To Reconcile Not Only People But Things

One of the greatest joys of work is rest. With this in mind, I’m taking the next six weeks off from blogging!

Before signing off, I'd like to share one more helpful tool for eradicating the "SSD virus."

The Sacred-Secular Divide looks like this:

The “sacred” activities of life include things like Sunday morning worship, Bible study, prayer, witnessing, volunteering at the homeless shelter, and going on mission trips. These activities have real significance, because they truly matter to God. They have to do with the “things above,” which we should be "setting our minds upon."

"Secular” activities don’t have as much significance. They include things like mowing the grass, earning money to keep a roof overhead, and paying electric bills. These things simply aren’t as important to God. They may be necessary, but they fall under the category of “things of earth” that should "grow strangely dim" with each passing day.

Here is what to do with that way of thinking:

Substitute this:

Any sphere of human activity may be done in harmony with God or in conflict with Him; in alignment with Him, or in opposition to Him. God's game plan is to reconcile not only people but things to Him.

Things! Things on earth! (See Colossians 1:16-20.) Business things! Legal things! Artistic things! Civil things! Yes, "that in all things He may have the preeminence...." (v. 18)!

“...since there is nothing which stands outside of His authority, He is as relevant to what goes on in civil government as He is to the way business functions, to the way family members relate to one another...to the way a local church functions. In short, He is Lord of all, and no less relevant to one area of human endeavor than another..." [Assumptions That Affect Our Lives, pp. 112-113]

So let's resist withdrawing from God's physical, here-and-now world. It's all His (Psalm 24:1)! We have a responsibility toward it. By God's grace, let's engage with it rightly. Let's celebrate the dance! Please view Detachment from Matter.

But doesn’t the Bible say, “Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth?” And, “Love not the world, nor the things in the world?”

I’ll pick up from here in September.