Does God matter in the marketplace? RZIM Open-Forum provides the answer

New Delhi – RZIM Life Focus Society, a member concern of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM) on July 6th conducted an open-forum on the theme "Does God Matter in the Marketplace?" at Heinz Auditorium, YMCA, New Delhi.

Mr. Stuart McAllister, International Director, RZIM, in his address to the audience, quoting Matthew 6:19-21, asked, “Are we making eternal investment in our lives?”

He urged that it is nature of man to move from good to great and go forward in search of excellence.

Seeking God is a never-ending quest of mankind and when we find Him, we begin to integrate our lives and change our viewpoint, he said. It becomes more challenged, broadened, deepened and widened.

Stating that man often experience unexplainable feelings of overwhelming joy or pain and suffering, Mr. McAllister argued that these ‘signals’ of transcendence take place as we are His creation. To elaborate his argument, he quoted C.S. Lewis who once said, “If I find in myself a desire that no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.”

“Finding God is not a leap in the dark,” Mr. McAllister said, who refuted the claim of Blaise Pascal who believed that believing in existence of God is a matter of choice. “He is interesting, He is awesome, He is worthy (of our worship) and He is out there,” he said. And, when we come to God, we begin a journey together with Him, he added.

Profusely quoting verses from the Bible, Mr. McAllister emphasized that the God we know is a living God as revealed in the Bible and He is personal, relational, loving and supremely holy.

Attacking existential philosophy, he quoted Romans 1:18-23 and said that if one has not found God, then there is some problem with his reception capacity.

“Are we ready to make long term investments? Have we got our treasures stored up in heaven? Are we ready to be remembered as those who impacted lives and changed the course of our history?” he asked. “Then be prepared to acknowledge yourself as the new creation in Christ.”

Citing the parable of the talents, he said that we would all be held accountable to Him finally. “And when that day comes, let us be the ones who He can say, ‘Well done, my good and faithful servant,” he concluded.

The open-forum was followed by question and answer session.

Born in Scotland, Mr. Stuart McAllister joined Operation Mobilization in 1978 and joined the staff of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries as the International Director in 1998. Pluralism, postmodernism and consumerism are some of the regular topics addressed by Mr. McAllister in the leadership seminaries.





Surojit Chatterjee
Ecumenical Press