Living Green - God's Way

We try to "live green":

Use supplemental wood heat - from fallen trees even!
Try not to use a lot of paper products (ie. paper plates, cups . . .)
Keep electricity use as low as possible - turn lights off, keep thermostat turned down
Plant trees
Use a reel mower instead of gas mower

Ways we don't "live green":

Drive a SUV - or we'd never be able to get up our hill in the winter
Keep our hot water heater turned up - I like to be able to make hot chocolate with tap water:)
Don't recycle - I plan on starting as soon as the garage gets cleaned out!

I love animals - I always have.

Hershey - one of the many cats we have bottle fed.

As a kid I raised several litters of orphaned baby pigs. As an adult I have bottle fed at least 6 kittens. I even tried to get certified by the state to rehabilitate injured wildlife - what a hoot!

Wouldn't you know the day the conservation officer came to check out our property to see if we "had the proper facilities" to care for injured wildlife, our outside dog, Sam, showed up with his "kill of the day" which happened to be our state bird! I don't think we left a real good impression on the conservation officer.

Come to find out I probably could have adopted a baby with less red tape than it would take to legally care for a wounded or orphaned raccoon. So I gave up on that venture.

The point is I think that as Christians we should take care of God's creation. In Genesis 1:28 it says that God told Adam and Eve to subdue it. This means to study and explore it. I think you can take from that that we are to have an appreciation for all of God's creation.

Adam naming the animals - Creation Museum.

Genesis 1:28 also says that Adam and Eve were to have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. J. Vernon McGee put it this way, "Adam was not just a gardener to cut the grass. Man was created to rule this earth." We are to have dominion which means we are above the animals.

However, this is not the view of everyone. Here is an excerpt from an article I read online today:

Oh, if we all just disappeared. According to The World Without Us, Alan Weisman's strangely comforting vision of human annihiliation, the Earth would be a lot better off. In his doomsday scenario, freshwater floods would course through the New York subway system, ailanthus roots would heave up sidewalks, and a parade of coyotes, bears, and deer would eventually trot across the George Washington Bridge and repopulate Manhattan. Nature lovers can take solace in the idea that the planet will thrive once we've finally destroyed ourselves with global warming. But Weisman takes the fantasy one step further: Let's not wait for climate change, he says. Let's start depopulating right now. Instead of burning down our numbers with oil and gas, we might follow the advice of the founder of the Voluntary Human Extinction Movement, who tells Weisman that everyone in the world should stop having kids all at once. Weisman isn't up for quite so drastic a measure, but he makes his own pitch, moderate in comparison: Let's cut the birth rate to one child per couple, for a few generations at least. The population would dwindle by about 5 billion people over the next century, he says, ensuring the habitability of the Earth for the 1.6 billion who remained. At that point, they could all reap the rewards of a more spacious planet, sharing in "the growing joy of watching the world daily became more wonderful." It seems like a notion from the fringe, but Weisman's book has become a mainstream best seller. Could population control be the next big thing in green culture?

This is the kind of thinking that comes out of a society that embraces the teaching of evolution. How tragic that we in America have become that society.

This type of thinking clearly contradicts the truth found in the Bible. God's Word tells us in Psalm 127:3-5 Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord; and the fruit of the womb is his reward. As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them: they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate.

The church and we as individual Christians are partly to blame for our society's view on the sanctity of life. How many good, Bible based churches are silent on the matter of abortion. How many of us as Christians buy into the lie of "us 4 and no more" when it comes to our families - afraid that God won't provide if we have more than our token 2 kids.

We bought the lie after 3 kids. I remember distinctly our family physician sitting in my hospital room holding Joel and asking Brian and I (age 28 and 24 respectively) what we were going to do to "keep this from happening again." She was serious - before discharge we needed to have a plan. So when Joel was 3 months old, Levi was 3 1/2, and Megan was 4 1/2 Brian had a vasectomy - 100% covered by insurance. This proved to be a decision that has brought much heartache into our family and a decision that has cost thousands of dollars to try to correct.

In Sunday school we are studying the book of Joshua. The last two Sundays we have learned how God called the Israelites to be different, set apart - a peculiar people. As Christians we have that same calling. We are to be different from the world - we are to have a different mind set.

We are to value life - unborn life, young life, old life. The world doesn't and that fact is becoming increasingly more obvious.

We are to care for God's creation, but we are to worship the Creator not the creation. We also need to keep into perspective that people have souls - animals do not.

It is past time for Christians to stand up and proclaim the truth. I fear that the world we have helped mold with our indifference will prove to be an inhospitable place for our children.