We ate at Jason’s last night, where we saw they are turning off the dining room lights for an hour today. The promotion says it’s to help save the planet.

Get real.

Part of me hates the fact that people try to make it look like they’re making a massive effort, when turning off the dining room lights is symbolic at best. The real power-suckers are back in the cooking and dishwashing area. But that’s not my real beef. I understand marketing.

What gripes me is that the most ardent fans of “save the planet” are often hypocritical.

Let’s face it, nobody’s real agenda is to “save the planet.” If it were (and if they stood by their assertion that people are ruining the planet), the solution would be simple:

Kill all the people.

That said, I can think of three general reasons why people scream “save the planet.”

1. They mean “save the people.” A deteriorating planet is a threat to people — that is, “me.” Therefore, thwart the threat. It phrases nicely as “be good stewards of the environment,” but it’s ultimately man-centered. Actually, it’s me-centered. No planet, no me.

2. They mean “honor creation which is where god lives.” They have a low understanding of god, because they have made him up out of their own imaginations. Anything marvelous or infinite or unexplainable becomes god, so they want to deify it.

3. They mean “honor God’s creation.” They don’t mean “everything is a part of God,” but that “everything is a gift from God.” They recognize the planet is deteriorating, as is all creation spoiled by the fall. It is ultimately God-centered. Honor God’s relationship with His creation.

The first cause will fail. It is defensive, survivalist, and impermanent. It will fail for the same reason other man-centered causes fail. No matter how committed people may be to this “cause,” they are ultimately more committed to themselves.

The second cause will fail. The underlying belief system is invalid — based on the best a man can come up with. It prefers to be limited by the size of man’s mind, so is also man-centered. Ultimately, they mean worship creation, a false environment-god.

The third cause will triumph. It reaches beyond the temporary creation to the permanent Creator. When the planet in its present form is destroyed, the Creator (the “cause,”) will still be. When “every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,” He will find those who have done so even in their honoring of the environment.

Want to be a good steward of the planet? Do the real thing. Get real with the only reality, the real God.

You know the story. Pharisees try to trap Jesus by getting Him to say they should not support the Roman government by paying taxes. He asks for a coin, determines whose image is on it, and says to “render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” (Luke 20:25)

The star of the story seems to be the coin. It’s the part you give to “Caesar.”

That’s wrong.

The star is Jesus. And I forget too often that His point is not the part you render to Caesar, but the more important thing, the part you render to God — “the things that are God’s.”

All things are God’s. Even (as it turns out) the things that are Caesar’s. Because God’s image is embedded in every piece of His creation. He made even Caesar.

April 15 we are called to account for our rendering to Caesar.

But someday — on “the day that is called Today — we will be called to account for our rendering to God.

Caesar and Jesus both died. But only one rose from His death.

Render unto God the things that are God’s. April 15, 16, 17 and forever.

One year Sherry and I planted a garden. It fed a multitude — a multitude of squash bugs, tomato worms, etc.

So this Garden of Eden thing is hard for me to grasp. By faith, however, I believe God’s garden was better than mine.

Genesis 4 and 5 records the time between Adam and Noah. There we find two murders, plus a boring genealogy. We see who was born, and how long people lived (nearly a millennium in some cases).

But I think the lesson is this: All but one generational report ends with these words, “and he died.”

Stunning! With Cain’s murder of Abel, physical death exists for the first time. Then we find that death occurs not only by man’s immediate hand, but by the simple passage of time. Maybe we take this for granted today, because our experience tells us it’s inevitable.

There’s one exception. “Enoch walked with God, and he was not found, for God took him.” Nestled among all the natural deaths, we find one man who “walked with God” (as had Adam before the fall). We are left to conclude that God gave him something besides death.

This week, Christians historically confront the story of death head-on. Death… where God’s sustaining gift of animation is sucked out of a physical body, to be sent… where? Who knows, unless God tells us?

God does, in scripture and directly through the words of Jesus.

Jesus walked on earth with God in heaven. Jesus died — then He didn’t. Like Enoch, “he was not found.” The grave could not hold Him.

Because He did, we too may overcome spiritual death and see God as one who walked with Him, if we surrender our self-sufficiency to Him. It’s a tall order, one we cannot satisfy on our own. As God told Cain, “sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it.” Pride wants to hold us back.

But it need not.

“Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, he was buried, he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures” 1 Cor. 15:3-4.

He is risen! May this week be one whose truth rises and rules in our hearts as well.