Conservation, Cooperation, Regeneration

(Editor’s note: This sermon dates to the late 1950’s early 60’s and references some of the causes of the great depression and dust bowl and the conservation practices that were put into place.)

Conservation, Cooperation, Regeneration

Matthew 4:4; “But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.”

Never before in the history has man reached back and forth trying to find an answer to his many and varied problems. Meetings and conferences are being held trying to come up with something that will bring peace to this planet. Following a conference in London reporter remarked, “ I was told it was a conference on peace but it has really a conference about the world markets.”

Now reporters are not given to being naïve. Is not a fact at the back of all the political problems is the problem of markets economics? Beloved, the basic of any struggle for peace or any spiritual objective is a struggle for bread. This is nothing to be ashamed about and maybe in some other world we can be detached spirits. But here we have bodies, these bodies must be fed for we cannot exist as souls unless we keep our bodies alive.

This must be faced with honesty. A teacher asked a boy what the basic three foods were? He replied, “breakfast, dinner and supper.” That's a good answer for a major portion of our energy is spent seeking bread and also links us up with a great network of divine and human relationships.

The problem is that man has forgotten economics cannot be divorced from religion. Many are trying to do this very thing of solving the problem of bread by bread alone. The communists say life is after the trimmings are off, is a battle for bread. It is not God that man needs they say, but the need is for plows, steam shovels, and tractors. These the communist says these are what people need, so let's get down to the practical constructive business of solving the problem of bread by destroying religion, morals, and stuff that fools people. Food has a fatal appeal to hungry people, millions have turned to communism for this reason.

The most pertaining work ever spoken on the subject of bread is the Bible. A vivid highlight is in the record of Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness. We are wrong if we think of it as a temptation of a hungry man to feed himself. Every temptation must be interpreted in the light of His major purpose Jesus had come to solve man's dilemma to provide salvation. Can you not see the temptation to turn the stones to bread? People will follow anyone who will promise of bread. This is how rulers rise to power, never mind what people need is to be taught, just give them bread!

Jesus could have been a Marxist for He was concerned about hunger. Jesus was no dreamer, remember he taught, “…give us this day our daily bread…”

Jesus was sensitive to physical needs of man, he was with the eye of God, He knew the problem was deeper than the need for bread. The need for bread can only be solved by saving man from his sins. Man must live by the higher laws of God's will! The bread problem can be worked out for no man on earth would ever be hungry again if man could just learn. There are higher factors in man's spirit upon which bread depends.

let us look at the word of God: CONSERVATION, it is not a Bible word. The Bible word is STEWARDSHIP. Simple appreciation of the earth which is the Lords.

It has become very clear in the last few years just what God meant. If we do not take care of what is God's then we are in grave trouble for bread. About three to ten inches of topsoil stands between man and extinction. Remember the story of the garden in Genesis? Remember how this man sinned against the garden and purpose of the gardener, and how the garden was lost and wilderness gained ?

The record of history is not very pretty for today's problems arise out of man's sin against the land and its creator. It was man's failure to rightly relate himself to the land out of which his life depends.

14 civilizations have disappeared through waste and moral rot and most of all they lost their land. Great portions of Africa was once fertile and now a bare and harsh land. Trees were taxed so trees were cut to avoid paying taxes and the land poured down gullies into the sea, The richest became the poorest. The history of our land follows somewhat the same pattern as conservation is only about 40 years old. We almost waited too long and the way back was and is a long, long way. The last generation destroyed the land and now this generation must build it back, beloved we must learn well the meaning of stewardship in the nation, the home, and in life. Or else trouble awaits.