DUST and ASHES PM In these flesh bodies there is so much that man is unable to understand about God's overall

plan. This study will show you that we are "earthborn" (i.e. human, mortal) in this world age. God took the dust of the earth and formed man and within that body placed the breath of life, the soul <hebrew.html#soul>, which made him a living being. You've heard it said, "dust to dust, ashes to ashes", when committing the body back to the ground. There is far deeper meaning to these words when you understand their significance. The earth body returns to where it came from, /dust,/ but the ashes have to do with the soul. Let's begin our study in Matthew where Christ warned His disciples about various things they would be confronted with when they carried the Gospel forth. One of His final warnings is the following: Matthew 10:28 "And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear Him Which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell." The word "destroy" is the Greek word "apollumi" which means to destroy fully, or obliterate. We know man can kill our earthly bodies, but only our Father in heaven has the power to wipe out the existence of the soul. Once the flesh body dies, no man can touch that soul. Only God can. Isn't this the part where all those "hell-fire and brimstone" sermons come from. Where the sinners are thrown into the pit for eternal torment, pain, burning, and screaming that every "good Christian" will watch all day from heaven? Don't be ridiculous!! Wasn't it Jesus Christ Who said "apollumi" (destroy completely)? If you were to watch someone you knew march into a pit of eternal suffering, how would you feel? How can Revelation 21 report of no more tears or suffering in heaven if you had knowledge of souls being tortured day and night? God's emotions are so much greater than you can even imagine and to roast one of His own children day and night would be something only Satan would conceive of. If we were to better understand dust and ashes, we would understand that the souls turned to ash will not just be removed, but erased so fully that it will be as though they never existed. There will be no remembrance in your mind of one who is gone. This is why there are no more tears or suffering in heaven. When a soul is blotted out of the Book of life, it is finished as though it had never been created. Psalms 103:1-3 Bless the LORD, 0 my soul: And all that is within me, bless His holy name. Bless the LORD, 0 my soul, And forget not all His benefits: Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; Who healeth all thy diseases; Your flesh does nothing to bless the LORD, but your soul can. Your soul was with it's Father before conception in your mother's womb. As her flesh body provided protection for the growth of your body, your soul provided your actual life. This flesh is the home on earth for that soul, and nothing more. This home that ages, gets tired and takes on disease. God heals our flesh from disease, but when He forgives our iniquities, He heals the soul and you can't hope for any better health than that. Psalms 103:4 Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; Who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies; He is a merciful loving God, Who wants you and I to be happy, and through His Son, He has offered that redemption to all who come to Him. Psalms 103:13-15 Like as a father pitieth his children, So the LORD pitieth them that fear Him. For He knoweth our frame; He remembreth

that we are dust. As for man, his days are as grass: As a flower of the field, so he flourisheth. He loves you so much because you are His own child. Not as a man that can only be the father of your flesh, but a much closer relationship, because He is the Father of your very being. Man's life in his earthborn flesh are few in comparison with his days with God before and after this earth age. When you look to judge another of His children, look beyond the "frame." Look into the apple of the eye that mirrors the very soul of that person. Judge by the works of that soul, not by his or her outer appearance. Please continue to read the rest of this Psalm, on your own, which is skipped. Psalms 104:29 Thou hidest Thy face, they are troubled: Thou takest away their breath, they die, And return to their dust. When the body loses the breath of life (soul), it returns to the dust that begat it. This is not just men and women, but all living beings. Psalms 104:30 Thou sendeth forth Thy spirit, they are created: And Thou renewest the face of the earth. God spoke and the soul became man. Psalms 104:31 The glory of the LORD shall endure for ever: The LORD shall rejoice in His works. Those things that are a glory to Him shall endure forever and ever. Psalms 104:35 Let the sinners be consumed out of the earth, And let the wicked be no more. Bless thou the LORD, O my soul. Praise ye THE LORD. The sinners who have not been redeemed will be consumed, gone forever. Praise ye the LORD, is the first Hallelujah in the Old Testament. Now let's go to the law which is our schoolmaster and let it teach us. Numbers 19:1-2 And the LORD spake to Moses and unto Aaron, saying, "This is the ordinance of the law which the LORD hath commanded, saying, "Speak unto the children of Israel, that they bring thee a red heifer without spot, wherein is no blemish, and upon which never came yoke': "Red" in Hebrew is "adorn", which means rosy complexioned or showing blood in the face. What is this heifer symbolic of? The Adamic people and their sins. Numbers 19:3 And ye shall give her unto Eleazar the priest, that he may bring her forth without the camp, and one shall slay her before his face:" For your own deeper study you may note that Eleazar is the same as Lazarus in the Greek. When Lazarus came back from the dead, the priesthood came back to life. For the sins of our people God allowed this red heifer to die. In Hebrews 9 we are told that these sacrifices are done away with because Christ became the one and only blood sacrifice for all time. But, the law was still the schoolmaster. We need to go back to school to understand what it was symbolic of in the beginning in order to get the full importance of what shall be in the end. Numbers 19:7-9 "Then the priest shall wash his clothes, and he shall bathe his flesh in water, and shall be unclean until the even. And he that burneth her shall wash his clothes in water, and bathe his flesh in water, and shall be unclean until the even. And a man that is clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer, and lay them up without the camp in a clean place, and it shall be kept for the congregation of the children of Israel for a water of separation: it is a purification for sin." All sins *must* be turned to ashes or they are not cared for

properly. All sinning souls shall be turned to ashes if they do not repent. God will not always allow animal to replace man. He didn't allow animal to replace Christ on the cross. The burning, or consuming, of the sin causes the clean to be impure while it purifies the sinner. This is why the clean priest became unclean. Even the smoke from the fire putrefies the clothing of him that is there. Since Christ paid the precious price for all of God's children once and for all, He has given you a "shortcut". You must be careful when ministering to someone who has given up in sin. When you take part of that load off of them you also become unclean except you turn it over to God. Only He can handle it for them. If you, being clean and a full believer in God, take on another's trouble to help strengthen their mind in the LORD, you're unclean. Because you have put worry into your mind, and to do so is to doubt God. You must take your teaching from the law and be a priest about it. Don't remain unclean, turn it over to the LORD. The main lesson we came here for was that all sin *must* become ashes. So what will become of Satan who introduced sin into this earth? Well, God was speaking directly to him in Ezekiel as the king of Tyre. Not as a parable, but as fact. Ezekiel 28:18 "Thou hast defiled thy sanctuaries by the multitude of thine iniquities, by the iniquity of thy traffick; therefore will I bring a fire from the midst of thee, it shall devour thee, and I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that behold thee. Ezekiel 28:19 All they that know thee among the people shall be astonished at thee: thou shalt be a terror, and never shalt thou be any more." In Hebrew it says he will cease to exist forever! Did it say he would burn forever and ever? NO! Satan will be gone! In Revelation 3 when Christ said He wouldn't blot out the overcomer from the Book of life, this is what He referred to. Blotted out, or erased as if having never existed. It is Satan's sentence and he will receive it in front of all the souls. There will be no eternal screaming and suffering. I thank our Father that He is in control and merciful. That all sin will be turned to ashes. Dust to ashes, soul to ash. Fear not he who can destroy your earthborn body, but fear (revere), He Who can turn to ash your very soul. As Hebrews 12 tells us, our Father is that Consuming Fire. "Every day is a beautiful day, because Jesus Is the Living Word."