Consumer Science part 1

As gas prices rise and debates rage about how to fix this problem I find myself asking, "Where is the Christian's place in all of this?"

The Bible teaches that all creation is God's and we are charged to care for it. We are called to be good stewards of the blessings God has given us and to manage them correctly. Often though it seems that the church is on the wrong side of environmental debates and quick to abuse the gift of creation we have been given. We paint environmentalist as liberal and are rushing to plunge the drills deep beneath the surface of the Alaskan nature preserve.

Let me state I by no means think that nature should take precedence over human life, but that does not mean that we forget about it all together.

So what can the church do? How do we combat high prices at the pump and still display the mind and heart of Christ. Is the answer to drill and forget about "what ever furry thing" might be living in Alaska?

The church should be on the forefront of conservation and take the lead in being stewards over the natural resources we have been blessed with. It seems like we have gotten the carriage before the horse, instead of campaigning for drilling more wholes in the earth we should be innovating and taking steps to better manage the resources we have.

Yesterday I saw a commercial for a seven passenger SUV; it probably got about 10 miles to the gallon. The average American household in 1998 according to the census bureau was 2.7, do you see anything in consistent with this?

There are steps we can all take to preserve and conserve what we have; the answer is not to produce more but to consume less. We preach death to self, but aren't willing to part with our F-350's or walk a couple of blocks to where ever we are going. I am not against cars we need them and God has enabled us to produce them and they are blessing. I do think however there is a certain context that they should be used in. This can similarly be compared to the Christians view on Sex: it is a blessing from God but can be abused and perverted if used in the wrong context, outside of marriage.

If the church would do our part as the care takers of God's creation oh what a testimony it would be. We should be leading the charge to respect what we have been blessed with and praise God for the advances He has enabled us to make.

Let us pray the God would forgive for abusing the gifts he has given and us and show us how to properly care for His creation. That he would use to influence policies and be a voice for Christ centered environmentalism.

Can you think of better time to minister then when sharing a care ride to work or when helping out with a neighborhood cleanup? God uses even these things to bring His people to Him.