Coram Deo (March 2017)

It sometimes seems easier to live as if God really isn’t there, to go about our days without reflecting on His authority and that we’re called to live all of life coram Deo, before His face. But if we forget Him, we’ll forget who we are. We are His people, and we are called to stand firm against the creeping darkness of secularism, declaring to our hearts, our homes, our churches, and our nation that the Lord God Almighty has authority over all and that, unwaveringly, in God we trust. —Burk Parsons in March's Tabletalk Magazine

Coram Deo: Genesis 3 tells us that not long after creation, the sin of Adam and Eve plunged the good created order into a state of disarray. Nevertheless, our fallen creation was created very good by our Creator, and God will restore it fully when Christ returns to consummate His kingdom. God made the physical world for our enjoyment, so we should not be afraid to enjoy it appropriately.

A holy God is both just and merciful. He is never unjust. —R.C. Sproul

Coram Deo: Martin Luther writes in his Large Catechism that whatever “is in heaven and upon the earth, is daily given, preserved, and kept for us by God”; thus, “it is our duty to love, praise, and thank Him for it without ceasing.” Knowing that God preserves all things, even our very existence, should motivate us to a life of thankfulness. We should seek to be continually grateful to God for all that He has given to us. Without Him, we would have nothing.

We’re bondservants to God. We’re slaves of Jesus Christ. So, even if the rest of the world is running on the track of anti-authority and anti-submissiveness, we aren’t allowed to join in. We’re called to be scrupulous to maintain order. There is such a thing as law and order that God Himself has ordained in the universe. —R.C. Sproul in March's Tabletalk Magazine

Coram Deo: Many people rail against the Lord, believing that they deserve a better life than the one they have received. God’s common grace, however, reminds us that as creatures we are undeserving even of our very existence. May that lead us to a more sober reflection on who we are and to greater humility when we approach our Maker in prayer.

Coram Deo: Knowing that God sovereignly determines even “random” events should give us pause. The unexpected flat tire that delays us on the way to work is not unexpected from God’s perspective. Who knows? Perhaps God ordained the flat tire so that we would miss getting into a wreck that we would not have missed had we left earlier. Whatever the reason, we can thank God in the midst of unplanned events because we know He has a good purpose for them.

Coram Deo: Because God is sovereign over His creation and can direct it to whatever ends He desires, we can be confident that He can answer our prayers. Though God in His sovereignty retains the right to say yes or no to us, He is nevertheless able to heal the sick, change hearts, and do other things that we pray for. If we are confident in God’s sovereignty, we will be confident in our prayers.

In these smotheringly secular days in which we live, our best recourse for combating secularism in the church is to sing, pray, read, and teach the Word of God. As Thomas Chalmers has written, “The Bible is the Magna Carta of our liberty; when it is neglected, it is not merely its morality that is jeopardized; it is not merely its virtue that is undermined; indeed, all the good it has wrought is thereby despised.” Therefore, as he exhorted, “Let us be quick to be in the way of grace.” —George Grant in March's Tabletalk Magazine

Coram Deo: We cannot know in advance what God has decreed, but we do know the conditions for blessing and cursing He has revealed in His Word. We should pay heed to those conditions, knowing that if we trust in Him, we will be blessed forever, but if we reject Him, we will be cast out of His gracious presence for eternity.

Coram Deo: The doctrine of concurrence tells us that both God and human beings make things happen according to their respective places in God’s decree. The actions of both parties are essential in their prescribed way. This means that we cannot be fatalists and think, “Oh well, it does not matter what we do.” It does matter. Our decisions and actions are vital, and without them, things will not happen.

Coram Deo: Our great God does only what is good, and He is the source of every joy in our lives. Think on some of the greatest joys you have experienced and thank the Lord for bringing them to pass. Remember that He is good to you and eager to bring blessings into your life.

Coram Deo: God is not pleased with evil in and of itself, but He does govern it so as to bring about greater goods. We can be confident, therefore, that the hardest things we endure are not brought our way in vain. God will work in and through them to bring about much ultimate good for us and much final glory for Himself.

Coram Deo: John Calvin writes, “Ignorance of providence is the greatest of all miseries, and the knowledge of it the highest happiness” (Institutes 1.17.11). We have nothing to fear if God ordains and governs whatsoever comes to pass. Our ultimate good will be achieved, and we can trust that even the worst this world has to offer will finally be used to glorify the Lord and benefit us.

Delaying adulthood is not consistent with a biblical vision of life, and for most young Christians, marriage should be a central part of planning for young adulthood and faithfulness to Christ. As husband and wife achieving adulthood together, young Christians serve as a witness of God’s plan and God’s gift before a confused world. —Albert Mohler in March's Tabletalk Magazine

Coram Deo: A universe governed by chance gives us no foundation for science. Without God’s promise to preserve the natural order, we have no reason to be certain that we can make predictions about the past or future. And if we cannot do that, we cannot trust that the results of our experiments can be repeated, making it impossible to test the experiments of others, which is vital to scientific advancement. God’s revelation alone gives us a basis for science.

The credit for your redemption is to be given to God. To God alone is the glory. —R.C. Sproul

Coram Deo: We need both science and theology for a full under-standing of the natural world. For example, God sends the rain, and rain is caused by the accumulation of water in the clouds. Each explanation is true—God is the primary cause of rain according to His sovereign decree, and the clouds produce rain according to their role as secondary causes within God’s plan. Our knowledge is impoverished if we neglect science or theology.

The Roman Catholic Church responded to the Reformation first by condemning its teachings and then by committing itself to a long journey of aggiornamento—an update of its doctrine and practice without altering the theological core, which remains utterly unreformed. —Leonardo De Chirico in March's Tabletalk Magazine

Coram Deo: Many of the supposed conflicts between science and theology would not exist if we would be slower to speak and quicker to learn from other disciplines. Scientists and theologians often end up speaking past one another because they have not taken the time to gain even a basic understanding of each other’s area of study. Let us endeavor not to repeat this error.

Now, suppose someone says, “I have been declared righteous by Christ!” but never pursues or “puts on” this life of righteousness. We would doubt that person’s profession of faith. In the same way, we should doubt the profession of anyone who claims to be a member of Christ’s body but never “puts on” their membership in a local church. Those who love the gospel will love a church, while those who forsake every church effectively forsake the gospel. —Jonathan Leeman in March's Tabletalk Magazine

Coram Deo: Even our Savior used both induction and deduction in His ministry. For example, when arguing with the Sadducees about the resurrection (Matt. 22:23–33), He considered the evidence from the text inductively and then deduced a conclusion from it. To interpret Scripture correctly, we must use both induction and deduction, so it pays for us to have a basic understanding of how these analytical processes work.

The world around us is trying to press us into its mold of thinking the goal of this life is comfort and security. But the Word of God is renewing our minds so that we have very different aspirations from simply a comfortable life with a comfortable retirement. We want to expend ourselves for the gospel until the day we die. We so deeply believe that our heavenly Father is taking care of us and has secured a future for us in which we will gain everything, we just aren’t so concerned about losing out here. —Nancy Guthrie in March's Tabletalk Magazine

Coram Deo: Chance has no power to cause anything; it can only measure the likelihood of a future result based on known conditions. When we speak of chance at all, we must always speak of it under the assumption and recognition that everything is foreordained according to God’s sovereign plan (Eph. 1:11). We do not live in a universe governed by blind fate but by the wisdom and goodness of our Creator.

Coram Deo: The word chance is often used as a stand-in for God in science, as if we are saying, “We do not know what caused this, but whatever it is, it cannot be God.” Thus, using chance to explain away God is both ignorant and arrogant. The depths of God’s workings cannot be discovered in full detail, so many would rather assume He does not exist. But it is more humble to say God is the first, ultimate cause even if we do not fully know how He works all things out.

Conventional wisdom says at least 1,500 pastors hang it up every month. I doubt the situation is that dire. Still, many ministers of the gospel are blue not just on occasional Mondays but constantly. They feel underpaid and overstretched, discouraged if not depressed. They say they no longer hear the music of God’s love. They’ve had their fill of crises, conflicts, and complaints. —Michael Osborne in March's Tabletalk Magazine

Coram Deo: Science helps us understand how the world operates, and one thing that it cannot do is draw conclusions that are logically impossible. If a scientific conclusion is logically impossible, we know it is an erroneous conclusion. When we encounter things we cannot explain, the solution is not to posit an illogical solution but to admit with humility that we do not yet understand fully and to continue studying the phenomena.

Give me the biblical Christ or give me nothing. —R.C. Sproul

Coram Deo: It is logically necessary that God exists. Because anything exists, there must be a first, primary cause of all else, and only the self-existent God of Scripture can fill that role. Only Christianity can offer true, ultimate meaning to people because only Christianity reveals to us the first, primary cause of all things. We are blessed to know this God, who gives life and meaning to His people.

Something nonhuman does not become human or more human by getting older or bigger; whatever is human is human from the beginning, or it can never be human at all. The right to live does not increase with age and size; otherwise, toddlers and adolescents have less right to live than adults. —Randy Alcorn in Tabletalk Magazine