Chapter Eleven

Make Your Own Dirt!

An atheist challenged God.

God answered his challenge.

The atheist, not believing God created things, said, “Anyone with the right ingredients could create life, given the opportunity.”

God said, “Okay, let's see what you can create with your ingredients, and I will create with mine. Fair.”

The atheist agreed.

God scooped up some earth, and as He did, He looked to see what the atheist was doing. The atheist was also gathering dirt.

God looked at him and said. “Stop! You have to create your own dirt first!”

Can you?

What do you believe if you choose not to believe in God, His creation, and His order? And how do you expect to live if you do not know what you believe?

A young pup sees its tail and chases it, snaps at it. They go round and round chasing the tail. They turn their heads and see the tip of the tail, the shadow of their tail. They do not realize, as a pup, that their tail is attached to them. Realization comes as they get older, and they chase it less, but on occasion, knowing it is their tail, they chase it for the sheer fun of it. Then they do it less till they do it no more. They chase other tails, other things.

Man is like a pup chasing his tail when he does not define who he is and where he comes from. He does not know what is attached to him and what is shadows.

So, if you have a curious mind that likes side trips, this book is for you. In man's quest to “make his own dirt,” he has stumbled upon many inventions. And yet, it has taken so long to get to where we are. Biblically, what is the path, and what is the history behind the words?

To understand, I need a picture, so I study everything. Slowly, the picture takes shape. Man has learned many things and is capable of many things, but he still can not make his own dirt!

When one researches any subject, one wants to understand its sequences and rhythm. Life is made up of many subjects, and each of them has sequences and rhythms. In existence are work, play, money, emotions, the mind (thinking, reasoning), sexuality, and physical. Each of these subjects can have a variety of aspects to each. It can feel complicated.

Why?

I am not proposing any doctrine; I share a picture of understanding. History.

There is no set time in the garden. The only thing time is related to is what makes a day and in relation to seasons. However, time is not spoken of in terms of months or years while Adam and Woman are in the Garden of Eden. Why is that? What exactly was the Garden of Eden for? They could have lived anywhere. There was the whole earth to choose from. If they were to exist, it did not have to be much.

But God made a garden. He fenced off a particular piece of land and purposefully fenced it off. When it says He prepared a place for them, it included a house. With a bed.

In Genesis, the plants are watered by the root system, and “dew” is on the ground every morning. Anyone or anything on the ground is damp and cold. A place includes a home.

It does not speak of the exact size of the Garden, but its location is spoken of, and time is not spoken of. Could God have prepared a place for them that was like “school?” The word school comes from the Latin language, meaning “leisure.” You had to have free time to be able to go to school.

And, when you think of it, school is supposed to be where you are taught what is needed so that you can develop into a whole person who can be responsible for themselves in their adult years. This includes all subjects of life. You are finished when you graduate, never before.

Think of it: Adam and Eve quit school! They did not graduate, and they were not finished being taught! They were taught a lot, but there was a lack of finishing shows in history.

They were to have “dominion over the land.” In the Garden, they are taught as they mature into their jobs. What they learn is to be passed on to their descendants. What were they learning? Certainly, it had to be more than the physical work involved in tending the garden.

Do you think they were adults because they were born into adult bodies? Are not the mental, emotional, spiritual, and physical capacities something we grow into? All children are born knowing nothing. Was Adam like that?

Not quite. In naming the animals, Adam shows a developed intelligence. When a Woman is brought to him, Adam's speaking of her shows a mature comprehension of whom he has been given and how she will be with him.

However, they are still young.

As we go through time and live life, we confirm how things work. As we learn and gain information, we know what we can count on and begin to reason, for we know what one and one are to make two. There was teaching, and they could discuss the day's events every evening when it was cooler with God, their Father. Ever think about what they would have spoken of?

If they had a home, Adam would have known about construction. They kept tame animals, and there would have been corrals and pasture land. In learning to tend the different plants in the garden, they learned farming. It got cool in the evening. Would they not have had a fire, or do you imagine them eating only fruit from the trees? We cooked; Adam and Eve cooked. Who said it had to be meat?

I have met quite a variety of people in my life. When I was a teenager, I met many young ladies whose mothers had left or died. They were left running the house, including laundry, cooking, and cleaning. They did not call life unfair (though they may have felt it and thought it); they just did what needed doing and did it.

However, they always saw themselves as more mature than others their age. Yet, they were still young and needed the years to finish growing up, like everyone else. Why would Adam and Eve be any different?

When Adam and Eve are kicked out of the Garden of Eden, they are also kicked out of school. There is no more teaching; just “figure it out.”

Adam was created with an incredible mind, the ability of emotions, and a spiritual capacity. His choices caused the spiritual capacity to become empty, not non-existent. The capacity is still there but not filled, becoming a hunger, a want.

Man was meant to be in fellowship with God and His creation. It is not a democracy or a dictatorship. We give allegiance to God by choice. That is what it is meant to be. We are not meant to carry the burden of the world's population on our shoulders. That is God's job.

That does not mean we should not bother with our fellow man or community. Part of education is learning what is my job, what is God's job, and what is “others'” job. It is my business to learn my job, for on these things will my life be judged.

Adam could have said “no” to the fruit but chose to follow Woman. As individuals, we are each responsible for what we do and how we think. These things are personal. No one else can be you but you. We make a choice, and just like Adam, we are responsible for what we do while we “live in our own skin.”

Adam was created to live eternally, and so is every human. There is the design of eternity in everyone. Yet, think of it, how people live. Step back from yourself and look. Do you not see?

Because Adam is introduced to the “knowledge of good and evil” before he is mature enough to deal with it, his choices from that point on are not as they should have been. Please note that Adam did not give up on God. He taught his children all about God and where man came from. Adam did not follow Satan, yet the price of sin (living outside the blueprint) coloured his life and all to follow.

Adam could only teach what he knew. Yet, the land was different, and what they were allowed for food was different. Adam had to take what he knew and figure out the rest. If it worked, keep doing it; if it did not work, try something different. Adam's mind did not empty; his spirit became empty. The mind's capacity is meant to be filled, as is our spirit. However, what we fill it with is our choice. It always has been.

If man can fill it with good or bad in a hundred and twenty years of life, what would he do with two hundred, six hundred or more years? According to Genesis, man became so nasty that all he could do was be nasty. The paths set in their youth grew to “set in stone” proportions in their hearts as they grew in years. So, in all the world's population, you can find only one family that listens to His ways. If you were God and saw your creation so defiled, so run amok, what would you do? Remember, Adam was kicked out of the Garden of Eden only a few thousand years ago. It is really not a long time.

Neither was it a long drawn out event with first Woman, then Adam. Woman did not have a flippy when a snake talked to her and Adam did not hesitate to follow. Each was taught, they were aware of the enemy. They are told to “keep, tend, and guard,” the garden.

To keep: means to keep it in order for someone else.

To tend: means to tend the plant and animal life so it is well.

To guard: As they are the only humans, are they to guard from wild animals? Possible but not likely. The garden was a fenced area.

So, who were they to guard it from? Satan is the only enemy, and a good Father tells His children what to guard against. Would God have done less?

Teenagers get full of themselves, thinking they are more mature than they are, yet they have not learned to think properly. They have not had enough life experience and so rely upon the experience of their parents. If they are trusting and obedient, they will listen to their parents and see the truth about the situation.

However, when they are determined to have their own way, they disobey and do what they think is needed for the situation. Their behaviour is dictated by the situation rather than by rules or knowing what they should do. Actions are justified due to the situation, not right or wrong.

And that is what exactly happened in the Garden. They were grabbed by the moment and did not stop to reason by what they knew. Instead, they allowed themselves to make a choice they knew they should not because the words were pleasing and sounded reasonable. The fruit was pleasant to the eye and said to make one wise.

Wise in what? They never stopped to inquire; they just ran with it, like children without self-discipline.

Like children, they knew they were in trouble. They realized they were naked (became centred on self) and made cloths. They hid as a naughty child would hide from their parent and, when confronted, blamed another, like children. Immaturity never takes responsibility for one's actions.

What do you think Adam and Woman did when they left the Garden, away from the presence of their Father, away from all they knew? Do you think they had a good cry or a rip-roaring fight? Do you think they realized all the consequences of their Father's curse? Let us look at it exactly.

TO SATAN:

Snake is cursed above all domestic and wild things
To lose their legs and shall travel on their belly. Always eating dust.
Put enmity between Satan and her offspring. Satan wanted man to follow him and believe in him.
The curse means that man would wish nothing to do with Satan, he would have to work hard to convince man otherwise. He wanted man to follow him but it would be through man that he would be defeated.
(Jesus) would bruise and tread Satan's head under his feet and Satan would try to destroy the coming of Jesus (done in the killing of all males in Bethlehem and other attempts to destroy the line of descendants.)

TO WOMAN:

Multiplied grief and suffering in pregnancy (pain in childbearing)
Shall desire her husband despite the pain of childbearing
Her husband shall rule over her

TO ADAM:

The ground is under a curse because of him
The toil of it, the problems shall be all the days of man
Thorns, thistles are brought forth (growth of things not needed, harmful, overtaking, bitter) shall eat the plants of the fields
It shall always require great work to gain food. Nothing would come easy.
Womans name becomes Eve (life-spring)

God then made them long tunics of skins and then sent them out of the Garden.

Do you think they moped around? Probably for a bit, then what? What do children who disobey and quit school do? They can get arrogant and say, “I will show you.” They work and try to do well by saying, “I can do it, see!” Yet, because of their lack of proper knowledge and and their youngness, they are forced to deal with things before their time, learn the best they can, and and do the best they can. And they find out that it is never enough.

There would be great emotional issues. Anger and bitterness would be encountered. Great doubt, fear, uncertainty, and shame would be present. Yet, we do not read that they hated each other. Instead, we read of them building a home, domesticating animals, and tilling the ground. When Eve had children, she accepted them as gifts from God.

Adam lived 930 years. In time, that sounds like a long time, but for what we were created for, it is but a blink.

A quotation from Clarke's Commentary shows that it would have been possible for Adam and Eve, in the more than 100 years he estimates may have elapsed since their union, to have had over 32,000 descendants when Cain went to Nod. Genetics is absolutely pure, and so Cain and Abel would have married sisters. There is no incest, not until much later when genetics is really messed up.

If you think about it, man's history is that of a man trying to have dominion over his world and figure out how things were meant to be. Man's mental capacities may have diminished, but man was meant to work with and understand his world. The understanding became corrupted as God no longer ruled man's soul.

When children are rebellious and leave home for whatever reason, the parent has a choice. They can cut off the child or wait and leave open doors for the child to visit. They hold back their anger and disappointment while they hope the child grows up. Eventually, by the open doors left, there is the encouragement to return and build a different relationship. The child chooses to come to the parent and talk. The child chooses to listen to the parent's wisdom and can begin to say, “I was wrong.” Why?

Because the parent never locked the door to the child. Boundaries and rules still apply, but because of love, the child returns with a heart softened by life and reality. Understanding our needs, that we need to be taught, that we need a certain type of knowledge is the result of time. Time to grow up. Only the growing up comes outside the parent's protection and may not always include nice.

And that is where my story comes in, your story. We, too, are given this gift of choice. We, too, can be rebellious and “leave” before we should. We think we are grown up, able to handle life, only to discover that we know very little. The requirements of life are more than we can handle, more than we know.

It is in the realization of this lack that we seek Truth. Truth is universal, it is what is real. How we choose to seek is up to us. Even what we choose to believe is up to us. There is a gift in choice. What we do with these things is up to us.

Read Genesis. It is the beginning. Think of it. When you plan a business, you make the rules, boundaries, and ways the business will run. There are principles and foundations built at the beginning. Build a house without a foundation, and you will have a haphazard house. Nothing is solid; it is temporary and not meant for long dwelling.

Yet man was created with the idea of long dwelling on the earth. When Adam disobeyed, his time became short-term. Just not right away.

Adam was not ready for the knowledge of good and evil; he could not handle it and make the right choices. His sons and daughters would have the same problem.

They were like little children introduced to sexuality, thinking that made them grown-up when in reality, they could not take care of themselves because they were little children. Yet Adam did not give up on God. Despite his first choice of disobeying, Adam chose to walk with and honour God in his life.

In the birth of Cain, Eve might have thought that her first son was to be the deliverer of her sin. There is no proof of this thought except the name Cain (life bringer). Yet, do you think Adam and Eve understood the consequences of their son Cain's attitudes? For surely Adam spoke of where he and Eve came from and the consequences of their rebellion. Do you think Adam and Eve understood the rivalry between their sons and their different attitudes?

Abel is not said to be greater in knowledge than Cain. Abel is a keeper of sheep, and Cain is a tiller of the ground. Now, if anyone thinks that sheep are easier than farming, they ought to look in an encyclopedia. There are many varieties of sheep, but they all require a lot of care and work. They are subject to all sorts of problems that require them to be manhandled.

Yet God had made it clear to Adam what was acceptable and what was not. Cain would have grown up seeing his father sacrifice to God. He would have seen all the requirements. Yet, in taking the things of the earth, which were cursed, and offering them to God in place of the blood sacrifice required, Cain rejected God's ways.

IF YOU DO WELL, WILL YOU NOT BE ACCEPTABLE? AND IF YOU DO NOT DO WELL, SIN CROUCHES AT YOUR DOOR; ITS DESIRE IS FOR YOU, AND YOU MUST MASTER IT. (Gen.4: 7) Amp.

This is what God told Cain before Cain killed his brother. Both make their offerings, and Cain does his own thing. When his offering is not acceptable, what does he do? He gets mad. And then he invites his brother to a field, where he kills him. And that is how man has gone since. It is Cain's attitude, heart, and ways that man went. This attitude was carried within man on to the Ark of Noah, and it follows to this day.

These things must be understood to have sanity and life. For if your life has been full of the attitudes of Cain, whether from others or yourself, then deliverance is needed from its prison.

I can sit and write about these things. I can write of life that I know. Life was extremely not nice, from the start. It was full of extreme want and violence. Hunger and cold and violence. To that was I born, and from that did I learn to survive. Yet it left many problems that man can not fix. They are in my soul. We are a myriad of holes and hasty patches. This is the fabric of my being.

What was yours made of?

We (me, myself & I) are different. Yet, we are not.

Once I allowed myself to look past my personal story, I began to see that everyone else had a story. In that, I began to understand. I have never seen half a hole; pain is pain; nothing is ever slightly devastated. Life devastated me, and now, by the grace of God, I will learn to pick up the pieces.

Yes, I look in all directions. I get messed up with some pretty bad choices. Yet, I believe that God put an ounce of fight in me. An ounce that, if I choose to follow it, despite the hurt, the pain, the confusion, would give me life—more than survival, more than existence. Life!!!

Due to others (parents, society), life put me in a place where I was not accepted, not worth loving, and not bothering with. Yet, due to my existence, I knew I was here. Yet what for? Certainly not just to be mean, mad and hateful, which life had made me and I had followed.

Hollow, like Adam was I. And I wanted to know why.

Who should I blame for my life? All the things that were stolen, not given? All the pain? To whom should I put it upon? A human? Man can not carry himself much less the burden of me, humanity. What then?

I have read and studied. I have inquired about witchcraft and shamanism. I have inquired about what Budda or Mohammed offered. I have inquired about Judaism and Christianity. I have played with meanness and madness. I have played with money and guns. I have played with people's hearts. And yet, in my heart, I knew it was not right. And so I looked at beliefs.

I looked at where they came from, what they taught, and what the teaching brought to the people and the country. I looked at the military, political, and spiritual forms they operated. Then, I looked at what the forms brought, each in its subject. I sought truth, and Truth found me. If it is Truth, it is universal.

It does not matter whether it is the language or the customs. Kindness is kindness, love is love, and caring for your fellow man is exactly that. Standing for right, having integrity, honesty, and wisdom are what they are.

Looking to be the best that you personally can be. Testing, pushing your limits and learning to take one step back so you have reserves. Yet, like Adam, we have a choice. And, like Adam, we decide where our soul will reside for eternity.

There are worlds of life within life. There is more history than is written in history. Everyone has their story, while the town, city, or nation has its. Nothing exists by itself. Man was created to have fellowship with God, as were the angels in heaven. Fallen angels can not be redeemed, but fallen man can.

Think of it. Angels were in the presence of God, yet they wanted it not. Angels, like man, was created with purpose and Lucifer is the one who brought sin, (living outside the blueprint), into being. It was not an overnight affair. All angels were given time to make up their minds as to whom they would listen and serve. Then, they were dealt with.

Man was not in the constant presence of God, though they have the covering of God and His Spirit dwelling in them. Man also was given a choice. He was meant to live eternally in God's presence, yet he was created to live on earth.

If you think that Jesus was asked to die for man after the Garden, I believe that is wrong. For in the many blueprints of the universe and all that it contains are all the possible choices for any given situation. Jesus knew before the creation of the universe what the possibilities were. A creator can not be a Creator if these things are not allowed.

Jesus still agreed and worked with and for His Father in the universe's creation.

There is no separating God and the sciences. For the knowledge of ONE makes all subjects in science.

Those we know and many we may not yet be aware of. Living and figuring out what Adam left us with is an adventure.

I do not know about you, but I got tired of shallow living, being mean and mad enough to have no regard for life, morals, knowledge, or sense of living. I challenged God, “Are You real?” He showed me His reality in my everyday life. How did I do it? By taking a shot at believing what the Bible says—not Christianity but God.

I am a follower of Jesus, who may be called a Christian. Yet, I do not always stand with Christianity, corrupted, divided, and compromised as it has become. I studied and learned to separate that which is of man and that of God. I hunt for those who wish for Truth and understanding like me. They live what they believe; the Spirit of God dwells in them.

They are not always perfect, yet they persist in following their beliefs. Good times and bad times, they have come to know that they can do many things, but they can not figure out how to make their own dirt. Life is more than they know, and they acknowledge it.

LITTLE SAYINGS THAT HELP ME.

Do your best and learn to let god do the rest.

Your best today may not be the same tomorrow; so, when it is tomorrow; do your best anyway.

We are all cut from the same cloth, with a variety of differences weaved in each.

Learn what is my job; gods job; and others job. Then, when others do not do their job, to leave them with prayer to god; for that is his job, and to make sure I still do my job.

Only I can learn to live in my skin, it is mine to own, choose what I do with it.

God always holds me, even when my brain lies to me or gives me other hard times.

I will have all the time I need to live to do all I should do and all I should learn. Not one minute more, not one minute less.

The adventure is in learning to live each day so that when I see Jesus, he will tell me, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

Think of the library of knowledge in heaven. There is the “land of answers and healing.”

Jesus is my master. I gratefully acknowledge that I would have no sanity, life without him. He is my balance.

FOR GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD THAT HE GAVE HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN SON. SO THAT WHOSOEVER BELIEVES ON HIM,
SHALL HAVE ETERNAL LIFE AND NOT PERISH. (John 3; 16) Any version.

My life is based on this belief. It is the cornerstone of my belief.

Again, if you do not know what you believe or do not care, why are you upset when life is not right? Anyone who thinks they can make their own dirt has yet to prove it. Me, I will continue to look for life lessons. Why?

BECAUSE THE ADVENTURE IS LEARNING TO BE THE BEST YOU WERE MEANT TO BE IN ALL THAT YOU WERE MEANT TO BE.

THE REALITY IS THAT THE ADVENTURE CONTINUES AFTER DEATH FOR THOSE WHO BELIEVE THE WORDS OF THE BIBLE
AND ENDEAVOUR TO LIVE IT.

Chapter Eleven

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Make Your Own Dirt!