I had a car accident when I was a teenager. I was really upset because we were a financially struggling family. It was a an old car and it was all my parents had to offer me. As I stood before my dad telling him about the fender bender I was trying to hold back the tears. My dad who was a man of few words looked at me and said, “We can replace the car, but we cannot replace you.” I was stunned by those words.
This was a message I did not fully understand until later in life. I thought and treated the car like it was a life and death thing. When you are raised poor every material thing becomes so valuable that a subconscious thought and feeling is attached to that object as life or death. I cannot live without it because I cannot replace as others can. The car was as old as me at the time and I did not care. I was glad just to have a car.
In reality the car was “Just Stuff” compared to me in my father’s eyes. Understanding this puts things in perspective. Having all the money in the world could be nice, but in the end it is “Just Stuff“. The only thing you can keep inside your spirit is the precious memories you have created with those you love. If you want to take your money with you when you die. You can have your spouse to write you a check and put it in your coffin, but you cannot put your money literally inside your spirit.
You can look at your vehicle(s), your home(s), your land(s), your clothes, your jewelry(s), your tools, and all other physical things you possess with an attitude of being blessed, but in the end they are “Just Stuff” that someone else will decide what to do with them. I am still here for now, but the car is long gone.
This is where God began to get my attention about what He thinks is “Just Stuff“. I had never thought about what God calls “Just Stuff“. He immediately took me back to the beginning when He created the heavens and the earth. What do you think God considers “Just Stuff“?
Gen. 1:4 “And God saw the light, that it was good…” God looked at the sun seeing the light coming from it and called it good. The physical sun was okay, but the light was good. The physical sun was “Just Stuff“, but the light was more important. Seeing past the surface is the perception and understanding God loves for us to see.
Gen. 1:10 “And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called the Seas: and God saw that it was good.” The land and water was okay, but the gathering together in coexist was good. The dirt and water was okay, but it was “Just Stuff“. The ability for the opposites to coexist was more important. You can be different and exist as one without controversy. Our body has many different parts, but coexist as one.
Gen. 1:12 “And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good.” The grass, herbs, and trees yielding from its own seed was okay, but the procreating after its own kind was good. The grass, herbs, and trees were “Just stuff“. The multiplying creation after its own kind was good. God loved procreation from within itself.
Gen 1:18 “And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good.” The rotating the sunlight and darkness was okay, but the rule dividing the two was good. The taking turns of light by day and darkness by night was “Just Stuff“, but what was good to God was the rule of separation of light and darkness.
Gen. 1:21 “And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good.” The whales, other water living things, and the winged birds moving was physically okay, but again it was the abundantly bringing forth after their own kind God saw as good. It was the abundance of life in the water and in the air that was good. All about the life.
Gen 1:25 “And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.” The physical beast, cattle, and every thing that moves on the earth was again okay and “Just Stuff” of the physical realm, but what was the beauty to God was the reproducing life after its own kind that was good.
Gen. 1:26 “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.” Gen. 1:27 “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.” Gen 2:7 “And 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.“
God had no one else like Him to talk to at this point in creation. The angels were not like Him. The light, darkness, grass, herbs, trees, creatures of the water, land or air were not like Him. God is a Spirit with All Knowledge, All Power, and All Presence. God wanted something like Him with knowledge, power, and presence. This is where mankind came into being from the land, water, and air.
God made man from the earth in an image of Himself if He were to be of a physical form, hence you have Jesus the man came into being later on. God made man from the three elements of the earth, the water, and the air creating a physical body, but the most important part was the eternal soul inside that was good to God. The image and likeness in body form to God’s Spirit was “Just Stuff“, but the eternal unique soul inside was the most important.
God made man to where He could easily replace any physical part, but the eternal soul was like unto Him with knowledge, power, and presence. God created inside of man the light separated from darkness, coexisting as one with water, land, and air. God created man with the ability of procreation. God put everything like unto Himself in man reflecting Him as their Father. The body of mankind is okay, but development of the eternal soul was more important and good to God. You will see the value come out later on.
All the physical things were okay, but the spiritual things from them were good to God. It was the light shining separately in the darkness of space. It was the water and land coexisting as one. It was the land procreating grass, herbs, and trees producing after its own kind. It was the set rule of rotating moments with light and darkness. It was the water and the air procreating life after its own kind. It was the land procreating creatures after its own kind. It was a son like unto Himself procreating, having a portion in His knowledge, His Power, and His presence as a ruler over all the earth.
All the physical things was “Just Stuff“. It was the spiritual side of things like the light separated from darkness. It was the procreating life of water, land, and air. God can replace any of these things, but He cannot replace the eternally unique soul in you. All these things come from within themselves as a reflection of all things comes from within God Himself. It is a within within type creation.
Gen. 1:31 “And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.” The physical side to all things were okay and “Just Stuff” to God. The spiritual function God’s Knowledge, Power, and Presence was the most important to the life of all things after its own kind. He enjoyed the flourishing flow of life inside all things.
When mankind made a bad choice and wrecked the car so to speak, God could have easily have said, I can replace all things, but I cannot replace your eternal unique soul. I can move heaven and earth, but your eternal soul can only be saved by the free will choices you make. If I provide another choice.
Adam and Eve sinned against God by breaking the spiritual rule of eating and mixing the fruit of the knowledge of evil with His knowledge of good within them. God had warned this one tree would bring death. Here is where you see God’s values and what is “Just Stuff” to Him.
DEALING WITH THE WRECK
God dealt with the serpent for tempting the woman to sin making him cursed above all creatures for the rest of his life Gen. 3:14 “And the Lord God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:” Your physical life will be of the lowest of low.
Your spiritual life will be an enemy to the woman with a hatred that he will crush your head as you bruise his heel. Gen. 3:15 “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.”
God was not worried about the sun, moon, and stars at this moment. He was not looking at the water with streaming life or the land of grass, herbs, and trees. All this is “Just Stuff” He can recreate them anytime. What are these physical things that can pass away compared to the eternal things? God has locked onto something that is most important to Him.
Sin has captured what God values the most. Sin is going to torture what God loves the most. The pain of childbirth is not the issue. The cursed ground of the earth with thorns and thistles is not the main concern. The eating in sorrow, the laboring sweat, and returning to the dust of the earth in death is not the issue. Gen. 3:16-19
All physical things can be replaced, but I cannot replace your eternal unique soul headed to a place that was meant only for the devil and his demons. God has made our eternally rock solid soul in our bodies by the breathe of His Spirit like no other creation has been created. Everything is “Just Stuff“, but not our soul with God. We are His children. We carry His Knowledge, Power, and Presence like no other.
NOT JUST STUFF
If you will notice God said, Gen. 3:15 “And I will…“. This is personal with God. Everything after “And I will…” means God will personally deal with it. I will put hatred towards an enemy in the generations to come towards sin and evil. I will create a male seed of the woman to deal a death blow to the head of sin while you will be just a bruise to his heel. Gen. 3:15 “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.”
Okay, devil you brought it to my children and now I am going to bring it to you. I will come in the flesh of a man that will constantly crush your temptations, do and say the right thing pleasing to my Spirit. He will pay the price of death for the sin debt of mankind and rise again opening a doorway to heaven for my children to be set free. The gates of hell shall not prevail against this truth.
It’s not car, the house, or things of the earth. I am not coming to save the world. It is “Just Stuff” to me. I have come for my children. The man Jesus will have all of Me inside Him. Col. 2:9 “For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.” I will be inside Jesus reconnecting My children to Me with forgiveness. 2 Cor. 5:19 “To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.“
The soul purpose God wanted to be in Jesus personally was Heb. 2:14 “Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;” 15 “And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.“
The Light, the land separated from water; the land vegetation; rule over day and night; separate light and darkness; creatures of water and air procreate; creatures of land procreate, and man and woman procreate was not the real stuff God was looking as the most valuable. It was and is the eternal soul of His children inside mankind. The greatest treasure to God is our unique souls and personalities.
God was in the man Jesus the whole time. When Jesus the man was dying on the cross Mtt. 27:46 “…cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” was the moment that all the sins of mankind God left to the man Jesus to encapsulate inside his pure innocent Lamb’s blood of Life the payment for our eternal debt to death, hell, and the grave.
God made Jesus the man with the earth, blood, and air we need to be born again. Everything was “Just Stuff” with God. This is what God values the most – your life. This is why God put salvation inside of Jesus. Jesus has the flesh that resurrected from the grave to die no more. Jesus has the blood with the power to wash away all sins. Jesus has the power of the Spirit of God rebirth our lost eternal soul with resurrection power.
Water, land, and air of the earth is replaceable. Our bodies with a repented soul being baptized in water in Jesus name is the ONLY way our sins will be washed away and a symbolism of being buried in death with him only to come up out of the water like unto a resurrection with him. The blood is inside the name of Jesus. In our praise and worship of God through Jesus is the ONLY way we can be born of the Holy Spirit with power enough to change our eternal soul fulfilling the born again of the water and of the Spirit.
God made us in a way He cannot replace our soul, but He can make a way for our soul to be reborn anew maintaining the uniqueness of our character He originally created. This is why God had Jesus the man to say to us, Jn. 14:6 “…I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” Acts 4:12 “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” Jesus is the only one powerful enough to pay our total debt.
God as the Father of creation from the beginning made this personal from the Gen. 3:15:“And I will…” to God inside Jesus on the cross Jn. 19:30 “…It is finished…” to us God in the Holy Spirit Acts 1:8 “But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you…“
My dad, “We can replace the car, but we cannot replace you.” The car is “Just Stuff“, but your soul is worth more than the world. My God, I can replace your fleshly body, but I cannot replace your soul. I can only offer a free choice to be born again in your spirit. It is your choice to Acts 2:38 “…Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.“
ALL OF CREATION IS “JUST STUFF” TO GOD. “YOU” ARE HIS TREASURE!