Coram Deo: Scripture often calls us to guard our hearts, and this is not only so that we can avoid sin and the discipline it brings but also so that we would cultivate love and the rewards that come with it. God wants us to have a true, heartfelt desire to serve Him and His people, a love born of gratitude for what He has done for us and for who He is in His holy and merciful nature. Let us reflect on God’s goodness that our love for Him might grow this day.
After graduating from the University of Florida in 1996, I was drafted by Mike Ditka to play football for the New Orleans Saints. Though still a young man, I arrived in New Orleans not only looking to play football but also open to see how the Lord might use me in the city during my time there. —Danny Wuerffel in Tabletalk Magazine
Coram Deo: Any self-reliance that remains after we have come to know the Lord hinders our prayers and our trust in Him. But if we remember how great He is and how small we are, this self-reliance will be put to death. John Calvin writes, “We cannot properly estimate the divine goodness, unless we take into consideration what we are as to our condition, as we can only ascribe to God what is due unto him, by acknowledging that his goodness is bestowed upon undeserving creatures.”
Jesus came to seek and to save the lost. He is the Seeker; we are the ones who are running. —R.C. Sproul
Coram Deo: All people serve a god of some kind, but only those who know the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior have the true Lord as their God. Everyone relates to God as He is as the Creator, but not all people relate to Him as His servants who will receive the blessing of the covenant Lord. He does good things for us every day, but ultimately, the greatest blessing we have is that the true Lord is our God. Let us thank and praise Him this day for taking us as His own.
Coram Deo: In fearing God and keeping His commandments, three things occur. First, our sin is restrained, for we seek to avoid the consequences of our actions. Second, we see that we cannot keep the commandments with the perfection required to be declared righteous before God, and so we trust in Christ alone so that we will be justified—counted righteous—in Him. Finally, having been justified, we reverently fear the Lord all the more, and He empowers us to obey Him by His Holy Spirit.
Coram Deo: At various points in our study of the Wisdom Literature, particularly Psalm 119, we have noted our need for the Holy Spirit’s illumination for the Word of God to make us wise. This Spirit is a gift to us from Jesus Himself (John 14:15–17). The Wisdom Books point us to Jesus, who sends His Spirit so that His people will see Him in this literature. Let us thank God for His gift this day, and may we always pray that the Spirit will give us all the wisdom we need for life and salvation.
"I want people to love the Lord, not just for what He does for them but for who He is." —R.C. Sproul
Coram Deo: God is faithful and His Word is sure, so we need not fear that anything awaits believers after our deaths except heaven. Jesus sees our final dwelling with Him as so important that He has gone on before us to prepare this home for us. Ultimately, heaven will come to earth at the final resurrection and we will dwell with Him in a new creation forever. But all Christians who die before this judgment are ushered into Christ’s immediate presence in heaven.
While God invites us to enjoy His gifts in a variety of ways, temporal items are unsatisfactory foundations for lasting joy and peace. Culture may view contentment as something we gain through relationships, wealth, power, and privilege, but the Bible sets forth very different qualifications for contentment. —Melissa Kruger in Tabletalk Magazine
Coram Deo: How strongly do we believe that heaven is far better than our lives on this side of the grave? It is easy to get distracted from the blessings of the life to come, so we must take special care that we do not forget that as good as our lives can be now, life in God’s unmediated presence is far better. The joys we experience in the here and now cannot compare to what is in store for those of us who know Jesus. Let us be conscious of that fact today and always.
To put it as simply as I can, if you are not spiritually reborn, you are not a Christian. —R.C. Sproul
Coram Deo: We do not need to know many details about the intermediate state, or even our final state for that matter. It is enough to know that the Lord says it will be better than what we enjoy now, for He is trustworthy and we know that He only speaks the truth. Yet God is gracious in giving us some details to satisfy our curiosity. In any case, the best thing about heaven is that Christ will be there, and He will satisfy our deepest longings for goodness, truth, beauty, and love.
We have not yet attained to biblical contentment when we would be content with Christ were it not for our circumstances. No, genuine contentment is realized both in our circumstances and with our circumstances. —Sinclair Ferguson in Tabletalk Magazine
Coram Deo: The Bible depicts the vision of God’s face as the supreme blessing of salvation (Num. 6:22–27; 1 Cor. 13:12; 1 John 3:2). We can hardly envision what seeing our Lord’s countenance will be like, but it will be far more wonderful than the most glorious reality we can imagine. When we see God face-to-face, we will be enraptured with His beauty that will consume us for eternity and never bore us. May we long for that day and let that hope shape us in all the years to come.
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