Part of God’s mandate for each of us is to watch over and protect what He’s entrusted to our care.
And…
Fulfilling this role is critical to the condition of the world we live in!
It’s all based on the command God gave Adam to ‘keep’ the Garden of Eden (Gen. 2:15) — which extends to us as we ‘gardenize’ the earth together.
But…
What does this look like today?
How do we apply this basic instruction?
It’s essential we understand if we’re to faithfully rule and develop our territory for God’s glory.
Therefore…
Here are a couple examples to illustrate how to apply God’s ‘call to keep’ in our time.
The first, and most basic…
Taking care of your stuff.
Whenever you…
Pull weeds from your yard… trap a mouse in the house… or change the oil in your car…
You are obeying God’s charge to tend the garden… in that you’re protecting what God has given you.
There are hundreds of ways this comes into play in your life.
Yet the applications to ‘keep the garden’ go far beyond our personal stuff!
So let me given you a second, more far-reaching example.
The problem of human trafficking.
Each week we are learning more about how children all across the world are being enslaved and sold for sex.
This isn’t just happening in isolated far off places either.
Much of it is linked to the U.S. — like Hollywood…
And while taking in over 34 billion dollars annually, it has become bigger than the entire airline industry.
Put another way…
Human trafficking has become a rattlesnake in everyone’s backyard.
What a horrific scourge on God’s garden!
And we need to address it.
One way to start…
Become more aware by seeing the Sound of Freedom movie playing in theaters this weekend.
God has given us a BIG GARDEN to keep.
And He’s constantly presenting areas where we can tend to this garden.
So be on the lookout for opportunities — great and small — to faithfully fulfill the task.
God is interested in what kind of keepers of His garden we are.
