Greeting. As I start off this new letter looking forward to the good things God wants to reveal to me: from his good word. Psalm 84:11For the Lord God is a sun and shield: the Lord will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly. Grace is when God is revealing His words unto us and when we see His image hidden in His words: we behold His glory and not our own. 2 Corinthians 3:18But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. Our vain images will be our own thoughts or our witness on God’s words, and they are our [1 Corinthians 15:34] shame. Isaiah 44:9 They that make a graven image are all of them vanity; and their delectable things shall not profit; and they are their own witnesses; they see not, nor know; that they may be ashamed. The images here need not be anything physical, but an image is formed in the mind as to the character of God, as we read His word. Our own counsel is vain spiritual knowledge and is sweet or delectable unto us, yet it can never profit in the knowledge of God and we only profit in the things of this world. Mark 8:36 For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Spiritually when we walk [Psalm 84:11] uprightly we are no longer seen as a beast in God’s eyes. Psalm 73:22So foolish was I, and ignorant: I was as a beast before thee.

END OF INTRODUCTION

 I recall as a kid going skiing on a class field trip: I could hardly sleep that night for the excitement. As the dawning of the day came about; was the first time I ever saw the sun rise and it was beautiful. Ecclesiastes 7:11Wisdom is good with an inheritance: and by it there is profit to them that see the sun. The verse is saying is: that God’s wisdom which is above the sun or heavenly and nothing about a physical sun. Lately Churches have adopted a strange saying: Sunset Services, replacing the word funeral. Yet if we never see God’s hidden glory in His word: we have only seen the things under the sun or man’s glory. When God has never made His glory known unto us: when we physically die we return to the dust. Jesus never preached a funeral: He knew man was already Spiritually dead. Matthew 8:21And another of his disciples said unto him, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father.Matthew 8:22But Jesus said unto him, Follow me; and let the dead bury their dead. When we begin to follow the wisdom from above we are no longer following the dead earthly wisdom of this world. Ecclesiastes 9:13This wisdom have I seen also under the sun, and it seemed great unto me. The wisdom King Solomon spoke of in the above verse is man’s wisdom concerning God’s word. Our own wisdom concerning things in the Bible appears great unto us because it’s our own glory. James 3:15This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. Until we learn to hate our earthly, sensual, devilish wisdom, we will never see the new wisdom or things from above. King Solomon in the next verse expresses the deep hatred he had for his wisdom in this world. Ecclesiastes 2:17Therefore I hated life; because the work that is wrought under the sun is grievous unto me: for all is vanity and vexation of spirit. Vain man does the opposite of the above verse and loves his wisdom about the Bible: which is under the sun. We have these words vex and grieve in the above verse and how might we spiritually compare them with other similar verses. We grieve the Holy Spirit when we forsake His council concerning God’s words and go our own way.Proverbs 15:10 Correction is grievous unto him that forsaketh the way: and he that hateth reproof shall die. Hardly nobody wants to be reproved or corrected even in physical matters, let along in Spiritual things. I recall as a student in school: how I hated those red correction marks on my test papers. Was not it satisfaction enough for the teacher to just have put the letter F, at the top of the page? Vexation has nothing to do with anything physical, but the condition of our hearts. As a kid a song writer sang: when you have a heart ache there is nothing you can do. This he sang concerning physical relationships. Ecclesiastes 2:22For what hath man of all his labour, and of the vexation of his heart, wherein he hath laboured under the sun?

PART 1

Ecclesiastes 1:9The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun. So, try as foolish men will, with all types of strange doctrines or teaching: he has not seen the wisdom from above. And sunset services should be called: dust to dust services. Genesis 2:7And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. Unless God quicken His words unto us our living souls dies and returns to the dust. Genesis 3:19in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. Here God plainly states that man is just mere dust; unless His Spirit adds water to that dust. We will return to this water and dust connection as we progress. Is there anything more useless as dust? Man! Numbers 5:17 and the priest shall take holy water in an earthen vessel; and of the dust that is in the floor of the tabernacle the priest shall take, and put it into the water. Spiritually man is an earthen vessel and Jesus is our Great High Priest and the Churches of today claim to be the Bride of Christ. Thus, God takes dust or us and we are to be the spiritual earthen vessel of his Holy Ghost. 2 Corinthians 4:7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us. In order to have this treasure from God we will have suffer great persecution from our own thoughts. But our God is a very jealous God, and he tests us. Numbers 5: 14and the spirit of jealousy come upon him, and he be jealous of his wife, and she be defiled: or if the spirit of jealousy come upon him, and he be jealous of his wife, and she be not defiled:15 then shall the man bring his wife unto the priest, [Spiritually the wife or bride is to be undefiled having not lied with the thoughts of another man] and he shall bring her offering for her, the tenth part of an ephah of barley meal; he shall pour no oil upon it, nor put frankincense thereon; for it is an offering of jealousy, an offering of memorial, bringing iniquity to remembrance. God words are Spiritual living water that cleanses us when we spiritually partake of it otherwise it causes a curse. Ephesians 5:26
that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word. If we continue to hear God’s words in our own wisdom, it becomes our self-righteousness which is iniquity. Psalm 51:2 Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. We ask God Spirit now as He brings these deep things together for us. Number 5:17and the priest shall take holy water in an earthen vessel; and of the dust that is in the floor of the tabernacle the priest shall take, and put it into the water: 18 and the priest shall set the woman before the Lord, and uncover the woman’s head, and put the offering of memorial in her hands, which is the jealousy offering: and the priest shall have in his hand the bitter water that causeth the curse. The woman here symbolizes the church and not a physical woman. Numbers 5:19 and the priest shall charge her by an oath, and say unto the woman, If no man have lain with thee, and if thou hast not gone aside to uncleanness with another instead of thy husband, be thou free from this bitter water that causeth the curse. The modern Church has gone aside to the unclean thoughts of the carnal mind concerning the scripture; she’s been with another man or the old man of sin: the carnal mind. NOW SHE IS CURSED! Deuteronomy 27:26Cursed be he that confirmeth not all the words of this law to do them. And all the people shall say, Amen. We are commanded to confirm to say the same things God is saying about his word; not some of them but all of them: otherwise, we are cursed. Jeremiah 11:3 and say thou unto them, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel; Cursed be the man that obeyeth not the words of this covenant. I went to Churches for 25 years to be cursed my Preachers that couldn't confirm none of God's word, even if their life depended on it and spiritually it did. God never hired them; only other men and we rejoiced in their foolishness. Matthew 20:7 They say unto him, Because no man hath hired us. He saith unto them, Go ye also into the vineyard; and whatsoever is right, that shall ye receive. One hired Preacher said years ago, and he was saying it against himself unknowingly ‘’that God will fire you and leave you on the job.’’ Yet even until today he stills proclaim his own wisdom is God’s words. Malachi 2:2If ye will not hear, and if ye will not lay it to heart, to give glory unto my name, saith the Lord of hosts, I will even send a curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings: yea, I have cursed them already, because ye do not lay it to heart. The curse God will send unto us, will be our own wisdom: which cannot save us from ourselves. Numbers 5:27 And when he hath made her to drink the water, then it shall come to pass, that, if she be defiled, and have done trespass against her husband, that the water that causeth the curse shall enter into her, and become bitter, and her belly shall swell, and her thigh shall rot: and the woman shall be a curse among her people. Have the Churches of today spiritually been with another man? We are commanded to allow God’s words destroy the man of sin within all of us. Yet we have failed, and he liveth and mocks the true things of God on anu given Sunday. Romans 7:3So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man. Part 1 of 3   Michael Rudolph Hodges  1/31/2023

 

 

DUST OR THINGS NEVER SEEN ABOVE THE SUN