eGreen Scripture: God's Calls for Respect of Animals

If you see your brother's donkey or his ox fallen on the road, do not ignore it. Help him get it to its feet. - Deuteronomy 22:4

A righteous man cares for the needs of his animal, but the kindest acts of the wicked are cruel. - Proverbs 12:10

Our world seems to put animals so far below us that we abuse them to no end. Especially the ones that are killed for food. One thing we are called to do is care for animals - to be respectful. I think the "consumer" does get forgetful when they look at that plastic wrapped meat as they take it in their hands to purchase. That neatly packed meat contains an animal that lived in horrible conditions and treatment. What we do need to remember as consumers that if you are choosing the path to eat meat to buy organic meat. At least then we know that the animals are being feed and treated the way God called them to be. We are supporting that call out from God. I personally choose the path of vegetarian, but I know that is not an easy path for some, but my prayer is that the consumers that are consuming meat not only choose organic meats and support that industry, but also reduce the amount of meat they are consuming. This is not just a environmental issue, but a health issue. Have at least one day a week of no meat and reduce the amount you are serving your family. How do you feel about these issues?

eGreen Scripture: We are Aliens

The land is mine and you are but aliens and my tenants. Throughout the country that you hold as a possession, you must provide for the redemption of the land. Lev. 25:23-24

If you lease an apartment, lease a car, get a hotel room, rent a car, how do you treat it? By the time you are at the end of your use of it are they charging you damage fees? cleaning fees? replacement fees? How much should God charge us for the damage we have done? He calls us from the beginning to be environmental stewards. What the the ways you are being better guests in God's house?

Scratch the Surface: Whole vs. Processed Foods

Whole food eating is not just a health issue, its a green one. We need to get back to basics again with our food. First off the most obvious reason to eat whole foods is our health. We need to cut way back on the processed foods we take in. This is another case of convenience foods being the determent of our health and environment. Processed foods are created through manufacturing methods to transform ingredients into convenient little packages which we can cook up quickly and consume. Most are filled with artificial flavors, preservatives, hydrogenated oils, fillers and artificial sweeteners. In the end of all this processing we end up with a product that yes can taste good, but not so good for us; nutritional value has been processed out to a very low level, but they have a long shelf life. On the flipside whole foods are grown in orchards, gardens, or greenhouses. They are unprocessed, unrefined and have a shorter shelf life. These foods are richly flavorful from nature, straight from the earth like God meant them to be for us.

Then God said, "Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds." And it was so. The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the third day. Genesis 1:11-13

God sure didnt grow a box of au gratin potatoes from the earth, did he. Whole foods are filled with vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, phytochemicals, and fiber. They do require longer preparation times, for us to do the unthinkable ... cook from scratch? Isn't that what we used to consider home cooking? Loving from the oven? I have to say I am one person that even before this journey I love cooking from scratch. Food tastes better, richer, honestly I feel the time is worth spent because its a way for me to show my love for my family. Now I am even cooking more than before for the health of my family. We have almost eliminated fast food, eating out less, buying as much organic as possible and happily I am cooking more since this journey started (I will get into more details on these changes in future posts). It is truly amazing how these green methods truly reduce our waistlines.

The other reason to cut back on processed foods is waste. Look at any box of processed food, you have the box, then you have plastic wrap inside, some even have a tray insert, all of that is building up in our land fills. Packaging materials make up more than 30% of all consumer waste, according to the EPA.

Ways to Cut the Waste

• Cut back on processed foods, especially those with overdone packaging
• Be a connoisseur of packaging, watch close and be aware of all the packaging things you buy have
• Always find ways to reuse or recycle if possible
• Reuse your bags for fruits and vegetables or buy eco-friendly ones to reuse
• When buying packaged items, buy the glass or tin ones so you can easily reuse
• Buy bulk, reuse the bags when possible or buy eco-friendly ones to reuse
• Take eco-friendly shopping bags to carry all of your purchases
  

Remember, we vote at the register!

eGreen Scripture: God is Green

And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. Genesis 1:26-27

Environmental stewardship is an approach to the earth and its resources that attends both to the demands of human freedom and flourishing and to the Biblical call for human beings to exercise caring 'dominion' over creation. We are all called to do this from the beginning.

Green Plus?

Through the changes I have been going through the last couple months to be more green (future posts I will get in more detail). There are so many benefits that have shown themselves so unexpectedly:

+ leading a more Godly life
+ more quality time with my family
+ healthier eating
+ weight loss
+ more physical endurance and stamina
+ saving money

Those are the most obvious ones, all things I think most people strive to achieve; I know I do. I have to admit I was very surprised how quickly those benefits became apparent. The main focus I have had from the beginning was finding way to use less and reuse more. Through this focus it was so much easier to figure out what changes were the most obvious. Then my eyes were opened, I was shocked at my dependency on conveniences, didn't expect that to be on my list of vices. *laughs*

When you map out the conveniences to how it can affect the earth, our family, and our neighbors you see clearly the damage it is doing. It is amazing how all of those conveniences we buy, take for granted and further seek out cause so much of the environmental issues we have. When you start eliminating them you realize that is such a huge chunk of what is destroying our earth, dividing our families, ultimately making us walk further away from what God wants for us, and walking away from Him. Are the conveniences worth it?

My first green steps ...

Jesus replied: ” ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ – Matthew 22:37-39

One night in February, I began my journey to take better care of God’s creation and to love my neighbor further than ever before. God called me to a life of being green. a practice that is associated more with the New Age movement, but since my heart and spirit has been called to a environmental stewardship I have to wonder why more Christians don’t feel called to live green. But once God calls upon you it is amazing how clear it all becomes; that doesn’t mean it is easy. Think about it this way, lets say you are house sitting a friend’s home, would you start trashing their home making it not only an unsanitary, unhealthy environment not only for you, but for your friend, their family and their pets? Why do we do that to God’s world and family? If we don’t want to think in that big of a picture, why do we choose to do that to our own family? Through prayer I felt God wants me to share my passion with others through ministry, so here I am blogging this path God has led me on. Maybe you can try some of the steps with me, if you do please share your experiences. *joy*

Aside from living green, caring for God’s creation demands the action of loving your neighbor. Any action we take in being more green has an amazing ripple effect because the damage we are doing to God’s creation through our actions can also be mended through even the simplest of changes. Those changes, in turn, are enhancing the health and well being of our neighbors, all of God’s children in present and future. For example, if 7% of American grocery shoppers switched from plastic bags to an eco friendly grocery bag for a year, we would avoid utilizing the following resources:

• 11 barrels of oil
• 800 million pounds of plastic bag removed from production

Several surprising statistics regarding plastic bags:

* According to the EPA, over 380 billion plastic bags, sacks and wraps are consumed in the U.S. each year.
* Americans alone discarded more than 3.3 million tons of low- and high-density polyethylene bags, sacks, and wraps in 2000 (EPA).
* The U.S. goes through 100 billion plastic shopping bags annually.
* Four out of every five bags handed out at grocery stores in the USA are plastic.

This is one change I made right from the beginning and a very easy one. I will admit I had my collection of those 99 cent bags from the store, they seemed convenient, won’t rip, carry more in one, but I think like many people do, I would buy them and forget to ever take them back with me to the store *laughs*. So I now store some in my car and I plan ahead on shopping trips so I will have them available when I need them. If a circumstance comes up that I don’t have one, I request those wonderful paper bags (luckily our local grocery has the one with the handles) and I make sure I save them for reuse which I will share in a later entry. There was one time I stopped at Kohl’s for a few things and was left holding no bag and that huge plastic Kohl’s bag was staring me in the face, so with quick thinking and common sense I refused the bag and decided I could handle carrying my items. *laughs* Unfortunately, I was only thinking in terms of grocery shopping, but that circumstance woke me up to other shopping excursions that I needed to better plan for. Obviously, there is lists of simple changes we can all make to show our Lord that we are caring for His world and loving his children.

Questions for you: What has your experience been with eco friendly shopping bags? Is this a change you could easily make? If not, what do you see as your road blocks?

Thank you for your interest in my path. God bless … :)