1 Corinthians 3:1-4Amplified Bible
Foundations for Living
3 However, brothers and sisters, I could not talk to you as to spiritual people, but [only] as to [a]worldly people [dominated by human nature], mere infants [in the new life] in Christ! 2 I fed you with milk, not solid food; for you were not yet able to receive it. Even now you are still not ready. 3 You are still [b]worldly [controlled by ordinary impulses, the sinful capacity]. For as long as there is jealousy and strife and discord among you, are you not [c]unspiritual, and are you not walking like ordinary men [unchanged by faith]? 4 For when one of you says, “I am [a disciple] of Paul,” and another, “I am [a disciple] of Apollos,” are you not [proving yourselves unchanged, just] ordinary people?
The Word of God for the Children of God.
Adeste Fidelis! Venite Adoremus! Dominum
Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.
I remember very vividly those moments in my young life when Mama standing in front of me, her hands poised on her hips, her eyes glaring with hot coals of fire and saying in no nonsense tones, “Just what is the big idea, young man?”
Instinctively I definitely knew that my mother was not asking me an abstract question about any theory outside of her own regarding right versus wrong.
Her question was not a question at all—it was a thinly veiled, soul piercing, “wait until your father gets home” accusation.
Her words were easily translated to mean,
“Why are you doing what you are doing?”
She was challenging me to justify my behavior with a valid idea.
Obviously, I had none – and knew better than to even try and offer one.
Some years ago, several “friends” asked myself and a whole “likeminded” group of “interested Christian’s” – in all earnestness – essentially the exact same question with the same exact intensity and purpose of the stare.
It was just the beginning of the New Year ….
They asked, “What’s the big idea of the Christian life anyway?”
They were interested in the overarching, ultimate goal of the Christian life.
To answer his question,
In my lay person’s mind, several thoughts came to the forefront as I just “watched” this group of people espouse their individual thoughts and those of their friends and their Pastors.
I fell back onto the theologian’s prerogative and gave them a Latin term I had just encountered, but not yet began to understand, in my own personal studies.
I said, to myself and to “them” as I read the Facebook conversation unfold:
From my own “youthful” Christian experience, I commented back to them;
“The big idea of the Christian life is Coram Deo – Life in our Savior Christ Jesus.
Coram Deo captures the essence of the Christian life.”
It was not long before that group of “like-minded Christians” had me banned entirely from commenting or posting any further – clearly, I got someone mad.
Clearly, I got a whole bunch of somebodies mad, offended a whole lot of souls.
In all likelihood, I offended people with what they perceived as “my hypocrisy.”
Clearly they were not going to give me any chance of redemption, were not the least bit interested in offering me mercy or forgiveness so to God be the Glory!
Over the intervening years of independent study of the scriptures and also the writing of these devotions, and an abundantly fervent effort at my prayer life,
I have since learned more about “Coram Deo”
It is nowhere near a thorough understanding because it is such a broad term.
It will mean different things to different people based on their experiences.
If you are reading this and you have been academically trained, and educated through Seminary or Schools of Theology and also have your degrees and your ordinations in hand – you will obviously have a higher understanding than I do.
Please feel free to enlighten me further on my “understanding” of this matter if my own “uninformed” and “uneducated” efforts at explaining it here fall a bit short.
What I have “discovered” is briefly this ….
This phrase literally refers to something that takes place in the presence of, or before the face of, God.
To live Coram Deo is to live one’s entire life in the presence of God, under the authority of God, to the glory of God.
To live in the presence of God is to understand that whatever we are doing and wherever we are doing it, we are all acting under the all judging gaze of God.
God is omnipresent.
There is no place so remote, so invisible to the naked eye of human kind, that we can escape His penetrating gaze. (Psalm 139:1-13)
To be aware of the presence of God is also to be acutely aware of His complete sovereignty.
The uniform experience of the saints is to recognize that if God is God, then He is indeed sovereign.
When Saul was suddenly confronted by the full refulgent glory of the risen Christ on the road to Damascus, his immediate question, “Who Are You, Lord?”
He wasn’t the least bit sure who was suddenly speaking to him, but he knew that whomever it was, was abundantly and certainly far sovereign over him.
Our Living under divine sovereignty involves more than a reluctant submission to sheer sovereignty which is suddenly motivated out of a fear of punishment.
It involves recognizing that there is no higher goal than offering honor to God.
Our lives, in that very instant of being in the Presence of our Savior are to be, become living sacrifices, oblations offered in a spirit of adoration and gratitude.
To live all of life Coram Deo is to live a life of integrity.
It is a life of wholeness that finds its unity and coherency in the majesty of God.
A fragmented life is a life of disintegration.
It is marked by inconsistency, disharmony, division, divisiveness, disunity, confusion, conflict, contradiction, spiritual immaturity, hypocrisy and chaos.
The Christian who compartmentalizes his or her life into two sections of the religious and the nonreligious has failed to grasp the big idea.
The big idea is that either all of our life is religious or none of life is religious.
To divide life between the religious and the nonreligious is itself a sacrilege.
I believe this means that if a person fulfills his or her vocation as a steelmaker, attorney, or laborer or homemaker Coram Deo, then that person is acting every bit as religiously as a soul-winning evangelist who lives to fulfill his vocation.
It means that David was as religious when he obeyed God’s call to be a shepherd and Warrior as he was when he was anointed with the special grace of kingship.
It means that Jesus was every bit as religious when He worked in His father’s carpenter shop, ministered to people, as He was in the Garden of Gethsemane.
There is much truth in our making the statement that integrity and maturity is found where men and women try to live their lives in a pattern of consistency.
It is a pattern that functions the same basic way in church and out of church.
It is a life that is open before God.
It is a life in which all that is done is done as “unto the Lord.”
It is a life lived by principle, not personality or expediency; by humility before God, obedience to the covenant precepts of God not prideful, blatant defiance.
A life lived under the tutelage of conscience, imprisoned by the Word of God.
Coram Deo . . . before the face of God. That’s the big idea. Next to this idea our other goals and ambitions become mere trifles.
Life lived fully, completely, abundantly in the presence of Savior Jesus Christ!
We are each “Sermons in Our Shoes” ….
Do you know, Oh Christian, you’re a sermon in shoes?
Do you know, Oh Christian, you’re a sermon in shoes?
Jesus calls upon you, to spread the gospel news,
(1) So walk it, and talk it, a sermon in shoes.
(2) Live it, and give it, a sermon in shoes.
(3) Teach it, and preach it, a sermon in shoes.
(4) Know it, and show it, a sermon in shoes.
(Ruth Harms Calkin)
A “Coram Deo” reminder courtesy of the Holy Spirit, that where ever a Christian walks, whenever he or she talks, is expected to share the Gospel news to others.
Whether it be by one’s actions, attitudes, or personal testimony,
Coram Deo – by their baptism, a Christian is always “A Sermon In Shoes.”
Again and again as it is necessary in our immaturity to repeat it It goes along with something American evangelist Dwight L. Moody (1837-1899) once said:
“The preaching that this world most needs most is the sermons in shoes that are walking and talking with Jesus Christ.”
Coram Deo . . . in the presence and under the max authority of Jehovah God ….
Coram Deo … looking square into His eyes and lived before the face of God.
That’s the big idea.
Next to this idea all of our other goals and ambitions become mere trifles.
So, from within your own life experiences what is your understanding of;
“Coram Deo ….”
Is it what you “thought it was?”
Is it where you believed it was?
Be it RESOLVED then, this is what needs to be addressed to make it RIGHT …
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Let us Pray,
THE COVENANT PRAYER IN THE WESLEYAN TRADITION ….
“I am no longer my own, but thine.
Put me to what thou wilt, rank me with whom thou wilt.
Put me to doing, put me to suffering.
Let me be employed by thee or laid aside for thee,
exalted for thee or brought low for thee.
Let me be full, let me be empty.
Let me have all things, let me have nothing.
I freely and heartily yield all things
to thy pleasure and disposal.
And now, O glorious and blessed God,
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
thou art mine, and I am thine. So be it.
And the covenant which I have made on earth,
let it be ratified in heaven. Amen.”
Adeste Fidelis! Venite Adoremus! Dominum
Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.
Loving God, Living God, Loving Hope, Living Hope, Loving Living Life His Way! "Many things are possible for the person who has hope. Even more is possible for the person who has faith. And still more is possible for the person who knows how to love. But everything is possible for the person who practices all three virtues." - Brother Lawrence (1605-1691), Practicing the Presence of God (1692). 