Worship the Creator...Not the Creation!

Walking in the Truth . . .                                                        

A (Late) Meditation about Earth Day

Today's Devotional Thoughts

Earth Day 2016 was observed on FRI 4/22. Please do not hold the following against me . . . because it dates me! I remember the first Earth Day observance in 1970.

I was a junior at St. Paul's College High in Concordia, MO. We had an assembly & watched a movie. I can't remember much [actually hardly anything] about the movie, except that it had some wonderful graphics & preached the necessity of caring for the environment. I was moved by it . . . and convinced.

Today's Scriptural Truths

"In the beginning God created the heavens & the earth . . . So God created man in His own image. In the image of God He created him; male & female He created them. God blessed them & said to them, 'Be fruitful & increase in number; fill the earth & subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea & the birds of the air & over every living creature that moves on the ground.'" . . . God saw all that He had made, & it was very good."  Genesis 1:1, 31a

"To Adam [God] said, 'Because you listen to your wife & ate from the tree about which I commanded you, 'You must not eat of it. Cursed is the ground because of you; you will eat of it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns & thistles for you, & you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are & to dust you will return.'"  Genesis 3:17-19

"The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands."  Psalm 19:1

"The creation waits in eager expectation, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay & brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time." Romans 8:19-22

More Devotional Thoughts

So here we are . . . & here I am . . . 46 years after that first Earth Day. Is the Earth in better or worse shape than it was in 1970? By everything we read & hear in the media--particularly re:  global climate change--we are in MUCH worse shape . . . & things are going to get a lot worse before they get better.

And why shouldn't they? Go back & look at the scriptural truths I've chosen for today's meditation. It wasn't just humankind that was affected by our ancestors' wicked choice to go against the one & only commandment that He gave them in the Garden of Eden . . . After God finished creating everything, He proclaimed that all of it wasn't just "okay," wasn't just "as good as could be expected" . . . it was very good! [I think He called Adam & Eve's home the "Garden of Eden?!"] 

All of creation suffered from that ill advised decision . . . No, men, you can't put all the blame on Eve. God held Adam accountable, too. If you go back & read the saddest chapter in the Bible--Genesis 3--you'll be reminded that Eve handed the fruit to Adam after she tasted it . . . Apparently, he was right there beside her when it happened . . . So when God started handing out consequences, the snake suffered . . . Eve suffered . . . Adam suffered . . . 

And all of creation suffered . . . and still suffers today, according to the Truth found in St. Paul's letter to the Romans . . . & to us, as well, in 2016.

Is global climate change the result of human activity? Well, I choose not to go there for the sake of this devotion . . . The issue is too shrouded in politics . . . Well, let me qualify myself . . . From a theological perspective, forget about carbon emissions . . . One has to conclude that, yes, any deterioration of the planet can be traced to that fateful bite of the forbidden fruit.

The solution to global climate change? Ah, now that's a subject for a political debate . . . or is it? Actually, it's going to take Christ's return & a "new heaven & a new earth" (Rev. 21:1) to ultimately "cure" the deterioration of the planet. Meanwhile, here are my closing devotional thoughts.

• God commanded humankind to "fill the earth & subdue it . . . rule over it." Notice that He did NOT tell us to exploit it . . . Big difference.
• As I've been watching a documentary entitled "The West," one of the themes that it's been hammering has been the exploitation of the natural resources that was part of & continues to be the settling of the West . . . If you watch the documentary [I accessed it via Netflix], you will note that it may be politically correct . . . but you will also be appalled, I think . . . maybe even a little depressed, as I've been, at the toll taken upon the earth by greed & lack of concern about the earth which God told us to manage, not exploit.
• Moving to the other extreme is a tendency to give reverence to "Mother Earth." There is no such thing as Mother Earth . . . and I think [Disclaimer:  Paul's speculation coming up!] that any efforts to manage global climate change hearken back to biblical accounts of the Tower of Babel [SEE Genesis 11.] . . . Who are we in our arrogance to think that we can actually change the climate?
• So, I'll recycle paper & hang up my towels in hotels for the sake of practicing good stewardship of the earth's resources & NOT to save the planet, thank you very much!
• The history of humankind & its myriad cultures is a history of the worship of many objects other than the one true God--the God of Holy Scripture--& sadly that has included the idols of Mother Earth & creation, including animals, water, weather, trees, "sacred" rocks, buffalo . . . I think you get the point.

God in His mercy solves this problem . . . by sending His one & only Son Jesus Christ to save us from our natural inclination to seek after any other gods besides the True God. And so by His grace we are led to faith in Jesus as our Lord & Savior . . . forgiven . . . And we are blessed to worship the True Creator & not His creation.

One More Scriptural Truth

"In the beginning was the Word, & the Word was with God, & the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made. In Him was life, & that life was the light of men. The light shies in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it."  John 1:1-5

Today's Prayer Thoughts

Give thanks & praise the Lord for the marvels of His creation. Thank & praise Him for sending Jesus His Son to win for us the forgiveness of our sins, including our poor use of His creation. Ask Him to bless us with the proper use of the blessings of His creation.