“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16:11) Growing Dominion, Part 10 The Lord Jesus resisted temptation by quoting from the book of Deuteronomy. One of the things he quoted was the famous passage on not living by bread alone. But the passage says more than what we do not live on. …
Cultural Trajectory
Growing Dominion, Part 9 Dominion will never be understood through worry. The natural tendency of those who are able to identify trajectories is to assume that what they currently see will go on forever and ever. Herman Melville thought that civilization would end as soon as we ran out of whale oil. After a week …
Counterintuitive Wisdom
“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 1611) Growing Dominion, Part 8 In order to exercise wisdom in the world, we have to come to grips with the fact that wisdom is counter-intuitive. If you have ever taken any kind of lessons, whether driving lessons, piano lessons, golf lessons, guitar lessons, or …
Christ First, Wood Second, Business Third
“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16:11) Growing Dominion, Part 7 One of the great legacies of the Reformation is the idea of calling. Prior to the Reformation it was assumed that serving God in a serious way meant going into a monastery, or some kind of spiritual equivalent. The resurgence …
Work and Jobs
“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16:11) Growing Dominion, Part 6 Dominion is a frame of mind and heart. It is not marked by work only — because slaves also have to work. The difference is this slaves work at a job; Christians are summoned to a calling. When jobs diminish, …
God Gives the Increase
Growing Dominion, Part 5 The man who labors to build his house apart from the blessing of God labors in vain. The one who is under the blessing of God may succeed even though everyone else says it is a really bad idea. Although certain principles remain constant, the particular methods can flourish when God …
The Lowest Place
Jesus taught us that the way to accomplish dominion (of the sort He envisioned) was through faithful service. The one who humbles himself is exalted, and the one who exalts himself shall be humbled. The first shall be last, and the last first. Seeking dominion, which is an individual ability to extend the influence of …
The Yeast of True Service
Growing Dominion, Part 3 So God has assigned to us the responsibility of exercising dominion in the world. He has done this in the cultural mandate given to Adam, in the cultural mandate that was renewed with Noah, and then, ultimately, in the Great Commission that was given to followers of Christ after His resurrection. …
Structure and Content
Growing Dominion #2 We must seek to understand the tasks assigned to us by God as we exercise dominion in the world. In doing this, we have to remember the basic “creation, fall, redemption” structure. But there is a pitfall here, to which Christians in the West are particularly prone. We like structures and outlines, …
Christ is the Future of Nature
In order to understand our responsibilities in the world, the place to begin is with what God has told us to do. This instruction from God is found in Genesis, in what has come to be called the cultural mandate. “And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish …