by Dean Ohlman

1. Being created in God's image, I have a wonderful capacity to utilize my land for great benefit -- for His glory.  Yet this is not really my land; it belongs to God.  I'm merely a landholder and a steward of God's property. While I may be granted private property rights by government, my private property responsibilities before God are more important and more significant.

2. God expects me to use the land to meet not only my needs, but also the needs of its other inhabitants and those who will be its stewards after me when I am gone.   

3. If the previous tenants abused the land, I should consider doing all I can to restore it to its highest purpose for the glory of God.

4. If I deliberately diminish or destroy the land's capacity to fulfill God's purposes as I have come to know them, there is a good possibility I am acting sinfully.  One of those purposes is for the land and all that is on it to offer up praise to God by fulfilling its ecological and communal role.  I must always ask if I am diminishing the land's capacity to praise its Lord by failing to allow it to fulfill its service for the Creator.

5. I must recognize that the land is a vital part of a vast ecosystem that keeps all land healthy and productive.  If I alter its function and nature without careful consideration of its impact, I am acting sinfully

6. I have a responsibility to care for the living things that occupy the land.  If I act without considering their needs, I am acting sinfully. Remaining ignorant to excuse irresponsible behavior is not godly.

7. I have a responsibility to treat the sojourners on the land with care and respect -- both people and animals.

8. I must not knowingly use my land in a manner that diminishes my neighbor's land and/or his livelihood.

9. As much as I can control the factors, I have no right to deliberately foul the air that passes over the land or the water that passes through or under it.

10. I recognize that no use of the land is fully sustainable, but understanding my responsibility to consider future generations and to avoid wastefulness, I must seek to keep the level of matter and energy loss on the land at a minimum.

11. While the idea of the formal Sabbath seems to apply specifically to Israel in the Old Testament, there is a “Sabbath principle” that goes back to the Genesis mandates regarding the need to cease work -- for my personal benefit and the benefit of the land.  Land must not be pressed beyond its capacity to remain fruitful.

12. I must never let the land become a god to me.  It is not the land I worship, but its Creator.  My stay on the land is brief; my stay with the Creator is eternal.