Last week we saw that the Bible clearly states that at the end of time all
men will be judged for their actions. We also learned that with all the good
things that western culture and religion have to offer, it only takes getting a
few things wrong to spend eternity in the Lake of Fire. It is therefore
incumbent upon you to determine which limb on the Quercus
trifecta, the Betting Oak, you
are betting the out come of this life and your eternal destiny. That is a
decision that each person alive on this earth has to make and even though I
would personally like for you to make the right decision, I know that not all
will. So I must leave that decision in God's hands.
This week we begin some actual applications that we can find in creation, to
improve our enterprise. In that respect we return to the book of Genesis and
the Garden. Upon eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, God
expelled Adam and Eve from the garden and in the process the earth became under
the curse of sin. The world became a wilderness or a desert, a poor
illustration, or picture of what once was.
The creation of wilderness is really not all that difficult. All you need to
do to make wilderness, or a desert that will be quite inhospitable to man and
beast, is to cut down all the trees and then intensely graze the area with
livestock. Cattle and sheep are the best at this. Cattle like the young shoots
of grass, so they keep eating the young shoots, ignoring older more mature
stems, unless forced to do so. Therefore in intensive grazing, plants never
have the opportunity to mature and produce fruit, replenishing the range land.
Sheep are even better however, they take the young grasses and herbs, roots and
all.
If you look at truly impoverished areas of the earth this scenario repeats
itself, through out any and all cultures. In some cultures this is exacerbated
by religious practices. The holy cows of India being an example.
Goats are not grazing ruminants like sheep and cattle, but are browsers.
This means that they sample a little bit of all the foliage available. Never
eating enough to severely limit the ability of the plant to reproduce, while at
the same time providing a degree of husbandry or pruning necessary to enhance
the natural environment. Last year in the Chronicles of Diversity I did a
series on the Ruminant Covenant if you are interested in some of the aspects of
the sheep - goat interchange in a religious sense. Goats and their ability to
survive and even thrive in the wilderness and the desert amazes me. In summary,
in situations of survival in the wilderness of life, goats are a lot like us in
their adaptability, except in the actual wilderness or desert, we would be wise
to learn from them, for they don't kill the plants that provide their food. The
Biblical aspects of this wisdom is summarized in Proverbs 27:23-27.
This last weekend was really the only weekend of the spring or early summer
that was nice enough for the residents of Seattle and western Washington to
practice what is prescribed in a local best seller, "Institutes
of the Tickle the Bears Religion" in two volumes. The practical
application of these institutes is for the seeker to forsake all contact with
urban culture by taking 40 pounds of some of the world's most sophisticated and
expensive expedition equipment, sneaking out of work a few hours early (if not
calling in with the Friday flu), with the chief desire to commune with the wilderness.
They seek to touch the roots of the land (not at all aware of the hypocrisy of
carrying there high tech culture, including a cell phone, on there back, just
in case it gets too tough). Tickling the bears really doesn't enter into it,
for most have never seen a bear in the woods, but it has made this book and
many of the knock-offs, local best sellers.
So why do they truly do this religious ritual, repeated countless times
throughout the short, dry, and sunny season? My belief is that it is truly a means
to seek roots to a life that for most has none. As creators and makers of
wilderness, it is our natural home. Inbred into us and our culture during these
millennia of human development, it gives us a humility that does not exist in
the culture of getting all you can get, with no regard for the consequences.
That worthless boss and that corporate greed, seem as just so much dust in the
passage of time. As truthfully they and it shall all return one day.
Enterprise symbiosis seeks to get us back to deeper, and more fruitful roots
however. While we may journey through the wilderness, the wilderness is not the
goal. This is true whether it is practiced in the wild woods, or the urban
jungle. The Bible says that God created man in His image and set him (man and
eventually woman) in a garden. It was God that gave man his enterprise of being
a gardener, not an exploiter. It is about stewardship, not rape. It is about
the gift of service, not the taking from the weaker. Until we look at our
enterprise in the nature of tilling, planting, and sowing, we will never grasp
the concept of the true harvest potential.
Now the real problem occurs within those persons who really would like to be
a wise steward, but who are working in an enterprise whose sole purpose is exploitation.
The making of wilderness has a different objective than the husbandry of
gardening. It is like a marriage bound for divorce. Once you understand the
incompatibility however, it doesn't make the ensuing process any easier. In
fact, perhaps it becomes more difficult because of the heighten sensibility of
the situation and the possibility of feeling guilty over circumstances of which
it seems as if you have no control. In those circumstances however, trusting
your future in faith allows for the possibility of God providing beyond what is
understandable in your own strength and knowledge. To be able to live there in
that wilderness and not to use your creative ability to make it more of a
desert, is the challenge of your pilgrimage and your enterprise. You must
believe one day you will be transplanted into a garden created with your own
specific niche. Niche being an enterprise term borrowed from nature.
One of the main faults of Christian leadership
today is a dearth of understanding of either the incompatibility between the
City of God and the City of Man, to utilize Augustine's thoughts, or the
concept of wilderness and gardening outlined here. Much of that stems from the
fact that much Christian leadership is really functioning in the City of Man, therefore
how can they understand that theirs is supposed to be an enterprise functioning
by faith in an unseen higher power. To put it another way, how can the stupid
sheep occupying the pews of the church be led by a pastor in matters of the
spirit and of faith, when that pastor really has no knowledge of a spirit or a
faith, outside of his own understanding. It is truly sad when so called men of
faith incorporate only matters of reason, marketing and entertainment in the
enterprise of making converts. What arrogance to assume that an eternal soul,
created in the image of Almighty God, can be purchased from perdition for the
expenditure of a few shekels of electronic monetary information. One must truly
wonder that at the judgement seat at the end of time, if these purveyors of
shallow conviction, will fare any better than the entrepreneur of evil ends.
One thing I have learned afresh over the past
few weeks is that abundance many times does not have a whole lot to do with
monetary resources. There is a monetary component to abundance but it is not an
end, and in fact that very financial well prevents us from learning to do some
of the abundant life concepts quoted in John 10:10. The thief many times coming
in the very form of monetary abundance. You can never obtain a gift from God
that you can purchase with your own resources. In that regard, I have been
truly blessed in these last few weeks and I sincerely would like to thank those
who took the time to pray, or had others pray.
Financially things are also looking up, especially for the foreseeable
future, but not much of it relates to ministry provision or enterprise
stewardship, but into meeting maintenance of personal needs. Continue to pray
for those provisions of God's leading.