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Monday, February 16, 2009

The Ten Commandments - Part Six

Reading: Exodus 20

The last thing I want to mention about the Ten Commandments is the difference just following these laws could make to the state of the environment.

By not making an idol of money and possessions and focusing our love on the true God we can break the power of consumerism and the waste of resources it causes.

By keeping the Sabbath Holy we are encouraged to reflect on God, and to commune with His creation as it teaches us about Him.

By honouring our parents and other elders we can learn from them how to reduce, reuse and recycle as has previously been done for generations.

By considering it murder to kill all life, and not just human beings we can learn to value the life of other species and consider it a sin to cause them harm.

And lastly by not covetting our neighbour's things we can break out of the cycle of keeping up with the Joneses - getting bigger houses, cars and more belongings we don't need just in an attempt to create social status.

Some people believe that it is an extra, an addition to the core mission, to care about the environment as a Christian. Yet if we lived by the principles of our God much of the destruction we are currently facing would never have happened. Caring for the environment is woven into the fabric of the entire of God's teaching - it is core mission for Christians.

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Important Lessons from the Bible

Why Jesus came:
"that the world might be saved through him"
John 3:17

Who Jesus is going to use to save the world:
"For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God."
Romans 8:19

Our role on earth:
"The LORD God put the man in the Garden of Eden to take care of it and to look after it."
Genesis 2:15

The Five Pillars of A Christian Theology of Sustainability

1. God is the creator, sustainer and redeemer of creation.

2. Covenantal Stewardship (we have a covenant with God as stewards of the earth).

3. The creation-fall-redemption paradigm (God made a good world; human failure broke the relationships between god, man and creation; Christ provides hope for all creation).

4.Bodily resurrection(we will rise with bodies, not as spirits)

5.New Creation (a new Heaven and new Earth refers to a renewal and an earthing of heaven, not starting over).

Adapted from When Enough is Enough: A Christian Framework for Environmental Sustainability, Edited by R.J. Berry, Published by Inter-Varsity Press, 2007, Nottingham p43+