Newsletter 15 February 2020

Caring for Creation

We have seen what I would call “proper weather” this last week. Flights cancelled, trees felled, rivers overflowing their banks. It puts me in awe of God. 

How are we to respond to the needs of the creation? I attended a lecture this week titled “Can a Christian be an environmentalist?”. The speaker was Dr Sandra Richter.  I don’t have the time or space to go into the details of the lecture here, but, it re-affirmed in me the significance of children of God loving what God loves. 

Without doubt he loves his creation (“God saw that it was good”, Genesis 1:10). We are here to be good stewards of what God has made. To serve and to guard it. Not to destroy it. Certainly to enjoy what God has made. To make the most of it. But that’s not the same as exploiting it to the point of exhaustion.

“The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.” (Genesis 2:15 NIV11)

My part in directly affecting issues such as climate change may be small. Even infinitesimally small. But the bigger issue is one of the heart. Do I love what God loves? Do the people around me see that I cherish and take care of the world in which we all live? I would suggest that is part of how we let our light shine.

Recently Penny recorded a podcast on this issue which will be going up online hopefully in the near future. If you have any thoughts about ways to approach this topic I’d be very interested.

I have the handout from the lecture. If you’d like a copy, drop me an email and I will forward the PDF to you.

I hope that this week’s podcasts, videos and other materials may help you to find joy in what God has made.

Prayer requests

  • Please pray for me as I prepare the materials for the Watford teaching day which takes place on 29 February. 
  • Please pray for the class I will be teaching for the Thames Valley churches of Christ this coming Friday 21st February. We’ll be looking at the two ways from Matthew 7.13-20.
  • Please pray for my sermon for the Watford Church of Christ this coming Sunday 23rd February. We’ll be looking at Matthew 4.23-25.

Thank you for reading this far, and encouraging me in my endeavours to support our times of quiet with God, our corporate worship experiences, and the effectiveness of our preaching and teaching. I hope my uploads will help you to have beatitude-infused conversations this week.

If you know anyone who might enjoy these materials, please send them a link to my website and encourage them to sign up for this newsletter.

God bless, Malcolm