Article for Ash Wednesday March 5, 2025
Genesis 2:5-7 5 When no bush of the field was yet in the land and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up—for the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground, 6 and a mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground— 7 then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.
From dust we came and to dust we will return is not the fate of our soul but the fate of our flesh. When God breathed into us, God breathed in His Holy Spirit and gave life to us. This life is of the spirit and housed in the temple of flesh formed by God. This temple we live in belongs to God. God asks us to care for this temple and keep it physically and spiritually healthy.
As God created man and woman, He did so in light of having keepers of the world He was creating. A lush garden, more beautiful than we could imagine, a true utopia that only God can create. What enriches the plants and trees enrich us as we came from it ourselves with the help of God.
I guess the good news is that no one can accuse us as being older than dirt, for dirt had to exist before we could. But from this dust God formed man and from man’s rib, God formed woman, and from the seed of woman came the savior. The bad news is the fall of Adam and Eve took this garden away to be hidden from us. I hope this garden will be on the new earth.
Genesis 13:16 16 I will make your offspring as the dust of the earth, so that if one can count the dust of the earth, your offspring also can be counted. (Covenant to Abram)
Genesis 28:14 14 Your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south, and in you and your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed. (Jacobs Dream)
God made a covenant with Abram who later God called Abraham. Sounded better, I guess. But that covenant, a promise, was made so that Abraham would know His seed would go on forever. I also think that God made a covenant with Abraham to let Him know He would be the father of a nation, the father of nations. And these nations would populate the means for God’s chosen nation.
From Abraham to Isaac, to Jacob, this covenant continued, and this is a blessing to all of us. It’s a shame that we, like the Hebrew nation, forget where we came from and how we were able to get here. God has had His hand in life from the beginning and still has His hand in life today and tomorrow. If like the song goes that we are dust in the wind, then we are really dust in the spirit, the Holy Spirit of God. We might be dirt, but we are God’s dirt.
Job 42:1-6 Then Job answered the Lord and said: 2 “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. 3 ‘Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?’ Therefore, I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. 4 ‘Hear, and I will speak; I will question you, and you make it known to me.’ 5 I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you; 6 therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.”
Job got it. He saw God the perfect being. Not that Job actually saw God with his physical eyes, but maybe with his eyes of understanding. Many have heard of God but not many understand God to be the perfect being. This might explain Job examining himself.
God has a will for all of us. God’s will for us I believe has two parts. God’s will for life on this earth, and God’s will in eternal life on the new earth.
Many only see this life we live in a more physical being. Some have noticed a spiritual life but confuse it with philosophical reasoning. But there is life that only appears to start here on earth, and there is life that continues here in the elsewhere. We who believe know the life here in the elsewhere is the eternal life with our Lord and savior on the new earth.
Knowing God should humble us every day and cause a means for us to despise our sinful nature and cause us to repent. We see as dust, we reason as dust, but let our eyes be cleared through faith in our savior who gives us a spirit of faith. Our repentance is the reasoning that comes from God and our will to listen to His words. Know, God gives us a means of grace and mercy even in our weakness. Remember even in our weakness Jesus died for our sins.
1 Corinthians 15:47-49 47 The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. 48 As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. 49 Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.
We are in the likeness of God, and in the likeness of Adam and Eve. Jesus came to make us only in the likeness of God through His righteousness. We will be clothed in the righteousness of our savior Jesus Christ, not by our choice or doing but by Jesus Christ’s choice and doing. You were chosen at the cross of Jesus, and you will be clothed by Jesus to live for ever and ever.
Psalms 103:13-14 13 As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him. 14 For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust.
God knows we are dust, and to dust our temple will return. But God is remaking us so that we too, will be citizens of heaven be more of the spirit and live eternally in His Love. Amen.
Written by Pastor Curtis A. May
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