The Reconciliation of All Things

Many Christ-followers sometimes wonder what caring for creation has to do with our faith as Christ-followers. I would answer: " Everything!" Here's a couple straightforward reasons why: 1. Christ-followers should be known for their joy (Galatians 5:22), for their hope, and basically for being people who have LIFE IN ABUNDANCE (John 10:10). 2. Christ-followers have been reconciled to God through Christ (Romans 5:11) and are also the ones commanded to bring reconciliation to all things (Colossians 1:19-20), which includes creation, currently decaying due to no fault of it's own, but because of Adam's sin (Romans 8:19-23). Simply put then, if we are to be people who are attractive to the world, and if we are the people who should be restoring and redeeming creation from it's bondage to decay (Romans 8:21), then being an ambassador for caring for God's creation is a simple step of obedience for all of us. This is what I spent one week doing this November wit...

When we think of Mexico, we often think of the desert, cacti, rattlesnakes... Though much of those are true, the Baja Peninsula, especially near La Paz, has much more life than we think. We went on a hike into the mountains and saw much of this amazing life God created! This was at a high point between the Sea of Cortez and the Pacific Ocean. This is looking toward the Sea of Cortez. This is the fruit we sometimes call dragonfruit--there are at least two varieties, one that is red on the inside and one that is white, but they grow on this specific cactus variety in the mountains near La Paz. You have to take the spines off the fruit before eating, of course, but this one was delicious! We walked along a dry riverbed ("Arroyo" is the Spanish word for these riverbeds) until it widened much more than this picture. Dry most of the year except for the few rains that come in the spring. Because it's so sandy, the water doesn't percolate down into the grou...

Last week I was with another TEAM missionary in Mexico and a short-term couple. This couple was checking out the many creation care activities that we do in La Paz. So we joined a group of people and another organization for a clean-up of one of the the mangrove beach areas. People leave so much trash behind them at the beaches after spending the day there, and it accumulates quickly when no one is picking up after them! There likely weren’t any other Jesus followers there with us, and the main organizer is very antagonistic toward Christianity. However, because we also care for God’s creation and about the people living there, we continue working with these people to share the love of Christ with them, and we work to bring God’s creation to a point of flourishing. But that takes work! So we spent the morning cleaning up tiny pieces of plastic, bottle caps, toilet paper, broken glass from beer bottles, and other items. When we were done, we had over 10 bags of trash! One of t...

There are some things in each culture that I believe reflect God’s desire for humanity. When God confused the languages of the people at the Tower of Babel, they had no choice but to do what he had commanded Adam & Eve to do in Genesis 1:28, and Noah in Genesis 9:1--spread out and multiply over the face of the earth. When the people spread out on the earth, different cultures developed, each with their own unique traits and languages. I've enjoyed visiting many cultures around the world, and living in a couple of them for longer periods of time. So after spending a full week with the Brazilian group of university leaders in Los Angeles in early September, I was reminded of one of the God-honoring characteristics of that culture that we in most Western cultures lack: a deep, relational aspect of community. There were a total of 15 of us staying in one large house, and after driving at least for two hours a day to visit each university campus, we spent the evening making d...

In Chapter One of Bauckham's book, he delves into what "stewardship" means. From a Christian perspective, the main usage of the term is regarding the steward's responsibility to God. The secular use of the term stewardship lacks any theological content. Bauckham then goes on the describe the various criticisms of "stewardship" as we see or hear about them today. First, some say this concept of Stewardship is Hubris , unnecessary. The earth will take care of itself, it is self-regulating, with or without us. Much of the modern environmental movement speaks of this. Think back to Julia Roberts narrating for "Mother Nature" in Conservation International's video a few years back. Here is the video Julia Roberts: Nature is Speaking . However, much of the criticism coming from this perspective is a reaction to the faulty Christian idea that humans are in charge of the whole Earth and its destiny. The problem with this faulty Christian perspective ...

This weekend was the peak for the Perseid Meteor Shower in North America. For those who are night-owls, or early, I mean, EARLY morning risers, there was some wonderful star gazing happening this past weekend. There is something about laying on your back on the ground, and looking up at the stars, just waiting for that streak of a shooting star. In fact, they're not shooting stars at all, they are tiny debris remnants of the tail of the Swift-Tuttle comet burning up in our atmosphere as the earth orbits into the comet's wake. This happens every August. Each streaking light is merely the size of a grain of sand, yet it makes that bright light we call a "shooting star". As I stared up into the sky last night past midnight, and watched the streaks of light on a moonless night, I couldn't help think of verses in the Bible about stars. I was reminded of how magnificent our God is, how awesome He is, and the privilege to observe the wonders He has created. Isaiah 40:2...

This is the title of an excellent book I'm currently reading through. I've decided to write some of the highlights here, for a couple of reasons... First, because it helps me process and remember; second, it's great to have others interacting and thinking through this material too! So,  The Bible and Ecolog y really embarks on a biblical investigation to discover the relationship between humanity and the rest of creation. It's this "community of creation" that the author, Richard Bauckham is getting at. He's trying to get at the commonality that we humans have with other creatures, our dependence on them as well as our significance for them, in a life in which all creatures exist fo rthe glory of God. He states that although "climate change" has taken center stage in the conversation these days, there's a deeper crisis in the human relationship to the rest of creation that stems the modern technological project of mastering nature. The co...

Speaking with Leadership I had a very busy two weeks in Anápolis, Brazil at the beginning of this June. It was a great visit! I was booked most days with meetings, speaking engagements, or a trip to a property recently acquired by the university next to a national park. As I had written in our previous update, I was to speak on "The Biblical Principles for Creation Care". The lecture  (see their write-up by clicking on the link) was specifically for the academia of the institution, along with the chaplaincy and some invited pastors from the city. I spoke for about an hour, then opened our time up for questions and comments. There was a lot of interaction on the topic, not just from the pastors and chaplains, but also the professors and institutional leadership. In fact, the director of the Masters Program in Environmental Sciences said she had never before heard about the Biblical principles to care for this world and how it should impact our practices. She ...

In Proverbs 8:30-31 Wisdom herself says: "Then I was constantly at his side. I was filled with delight day after day, rejoicing always in his presence, rejoicing in his whole world and delighting in mankind." The Father and the Son delighted in the world they made and in us. We see beauty in things when they are rightly related to one another...the more we discern how the parts of a piece of music, or of a flower, all fit together, the more we delight in the music and the flower, not for what it can do for us but what it is in itself, as part of God's creation. Wisdom is essentially about discerning and forming the right relationships and  rejoicing  in them. This snippet is from a devotional I'm reading, written by Tim and Kathy Keller, titled God's Wisdom for Navigating Life . I'm reminded how Scripture repeatedly points us to the beauty of Creation, and that it is a healthy thing for us to value it, not for what it can do for us (which is the comm...