Before getting to the Breath of God, let me mention my plans for the immediate and distant future. I began this column on Easter of 2005 with about 80 addresses. Now three years later and with about 1050 addresses, I will bring it to a halt in Holy Week.

In the immediate future I am preparing 52 of these for publication, in conjunction with Anglican Frontier Missions. In the distant future i will be working on Paul's global vision, something I believe is largely overlooked in most biblical studies. I hope I will soon have a book that will bring out the missions emphasis which pervades his writings.

Ezek. 37:1-14; John 11:1-44

Lazarus came back to life, had lunch with Jesus later in the week, and eventually moved to Cyprus, where he died a second time. There a stupendous Orthodox church stands over his second grave.

The question arises naturally enough, what difference did this second life mean to Lazarus? We are left to conjecture. Although he disappears from the Gospels soon after his coming forth from the grave, we do have a parallel story in Ezekiel 37, the Valley of the Dry Bones. They too come back to life, and from that story we can piece together what we can assume lived within Lazarus from that time forth.

The Septuagint is the Greek version of the Hebrew Bible, our Old Testament. One of its more helpful uses is the ability to compare Greek words in the Old Testament with Greek words in the New Testament. This story gives us a look at a key word that Jesus uses later on, "breath".

In the post-resurrection appearance of our Lord to the eleven (Thomas was absent), John tells us that He breathed on them and said, "As the Father sent me, so I send you."

Breath of Jesus, followed by Great Commission.

In the Septuagint the same word John used for "breath" occurs two places, both very significant.The first is in creation. God breathed into Adam and he became a living being. The second is this story of the Valley of the Dry Bones. "Breath on these bones," the Spirit is told. He did, and they came back to life.

The connection is simple. God has breathed into us His breath, His life. As we receive that, we also receive purpose in that life, the purpose of being sent by Him as His witnesses.

From that word study, we find direction for our conjecture into the life and purpose of Lazarus, in Bethany and in Cyprus.

The breath has the power to give us life, to give us new life, to give us love for the giver of life, and then, we may assume, to give us life beyond the grave. That can only strengthen our commitment to His purposes. We may lose our life in His service, but in reality we won't.

An illustration - sad but in reality, not sad - of this is the recent martyrdom of a friend from Richmond, Cyd Mizell. Her death in Kandahar, Afghanistan, was reported in last days of February. But when her many friends chat with her in heaven, her story will reflect the realities of having the breath of God. With her broad smile on her face she will tell us of the joy of leaving home, of loving the women of Kandahar, and especially of the joy of Christ's love for her. She will speak of Christ's home in her throughout her ministry, in her captivity, as she spoke to them of her faith in heaven's King, and as she has enjoyed the full presence of her Lord since leaving this life.

And go find Lazarus also and hear his story. He'll have a tale like Cyd's, all about the breath of God leading his life.