An excerpt from “Dust to Dust: Lessons from the Land” – I hope that no matter where you are or what you’ve done these truths from Scripture might encourage you today to keep pressing forward onto the Cross and our Saviour, Lord Jesus Christ.
His sacrifice for us, our salvation for ever.
His relinquishment of life, our redemption in life.
His blood given for us, His beauty graced in us.
Genesis 4:10-12 tells us that the ground cried out from the pain of the blood of Abel, whom Cain had murdered in jealousy. Just as God used the ground to carry His message to Cain, He can do the same for us today. God can use soil in all our lives as a reminder of His grace, whether it’s under our feet or in our souls. For His grace can redeem and change all of us from the ground up. And this change isn’t confined to the soil of our souls but can reach out from us into the entire world, just as Jesus commanded in Matthew 28:19-20. For the soil under our feet and in our souls can display the strength of God’s great love displayed at creation and then daily to every single one of us who’s lived on earth since then.
Not even murder could separate Cain (or any of us) from God’s love for all of us. Nor returning to dust in Genesis 3 in death can keep any of us from the great love of God found in Christ Jesus (see Romans 8:38-39). And it is this great love for us that prompted Jesus to make the comparison of evil in thinking to being equivalent to the physical doing of a sin in Matthew 5:27-30. As Christ-followers, we are commanded to be in control of all of our choices, including our thoughts (see 2 Corinthians 10:5). With that idea in mind, is the soil of your soul now crying out to you in remembrance of the murders you’ve committed in your mind from anger? Or the adultery you’ve done with your eyes in lust? Or the stealing you’ve performed in your heart in envy or jealousy? Or is the blood of other sins now calling out to you to return to our Good God in repentance to receive His forgiveness that can cover every evil (see 1 John 1:9 and Psalm 103:12)? If so, please stop and take some time in confession and prayer to our Good God. He’s always waiting to hear from any and all of us who will come to Him. Only God can meet all our needs from the ground up.
We must never forget that even if the soil of our souls is bloodied from our sins against God and others, this blood is itself covered by the righteous blood of our Jesus (see Romans 3:22-25). It is a gift to us that the blood of our sins will call out to us to bring us to repentance so that we might revel in the righteous blood shed for us. For as Abel’s righteous blood called to Cain then, Jesus’ righteous blood calls to all of us today. And His blood will keep calling to us every day until that glorious day when we see Him face-to-Face at His return or at our return to dust in death.
Nothing can overcome His righteousness; nothing is stronger than His love which compelled the gift of His righteousness for our sin (see 2 Corinthians 5:21).
Today is always the best day to return to Him in repentance for only our Good God can restore and renew us from the ground up, no matter how bloody our lives might be from sin. And that’s the very best news anyone could ever get to nourish the soil of their souls today and every day!
written by and copyrighted to Beth Madison, Ph.D., 2024
Soul Scientist 
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