Earth Day Sunday
Psalm 24 Kelly Durant 4-22-12
Have you heard the joke
about the scientist and God? In the future it will be possible to take matter
and change it and take the minerals out of the soil to make any element and
even life. For example, today in a lab you can combine chemicals and make
artificial flavors and smells. You can take genes from humans a splice them
into animals and get strange combinations. But the day came that scientists
were proud of their selves and they created a machine that could talk to God.
So they gave God a challenge.
They said, “God you
made Adam from the soil of the earth, and we too can manipulate the chemicals
to make a man. You are not so special after all. Let’s see who can make another
man the fastest?” God said, “I accept this challenge”. The scientists were
ready the next day and said, “Okay, I am taking 150 pound of dirt and 100
pounds of water we will start now.” Then God replied, “Wait! That is my dirt!
You need to make your own dirt!”
Today is earth day! What
an awesome earth God created! Recently in February I shared with you about conserving
God’s resources based on the seminar that was given to the Officers. Today I
will re-emphasize again that God lent to man this earth and we need to take
care of it, consume less, save, and honor God’s creation.
The Salvation Army has
Earth Day on the calendar and the leadership has made it known they expect us
to observe it! (See the Southern Spirit) Why? Because worldwide there are
multimillions of supporters in making the earth a more pleasant place by using
less, recycling, planting trees, and using more renewable resources and we must
agree, this is good!
The earth is not ours
to abuse and to destroy. The scripture says, Psalm 24:1
The earth is the LORD's, and the fullness thereof; the world, and they
that dwell therein.
1The earth is the
LORD's, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.2For he hath
founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the floods3Who shall ascend
into the hill of the LORD? or who shall stand in his holy place? 4He that hath
clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor
sworn deceitfully. 5He shall receive the blessing
from the LORD, and righteousness from the God of his salvation.
We cannot do with God’s
creation anything that we want, it is like a rental property and we must respect
it and be pure in our actions! We must make it produce but not destroy it, and investigate
and not do business with people who are destroying it or abusing!
We should boycott
industries that use slave labor, and pollute excessively!
This respect for
creation is Biblical. But as in all systems, there is always politics in the
middle and sadly certain selected industries have, in the name of being “green”,
made multimillions with government tax money.
This misuse of funds
however, does not mean that we as Christians disagree with the good ideas
behind the green movement and resource conservation; to the contrary! Anyone
not supportive of using fewer resources, stopping pollution, and promoting
natural solutions to our energy problems are being disrespectful to God’s
creation.
But many places exist
where abuses abound and the people are uninformed, indifferent, and shamefully
wasteful. The world’s people cannot go on producing such a high volume of waste
and trash! We need to become more moderate. The earth is getting worn as
in Isaiah 51:6
Lift up your eyes to
the heavens, and look upon the earth beneath: for the heavens shall vanish away
like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment, and they that dwell
therein shall die in like manner: but my salvation shall be for ever, and my
righteousness shall not be abolished.
Like old clothes,
people are wearing out the earth, and it looks faded right now!
What is amazing to me
is how God hardwired every human to love the beauty of the earth and his
creation. The glory of the Lord is in all places! Isaiah 6:3 And one cried unto
another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is
full of his glory. How many of you
have paintings of nature at home?
All cultures have art
that include nature, flowers, farmland, and mountains. As humans we are
awestruck at the wonder of God’s creation! People are beautiful as well! As in
Genesis, God made it all and He said that “It was good!”
I love how many of you
have pretty gardens in your homes as well. Merida, Walter & Reina, Al &
Nikki, and many of you have nice gardens, and this life brings beauty to the
eyes! We need to have a tree planting
day here at the Corps! Right?
When we respect and love our planet and all things in it, we must be
careful so that our adoration does not become extremism and lust. In other
words, celebrating “Earth Day” is respecting God, it is a worship of God for
His creation. But an “Earth Day” without God becomes materialism and lust. We can praise God for the
beauty but not be so caught up in it we lose focus on who made it!
1 John 2:15-17 15Love not the world, neither the things that are in the
world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.16For
all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and
the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. 17And the world
passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth
for ever.
We know from Romans 1 we are never to worship the creation but the
creator!
21Because that,
when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but
became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. 22Professing
themselves to be wise, they became fools, 23And changed the
glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and
to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.
Idolatry is still alive today as some people worship
celebrities, their pets, or as in India, give money to the animal gods. Some
people tattoo animals on their bodies.
It is important you know what other religions believe about
God concerning man’s interactions with the earth and its creatures so you can
appreciate the Bible and Jesus’
liberating salvation as never before! As a Christian you have a healthy view of
God’s earth appreciating all things with a balance!
So in relation to how many others see the earth think of
this. The atheists, or materialists, inspired by Satan’s appetite for
destruction, disrespect God’s creation and abuse and contaminate it and destroy
totally!
These images of contamination you will not find as art
hanging in the living room of anyone! Remember, God did not create this on the
earth when He made it, it is evil man that creates this!
Now on the opposite side of the spectrum: Did you know
there are many religions today with hundreds of millions of followers that
worship the creatures instead of the creator? This includes people, animals,
and even insects?
Let’s look at only one in India. There are
5 million of these people and many have servants and their job is to walk in
front of them and sweep the ground where they are going to walk to be sure they
have swept away any bugs in the way. Why? Because to kill a bug might mean they
would be killing an ancestor and they believe they would be condemned and
severely punished by God for taking a life! After all, who wants to return to
earth after they die and be reincarnated to live as a bug?!
This is animism and obsession, it is not a Judeo Christian
view and therefore false. What they believe is that a part of the spirit of God
lives in the soil, in all inanimate and animate objects, as well as in bugs,
and in the animals in the earth.
This is an extreme mentality in which you are a victim to
nature! Be careful with this because many Hispanic cultures accept this idea
too from past Native Indian & African cultures. Ask yourself do I accept
that an spirit can come out of a chicken or an object and either bless or curse
me? This is a totally Satanic false belief!
This contradicts the command of God in Genesis 1:28And God
blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish
the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over
the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. We have the control!
How you and I understand who God is and how he wants us to
live dominating yet not abusing while on His earth plays a major role in our Christian
testimony!
Some people live destructively for greedy money, while
others live in poverty consuming almost nothing. Balance is what God wants! Gandhi
expressed it well, “The earth has enough for every man’s need but not enough
for every man’s greed!”
I thank God for the Bible that is the absolute truth,
without it, you and I would be trapped in lifestyle of suffering and misery and
guilt for our extreme inter actions. The
majority of the people of the world live consuming and fabricating destruction
in excess or they live in horrible poverty and those who can do nothing about
it!
If there are close to 2 billion Christians then it is a
shame that there are still another 5 billion who are not yet saved and
enlightened and we need to get busy spreading the good news of Jesus! Christians
should use their influence to show how they value God’s creation by recycling,
using less!
It is our job to bring salvation to souls and consequently
we will be conserving all life due to our understanding of being moderate in
all things. Proverbs 23:2 And put a knife to thy throat, if thou be a man
given to appetite.
When we say we value the earth, God’s creation, we are
including all things in it which means people are first, exploited in the sex
trade, in slave labor markets, but also cruelty to animals, and the destruction
of land by raping forests. In Brazil they wash down entire mountains just to
get a few pieces of gold!
Ambitious Godless people with wrong ideologies have always
aggressively contaminated and destroyed the earth in people’s zeal to have
riches or military dominance.
People without God have ambition for power and wealth that
leaves behind a dead zone or a desert! How many hundreds of times God punished
the wicked with no rain, floods, earthquakes, or volcano fire from the sky! Our
mission as Christians is to show we are good stewards of everything in our
personal lives, giving to God, being productive, and not being wasteful. Like
Jesus mentioned with the talents, if you have 5, 10, or only 1 God intends for
you and I to use what we have and make it produce.
But production that involves abuse, extreme waste, is never
for the Christian! Our conscience will not allow us to harm without feeling guilty!
Satan’s favorite is cruelty by abuse of drugs & alcohol, sex, slave labor
exploitation, and thievery. These are things mafias and dictators control and
they are the enemies of God and of you and I!
What will you give up today to save resources? Imagine
taking a shorter shower and you might save $40 on your next light and water
bill! You could send that $40 to some hungry person on the mission field.
Saving, recycling, and having a balance in all of what you do is God’s
standard. Pray to change your habits that may be wasteful in order to be a
better testimony of respecting and loving God’s creation!
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