Being a GREEN CHRISTIAN

Last week was the 40th Anniversary of EARTH DAY. Yesterday, I preached on how to be a GREEN CHRISTIAN. Before you get your thoughts going, I did not spend time focusing on the left wing agenda. Although I believe we all ought to be good stewards of what God has given us, I do believe that some people take this whole "Mother Earth" thing a little too far. What I wanted to do is focus on some common terms that are used in this whole "GOING GREEN" and see how we can apply them to our lives.

#1 ORGANIC which means something that limits or excludes unnatural materials. I wonder how many things we allow into our lives that are unnatural and I'm not talking about food. Go read Genesis 1 and see how God created everything perfect and natural with everything man needed but go down to chapter 3 and you will read where man then allowed something unnatural to enter into this world...SIN. Romans 5:12 says that when Adam sinned, it brought death and sin to the world and it passed on to all men because of his sin. Yes, man messed everything up. What unnatural things have you allowed to enter into your own life that has affected others around? We as Christians need to live a life that is ORGANIC, one without unnatural material...one that is pure!

#2 EFFICIENT which means that we are performing or functioning in the best possible matter with least amount of waist. What good is one of those new electric/gasoline engine cars if they always use the gas engine and never switch over to use the fuel efficient electric engine that is installed? Similar, our efficiency comes from using the gifts that God has installed in our lives. Galatians 5:22,23 tells of the gifts that God has installed in our lives...LOVE, JOY, PEACE, PATIENCE, KINDNESS, GOODNESS, FAITHFULNESS, GENTLENESS and SELF CONTROL. If we are not using these God given, installed products then were not being EFFICIENT.

#3 CLIMATE CHANGE which is a change of temperature over a period of time. Some studies show that the earth has warmed up, gradually over the years to the point where areas once that were covered with snow and ice, many years later are now dry. This did not happen over night. It was a gradual thing that now all of sudden people are taking notice of. In Revelation 3 you'll find a story of a church at Laodecia that had become complacent. They had become as the Bible says "lukewarm". My guess is that it did not happen over night. At some point, they went from being on fire for God to becoming just warm for him. A CLIMATE CHANGE had occurred and now they, much like the land had become dry. Christians must always be on guard that a CLIMATE CHANGE does not occur to the point where they are no longer on fire for God!

#4 RECYCLE which is the process of taking used materials and turning them into something new as to not to waste. When I was growing up, aluminum cans use to be found everywhere. Just look along the streets, on the ground at the parks or even blowing around on the highways until one day, someone realized that there was some value in those cans. Then all of a sudden, you didn't see them anymore. People were picking them up because they were worth something. That is exactly what God did with us! Before we knew HIM, our lives were just like those old cans...discarded and left along the streets to be kicked because of no value. But one day, Jesus came and picked us up because He saw value in us and RECYCLED us into something new. Read 1 Corinthians 6:9-11

#5 SOLAR POWER is the generation of power from the SUN. I installed some new solar powered sidewalk lights last week at my home. The first night, they all came on...shining bright because of the amount of time that day they spent in the SUN. The next day, it was cloudy and rained all day. That night, only one day later, they barely flickered a light if any. Why the change? Because the day before they were basking in the SUN and the day after, they did not. Our lives are a lot like that. The more time we spend with the SON, the brighter we will shine. The less time we spend with the SON, the dimmer we are! We need to realize that our power,our strength comes from the SON! Jeremiah 32:17. 2 Corinthians 12:9 tell us of God's great power!

So you see, we all need to be GREENER CHRISTIANS after all!

SEE YOU AT THE RIVER...John

#5