Coram Deo ~

Looking at contemporary culture from a Christian worldview

THIS & THAT: A Gathering of Favorite Articles and Quotes

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– More interesting article links
– Favorite Quotes of the Week

  • Seeing the Christian Disciplines as Bread for Our Souls, not Bribes for God’s Blessing. Bryan Chapell writes “As the New Year begins, many Christians will launch into resolutions that include attempts to improve their walk with God – daily Scripture reading, a more disciplined prayer life, more regular church attendance. One barrier to the resolutions becoming routine is the burden of guilt we needlessly attach to these Christian disciplines.”
  • What is the Prayer of Faith? Sinclair Ferguson writes “In the past century and a half, much has been written and said particularly about “the prayer of faith.” The focus has been on mountain-moving prayer by which we simply “claim” things from God with confidence that we will receive them because we believe that He will give them. But what exactly is the prayer of faith?”
  • Is Sunday Still the First Day of the Week? Trevin Wax writes “On various apps and sites, the calendar has shifted to Monday as the first day of the week. If you want to keep Sunday as Day 1, you can sometimes tailor the calendar to your preference, but the default has changed.”
  • Five Fears of Old Age: Finishing Our Race by Future Grace. John Piper writes “Dear older saint, I need to join you in the fight against the fears of aging, and to do so by faith in future grace. There are five fears that we will likely walk through together. God has given us antidotes for each in his word.”

  • What Devotional Habits and Resources Have Helped Your Christian Growth? At end of the year, Christians often evaluate their Bible reading and devotional habits. From one of the live Ask Ligonier events, Sinclair Ferguson considers several devotional practices that he has found helpful.
  • My Bible Reading Feels Flat – What Can I Do? On this episode of the Ask Pastor John podcast, John Piper responds to the question What if I read my Bible, but I don’t feel anything in my affections that resonates with the worth, the value, the preciousness, the beauty, the pleasures of what those words are supposed to communicate to my soul? Is there anything I can do next, or do I just have to wait until the experience sort of just happens to me at some point in the future?”
  • Can You Share a Lesson from Church History? What lessons can American church history teach us? From one of the live Ask Ligonier events, Stephen Nichols takes us to the 1920s to consider J. Gresham Machen and his courageous defense of the historic Christian faith.
  • How Do I Find the Main Point of a Psalm? On this episode of the Ask Pastor John podcast, John Piper addresses the question “Could you help me to figure out ways to understand large sections of Scripture as a whole, rather than just small chunks disconnected from other parts?”
  • Should Christians Make Bucket Lists? On this episode of the Ask Pastor John podcast, John Piper responds to the question “All my friends have bucket lists, too, for places to see and travel to before they get married and have kids. I’ll admit I’m tempted here, to get all my adventuring in now. It’s not just a retiree temptation. Can you further unpack this point for me? It seems tied to your themes of not wasting our lives and ‘anti-retirement.’ But how do you balance this eternal hope for the next life while taking and enjoying vacations with your family in this life?” 


  • Jesus didn’t suffer on the cross so you would not suffer. He suffered so that when you suffer, you become more like Jesus. Tim Keller
  • Unless we silence sin, sin will silence our consciences. Unless we heed God’s word, the day may come when we despise God’s Son—and then God will have nothing more to say to us. Sinclair Ferguson
  • Sinners are attractive because they are loved; they are not loved because they are attractive. Martin Luther
  • You don’t get to decide to worship. Everyone worships something. The only choice you get is what to worship. Tim Keller
  • God will never bring to mind again the sin of that man who he has pardoned. Charles Spurgeon
  • I am not what I ought to be, I am not what I wish to be, and I am not what I hope to be, but by the grace of God, I am not what I once was. John Newton
  • It is the word of God, the gracious message of Christ, that awakens faith and so prayer – and so that must be the basic shape of our everyday communion with God. Michael Reeves
  • The essence of sin is not that we want bad things but it’s that we want things too badly. Tim Keller
  • Why do bad things happen to good people? That only happened once, and he volunteered. R.C. Sproul Jr.

Author: Bill Pence

I’m Bill Pence – married to my best friend Tammy, a graduate of Covenant Theological Seminary, St. Louis Cardinals and Illinois State University Men’s Basketball fan, formerly a manager at a Fortune 50 organization, and in leadership at my local church for thirty years. I am a life-long learner and have a passion to help people develop, and to use their strengths to their fullest potential. I am an INTJ on Myers-Briggs, 3 on the Enneagram, my top five Strengthsfinder themes are: Belief, Responsibility, Learner, Harmony, and Achiever, and my two StandOut strength roles are Creator and Equalizer. My favorite book is the Bible, with Romans my favorite book of the Bible, and Colossians 3:23 and 2 Corinthians 5:21 being my favorite verses and Romans 8 my favorite chapter of the Bible. Some of my other favorite books are The Holiness of God and Chosen by God by R.C. Sproul, and Don’t Waste Your Life by John Piper. I enjoy music in a variety of genres, including modern hymns and classic rock. My books Called to Lead: Living and Leading for Jesus in the Workplace, A Leader Worth Following: 40 Key Leadership Attributes and Applications to Master, and Tammy’s book Study, Savor and Share Scripture: Becoming What We Behold are available in paperback and Kindle editions on Amazon. Go to amazon.com/author/billpence or amazon.com/author/tammypence

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