Living the Dream

Summary from class on October 5, 2008.

What does paradise mean to you?  Many people dream of winning the lottery and enjoying life with millions of dollars in the bank.  No more work to keep you from doing what you want when you want.  Economic freedom which would mean that you wouldn't have to listen to anyone.  Rich people get to do what they want and answer to no one.  Would that be paradise?

Christians have the benefit of knowing what exactly paradise is and what it was meant to be.  In Genesis 2 Moses described God's design of paradise: the Garden of Eden.

Working Paradise.  On a tough day at work in our sinful world, it's not hard to imagine that paradise would mean no job to be done.  We can see Adam sitting around eating grapes and relaxing.  That is not in God's plan.  "The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it."  Before sin entered the world, man was intended to have a job.  Whether you are 20 or 80, work is part of our service to God.  Paul made this point clearly in Collossians 3:23, "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men."  Isn't that the key, any job can be satisfying and meaningful if we do it not for men but for God.

For those who are still in the workforce, that means that you should treat your job as being done for the Lord.  When I go to work as a lawyer, I need to think about doing my job the best I can, not to bring glory to myself, but to bring glory to God.  Retired Christians should still be at work.  Many people see retirement as the time that they can focus on pleasing themselves.  That is not what God has in mind for us.  Retirement is a time when Christians can work in the church or performing good deeds which bring glory to God.

Obedient Paradise.  It is natural to think that it would be paradise to live without any rules.  We tend to think that if we only got to do whatever we wanted, we'd be happy.  Remember, God made us and knows what is best for us.  From the very beginning we had rules imposed by God for our good.   "The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.  And the Lord God commanded the man, 'You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; buy you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die."  All of God's rules are for our benefit and, if our attitude is right, they are not burdensome.  I John 5:1-4.   God's rules also bring us peace.  Psalms 119:165.  Why wouldn't we want to do the things that God knows are best for us.  

 There you have it.  Paradise as God planned it includes work and following the rules.  Enjoy!

What Does the Creation Story Tell Us About God?

Summary from class on September 28.

With such luminaries as Augustine and Calvin unable to agree on whether the creation story is allegory or should be interpreted in a strictly literal sense, where does that leave us lesser souls?  No matter how you interpret the story, God tells us wonderful and important things about Himself in the first chapter of Genesis.

Creator God.  One thing that we all Christians can agree upon and is that God created it all.  Unlike the creation myths of the Egyptians and the Mesopotamians, Genesis tells us that God created the universe out of nothing.  The first words of the Bible make this clear:  "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth."  This most fundamental of facts is the millstone around the neck of naturalism and atheism.  Without God, they have no rational answer for the question of where everything came from.  I suggest that if you are going to debate a naturalist or an atheist, don't waste you time with evolution, go right to the heart of the matter.  Where did it all come from without God to create it?

God is Not Limited by the Instruments He Chooses to Use.  Have you ever noticed that while day and night were created by God on day 1 of the creation story, the sun is not created until day 4?  Also, God created the plants on day 3 before the sun.  How could you have day and night and plants without the sun?  The simple answer is that God does not need the sun to have day and night.  He does not need the sun to make plants grow.  He may use the sun to do such things, but he does not need it.  So what does that mean to me and to you?  It means that the God who promised to take care of us does not need the instruments that we think He needs in order to do that.  If you think God needs you to have money in the bank or a good job in order to provide for you, you are mistaken.  He does not need those instruments of care any more than he needed the sun.  In these uncertain economic times, it is good to know that God can take care of us even if we don't have the things that we think are necessary.

God Sustains All Things.  Like the previous point, this one is based on the fact that day and night and the plants proceeded the sun.  Calvin argued that God performed creation in this order so that we would know that it was Him, and not the sun that really makes the plants grow.  Like the plants, it is God that sustains us in all things.  We may believe that we are responsible for taking care of our families and children.  Of course, we are supposed to work and to strive to do so, but ultimately, we can only trust and rely upon God, and not our own efforts, for sustenance.

Battles about the proper interpretation of Genesis chapter 1 seem to distract us from the meaningful truths about God that are there for our edification.  At the end of time, we will all know the truth about how God created it all, in the meantime, let's focus on what is truly important instead.