You're Fertilizer

Genesis 3:19 "In 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."

God took care of Adam's self-esteem! You see, Adam was puffed up after he gained reason. He came up with very good logical reasons why he should have what he wanted to have and do what he wanted to do. Scripture says that Adam and Eve would be "as gods" (Genesis 3:5).  How are gods?

 Psalm 10:4 "The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts."

In plain English gods are those with a predisposition to be wicked people full of pride where God is squeezed out.  In this case "pride" is the feeling of self importance and a desire for others to see you as important. Prideful people are self invested and use others to compound their interest in themselves.

Get off your pedestal, those filled with self-esteem! If it wasn't for one key ingredient you would be fertilizer. Not even good fertilizer, but dust (see Figure #1)!  When you die you again become what you were before... mere dust of the ground, except for one ingredient (not shown in the chart).

Figure #1: From Wikipedia :Human Composition"

You can see that you have some good stuff in you, but very little. Upon death you pretty much evaporate into the atmosphere. The rest of you is absorbed into the soil, but there is just a trace of you doing even that!  Are you feeling important? You shouldn't be... if it wasn't for that one thing: GRACE!

Another thing not shown in the chart is "human potential" . When you're born you have the "potential" to be sinful, but grace is when God said to his creation "You are more than dust to me! I love you and have a better use for you than mere fertilizer!"

Ecclesiastes 12:7 "Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it."

There is an ingredient which resides in each of us that science cannot measure. It's there, but it's supranatural! It's "spirit"! When God made you in "their image", you were endowed with mind (God), body (patterned like Jesus) and spirit (within the soul). Actually, your "soul" is the "cup" for the spirit, but there are two kinds of spirit: of God and those which are evil.

Therein lies the human potential. You can either be "of God" or "of Satan". The one ingredient that determines whether you will be mere fertilizer with a soul to stoke the fires, or an everlasting source of spiritual energy, is GRACE. Because God loves you so much that he wants you to be the latter:

 John 3:16 "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."

"Whosoever" includes you! He gives you a chance. All that is required of you is that you "believe" in the sense that you are willing to accept and trust him for your future. That future is called "hope" because no human wants to eternally perish! Our hope then is that we shall be saved and have everlasting life! That is our "potential" composition!

You might say that there is no heaven nor hell. Because you say it doesn't make it so! If you accept God's Truth, you shall be saved. That's a win/win situation! If you deny Jesus, and are wrong, you face eternal damnation. If you are right, you merely turn to fertilizer; having even little nutrients! The gamble here is that if the unbeliever is right, "welcome to my corn field". If you're wrong, then "stoke that fire!"

I must admit: the reason I accepted Jesus is because I feared both alternatives. I feared the fires of hell, but I also feared returning to the dust  while moldering in the grave! Because I wanted to live forever, I have faith that God's Holy Word is true! Finally, because he gives me hope, I love him in return! He does expect that gratitude.

People feed their lawns 10-10-10 fertilizer which are the available amounts of nitrogen, potassium and potash, respectively in the mix. Perhaps the number of the beast is merely 6-6-6 which is merely six parts pride, six parts rebellion and six parts hateful! Don't be mere fertilizer, depend on the richness from Jesus!