Thursday, May 17, 2018
Then the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground. He breathed the breath of life into the man’s
nostrils, and the man became a living person.
Genesis 2:7(NLT)
The Scriptures tell us, “The first man, Adam, became a living person.” But the last Adam—that is, Christ—is a
life-giving Spirit. What comes first is
the natural body, then the spiritual body comes later. Adam, the first man, was made from the dust
of the earth, while Christ, the second man, came from heaven. Earthly people are like the earthly man, and
heavenly people are like the heavenly man.
Just as we are now like the earthly man, we will someday be like the
heavenly man.
1
Corinthians 15:45-49(NLT)
There are images
from your childhood which never leave.
One of those is a Dennis the Menace cartoon. Dennis learns in Sunday School that Adam was
formed from the dust of the earth, and that we all return to the dust. Later that afternoon we find Dennis peeking
under his bed and calling out to his parents:
Hey…there’s someone either coming or going under here!
“Created from the
dust” is a phrase that is remembered, and has been debated for millennia. Just how God did that has been, is,
and always will be part of the debate.
We want to know not only from whence we came, but how
we got here. We are curious.
The fact remains
it is by faith…not necessarily by sight…that we simply must accept God at His word. But what is vitally important about how Adam
got here is that part of creation which you cannot dismiss – the trans
part…when the dust began to breathe. For
Adam and Eve, and you, and me, breathing began when the breath was placed in us
by God, the Creator; this is when we became something other than
re-arranged dust. Again, this is something
accepted (or rejected) by faith, because it is not scientifically-provable (or
dis-provable). This is the basis for the
argument between creationists, theologians, scientists, and the
agnostic/atheistic among us; you either accept God as causative, or not! I choose to believe the all-knowing One put me
together; it was not a chance conglomeration of accidental lottery results in
an environmental morass of genetic possibilities; I believe in intelligent
order, design, and purpose. I believe in
God.
Once that
faith-issue is settled, God’s Word can open our understanding about God’s
intelligent design for movement in the human program – trans-creation. Paul’s letter to the Corinthian Church opens
the trans shift from flesh (not within flesh as in trans-gender).
Rather Paul shows us God’s plan and purpose in moving from within flesh to life
in the spirit; we are purposed for heavenly existence. And we are being fitted for that experience
by these baby-steps of human, earthly (dusty) three-score and ten years, more
or less, walking in and on the dust of our planet.
So what is that
purpose? What is the meaning of life in the
here and now? And…why?
Well, I’ve got
less than 150 words to finish today’s thought, so let’s get to it: God!
That’s it? Yup!
The dust from
which we were taken may be eternal, and we are simply a newer model of
arrangement, to be returned to the compost bin after the warranty runs out;
however, the spirit (breath) has no such expiration. The whole idea of trans-creation means that
we are more like God than the trees, bugs, birds, fish, and animals which
surround us. And one day this dusty body
is going to wear out completely. But not
so the spirit that resides within. It
will trans-the-creation all the way to the Creator!
For You Today
Another thing the
Creator put inside us dusty creatures is knowledge of the eternal, that we are going
to live forever. And included in that is
the reality that we are accountable to Him for the way we treat the dust…both
that dust in which we walk…and those dusty others around us with whom we walk.
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