"When you feel like darkness is your closest friend, choose to believe that God is with you. When you feel like life is spiraling out of control, choose to believe that God is still in control. When you feel like life will never get better, choose to believe that God is still good." —J.D. Greear from the weekend devotional "When Darkness Is Your Closest Friend" in this month's Tabletalk Magazine
"He that knows nothing will believe anything." —Thomas Fuller
Coram Deo: Christians are to be so trustworthy that no one would need to demand an oath of us in ordinary circumstances in order to be sure that we will keep our word. In the context of making a solemn covenant, however, things are different. At such times, making a vow is quite appropriate. In fact, we should desire to make the oath so that we are reminded that others will hold us accountable if we should violate our word.
Coram Deo: Friends and even family may exert great pressure on us to join with them in their sin. They may appeal to our loyalties and try to guilt us into covering up a misdeed that should be reported or beg us to join with them in a behavior that they might say is “not that bad.” We must never go along with such calls or let ourselves be pushed into something that we know to be wrong. May we resolve never to join with others in sin.
Against all odds, in the sprawling refugee camps of northern Iraq, where Yezidis, Christians, and Kakais have fled from the frightful ISIS invasion, Kurdish evangelical churches and Christian schools are being planted. —George Grant in Tabletalk Magazine
Coram Deo: Seeing the wicked succeed can be discouraging, especially when we are suffering for the sake of righteousness. Yet what we should never do is envy the wicked and their success. The success of the wicked is but temporary, and any suffering we endure for righteousness is temporary as well. In eternity to come, the wicked will receive their just reward, just as those who are righteous in Christ will be confirmed in glory forever.
Coram Deo: Human freedom and divine sovereignty exist in a complex, mysterious relationship. Though God ordains all of our choices—even choices that end up being thwarted because they do not match the results that He has ordained—we can never blame Him for our sin. Neither can we escape responsibility for our actions. We have misunderstood Scripture if we think our choices are the final determiner of the course of our lives, but we have also misunderstood it if we deny human freedom.
God’s Word is truth—it not only contains the truth, it defines the truth, and it is by that truth we are sanctified. Consequently, the more we know God’s truth, the more we will grow in the grace, knowledge, and holiness of Jesus Christ, by the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit. —Burk Parsons in Tabletalk Magazine
Coram Deo: God is exceedingly patient with us, but He is not an indulgent parent. We are thinking foolishly if we believe that He will forever tolerate frivolous oaths and vows or if we think that failure to keep a godly promise made in His name is not a great sin. Indeed, the Lord is merciful, but the proper response to that mercy is not to take advantage of His grace and presume upon Him. Rather, the right response is to make godly vows sparingly and to keep them unfailingly.
We are not the authors of the gospel, but ambassadors. As an ambassador, we don’t have the authority to change the message, regardless of whether we minister in Montana, Mozambique, or Malaysia. We are called to herald God’s message to the world. —Dave Furman inTabletalk Magazine
Hope speaks of the future, when the present seems dark and foreboding. Hope suggests a sovereign hand in the affairs of providence that ensures a brighter tomorrow (perhaps not in this world, but the next). Hope speaks of covenant promises that say “yes” (2 Cor. 1:17–19) when the present is more about “no.” So patience is called for, a waiting upon God, trusting His promises no matter what the present may seem to be saying. —Derek Thomas from the weekend devotional "Good Things Come in Threes" in this month's Tabletalk Magazine
Preaching has no power unless God the Holy Spirit takes His Word and penetrates hearts with it. —R.C. Sproul
In Jesus, truth was embodied. He did not merely speak the truth; He was the truth. He did not come to simply tell the world about God; He came as God. So it is with His people. We speak the truth of the gospel with our lips. We show the glory of the gospel by the manner in which we live life-on-life together on mission as His church. —Steve Timmis in Tabletalk Magazine
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