Friday: Further Thought – God Created . . .
Further Thought:
Read Ellen G. White, “The Creation”, pages 44-51, in Patriarchs and Prophets.
“‘God is love’. … His nature, His law, is love. It ever has been; it ever will be. ‘The high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity,’ whose ‘ways are everlasting,’ changeth not. With Him ‘is no variableness, neither shadow of turning’. …
Image © Stan Myers from GoodSalt.com
Every manifestation of creative power is an expression of infinite love. The sovereignty of God involves fullness of blessing to all created beings”. – Ellen G. White, Patriarchs and Prophets, page 33.
“If men would do their duty as faithful stewards of their Lord’s goods, there would be no cry for bread, none suffering in destitution, none naked and in want. It is the unfaithfulness of men that brings about the state of suffering in which humanity is plunged … God has made men His stewards, and He is not to be charged with the sufferings, the misery, the nakedness, and the want of humanity. The Lord has made ample provision for all”. – Ellen G. White, Welfare Ministry, p. 16.
Discussion Questions:
|
Summary:
God created a good and complete world, and He appointed human beings, created in His image, to “tend and care for” His creation. Though sin broke the relationships that God had originally intended for us, we still have a role to play as stewards of the goodness of creation and caretakers of our fellow human beings. Fulfilling this role is one way we can honor God as our Creator.
(30)
I guess that the purpose of this week's lesson is to remind us that God made everything and in particular everyone and consequently we have a moral responsibility to look after the environment and one another. That is fair enough, and it is useful to exercise our minds as to our motivation. Or do we do these things because we think that we are earning brownie points in the Book of Life?
I sometimes struggle with our "Christian motivation" because we so often talk about the reward of heaven and eternal life and make the point that any sacrifice we make here is worth it because we are storing up treasure in heaven.
In my retirement activity of bird photography, I quite often get involved in environmental issues. Birds are in some respects the health indicators of our environment. Sick and injured birds are often a measure of the mismanagement of our environment. I often meet up with folk who are even more involved with the environment than I am. For example, wildlife carers who nurse injured wildlife back to health or Landcare volunteers who spend thousands of hours each year cleaning up nature reserves and repairing the environment. I also think of the many thousands of folk who work tirelessly for the "least of these" folk in our midst. Volunteers who spend time with shut-ins, provide care for unwanted children, and so on.
Most of these folk are unchurched or atheist and have an entirely secular outlook on life. For them, there is no heaven of eternal life. Why do they do it?
Stephen Hawkings, summed it up nicely when he said that perhaps ultimately the only thing that we leave behind for posterity is whether we have done the right thing, or not. Of course, that raises the issue of where the notion of rightness comes from and we believe we have the answer to that. However, rather than grandstanding on the platform that our beliefs are better than his, maybe we need to address the real motivation for our efforts to help the needy and care for the environment. We must carefully ask ourselves what our motivation is. Are we honest with ourselves?
Time to reflect on 1 Cor 13 again!
When we feel that what is around us do not belong exclusively to us, when we practice the space as something to be shared, and if we are truly councious about what the environment really means, we do take consideration about how we are treating our planet. This is our house, and the way we are collectively exploring it is insane. But the love of money makes people workship self only. If humanity truly knew to love itself we would not be in such a terrible route to crash. I agree that this end up about feelings, when we truly know how to love ourselves, we do care for the environment we are surrounded by.
Poor - The good news is proclaimed to the poor. The poor are underprivileged even to receive the good news of the gospel.
Creation - simply amazing. The more in depth science explores more in depth the complexity of creation is revealed and adds couple of more zeros to the scientific probability of beginning of life.
Complete - God's work is complete. We are complete in Him. Those who wants to add to his creation not according to the purpose of God always heads in a downward spiral.
Stewards - We are stewards not owners. We have a God given responsibility to care for those resources left in our care.
Broken - Broken to be made well in Him.
Family - Relationship is the most important aspect of God's creation. Heaven risked all to restore that relationship.
Duty - God given responsibility to all humanity. No one is exempt from His work.
If. If. Oh If men would do their duty as faithful stewards. I didn’t read but, you know, some people are lazy and depends on others to feed them, or the poor always want to live at the expense of the rich. Instead, the sentence read- if men would do their duty. Many times I look 1st at my self not at others. I ask Jesus, Am I doing my duties as required by his words. Only he is our Judge. But with the great poverty in the world, many have to waste while others go to bed hungry. So many destitute, poverty, etc. We as Jesus followers must shine forth as a beam of light to some dying souls.
The problem with a correct attitude for doing the Lords will, is that suggesting a correct attitude often times more often than not, gets in the way of actually doing the Lords will, being fruitful. May I suggest we do the Lords will, not worrying about our human nature to do the Lord’s will to gain a ticket to heaven, rather let the Holy Spirit work in us a correct attitude as we are sowing seeds for Him.
Apropos is this chorus:
The longer we serve Him, the sweeter He grows.
The more that we love Him, more love He bestows.
Each day is like heaven, our heart overflows.
The longer we serve Him, the sweeter He grows.