Clearcutting of timber in Florida Woe to those who join house to house; they add field to field, till there is no place where they may dwell alone in the midst of the land! In my hearing the Lord of Hosts said, "Truly many houses shall be desolate, great and beautiful ones, without inhabitants, for ten acres of vineyard shall yield one bath , and a homer of seed shall yield one ephah."
--Isaiah 5:8-10
America has truly been a land of opportunity. Colonists and immigrants with courage and a powerful work ethic populated the new and seemingly endless land, determined to improve themselves and become part of a nation designed to provide freedom under God for her new people. But somehow over time we have to a great extent lost our way, moving from a society where all who worked hard could share in the riches of the land to a crony capitalist society where the favored few dictate to others what their lifestyle and their hopes and dreams would be limited to.
The Prophet Isaiah in Old Testament times, considered to be the first and greatest prophet due to his connection with God, warned of this seven hundred years before the birth of Christ. He understood the mortal and weak nature of man and the ease with which he could succumb to a quest for personal riches and opulence far beyond anything he could ever need. And no place was this more readily seen than in his use of the land, a gift from God to be used wisely by humans who would be occupying it only for the duration of their life on earth. And rather than using it wisely, realizing that others would follow who would need a livable land, they chose to squander and abuse it instead in support of their opulence. Today we might say it is just a display to show that they are better than the "Joneses". That is the nature of the scripture cited at the beginning of this commentary and it is so prevalent today here in America.
Men of connection and power conduct huge land grabs, taking beautiful land which has a very important part in our ability to live and thrive and using it recklessly to improve their position of power and wealth. Beautiful forests, pristine wetlands and habitat for native species are clearcut, drained, and remolded into tightly packed residential units resembling a colony of automatons in their cookie cutter and architectural simplicity. Concrete and macadam cover beautiful fields of flowers and formerly productive farmland with a result that certainly does not proclaim the sense of proper dominion over the earth that God had in mind in Genesis.
We'll talk about that in this weekend's Sunday Morning Coming Down. We will not approach it from the view that all development and change is bad for God expected man to grow. But we will talk about it from the perspective of excess and the impact that excessive use of resources and the impact thereof has on the quality of life for mankind. Since this is truly God's world, He is watching and He expects us to do a much better job of stewardship over His property than we have certainly shown.
I hope you'll join us. We'll also have some good Christian music and prayer as we celebrate Our Father's World and what we should be doing with it. The show will be available late Saturday night and then on demand, 24/7. Here's the link:
tobtr.com/s/8055269
--Isaiah 5:8-10
America has truly been a land of opportunity. Colonists and immigrants with courage and a powerful work ethic populated the new and seemingly endless land, determined to improve themselves and become part of a nation designed to provide freedom under God for her new people. But somehow over time we have to a great extent lost our way, moving from a society where all who worked hard could share in the riches of the land to a crony capitalist society where the favored few dictate to others what their lifestyle and their hopes and dreams would be limited to.
The Prophet Isaiah in Old Testament times, considered to be the first and greatest prophet due to his connection with God, warned of this seven hundred years before the birth of Christ. He understood the mortal and weak nature of man and the ease with which he could succumb to a quest for personal riches and opulence far beyond anything he could ever need. And no place was this more readily seen than in his use of the land, a gift from God to be used wisely by humans who would be occupying it only for the duration of their life on earth. And rather than using it wisely, realizing that others would follow who would need a livable land, they chose to squander and abuse it instead in support of their opulence. Today we might say it is just a display to show that they are better than the "Joneses". That is the nature of the scripture cited at the beginning of this commentary and it is so prevalent today here in America.
Men of connection and power conduct huge land grabs, taking beautiful land which has a very important part in our ability to live and thrive and using it recklessly to improve their position of power and wealth. Beautiful forests, pristine wetlands and habitat for native species are clearcut, drained, and remolded into tightly packed residential units resembling a colony of automatons in their cookie cutter and architectural simplicity. Concrete and macadam cover beautiful fields of flowers and formerly productive farmland with a result that certainly does not proclaim the sense of proper dominion over the earth that God had in mind in Genesis.
We'll talk about that in this weekend's Sunday Morning Coming Down. We will not approach it from the view that all development and change is bad for God expected man to grow. But we will talk about it from the perspective of excess and the impact that excessive use of resources and the impact thereof has on the quality of life for mankind. Since this is truly God's world, He is watching and He expects us to do a much better job of stewardship over His property than we have certainly shown.
I hope you'll join us. We'll also have some good Christian music and prayer as we celebrate Our Father's World and what we should be doing with it. The show will be available late Saturday night and then on demand, 24/7. Here's the link:
tobtr.com/s/8055269
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