…Unto Dust Shalt Thou Return (The Genesis Series, Part 10)

How far is it from here to eternity?  In just a snap of the fingers, you and I will arrive at the Great White Throne Judgment. 

Daniel 7:9-10:

9 I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool: his throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire.

10 A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him: thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him: the judgment was set, and the books were opened.

Revelation 20:11-15:

11 And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.

12 And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.

13 And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.

14 And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.

15 And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

Mankind’s arrival at this day of judgment seems far away for most, but be assured, it is surely imminent.  Two basic schools of thought will prevail on that day of judgment:

1. Thoughts of dread and terror, which will be the unfortunate reality for the majority of the world; and

2. Thoughts of grace and promise in Christ Jesus, which will be the glorious reality for God’s chosen few.

The decision you make today will determine the thoughts you will have on that day of judgment. 

Jesus speaks the great commission into being in Mark 16:15-16:

15 And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.

16 He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.

There are only two options, and only you can make the choice.  The choice you make will dictate the thoughts you think in a snap of God’s fingers. 

Dear visitor, have you yet to be BORN AGAIN as Jesus declares in John 3:3?

Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

BORN AGAIN means what it says: Born a second time, this time as a son or daughter of God—quickened, made alive, by God’s Holy Ghost.  In just a few moments, I will invite you to follow me in a simple prompt, and if you follow from your heart, everything begins anew for you today.

Today, all of your sins and their shame will be washed away by Christ’s cleansing blood.  Today, your entire record will be thoroughly expunged.  You will be sin and guilt free.  Today, all of Satan’s bondages in your life will be broken.  The chains will be gone.  You will be free. Today, you will be born a second time.

Jesus Christ alone is God’s salvation offer.  John 3:16:

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.  

There is NO OTHER NAME! Acts 4:10-12:

10 Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth this man stand here before you whole.

11 This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the head of the corner.

12 Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.

Your participation is required now.  It is time to make your decision.   Here is the prompt I promised: Click onto Further with Jesus for childlike instructions and immediate entry into the Kingdom of God.  NOW FOR TODAY’S SUBJECT.

GOD SAID, Genesis 2:7:

And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

GOD SAID, I Corinthians 1:18:

For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.

GOD SAID, Romans 1:16:

For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.

MAN SAID: With the way knowledge is exploding, some scientists theorize that there are people alive today that will live to be a thousand years old.  Wow!  Can you imagine living that long?!  I mean, as long as you aren’t run over by a cement truck; or raped, robbed, and murdered; or commit suicide; or get beheaded by a terrorist.  You know what?  I could live so long I just might forget who I am!

Now THE RECORD: Welcome to GodSaidManSaid feature 1230 that will once again certify the pure and perfect inerrancy of God’s beautiful Book. All of these faith-building features are archived here in text and streaming audio for your edification and to be used as a source from which to engage and win the gainsayers unto the Christ of glory. Every Thursday eve, God willing, they grow by one. 

Thank you for visiting.  May God’s face shine upon you and your house with Light and Truth.

Those who challenge the truth always fail, and that is without exception.  The challenges to the Word of God began in the Garden of Eden and they have not ceased.  Rather, they have accelerated.  The results of these challenges must always end in foolishness—always. Psalm 14:1-3:

1 The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.

2 The LORD looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God.

3 They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one.

The challengers sit smugly on their academic thrones, blaspheming the God that made them. Their hubris will end abruptly and the unrepentant will stand before an angry God to give account of all their hard speeches.  Jude 1:14-15:

14 And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints,

15 To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.

Be of good cheer, child of God!  Our Father’s Word is true and righteous altogether. 

You have arrived at the GodSaidManSaid “Genesis Series;” this is Part 10.  Each of these features begins with the following information from the first feature:

According to a 2006 issue of Discover magazine concerning the deceased Carl Sagan: “Sagan approaches religion like any phenomenon.  He isn’t on a quest for life’s meaning, for a comforting philosophy, or even a guide to how we should treat the neighbors.  Sagan seeks truth of a demonstrable kind.  As a puckish example, he wonders why the book of Genesis didn’t include God-inspired truths…” [End of quote]

I recently reviewed an advertisement from a magazine called Free Inquiry that also has a problem with the God of Creation and the first book of the Bible, called Genesis.  Under the heading “Is God Big Enough for the Universe,” Free Inquiry writes:

The authors of Genesis proclaim that God made the heavens and earth in less than a week.  This feat must have amazed these Bronze Age authors, even though they thought the heavens extended only so far as the sky above them.  Of course, they did not know what stars, planets, or galaxies were.  We now know that the universe is so much bigger and so much more complex. [End of quote]

The BORN AGAIN scratch their heads in bewilderment.  Did these folks actually read the book of Genesis? I suppose they did, but God’s revelation is only revealed to the humbled hearts of the children of faith.  This GodSaidManSaid series will be called “The Genesis Series.”  It is our intention to travel through the entire book of Genesis and publish one major God-inspired truth after another.  We will be pulling from previous GodSaidManSaid features and adding the latest information as we go.

Genesis 2:7:

And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

Genesis 3:19:

In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.

Job 10:9:

Remember, I beseech thee, that thou hast made me as the clay; and wilt thou bring me into dust again?

Is God’s Word accurate?  Is man literally made out of clay—the dust?, the dirt?  The following passages are from the GodSaidManSaid feature, “Recycled Mud:”

No matter how lofty, sanctimonious, and sophisticated man purports himself to be, he is, upon final analysis, a walking, talking, lump of time-limited, recycled mud. All of what we see on the earth, including our own selves, has been constructed out of dirt, which was spoken into existence by the spoken Word of God just over 6,000 years ago. A short review of the GodSaidManSaid article "Man From Dirt" proves the same.

In a Newsweek magazine article titled "Life From Clay?" the following was printed:

As if the Biblical tale of man’s creation from "the dust of the ground" were haunting their unconscious minds, NASA chemists have presented evidence that life on earth may have gotten its start in clay. They have shown that clays attract the organic molecules that make up protein and DNA, the ingredients of life, possibly from the sea during high tides. The clays might then trigger chemical reactions that string the building blocks into proteins and DNA.

The latest experiments show how, according to NASA’s Lelia Coyne, clays scavenge energy released by such natural processes as radioactive decay. They store the energy in the form of trapped electrons and then release it when subjected to stress—an earthquake, for example, or from wetting and drying as the tides rise and recede. Says Coyne, the ability of clays to store energy, catalyze reactions and perhaps self-replicate—all attributes of living systems—"is forcing us to re-examine at a very fundamental level the definition of life."

It is common knowledge that the chemical and mineral content of your body is identical to the Earth’s. Every schoolboy and girl knows that when you die you turn back to dust—TO DUST!

The ancient Miautso people of China have chronicled their lineage back to Japheth, the son of Noah, and from there all the way back to the world’s first man, whom their genealogical record calls "Dirt." Author, E. Traux, in an article titled "Genesis According to the Miao People," renders the original Miautso name in the following quote, "It is clearly meant to portray Adam, the version of whose name in the Miautsi language (as in Hebrew, Akkadian and so on) means earth or clay, the substance from which he was created." [End of quote]

In regard to the first man, famed historian Flavius Josephus recorded:

"This man was called Adam which in the Hebrew tongue means "one that is red" because he was formed out of red earth, compounded together; for of that kind is virgin and true earth." [End of quote]

No matter how you assess it, we are recycled mud. I have often said that man eats a hole in the earth and fills it up when he dies. Ecclesiastes 3:19-20:

19 For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath; so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast: for all is vanity.

20 All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again.

Only Jesus Christ can transform this very lackluster truth.

Unregenerated man focuses entirely on recycled, temporal mud. He covets recycled mud. He cheats to gain recycled mud. He steals recycled mud. He kills for recycled mud. He lusts after recycled mud and sells his soul for the same. Carnaldom seeks the vanity that mud affords, and what a short vanity it is.

The King of Glory offers us something infinitely better. He offers us a life filled with purpose, hope, and an earthly life where the ending is the doorway to eternal life. In part, this eternal life is described in the following passages: Revelation 21:1-4:

1 And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.

2 And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

3 And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.

4 And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.

Revelation 22:1-6:

1 And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.

2 In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.

3 And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him:

4 And they shall see his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads.

5 And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever.

6 And he said unto me, These sayings are faithful and true: and the Lord God of the holy prophets sent his angel to show unto his servants the things which must shortly be done.

I once met a hitchhiker who told me he was blowing all of his money on riotous living because he couldn’t take it with him. I told him that I could show him the secret of sending it on ahead. Imagine the beauty of redeeming time and the resources it affords, unto the glory of God: the winning of lost souls, encouraging the saints, ministering to the orphans and widows, visiting the sick and imprisoned, feeding the hungry, housing the homeless. These deeds done in Jesus’ name transcend carnality, for they are eternal. You have very literally taken natural dirt and converted it into eternal gold. This is how we send it on ahead.

The Scriptures record in Acts 20:35:

I have showed you all things, how that so labouring ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the Words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive.

Jesus Christ said in Matthew 6:19-21:

19 Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:

20 But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:

21 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

In the Word of God, our lives are compared to vapor, such as the steam from a boiling pot of water. Now consider the phenomenal power of transforming, through Christ Jesus, this fleeting mud-driven existence into God’s eternal purpose and glory. This is it! There isn’t anything else! Ecclesiastes 12:13-14:

13 Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.

14 For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.

[End of quotes]

The following excerpts from the GodSaidManSaid feature “Man from Dirt Updated” describes man’s affinity to dirt:

Man is simply recycled dust and his linkage to the dirt is irrefutable. J. Rubin’s famous book, The Maker’s Diet, makes this more abundantly clear. The following excerpts are from his book:

Does the subject of dirt seem boring to you? Did you know that one gram of soil—enough to fill a little packet of sugar—can contain as many as 10,000 species of microbes unknown to science, according to Jo Handelsman, a professor of plant pathology at the University of Wisconsin.

Even human intestines—an environment most people consider pretty familiar—are home to perhaps 10,000 kinds of microbes… Indeed, one of the surprises in the decoding of the human genome was that it contains more than 200 genes that come from bacteria. Microbes not only keep us alive; in some small part, we are made of them.

Countless numbers of microorganisms live in the soil, in and on plants, and in the human gut. Inside and out we are at one with the earth (or we should be). What depth of incomprehensible wisdom lies in the Biblical statement in Genesis 2:7: “And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.”

In 1989, Dr. David Strachan, a respected epidemiologist at Britain’s London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, launched a tidal wave of debate with a complex theorem of human immunology development and disease control, saying, “We need dirt.”

Dr. Strachan proposed that society’s growing separation from dirt and germs may well be the cause of weaker immune systems resulting in the growing incidence of a wide range of maladies. Dr. Strachan advanced the “overcleanliness theory” after noticing that children belonging to large families were much less likely to develop asthma, hay fever, or eczema. He theorized that older children coming home dirty with all sorts of resident soil microorganisms were actually protecting their younger brothers and sisters by exposing their immune systems to microbes and causing them to build antibodies. He may be on to something.

Near-epidemic waves of diseases all but unheard of in previous generations are striking modern societies around the world. (They are still virtually unknown in primitive societies today.) How many people do you know who suffer from asthma, allergies of all kinds, irritable bowel syndrome, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, Crohn’s disease, chronic fatigue syndrome, or immune disorders of some kind? The list seems to be endless.

If Dr. Strachan is right (and a growing number of scientists and medical researchers believe he is), then dirt, or to be more specific, the microbes in earth’s soil—may be some of our best friends. A recent report in New Scientist said researchers have discovered that microorganisms found in dirt influence maturation of the immune system so that it is either functional or dysfunctional. [End of quote]

Adam—“Mr. Dirt”—absolutely! [End of quotes]

Dirt is foundational to life and we are truly made out of the dust of the earth.  It’s claimed that there are more living organisms in a shovelful of dirt than the human population of the earth.  It is the ultimate recycling organism as it reclaims and recycles all of the earth’s dead, from leaves to humans. 

I’m reminded of a joke: In a conversation between God and an evolutionist, the evolutionist says to God, ‘You know, with the great wisdom of today’s science, I could make the earth, and all of the lifeforms in it, and all without you.”  God replies, ‘Let’s see your stuff.’  So, the evolutionist states his plan.  ‘Well, first I’ll take a little dirt and…’  God then interrupts to say, ‘Get your own dirt.’

It’s true; we are made out of dirt and much of what the world lives and dies for is also made out of dirt.  And it’s true that when we die, we will return to dust once again, just as God declares in Genesis, the first book of the Bible.  It is a book full of God-inspired truths.  If you have concerns about dirt, know that Jesus offers a glorious solution to this recycled mud issue.  Visit “Further with Jesus” for the ultimate transformation.  

GOD SAID, Genesis 2:7:

And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

GOD SAID, I Corinthians 1:18:

For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.

GOD SAID, Romans 1:16:

For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.

MAN SAID: With the way knowledge is exploding, some scientists theorize that there are people alive today that will live to be a thousand years old.  Wow!  Can you imagine living that long?!  I mean, as long as you aren’t run over by a cement truck; or raped, robbed, and murdered; or commit suicide; or get beheaded by a terrorist.  You know what?  I could live so long I just might forget who I am!

 

Now you have THE RECORD.

 

 

References:

Authorized King James Version

Blumner, R., Free Inquiry

GodSaidManSaid, “Man from Dirt Updated”

GodSaidManSaid, “Recycled Mud”

 

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