Thought Exercise on Dust

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We Are Dust

Author

Keywords

Scripture

Genesis 3:19, Psalm 103:14, Job 42:5-6, Joel 2:12-13, Hebrews 12:1-3, Romans 3:20-26, Ecclesiastes 3:20

At the beginning of this season of Lent, on this Ash Wednesday, we are reminded that we are dust and to dust we will return. We are reminded of human fragility and failure. We are reminded that we are...

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Image and Dust

Keywords

Scripture

Genesis 1:null, Genesis 2:null

Our defining narrative says that we’re made “in the image of God,”[i] but also: we’re made “from the dust.”[ii] Image and dust. To be made in the image of God means that we’re rife with potential. W...

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Dust and Creation

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Scripture

Genesis 2:null, Genesis 1:30

Contrast the creation of the first man according to Genesis 2 with the creation of the first human beings according to Mesopotamian tradition. Both start with dust or clay, but then the accounts vary....

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Created from the Same Dust

Author

Henri J. M. Nouwen

Keywords

Dust

Across all barriers of land and language, wealth and poverty, knowledge and ignorance, we are one, created from the same dust, subject to the same laws, and destined for the same end. With this compas...

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Sitting Down in the Dust

Author

Leonard Sweet

Keywords

Few stories are more deserving of documentaries and a movie than the story of Mama Heidi. After missionary Heidi Baker and her husband earned their PhDs, God told Heidi, “Sit in the dust.” She had no ...

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Discoveries in the Dust and Din of Life

Author

The Pastor's Workshop

Keywords

Scripture

Genesis 50:20, Exodus 4:10-12, Romans 8:28, 2 Corinthians 12:9, Psalm 37:23-24

Sir Alexander Fleming (1881–1955), the British microbiologist and co-recipient of the 1945 Nobel Prize for Medicine for the discovery of penicillin, often credited his breakthrough to a fortunate acci...

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Just a stain in the soil

Author

William Rowley

Keywords

Scripture

Genesis 3:19, Ecclesiastes 3:20, Genesis 18:27, James 4:14, Psalm 90:12, Psalm 39:4, 1 Peter 2:24-25, Psalm 90:10, Psalm 78:39, 1 Chronicles 29:15, Psalm 39:5, Psalm 144:4, Job 14:1, Psalm 103:15-16, Job 7:6-7, Genesis 2:7

I love a British TV show called Time Team. Hosted by Tony Robinson, a team of archeologists descend on a site in Britain and excavate for three days. Inevitably, the archeologists unearth the dead...

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A Dual Identity

Author

Mark D. Roberts

Keywords

Scripture

Genesis 2:7

Some of my favorite heroes have a dual identity: Clark Kent is Superman; Bruce Wayne is Batman; Peter Parker is Spider-Man. The list goes on and on. You and I also have a dual identity, though, unlike...

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Two Notes in your Pockets

Author

Catherine Quehl-Engel

Keywords

I’m reminded of something a rabbi said that stuck with me the past 20 years. This rabbi—she said how on the life journey we need to carry in our pockets two reminder notes. In one pocket the reminder...

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Life Without Hope of Resurrection: An Atheist’s Explanation of the Human Condition

Author

Bertrand Russell

Keywords

Scripture

John 3:16, Jeremiah 29:11, Psalm 139:13-14, Romans 8:38-39, 2 Corinthians 4:16-18, Revelation 21:4

Sometimes it is helpful to see what life looks like on the other side of faith, that is, for those who believe that God does not exist. Bertrand Russell, the renowned philosopher and avowed atheist, h...

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“But I Don’t Want to Die”

Author

Mark D. Roberts

Keywords

Scripture

Genesis 3:19, Romans 6:23

My friend Tim is a manager of a small company. Because he often hires people for their first full-time job, he gets to tell new employees about their benefits. One time, Tim was trying to explain to a...

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“Does My Ash Look All Right?”

Author

Tish Harrison Warren

Keywords

Scripture

Genesis 3:19, Job 42:5-6, Ezekiel 9:4, Genesis 2:7, Ecclesiastes 3:20, Daniel 9:3

One Ash Wednesday a decade ago, when I was new to Anglicanism, I knelt at a rail as Fr. Thomas, my priest, smeared a black cross on each forehead. “Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall ret...

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Meditation in the Toolshed

Author

C. S. Lewis

Keywords

Light

I was standing today in the dark toolshed. The sun was shining outside and through the crack at the top of the door there came a sunbeam. From where I stood that beam of light, with the specks of dust...

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Sitting in the Light

Author

Charles Swindoll

Keywords

A piano sits in a room, gathering dust. It is full of the music of the masters, but in order for such strains to flow from it, fingers must strike the keys… trained fingers, representing endless hours...

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A Poor Man’s Ticker-tape Parade

Author

Mia Levetan

Keywords

Scripture

Zechariah 9:9, Exodus 12:1–28 , 2 Kings 9:13 , Matthew 21:1–11, John 12:12–16, Psalm 118:25–26

Frederick Buechner is a master of capturing the excitement of the moment of Palm Sunday. It’s a great reminder that the story itself is a great illustration! We call it Palm Sunday because maybe t...

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He Breathed on Them

Keywords

Scripture

John 20:19-23, Genesis 2:7, 1 Kings 17:17-24, Ezekiel 37:9- 10

[A] vivid scene from the Gospel of John [John 20:19-23]. It’s intimate from the start-a stunningly private scene that occurs behind locked doors among dear friends. The scene begins with a friendly gr...

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Bright Spark, Shot from a Higher Place

Author

Fleming Rutledge

Keywords

Scripture

Exodus 24:15-18 , Malachi 3:2-3, Isaiah 6:5-7, Psalm 51:10-12 , 2 Corinthians 3:18, Revelation 22:5

Thus the incomparable George Herbert writes of our glorification in his poem “The Star”: Bright spark, shot from a brighter place, Where beams surround my Saviour’s face, Canst thou be any where ...

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The Power Source in Dwight Moody's Evangelistic Preaching

Author

Dallas Willard

Keywords

Scripture

Exodus 4:10-12, 1 Samuel 16:7 , Zechariah 4:6, Acts 4:13, 1 Corinthians 1:26-29, Psalm 127:1

After many years of highly successful ministry, Dwight Lyman Moody had an experience of which he himself said, I cannot describe it, I seldom refer to it, it is almost too sacred an experience to name...

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Divine Revelation: Moody's Sacred Moment

Author

Dallas Willard

Keywords

Scripture

Matthew 17:1-9, Acts 10:9-16, Acts 16:9-10, Genesis 28:10-17, Revelation 1:9-20

After many years of highly successful ministry, Dwight Lyman Moody had an experience of which he himself said, I cannot describe it, I seldom refer to it, it is almost too sacred an experience to name...

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Was the Star of Bethlehem a Comet?

Author

The Pastor's Workshop

Keywords

Scripture

Matthew 2:1-12

As early as AD 248, Origen suggested that the star of Bethlehem was a comet—and there continue to be astronomers who think that he was right. Comets are icy objects that orbit the sun. When seen fro...

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Jesus, the Prodigal Son

Author

Frère Pierre Marie

Keywords

Scripture

Philippians 2:6-8, John 1:10-11, Isaiah 53:3-4, Matthew 11:19, Mark 15:34, Isaiah 53:12, Luke 15:20-24, Revelation 7:13-14

In this excerpt, the French monastic leader Frere Pierre Marie, shares an interpretation of Jesus as the true prodigal son—bringing all of us home with him: He, who is born not from human stock, or ...

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Experiencing a New Reality with Disability

Author

Joni Eareckson Tada

Keywords

Scripture

Galatians 5:16-26

Many formerly active able-bodied people have had to learn a new pace in life after an accident or illness. Whether the condition is temporary or permanent, it isn’t easy. The memory and muscles still ...

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Lent: Preparing for a Banquet

Author

Alan Jones

Keywords

Not long ago, just as the season of Lent had got underway, a friend complained to me, “I know it’s Lent, but where’s the joy?” It is easy to understand why Lent is often misunderstood as a period of s...

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The Man in the Arena

Author

Theodore Roosevelt

Keywords

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the ar...

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“The Lord is my Shepherd”

Author

Kenneth E. Bailey

Keywords

Shepherds

“The Lord is my shepherd,” among other things, means “I have no police protection.” In those open trackless spaces the traveler and his companions are alone. Thieves, wild animals, snakes, sudden blin...

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Seared into Her Conscience

Author

Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove

Keywords

Slavery

Sarah Grimke, the daughter of a slaveholder and judge in Charleston, South Carolina, was five years old in 1797 when the sight of an enslaved person being whipped seared her conscience. Like many whit...

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The Power of Justification

Author

Fleming Rutledge

Keywords

There are few words in any language that can equal dikaiosis for theological depth and resonance. It has been at the center of scholarly debate for centuries. Known largely as “justification,” it is s...

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Home: A Desire for Permanence

Author

Jen Pollock Michel

Keywords

Scripture

Hebrews 10:23, James 1:9-12, 1 Corinthians 15:58, Jeremiah 17:7-8, Colossians 2:6-7

Before Seattle resident Edith Macefield died at age eighty-six in 2008, she refused to sell her house to developers for the $1 million they had purportedly offered. Macefield wanted to die at home. Se...

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What’s in a Name?

Author

Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy

Keywords

What’s in a name? The history of the human race is in names. Our objective friends do not understand that, since they move in a world of objects which can be counted and numbered. They reduce the grea...

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Noticing Where You Find Yourself

Author

Frederick Buechner

Keywords

Scripture

Luke 2:7, John 1:14, Matthew 1:23, Isaiah 40:11, Psalm 46:10, 2 Corinthians 4:7, Luke 24:13-35

One Christmas Eve in Vermont when my children were small, we did the things you do when your children are small on Christmas Eve. We stuffed and hung their stockings. We put out a draught of cider and...

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