Jesus Inside of You. . .
One of my favorite authors of all time is/was Isaac Asimov. When I was growing up my father and I enjoyed reading his books. He was a prolific writer. The best list that I’ve seen of his works, counts some 469 books under his name. Some of these are anthologies of previous works, etc., so not unique and new books, but in any respect, he undoubtedly wrote more than 400 books.
Here is a link to an online catalogue of his works:
http://www.asimovonline.com/oldsite/asimov_catalogue.html
He wrote on so many varied topics. His science fiction works are delicious, all of his writings are written to be very easy to understand. One of my favorite pastimes, as a youth, was reading Dr. Asimov’s collected science essays. He would take pen, paper, and reference books, and using easy to understand logic, calculate all sorts of things.
One my favorite memories was reading for the first time an essay of his showing that every breath you take, if the atmosphere perfectly mixed, contains roughly 7 molecules of any famous persons individual breath, who ever lived. Think of a particular point in time. . . the breath Abraham Lincoln took as he finished the Gettysburg Address speech. Every breath you take, contains (according to Dr. Asimov), if I remember correctly, roughly 7 molecules that Mr. Lincoln exhaled upon his final words. A mental exercise with no stunning scientific value, but still something to give you pause to think of the implications of.
Then as an atheist, and now as a Christian, it is fascinating to think of this. Every breath of every apostle. . . every character of the Bible. . . every historical figure. . . has across the centuries mixed and if perfectly dispersed. . .then you inhale and exhale the same atoms as that person. . .
In this way of looking at is, Jesus is already inside of you, in a small physical way, His physical breath already in a small way resides within you.. . . He greatly desires to be inside of you, and wishes you to abide in Him in a large and significant Spiritual manner also.
This morning, I duplicated Dr. Asimov’s calculations in an Excel spreadsheet, and I copied the results below, using data figures for volume of the atmosphere, volume of an average breath, etc. etc. etc. taken off the internet from various sources.:
Air volume in an average breath (liters): .5
Average breaths/minute (range 9-20) : 12
Average lifetime (years) : 70
Minutes/year : 525,600
Breaths/lifetime : 441,504,000
Volume of air breathed/lifetime (liters) : 220,752,000
Molecules/liter of air : 26,900,000,000,000,000,000,000
Molecules breathed/lifetime: 5,938,228,800,000,000,000,000,000,000,000
Volume of the atmosphere (cubic kilometers): 4,200,000,000
Liters/cubic kilometer: 1,000,000,000,000
Number of molecules in the atmosphere (I divided this number by 3 to account for decreasing density per increasing height): 37,660,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000
Percentage of the entire atmosphere for each breath: 0.000000000000000000000357142857
Number of molecules breathed in each breath inhaled in another breath (if spread evenly): 5
This was enormous fun for me to retrace Dr. Asimov’s calculations. Again, if I remember correctly after more than 40 years, the number that he arrived at was 7 molecules. I came up with 5. . . really to me an astounding correspondence between our calculations. The one adjustment that I made, which I have no idea how correct it was, is that I divided the calculated number of molecules in the atmosphere by by 3 to account for decreasing density with increasing height. . . If you’ve ever been to a high altitude, you know the trouble that you have breathing, due to the decreased oxygen in each breath. I know that that the number of total molecules in the atmosphere needs to be adjusted downward, but I don’t know if my division by 3 is at all accurate. My instinct tells me that I should actually divide by a greater number, thereby increasing the number of molecules per breath, but for this back of the envelope work, this will do.
In my mind, without any doubt, the most significant breath in all of creation, was this one:
John 19:30
When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.
Think about this occasionally. . . every breath you take, contains some unknown, but real number of molecules from Jesus last breath. . .think about His last breath, and importantly meditate upon the effects of what happened at His last breath. With that last breath, His sacrifice. . . His payment for my sins was complete. That last breath of His. . . the completion of His sacrifice, gives me hope. . . makes it possible for me to aspire to eternally live in Heaven. Without His sacrifice, I deserve death. His last breath is therefore a part of me. . . physically. . . spiritually. . . eternally. . .
Thank you Jesus. . .
Thank you my God. . .
I love you. . .
. . . for everything You’ve done. . .
Here is a link to an online catalogue of his works:
http://www.asimovonline.com/oldsite/asimov_catalogue.html
He wrote on so many varied topics. His science fiction works are delicious, all of his writings are written to be very easy to understand. One of my favorite pastimes, as a youth, was reading Dr. Asimov’s collected science essays. He would take pen, paper, and reference books, and using easy to understand logic, calculate all sorts of things.
One my favorite memories was reading for the first time an essay of his showing that every breath you take, if the atmosphere perfectly mixed, contains roughly 7 molecules of any famous persons individual breath, who ever lived. Think of a particular point in time. . . the breath Abraham Lincoln took as he finished the Gettysburg Address speech. Every breath you take, contains (according to Dr. Asimov), if I remember correctly, roughly 7 molecules that Mr. Lincoln exhaled upon his final words. A mental exercise with no stunning scientific value, but still something to give you pause to think of the implications of.
Then as an atheist, and now as a Christian, it is fascinating to think of this. Every breath of every apostle. . . every character of the Bible. . . every historical figure. . . has across the centuries mixed and if perfectly dispersed. . .then you inhale and exhale the same atoms as that person. . .
In this way of looking at is, Jesus is already inside of you, in a small physical way, His physical breath already in a small way resides within you.. . . He greatly desires to be inside of you, and wishes you to abide in Him in a large and significant Spiritual manner also.
This morning, I duplicated Dr. Asimov’s calculations in an Excel spreadsheet, and I copied the results below, using data figures for volume of the atmosphere, volume of an average breath, etc. etc. etc. taken off the internet from various sources.:
Air volume in an average breath (liters): .5
Average breaths/minute (range 9-20) : 12
Average lifetime (years) : 70
Minutes/year : 525,600
Breaths/lifetime : 441,504,000
Volume of air breathed/lifetime (liters) : 220,752,000
Molecules/liter of air : 26,900,000,000,000,000,000,000
Molecules breathed/lifetime: 5,938,228,800,000,000,000,000,000,000,000
Volume of the atmosphere (cubic kilometers): 4,200,000,000
Liters/cubic kilometer: 1,000,000,000,000
Number of molecules in the atmosphere (I divided this number by 3 to account for decreasing density per increasing height): 37,660,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000
Percentage of the entire atmosphere for each breath: 0.000000000000000000000357142857
Number of molecules breathed in each breath inhaled in another breath (if spread evenly): 5
This was enormous fun for me to retrace Dr. Asimov’s calculations. Again, if I remember correctly after more than 40 years, the number that he arrived at was 7 molecules. I came up with 5. . . really to me an astounding correspondence between our calculations. The one adjustment that I made, which I have no idea how correct it was, is that I divided the calculated number of molecules in the atmosphere by by 3 to account for decreasing density with increasing height. . . If you’ve ever been to a high altitude, you know the trouble that you have breathing, due to the decreased oxygen in each breath. I know that that the number of total molecules in the atmosphere needs to be adjusted downward, but I don’t know if my division by 3 is at all accurate. My instinct tells me that I should actually divide by a greater number, thereby increasing the number of molecules per breath, but for this back of the envelope work, this will do.
In my mind, without any doubt, the most significant breath in all of creation, was this one:
John 19:30
When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.
Think about this occasionally. . . every breath you take, contains some unknown, but real number of molecules from Jesus last breath. . .think about His last breath, and importantly meditate upon the effects of what happened at His last breath. With that last breath, His sacrifice. . . His payment for my sins was complete. That last breath of His. . . the completion of His sacrifice, gives me hope. . . makes it possible for me to aspire to eternally live in Heaven. Without His sacrifice, I deserve death. His last breath is therefore a part of me. . . physically. . . spiritually. . . eternally. . .
Thank you Jesus. . .
Thank you my God. . .
I love you. . .
. . . for everything You’ve done. . .
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