A Short Earth Day Observation

While he was still running for president, Rick Santorum made a statement that got him pilloried and lampooned by the usual suspects. Santorum said that Obama believed in a pagan theology that taught that man exists to serve the earth. Like I said, Santorum was mocked for that observation but in truth he was spot on.  And what's frightening is that many people, not just Obama, are believers in the pagan environmentalist "creed" that the earth is higher than man. For these people nature, not Yahweh, is their god, and they will countenance any amount of human suffering to ensure the survival and purity of that "god". Bible-believing Christians do not and cannot subscribe to this false theology.  But as Earth Day brings environmental concerns to the forefront for 24 hours, just what should be the correct Christian position on environmentalism, the planet, and being "green"?   

Whether out of a misguided effort to be relevant or as a result of pagan infiltration into the Church, some Christians have gotten completely into green theology.  A couple of years ago, for example, some Australian clergy issued a declaration that believers should have fewer children because large families rob resources from future generations.  I cringed when I heard that on the news.  Pure paganism, to my mind.  Still, there needs to be a Christian response to environmentalism, and I think there is one, if we'd just look at Scripture.

I think the Christian answer to pagan, the-earth-is-god, environmentalism is Biblical conservationism, or "eco-stewardship".  It's right there in the book of Genesis, if we'd open our eyes to see it.  The first book of the Bible tells us that God created man in His own image and gave him dominion over the nature.  That dominion, however, is NOT a license to rape the planet for Scripture also informs us that "the earth is the Lord's."  Man is not the creator, God is.  Man did not make nature and, consequently, has no right to destroy or misuse nature.  Nature is God's gift to man for his survival. Man can use nature to meet his needs but he can't abuse nature as it is God's possession,  just like man himself.  God put man into the Garden of Eden to care for it, not destroy it.  Therefore, I feel that it's obligatory on believers to love and protect nature out of gratitude to God for His provision and not to serve nature itself.  That, in a nutshell, is my view of Biblical conservationism or "eco-stewardship".  Yes, Christians can "save the planet" without worshiping it.


Happy Earth Day.

Happy Easter

Happy Easter, friends!

Ragamuffin Faith

Hey friends! As you can see, I've changed the look and, more importantly, the name of this blog (although I've kept the same url, divinemusings.blogspot.com, to keep it easy to get to my blog). Here's why.

From the time I started this blog I never liked the name I gave it, namely, "God and Me". I thought that name was painfully unoriginal and boring! But I couldn't come up with anything else that fit the purpose of my blog, so I stuck with the lame name, until now. I just got fed up with "God and Me" and decided to turn to Google for help (don't know why I didn't think of this years ago). I googled "christan blog name ideas" and, among other things, a list of the top 50 Christian blogs came up. While perusing that list my eyes fell on a blog named Ragamuffin Soul and I immediately knew that was the name for my blog. Unfortunately, it was already taken. What to do? What to do?

I looked at the name again and felt drawn to the word ragamuffin. The word refers to a person, especially a child, dressed in ragged, dirty clothes. As an adjective--as it's used in the blog name--it describes my spiritual reality precisely. I'm a ragamuffin believer. My faith is ragged, unkempt, and ill fitting. I try to wash it. I try to make it as clean, orderly, and well fitting as the faith of my Christian friends, or the confident Christians I see on tv boldly giving testimony of God's live-changing intervention in their lives.

I try to have faith like that. I wash and polish my faith to a wonderful sheen, but it always goes back to its natural, unkempt state. Doubts, confusion, weakness, the cares of this world, all distract me from "every word that comes from the mouth of God" and dirty my faith up all over again. So, that's what I have: dirty faith, distracted faith, smudged faith, saltless faith, ragamuffin faith. Yet, God has been kind to me and answered (some of) my prayers. He's seen me through proverbial thick and thin. Even though I am far, far from perfect and have dropped the ball more than once during most of my Christian walk, the Lord chooses to look after me. He knows I need him, and He responds accordingly. He embraces me, warts and all.

If you think God doesn't love you. If you think He has no use for you because your faith is less than stellar. If you think the Lord will just pass you by, you're wrong. God loves you, is interested in you and longs for a relationship with you, even if all you have is ragamuffin faith. Just ask me.