Creating Community
When God created man and woman, He put them in charge of the world under His authority and gave them some basic commands. (Genesis 1:28) They were given dominion, which means being in charge. Then, they were commanded to be fruitful and multiply, so that the earth would be filled with people. Also, they were commanded to subdue the earth. Let me explain at least part of what this means for us.
God commanded man and woman to create community. Any time you have a group of people beyond one nuclear family, you have a community. The more people you have, the bigger the community. When people live and work together there must be rules and order. That is what it means by subduing the earth, as it pertains to people. In other words, when you create community, you have to keep it under control or things will go wrong, like Cain killing Abel.
Today, we have many communities. Most are out of control, and the people are living out of God's will, because we have failed to obey the command to subdue the earth. We have not raised our children in the Lord. We have not taught them good morals and habits. Our communities and our world is falling apart, because of this failure. Now, the only hope is for all of us as believers to return to this basic command and engage our communities for good, to lead them in God's ways.
Therefore, my question for us for 2016 is, "How will we engage our communities to bring them back to the Lord, and thus subdue them for Him?" Make it personal for yourself. What will you do to obey this command? It is up to those of us who know the Lord to lead this effort, because others do not know Him and follow His commands.
Tomorrow, I intend to read Genesis 5-8.
God commanded man and woman to create community. Any time you have a group of people beyond one nuclear family, you have a community. The more people you have, the bigger the community. When people live and work together there must be rules and order. That is what it means by subduing the earth, as it pertains to people. In other words, when you create community, you have to keep it under control or things will go wrong, like Cain killing Abel.
Today, we have many communities. Most are out of control, and the people are living out of God's will, because we have failed to obey the command to subdue the earth. We have not raised our children in the Lord. We have not taught them good morals and habits. Our communities and our world is falling apart, because of this failure. Now, the only hope is for all of us as believers to return to this basic command and engage our communities for good, to lead them in God's ways.
Therefore, my question for us for 2016 is, "How will we engage our communities to bring them back to the Lord, and thus subdue them for Him?" Make it personal for yourself. What will you do to obey this command? It is up to those of us who know the Lord to lead this effort, because others do not know Him and follow His commands.
Tomorrow, I intend to read Genesis 5-8.