"One of the greatest hindrances to internal peace which the Christian encounters is the common habit of dividing our lives into two areas - the sacred and the secular. As these areas are conceived to exist apart from each other and to be morally and spiritually incompatible, and as we are compelled by the necessities of living to be always crossing back and forth from one to the other, our inner lives tend to break up so that we live a divided instead of a unified life.
Our trouble springs from the fact that we who follow Christ inhabit at once two worlds - the spiritual and the natural. As children of Adam we live our lives on earth subject to the limitations of the flesh and the weaknesses and ills to which human nature is heir. Merely to live among men requires of us years of hard toil and much care and attention to the things of this world. In sharp contrast to this is our life in the Spirit. There we enjoy another and higher kind of life - we are children of God; we possess heavenly status and enjoy intimate fellowship with Christ." - A W Tozer in the Pursuit of God
"The 'layman' need never think of his humbler task as being inferior to that of his minister. Let every man abide in the calling wherein he is called and his work will be as sacred as the work of the ministry. It is not what a man does that determines whether his work is sacred or secular, it is why he does it. The motive is everything. Let a man sanctify the Lord God in his heart and he can thereafter do no common act. All he does is good and acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. for such a man, living itself will be sacramental and the whole world a sanctuary. His entire life will be a priestly ministration. as he performs his never-so-simple task, he will hear the voice of the seraphim saying, 'Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory.'" - A W Tozer in the Pursuit of God
"So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God." - 1 Corinthians 10:31 (ESV)
Ollie
Jun 2008
Our trouble springs from the fact that we who follow Christ inhabit at once two worlds - the spiritual and the natural. As children of Adam we live our lives on earth subject to the limitations of the flesh and the weaknesses and ills to which human nature is heir. Merely to live among men requires of us years of hard toil and much care and attention to the things of this world. In sharp contrast to this is our life in the Spirit. There we enjoy another and higher kind of life - we are children of God; we possess heavenly status and enjoy intimate fellowship with Christ." - A W Tozer in the Pursuit of God
Shalom in the Hebrew language means more then just peace as it is often translated in the English Bible - it also means completeness, wholeness and soundness. So when we often wished someone in church the peace of God or shalom, it means more then just an absence of conflict or peace in the heart; it carries with it the idea of a life that is complete, whole and integrated in God.
One of the hindrances of living a complete, whole and sound life is as Tozer rightly writes it; it is that we tend to separate our life and activities into the secular and sacred. This frame of thinking tend cause us to live divided rather than a unified, integrated lives. Bible reading, prayer, worship or church service is considered "sacred", while work, household chores, or other mundane necessities of living is deemed "secular".
The key to living a integrated and whole life is that all things are sacred, if we but, as Tozer says it, sanctify God in our hearts. Thereafter there is no common act - everything is sacred and every common bush a burning bush. All of life will be sacramental, and every activity an act of worship, as we savour the supremacy of Christ.
One of the hindrances of living a complete, whole and sound life is as Tozer rightly writes it; it is that we tend to separate our life and activities into the secular and sacred. This frame of thinking tend cause us to live divided rather than a unified, integrated lives. Bible reading, prayer, worship or church service is considered "sacred", while work, household chores, or other mundane necessities of living is deemed "secular".
The key to living a integrated and whole life is that all things are sacred, if we but, as Tozer says it, sanctify God in our hearts. Thereafter there is no common act - everything is sacred and every common bush a burning bush. All of life will be sacramental, and every activity an act of worship, as we savour the supremacy of Christ.
"The 'layman' need never think of his humbler task as being inferior to that of his minister. Let every man abide in the calling wherein he is called and his work will be as sacred as the work of the ministry. It is not what a man does that determines whether his work is sacred or secular, it is why he does it. The motive is everything. Let a man sanctify the Lord God in his heart and he can thereafter do no common act. All he does is good and acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. for such a man, living itself will be sacramental and the whole world a sanctuary. His entire life will be a priestly ministration. as he performs his never-so-simple task, he will hear the voice of the seraphim saying, 'Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory.'" - A W Tozer in the Pursuit of God
Ollie
Jun 2008
No comments:
Post a Comment