Posts with the category “gospel-motivation”

The Screwtape Letters was unlike any book I’d ever read, a collection of fictional letters between two devils named Screwtape and Wormwood. In these letters, Screwtape, the older and more experienced ...  Read More

Gratitude marks the life of a Christian. If grateful is what we are called to be, how should we express it in our lives? More than just saying the right words, what does God want to teach us about gra...  Read More

If you’ve been at Cornerstone for very long you’ve probably heard us talk about The Discipleship Pathway. Born out of a desire to help bring simplicity and order to the principles of our faith, The Di...  Read More

As we've walked through some of the famous Old Testament stories in our summer sermon series at Cornerstone, I am struck by the power of story to help us better understand God and ourselves. And the m...  Read More

One of the most curious effects that traveling to another country can have on us is the illumination the time away brings to deeply embedded cultural mindsets we’ve developed in our current country of...  Read More

About a decade ago, I read up on the descriptions of introverts and extroverts and exhaled a big sigh of relief. I finally had some concrete understanding and descriptions of why I as an introvert wou...  Read More

As someone who grew up in a Christian home yet had never gone to a Good Friday service, the idea of celebrating that particular holy day seemed foreign to me - more like an extra day for the Catholics...  Read More

To most people the American war in Vietnam comes off as a huge mess.It was ‘my’ war since I came of age in the 60’s and 70’s. In my sophomore year in college I was drafted. I spent a month of sleeples...  Read More

I have so appreciated the Sunday dramatizations at Cornerstone and the literary pieces on the blog during this Lenten season. They’ve reminded me to read my Bible not only with a critical mind, but wi...  Read More

"Life can seem more deeply disappointing as you accumulate years and experiences...Yet all of us, at every age, struggle with how life isn't working." "Autumn is really the best of seasons; and I'm no...  Read More

“Christian, you have been justified by the blood of Christ, and are therefore free from the crushing burden of having to justify yourself through your performance.”    In the movie “Chariots of Fire”,...  Read More

“The Bible has always used light and darkness, blindness and sight, as metaphors for our spiritual understanding. Salvation is a matter of God opening blind eyes by shining light into the darkness. Sp...  Read More

“Through the ups and downs of life I pray that the constant reality for you is your experience of the love of God.”    In conjunction with our “Letters to a Healthy Church” sermon series, each pastor ...  Read More

"Jesus gives us clothes of salvation and righteousness that we can't earn, can't buy, and can't find here on the earth."    When I was a kid, I had a children's book that told the story of The Emperor...  Read More

“It is an inescapable conclusion that God made Cornerstone. And he made it good. And I am happy.”In conjunction with our “Letters to a Healthy Church” sermon series, each pastor has written a letter t...  Read More

“The historic Christian position is that man’s dilemma has a moral cause. God, being nondetermined, created man as a nondetermined person. This is a difficult idea for anyone thinking in twentieth-cen...  Read More

In conjunction with our “Letters to a Healthy Church” sermon series, each pastor has written a letter to Cornerstone in a similar style to Paul's pastoral letters.  We pray they will be a blessing and...  Read More

“The topic of workplace ethics necessarily covers more than just the way in which we treat the people that we work with, but our entire goal in what we are trying to accomplish and the way in which we...  Read More

“No matter what the world says, you don’t need to find another person to complete you, for you are made complete in Christ.”    When I asked Scott Mehl if there was anything he’d like me to write abou...  Read More

If you were a Christian coming of age in the 90s, it’s likely that your most prized CD was DC Talk’s Jesus Freak. You wore that moniker proudly, maybe even had the T-shirt. You didn’t care if they lab...  Read More

"Every child is a blessing, even the ones that are difficult to love."Read part 1, part 2, and part 4.Way back in 1998, when I was first married, there was a little boy named Dustin who lived next doo...  Read More

"Instead of seeing dichotomies— pro-woman or pro-baby, pro-choice or pro-life—we can see a truly difficult situation with hope. Real hope. Lasting hope. For we know that God found us when we were lost...  Read More

"How can you tell when you are at capacity?"    How can you tell when you are at capacity?These last weeks, I’ve had James 1:2 running through my head: “Count it all joy my brothers, when you meet tri...  Read More

"..what I'm really talking about is the Gospel. There is hope and healing here for those who find themselves in any unplanned situation..."These last few weeks have been disturbing for me, to say the ...  Read More

Last week I wrote about modesty and its relation to 1 Peter 3:3-4:“Do not let your adorning be external—the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry, or the clothing you wear—but let your a...  Read More

Here’s a confession—I buy a lot more books than I read. Don’t tell on me, OK? It’ll be our secret. But I had to teach myself to do this. My family of origin didn’t have much money, and so each book ha...  Read More

Before dinner my kids must wash their hands. Typically before we eat they are outside, digging in dirt, climbing trees, bouncing balls and climbing on rails, such that by the time they get upstairs th...  Read More

"Despite a remarkable amount of discipline and self-control, the Bible [will] always point out sins [we] miss."    Martin Luther became a monk to rid himself of sin and dedicate himself to pleasing Go...  Read More

"Near the center of the reformation was this issue: how are we made right in the eyes of God?  In other words, how are we justified before God?"When Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the door of a...  Read More

"Emotions are produced when our heart loves God above all else, and emotions are produced when our hearts love ourselves above all else."In my last post, God And Our Emotions, I discussed our identity...  Read More

"As an emotional being, God created us as emotional beings that we might know him, connect with him, and bear his beautiful and glorious image."    To feel strong emotions is to be human. Love, joy, s...  Read More

"We ought to be careful to not withhold baptism from children who are convicted of the call to be baptized and desire to be obedient to Christ."    My kids have repeatedly seen baptisms take place dur...  Read More

"The character of God can anchor us as we navigate anything that comes our way, but we must choose to believe in who He is. Too often we are distracted by all that surrounds us and we lose sight of th...  Read More

“... the Bible points us to something beyond partial enjoyment and tentative hope. Scripture points us forward, to a day when things really will change...”    In a previous post, I mentioned that New ...  Read More