Observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy, as the Lord your God has commanded you. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your ox, your donkey or any of your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns, so that your male and female servants may rest, as you do. Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the Lord your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore, the Lord your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day (Deuteronomy 5:12-15).

The Sabbath word has a complex history. For many, it has negative resonance. While I was growing up, the major question for Sabbath keeping was, "What is work?" The answer created a long list of forbidden activities resulting in empty Sunday afternoons. Because we focus on defining 'work', it is difficult to apply to our cultural context. However, there is a renaissance of Sabbath keeping literature.

The biblical word concerning Sabbath is positive, meant to give life, not dull it. It is a discipline which helps develop a healthy Christian spirituality. Recall what we have been saying about these ten words. They are words of covenant, of the relationship between God and his people. The word about Sabbath was not intended to be primarily legalistic. Its purpose was to create space in the weekly rhythm for God and his people to be together. It is a Sabbath to the Lord. It was and is a gift.

Early in the era of the church, the first day of the week, the day of resurrection, became the Christian Sabbath. The New Testament does not command the Gentile Christian converts to cease work on that day. As much as it would be wonderful if Sabbath keeping was part of our country's culture, it is not, and not likely to be such. As Christians, we do well not to reserve 'Sabbath keeping' for Sunday, but rather fashion it as a way of life.

There are a couple of Scriptures that help us to do this. One of them is right here, "Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the Lord your God brought you out of there…" The first dynamic of Christian Sabbath is 'remembering'. The exodus from Egypt gave shape to Israelite life and identity. Likewise, the resurrection of Jesus from the dead gives shape to the Christian life and identity. The early church choose to worship on the first day of the week, not the seventh or the sixth. It is not Good Friday, but Easter, resurrection, victory, that gives us our identity.

For Israel, Egypt was death. They were literally worked to death. Now, they must remember that God set them free from this 'death by work'. In Exodus 20, God invites her to remember that he is the creator of all things. In both these Sabbath words, we are called to remember "who is who"! Who creates and gives life? God does. Both passages challenge us to step out of the driver's seat and pray, "Give us this day our daily bread." Sabbath keeping is the discipline of entering the freedom of putting our lives into God's care. We stop striving to create our own lives so that we can receive life from God.

The religious leaders challenged Jesus for his unacceptable Sabbath activities. The rather famous words, "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest" (Matt 11:28) are followed by Sabbath stories. Jesus gives rest to weary people. Our Lord was clearly more concerned about lifting our burdens and less about having us follow the rules. In Mark, Jesus concludes, "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath" (2:27).

God knows we need rest and renewal—physically, mentally, and spiritually. His commandment is a gift, should we choose to accept it. And yet we resist. We crave control, we must work, lest our world fall apart. Sabbath is given for us to remember that we cannot make life, God gives it. The life we are meant to live is not that of the workaholic, but of people in Christ. We are limited. We find life by delighting in God. In Christ, we are set free from our evil ways that we might live in his righteousness. Sabbath keeping gives us this gift.

The psalmist wrote, "Blessed are those whose strength is in you, whose hearts are set on pilgrimage. As they pass through the Valley of Baka, they make it a place of springs…" (84:5-6). When we Sabbath to God, we receive his life and have plenty of life to give away. When we seek to make life for ourselves, we will never have enough; we will always fear running out.

Take time for Sabbath so God can bless you!

"You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name." (Deuteronomy 5:11)

The third Word of the Covenant is grounded once again, in a relationship with God. As such, it's helpful to think of it in relational terms. The question being: how do you talk about someone that you know and love?

Take a marriage, for instance. When a marriage relationship is healthy and strong, it is highly unlikely that you will hear one of the partners in that marriage use the other's name as a swear word, or as the butt of a cruel joke. Now, behind closed doors, they may indeed exchange some heated words with one another, but in public: they are not likely to dishonour the other's name. In fact, if and when we do hear a partner to a marriage start to speak more critically of their spouse in more public spaces—we recognize it as a red flag—presuming that they might be struggling and in need of our support and care.

This is the idea here as well. We use God's name with honour and respect, because we know God and love God, even as we are known and loved by him. We care for God's good name because there is a mutual caring between us. The New Testament's imagery of Bride and Bridgegroom invites this comparison of mutuality, even though we certainly also understand a difference and deference between God and ourselves.

Further: God's name is not misused when we angrily shout or cry out at, to, and with him in the context of prayer and lament. The Psalms do this all the time, sometimes in rather harsh and bluntly honest language that makes us blush. But the critical point in the psalms is that these fights remain within the context of the relationship. The name of God continues to be used in the context of personal address to God, which honours God and our relationship with him.

Another concerns of this command is oaths. The Catechism suggests we may use God's name when required to for an oath, though it cautions us against it if it isn't needed (as does Jesus: "let your yes be yes, and your no, no"). The idea here again is relational: God knows us and can vouch for our truthfulness. The reverse is also true: should we be found to be lying, it is with God that we will have to do for he "will not hold anyone guiltless who missuses his name." Of course, lying under such an oath also reflects a heavily distorted image of God to the world. This too has an analogue in other relationships: we tend to mention loved ones offhandedly as people who can vouch for our character and story, but at the same time, they do not take well to being dragged into our lies.

When God's name is misused—as in the example of bad oaths above—what's at stake is a sin against the relationship that God has established with us. God reveals his name to Moses and to Israel so that they might know him more intimately and understand his character more deeply. His name is meant for personal address, as in the conversation of prayer or worship—always within the context of the relationship. But whenever we speak about someone rather than to or with them, we are always in danger of depersonalizing or objectifying them and so betraying our relationship in small, but significant ways. This danger is all the more profound when it comes to the God whom we have not seen.

Hopefully this all gives a sense of the force of this Third Word of the Covenant. So today: how will you honour your relationship with God in the ways that you speak to him, and of him to others?

"You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments" (Deuteronomy 5:8-10).

God's first word of covenant, which Pastor Anthony reflected on yesterday, addressed who we worship. This second word considers how we worship. It draws us deeper into the covenant relationship between the saving God of Israel and his saved people. Only this context of the covenant relationship of salvation enables us to draw appropriate applications for ourselves from this word.

The prohibition against creating an image of God addresses two concerns. First, any idol eventually limits our belief in God's power and ability. That is why the prophets constantly harassed Israel about worshipping idols that couldn't speak or hear or see or move. She was attributing such limitations upon God (cf. Isaiah 40). Second, idols were used to control the gods. Recall the story in 1 Samuel 4 in which Israel took the ark of the covenant into battle. Even the Philistines believed they were in trouble because Israel had brought her God into battle with them. God says, "Oh no, you cannot use me for your own purposes."

When I used to teach Catechism classes to the youth, I would take along a variety of pictures representing Jesus. I asked the class to describe how the artist was depicting Christ. What was being communicated about him? After some time, I would ask, 'So, what is missing?' None of the images could portray the fullness of our Lord. All of us have mental images of God. If we are to take this second covenant word seriously, we need to do a mental inventory of our images of God. How do they limit him? What aspects of God are we ignoring? Is he great enough to save? Is he truly worthy of our worship?

The wonder of this commandment is often missed with two mistakes. One, we think about jealousy with negative connotations. Yet, if we consider what is here, jealousy is quite appropriate. God has demonstrated his profound love for Israel by freeing her from Egypt and bringing her into the promised land. If Israel in return, goes chasing after other gods, does God not have a right to be jealous?

In Israelite society, three to four generations lived together. If the oldest generation has abandoned God, the others follow in their footsteps. God will punish that household. This was culturally appropriate. The only recorded example of this is the Babylonian captivity. Here is the second mistake we sometimes make. We miss the contrast that God will show love to a 1000 generations of those who love and obey him. God's love and commitment to Israel is littered throughout the Bible. This contrast highlights his love.

The ancients worshipped idols to stay in their god's favour. Their sacrifices were given in hopes that the gods would do nice things for them. They worshipped their gods out of fear. Fear that their gods would turn against them or just forget them. Think about Baal's priests up on mount Carmel. In contrast, God had committed Himself to Israel and there was no way in heaven or on earth that God would forget them. God did not want to be worshipped out of fear; theirs was a love relationship.

How do you worship God? Out of fear? Probably not. But maybe out of tradition. Maybe in the hope that he will reward you in some way. Maybe in the expectation that he will ensure the good life for you. We often make worship about style of music, type of instruments, liturgies, time, etc. These are trivialities. When worship is reduced to such things, we break this second covenant word. Its about passion. Its about God's passionate love for us which he has demonstrated in Christ's suffering and death. He has paid the ultimate price so that we might be his children. The only way to respond is with our own passionate love and commitment to God.

On Sunday many of us joined a worshipping community, whether in person or through technology. How much passion did you see? How much passion did you bring? The thrust of this covenant word is the preservation of the relationship between God and his people which is characterized by love. Did you see that love? Did you bring it? Consider the line, "Love is as strong as death, its jealousy as unyielding as the grave" (Song of Songs 8:6). I think it adequately describes this covenant word.

Last week, in Nicaragua, the second poorest country in the Americas, we worshipped with three different Christian churches. There was passion there. It made me wonder: has our affluence robbed us of our passion for God?

A Sunday Sermon edition of Wilderness Wanderings! The text is Leviticus 23:23-25 from the New International Version of the Bible.

And [God] said: "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me." (Deuteronomy 6-7)

Today we start in on the Ten Commandments. What are the Ten Commandments? Well, for starters, they are not exactly commandments. In the Hebrew language, they are quite literally called the "Ten Words." And these Ten Words are also not exactly "the law," even though that tends to be the way that we refer to them. No: they are firstly and primarily the Ten Words of God's Covenant with his people. That is to say: these words God speaks are the terms of a relationship. These Words are not firstly ethics, laws, commandments, or a list of "don'ts." They are firstly the definition of a new relationship—a covenant.

It is easy to reduce these Words into a criminal code to be policed with the coercive force of discipline in its worst forms. But that is not how the Bible, nor our own church tradition in the CRC through the Catechism understands them. These are life-giving words of relationship: a guide for gratefully living with God in the new relationship that he has graciously established.

The two members of this covenantal relationship are named in this first Word. God is the Lord who saves, and we are the people who are saved. This is the basis and foundation of the relationship. Why and how does Israel have anything to do with this God? Because he is the God who has chosen of his own volition to have something to do with them, namely by saving them. It had nothing to do with Israel or anything good or special about them, just as it had nothing to do with Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob before them. The patriarchs were cowardly, devious, and strong-willed. They were not particularly righteous. The people of Israel weren't any better. There was nothing that made them better or different than anyone else. The only basis of their relationship with God therefore, was God himself through God's own, voluntary choosing.

Given this new relationship of God's choosing though, from now on, God and Israel are to be a monogamous couple. No other gods can enter the picture. But to hear only this negative prohibition about no other gods is to miss fully half of what this command is about. It is not merely a negative prohibition. The equally important Shema of chapter 6 enters on the heals of these Ten Words to balance them out in a positive form. The Shema ties directly into this first Word of the Covenant and declares that Israel is also to "love the Lord their God." To love God firstly, only, and completely. Just as God has loved them.

If this one, first, most important Word Command is kept, all the others tend to find their place. That is to say, if our relationship with God remains strong, primary, and exclusive: all of our other relationships and activities have a foundation for flourishing too.

I talked to someone just the other day who experienced this. Any number of questions had hung over this person for years about relationships and the future. Any number of paths to a solution had been sought, but to no avail. Finally, after spending years skirting real time and attention for God, they took a retreat to do nothing but spend time with him. Oddly enough, simply taking that time to reorient firstly on God, this person discovered—not a resolution—but a peace about some of the other questions too. Enough to step forward into commitment on the other side.

God has established a relationship with us. It is the first, most important relationship of our lives. So: take time to check in with God today. How is your relationship doing?

Welcome to Wilderness Wanderings. My name is Renita Reed-Thomson, and I have the privilege to serve as a partner missionary with you at Immanuel Christian Reformed Church.

I want to talk with you today about what it means to do our work as worship. It's a catchy phrase but what does it really mean? Does its simply mean dedicating all we do to the glory of God, or is there more to it? We want to look at a Hebrew word in our exploration, 'Avodah' and which means "work, serve, and worship."

Our text comes from three different verses which use this same Hebrew word "Avodah."

Key Verses

• The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. Genesis 2:15 (ESV) Tend in this verse is often translated 'till' or 'work.' It is interesting to note that the two words translated here as tend (avad) and care (keep or guard), are often used together in reference to keeping the law.

• He said, "But I will be with you, and this shall be the sign for you, that I have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain." Exodus 3:12 (ESV) In this verse, the word Avodah/serve refers to worship.

• And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the LORD, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD." Joshua 24:15 (ESV) Again, note that tend/work, worship, and serve are all the same word in Hebrew.

John Piper said that mission exists because worship does not. How much greater would be our worship of God if we turned what we do most of the week from "work" to "worship?" Too often, we separate our worship from our work. It is something we do on Sundays. But God is the author of work and it the greatest of all workers. We are made in his image to work in such a way that it brings honor and glory to Him.

One of God's great gifts to us is fulfillment and dignity that come in and through work. As is His way, He gives us this gift and delights in us as we give it back to Him, then He gives more back to us! We can never outgive Him or worship Him too much in and through our lives. As we do this with and in our work, God is glorified. Don't be surprised if avenues of creativity and new opportunities aren't opened up to you along the way of discovering work as worship!

Let's pray together.

Prayer

Father, we thank you that you have given us the privilege to work; to be occupied with worthwhile endeavors that reflect your love and care for us, our families, and our community. We pray that you will open our eyes to see your glory in the work you have given us to do. We pray that we will glorify you by giving back to you our 'whole soul' as we worship you in our work. Amen.

Welcome to Wilderness Wanderings. My name is Renita Reed-Thomson, and I have the privilege to serve as a partner missionary with you at Immanuel Christian Reformed Church.

I want to talk to you today about a time in scripture when we observe a move from a garden to a graveyard, and then from a graveyard to a garden. We will be looking at a few different texts during our time together.

I don't know about you but the joy of serving a risen Savior can often be overshadowed by seeing suffering and death all around. From a shooting at a traffic stop in Grand Rapids, Michigan, to kidnappings in Kaduna, Nigeria, to the war in Ukraine, the words "O death, where is your victory?" can sometimes ring hollow (1 Cor. 15:55).

From Garden to Graveyard

But recently I saw anew the shift in Scripture from garden to graveyard, and then graveyard to garden. Eden moved from being a garden to a graveyard in the recounting of the fall in Genesis 3. Adam and Eve, who were created to work and care for the garden, suddenly knew death. The garden that was created for flourishing and life had the shadow of death cast over it.

And the Lord God said, "The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever." So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken (Gen. 3:22-23).

From that time on, the world knew daily the reality of the graveyard.

From Graveyard to Garden

But then Jesus came to earth, lived and died, and was buried in a tomb located in a garden. He defeated death in that garden. And the first person he appears to, Mary Magdalene, confuses him for a gardener.

He asked her, "Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?"

Thinking he was the gardener, she said, "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him" (Jn. 20:15).

And as it turns out, she was not mistaken. Our God and Father, and Jesus the Son, are indeed gardeners.

God as Gardener

Was God a gardener? Did he actually work with his hands? In Genesis 2:7-9a we read:

Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. Now the Lord God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. The Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food.

We hear the words: "The Lord God formed…the Lord God planted…The Lord God made…"

God didn't simply use his voice in creation. God got his hands dirty while making humanity and the garden.

During Jesus' time on earth, his hands got dirty again. Very dirty. Calloused, splintered, and injured as a carpenter for 18 years, and then scarred as the nails pierced them, the result of an unjust trial, sentence, and execution.

You can't garden from a distance. You must get your hands dirty in the soil. And thankfully, God does not garden from a distance. We are told in John 5:17 that, "My Father is always working, and so am I."

Let's Get Our Hands Dirty

And each of us, in our own gardens, cannot garden from a distance. And so, our hands get dirty with the invasive species of sin that has filled our own gardens: in our homes, churches, communities, nations, and world.

Death has lost its victory and has lost its sting. The graveyard has become a garden again.

And we join the God who saved us by getting our own hands dirty. We get in the dirt, we pull the weeds, we plant the seeds, we labor as gardeners using our time, treasure, and talent.

And in so doing, we strive to join with our Father in bringing the Kingdom of Heaven to earth, a little bit at a time.

Welcome to Wilderness Wanderings. My name is Renita Reed-Thomson, and I have the privilege to serve as a partner missionary with you at Immanuel Christian Reformed Church. Today I want to talk about living life as a peach, and not an orange.

Our text today comes from Colossians 1:15-16:

Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation, for through him God created everything in the heavenly realms and on earth. He made the things we can see and the things we can't see—Such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world. Everything was created through him and for him.

Recently as I flew on a very long flight from Chicago to Addis Ababa, I was unable to sleep and therefore got a lot of reading and writing done. One quote that I read jumped out at me: Christians tend to live their lives as oranges, not peaches.

The quote makes sense. Oranges are segmented. They are self-contained. They have a rather strong "flesh" that protects the juice from inside each segment. Like oranges, we too compartmentalize our lives into segments. We create layers between them, often unintentionally, that keeps things neatly separate. From the outside, it looks like one cohesive unit. It's only upon peeling the orange, that you see the divisions.

Eating an orange is easy. The peel and rind come off relatively neatly with just your fingers. The segments keep your hands from getting sticky orange juice on them.

Peaches, on the other hand, are different. You need a knife to take off the peel. The inside pulp of a peach has no divisions. In fact, the pulp and pit are so connected that it is difficult to separate them. It's difficult to eat a peach neatly. Peach juice often drips all over faces, hands and clothes.

Christians (and all humanity in normal everyday life) segment our lives. These segments keep things neat and clean in their isolated boxes. Some of the segments that we have created in our lives are those that we believe are important to God. Some segments we do not believe are important to God.

The segments we believe are important include church services and activities, social action activities, evangelistic activities. The segments we do not believe are important are work, rest, leisure, sports and the arts.

We believe that the segments are real and even Biblical. But they are not.

We call this the sacred/secular divide and it has permeated the global church. This has caused us to be ineffective as ambassadors for Christ from Monday-Saturday, and it has reduced the impact that the church, as the people of God, can have on every sector and industry.

Colossians 1:16 reminds us that "all things were created through him and for him." Colossians 1:20 reminds us that God expects us to bring restoration or reconciliation or shalom of all things to Him. This includes both material and immaterial things. And everything in life is connected – it's how it was made to be! You cannot do just one thing. There are ripples and impacts everywhere. And yes, that can get messy – but in good ways!

As you go into your day, consider the parts of your life that you have segmented like an orange, and see if there is a way to reduce the compartmentalization, becoming more like a peach, for the glory of God.

Welcome to Wilderness Wanderings. My name is Renita Reed-Thomson, and I have the privilege to serve as a partner missionary with you at Immanuel Christian Reformed Church.

I work with many pastors across West, Central and East Africa, who are seeking to reclaim a redeemed marketplace for Christ. One pastor in particular has inspired me as well as many of the members of his church. His name is Rev. Dr. Johnson Asare from Northern Ghana, and you will often hear him say that it is "risky not to take risks." He is a man who has taken many risks in his life, as a businessman, a pastor, a Muslim-turned-Christian, and a community leader. He knows what he is talking about. While others have said something similar to this, hearing him say it has stuck with me because of his testimony, and I find myself repeating that phrase from time to time.

I was reminded of that line as I considered this parable from Matthew 25, where our text comes from. This is the very familiar parable of the talents. As it is familiar, I will not read the whole passage but will remind us that is a story Jesus tells about a man who goes a journey and entrusts three servants with different amounts of his wealth, according to his ability. One receives five bags of gold, another two, and another one. The first two double what they have been given, while the last servant simply buries it. The master is pleased with the first two and welcomes them to more responsibility, while the last one gives this explanation for his lack of effort from verse 24 and 25:

24 "Then the man who had received one bag of gold came. 'Master,' he said, 'I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. 25 So I was afraid and went out and hid your gold in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.'

This parable reminds us that it is a sin to squander what God has given us. He has given us three main resources: time, treasure, and talent, and all three work together for the flourishing of the world, for the flourishing of ourselves, and for the glory of God. This parable reminds us that we are not to wrap or bind up those opportunities and bury them for fear of losing them through risky ventures or doing things "incorrectly."

I see this over and again in my work with small and medium business leaders across Africa. Doing business is risky and I have watched many people take those risks. Unfortunately, many businesses do fail, but that is not the end of the story. There is much to be learned in those failures. In the same way, we take risks in relationships, in church, in accepting a new job, or investing yourself in your community. Living involves risk. It is an investment of ourselves to people, places, and things.

We are accountable for the investment of our lives. We are responsible to God, to ourselves, and to each other.

We may sympathize with the person who received only one talent, but we must always remember that the source of the conservatism on the part of that person was his inadequate view of God.

The servant with one bag only saw his master as someone who was "a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not sown seed."

But we must view God in His entirety. He has given each person unique combinations of time, treasure, and talent. And He has crafted us in a way that when we use these resources with integrity and love, it is a win-win-win. When we don't use them with integrity and we confess, He forgives us and cleanses us from all unrighteousness.

As I head into this day, I wonder what risks I will take with my time, treasure, and talent. I wonder which risks I will cower at, which ones I will embrace, and which ones I will bury.

My heart's desire is to prayerfully consider the risks before me, and to remember that I am accountable not just for the risks I take but also for the risks I don't take.

Be encouraged this day in taking risks for the glory of God!

Welcome to Wilderness Wanderings. My name is Renita Reed-Thomson, and I have the privilege to serve as a partner missionary with you at Immanuel Christian Reformed Church.

Most Christians are aware of the Great Commission (Matt. 28:19, 20). In it, Jesus calls us to a commitment to make disciples. Most Christians are also aware of the Great Commandment (Matt: 22:37-40). We are to commit our lives to loving God and others. But few Christians understand or remember the Great Commitment. It is the first directive given to humanity by God during creation. It describes why we exist and for what purpose we were created. Sometimes referred to as the Cultural Mandate, it is often forgotten as part of the basis for which we are to live our lives.

In Genesis 1 we discover not only that God creates the world in which we live but creates all of life including you and me. In creating us, He provides us with a simple but clear job description. It is not only for certain people but for all people made in the image of God for all time. In only 34 verses, Genesis introduces us to a God who created earth on purpose and for a purpose. Let's read Genesis 1: 26 and 28.

Key Verses: Genesis 1:26 and 28

• 26 Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." Genesis 1:26 (ESV)

• 28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth." Genesis 1:28 (ESV)

God created humanity to rule and steward His creation. This was not a static realm, but one ever expanding as the population fulfilled its destiny to spread around the earth. Genesis 1:28 begins with God's blessing. God's blessing is the grace to accomplish what He had given humanity to do. Humanity, created in the image of God, shared with God the capacity to create through repurposing what God made into new products and services from what God had created from nothing. This creativity was fueled by the need to develop both social systems and economic systems as the population increased and spread around the globe. In these few verses God, the creator of the Universe, invites His special creation, made in His image, to join Him as co-creators whose task is to repurpose out of creation products and systems that make human flourishing possible. This is done as humanity "works" in the global village (Genesis 2:15) fulfilling God's call to fill the earth.

Within the first man and woman are the seeds of hundreds of generations, capable of creating, exploring, building, discovering, and developing a society that both increases and honors God. It is in the work God has given us that we discover the capacity for all to be co-creators with God. He created the universe out of nothing that we can create everything necessary to see cultures, societies, and communities multiply and expand to fill the earth.

While filling and caring are universal, as Christians, we are also given the command to love God and others (The Great Commandment) and to make disciples obedient to the commands of Jesus (The Great Commission). These directives are also written on the pages of creation and work. If we fail to grasp the significance of the creation/work paradigm, we are left trying to share the Good News without the context. The creation/work paradigm gives us the pages on which to write our own story of following Jesus and being ambassadors of the Good News, a royal priesthood, sharing how God has redeemed all things. We deliver the Good News while being salt, light, and leaven through the Great Commitment to work and care for God's created world!

I pray that you find joy as you live into your calling, to fulfill the Great Commitment, the Great Commandment, and the Great Commission, for the glory of God.