The Need for Care and Compassionate Use of Earth’s Resources

There is need for us to recognize how important our environment is. It is the platform or foundation on which we live. If we do not take care of our environment we will all suffer for it, hence it is the joint responsibility of everyone to contribute to the sustenance of our environment.

We should take cognizance of the way we use earth resources because they are limited, they will not continue to be available forever, which is, water, gas, oil, trees, animals, forests, air, etc. Many people use these things as if they are unlimited in supply. Many species of animals, birds, fish, plants, and other organisms have gone into extinction as a result of this, yes many do not realize that they need to change in the way they use earth resources.

God created all of these resources for our use, and He even make them in a way that they can be regenerated if they get exhausted, but the truth of the matter is that the rate at which they are being depleted far outpaces the rate at which they are being regenerated. Many times, regeneration can take up to over hundreds of thousands of years before it fully takes place, hence many of these resources will never be allowed to get regenerated.

The earth and all its available resources are being used without any respect for the law of nature. Many people don’t find it difficult to believe there is God, but they don’t understand that He who created the earth wants us to use it in His way.

We need to ‘see’ God in our environment because He is not restricted to heaven alone. He is in the trees of the forest, among the animals in the bush or fishes of the sea. The works of Jesus are not restricted to saving souls alone, but to reconciling all things to God.

The time has come for us to begin to do what God created us for, that of care and compassionate use of the earth. God gave to Adam the special task of continuing the beautification of earth by making use of its resources in the way ordained by God. We are descendants of Adam and the same task extends to us. We need to harness the potentials in the oceans, forests, sky and other available places and use them for God’s glory.

When we use earth resources in a way that problems like pollution, oil spillage, killing of wildlife results, we are doing the damages directly to Jesus.

If God who created the earth is still sustaining and investing in it till today, it only shows that He values His creation, and if He has put us in charge; to dominate, to multiply, and to subdue the earth, then it also means that He holds us with high regard.

If we hold a special position in the creation of God, if the Almighty can entrust us to keep and care for His creation, then we too should reciprocate back by appreciating Him for it.

We should devote our lives to worship, serve, and obey Him all the days of our lives, at least for the earth’s resources that He has given to us.

A day for this purpose has been set aside already, it is called the creation day, and it falls on the first Sunday of March of every year. It is a day that we all ought to offer praise and worship to God in recognition of His great love for us, but unfortunately many do not know about this day talk less of giving it the recognition it deserves.

Here we are pushing forward the idea of making this Day of Creation a fully recognized holiday, and will like you to join us just by registering here.

Little Things you can do to Save the Earth

You might be wondering how little things you do can have any significant effect on our big earth.

the truth of the matter is that what you are doing that is depleting earth resources are the things that countless others are doing in various places where they are located, hence if your activities are less significant, by the time you add up what others are doing it becomes very alarming.

When you try to change your ways you have reduced these harmful activities by a little amount, and you have also pave the way for others around you who you can reach to hear from you how they too can save the earth.

Seriously speaking, the earth is reeling in pain, under various unhealthy, environmentally hazardous activities that individuals and corporate organizations are doing today.

Activities like; driving automobiles, running industrial machines, mining, fishing, killing wildlife, cutting down natural vegetation, etc. are actually killing the earth but you can help reduce them by doing the following on daily basis or as occasion demands, and you can also help to tell others to do them.

Take note of how you use water. Do not leave your water tap open while you do not actually need the water and in particular fix every leaking pipe in your house to prevent wastage, go for tap water when you need to drink and not the bottled version so that you will prevent littering the environment with disposable plastics.

According to EPA when you keep your car off the road just for 2 days in a week, you will reduce greenhouse gas emission by about 1,590 pounds annually. This you can do if you combine all your trips together, use bike or mass transit transportation system.

Encourage recycling by opting for products that has less packaging. A company with 7,000 workers who recycled her office paper wastes for a year will reduce greenhouse gas emission by the same amount that will result when 400 cars are taken off the road.

Reduce the amount of solid wastes you are generating to help reduce the amount of space these wastes are occupying in landfills overtime.

Above all of these points, you have to love people that are living around you. This is the most important thing you have to do if you must save the earth.

When you love your neighbor you will not do any evil against the fellow, talk of murder, lying, fighting, stealing, etc. all of these brings upon us God’s wrath making our earth vulnerable to His judgment.

You may be thinking that the wrong things you are doing are insignificant, but think of what results will come up when we combine that of others in other places on earth.

To save the earth you must recognize the one who created it, understand the reason why He did that, and also His guidelines for living on earth.

The earth is much more that a physical creation, the maker, God Almighty is watching over it to preserve it, you must be in agreement with this God if you want to enjoy the earth.

Have you heard of the day of creation, it is a day set aside to recognize God, if we all give this day the recognition it deserves we shall surely save the earth.

How Big is God?

How Big is God?

We can begin to have an idea of how big God is by looking at his creation. Let us take the universe for example – a large, endless, expanse of space, with innumerable planets, stars and other planetary bodies – many of them several thousands of kilometres bigger than our earth.According to the International Astronomical Union, the diameter of our galaxy – the Milky Way – is approximately 100,000 light years. To get an idea of the massive expanse that this occupies, it is helpful to know that one light year is equal to 10 trillion kilometres.

Astronomers using the Hubble Telescope have discovered billions of galaxies in the universe, observing that each of these galaxies have billions of stars. Limiting their records to only what they can observe with the telescope, they have concluded that our own galaxy has about 300 billion stars alone.

The distance between our galaxy and our neighboring galaxies ranges from several hundred thousand, to millions of light years away from the earth.

It is not hard to see why the Psalmist says;

When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have ordained; Ps 8:3-4 NASU

The one who created the endless universe can never be a small creature himself. The bible says He is so big in stature that he made the earth His foot stool.

It is unfortunate that though man has been able to discover the wonders of the universe, he has not been able to fully grasp the God who made it.

What is man that you take thought of him and the son of man that you care for him? Yet you have made him a little lower than God, And You crown him with glory and majesty! You make him to rule over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, And also the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens and the fish of the sea, whatever passes through the paths of the seas. Ps 8:4-8 NASU

If God can exalt humanity to the point of putting all things under his feet, then we should feel compelled to reciprocate His love by using every opportunity to worship Him.

The Day of Creation has been set aside for this purpose; all we need to do is to give it more recognition by help making it a recognized holiday.

Can Humanity Actually Save the Earth?

Can humanity save itself? That is a real thought provoking question in the face of all the challenges the human race is facing today, and because of the fact that we are full of activities that are capable of destroying the earth instead of saving it.

Most of the simple things that we do daily are actually consuming earth’s resources; when you buy a new car for example, many materials taken from the earth has gone into the manufacturing of the car, and also for the number of years that you will use it, you will be emitting environmentally hazardous gases into the atmosphere.

The same thing happens when you use electricity, when you buy a package of food, or just any other product that you need for yourself. They are all sourced from the earth, and they have no means of being replenished back into the earth because they are being removed at a fast rate.

A child born in the U.S will consume nothing less than 45,000 pounds of metal in his lifetime through all kinds of products and materials he would be exposed to. The same experience is obtainable at various degrees in other parts of the world.

The dangerous results that this kind of living is bringing to earth is that we are gradually altering our environment, although in a negative way; by deforestation, releasing of harmful gases to the atmosphere, poisoning the rivers, destroying massive natural habitats, polluting the oceans, and altering the chemical composition of our atmosphere.

The unfortunate thing about this evil trend is that we are turning back to destroy the very earth that is helping us to live, the source of everything we use for our existence, how sad.

In the face of the problems listed above, human population keep increasing by leaps and bounds making the fast depleting resources of earth grossly inadequate for the population available.

The more you look at this disturbing trend, the more you will see the hopeless situation we are in, hence the answer to the question, can humanity save itself is no.

If we cannot save ourselves, then who can save us? If science, technology and other human inventions have failed then where lies the solution that we need.

The answer is in God. The word of God has rightly said in John 15:5

I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. NASU

We are not sufficient of ourselves, our sufficiency is in God. There is no way we can forsake our creator and expects to achieve the right results we desire. The God who created the earth also created its inhabitant. If there is anyone who has the blueprint of the earth, and the user manual for successful living on it, that person is God.

God is the only one who can teach us how to live successful on earth; He can provide solution to the problem of depleting resources we are experiencing now, for the earth is of the Lord and the fullness thereof.

Just like when Adam was doing the will of God in the Garden of Eden, and everything in the Garden was in perfect harmony and peace, without scarcity or dearth of any resources, the earth can enjoy abundant supply of resources if we recognize the maker and accept Him as the Lord and Savior.

Many may see it as a joke when we talk about God because He is invisible, many may laugh because we are living in a generation where technological advancement has made man to record astounding achievements seemingly without the help of God, but no one can deny the fact that we have serious problems that we are combating with, which technology cannot solve, and as a matter of fact, technology has succeeded in bringing its own problems as well.

God said in His word:

If they hear and serve Him, They will end their days in prosperity and their years in pleasures. But if they do not hear, they shall perish by the sword and they will die without knowledge. Job 36:11-12 NASU

The question now is which is better, to continue to live in rebellion to God with attendant ever increasing environmental problems threatening to destroy us, or to obey Him and enjoy His abundance?

Going for the latter will bring the much desired positive change that the earth’s inhabitants want. This was what the proponents of the Day if Creation had in mind when they came up with the project, that we need to set aside a special day for recognizing the one who gave us the earth, and who supplies the needs of the inhabitants, you can be part of the project now and save the earth.

The First Assignment Given to Adam

The Lord God placed the man in the Garden of Eden to tend and watch over it. Gen. 2:15 NLT

Adam was the first man created by God, and indeed the best of his creation because God created him exactly like Himself. He was to carry the image of the invisible God and dominate over other creatures.

God made the Garden of Eden and put Adam there and gave him his first assignment; that of tilling the land. The garden was so well arranged that Adam do not need to actually do anything before he would eat; no farming, no hunting, etc. for all the plants and animals in the garden were under his authority, and he was at liberty to eat any of them, except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the middle of the garden.

This singular command from God gives us an insight into one of the plans of God for man- that of taking care of the earth so that all the earth must continue to flourish in fruitfulness, and be at peace.

The way of the Lord is that there is partnership between Him and man. He is to play His role, and man too will play his, then the earth will be like heaven.

God gave this command to Adam alone but He never changed it even after He sent Adam out of the garden, hence the first assignment that Adam received is still in force today, we the descendant of Adam must do it so that God the creator of heaven and earth can be happy with us and bless us.

If God does not love His earth, He will not give the best of His creation, which is man, the job of taking care of the earth.

We do not need to worship the earth, but we are to use it with the consciousness of the fact that the owner wants it preserved and used according to His will.

“You are worthy, O Lord, To receive glory and honor and power; For You created all things, and by Your will they exist and were created.” Rev 4:11 NKJV

By His will we were created and are sustained, we must use every avenue to worship and glorify Him. A day globally accepted as the creation day has been set aside for this purpose, but because of our ever busy nature we have not given this day any recognition.

It is time that we recognize the day of creation, and make it a global holiday in which the whole world will worship Him with high praise and holy reverence.