Is God an Environmentalist?

by Tyler Zach

Is there such thing as a Christian environmentalist? Or should they be one in the same? Does loving the earth mean that you are a liberal hippie? Or does it mean that you are a true Christian?

Did you know that we are losing/destroying an acre and a half of rain forest every second?

Check out some other shocking statistics:

• 70% of the rivers in China are polluted (meaning unfit for human contact)
• World Health organization estimates that 4.6 million people died from air pollution diseases last year
• In any given year, we lose 50,000 different distinct species (plant, insect, and animal)
• In any given day, we produce enough trash to fill 63,000 dump trucks
• During the holiday season, we produce an extra 5 million tons of trash (4 million of that is shopping bags and wrapping paper)
• Last year, we dumped 14 billion pounds of waste into the ocean
• We produce 80% more trash than we did 15 years ago and we have 80% less landfills
  

One of the most fascinating statistics is about a product that we are all too familiar with. Diapers. We use 570/second. We use 49 million/day. We use 18 billion/year. To produce this product it takes 100,000 tons of plastic and 800,000 tons of tree pulp. We spent 350 million dollars last year just to dispose of this product. The problem - scientists say that it doesn’t decompose. That means that 300 years from now it will still be there in our landfills. Civilizations will come and go, but diapers will remain forever more!

Is this a problem? Should we care? Is there a good reason for taking care of the earth?

Many environmentalists have good reasons for taking care of the earth, but few of them start with God. We tend to view the earth as ours, not God’s.

God says to his people, “… the land is mine and you are but aliens and my tenants.” - Leviticus: 25:23

The earth is his land and we are to steward it well. Part of the stewardship process means to beautify, cultivate, and take care of. The word that Genesis 1:28 uses is subdue. We are to subdue the earth and all that is in it. The Hebrew word for subdue is Kabash which means to bring into bondage.

Our role here on earth is to bring order to chaos, to bring everything in the earth under the rule and reign of God.

One simple example of this is home gardening. In a weed saturated lawn, we go out to bring into bondage every area of grass that is in chaos. We tend to it, mow it, cultivate it, beautify it, etc. This is a visible sign of what we are to do with the whole earth.

Can we go beyond being environmentalists in our own yard to being global environmentalists? If we realize that our city, our neighborhoods, our lakes, our oceans, and our countries are God’s gift to us to steward well, then perhaps we will start to see some progress.

Let’s ask ourselves - Are Christians known for recycling more? (actually, Christians only recycle 10% of what is recycled). Are Christians known for using less gas? Are Christians known for living simply? Are Christians known for using less wrapping paper?

God is restoring lives and restoring the creation in which those lives live. Both are spiritual and both are on God’s heart.


*The statistics and questions (at the end of the blog) have been taken from Rob Bell’s talk from a Mars Hill Church series on God is Green

Freedom Isn’t Really Freedom

by Tyler Zach

Is it possible for a free person to be a slave?

Is it a paradox that a person growing in freedom can actually become less free?

Rob Bell, in his newest book, Sex God, says something quite interesting:

“Often freedom is seen as the ability to do whatever you want. But freedom isn’t being able to have whatever we crave. Freedom is going without whatever we crave and being fine with it.”

Let’s look at a drinking scenario since it is a rather common occurrence in fraternities and sororities.

Many Greeks have the potential to become pendulum swingers when it comes to personality and attitude. During the big parties, these students are energized, happy, humorous, and seem to enjoy life to the fullest. But during the school week comes complaining, bitterness, and depression. Thus, the weekly Wasted Wednesday becomes an oasis opportunity for these guys and girls to drink and be satisfied with life again.

In choosing the freedom to drink, these students slip more and more out of freedom.

We often become dependent on what are free to do. Therefore we become un-free.

Guys who choose to look at pornography because they are free to do so, become addicted and then become slaves to pornography. Girls who choose to date one guy after another because they are free to do so, become addicted to dating and then become slaves to dating.

Whatever you are choosing to do that you have become a slave to, as trivial as it may seem, still affects your daily attitude. A guy who doesn’t get his daily or weekly dose of pornography will simply act different than a guy who isn’t dependent on pornography. A girl who can’t go without having a boyfriend will act different than a girl who can be without a boyfriend for a period of time.

So, how can we be really free?

The bible makes it clear that we are born as broken people. We are slaves to doing the things that bring chaos instead of order. We’d rather be addicted to things that benefit ourselves rather than benefit others. We are slaves of wrongdoing.

Jesus, however, offers us an alternative – being slaves or right doing. Can you imagine being the type of person who can’t help but do the right thing in every situation?

This is true freedom: Not being addicted to any wrongdoing.

However, simply abstaining from wrong things will not lead to satisfaction. A lot of Christians are really good at following the rules and abstaining from the wrong things. But there is no joy and not satisfaction in their life. That is why they secretly envy their fraternity brothers or sorority sisters who are living it up, partying, and enjoying life to the fullest. This type of envy makes it easy for them to condemn the wrong doers because they wish they could be having fun too!

No, true freedom means replacing the addiction of wrong things with the addiction of right things. True freedom means leaving behind the story of your life for a better story.

By receiving Jesus into your life and submitting to his way of life, you will eventually become more and more addicted to him and a life of right doing. You will find yourself desiring to go down and serve Hurricane Katrina victims rather than going on a party trip to Mexico. You will find yourself serving your housemates by doing extra chores rather than locking yourself in your room to look at pornography. You will find yourself hanging out with and mentoring younger brothers and sisters in the House instead of spending an hour on the phone each night with your boyfriend or girlfriend – who you will eventually break up with.

Being a slave to right doing is the only kind of addiction you want to have in your life. And this change of life can only come through Jesus. He died and was resurrected so that we could die to a life of wrongdoing and resurrected into a life of right doing.

Self-help books won’t do the trick.

Away With Praise And Worship

by Tyler Zach

God sometimes gets tired of praise and worship. It’s true.

Check out these words (from God to His people) in the book of Amos:

“Away with the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps. But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!”

The original Greek word for “justice” is “Mishpat” which translates into: justice, right, rectitude. Rectitude means “the quality or state of being straight”.

In a sense, God isn’t saying that He is against praise and worship sessions at church or on campus. He is, however, saying that praise and worship doesn’t mean much if we aren’t about what He’s about.

He’s about justice. He’s about straightening things out. Making things as they ought to be.

There are major injustices going on in the fraternity and sorority world. In other words, things are out of order and in chaos. Fraternity men are raping sorority girls. Drunkenness is abundant. Girls are gossiping about each other. Hazing is still very common. Leaders are criticized and mocked. There is disunity among different chapters.

Things need to be made straight.

So, let’s continue to praise and worship. But, let’s do so while upholding the justice and righteousness of God in our fraternities and sororities. Let’s bring the Kingdom into our Houses, so that peace and order will be displayed “as it is in heaven”.

Justice is just as spiritual as singing.

Perhaps if justice comes in greater measure, we will sing more. Perhaps we will sing louder.

Woops… Forgot My Wedding Clothes

by Tyler Zach

Ever show up to a meeting, a wedding, a class, or some other event in which you were severely underdressed? What, business casual? What, a tie?

Well, one man found himself severely under-dressed and paid dearly for it. Matthew 22 tells the parable. This dude was invited to come to the wedding ceremony, but got the boot really quick.

We read: “But when the king came in to look over the dinner guests, he saw a man there who was not dressed in wedding clothes, and he said to him, 'Friend, how did you come in here without wedding clothes?' And the man was speechless. Then the king said to the servants, 'Bind him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.' For many are called, but few are chosen."

I’m sure the dude wasn’t naked. Couldn’t he have received a little grace? You know, since God is so loving and graceful? If we can forgive someone for not wearing a tie to a wedding, couldn’t have God, the King, forgiven this man for not wearing the “right” wedding clothes?

In this case, the answer is no, because this idea of “wedding clothes” has significant meaning within the Kingdom.

The clothes we wear have to do with the issues of the heart. Whichever set of clothes you have on represents a deep conviction about yourself and God.

The religious leaders of the day were pretty boys. Not in the sense that they were good looking, but that they tried really hard to look good. They would spend hours in front of a mirror trying on different robes and fixing their hair with expensive Hebrew gel.

They thought that their robes and other outward appearances would impress people… and ultimately impress God.

In Luke 20 we get a glimpse of this when Jesus says, "Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes, and love respectful greetings in the market places, and chief seats in the synagogues and places of honor at banquets… These will receive greater condemnation."

These types of people will be thrown out of the Kingdom some day just like the dude in the parable. So, what do we do? Where do we get the “right”eous wedding robes? Hint: Not at your local mall.

The only robe worth wearing to the wedding ceremony of all ceremonies someday will be the robe that Jesus gives us.
“I will rejoice greatly in the LORD, My soul will exult in my God; For He has clothed me with garments of salvation, He has wrapped me with a robe of righteousness…” - Isaiah 61:10

It’s pretty simple.

1) Repent of your own self-righteousness – this is taking off your robe.

2) Accept Jesus’ robe of righteousness – this is putting your trust in Him and in what He has done for you – namely - saving, redeeming, and restoring you from the time of the cross up until the present time.

Then and only then you will get on the guest list and stay on it. Some people might use the term “book of life” :)