When God awakens us, He regenerates our hearts, gives us the gift of new birth, and makes us alive. The Holy Spirit invades, conquers, and persuades us. He rips out our stubborn, self-trusting hearts of stone and replaces our dead hearts with new, living hearts—hearts that are made willing and able to believe; hearts that are soft and pliable in the hands of our Father, united and lovingly enslaved to Christ, and indwelt by the Holy Spirit. —Burk Parsons in February's Tabletalk Magazine
Coram Deo: Spiritual blindness to our own condition must be overcome if we are to be saved from sin. As long as we do not believe we are sinners, we cannot receive the cure, for only those who know they need a cure will receive it. In order to move closer to God, we first have to confess how far away we are from Him.
The Bible’s truth does not depend in any way on whether a person believes the truth. —R.C. Sproul
Coram Deo: When the bridegroom was present, it was time to celebrate, and we will celebrate at the marriage supper of the Lamb when we see Jesus face-to-face (Rev. 19:1–8). Until then, while He is visibly absent, fasting is appropriate when we want to indicate the serious nature of particular prayers. John Calvin comments that “fasting and prayers are adapted to sorrow and adversity.” While we wait for Christ’s return, there are right times to fast.
Coram Deo: Christians have, throughout the history of the church, created many religious structures and rituals in order to develop a closer walk with God. At their best, things such as prayer books, specific patterns of spiritual disciplines, and other devotional aids have served as helpful frameworks that have assisted many people in deepening their piety. At their worst, when things that have not been given immediately by God are treated as having been given directly by the Lord Himself, they have become burdensome in the church. This reality shows how careful we must be not to treat good things as ultimate things, that we must not allow useful spiritual practices to become markers of salvation when our Creator has not made them such.
When we enter God’s presence and demand that He give us something or try to persuade Him to give us something as if we were His counselors who advise Him of a better way of doing things, we’ve entered into His presence not boldly as the Bible calls us to do, but arrogantly. —R.C. Sproul from Ligonier Ministries
Coram Deo: One fundamental error that most cults make is to take one passage of Scripture in isolation and exalt it over all others and at the expense of the meaning of other passages. But God has not given us only one passage. He has given us a canon of sixty-six books, and each passage must be interpreted in light of the whole of Scripture. Thus, we become better biblical interpreters the more of the Bible that we know. Let us study the whole counsel of God so that we might rightly understand it.
Coram Deo: We should look at the law and realize we cannot obey it perfectly for our justification. But the reason for our failure is not the impossibility of knowing the law itself but rather the presence of sin. Regenerate people are supposed to love the law of God and to find it a delight in their sanctification as they are conformed to the image of Christ. But if we treat God’s law as an end in itself and not as the means to know God, we will not know the law rightly or delight in it as we should.
Every attempt of man to build his own ultimate city and kingdom will end in chaos. Any success we enjoy will be short-lived, for the Lord will bring into judgment every hidden thing, every secret thought. Nothing built for the glory of man will survive His scrutiny. But what is done for God’s glory will endure forever. —R.C. Sproul in February's Tabletalk Magazine
Coram Deo: When we confess our sins before the Lord, it is easy to remember our flagrant violations of His law. Harder to see, however, are those times when we have known what is right and yet have not done it. Perhaps we ignored a neighbor who was in need. Maybe we did not offer words of encouragement at the right time. Perhaps we neglected to take a stand for the kingdom. In prayer, ask God to forgive your sins of omission and to enable you always to do what you know is right.
Jesus gave us the incomparable privilege of calling God "Father." —R.C. Sproul
Unless we fix certain hours in the day for prayer, it easily slips from our memory. —John Calvin
God has no detailed “conversion blueprint” to which His saving work must universally conform. But, if any professed conversion is indeed God’s saving work, it always issues in the following: a life of growing communion with Christ; a life of increasing conformity to Christ; a life of continuous abiding in Christ; and a life of principled obedience to Christ. —Albert Martin in February's Tabletalk Magazine
Coram Deo: In the drive to build a large church, elders can lose sight of what is most important—congregational discipleship. A large congregation might be spiritually mature, but it could also be that the tares outnumber the wheat in a given locale. The same dynamics are true of smaller churches as well. Let us encourage our pastors and elders to do the work of discipleship, and may we seek to be involved as well, according to our circumstances and abilities.
Coram Deo: Many believers have questions about the demonic such as “Can a Christian be demon possessed?” The fact that Satan is not equal in power to God helps us understand that though the devil is mighty, He is still subject to the Lord’s sovereign control. God’s omnipotent care for His children means that believers cannot be possessed by demons and that no scheme of the evil one will result in his ultimate victory over God’s people. Safe in the hands of Jesus, we need not fear anything Satan can throw at us.
The world is infatuated with the idea of love. Even the word itself, love, has degenerated into an all-encompassing, catch-all term that seems to be at the heart of a rising one-religion-politically-correct world language—a language of love that has become a religion unto itself. —Burk Parsons in Tabletalk Magazine
There’s much that can divide us today, and there’s no shortage of ways to express our views. The Internet provides instant access to varying ideologies and opportunities for sharing them, which often results in quarreling, at times unfortunately under the guise of Christianity. Quarreling isn’t anything new, and taking a stand for righteousness is, well, right. But as those who have been washed with the blood of Christ, we must not take our cues from the culture as we engage today’s issues. —Trillia Newbell in February's Tabletalk Magazine
Coram Deo: Many people try to separate Christ from His Apostles, but that is not possible. True, only Christ is God incarnate and only Christ atoned for sin; however, the words of the Apostles carry the same authority as the words Christ spoke while on earth. The New Testament is the very Word of God and therefore the very Word of Jesus, because Jesus is God and because the Spirit of God inspired the Apostles. If we reject the words of the Apostles, we reject Christ.
The Christian home in a fallen world is a place of rooted optimism. Rooted in the place where God has called us and optimistic about a far greater place He is preparing for us. —John Tweeddale in February's Tabletalk Magazine
Coram Deo: Today, we hear a lot about the need for diversity. But as we see from the political system and nations around the world, diversity without unity leads to infighting and even civil war. Scripture does call God’s people to embrace diversity, but it is a diversity that is unified in the common confession of the biblical faith. People from every background are welcome in the church—provided they repent of their sin and trust in Christ Jesus alone. Only Christ can unify the church.
We cannot change God. God is unchangeable. If changes are to be made, they must be made in us. —R.C. Sproul
Coram Deo: Dr. Sproul writes that “anyone who takes his faith seriously and speaks on behalf of Christ and His kingdom will be accused of fanaticism at some point.” When we follow Jesus, we will inevitably face people—perhaps even our closest relatives—who think we are strange, crazy, or maybe even evil. When this occurs, let us recall that Jesus Himself faced people who misunderstood Him. Still, He loved them, and so too must we love those who think we are fanatics.
The only pastors (and churches) who have been able to withstand the cultural onslaught regarding issues such as homosexuality are those that are grounded in the authority of Scripture and the truth of biblical teachings on marriage and sexuality. —Michael Kruger in February's Tabletalk Magazine
Coram Deo: The Lord’s Supper is a tangible reminder that Jesus is our life-giving bread from heaven. As we partake of the bread, we are reminded that just as we need physical bread to sustain our bodies, so we need Christ to sustain our souls. As we partake of the Lord’s Supper, let us remember that Jesus is the only food that can truly satisfy. Furthermore, may we be reminded that the way He nourishes us is by faith. To eat the Bread of Life unto eternal life is to believe in Him.
Coram Deo: Many people in our relativistic age claim that there are many lights that can illumine the path out of spiritual darkness. Eastern religions, in fact, often speak of people as receiving illumination from Buddha or another respected figure. But Jesus is the only light who can show us the way back to our Creator. We dare not trust any other light than the Light of the World. If we trust only in Him, we will have all of the light we will ever need for salvation.
Obedience increases assurance because it is evidence of a living faith and proves that we are not hypocrites (James 2:14). Good works do not save us (Eph. 2:8–9), but a life of righteousness and love is strong evidence of having been born again (1 John 2:29; 4:7). —Joel Beeke in Tabletalk Magazine
Coram Deo: The complexity of our world as well as its dangers prompt us to seek safety and security. Some people seek these things in the arms of a spouse. Others look for them in a bank account. Many people put all their hope in the government to keep them safe from evildoers. But as we know all too well, none of these things, or any other created entity, can guarantee safety. Only Christ provides the ultimate protection from all that can harm us. In Him we are safe forever from all enemies.
In a counterfeit conversion, there is no death to self, no submission to the lordship of Christ, no taking up a cross, no obedience in following Christ, no fruit of repentance–only empty words, shallow feelings, and barren religious activities. —Steven Lawson in February's Tabletalk Magazine
Coram Deo: When Jesus calls His people to Himself, they always come. No sheep of the Good Shepherd can finally resist His call. The sheep who does reject this call was never His sheep to begin with. If Jesus has called us, we cannot lose our salvation. We will not finally turn away from Him, for He will overcome all our resistance to Him. He makes us willing to come because He is sovereign even over our salvation.
Coram Deo: The response of the Pharisees and the chief priests to Jesus is a powerful reminder that intellectual knowledge is not enough for salvation. These leaders did not dispute the reality of Jesus’ signs. Instead, they knew the signs and what they meant, but they still refused to follow Jesus. Saving faith requires knowing the truth, but it also requires putting one’s trust in that truth and the One whom it reveals. As we seek to know the truth, let us pray that we would trust what we learn.
In a proximate sense, it’s very important who sits in the White House. But ultimately, the most important matter is not who sits in the White House but who sits over the White House. The one who sits over the White House is the King of kings, the Lord of lords, and our Savior. —R.C. Sproul from Ligonier Ministries
Coram Deo: We have many good reasons to receive the Scriptures as trustworthy: archaeological evidence, sound historicity of the biblical books, the testimony of God’s people, the splendor of the content, and many more. However, we ultimately receive Scripture as the Word of God because the Holy Spirit speaks in and through Jesus to convince us of God’s revelation. If we profess to follow the Truth—Jesus Christ—then we must also follow what He calls the truth—the Bible.
Simply because someone can talk about Christian experience or doctrine doesn’t mean that he has experienced the reality of it in his heart. In fact, those with counterfeit religious experiences are much more prone to talk about them because they are motivated by spiritual pride and ambition, by a desire to be seen and known. —Sean Michael Lucas in February's Tabletalk Magazine
Coram Deo: Jesus may use our difficulties to prune us and make us more fruitful. They also reveal those branches that were never really grafted into the vine, for under hardship, these branches will wither and die. But the faith of the true branches grows stronger under pressure. While we may not be happy about the trials in themselves, we can rejoice that God makes us more fruitful through them. How is God pruning you this day, and what kind of fruit are you yielding?
There is no question that the call of the gospel is to believe in Jesus Christ, which is why our preaching must regularly call people to faith. But if our preaching stops there without ever calling people to repentance, it is dangerously close to presenting a half-truth as though it were the whole truth. —Guy Richard in Tabletalk Magazine
What is it that makes the life of faith so good? It is not the absence of conflict but the knowledge that God is ours and we are His. It is the knowledge that though He calls us to obey, He has accepted His Son’s obedience in place of our failure, making us perfectly acceptable in His sight. —Joe Thorn in February's Tabletalk Magazine
Coram Deo: Many people think that they are truly free when they can do whatever they want to do—even sin. Yet Scripture repeatedly tells us that true freedom is found in desiring and being able to do what is pleasing to God. Only those who abide in the teaching of Jesus—who rest on Him by faith alone and follow Him—have the freedom needed to love and do what the Lord commands. Let us pray for our friends and family who are slaves to sin that God would grant them true freedom in Christ.
No comments:
Post a Comment