GoodNews

GoodNewsFL.org 35 MAY 2018 ENCOURAGEMENT :H DUH D PRYHPHQW RI SURIHVVLRQDOV LQ WKH KHDOWKFDUH LQGXVWU\ DQG LWV VXSSRUWHUV ZKR KDYH DOLJQHG RXUVHOYHV ZLWK WKRVH QHHGLQJ UHVRXUFHV LQ RXU FRPPXQLW\ :H XWLOL]H WKH NQRZOHGJH H[SHULHQFH DQG H[SHUWLVH RI RQH DQRWKHU DQG DUH DYDLODEOH WR RXU FRPPXQLW\ LQ WKHLU WLPH RI QHHG 0RQWKO\ 'LVFXVVLRQV DUH KHOG RQ WKH WK 7KXUVGD\ RI HDFK PRQWK &KHFN VQDOD RUJ IRU FXUUHQW LQIRUPDWLRQ DQG RWKHU DUHD HYHQWV 6XSSRUWLQJ <RX 6XSSRUWLQJ 7KHP &&/-kPQRlTSUlVWX -.1) '- )( , ( * ,.3#(." ' ( 3 QQ NåÙÖÊÜ ǤÄĆ MFBEFSTIJQFYDFMFODFBGJSNBUJPOEFTUJOZ 0QFOJOH"VHVTU m; _ubvঞ-m "1_ooѴ v;ubm] ѵ |_ ]u-7; v|7;m|vĺ urov; 1-7;l bv Ѵo1-|;7 bm $_; oul -m7 1Ѵ-vv;v 0;]bm ]v| ƑƏƐѶĺ ou bm=oul-ঞom -0o| |_; v1_ooѴ -m7 v1_oѴ-uv_br rovvb0bѴbঞ;vķ 1om|-1| v |o7-Ĵ '03.03&*/'03."5*0/$"-303*13"5BU &! " + ѵƏƏ ") ƒ u7 "|u;;| olr-mo ;-1_ķ ƒƒƏѵƏ &217$&7 86 ƖƔƓŊƖƕƔŊƑƔƓƐ !oub u-Šom;_or;ĺm;| hearts and actions would bring good to the world. This was the vision of God made perfectly in- carnate in the Messiah Jesus. Now some question, is there any escape from having a “religion” or “faith?” Is it possible to be truly “secular? “To be human is to be scien- tific, yes, and practical, and ra- tional, and moral, and social, and artistic, but to be human fur- ther is to be religious also. And this religious in man is not just another facet of himself, just an- other side to his nature, just an- other part of the whole. It is the condition of all the rest and the justification of all the rest. This is inevitably and inescapably so for all men. No man is religiously neutral in his knowledge of and his appropriation of reality.” The conclusion of this idea would be: “The world is not composed of religious and nonreligious people. It is composed rather of religious people who have differ- ing ultimate concerns and differ- ent gods and who respond to the living God in different ways. Each human life manifests differ- ent ways of expressing a per- son’s allegiances and answers to the ultimate questions of life. All humans are incurably reli- gious; we manifest different reli- gious allegiances.” So, the “secular person” is just exercising faith that “all that matters, is matter” while the “sa- cred person” is exercising faith that “God is all that matters.” The idea of the incarnation, sacrificial death and resurrection of Messiah Jesus as God the Son who has come to us as the Son of God in the flesh, bridges the gap in these perspectives with the firm reality that for the God who is Jesus, matter does matter. What happens “under the sun” is important to God and is always in relationship to heaven. Considering all of this, “How ought we then to live?” Can faith in God matter in a positive way for our daily lives? Do we need Jesus to be a light to our lives? Dr. Norman Wise is the Ex- ecutive Director of Living Water Christian Counseling and host of “Ask the Counselor” on GraceNetRadio.com. Living Water can be reached at 954- 726-2303. Henry Zylstra, Testament of Vision (Grand Rapids: Eerd- mans, 1958), 145. Zondervan. Life’s Ultimate Questions: An In- troduction to Philosophy (p. 19). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.