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Welcome to Wilderness Wanderings.\xa0 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).\xa0 In it, Jesus calls us to a commitment to make disciples.\xa0 Most Christians are also aware of the Great Commandment (Matt: 22:37-40).\xa0 We are to commit our lives to loving God and others.\xa0 But few Christians understand or remember the Great Commitment.\xa0 It is the first directive given to humanity by God during creation.\xa0 It describes why we exist and for what purpose we were created.\xa0 Sometimes referred to as the Cultural Mandate, it is often forgotten as part of the basis for which we are to live our lives.\xa0

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.\xa0 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.\xa0 In only 34 verses, Genesis introduces us to a God who created earth on purpose and for a purpose.\xa0 Let\u2019s read Genesis 1: 26 and 28.

Key Verses:\xa0 Genesis 1:26 and 28

\u2022\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0 26\xa0 Then God said, \u201cLet 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.\u201d Genesis 1:26 (ESV)

\u2022\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0 28\xa0 And God blessed them. And God said to them, \u201cBe 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.\u201d Genesis 1:28 (ESV)

God created humanity to rule and steward His creation.\xa0 This was not a static realm, but one ever expanding as the population fulfilled its destiny to spread around the earth.\xa0 Genesis 1:28 begins with God\u2019s blessing.\xa0 God\u2019s blessing is the grace to accomplish what He had given humanity to do.\xa0 Humanity, created in the image of God, shared with God the capacity to create through repurposing\xa0 what God made into new products and services from what God had created from nothing.\xa0 This creativity was fueled by the need to develop both social systems and economic systems as the population increased and spread around the globe.\xa0 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.\xa0 This is done as humanity \u201cworks\u201d in the global village (Genesis 2:15) fulfilling God\u2019s 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.\xa0 It is in the work God has given us that we discover the capacity for all to be co-creators with God.\xa0 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).\xa0 These directives are also written on the pages of creation and work.\xa0 If we fail to grasp the significance of the creation/work paradigm, we are left trying to share the Good News without the context.\xa0 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.\xa0 We deliver the Good News while being salt, light, and leaven through the Great Commitment to work and care for God\u2019s 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.