Rarefied Air… INDEED!
Genesis 2:7 Then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.
Rarefied Air for sure!
I first heard the term “Rarefied Air”while working in the corporate world. It was “Best Practices”, used to encourage “your people” to , think higher, strive higher, shoot for the stars, be above the average worker, live in the lofty places from which one can rule the world.
Yep… PRIDE! Along with lust of the flesh (for the VERY BEST) and the lust of the eyes (to have and hold the MOST of EVERYTHING). Pride (the CORE of our sin nature), is the tool we can depend on to instill the desire which will guarantee many hours of the biggest bang for the corporate bucks spent on slavery labor.
My boss knew not everyone could or should attain such a throne of success, but he knew most of our eyes would light up at just being “invited” to party (the party he spent his life living in) where the cheese (becoming his very best friend) in the corporate mouse trap might just be “awarded” to… ??? me??? little “ol me???
I confess, back in the day, I bought into it.
There is no excuse… I was a born again Christian… yet I was living as the same heathen I was before Christ. It was so easy, in those newborn days, to revert back to the sin that so easily claimed me. It’s only taken 30 plus years to BEGIN to acknowledge I am a SINNER by nature. Thirty plus years to understand that being saved by grace does NOT give me license to pursue my lust of my eyes, my lust of my flesh, and my pride of my life. God did not save me in order to give me MY WAY!
Yet, “MY” way aptly labels (defines) mankind’s pursuit of his own rarefied sense of himself (the air surrounding him/her) Isaiah 14:13 “But you said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God, And I will sit on the mount of assembly In the recesses of the north.
The Dictionary (Dictionary.com) App on my computer, defines rarefied air as (1) extremely high or elevated; lofty; exalted: the rarefied atmosphere of a scholarly symposium or (2) of, belonging to, or appealing to an exclusive group; select; esoteric: rarefied tastes… just one question… WHO rarefies the air?… the dictionary does not specify!
Who, INDEED! I have discovered, after thirty plus years, man’s “Rarefied Air” really is an altar (where some of us pray and offer sacrifices) to the god of success. And the god who sits upon this altar???… the sinful nature of (wait for it)… man!
Psalm 2:4 He who sits in the heavens laughs, The Lord scoffs at them.
It is good that our God of gods… our ONE TRUE GOD… Who sits in the TRUE rarefied air…(The Lord has established His throne in the heavens, and His sovereignty rules over all. Psalm 103:19) has a merciful and loving sense of humor and doesn’t wish for ANY to perish.
However, I find it very hard to laugh at myself and all of my fellow rarefied air pursuers, now that I know how foolish our wasted YEARS of pursuit have been. Foolish and dangerous!
But God…
Ephesians 2:4-6 But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ by grace you have been saved, and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus
Please don’t think I am judging my former boss… he was no more foolish than I and much more successful in the use of the corporate toys for building an earthly kingdom. I desired to build, I just didn’t have skills necessary. For many years I have been jealous of those who wield the hammer to the nail with power and authority, but age brings wisdom and I now see as Ecclesiastes says, “Vanity of vanities! All is vanity.
I just discovered the TRUTH as I pray all of us eventually will!
From the moment God said, “Let Us make man in our image” until the time He formed us from the dust from the ground and breathed into our nostrils the breath of life
EVERY ONE OF US has within us the MOST RAREFIED of air!
The BREATH OF GOD!
And if You believe in your heart and confess with you mouth, your faith in Jesus… you SIT in the highest of the rarefied air! …Seated with Him in the heavenly places
You have been made by the Holy Spirit… the RAREST of RAREFIED… and given life by His breath.
Job 33:4 “The Spirit of God has made me, And the breath of the Almighty gives me life.
FINALLY… I get it!
No longer do I jealously wish for the corporate success, nor do I immaturely abide in man’s version of prideful boasting of living a “rarefied life”… “Let not a wise man boast of his wisdom, and let not the mighty man boast of his might, let not a rich man boast of his riches; but let him who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord who exercises lovingkindness, justice and righteousness on earth; for I delight in these things,” declares the Lord. (Jeremiah 9:23-24)
I LONG to DELIGHT my Lord!
I long for breathing His Rarefied Air in His ETERNAL delight…
Psalm 27:4 One thing I have asked from the Lord, that I shall seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord and to meditate in His temple.
Rarefied Air!… INDEED!
**All Scripture quoted comes from the “Bible Gateway” app and is the NASB version of the Bible