#coram deo

[hollers-and-holmes]

I’ll try and read some of the stories in the #salt and light tag over the next few days to recommend and blurb here on tumblr. Good work tagging, everyone! Already close to a hundred stories on A03 with our tag!

[mybeautifulchristianjourney]

Unfortunately, many people think that patience is most predominately demonstrated by someone who has an easy going, laid-back attitude. But, on the contrary, patience is not some passive nuance of someone’s character; it is an active, exhibited virtue. It is a virtue of trust. To exercise trust implies that we are trusting in someone greater than ourselves. It is no wonder the world is so impatient. Those who do not know God can only trust in themselves, for there is no one greater in whom they can place their trust. Their confidence is self-confidence, their esteem is self-esteem, and their reliance is self-reliance… If we trust in ourselves, then we are a hopeless people. But we are the people of God who place our trust in the sovereign Creator and Sustainer of all things.  Indeed, we do not know patience apart from Him; we are patient precisely because He is patient toward us, enduring with us to the very end. Therefore, we live coram Deo, for in Him we live, move, and have our being, and in Him our patience is perfected.

Burk Parsons

[faeriefully]

Good After morning Miss Faerie :) how are you? I hope you're having a good day :)

I know your description says Corem Deo (or something like that.) What does it mean?

Hi! ☀️ I got to go to a bookstore after Bible study today so that was nice. I also got more yarn!

Coram Deo is a latin phrase that translates to “Before the Face of God”.

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.

— R. C. Sproul • [article]

[dangerously-human]

I'm a little late on posting my celebration this year, though I did celebrate with writing Resurrected Hope. I've been reflecting on this anniversary quite a bit - coinciding with Holy Week had me thinking a lot about hope and resurrection and life conquering death and how our stories are echoes of The Story - and I ended up focusing on a slightly different angle of this part of my own history.

Thirteen years ago, I was the most suicidal I've ever been. I don't tend to talk about that part as much, because there's no nice neat bow to tie on it the way there is with the cutting - there wasn't a habit to quit, and it wasn't the last time, by a long shot. I knew the how and I was pretty much decided on the when. So you've got a pretty good idea of where my head was at, at the time.

I forget, often, that I got baptized around this time, too. I was born into a Christian tradition that believes in infant baptism, so I was sprinkled as a baby, but as a teenager actually studying the Bible for myself, digging into theology more, I decided that didn't sit right with me, and I should take the step of obedience on my own as a reflection of the spiritual rebirth and renewal I'd experienced years prior through the work of the Holy Spirit. My dad recently told me that was a time he heard most directly from God, praying for wisdom after I asked what he thought I should do: God told him to tell me to do it, basically. Increasingly, when I have the opportunity to share my testimony, that's a piece I mention, that even in the midst of the darkest season of my life, God was still working, and I was still growing, even though I didn't feel the faith he'd gifted me with.

But it wasn't just "around the same time." I'd forgotten, but it was two days later. I didn't really know at the time, but I cut myself for the last time, and then I was baptized into the fullness of belonging that comes from walking in the Way. Renewal. Rebirth. None of it the narrative I had planned, but the one my Maker ordained before time began.

That wasn't the end, for better or worse. Getting dunked in some water didn't magically take away the depression I pled with God for years to take from me. I still spent a lot of my teens and early twenties wanting to die. But on the self-injury front, at least, by the grace of God, I never went back, even when the temptation was very, very loud. And I am being constantly remade as a new creation in Christ - my identity in him is irrevocably sealed.

Partly because of what I've been studying in the Bible recently (especially Psalms), and partly because of my special interest in Lockwood & Co, I've been thinking a lot lately about the victory of life over death, and the way breaking the grip of depression is a picture of that. Celebrating Easter last week was a powerful reminder: Jesus submitted to the grave in order to put it under his feet. I remember last spring, just when I'd gotten to the climax of The Empty Grave, I had to put the book down to head out for a Coram Deo prayer and worship night at church; perhaps unsurprisingly, I was struck by the thought that night that my God has stolen me back from death many times over. Once when he pulled me out of the muck of my own sin; again when he said, "Not this time. That's not the way it's going to be" and pulled me back from the grave I was determined to throw myself in. However worthless I considered my own life (the last lie I wrote on my skin), God saw it as precious, worth redeeming, because he made it and claimed it - and this morning, taking Communion, that's what I repeated through tears: "It's yours, it's all yours." That's why I spend this time reflecting and remembering each year, in gratitude for the light that entered the darkness and made me new.

[grandpasessions]

God can be closest to us, (and there is no greater proximity than that to which Christology bears) even though the senses known him only as an absence. Man can encounter God, exist in the presence of God [coram Deo], with out requiring him to grant us the fruition of his presence. The affective experience of God therefore loses all right to verify or falsify the relation between man and God.

In the above, Lacoste suggests that our conscious affective understanding does not solely define our relation to God, and human experiences of joy or sorrow do not bind it. He argues that divine proximity was not diminished even in the depths of Jesus’ suffering on the cross. He concludes that the emotional experience of God—the affective—neither verifies nor disproves the existence of the divine-human relationship.

Lacoste’s theory implies a depth of divine interaction that transcends our typical phenomenological experiences, hinting at a more intricate, less universally defined understanding of man’s relation to God. Likewise, a Lacanian-Juanist interpretation of spiritual direction teaches us that human desire is mostly un-experienced and found in unexpected places. God is found at points of rupture in the meaning-making ability of the ego. Moreover, the place where desire ‘resides’ changes the very nature of desire as we conceive it.

One of Lacan’s radical discoveries was in his positing that the signified slides under the signifier. This entails that the apparent depth of the self and the uniqueness of how we think and feel is shaped by something as contingent and paltry as the mere sounds of words echoing and connecting with other words in our psyche rather than being reducible to their meaning and content. The unconscious is not so much deep as it is inaccessible.

It is difficult to listen for these sounds, slips, repetition, slurs, and rhythms of speech. Because of this, the depth of the self becomes disenchanted in its unbearable lightness. Psychoanalysis and Juanist spiritual direction start from the difficult premise that we trade the imaginary scarcity of profundity for the symbolic excess of triviality. We choose the signifier instead of the signified. So, the Lacanian listens for these phonetic sounds without always understanding.

The Direction of Desire Mark Gerard Murphy

[torivincentmusic]

Coram Deo

Before the face of God

#priest #nun #catholicism #clerical

[star444xo]

With all ego absolved, allow me to preface my following words by stating: these are observations and connections I have made and have only started to fully experience curiosity behind recently.

I think I’m an angel sent to do Coram Deo on earth.

1. My name is Heaven

2. I was born in hospital building number 7777

3. My mother’s name is Danyel (female version of Daniel. El = God. ELohim. MichaEL. GabriEL. DaniEL. BarachiEL. Etc.)

4. My fathers name is Deo (Coram Deo)

5. My birthday is 7.8.96 (eerily chronological minus the 6) 8 = Resurrection/New beginnings . The sabbath ends of the 8th day. Jesus resurrected on the 8th day.

6. I have met other people with names from the Bible. I have met Genesis, Peter, Filemon, Rachel, Simeon/Simon (my bffs last name is Simon), Noah, Daniel, Keturah, David, Israel, Gabriel, my brother Zion (spelled Tzion) etc.

7. I’ve learned that divination tools are a sin to use and thus therefore I don’t mess with them anymore, however in the past I did my own Gematria numerology and found that I was linked to Fallen Angel.

…..So…

Are all Fallen Angels bad? I was definitely in a fallen state before my recent pivot and undergoing transformation. I feel like I’m working through life trial and tribulating for the sake of getting my wings back.

Heaven Naijjah Sullivan

The equilibrium (Naijjah) between Holy (Heaven) and Nefarious (O’Sullivan orig. turned to Sullivan over generational time)

Born 9:22 am.. Master number 22. Master Architect (of what?)

Capricorn Neptune/Jupiter - interests in the occult (not interested in cults but definitely religion and spirituality /connectivity with God)

I’ve met a lot of people in my lifetime with Biblical names and it always stands out to me. Some I just learned had biblical backgrounds like Keturah. (She was a manager I had back in 2016.)

The church I grew up at is called Bethel’s Pl. (Beth-El in the Bible.) never knew where they got that name from until now. The church name doesn’t really astound me as many churches name themselves off of things in the Bible but the fact my first real church experience happened at a church named “The House of God”.

[christophe76460]

Série Ligonier intitulée : "Les paroles difficiles de Jésus".

La clarté des Écritures 1/17

L’une des parties les plus importantes mais souvent les plus négligées de notre culte à la Saint Andrew’s Chapel est la prière d’illumination. Dans notre liturgie, la prière d’illumination se situe entre la lecture de l’Écriture et le sermon. Dans notre prière, nous demandons humblement à Dieu d’illuminer Sa Parole par l’Esprit Saint afin que nous puissions entendre, comprendre et appliquer ce que le Seigneur nous dit dans Sa Parole. La raison pour laquelle c’est l’un des éléments les plus importants de notre service est que nous avons désespérément besoin de l’Esprit Saint pour nous aider à comprendre Sa Parole. La raison pour laquelle c’est peut-être la partie la plus négligée de notre culte est que nous oublions trop facilement combien nous dépendons de l’Esprit Saint pour nous aider à saisir les vérités glorieuses de la Parole sacrée de Dieu.

Lorsque nous disons que nous croyons en la perspicuité des Écritures, les gens ont parfois l’impression erronée que nous sous-entendons que tout dans les Écritures est entièrement clair et facile à comprendre.

L’Esprit Saint nous habite et nous permet d’interpréter et d’appliquer Sa Parole, et c’est l’Esprit Saint qui nous conduit dans toute vérité. Nous sommes totalement dépendants du Saint-Esprit. Sans Lui, nous ne pouvons rien comprendre de façon juste dans Sa Parole. Nous n’avons pas besoin d’être de grands savants pour comprendre la Parole de Dieu, nous avons simplement besoin d’être nés de nouveau, humbles enfants habités par l’Esprit Saint. Pourtant, même en tant que croyants, nous savons que tout n’est pas facile à comprendre dans les Écritures.

En théologie, nous parlons de la perspicuité de l’Écriture.

Le mot perspicuité, en termes simples, signifie "clarté".

Curieusement, le mot perspicuité est l’un des mots les moins clairs que nous pourrions utiliser pour parler de clarté. De plus, lorsque nous disons que nous croyons en la perspicuité des Écritures, les gens ont parfois l’impression erronée que nous sous-entendons que tout dans les Écritures est entièrement clair et facile à comprendre. Mais ce n’est pas le cas.

Nous le savons par expérience et parce que la Parole de Dieu elle-même nous dit que tout en elle n’est pas facile à comprendre.

La Confession de foi de Westminster (1.7) explique ce que nous croyons quand nous parlons de la perspicacité des Écritures : «Toutes les choses de l’Écriture ne sont pas pareillement claires en elles-mêmes, ni pareillement claires pour tous.»

Pourtant, les choses qu’il faut connaître, croire et observer pour le salut sont si clairement proposées et ouvertes dans un lieu de l’Écriture ou un autre, que non seulement les savants, mais aussi les non-spécialistes, en utilisant comme il se doit les moyens ordinaires, peuvent parvenir à une compréhension suffisante.

En d’autres termes, tout n’est pas facile à comprendre dans les Écritures, mais ce que nous devons comprendre pour être sauvés est clair. Les paroles difficiles de Jésus ne se trouvent pas seulement dans les Évangiles, mais tout au long de l’Écriture, puisque Jésus est l’auteur ultime de l’Écriture comme la Parole éternelle de Dieu.

Fondamentalement, ce qui est si difficile dans les paroles difficiles de Jésus n’est pas de ne pas être capable de les comprendre pleinement, mais de les croire pleinement et à leur obéir totalement. C’est pourquoi nous avons besoin de l’œuvre éclairante de l’Esprit Saint pour nous aider non seulement à comprendre la Parole de Dieu, mais aussi à lui obéir, à l’aimer, à l’appliquer et à la proclamer alors que nous vivons le coram Deo, devant le visage de Dieu pour sa gloire.

Burk Parsons

[leiturasvarias]

A ausência de pecado na Europa (Faculdade de Letras, Outubro de 2024)

[Luis Miguel Militão Guerreiro, Friedrich Nietzsche, Martinho Lutero, Peter Sloterdijk, Flannery O’Connor, Byung-Chul Han, Søren Kierkegaard]

Há uns anos li um livro extraordinário chamado “Morrer na praia do futuro”, escrito por Luis Miguel Militão Guerreiro. Muito resumidamente, Luís Miguel Militão Guerreiro atraiu seis compatriotas portugueses a Fortaleza, capital do estado do Ceará, no nordeste do Brasil, onde morava há pouco tempo, para roubá-los, atacá-los a golpes de pá e a tiro, e enterrá-los, alguns ainda vivos, num bar da Praia do Futuro. Tentou fugir da polícia, mas foi apanhado. Esta história teve muito impacto na imprensa portuguesa no Verão de 2001 mas o 11 de Setembro atirou-a para a pilha das irrelevâncias mediáticas.

O que acredito ser possível concluir a partir do trágico relato deste português que transportou a sua crueldade para um paraíso brasileiro, para aí se tornar o criminoso que em Portugal nunca conseguiu ser? Um português, para ser pecaminosamente eficaz, precisa deixar Portugal. Em Portugal, Luís é um trabalhador frustrado, no Brasil é um criminoso atrevido; em Portugal tem um casamento entediante, no Brasil troca de prostituta todas as semanas; em Portugal não há religião que o valha, no Brasil vê demónios e frequenta igrejas evangélicas. E por aí em diante. Portugal já não sabe pecar.

A minha teoria dificilmente será criativa para alguém que leia um pouco de Nietzsche. “Um grau certamente elevado de educação é atingido, quando o homem vai além de conceitos e temores supersticiosos e religiosos, deixando de acreditar [...] no pecado original, por exemplo, ou não mais se referindo à salvação das almas”, escreveu Friedrich em “Humano, demasiado humano”, de 1878. “Segundo a probabilidade histórica, é bem possível que um dia os homens se tornem geralmente céticos nesse ponto”. O filósofo alemão profetizou mais de cem anos antes a incompetência pecaminosa que Luis Miguel Militão Guerreiro veio a ter na portuguesa cauda da Europa.

Pelo Século XIX e XX confiou-se menos em pecado e salvação. Se quisermos respeitar uma importante linhagem alemã, Peter Sloterdijk, no exigente mas recompensador “Depois de Deus”, escreve que o ser humano deixou de suportar ter um espectador transcendente da sua vida. A invenção no Século XVIII do inconsciente tenta escapar dessa observação demasiado invasiva: Deus ser omnisciente passou a sermos introvertidos. Curiosamente, essa operação de libertação da religião não se fez sem a influência de um grande religioso. Martinho Lutero prolongou uma era de ansiedade, herdeira dos bíblicos Job e Salomão, em que quanto mais “coram deo” se procurava, maior o desamparo.

Sloterdijk explica: “o indivíduo humilhado e instigado pelo absoluto sente-se como o ser que tem uma relação com o desproporcional. Nessas remodelações tem início a aventura da individualização”. A Reforma parte desse espírito de desespero temperado. O que é a contemporânea procura pela autenticidade se não uma espécie de actualização secularizada do necessário arrependimento de que os protestantes sublinhavam precisar sem poder cometer a blasfémia de o tentar produzir? O ego europeu pode ter deixado de acreditar no pecado, mas não deixa de acreditar que precisa de se arrepender dele.

Os problemas de Flannery O’Connor, nos Estados Unidos dos meados do Século XX, eram diferentes. As modernas Américas não são a veneranda Europa. Católica que era no sul ultra-protestante, Flannery não tinha pátria num lugar com déficit de crença no pecado, mas com excesso. Num livro absurdamente lúcido acerca do recreio teológico que o protestantismo sulista americano é, chamado “Wise Blood”, cria uma personagem chamada Hazel Motes. Hazel torna-se um pregador de uma nova crença, coisa típica americana, mas o seu evangelho é distinto: a Igreja sem Cristo. Afinal, “a forma de evitar Jesus era evitar o pecado”.

É muito divertido um protestante ler “Wise Blood” e topar a paródia evidente feita ao protestantismo. Mas Flannery não odiava os protestantes. Com quem ela implicava seriamente era com a moderna falta de fé e era dela que fazia pouco, ainda que a pretexto do seu cenário evangélico sulista. Hazel quando oficializa o início do seu ministério evangelístico acaba, no fundo, a pregar a incapacidade de pecar europeia que hoje me interessa: “para os redimidos nunca há paz. Eu prego a Igreja sem Cristo, a igreja em paz e satisfeita”. O nosso problema europeu actual, na ausência de pecado em que cremos, é o excesso de positividade.

Está dado um salto abrupto para o Velho Continente a pretexto de um sul-coreano que vira filósofo na Alemanha: Byung-Chul Han. A sua tese tem atraído muitos: “a sociedade do Século XXI não é de disciplina mas de conquista (achievement). Somos empreendedores (entrepreneurs) de nós mesmos. Um poder ilimitado (unlimited can) é verbo modal positivo da nossa sociedade”. Mas, paradoxalmente, tanta conquista gera deprimidos e perdedores. “Depressão, hiperatividade e síndrome de burnout apontam para o excesso de positividade: o nosso ego sobreaquece, com excesso de si mesmo”. Talvez precisemos de reabilitar algum tipo de negatividade, afinal.

O que tenho pregado é irremediavelmente marcado pela paixão adolescente que nunca interrompi pelo meu querido Søren Kierkegaard. No “Conceito de Angústia” o dinamarquês sabia que, no fundo, a alegria para que vivemos, de preferência largada de pesos arcaicos morais, é a tristeza que não queremos reconhecer: “a maior parte das pessoas vive sem grande consciência do seu destino espiritual, e daí essa falsa despreocupação, essa falsa satisfação em viver, que é o próprio desespero”. Kierkegaard sabia que a tragédia do não-cristão não começa em ele não ser salvo por Cristo; começa em ele nem sequer se sentir perdido sem ele. A Europa precisa de reaprender a pecar.

Como se faz isso? Prescindindo de uma actividade colectiva. Afinal, “a multidão é falsidade”. Cabe aos cristãos “sermos, vós e eu, pecadores; não é o pecado geral que é sério, mas o acento que recai sobre o pecador, isto é, sobre o indivíduo”. Não termino esta prédica mal disfarçada apelando à malvadez. Se quando havia pecado os cristãos levavam as pessoas das trevas para luz, hoje, em que nos salvámos da salvação, os cristãos precisam de levar as pessoas da luz para as trevas. Cabe ao cristianismo ser o novo espaço anti-catedral. Num mundo de saúde os cristãos precisam de se tornar os novos doentes para quem Jesus veio ser médico.

[mybeautifulchristianjourney]

Create in Me a Clean Heart

9 Hide thy face from my sins, And blot out all mine iniquities. 10 Create in me a clean heart, O God; And renew a right spirit within me. 11 Cast me not away from thy presence; And take not thy holy Spirit from me. 12 Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; And uphold me with a willing spirit. — Psalm 51:9-12 | American Standard Version (ASV) The American Standard Version Bible is in the public domain. Cross References: 2 Kings 13:24; 2 Kings 4:20; Psalm 9:14; Psalm 13:5; Psalm 39:8; Psalm 51:1; Matthew 5:8; Acts 15:9

Read full chapter

Living Coram Deo

[wortzentriert]

How could I do this wicked deed and commit sin in God’s eyes?

Coram Deo in Josef Leben

Genesis 39,9

[dangerously-human]

The thing I couldn't stop thinking about at Coram Deo last week - the thing it feels like has been the resounding theme I've fixated on for the past year, tbh - is that there is so much joy to be found in obedience. The only lasting fulfillment comes with surrender to God's will. True freedom is found within the boundaries of his design, and I will be most truly myself when I look more and more like Jesus.

[sediti0niv]

Including link: https://www.biblegateway.com/

"Et cum aperuisset sigillum septimum, factum est silentium in caelo, quasi media hora.

2 Et vidi septem angelos stantes in conspectu Dei: et datae sunt illis septem tubae.

3 Et alius angelus venit, et stetit ante altare habens thuribulum aureum: et data sunt illi incensa multa, ut daret de orationibus sanctorum omnium super altare aureum, quod est ante thronum Dei.

4 Et ascendit fumus incensorum de orationibus sanctorum de manu angeli coram Deo.

5 Et accepit angelus thuribulum, et implevit illud de igne altaris, et misit in terram: et facta sunt tonitrua, et voces, et fulgura, et terraemotus magnus.

6 Et septem angeli, qui habebant septem tubas, praeparaverunt se ut tuba canerent.

7 Et primus angelus tuba cecinit, et facta est grando, et ignis, mista in sanguine, et missum est in terram, et tertia pars terrae combusta est, et tertia pars arborum concremata est, et omne foenum viride combustum est.

8 Et secundus angelus tuba cecinit: et tamquam mons magnus igne ardens missus est in mare, et facta est tertia pars maris sanguis,

9 et mortua est tertia pars creaturae eorum, quae habebant animas in mari, et tertia pars navium interiit.

10 Et tertius angelus tuba cecinit: et cecidit de caelo stella magna, ardens tamquam facula, et cecidit in tertiam partem fluminum, et in fontes aquarum:

11 et nomen stellae dicitur Absinthium, et facta est tertia pars aquarum in absinthium; et multi hominum mortui sunt de aquis, quia amarae factae sunt.

12 Et quartus angelus tuba cecinit: et percussa est tertia pars solis, et tertia pars lunae, et tertia pars stellarum, ita ut obscuraretur tertia pars eorum, et diei non luceret pars tertia, et noctis similiter.

13 Et vidi, et audivi vocem unius aquilae volantis per medium caeli dicentis voce magna: Vae, vae, vae habitantibus in terra de ceteris vocibus trium angelorum, qui erant tuba canituri."

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Apocalypsis%208&version=VULGATE#:~:text=Et%20cum%20aperuisset,erant%20tuba%20canituri.

[gospelborn]

The Purpose of Education

I recently spoke at a fundraiser for a classical Christian school, Coram Deo Academy. Here is what I said: Here we are at an auction to raise money for a school. You were invited here and are being asked to purchase things at a price higher than what you would normally pay—you were not invited here to be a bargain shopper, but to be excellent in generosity. But money is hard earned, and there…

[thebookchamber]

Christmas Foretold - Christmas Thoughts 2023

Merry Christmas everyone… Christmas Thoughts 2023 We will pick back up in 2024.  See you then. If you would like to download a printer friendly version of this year’s thoughts with a washout watermark background, click here: Christmas Foretold To view previous year’s Christmas thoughts, download here: 2022 For There Was No Room 2021 Deliverance – Coram Deo “The ‘Living’ Presence of God” 2020 Our…