Welcome to Wilderness Wanderings.  My name is Renita Reed-Thomson, and I have the privilege to serve as a partner missionary with you at Immanuel Christian Reformed Church. Most Christians are aware of the Great Commission (Matt. 28:19, 20).  In it, Jesus calls us to a commitment to make disciples.  Most Christians are also aware of the Great Commandment (Matt: 22:37-40).  We are to commit our lives to loving God and others.  But few Christians understand or remember the Great Commitment.  It is the first directive given to humanity by God during creation.  It describes why we exist and for what purpose we were created.  Sometimes referred to as the Cultural Mandate, it is often forgotten as part of the basis for which we are to live our lives.  In Genesis 1 we discover not only that God creates the world in which we live but creates all of life including you and me.  In creating us, He provides us with a simple but clear job description. It is not only for certain people but for all people made in the image of God for all time.  In only 34 verses, Genesis introduces us to a God who created earth on purpose and for a purpose.  Let's read Genesis 1: 26 and 28. Key Verses:  Genesis 1:26 and 28 •     26  Then 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 birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." Genesis 1:26 (ESV) •     28  And God blessed them. And God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth." Genesis 1:28 (ESV) God created humanity to rule and steward His creation.  This was not a static realm, but one ever expanding as the population fulfilled its destiny to spread around the earth.  Genesis 1:28 begins with God's blessing.  God's blessing is the grace to accomplish what He had given humanity to do.  Humanity, created in the image of God, shared with God the capacity to create through repurposing  what God made into new products and services from what God had created from nothing.  This creativity was fueled by the need to develop both social systems and economic systems as the population increased and spread around the globe.  In these few verses God, the creator of the Universe, invites His special creation, made in His image, to join Him as co-creators whose task is to repurpose out of creation products and systems that make human flourishing possible.  This is done as humanity "works" in the global village (Genesis 2:15) fulfilling God's call to fill the earth. Within the first man and woman are the seeds of hundreds of generations, capable of creating, exploring, building, discovering, and developing a society that both increases and honors God.  It is in the work God has given us that we discover the capacity for all to be co-creators with God.  He created the universe out of nothing that we can create everything necessary to see cultures, societies, and communities multiply and expand to fill the earth. While filling and caring are universal, as Christians, we are also given the command to love God and others (The Great Commandment) and to make disciples obedient to the commands of Jesus (The Great Commission).  These directives are also written on the pages of creation and work.  If we fail to grasp the significance of the creation/work paradigm, we are left trying to share the Good News without the context.  The creation/work paradigm gives us the pages on which to write our own story of following Jesus and being ambassadors of the Good News, a royal priesthood, sharing how God has redeemed all things.  We deliver the Good News while being salt, light, and leaven through the Great Commitment to work and care for God's created world! I pray that you find joy as you live into your calling, to fulfill the Great Commitment, the Great Commandment, and the Great Commission, for the glory of God.

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