Genesis 3:19 English Standard Version (ESV) By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.

There is no direct scripture that supports the last line of yesterday’s offering.

“Sojourners of the earth, do not breathe the dust our feet kick up. “

Genesis 3:19 tells us that dust is connected with death. Dust in our houses is composed of dead skin cells. That and a man without God is considered spiritually dead.

As we journeyed this earth we were dead in our sins and that produced nothing but death, dust. To breathe that in again could be considered taking pride in our own efforts.

2 Peter 1:5 English Standard Version (ESV) For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge,

Habakkuk 2:4 English Standard Version (ESV) Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him, but the righteous shall live by his faith.

Since we live by faith then our efforts should be to supplement faith. Virtue and knowledge should be supplements to faith, building us up, making us stronger. They cannot be supplements to faith if taken from the dust of our feet. 

Our nature says to take pride in our accomplishments. God for the gold. Second place is first loser. Strive to achieve first place, people love winners. And just to top off this reasoning the Super Bowl is coming up soon.

Does pointing a finger in the air after a touchdown glorify God? I am not sure God cares about how many points we score, how much money we make, or where we live. I am sure He cares about the lost soul He is calling home.

Is it possible that glory to God is in being used by God by obedience of faith in what God cares about? To do His will glorifies God even if no one is looking.

Psalm 30:9 English Standard Version (ESV) “What profit is there in my death, if I go down to the pit? Will the dust praise you? Will it tell of your faithfulness?

Exodus 17:14 English Standard Version (ESV) Then the Lord said to Moses, “Write this as a memorial in a book and recite it in the ears of Joshua, that I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven.”

Journals are meant to show our personal journey with God. Moses is the scribe for God writing down what God tells him to write. God authored the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Old Testament, by revelation of things lost to mankind because of failed memories.

Those that lived out their journey with God did not keep journals. If they had, time would have reduced them to dust. The creation of papyrus came much later in history which left evidence of the early journals left by Moses and copied over and over again by dedicated scribes.

Yesterday I pulled out of my own personal journals something I had written nine years ago. It needed some editing because I am further along in my journey with God and I see things more clearly now. Journals help track growth, maturity and clarity in understanding. 

They also show which words are our own thoughts and which ones God spoke to write them down. Words inspired by God are not just for our own personal amusement but were meant for others, just as they were meant for Joshua.

What those words, inspired by God, did for Joshua, they can do the same for others. Blot out memories of Amalek, which means “a people who lick up” according to Hitchcok’s Bible Names. This is an illustration of taking knowledge from what has been spilled to the ground, influenced and polluted by the world. 

We have the privilege of having the abiding presence of the Spirit of Truth in us. That which He brings to us has never touched the ground and is meant to blot out that which has been tainted by the world.

Our journals are a reflection of our journey, our influences and a clear indication of how our thoughts have been replaced with truth, blotted out as it were.

Do not allow our journals to just collect dust. Use them to remind ourselves of when God touched us and changed us on our journey together.

Sojourners of the earth, do not breathe the dust our feet kick up.