Day 4: Total domination?

Excuse #2 We are the dominate beings of the earth

Gen. 1: 26 "Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upong the earth."

Gen 1: 29-30 "God said, "See, I have given you every plant yeilding seed that it upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the eart, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food." And it was so."

Christians look at these verses and think' okay, God gave us the earth, we can use it however we like." We call this dominance. We think to dominate means to control and that a second party, in this case, our enviroment, is completely submissive to the dominate party. The problem is we are confused by the definition of dominice and the defineition of submission. At least we're confusing God's definition with our own.

God wants us to submit to Him, meaning we follow His will. He is the truly dominate being in the universe. He is Alpha and Omega. We are in His control even when we don't know we're being controlled. And in these verses, God wants us to submit to him by giving us dominion over the earth. Its like a dad trusting his teenager with the keys to the car. He's giving the kid permission to drive it around, but he's the one who paid for the car. The car is in his name. the Dad is trusting his child to be RESPONSIBLE with the car and not drive it into a pole. That's the key. God's definition includes responsibility. Ours includes the dominate party being selfish and thinking they know what is best. That is denying God's power over our lives. Than is sin. We're the teenager who doesn't care if he has a few beers with his friends and totals that car. We just want to feel good and have fun. The problem is the Father knows that if we're not careful, when we total that car, we might end up killing ourselves or someone else.

Now that example is a little extreme, but that's how serious it is to God. He gave us this world hoping we would be responsible stewards that would take care of His Glory. But because of our selfishness, we lost our way and our world is moaning. Again everything that affects our environment affects people living in this world. And if they can't live their lives without suffering because they can't find food to eat because the farmlands have been plowed down for urban sprawl or the water they drink is polluted with waste and garbage, we who support irresponsible development and throw away our trash without throught to where is goes is partly responsible for killing our fellow human beings.

Scary thought huh? Aren't you glad you're forgiven by Christ? And as Christians we now have a chance to return to God's orginal purpose for us. By accepting our responsible as stewards for God's earth, we are showing our submission to God's will. We are showing we understand that taking care of this world brings glory to God's heavenly kingdom and that all life is affected by our actions. Are you ready to take the keys?