Posts with the tag “brian-colmery”

In our last post, we saw that the ascension is actually the culmination of Jesus’ life and ministry. Because of the ascension, at this moment Jesus speaks, intercedes, and rules from heaven as our per...  Read More

Reading about Jesus' ascension feels like hearing someone recount a strange dream. But the gospel writers, the apostles, and the early church saw the ascension as a central part of the life and minist...  Read More

At Cornerstone we are holding two book discussion groups this summer. We hope you come and enjoy the blessing of books in community with us this summer…...  Read More

Ask Christians in the West about Christian holidays, and they typically come up with two: Christmas and Easter. Now these are rather big ones. The birth of Christ and the resurrection of Christ are ex...  Read More

We were unaware, when we named our church Cornerstone, that it was the most common church name in the United States. It’s rather ironic, since the story of Cornerstone is not very common at all. And i...  Read More

From the printing press to the smart phone, every technological innovation is built to give us time. We used to have to wash clothes by hand, but now washing machines give us back those hours. We used...  Read More

Parenting can be isolating. Which is surprising, given that parenting by definition increases the number of humans who hang out with you all the time. The reasons are varied: for example, new babies r...  Read More

All humans know that eternity is coming. A lot of us do our best to forget it. It can be disorienting to think about the fact that we will die and the universe will keep on going. Eternity is a long t...  Read More

I sort of assumed that you’d have to do something pretty extreme to tear your achilles tendon. Apparently hopping up and down in excitement over a friend’s good news is more than enough to hobble you ...  Read More

“While not everyone should know all our business, someone should.”When it comes to social situations, it’s common knowledge that you really shouldn’t bring up religion or politics. They make people un...  Read More

“Embedded in your routines, your everyday drumbeat, is something real and true and worth enjoying.”    The pace of life in the city can drum the life right out of you. There’s a background noise of pe...  Read More

“Let me encourage you that this conference is for you (and not in the way that you think).”Cornerstone is offering an evening conference called “Redeeming Singleness.” It’s at this point that most sin...  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

“It’s true that some people can’t ‘do that’ themselves—if by ‘that’ they mean take in a child in their current season of life. But orphan care is much larger than taking in a child. If by ‘that’ we me...  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

Thousands of years of human history involved looking forward to a promised messiah who would make things right in the world. Living on the other side of the incarnation, it can be easy for us to forge...  Read More

“Our evangelical history—especially our recent history, over the last century—has often shaped the way we treat our Bible, and the way we over- or under-react [to gray areas] in our Christian lives. W...  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

You’d think a friend would be someone that doesn’t stab you in the back.  Oscar Wilde, a playwright from the last generation, disagrees.  True, a friend does not stab you in the back.  But a friend is...  Read More

If anyone should know how to disagree well, it’s Christians.  In his three years of public ministry, Jesus disagreed with pretty much everybody at some point.  Yet he did it in such a way that he neve...  Read More

Rene Descartes, a seventeenth century philosopher, spent a lot of time thinking about "the problem of error." If God is perfect and good and makes things that work well and are true (which he establis...  Read More

By focusing in on what wasn’t there to celebrate, we create space for a true and deep celebration on what was in a manger on Christmas Day....  Read More

One of the keys to the Christian life is the moment-by-moment ability to redirect our thoughts to what is most true and most important and most beautiful: the God who made us and saved us....  Read More

During Advent, we remember that our hope is still to come — and that God is faithful to his promise. As the weeks of Advent pass, we feel our need for Jesus....  Read More

“I’ve noticed that, for someone who prepares and delivers sermons regularly, I’m really bad at listening to them myself.”    When you’ve been a Christian for ten years and faithfully attended your loc...  Read More

"The path to deep change in real life isn't paved with your good intentions, your willpower, or your knowledge base...Your hope is not in your own strength... it is God who fixes things."Read part 1, ...  Read More

"Any sexual sin in your life is often about much deeper desires.  Focusing on the heart, by the power of the Holy Spirit, produces the kind of change that goes all the way down."    Read part 1, part ...  Read More

“The act of sexual immorality is the tip of the iceberg of our sin. And to properly deal with it, we have to aim deep. We’ll look at three levels of sexual immorality in the fight against pornography....  Read More

“The Bible is clear that sexuality is not just good, but also sacred.”    Read part 1 here.When I was in high school, I had an experience common to many young Christians: the “purity talk” at youth gr...  Read More

“We have to take our blinders off. We have to see pornography for what it is: devastating, painful, and sinful.”    If you are reading this, you have a pornography problem. You might be a woman who ha...  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

"Theology is learning the ways of God for the purpose of intimacy with God."    “Theology” means different things to different people. To some Christians, theology turns faith into a cold, lifeless se...  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

"Singing is part of our enjoyment and embracing of a holy, loving God who sent His Son to die on our behalf."    One of the strangest things that Christians do is get together in the same room and sin...  Read More

"Keeping a system for your prayer requests is not just a way to feel organized, it's a way to encourage your own heart as you see God answering prayers and changing lives."    Have you ever told someo...  Read More

"If God has a wonderful plan for my life...why doesn't he tell me what it is?"    "If God has a wonderful plan for my life...why doesn't he tell me what it is?" So begins the second chapter in Kevin D...  Read More

"Cultivate a heart that chooses and waits expectantly for delight."From Augustine to DC Talk, Christians have long been advocates of the idea that love (or "luv", as TobyMac would have it) is a verb. ...  Read More