Dust to Dust

The dust will return to the earth as it was, and the spirit will return to God who gave it. – So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown a perishable body, it is raised an imperishable body; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. – The first man is from the earth, earthy; the second man is from heaven.

By the sweat of your face You will eat bread, Till you return to the ground, Because from it you were taken; For you are dust, and to dust you shall return." – One dies in his full strength, Being wholly at ease and satisfied; While another dies with a bitter soul, Never even tasting anything good. Together they lie down in the dust, And worms cover them.

Therefore my heart is glad and my glory rejoices; My flesh also will dwell securely. – Even after my skin is destroyed, Yet from my flesh I shall see God;

For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself.

LORD, make me to know my end And what is the extent of my days; Let me know how transient I am. – So teach us to number our days, That we may present to You a heart of wisdom. In Christ, Amen.

(Ecc 12:7) (1Co 15:42-44) (1Co 15:47) (Gen 3:19) (Job 21:23, 25, 26) (Psa 16:9) (Job 19:26) (Php 3:20-21) (Psa 39:4) (Psa 90:12) sbagster

HAVE YOU READ YOUR BIBLE TODAY?

Dust to Dust

The dust will return to the earth as it was, and the spirit will return to God who gave it. – So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown a perishable body, it is raised an imperishable body; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. – The first man is from the earth, earthy; the second man is from heaven.

By the sweat of your face You will eat bread, Till you return to the ground, Because from it you were taken; For you are dust, and to dust you shall return." – One dies in his full strength, Being wholly at ease and satisfied; While another dies with a bitter soul, Never even tasting anything good. Together they lie down in the dust, And worms cover them.

Therefore my heart is glad and my glory rejoices; My flesh also will dwell securely. – Even after my skin is destroyed, Yet from my flesh I shall see God;

For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself.

LORD, make me to know my end And what is the extent of my days; Let me know how transient I am. – So teach us to number our days, That we may present to You a heart of wisdom. In Christ, Amen.

(Ecc 12:7) (1Co 15:42-44) (1Co 15:47) (Gen 3:19) (Job 21:23, 25, 26) (Psa 16:9) (Job 19:26) (Php 3:20-21) (Psa 39:4) (Psa 90:12) sbagster

HAVE YOU READ YOUR BIBLE TODAY?

For You girded me with strength for battle.

... For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Then Asa cried to Adonai his God and said, “Adonai, there is no one like You to help in battle between the mighty and the powerless. Help us, Adonai Eloheinu, for we rely on You and in Your Name we have come against this multitude. You are Adonai Eloheinu! Let no man prevail against You.” – Jehoshaphat cried out. – Adonai helped him.

It is better to take refuge in Adonai than to trust in man. It is better to take refuge in Adonai than to trust in princes. – No king is saved by his great army, no warrior is delivered by great strength. A horse is a false hope for victory, nor can its great strength save.

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the worldly forces of this darkness, and against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.

Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you may be able to resist when the times are evil, and after you have done everything, to stand firm.

[Tree of Life Version ]

(Psa 18:40) (2Co 12:10) (2Ch 14:10) (2Ch 18:31) (Psa 118:8, 9) (Psa 33:16)

(Psa 33:17) (Eph 6:12) (Eph 6:13) sbagster

HAVE YOU READ YOUR BIBLE TODAY?

For You girded me with strength for battle.

... For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Then Asa cried to Adonai his God and said, “Adonai, there is no one like You to help in battle between the mighty and the powerless. Help us, Adonai Eloheinu, for we rely on You and in Your Name we have come against this multitude. You are Adonai Eloheinu! Let no man prevail against You.” – Jehoshaphat cried out. – Adonai helped him.

It is better to take refuge in Adonai than to trust in man. It is better to take refuge in Adonai than to trust in princes. – No king is saved by his great army, no warrior is delivered by great strength. A horse is a false hope for victory, nor can its great strength save.

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the worldly forces of this darkness, and against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.

Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you may be able to resist when the times are evil, and after you have done everything, to stand firm.

[Tree of Life Version ]

(Psa 18:40) (2Co 12:10) (2Ch 14:10) (2Ch 18:31) (Psa 118:8, 9) (Psa 33:16)

(Psa 33:17) (Eph 6:12) (Eph 6:13) sbagster

HAVE YOU READ YOUR BIBLE TODAY?

Christian Perfection

(Php 3:12) Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus.

The writings of Oswald Chambers struck a chord in my heart this morning. The words triggered a self examination, a gut-check to determine if what Pastor Chambers wrote about applied to me. Well, I read and I am convicted.

As you absorb and ponder Chamber's words below, realize that none of us will remain as unfinished stones in that house, eternal in the heavens. We are already there, but the painful process of “fitting” us to the builder's use is on going. Uncomfortable adjustments will continue to be made in us until, at our last breath, we are placed, perfectly fitted, formed, and adjusted.......One With HIM!

It is a snare to imagine that God wants to make us perfect specimens of what He can do; God’s purpose is to make us one with Himself. The emphasis of holiness movements is apt to be that God is producing specimens of holiness to put in His museum. If you go off on this idea of personal holiness, the dead-set of your life will not be for God, but for what you call the manifestation of God in your life. “It can never be God’s will that I should be sick,” you say. If it was God’s will to bruise His own Son, why should He not bruise you? The thing that tells for God is not your relevant consistency to an idea of what a saint should be, but your real vital relation to Jesus Christ, and your abandonment to Him whether you are well or ill.

Christian perfection is not, and never can be, human perfection. Christian perfection is the perfection of a relationship to God which shows itself amid the irrelevancies of human life. When you obey the call of Jesus Christ, the first thing that strikes you is the irrelevancy of the things you have to do, and the next thing that strikes you is the fact that other people seem to be living perfectly consistent lives. Such lives are apt to leave you with the idea that God is unnecessary, by human effort and devotion we can reach the standard God wants. In a fallen world this can never be done. I am called to live in perfect relation to God so that my life produces a longing after God in other lives, not admiration for myself. Thoughts about myself hinder my usefulness to God. God is not after perfecting me to be a specimen in His show-room; He is getting me to the place where He can use me. Let Him do what He likes.

HAVE YOU READ YOUR BIBLE TODAY??

Christian Perfection

(Php 3:12) Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus.

The writings of Oswald Chambers struck a chord in my heart this morning. The words triggered a self examination, a gut-check to determine if what Pastor Chambers wrote about applied to me. Well, I read and I am convicted.

As you absorb and ponder Chamber's words below, realize that none of us will remain as unfinished stones in that house, eternal in the heavens. We are already there, but the painful process of “fitting” us to the builder's use is on going. Uncomfortable adjustments will continue to be made in us until, at our last breath, we are placed, perfectly fitted, formed, and adjusted.......One With HIM!

It is a snare to imagine that God wants to make us perfect specimens of what He can do; God’s purpose is to make us one with Himself. The emphasis of holiness movements is apt to be that God is producing specimens of holiness to put in His museum. If you go off on this idea of personal holiness, the dead-set of your life will not be for God, but for what you call the manifestation of God in your life. “It can never be God’s will that I should be sick,” you say. If it was God’s will to bruise His own Son, why should He not bruise you? The thing that tells for God is not your relevant consistency to an idea of what a saint should be, but your real vital relation to Jesus Christ, and your abandonment to Him whether you are well or ill.

Christian perfection is not, and never can be, human perfection. Christian perfection is the perfection of a relationship to God which shows itself amid the irrelevancies of human life. When you obey the call of Jesus Christ, the first thing that strikes you is the irrelevancy of the things you have to do, and the next thing that strikes you is the fact that other people seem to be living perfectly consistent lives. Such lives are apt to leave you with the idea that God is unnecessary, by human effort and devotion we can reach the standard God wants. In a fallen world this can never be done. I am called to live in perfect relation to God so that my life produces a longing after God in other lives, not admiration for myself. Thoughts about myself hinder my usefulness to God. God is not after perfecting me to be a specimen in His show-room; He is getting me to the place where He can use me. Let Him do what He likes.

HAVE YOU READ YOUR BIBLE TODAY??

If only I knew where to find Him...

(Compiled using the Tree of Life Hebrew Bible)

Who among you fears Adonai? Who hears the voice of His servant? Who walks in darkness and has no light? Let him trust in the Name of Adonai and lean on his God.

You will seek Me and find Me, when you will search for Me with all your heart. --- “So I say to you, ‘Ask, and it shall be given to you. Seek, and you shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.’

What we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so you may have fellowship with us. Indeed, our fellowship is with the Father and His Son, Yeshua the Messiah. --- But now in Messiah Yeshua, you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of the Messiah. For through Him we both have access to the Father by the same Ruach.

If we say we have fellowship with Him and keep walking in the darkness, we are lying and do not practice the truth.

And remember! I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” For God Himself has said, “I will never leave you or forsake you,”--- I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper so He may be with you forever—

the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not behold Him or know Him. You know Him, because He abides with you and will be in you.

(Job 23:3) (Isa 50:10) (Jer 29:13) (Luk 11:9-10) (1Jn 1:3) (Eph 2:13,18) (1Jn 1:6) (Mat 28:20) (Heb 13:5) (Joh 14:16,17) sbagster

HAVE YOU READ YOUR BIBLE TODAY?