If you haven’t gotten the memo…

It is really “hip” to be “green.” To be “green,” for the purposes of this blog entry, is to be environmentally sound or beneficial. There are a million ways that this very fashionable word can be defined, so I want to make sure that I limit the definition. We also need to do that with our revered term “Siesta.” Mom, can you do that? I know you’re hurting for things to do. Now back to the point. Being green is hip. So hip, in fact, that organic produce and spaceship looking automobiles have become the next best thing since white high-top Reeboks and leg-warmers in the 80’s.

These days I never feel cooler than when I walk into “Whole Foods” with my reusable bag made from 80% post-consumer waste. My fellow organic shoppers and I gaze in dismay as “the others” walk out of the store with several brown paper bags that they will undoubtedly throw away after just one use. Gasp.

And as I make my way out of Whole Foods, I sneak away quickly so that none of the other eco-friendly shoppers can see me get into my big SUV with a Texas license plate. I have to be careful exiting the parking-lot, so as not to run over their three-foot scooters. I then make my way back to my apartment, and I sense freedom. I am sure that none of them can see me anymore. I approach my front door, set down my 80% post-consumer waste bag, and I do the following things: 1) I flip on almost every light switch in the house. 2) I drink a bottled water to refresh me from my hard work. 3) I crank up the air-conditioner full-blast. 4) I throw the bottled water in the trash, without even thinking about recycling. 5) I throw away all of the little plastic bags that the fresh produce comes in because I just want the mess out of the kitchen. 6) I clean up everything with paper towels. The really thick kind (only Viva brand). 7) I take a second shower for the day, because I feel gross. 8) I throw a load of two towels in the washing machine and each towel has only been used once.

The dead-honest truth is that after I get my approval-fill for the day at the local Whole Foods, I go right back to my over-consumptive ways. I can only think of one word for this: HYPOCRISY. Big time. Though my husband does not know about my self-righteous and childish behavior at Whole-Foods, he told me a few weeks ago, semi-lovingly, that my answer to most everything around the house is: “just throw it away.” Ouch. That hurts. And the worst thing about it is, it’s true.

Well, the Lord has really been confronting me not only about my wastefulness but also my apathy about taking care of the world I live in. I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised that when I walked into church on Sunday morning the title of the sermon was “God is Green.” I will say honestly that the title “God is Green” sort of creeps me out. There is something about this blanket statement “God is Green” that I don’t feel comfortable with. I don’t really want to equate anything with the person of God that can be interpreted as a peppy political agenda. It seems like an easy way to claim and market that God is on board with our current passion. I thought to myself, “Perhaps my semantic disagreement with the sermon title can help me be cynical enough not to receive this holy chastening I am about to get…I mean, good grief, my husband has already left me limp.” The problem is that not liking the sermon title did not rid me of the responsibility to listen to the pastor’s words. One thing I always want to be willing to do is to approach the Bible with an open and willing heart, ready to change any actions that are incongruent with what the text says. And I’ve got to admit, this preacher kept his finger in the biblical text, and presented a clear and timely word for Christians to be better and more informed stewards of the earth. Well, conviction came, even in spite of a catchy sermon title. I even went home that Sunday and did some more research about what the Bible says about the relationship between the people of God and the environment.

Here are my top three reasons for wanting to get more informed about how I can do my part. I know there are a million reasons, but these are simply the ones that are most significant to me:

1. Theologically, taking care of the earth is significant because creation is one of the ways that God reveals himself to mankind. The preacher on Sunday equated damaging or destroying the earth to ripping a page of the Bible. His point is this: God reveals himself in creation (Psalm 19), so when a person is a poor steward or caretaker of the earth, he or she suppresses God’s revelation in creation. I thought this was an interesting comparison. Obviously, God’s general revelation in creation is not salvific, so it is not exactly the same as tearing a page out of Scripture, but he certainly has a point. Since people look at the wonders of the earth and often see the beauty of God, not taking care of it is simply foolish. Since God’s revelation through the creation is a sort of apologetic to all of humankind, we need to be careful not to suppress its witness.

2. In the creation account in Genesis, God gives man dominion over the earth. He says, “Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness, and let them rule over…all the earth, and over every creeping thing” (1:26). He then takes Adam into the garden “to cultivate it and to keep it” (2:15). Some have interpreted this sort of dominion language as some sort of beastly mastery over the earth. This is a blatant misinterpretation of the text. As the preacher said on Sunday, “We do not beat the earth into submission.” As Philip Hughes says, “God, in short, gave man the world to master, but to master to the glory of the Creator, by whom man himself, to be truly human, must first be mastered” (Philip Hughes, The True Image: The Origin and Destiny of Man in Christ). The earth remains God’s earth, and we are simply stewards over it. A very important part of our function as human beings then is to carefully rule over the earth as the Lord God would see fit. Stewardship in general is a very significant theme throughout Scripture, especially in the gospels, and should be applied wholistically to each of our lives (see Matthew 25).

3. Christians have been known to argue that since the earth is just going to burn up in the end-times, our efforts to save it are futile. This is not only a very negative application of eschatology, but it is a good example of how our theology affects our behavior. My very favorite professor Dr. Douglas J. Moo has briefly discussed this sort of attitude in an article called “Nature in the New Creation: New Testament Eschatology and the Environment” that was published in Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 49 (2006) 449-88. Dr. Moo is in my humble opinion in the very top tier of New Testament evangelical scholars. His point here is that apathetically thinking “the earth is just going to burn up anyway” flies in the face of the “biblical mandate for Christians to be involved in meeting the needs of the world in which we now life”. As Dr. Moo remarks, “I may believe that the body I now have is destined for radical transformation; but I am not for that reason unconcerned about what I eat or how much I exercise…To be sure, our efforts must always be tempered by the realization that it is finally God himself, in the future act of sovereign power, who will transform creation. And we encounter here the positive side of a robust eschatology. Christians must avoid the humanistic ‘Green utopianism’ that characterizes much of the environmental movement. We will not by our own efforts end the ‘groaning’ of the earth. But this realism about our ultimate success should not deter our enthusiasm to be involved in working toward those ends that God will finally secure through his own sovereign intervention.”

So there they are, the top three arguments that beckon me to change my ways, even if it is inconvenient. In case you haven’t noticed, this blog is RANDOM. In many ways, this blog is a reflection of what it is like sitting at the Moore-Jones-Fitzpatrick family dinner table. RANDOM. The conversation goes from the intense to the absurd, the devastating to the triumphant, and the controversial to the mundane, all in record time. Oh and if you get this memo before we run onto the next random subject… don’t just jump on the eco-friendly bandwagon because it’s cool or trendy, but please don’t rebelliously avoid it for the very same reasons. At the end of the day, do it because as Christians we should be at the forefront of those who care for God’s earth. Perhaps acting as good stewards and taking excellent care of this earth for God in the here and now will somehow prepare us for a time when we will reign along with God in the new creation (see Revelation 5:10; 20:6; 22:5). So, if you are like me, a complete dummy when it comes to eco-friendly consumption, let’s take it upon ourselves to learn a little more about caring for God’s earth. I think I’ll start by trying to figure out where the closest recycling center is.

I am not sure how you first came to know Jesus Christ. You may have first heard Him speak to you at an evangelism crusade or perhaps you sensed His immediate comforting presence during a certain extraordinary life experience. I have friends who have witnessed miraculous moments with Jesus Christ and I even have friends who have heard Him speak to them in their dreams. For reasons unknown to me, the Lord has never chosen to communicate with me through these sorts of experiential avenues. And I, in the past, have become a tad envious of those who have experienced God in these phenomenal ways. Please don’t read me wrong, Siestas. I am not questioning if God really does communicate with human beings in these miraculous ways, I ABSOLUTELY believe that He does. I am just saying that I myself have yet to experience Jesus Christ like this.

In brief, I was raised in a Christian home. Yes, I was raised by a woman who I like to call “the- Titus- woman- from-you-know-where” (but I say the word). I heard about Jesus Christ every single day. I was encouraged, if not enforced, to do a “quiet time” at a very early age. And I am so glad that I was but it remained vital for me to actually experience God for myself. So, in High School I began to question if I really “knew” Jesus. It wasn’t that I was living in a bunch of sin at that particular time; it was simply that I did not feel very connected to Him. I didn’t feel in my heart that He communicated with me.

So I called to mind a very basic verse in Matthew that says, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you” (Matt. 7:7). I certainly hadn’t had any exegetical training at that point, but I figured that what this verse meant was that the Lord would communicate with me if I truly sought His face. So I said to the Lord in my teenage heart, “Okay, Lord, I am going to spend the next few months seeking your face with all of my heart and then if I don’t sense your presence, then I really am done with all of this Christianity.”

So what I had intended to be a few months of seeking God through rigorously reading the Bible has become a lifetime passion for me. Yes, even more than cooking. What I found when I read the biblical text was something other-worldly. To me the biblical text was self-testifying. It simply spoke up for itself. I didn’t have to defend it or try to make it sound true, I simply read it and knew it was truth. This skeptic’s heart began to melt like butter. My mind had never been so stimulated, my heart had never been more encouraged, and my own worldly intentions had never been so thwarted. When I read through the pages of the Bible, the Holy Spirit testified to my spirit that I was a child of God. And even today, dear Siestas, when I distance myself from reading the biblical text, I feel my mind beginning to drift. I feel my heart slowly harden and I feel more prone to depression and despair. And not surprisingly so, I begin to feel more intoxicated by the pleasures of the world around me. It is like John Bunyan said, “This book will keep you from sin, or sin will keep you from this book”.

One thing that my research of the Book of Esther has taught me is the significance of intentional remembrance. I have purposefully been bringing back to mind my first experiences of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is what I remember most: I came to know Jesus Christ when I took the time to read the actual content of the Bible for myself. This is why I have devoted my life to a shameless study of the biblical text. This is why I work for Living Proof Ministries, because we exist to exalt the power of God through the biblical text. We exist to loudly proclaim that “the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart” (Heb. 4:12).

I have been reminded afresh of the wonder of the Scriptures. I have found what my Mom said all of those years to be true. I have found that indeed, “there is no other book like it”. When you sit on your couch with your Bible in your lap, you are a witness to a miracle. This miracle is called Divine Revelation. And the miracle of divine revelation is not a “lesser miracle”; it is not merely what the rest of us “get” by default because the Lord doesn’t have to time to appear in another one of our dreams. There is no greater phenomenon than an almighty and holy God speaking to and through humankind. God has chosen to speak to you, dear Siesta, and to reveal to you the mysteries of salvation history: the knowledge of his glorious Son. Take a minute today to behold the miracle of the written word of God…take a minute to read the very best of all books. Behold and then tell of His glory.

I love you, Siestas, and wish sometime soon we could all have an old fashioned “pot-luck” around a massive round table together.

Melissa

Siestas!

Howdy from Hot-lanta, and when I say “Hotlanta”, I hope you are not sensing any trendy connotation, because I am simply alluding to the miserably hot weather we have had around here as of late. Wow. I didn’t think that a city could get hotter than Houston, but Atlanta is a tough competitor right now. Since newlyweds don’t have a bunch of extra money to spend on cranking up the air conditioning, I have been sleeping with my hair wet to keep me cooler at night! It almost works, y’all!

So, yesterday I got to experience something that I am sure I will not soon forget. Colin and I headed out to go and listen to a good friend of ours preach at the youth service at his church. He is the youth pastor there and since they have a sizable youth group, they have a completely separate worship service. They even have their own building. We walked in and saw a familiar sight- a dark room with bright lights and kids jumping up and down. They actually had formed a mosh pit of sorts in front of the worship band, which was itself composed of students in the youth group.

It was amazing what happened as I made my way to my seat. I began to shut down. Even though it was only seven or eight years ago that I would have easily found myself in their exact positions, I quickly became one of the dreaded frozen chosen. What a bizarre and devastating feeling. All of the sudden I was a spectator in this youth service rather than being a participant. I even began to critique all that I was surrounded by, surveying our younger generation’s heartbeat for Christ to discern whether it was authentic or not. I suppose the older we get, the more power we think we have to take our place in the judgment seat…I had to remind myself that I will never be old enough for that position, for that throne is reserved for none other than the Ancient of Days. In my shame, I thought to myself, “So this is how this happens…this is how one becomes one of the frozen and cynical chosen…and I’m only 25, I’m so doomed.”

Well, I am so glad that I went yesterday to this youth service because I left with conviction, encouragement, and exhortation. After my friend preached a solid sermon out of the book of Esther no less, he exhorted the students to seize the moment to pursue the purpose God had for each of them in such a time as this. He then asked several of the students to make their way to the front to give their testimonies about what God had been doing in their lives.

And then it happened…I was awestruck. A girl, clearly unacquainted with southern church jargon began to describe her recent experience with Jesus Christ. She described herself as feeling completely ecstatic, almost bubbling over with life. She was so overjoyed that she couldn’t even put it into words. She said, “I think about Him (Jesus Christ) all of the time…every second, I just can’t stop thinking about Him. And I am just so tired of being a person that I don’t want to be!”

There it was: trans-generational truth. You see, she was still trying to emotionally recover from the almost too phenomenal realization that Jesus Christ can really change the jacked up person she knows she is in her heart. And I pray that she never does recover from this divine reality. Too many of us do.

Worship styles and preferences change pretty quickly but our need remains the same. Our need for God and the hope that He instills in our hearts, it translates to every generation. I am so glad that students around the world are worshipping God, meeting together and exhorting one another and praising God together in their own contexts. I am so glad that they continue to follow hard after God in spite of frozen chosen adults like me who stand in the crowd with their arms folded, because I think they are doing exactly what Paul exhorted Timothy to do. They aren’t letting people like me look down on them because of their youthfulness, but rather in their speech, conduct, love, faith, and purity, they are showing themselves to be examples (1 Tim. 4.12). I am even more thankful that these students have leaders like my friend Jamie who gives his life to point students upward to acknowledge the supremacy of Christ.

Praise God for a younger generation of students who are showing themselves to be worthy examples to some of us who allow our hearts to get a little bit too hard. I am so privileged to be associated with them in Christ. I, too, like my young new sister in Christ am so tired of being someone I don’t want to be. I am so glad that we know that the solution is in Christ. It is for this that she and I will continue to labor and strive, because we both have fixed our hope on the living God, who is the Savior of all men” (1 Tim. 4.10). Well, perhaps I’ll even join the mosh pit with her next time. Okay, so maybe I won’t bodily join the mosh pit, but I will be there in spirit!

Cheers to the only Wise God, the Lord Jesus Christ who gives us hope, and the Holy Spirit who empowers us!