Heaven and Earth and Creation Care

We held our third meeting on 16th July at Shipley Baptist Church.

Heaven and Earth

We watched this video from The Bible Project about Heaven and Earth and talked about what it meant for us and our care of creation: Learn where Heaven and Earth overlap.  Our notes below will become clearer if you watch the video. If that isn't convenient for you right now, here's a quick summary of the video:

1. In the Bible "Heaven" refers to God's space and "Earth" to our space (the space of the humans and plants and creatures).
2. Heaven and Earth were once completely united in the garden of Eden but have become separated.
3. Heaven and Earth can overlap in special places like Israel's temple, but only if the space is purified appropriately.
4. Jesus on earth is the new temple: wherever he is he takes Heaven with him.
5. Jesus' death allows spaces on earth to be purified and completely united with heaven.

How does this affect Creation Care?

We said that:

1. Jesus has put us right so that we can put everything else right, and by everything we mean EVERYTHING; the Bible says that all things are being brought together under Jesus, so Christians need to be involved in everything, which includes creation care.
2. We can only do this with the Holy Spirit (notice the excellent picture of a dove in the "Earth" side of the diagram).
3. Each of us has a different part to play in this: in a harmony there are many different notes.

We were reminded of this verse from an old Christian hymn:

All things bright and beautiful

All creatures great and small

All things wise and wonderful

The Lord God made them all 

Some Good News

(Again, I forgot to write notes at this point, apologies for the lack of detail)

On Wednesday 9th July around 5000 people came from all over the country to talk to their MPs in London about climate and nature concerns, organised by the Climate Coalition. 

(the picture above shows the "prayer tree" in the QEII centre near the Houses of Parliament)

Several of us had been for holidays recently where we were delighted by the strength and variety of the wildlife, whether Sand Martins in Galloway or deer and ladybirds in Norfolk.

Pray

We used this prayer from the Episcopal Church which was shared on the Ecological Disciple blog:

Holy God, your mercy is over all your works, and in the

web of life each creature has its role and place.

We praise you for ocelot and owl, cactus and kelp, lichen

and whale; we honor you for whirlwind and lava, tide and topsoil,

cliff and marsh.

Give us hearts and minds eager to care for your planet,

humility to recognize all creatures as your beloved ones,

justice to share the resources of the earth with all its

inhabitants, and love not limited by our ignorance.

This we pray in the name of Jesus,

who unifies what is far off and what is near,

and in whom, by grace and the working of your Holy Spirit,

all things hold together. Amen.

We prayed for the following things:

1. Against climate change denial in the USA and the UK
   
   
2. UK Government:
1. For hearts of MPs to be gripped by the things they heard at the Mass Lobby on 9th July.
2. For parliament to make time to ratify the High Seas Treaty; when 60 countries have ratified, 30% of international waters will be protected.
   
   
3. Peace
1. In the Middle East: Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, Israel and Iran.
2. In Ukraine
3. In West Africa, especially in Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, Togo and Côte d’Ivoire, as the region faces political transitions and electoral processes. May God guide leaders with wisdom and protect communities from violence or unrest.
   
   
4. Monsoon season in India, Bangladesh and Nepal (between now and September)
1. There is flooding in Nepal, and hospitals are also reporting an influx of dengue cases. In the worst case scenario, over 60,000 could get infected. Pray for protection against dengue, and for minimal flooding and landslide occurrences during this monsoon season
   
   
5. Heatwaves in Pakistan
1. Since April 2025, several areas in Pakistan have been experiencing drought exacerbated by heatwaves. The conditions have increased water scarcity, food and income insecurity. Tearfund is taking action in Sindh to serve communities before the disaster peaks.
2. NOTE: since preparing to pray for the above, monsoon has arrived in Pakistan: sudden, exceptionally heavy monsoon rains this week, exacerbated by glacial melt from the very warm temperatures recently, have caused intense flooding. Pray for the communities, staff and partners affected by these heavy monsoon rains across Pakistan. Since the onset of the monsoon, 116 lives have been lost and 253 people have been injured in rain-related incidents and flash floods.
   


6. Bradford - please pray for more people to volunteer as climate ambassadors.
   
   
7. COP30 in November in Brazil
1. Countries to submit bold NDCs (emission targets); so far only 22(?)/197 countries have submitted targets.
2. Agreement on the Tropical Forest Forever Fund (pay countries to conserve their rainforest)

Please keep praying for these things!

Our next meeting is Wednesday 20th August, 7:30pm at Shipley Baptist Church. 

Radishes and Oak Trees - Persevering in Prayer

While on an evening walk recently I passed a gorgeous patch of woodland full of tall, mature trees:

Since I started making a serious effort to pray for some of the big problems facing God's creation like climate change, species extinction and the pollution of air, land and sea, I have had to face the fact that a lot of these things I'm praying for are very long term issues. Some of these prayers I am praying I will probably be praying for decades. How can I manage to do that without giving up?

Persevering in Prayer 

In Luke chapter 18 it says:

Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. He said: “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought. And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’

“For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care what people think, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually come and attack me!’”

And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly.

There is a lot to say about how we can persevere in our prayers, but the foundation stone is believing that God is good and he wants to do the good things we are asking for. That's what Jesus is saying in Luke chapter 18: we aren't begging an unjust judge, we are praying to our good and loving Father.

So why doesn't God just answer all our prayers straight away? Let's look at another part of the Bible, where Paul is describing one of his fellow believers, Epaphras, to the church in Colosse (Colossians chapter 4 verses 12-13):

"Epaphras, who is one of you and a servant of Christ Jesus, sends greetings. He is always wrestling in prayer for you, that you may stand firm in all the will of God, mature and fully assured. I vouch for him that he is working hard for you and for those at Laodicea and Hierapolis."

Prayer is like wrestling; we are working hard, struggling against an opponent: the spiritual forces of evil, of Babylon (the anti-God systems that sinful humans create) and of humans' own individual sinfulness. In our prayers we are not begging God; we are fighting against evil with God on our side. I found a longer and very helpful explanation of this on John Piper's website.

Radishes and Oak Trees

So what difference does this make to us when we are actually on our knees praying? Some thoughts:

1. Try exploring prayer items with God; talk to him about them, ask him to give you insight into them. If you've got a list of things to pray for, maybe take a different one each day to go into in a bit more depth.
2. Maybe do a bit more commanding and declaring. Remember it isn't God that's the obstacle, it's the forces of evil. So command them to get out of the way in Jesus' name!

In the end, some of our prayers are going to be radishes and some will be oak trees: there are some things that we can start praying about (plant 🌱), and in a few weeks they are answered (ready to eat) and we can taste the fruits of our prayer: a fresh radish in our salad 😊🥗.

But there are some prayer needs that are going to require prayers of the size, lifetime and strength of oak trees to tackle them. The problems are deep rooted in spiritual evil and human sinfulness. Are we prepared to wrestle, to sacrifice, to keep pushing at these problems and grow an oak tree of prayer to deal with them? With God's help, we can.