The term "tabletalk" is generally used to describe small talk among friends and associates which sometimes become published perhaps by a member of the table. Martin Luther's tabletalks, collected by some of his beer drinking buddies as they chatted about theological issues and events of the day.

Tentmaker Tabletalk is a collection of thoughts from Gary Amirault, founder of Tentmaker Ministries, that came about through conversing with folks or just meditating or reflecting in front of the keyboard. Just short little snippets of words he didn't want to let go of without putting them into print.

December 29, 2006

We sit glued to the television whenever a small person rises up and kills a handful of people at a school or shopping mall. Yet every day all around the world greedy little men and women sit behind big desks making decisions that will topple governments, redistribute natural resources, displace peoples by the hundreds of thousands, kill men, women and children simply to increase the size of their Swiss bank accounts which will be passed onto their kids so they can do the same thing -- and we don't speak a word of protest. We are horrified by the Jeffrey Damers of the world, yet glibbly eat our pizzas as we read or hear people like Madelaine Albright when asked whether the killing of hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqi children through the embargo against Saddam Hussain was worth it replied, "We think the price is worth it." We watch as millions of innocent people go to their early graves from massive bombs dropped electronically from miles away so we don't have to see them people vaporize right before our eyes sent by billionaires and their hirelings -- and we either remain silent or join the parade. And while doing this we claim to believe in a God of justice who will one day judge our thoughts and actions. Open your mouth and say to yourself, "Enough!" That's a good place to start.

October 10, 2006

One person enters a medieval cathedral admiring how the art and architecture that created an atmosphere centering heavenward. Another person reflects on how many thousands of peasants lived a miserable life because their labor and finances, their whole life, went into a building for Princes and Priests who had little regard for the lives of their subjects. Which person was closer to heaven -- the one admiring stones or the one seeing the true cost of the building measured in souls of men?