{"id":806,"date":"2016-10-18T18:23:52","date_gmt":"2016-10-18T18:23:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/empoweringaction.org\/?p=806"},"modified":"2016-10-18T18:23:52","modified_gmt":"2016-10-18T18:23:52","slug":"sacred-or-secular","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/empoweringaction.org\/es\/sacred-or-secular\/","title":{"rendered":"Sacred or Secular"},"content":{"rendered":"

When I have the privilege of speaking, I often make a point of stressing that there is no distinction between the sacred and the secular when it comes to the Church, the body of Christ. Often there is the misconception that those who are called to full-time Christian work, whether stateside or overseas, are engaged in more sacred efforts than those who labor daily in the workforce or to raise a family.<\/p>\n

In fact, the term \u201csecular\u201d indicates that an individual does not believe God to be foundational or central. To be \u201csecular\u201d doesn\u2019t necessitate that you are an atheist or agnostic. It simply means that God has been pushed to the edge of consideration. By that definition, \u201csecular individuals\u201d engage in daily pursuits from priorities and philosophies that reflect a human-centered agenda as opposed to a God-centered one.<\/p>\n

In The Pursuit of God<\/u><\/em>, A.W. Tozer summarizes it nicely when he states,<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cLet 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.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The \u201cWhy\u201d of life can be seen in:<\/p>\n

The Westminster Shorter Catechism<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cMan’s chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever.\u201d \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

1 Corinthians 10:31<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cSo, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em>Two final thoughts:<\/p>\n

Those engaged in overseas mission work need<\/strong> believers in the labor force to support their gospel-centered efforts.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. \u201cEvery believer is called to pray for the nations and support the cause of missions, but not every believer is called to leave their homeland and go overseas. Some will help send and support, and others will go, tell and serve.\u201d \u2013 John Piper<\/em><\/li>\n
  2. A great resource to assist you and your family in the sacred fundamentals of the Christian faith is New City Catechism<\/a>, a collaborative effort of The Gospel Coalition and Tim Keller\u2019s Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

     <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    When I have the privilege of speaking, I often make a point of stressing that there is no distinction between the sacred and the secular when it comes to the Church, the body of Christ. Often there is the misconception that those who are called to full-time Christian work, whether stateside or overseas, are engaged […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":807,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-806","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-christian-living"],"acf":[],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/empoweringaction.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Blog-Sacred-600x300.jpg","featured_image_src_square":"https:\/\/empoweringaction.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Blog-Sacred-600x300.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"Kent Husted","author_link":"https:\/\/empoweringaction.org\/es\/author\/khusted\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/empoweringaction.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/806","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/empoweringaction.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/empoweringaction.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empoweringaction.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empoweringaction.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=806"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/empoweringaction.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/806\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empoweringaction.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/empoweringaction.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empoweringaction.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empoweringaction.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}