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A salesperson once said that all he asked of me was 15 minutes of my time, as though he had requested a small thing. I answered that he had asked me to give him 15 minutes of my life—my time; very much an unrenewable resource. He had asked me for one of my most valuable God-given gifts.
Once time has passed, it cannot be regained. I see my life and my time as the fuel gauge in an automobile. As each day passes, the time meter advances another slight notch toward empty—the end of life. I’ve heard conflicting numbers on the average life span of the American male, ranging from 70 to 74 years. For the sake of discussion, let’s assume 74 years is correct. That means that at 37 years of age one is middle-aged, and it also means that half of his tank of time has been used up. At my present age, I have used up 77% of my tank of time. This means that, on average, I have 23% of a tank of time left before my days here upon earth are finished. This is a good and sobering thought. Psalms 90:9-10:
9 For all our days are passed away in thy wrath: we spend our years as a tale that is told.
10 The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.
In Christ Jesus, a believer can convert carnal time unto eternal glory. Ephesians 5:15-16reads,
15 See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise,
16 Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.
Buy time for Jesus. Don’t waste it. Soon, time shall end. If you have yet to surrender your life unto the King of Glory, do it while you still have time. Click onto "Further With Jesus" on this website for 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, 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.
MAN SAID: Free me from these small-minded, uneducated Christians and their silly, little, irrelevant Bible!
Now THE RECORD. Remember, God is never wrong and God never loses. Whatever He proclaims in His Word is truth. Man’s incessant attack upon God’s truth will ultimately fall upon his own head here and in eternity. This feature will be just another proof that God is.
Regardless 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 feature article "Man From Dirt," (on this website) proves the same.
In a recent 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.
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.
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, 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.
MAN SAID: Free me from these small minded, uneducated Christians and their silly, little, irrelevant Bible!
Now you have THE RECORD.
References:
King James Bible
Josephus, F., Antiquities of the Jews, Kregel Publications
www.Godsaidmansaid.com, "Man From Dirt”