviour from sin. His very name JESUS, means A SAVIOUR FROM SIN.
19: Jesus began His public ministry when He was thirty years old. During the three and a half years of His public ministry, it is said Jesus went about doing good. He healed the sick, the lame, the blind, and cast out devils, or evil spirits. He calmed the raging sea. He calmed the wind. Nature obeyed Him for He was nature's Creator. The only purpose for His incarnation, His coming to the world in human flesh, was to seek and to save that which was lost. As a physician is to make sick people well, so Jesus is to free us from the power and the effect of sin. Since He is the Creator, He has the power to recreate us.
20: Jesus is moved with compassion when He sees anyone suffer. He invites us, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."
21: Jesus has power over the grave. On one occasion He raised a man who had already been dead in the grave for four days. He was sent to the grave and in the presence of many people He said to the dead, "Lazarus, come forth." And he that was dead came forth. Jesus' power is just the same today and He says to us, "I am the resurrection and the life: he that believeth in Me though he were dead yet shall he live." John 11:25.
22: At the end of His earthly life, wicked people nailed Jesus to a cross. He voluntarily gave Himself up to die. He had come to this earth to pay the ransom price for man, who because of sin was doomed to destruction. The Bible tells us that "the wages of sin is death." All men are sinners and are doomed to die. But God loved mankind so much that in order to save us from the wages of sin, He sent His son, Jesus, to die for us, and hence, "The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus, our Lord." God says, "whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life."
23: After Jesus died on the cross, He was put in the tomb. It was Friday afternoon. On the Sabbath He rested. On Sunday morning, early, He arose from the tomb and from death. He was victorious over death and the grave, man's terrible enemy. Jesus says, "I am He that liveth, and was dead; and behold, I am alive for ever more, Amen, and have the keys of hell and of the grave." Now Jesus had the power to save from sin and to give eternal life to anyone who would choose to believe Him and come to Him to receive life and cleansing from sin.
24: Having thus fulfilled the purpose for which He came to the world, Jesus took His disciples to the Mount of Olives. There He blessed them, and ascended into Heaven. As the disciples were gazing upward, two men in white clothing stood by them. These men said, "Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven." Acts 1:11. The two men who said this were angels.
25: It is going to be the same Jesus who comes back. He went bodily and was taken up in a cloud in full view of many people, So, also when He comes back, He will come bodily in a cloud, in full view of all who wait for Him. The Bible says, "And every eye shall see Him." Revelation 1:7.
26: The first time Jesus came to this world was to pay the price of our sins. The second time, He is coming to claim the ones He has bought and to take them out of this world up to heaven with Him. The Bible tells us that He shall send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet and they will gather Jesus' chosen ones from all over the earth. His chosen ones are those who believe on Him and who obey Him.
27: All the people who have ever lived since the time of Adam and Eve and who have died believing in Jesus will be resurrected. Each will have a glorified body which can never more die. The living saved will be changed and they too will have bodies glorified which cannot be touched by death. All will be changed in a moment and will go to meet the Lord in the air, and will go with Him to heaven: So shall we ever be with the Lord." 1 Thessolonians 4:17.
28: All the unbelieving people will be consumed with the brightness of His coming. At this time all the believers, or faithful ones, are taken up and all the unbelievers are dead. In our next lesson we shall learn something concerning the time of Jesus second coming.
29: Friends, His coming is going to make a big division between right and wrong, good and bad, sinner and saint, righteous and wicked. There will be no middle ground. At that time there will be no choosing, no crossing over. Every man's destiny will have been decided for eternal life or eternal death. The choice is ours to make NOW. NOW THERE IS TIME TO CHOOSE TO BELIEVE HIM AND OBEY HIM. He has promised that He will never cast away anyone who comes to Him in faith NOW.
30: Jesus' second coming puts an end to sin. The Bible tells us "Affliction shall not rise up a second time." Nahum 1:9. "He will swallow up death in victory and the Lord will wipe away tears from off all faces." Isaiah 25:8. "And the inhabitant shall not say, "I am sick." Isaiah 33:24 The eyes of the blind shall be opened and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Isaiah 35:5.
31: Do you have problems? We all have problems. Many problems. The answer to all these is Jesus. Soon He is coming back to put an end to sin and all the problems sin brings to mankind. Do you believe it? Will you accept Him today? Will you begin to follow Him now?
