Tending the Land

 

Again, a false dichotomy has made itself apparent. We are not limited to the two choices of “capitalistic, suck everything you can out of nature and the environment” versus “live at harmony with the world around you and leave no footprint that mankind has even been here”.

We have been commanded to function in the middle ground between these two extremes. When God created man and placed him in the Garden, he gave us the command to take dominion over the earth. We immediately faltered and became enslaved to sin, which led to many wrong choices and negatives impacts on our world. But since the resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ, we have been brought back to a place where we can begin to fulfill that command. This means that we are in charge of this world but at the same time, we need to take care of it and not irreparably destroy it.

Just because we can do something does not mean that we should do something. We shouldn’t create products that will ruin the land, water, or air. We need to be intelligent and wise enough to learn to say no to some things.

The State of Eternity

 

There is a great amount of debate in the world of Christendom regarding the afterlife. Some people believe in “once saved, always saved”, some people believe in earning one’s salvation and some believe that being nice gets one into heaven, while being evil sends one to hell for eternal torture.

But all this completely misses the point of Jesus’ resurrection and ascension. Jesus Christ defeated the power of death and restored the relationship between God and men. No one is guaranteed bliss, and no one is guaranteed torment. What we ALL are guaranteed is eternal life. No one matter who you are or what you have done, you will live forever. When all men stand before the judgment seat of Christ at the end of history, we are not being judged for what we’ve done wrong, we are being judged for what we have done right (Revelation 20:11-12).

It is the responsibility of every person to love God and to love their neighbor. This is the criteria for our judgment. We will live forever, temporarily after death in a disembodied state, but after the final judgment we will live in a perfected body that will last forever. That state that we live in will be determined by the shape into which we formed our souls. Was our life built on love or selfishness? The more we strove after being like Christ, the more glorious our bliss will be in the presence of God. Those who only sought after pleasing themselves and being comfortable will not find the holy presence of God a pleasant experience.

Time and Money

 

Everything is on a scale. How we spend our money will be determined by what is most important on that scale. How we spend out time will be determined by what is most important on that scale. This is not to say that some things are not important but simply that, because we have limited time and limited money, some things are not purchased, or time is not spent.

The difficult part is when your scale is radically different than others. There seems to be a demand to explain oneself and how one spends time or money. While on one hand, we don’t owe anyone an explanation for our use of time and money, at the same time, responsibilities have demands and this forces us to spend our time and money in ways that we would probably not prefer.

From a Christian understanding of reality, our use of time and money needs to be a balance of addressing actual needs and helping others. If our life is focused simply on satisfying our whims and seeking to be comfortable, we are living with misaligned priorities.

The Meaning of Death

 

Reading the narrative of the fall of man in the Garden of Eden ought to raise the question, “What did God mean when he told man that in the day that he ate of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, he would die”? Clearly, God was not speaking of physical death, for Adam went on to live more than nine hundred years.

The relationship between the death that came as a result of Adam’s sin and physical death are connected but are not a one-to-one relationship. When we look at the description of death all throughout the New Testament, it is a state of separation from God, which, coincidentally is what happened when Adam sinned. The moment that Adam and Eve sinned, they were cast out of the Garden of Eden, which represents the immediate presence of God.

Describing Eternity

     You have certain criteria that you use to decide with whom you spend your time. For those who decide that religious activity is not deemed worthy of one’s time, what happens when your eternity becomes a state in which the holiness of God is unavoidable? How would you describe that?

Moral Certainty

 

There is such thing as Christian morality, and it is easily identifiable. For the last two thousand years, the historic Christian church has clearly identified what is moral and what is immoral. There is no ambiguity. Since the advent of sectarianism amongst those who call themselves Christians, these moral standards have been maligned and questioned, usually based on the premise of personal interpretation and feelings.

While there are no grounds for condemnation or judgment of someone, there is two thousand years of historical precedent for us to align with. Just because someone feels a certain way or feels inclined to certain behaviors, does not mean that this is suddenly acceptable. Recognizing sinful inclinations and approving these behaviors is two very different things. We should acknowledge that people sin, but we must never normalize those sins or define them in a way that makes them socially acceptable. Regardless of how one feels about it, sin is always damaging. It may not be immediately damaging and sometimes we cannot see the damage that takes place to a person’s mental state/heart/soul.

We need to return to the moral standards that have always been the position of the Christian faith and we must never retreat or move beyond these lines.

Truth or Passion?

 

If people don’t like you because of things you believe or things you practice, there is nothing you can do about it. Arguing with them is usually pointless, for most people simply believe, don’t question what they believe, and don’t work through their worldview. They simply live it because that is what they grew up with. The best response is to give them no reason to not like you. Kindness in the face of petty ignorance will always win.

At the same time, some may choose to disdain you simply because you are you. Doing right and living according to truth will always come at a price, for there are those who want to live according to passion and not truth.