The Earth Is The Lord’s

SUN., MAR. 1, 1987, 6:37 AM
FARM, STUDY

There are two reasons for this morning’s title, and each is a reiteration and reinforcement. They are related, and perhaps obvious, but each is an important truth that I need to emphasize this day. Hear, o son, as you have heard before.

The first meaning is the spiritual, mystical one – the earth is a plane of being that was created by Me, as Almighty God, and which continues to be maintained by Me, the Holy Spirit. I have not given it over to any other force or forces, nor has it been taken from Me. In one true sense, then, this means that there is, finally, no evil, but only that which I cause or allow. In another sense, however, there is evil and the appearance of evil… for the purpose of allowing and causing the growth of spirit.

Spiritual growth can be a rather straightforward phenomenon. A child can be born into a home headed by Christian parents. He may be baptized and dedicated to the Lord as an infant, and may participate in and learn from the church school during childhood. He may join the church as a young teen, may mature in faith as well as in body, and may truly accept Christ as personal Savior. Then adult life develops and spirit does grow with church participation and other activities that are service to Me. There are no great tragedies or crises. Opportunities abound, and spirit develops steadily and predictably. This may seem ideal. I’ll just call it “one way.”

In most lives there are problems, crises, and circumstances that seem far from My protective wings. There is a terrible sickness, a crippling accident, a death, an economic crunch, a personal failure, pressures beyond endurance… I need not enumerate and give words to all of the situations that seem to be more evil than “the good of God.” I have created the earth and the human being so that some of these are inevitable… but not finally evil. The airplane is a marvelous technological development, but a few shall crash and lives will be lost. In war, planes can carry, effectively, the means for destroying life and property.

Out of all such situations, even the most ugly and repulsive, can come the growth of spirit. None of your sons took the easy, ideal path. Each tramped the valley of the shadow for some moments, even years, of life, but each grew and still grows from these experiences. Peter continues to develop, even in another realm. I did not create humans to be all the same, and there is a wide range in the ways they learn and develop. Evil and the appearance of evil are means that I allow and use, in order that some might move on a spiritual path. I affirm this to you.

The other meaning of this title is that the earth is My creation, all of it and all of its many non-human creatures. It is for human life, but not for exploitation. One of the great challenges of human life is that of not overtaxing the capacities of the earth to maintain its “health”… and the parallel one of actually enhancing those capacities. You have unique opportunities on this Farm to make this part, small as it is, of My earth productive. It takes effort and some sacrifice, but you can do it, if you will.