Day 3: Excuse #1 We're going to Heaven!

Gen.1:31a "God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good."

Excuse Number 1: "We're going to Heaven! Why worry about this flawed planet?"

Congratulations! You accepted Jesus Christ as your savior and now you've won the Grand Prize! An all expense paid trip to Heaven! You'll praise God for eternity and stroll streets of gold! Sit at the Savior's feet and meet celebrities like Abraham, David, Mary and many more!

Sounds like a game show host doesn't it? I think that's how we Christian's view our walk sometimes. We're good to go and we don't need to worry about this world anymore. The problem is our everlasting life includes the here and now. God told us to go and make disciples of every nation. How can we do that if we don't care about the world they live in? People need food to eat and clean water to drink more than a tract about how to ask Jesus to be their savior.

How many times in in the new testament have we been told how Jesus fed thousands with just a few loaves and fish? We call them miracles, but the real miracle is that he fed their physical needs before he fed them spiritually. People can't listen on empty stomachs. Or if they're struggling to breath from polluted air. Or too busy thinking about how to get water for that night. Or food for the table. My prayer is that you'll see that taking care of this earth is an extension of our ministry to others.

Also and more important, taking care of God's creation is giving Him glory. God created the earth to give Him pleasure and to bring Glory to Himself. It us humans who tried to ruin that by polluting our planet. In Genesis, God called everything he had created, not just humans, everything very good. I truly believe that when Jesus comes back a second time, our planet will be restored to how it was at the beginning of creation. And it will be wonderful and beautiful and God will once more invite us to walk with Him in the garden. Now that sounds heavenly.