Worshipping the Creator by Saving Creation

This weekend: AIA convention in downtown LA. I'm going with two girls from work and my friend Cheyne from HOK. There will be lots to learn and I finally get an opportunity to hang out with co-workers outside of the office!



“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!”
2 Corinthians 5:17

Most Christ-followers know that when one experiences the salvation that comes thru grace and love, our lives don’t automatically start over, but are transformed. The old is made new. God heals our wounds, restores our strength, empowers us with His love… and we are “made new” or “reborn”. Could our transformation represent what will also happen to the world in the end times?

Bruxy Cavey of the Meeting House (www.themeetinghouse.ca) is currently giving a series of talks about Organic Worship: Worshipping the Creator by Saving Creation. This blog entry is a reflection of his thoughts and includes phrases and statements that he gives.

This was the most interesting thought to me:
Replace “lifeboat theology” with “ark theology”. Lifeboat theology is based on the Titanic. The ship (our world) has already hit the iceberg. It’s too late to prevent it from going down. Our goal now should be to get as many people as possible in the lifeboats.
Ark theology is based on what God did thru Noah and the floods. He came then to make everything new, saving the good of the old. The new was the old transformed. He saved all of His creation, not just select human beings.

I didn’t realize how Gnostic I could be (even as one who claims to be an environmentalist). Gnostic: the belief (among other things) that matter is bad and spirit good.

There is too much information to post without writing my own book so I’ll include a list of bulletins (trying to summarize as much as I can). I just thought it was so interesting… I hadn’t thought about some of these things (if at all) in a very long time.

BUT… isn’t this world destined for destruction and replacement? (Isaiah 65:17; 2 Peter 3:10-13; Revelation 21:1)
Maybe, maybe not. It depends on how you interpret Scripture and the resurrection. In 1 Cor. 3:11-15, fire is referred to as purifying. Maybe when the earth is consumed by fire, the good withstands while the bad is burned away? Bruxy says regardless of whether you believe it’s an entire new world, or this world restored… we were still commanded to care for it. An interesting thought: Parents tell their children to brush their teeth when they are young. Why? They lose all their baby teeth anyways… but you know it is necessary for them to learn to care for them regardless.

BUT… aren’t Christians supposed to be looking forward to being taken out of this world to live in heaven? (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 “will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air”)
Bruxy talks about Jewish culture: it was common practice for an entire town to go outside the city gates and meet a visiting King and then escort him to the town. Maybe we’ve forgotten to value the Jewish culture and the context these verses were written in. Maybe we meet God in the air, and then escort Him back to a restored earth?

BUT… isn’t our salvation waiting for us in heaven? (1 Peter 1:4) You hold beers in the refrigerator… but that doesn’t mean you have to climb into it to get one.

BUT… if resurrection is our destiny, what happens to us when we die? (Luke 23:43; 2 Cor. 5:8) Jesus and the gospels refer to death frequently as sleep. Maybe we sleep to awake in a restored state?

Lastly, in Gen. 1:26-28, we are to “rule over” the earth… but later in mark 10:42-45, Jesus says, “You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."

Just some interesting thoughts… and now I must return to work!