Going Green

I started 'going green' as an effort to save money. I changed out some light bulbs, basically. I live in north Texas with a pool, so there is plenty of electricity being consumed. Historically I had seen going green as a reaction to global warming and big 'save the planet' talk. As a conservative, you are conditioned to doubt that global warming is caused by humans and you think of the green movement as 'tree hugger' crazy stuff. I started thinking that maybe there were other reasons to be a good steward of the world where we live. How does what you do on a daily basis impact others? Where does aluminum come from? How is paper made? What happens to all those plastic bags? What is the impact to my health from the coal burning to create electricity? I read "Serve God, Save the Planet: A Christian Call to Action" (Paperback)by J. Matthew, M.D. Sleeth . While it wasnt' the 'best book' I have ever read, and he wandered beyond the environmental question some, the book did help see how the decisions I make impact those around me and if I do simple things I can improve life for everyone. Here are some of the things we have done:

Changed to compact fluorscent light bulbs
Stop getting plastic bags at the grocery
Compost house hold waste
Increase the amount we recycle (at least 5 times as much, you would be amazed at what you can recycle. I'll save it for the next post)
Shut off my network equipment at night

These are just a few easy things.

OK, that's all for now. Maybe i'll inspire you.

Grieving vs Griping over Moral Decline

http://www.desiringgod.org/Blog/1003/

This is a link to Desiring God, John Piper's ministry. They post a lot of interesting things, many of which I like to comment on. So here is my first.

This talks about grieving rather than griping and gives some great old testament scripture references, but how does this equate to Christians living in America? We talk about having a Christian Nation, but I don't think we really do. It is probably worth discussing whether the founding fathers could even envision the world we live in, and what they would say about it (more on this in another post). I guess where I am going is that the scripture is about grieving about Israel, God's chosen nation. Not for the world in general. In one sense we can grieve that God is not honored, but can we grieve for our nation? Can we expect otherwise from our society? Surely we don't want a Christian nation dictated by the government. If we had that then maybe we could grieve about our nation. Just thoughts here.

With the elections so close we start hearing this kind of talk from some Christian candidates, and frankly it makes me nervous. Let's pray earnestly for our country, but for individual revival that transforms society because the people have changed, not because the government has changed. Big social issues become less important if individuals all agree and honor God in their viewpoints.