The Psalmist writes: “When I gaze into the skies and meditate on Your creation — on the moon, the stars, and all You have made, I can’t help but wonder why You care about us mortals — sons and daughters of men — specks of dust floating about the cosmos. What is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them? You have made them a little lower than the angels and crowned them with glory and honor. And You ordained man to govern the works of Your hands, to nurture the offspring of Your divine imagination; You placed everything on earth beneath his feet: All kinds of domesticated animals, even the wild animals in the fields and forests, the birds of the sky and the fish of the sea, all the multitudes of living things that travel the currents of the oceans.”
Could GOD’S DESIRE FOR CREATION CARE be made any clearer than that?
The word translated to nurture in v.6 comes from the Hebrew word: hezin, which literally means: to treat as treasure or to cherish.
I guess the fact that God had NOAH spend a hundred and twenty years to build a massive ark in which to save all the different species, speaks loudest about how much he treasures the creatures of the earth.
God’s heart LITERALLY BURSTS WITH LOVE for man!
It bursts with love for nature and for all the amazing critters he created so marvelously!
And I don’t know about you, but I want to have that same kind of heart, the same love that God has — FOR ALL of creation!
Now — If you missed the last 2 week’s lessons, let me summarize for you what we’ve learned:
We learned that not only do people matter to God, but so do ANIMALS, PLANTS and all of CREATION!
Yes at the end of the day People are what matter most, but never at the expense of the rest of His creation!
Psalm 8 says: God ordained us to govern the works of His hands, to cherish the offspring of this divine creation!
To cherish, to treasure — wow! Think about that for a seond!
In our first lesson we laid A BIBLICAL FOUNDATION for CREATION CARE.
A foundation that is supposed to serve as a basis for our convictions.
A CONVICTION THAT SAYS: Creation Care isn’t just for those who are passionate about nature and animals, but the responsibility of all of mankind and especially those who want to bring glory to God!
Creation care isn’t simply the responsibility of environmentalists, Greenpeace workers, and PETA activists!
Please DON’T MISS this biblical teaching!
Creation care isn’t just for those who are passionate about animals and nature.
CREATION CARE IS THE RESPONSIBILITY OF EVERY ONE WHO IS A BIBLE BELIEVER AND A GOD FOLLOWER!
This is A CONVICTION that I pray you will be filled with as the Holy Spirit speaks into your life through this series!
The first thing we AFFIRMED IN WEEK 1 — is that we believe that ALL of CREATION HAS A CREATOR AND THAT that CREATOR is the GOD of the Bible — The Great I am.
We learned that HE says that — SINCE HE IS THE ONE WHO CREATED IT — IT ALL BELONGS TO HIM!
We also learned that ALL of God’s creation was made to reflect HIS GLORY!
And then THE DRIVING POINT OF THIS SERIES — That:
WE ARE CALLED TO TAKE CARE OF ALL of HIS CREATION in a loving and responsible way!
THEN IN WEEK 2 I highlighted 5 AREAS OF CREATION that especially need our care:
- People — especially those in 3rd world countries and those who work in factories and mines.
- Our PLANET’s SOIL — especially in places such as Ethiopia and China.
- Our FORESTS — especially the forests of Madagascar and Brazil.
- Our WATER RESOURCES that are being polluted at an alarming rate — probably the greatest threat we face on this planet! and
- Our ANIMALS, especially as it pertains to the animals we eat, but also the animals we don’t eat.
Now, today, I want to spend a few minutes on some SOLUTIONS and ways to TAKE ACTION.
BUT FIRSTLY LET ME ADDRESS AN ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM:
- There are those who are naturally passionate about the earth, about nature, about water resources, trees, animals and the well-being of the poor.
- And there are those who aren’t naturally as passionate.
- Many people are just trying to make their own lives work, never mind having the time and energy to pay attention to the myriad of creation care issues!
So it is imperative that we all KEEP 3 THINGS IN MIND:
Some people are activists by nature.
And some people are quick to jump on board while others aren’t.
So keep that in mind — don’t expect everybody to be as passionate as you are about something.
And this is where #2 is so important:
Don’t become judgmental of people who don’t share your convictions.
For ex. Not everybody believes in Climate change and global warming or cooling.
If you do, don’t expect everybody else to.
If you don’t, be careful not to make lite of those who do.
Both camps need to respect one another.
People need time to gather facts and gain convictions.
Sometimes the facts can seem contradictory.
Many people mistrust the conclusions of scientists and find it really hard to know what is true and what is not.
I know in my own life my convictions have come after years of research and all kinds of different influences:
- Videos — believed it was blown out of proportion — isolated cases.
- Grew up thinking all that really matters are people.
- Over the years I’ve come to a place of deeper biblical conviction and passion.
- And it can be tough — It’s hard when you are so different from everybody else on some of these issues.
- It’s hard when people look at you funny or even judgmentally because you don’t eat meat.
- Or they think you are judging them because they do eat meat.
For me I stopped eating meat because of my health.
Before that I tried to make sure that I only bought meat from places that I knew treated their livestock humanely, cherished them — like Callicrate Meats.
But over the years I have become more and more aware of the fact that many large corporations are concealing unethical practices and that everything I buy in the store isn’t necessarily something I can feel good about buying, because:
- It either isn’t good for my body and my body is the temple of God
- Or the company who produces the products have a disregard for either people, the earth or animals or all 3!
So I am very aware of the fact that our passion levels differ and that it’s a process and that it is extremely important that we don’t get into a mode of policing and judging.
Someone asked me a good question this week: I was asked: “What am I trying to accomplish with this series:” My response…
My desire is to create a conviction about the need to pay attention to WHAT we buy, WHICH CORPORATION we buy from and HOW we treat the earth and HOW these companies treat animals.
My desire is to create an awareness that will hopefully bring about investigation and positive change that penalizes the corporations that show no regard for the rights of human beings and animals and reward those who do.
I want us as a church to have a greater awareness about the issues that are harming our planet, our future generations, our animals our flora and fauna and to be a part of the solution.
And speaking of which, let me close out with sharing a few ideas of how we as a church and as individuals can help care better for God’s creation:
I’ll keep this extremely brief.
I HAVE POSTED A LENGTHY LIST of IDEAS ON MY BLOGSITE for you to read if you are interested:
Here’s an example of what you’ll find:
The first idea deals with ways to GREEN OUR CHURH and our COMMUNITY. Ideas such as:
- Starting a recycling program here at church.
- Reducing our paper usage.
- Reducing our waste
- Adopting a piece of neglected land for landscaping.
- Staging a cleanup in our community.
- Planting trees.
- Creating a prayer labyrinth out front.
Like I said, my ideas are posted on my blogsite & on our church’s facebook page.
So please go there and help me out with some more ideas.
And if you are interested in HELPING ME FORM A GREEN TEAM, please contact me and let’s work together on further education and actual projects that we can tackle together!
Email me when Naas Tredoux publishes or recommends stories