“ For Christ-centered learning to be Bible-based , we must consider God ’ s revelation of His plans and purposes for all creation .” four —“ and also much cattle .” God loves His cows on whichever of the 1,000 hills they now live , as Asaph and David confirmed in the Psalms ( 50:10 ; 36:6 ).
There isn ’ t anything in all of God ’ s creation that He isn ’ t concerned about , even if people are worth more than anything else . Jesus confirmed that people are worth more than many sparrows ( Luke 12:7 ), but that doesn ’ t give anyone the right to misuse or devalue the smallest parts of His creation . Abraham Kuyper reminded us , “ There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ , who is Sovereign over all , does not cry , Mine !”
All of creation is waiting for its liberation from the effects of sin . Paul states , “ For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed . For the creation was subjected to frustration , not by its own choice , but by the will of the one who subjected it , in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God . We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time ” ( Rom . 8:19-22 ). Christ not only has redeemed people but will also remove all the effects of sin from His creation . People are first , but not to the exclusion of everything else .
Our understanding of redemption must be as big as God ’ s . Paul reminds us in Colossians 1:20-21 that through Christ , God reconciled everything to Himself . He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth through Christ ’ s blood on the cross . This includes people who were once far from God , but it is not restricted to people . We have interpreted the Bible so that the good news it contains is only about people , as if every other part of God ’ s originally good creation is completely disposable and only people are redeemable . metal come from to make the truck ? Who made the roads ? Who created the money ? Who organizes the traffic laws ? Who collects the taxes to pay for the roads ? Who developed the paint on the truck and the tractor ? Who produced the electricity for the store ? The fuel for the truck and tractor ? So how many of those people should be intentionally and worshipfully serving God ’ s purposes — answering prayer — and meeting the needs of their neighbors ? All of them !
We focus on a limited few instead of encouraging the breadth and depth of God ’ s calling . We lift up those with special gifts and roles to equip others and act as if they are the only ones serving God . Church work is defined as the work of the equippers ( Eph . 4:11-12 ) instead of the work done by all members of the Body of Christ . Our vision of God ’ s purposes for all He created and all that He ’ s done to redeem everything can be completely distorted , even when studying the Bible , if we ’ re not careful to deal with the pernicious problem of SSD — the sacred-secular divide .
I realized how devastating it is to work from the basic premise that God only cares about a subset of His creation and a subset of life — the sacred — and has little interest in the rest — the secular . This thinking sets us up for all kinds of problems . We end up arguing under pressure about an ever smaller subset of sacred things while abandoning more “ secular things ” to the enemy of our souls . Without challenge , we let the Liar deceive everyone outside the church and many inside the church about what belongs to him ( nothing ) and what belongs to God ( everything ). Instead of all creation directing our attention to God ’ s goodness and greatness , we let much from creation steal God ’ s glory ; we heedlessly misuse and destroy what He has given us to care for and develop . We need to encourage each other to see
UNDERSTANDING GOD ’ S CALLING
The second problem I had was a limited understanding of God ’ s calling as I thought , “ It ’ s just a job .” Everyone has likely heard some lightbulb jokes like , “ How many folk musicians does it take to change a lightbulb ? Five . One to change the lightbulb and four to write songs about how much better the old bulb was .” But what about this serious question : “ How many people does it take for God to answer a prayer ?” Well , it probably depends on the prayer , right ?
Let ’ s consider a standard prayer , one Jesus told us to pray —“ Give us this day our daily bread .” How many people does it take to answer that prayer ? Let ’ s try to count them : farmer , cook , store owner , truck driver . Four ? What about all the employees at the store ? Who built the store ? What did they build it with ? Who made the truck and tractor ? Where did the
48 THE RENEWANATION REVIEW