Green Spirituality: An Earth Day Initiative

Green Spirituality: An Earth Day Initiative                           by Kelly Durant 4-19-15

Psalm 24:1 “The earth is the Lord’s, and all its fullness, The world and those who dwell therein.”

   

2. The color green gets a lot of positive and negative attributes, what comes to your mind? Some might think of the Irish and good luck, some might think of life and plants, some might think of it meaning envy, while others think of an old green man (Spanish slang for a dirty old man)!

    Since this week Earth Day (April 22, 2015) will be commemorated, I find it appropriate to

extrapolate on this subject because as time goes on we keep hearing a lot of media news coverage concerning ‘climate change’ and ‘green initiatives’. Some Christians are confused by it but actually we should pay attention to this subject because the earth’s resources are limited and we should always be respecting all the life (in particular human life) that God created. As Christians it is a part of our testimony to take care of and to not waste that which we are entrusted with! Tending to our planet is God’s idea ever since Adam in the Garden of Eden!

                                                                                                          

     Some people today may consider it ignorant, old superstition, or something only of the Native Indian cultures which I know a few things about, to accept that God has some type of nerve pulse connected to the earth. However, an intelligent person must deduct that a supernatural science is at work maintaining the earth witnessing how all the atomic and ecological systems do not degrade into entropy and oblivion but rather they unexplainably retain their forces, forms, and energy. All natural forces and life forces are God’s creation. And a side note, no thinking Christian should be a Deist to believe that God would wind up the universe like a clock and just let it run on autopilot; instead God at every moment is conscious of every action done by every human being, animal, and plant! (No bird falls ‘to the ground’ without the Father knowing, and you hairs are numbered Matt. 10:29,30)

   To make my point about God feeling through nature, how would one explain these verses concerning the murder of Abel referring to how God expresses that the ground (earth) spoke to Him.  Genesis 4:10 And He said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood cries out to Me from the ground. 11 So now you are cursed from the earth, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. 12 When you till the ground, it shall no longer yield its strength to you. A fugitive and a vagabond you shall be on the earth.

   The clear message here is that God became conscious of Abel’s death because his blood was crying out to Him ‘from the ground’; so the implied here is that God’s connectedness to His nature communicates to Him. From the beginning Satan has deceived thousands of tribes and cultures to spill human blood ‘on the ground’ in sacrifice just to defile God’s ground, insult Him, and His creation!

  3. What other evidence is there in the Bible that God is gravely displeased with man for defiling the earth with death and destruction? One verse that always stood out to be is this one… Revelation 11:18 “The nations were angry, and Your wrath has come, And the time of the dead, that they should be judged, And that You should reward Your servants the prophets and the saints, And those who fear Your name, small and great, And should destroy those who destroy the earth.”

   We must recall that if God created all things, then He does obviously care greatly about everything He made and He is sensitive to protect His own creation just as any of us are vigilant when we create a garden, a painting, or any type of production. Psalm 24:1 “The earth is the Lord’s, and all its fullness, The world and those who dwell therein.” Try to put yourself in God’s place and embrace His pain over what man has done to His creation. God had to destroy the earth which had been defiled by horrific sin once already by a flood, and then God will have to destroy and remake the earth again after the final judgement when He must purge it again by fire. 2 Peter 3:7 “But the heavens and the earth which are now preserved by the same word, are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.” Conclusively we deduct that God recycles, and this material world with its greater and lesser forces has been and will be semi destroyed but renovated in His time! How sad it is that Satan uses people to destroy God’s beautiful creation (and people) with war, abortion, and all kinds of sin!

   This physical plane is a very tangible expression of God revealing innumerous eternal qualities and principles of Himself. People were originally created to live forever in this material world and we were empowered to be the caretakers of this wonderful self-procreating world. It was only after sin entered in that God had to change that and limit the circumstances of us as human beings. Genesis 3: 22 Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever”— 23 therefore the Lord God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken. 24 So He drove out the man; and He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.” 

  Due to the disrespect of God’s one prohibition on man (desiring other knowledge), we as Christians even after Jesus reconciliation are limited to have to wait until our death and resurrection in order to partake of the tree of life again to be eternal in a new body enjoying God’s new heaven and new earth. We are like worms that will one day leave behind our ugly frail flesh to become transformed into a flying butterfly to remain in the spiritual realm of heaven forever! How great is that! Job 25:6 How much less man, who is a maggot, And a son of man, who is a worm?”

   4. All the symphonies of nature’s inter-harmonious relationships are an unexplainable mystery of improbable coincidence! Aren’t you fascinated how the earth sustains life within its multitudes of symbiotic relationships feeding each other? Earth operates with the perfect temperatures from the sun, with the precise amount of mass and magnetic rock, with soils that feed life with bacteria and minerals, with the flow of fresh water and air, all combining together to support the life of plants, people, and animals. Isn’t God generous by permitting man (people) to have dominion over the life and chemicals contained in this spherical spaceship of earth? He intended for us to dominate earth but never to rape the land and defile His nature, nor to kill, torture, and abuse one another!

   Psalm 8:5 “For You have made him (people) a little lower than the angels, And You have crowned him with glory and honor. 6 You have made him to have dominion over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet,7 All sheep and oxen—Even the beasts of the field,”  God gave man intelligence, and honorable Christian men and few years ago increased our science knowledge to understand mysteries and use nature’s resources at an advanced level but God did not have in mind for man to use this intelligence for weapons of mass destruction or for producing lethal toxins which sets nature on a destructive path of imbalance!

   In the past I have preached on how we should consume more in moderation, even mentioning taking a Sabbath day rest to abstain from so much consumption. In The Salvation Army practices, from the top leadership down, Christians are encouraged not to be wasteful but rather as frugal as possible. New policies also require us to build all new structures with the green ratings, and multitudes of ‘minutes’ allow replacement of items only by years of use. I know some people hate being told what they can or cannot buy or consume but as time goes on we do have to conform to society’s limitations for the common well-being of all. Any kind of intentional waste is a sin whether it be a waste of tax dollars, a waste of personal resources, or a waste of the earth’s limited assets.   Currently California has a historic severe drought, so wouldn’t you consider it a sin to water your lawn if there will only be a couple of thousands of gallons of water for the entire neighborhood? (It is a $500 fine too!) We must always be willing to adapt, be frugal, and respect what is for the common good of everyone abolishing greed and abuse. Our own government wastes an estimated $500 Billion annually!

5.  We have covered a tiny bit up until now what it means to be ‘green’ and respect God’s creation, the earth, and all that dwell therein, but let’s go deeper into the subject. How can one be ‘green’ spiritually, as I propose? What is ‘green’ or not green? What is the root cause of the destruction of people and of the nature on earth? Is it not war, greed, and every kind of abuse disrespecting God’s laws? Is it not anti-Biblical errant religious and political practices harbored by many demon possessed people amongst us that oppress entire communities and countries with their ambitions for control, power, and wealth?  Sin is the contaminating element, but sin is not just an individual problem, it is a cultural political sociological and biological damaging problem stemming from ignorance, mis-information, and rebelliousness towards God’s will to love Him and others.

What is the color of sin? Colors psychologically and subliminally send a message to either relax or be agitated, right?  Isaiah 1:18 “Come now, and let us reason together,” Says the Lord, “Though your sins are like scarlet, They shall be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They shall be as wool”. Some whites are so pure they appear blue, thus the blue on the flag of The Salvation Army. I am imagining the color of death to be that of the color of dark dried blood. Colors are always illustrated to make a point.

My idea of achieving a ‘green spirituality’ is that you and I must purge ourselves from wasteful habits to obtain a clean white spirit in tune with God’s will striving to save the souls of humanity with Jesus seeking to relieve the existing sufferings and destruction of nature.

6. Spiritual maturity is absolutely necessary to our health and well-being! We should conserve and have ‘green’ habits. But being on board with what is ‘green’ means different things to different people. To the government it means handing out $100 Billion in tax dollars in green grants to start-up companies that inconsequentially seem to lose all the money by going bankrupt.  So all those billions of green dollars really do not solve much of anything for our energy starved polluted world! To the politician being green is a selling point to get votes with those who agree the earth should be saved. To the individual it means that you and I should feel guilty for not recycling, or for leaving the lights on, or for wasting food or water. What really can be done to save our planet? It all comes down to a one by one frugal example. Philippians 4:5 ‘Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand.’

   To be more ‘green’ in your practical and spiritual life is to be more immersed in the holiness of God! In other words, if you are guided by the Holy Spirit, if you are in tune with God and His creation, it will cause you to be in love with all ‘creation’ to the point  that you will want to protect and save God’s beauty! You need to love the flowers and hate the weeds! With holiness and spiritual maturity it is possible to enjoy and appreciate all the beauty of creation in nature and in people! Contrast God’s creation compared to man’s toxic creations made with grey cement and glass and you may experience the great difference between what is God’s and what is man’s. Cities are a cancer!

Here is a piece of a poem I wrote on man’s creation about 20 years ago. Just gazing out the car window in the city made me realize we are constantly being artificially surrounded so that we are prevented from perceiving the fullness of God’s love through His nature.

Man-made synthetics, minds in stupor,

Redistorted reality, Erase natural knowledge!

What despair in the cement apathy!

Partake and enjoy, converse the silicon minds as they worship fabrications

While mechanical sounds haunt the soul

In this strange world of awry creations

Artificial products, the cocaine of the nonreal economy,

Consume natural beauty!

What pollutions waste victims subtly!

Earth ecology

Shout the endangered as they scheme more machinations,

While neon plastics shade the pain

Of global human limitations.

7. The challenge is for you and I to be more spiritually mature and sensitive to God Himself, and by noticing His earth ‘and the fullness thereof’ so consciously we will be provoked to want to do more to show appreciation and care, even honoring Earth Day. Here is one example of good stewardship and showing care, The Lion’s Club around the world just in the past few years have planted several million trees to help the environment. If Christians and everyone worked together in more projects, we would see huge improvements in the world. General Cox just signed a proposal this past week with the World Bank to ‘eradicate extreme hunger’ by the year 2030. That is an ambitious goal to get on board with!

Being ‘green’ and respecting Earth Day will take on the connotation you want to give it but it is not pagan, secular, or mother earth worship in itself to do something positive to defend God’s creation. It is pagan worship, however, to only honor the creation(s) instead of the Creator. Being respectful and frugal in your management of God’s resources reflects good values and even common sense! If you love God, you will love His nature and make an effort to reduce your consumption or carbon footprint. After all, mankind will sadly reap what he/she has sewn since the brakes are not being applied to this runaway train of excessive wasteful consumption of luxuries in this materialistically consumer driven world of lust and greed! 1 John 2:15 Love 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.16 For 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.17 And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.

Here is an overview of Earth Day according to this website http://www.earthday.org/node/68 ‘The first Earth Day, on April 22, 1970, activated 20 million Americans from all walks of life and is widely credited with launching the modern environmental movement. The passage of the landmark Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, Endangered Species Act and many other groundbreaking environmental laws soon followed. Growing out of the first Earth Day, Earth Day Network (EDN) works with over 22,000 partners in 192 countries to broaden, diversify and mobilize the environmental movement. More than 1 billion people now participate in Earth Day activities each year, making it the largest civic observance in the world.’

8. Many good things have happened since this awareness was emphasized in the 70s. I hate to see things wasted or just tossed in a land fill, don’t you? I grew up in the time when you fixed a radio or TV when it broke. This is one more reason I love the Salvation Army because we accept people’s junk and we refurbish it so it will be useful for someone else! God is in the recycling business! All this is a symbolism of our lives as well! When we became all ugly, scarred and stained with sin and when no one wanted us anymore, it was then that God accepted us and cleaned us up polishing us giving us a new shine and a new start! This is what ‘green’ spirituality is all about!

You and I are called to play a role in the community to ‘preach the gospel to every creature‘(Mk 16:15, and does ‘creature’ imply animals as well?) to get people saved and recycled for God’s use! It is just a given that we do care about the earth and most of all we care about the souls of people here with the same desire that Jesus prayed that (John 17:12) ‘none of them is lost’.

Imagine if more people did their part, then God’s nature would suffer less… (Romans 8:22) “For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.” Save souls, recycle, live ‘green’, conserve resources, and honor God who has entrusted you and I with this amazing planet earth!