United Church of God

Pastor's Corner - March 15th, 2019

You are here

A Congregation of the United Church of God

Pastor's Corner - March 15th, 2019

A number of you are probably familiar with the internet challenge trend that has occurred over the past few years on social media in which someone comes up with a challenge, posts a video of themselves doing it, challenges others to do the same, and then it goes viral and a large number of others do it too.

Sometimes they’re noble, sometimes silly, sometimes they’re dangerous. Some of the more notable challenges in recent years that have gotten some press.

  • ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, which was undertaken to bring awareness to and to financially support ALS research.
     
  • The Cinnamon Challenge, where individuals tried to swallow a spoonful of cinnamon on video in less than 60 seconds, to disastrous results.
     
  • The Lava Challenge, where you film your friends scramble to safety after declaring that “The Floor is Lava”.
     
  • The Silly Salmon Challenge, where a person jumps into the nearest body of water at the behest of their friend, while acting like a flopping salmon.

There are many more that have circulated in the past several years as well, and while these challenges are generally ridiculous and a complete waste of time – I became aware of another challenge circulating on social media this week, which was a positive bright spot in the midst of a pretty tough news week.

The “Trashtag Challenge”, where an individual posts a before photo of a place that has been just trashed, either an illegal dump site, or another outdoor place where people have been dumping garbage—state or city parks, beaches, riverbanks… and then an after photo once they have cleaned it up.

People all over the world have started to clean up some of these areas that were just destroyed, and over this past week it has begun to go viral, with some pretty awful messes getting taken care of. Often to the tune of 15-20 bags of garbage cleared.

When God created this Earth and all that was in it, God looked back on His creation and saw that it was good. (Genesis 1)

In verse 26 of Genesis 1, Moses records:

26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
27 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
28 Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

Man was provided dominion over this creation, He was intended to subdue it, to have dominion over the animals. Does that mean that we take advantage of what we have available to us? Certainly not – man was intended to mange wisely what he was given – to be good stewards of God’s creation. In Genesis 2:15, Adam was specifically placed in the garden to tend and to keep it. To care for what God had made.

As we look at the number of issues that have taken place on our Earth as a result of man’s carelessness or greed, it is nice to see some individuals and groups taking some action to help restore it a little bit at a time.

Acts 3:21 references a coming “restoration of all things”, a time where this world, its people, and all that is in it will be restored to the way God intended it. The waste places will be made fruitful again, the deserts shall blossom and rejoice, and all creation will rejoice. The wilderness and land shall be glad! (Isaiah 35; Isaiah 51)

What a blessed time that will be.