Friday, May 23, 2008

TWG - May 23, 2008

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TWG - May 23, 2008
To Listen to Today’s Reading http://timewithgod.mypodcast.com
Exodus 8; Psalm 18: 25-50; Matthew 21:1-22

Today is May 23, this is time with God, I’m Pastor Dennis - I’ve been waiting here for you. Welcome to our life transforming community. TWG is a complete turn of events, it is a 180 degree turn around. God is changing us and turning us around as a community. This is not business as usual, this is transforming, this is spiritual, this is essential.

Busy, busy, busy… that’s what yesterday was for me. Things are piling up, deadlines are coming right around the corner, so I was in a frenzy to get them done. I uploaded a new Radio Podcast to the internet called “The Lost Unlucky Man.” I worked further on our Graduation Power Point. It’s coming along nicely. I tried to get my Sunday Discovery Class finished… it’s close. I got the bulletin ready for Susan, and I worked on Sunday’s message called “Needed: a Praying Church” in our 1 Timothy series. At one point I needed a break, so I went out to the amphitheater and did a little weeding. As I was digging weeds on the hill, I swung the shovel at a weed and suddenly, shockingly, surprisingly, a quail came out of nowhere and flew past my head toward the creek! I almost hit the poor thing. It turns out that the mommy quail has about 8 or 10 eggs hidden in the amphitheater! I put a picture of her nest on the blog at timewithgod.mypodcast.com. check it out.

This week’s theme verse is Romans 1:21-23. For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.

Most of us civilized folk think that worshiping wood or stone is stupid. But there is a modern version of idolatry that is prevalent and growing among the educated around the world: nature worship. It really isn’t modern at all. The ancient witches and ye olde wiccan religion has long worshipped nature. The American Indian also has a mystical faith in Mother Nature. Nature religions actually believe in the personality of the earth and ascribe human, even godlike characteristics to it. “The earth does not belong to us, we belong to the earth,” is a common mantra. One of the fundamental problems with many environmental groups is that they believe in the personality of nature… thus we need to quit managing it and let nature heal itself. We need to allow everything to go back to its “natural state.” One big problem… Nature doesn’t work that way! Sorry! The Christian view is that all the universe is under the curse and requires our care… And one of the most proven laws of the universe is that everything, left to itself will deteriorate. God left us here to manage nature. Unmanaged woodlands soon become a tangled mess that are inhospitable to wildlife and greenery. Any time we turn truth on its head, there are serious consequences. Nature Religions would have us stop “raping” the land and set aside important land resources for the exclusive use of Mother Nature to “save our planet.” Instead of farming, ranching or logging, or even camping, they want many areas to be completely untouched and unspoiled by human hands. Some believe that we humans are a cancer to the earth that needs to be removed. We humans are the problem! If there were less of us, if we weren’t allowed to touch nature, the natural evolutionary process would go on nicely. The theology of Nature Worship is deadly. It threatens the existence of those who were “created in the image of God,” mankind! Isn’t it amazing how man, left to himself and his own ideas inevitably sows the seeds of his own destruction. Why would anyone ever consider trading the Living God for a Dead Idol? Why would anyone want to trade the living God to worship an impersonal, inhospitable, Mother Earth? I don’t know maybe they are fools!

Dear Living God. I will bow down and worship you, the invisible, immortal, almighty God. I love the beautiful trees, animals and spaces you have created, they tell me how amazing you are. Help me to hold to the truth so that we can fulfill one of our purposes here on earth… to manage your creation. Thanks for your wonderful gifts to us!

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