Pastoral Notes for Sunday, September 26, 2021

Dear Cornerstone Family,

Like any healthy organization, your leaders and staff regularly evaluate the ministry of Cornerstone to make sure we’re staying on track with our vision. We ask ourselves questions like, “Are we organizing ministry initiatives that are effectively serving our vision? Are we offering a balanced diet of biblical, theological, and practical content? Are new people coming to know the Lord? Are we nurturing genuine disciples of Christ, and how do we measure that? How can we provide better environments/contexts for learning/growing?”

In asking those questions, and in seeing a great need for discipleship in a number of areas in the body, we’ve decided to heighten our emphasis on Sunday School and freshen our approach. Starting next Sunday (October 3rd) we are launching The Cornerstone School of Discipleship.

Every six to eight weeks, The Cornerstone School of Discipleship will offer two courses of study. One course will be a core class, and the other course will be an elective. The core class is the key biblical- theological subjects we’d like every Cornerstone adult to engage. The elective course will center on a wide variety of timely practical and cultural subjects that need addressing pastorally. We are hoping this one- two punch will help meet the growing need for discipleship in our time.

From October 3 to November 17, the first two classes in The Cornerstone School of Discipleship will be offered. Please take time to read the descriptions below and make plans to join us next week as we commit to growing in grace and the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ together.

The Cornerstone School of Discipleship

  1. Core Class—The Mystery of the Holy Spirit led by Tony Giles (Room 303)

    In this six-week course, your understanding of the Holy Spirit's person and work will deepen as you explore the indispensable ministry of this mysterious and often underappreciated member of the Trinity. R.C. Sproul's The Mystery of the Holy Spirit is a supplemental resource. Available on The Bookshelf for $10.

  2. Elective Class—Pursuing the Joy of a Clear Conscience led by various teachers (Chapel)

    In this six-week course, you will come to appreciate why the Bible emphasizes the importance of a clear conscience, gaining practical instruction in how to train a conscience, how to free a guilty conscience, and how to peaceably work through matters of conscience with those in whom you disagree.

 



Pastoral Notes for Sunday, September 19, 2021

Dear Cornerstone Family,

“At forty years old, the wheels started falling off.” About ten years ago, I heard a good (older) friend make this statement. It sounded like an exaggeration at the time. I know better now.

At 40, I was in an airport standing next to someone who was reading a sign at the other end of the concourse. I thought to myself, “He can see that? He must have amazing eyes!” Turns out his eyes weren’t amazing. He just had glasses. Apparently, I’ll be joining the glasses wearing club before long.

I slightly twisted my ankle last week. It was no big deal. Except for the fact I’m still sore, and it’s taken twice as long as it should to get better. I’m shocked at how easily (and often!) I hurt myself now, and how long it takes to heal up. When I mentioned this concern to a doctor friend, he responded, “Well, you are over forty.” Sigh.

As I get older, I think about my body more. I am more cautious about what I do with it. I’m more attentive about what I put into it (well, some of the time). I’m more aware of its limits and the consequences for not respecting those limits. In short, I’m learning, albeit slowly, to respect my body for what it is and needs—ultimately, redemption.

Because of sin, our fearfully and wonderfully made bodies (Psalm 139:13-14) are plagued with infirmity and doomed to decay (Romans 8:20). Our bones break. Our joints ache. Our skin sags. Our mind slows. Our bodies fail. The older we get, the more we cry, “Who shall deliver me from this body of death?” (Romans 7:24).

Answer? The embodied Jesus Christ.

The body of Jesus Christ is essential to the salvation he came to bring. If he wasn’t really a human being in every way, then he wouldn’t be an adequate representative and substitute for real humans. Further, if he didn’t come in a body, he couldn’t save bodies. As Gregory of Nazianzus taught many centuries ago, “The unassumed is the unhealed.” Meaning, if Jesus didn’t take to himself a true body, he can’t save our bodies. He only saves that which he is. Thankfully, the Scripture tells us clearly that Jesus was made like us in every way, “yet without sin” (see Hebrews 4:25), bearing our sins (1 Peter 2:24), thus ensuring “the redemption of our bodies” (Romans 9:23).

That, my friends, is good news.

Sam Allberry says it right: “The only hope for us is the body of Jesus, broken fully and finally for us. And by looking to his broken body we find true hope for our own. In Christ, our bodies are no longer identified by what we do with them, or by what others do to them, but by what Jesus has done for them.”

Your servant,

 



Pastoral Notes for Sunday, September 12, 2021

Dear Cornerstone Family,

I was delighted this week to receive a prerelease copy of Dr. Guy Richard’s new book, Persistent Prayer. Guy has been a dear friend for many years, and I’ve always benefited from his writing ministry. This new work is no exception! It’s filled with rich teaching on the purpose of prayer and wise instruction on the practice of prayer. As soon as it’s available for purchase, look for it on The Bookshelf at Cornerstone!

Speaking of prayer, I recently gave a talk on prayer, leaning heavily on John Calvin’s magisterial work, Institutes of the Christian Religion. The rules of prayer Calvin sets forward have done much to revive and grow my own prayer life over the years.

The first rule in prayer for Calvin is the fear of God. All true prayer must sense the seriousness and magnitude of what prayer is—speaking with Almighty God. Contrary to the way it sounds, Calvin is not suggesting we should be scared of God. No, instead, the fear Calvin has in mind is holy reverence and awe, recognizing we are speaking with God Himself when we pray. If we do not experience a holy tremble in the soul as we approach the God of the universe in prayer, then we’re not alive to who God is or the reality of prayer.

The second rule of prayer for Calvin is spiritual humility. As holy fear captures the soul, this second reality comes home—our neediness and dependence on God. Simply stated, Calvin says we should come to God aware that our only hope is in his grace and forgiveness. That is, we come broken and contrite, honest about our doubts, fears, and insufficiencies. We come, as Martin Luther liked to say, “as a beggar begging bread.” By implication, this means we must shed all pretense and phoniness, entering God’s presence “naked in soul,” (C.S. Lewis) for that is who we really are.

The third rule and fourth rule can be paired together, for they are essentially two sides of the same coin. The third rule is submissive trust, and the fourth is confident hope. By submissive trust, Calvin means that we pray with a heart that willingly says, “Thy will be done.” This does not mean we do not ask for what we desire. Instead, it means that when we ask for what we desire, we believe God knows best and will give us what we need. The submissive heart gladly receives whatever God ordains. The more this submissive, trusting heart is formed within us, the more confident hope will become the reality of our prayer life. For in the act of praying, the Spirit aligns our wills with God’s will (Matthew 7:7-8). As that happens, we experience hope that our prayer will be answered, for our prayer is for God’s will to be done.

As you can see, these instructions are less about the content of prayer and more about the heart with which we are to pray. That is because the greatest work of God in prayer is often done inside of us. As we meet with God in prayer, we are conformed more into Christ’s image. As we are conformed more into Christ’s image, we are enabled more and more to rest in God and His will. Let’s pray that godly fear, spiritual humility, submissive trust, and confident hope mark our prayers increasingly in the days ahead!

 



Pastoral Notes for Sunday, September 5, 2021

Dear Cornerstone Family,

I got a phone call from an old friend this week, reminding me of the time I helped him navigate a relationship he was trying to develop with a young lady. He had been discouraged by the last couple of encounters. The conversation was surfacy and the friendliness contrived. He really wanted to break through the casual and get to know her heart.

Now, before I go on, some of you are thinking, “Why, pray tell, did this young man come to you for advice on love?” If that’s you, we clearly need to get to know each other better. This may come as a shock, but in a previous life, I was something of a romance repairman. At the time, I had a girlfriend of six months (she became my wife!), so I was the resident expert on all things related to romance. Ignorant, love-struck friends would seek me out for wisdom on the ways of women. I’d offer commonsense strategies—free of charge, mind you—for jumpstarting your love life.

(You’ll find it a relief to know I’ve long since retired from this profession. Back to the story...)

On the phone, my friend started relaying my advice back to me as I braced for impact. According to him, I said something like, “You’ve got to relax and let her talk. Listen to her words, every one of them. But I don’t want you to get hung up on her words. I want you to hear and respond to her heart. True intimacy happens when we hear and respond to the heart.” Well, even a broke clock is right twice a day. That wasn’t as bad as I feared. Truthfully, that’s pretty good. It’s advice I could probably heed more often myself.

Romance aside, this silly recollection got me thinking about words. Specifically, it got me thinking about my words. What do my words say about my heart? What is my speech revealing about the kind of person I am (see Matthew 15:18; Luke 6:45)? As I asked myself those questions this week, I was invited into an opportunity to be honest with the Lord. To speak to the Lord true words about the darker parts of my heart and receive from Him truer words about His love and forgiveness. “For whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart” (1 John 3:20).

Today, you will take the Word of God into your mouth in worship. As you do this, it’s an opportunity to hear God speaking to you. It’s also an opportunity for you to be honest with the Lord, to come clean in His presence. What good will worship be today if all you do is honor the Lord with your lips, but your heart is a million miles away (Matthew 5:7-8)? Let’s disregard hypocritical ways and tell the Lord the truth. Moreover, let’s listen to the Word (John 1:1) tell us the truth about who He is, what He’s called us to do, and how much He loves us.

Your servant,

 



Pastoral Notes for Sunday, August 29, 2021

I asked Martha Brooks, our Women’s Ministry Director, to talk about the past year of ministry and to give us a look ahead as to what is planned for the coming year. In anticipation of these opportunities for fellowship and time in the Word, here is what Martha had to say:

What a year we’ve had in Women’s Ministry! We began with a dinner last August, fellowshipping and feasting after quarantine. We held our first “Seasons of Life” in October with women sharing from the heart around a table heavy with desserts and coffee. Christmas saw Covid cases rise, and we weren’t able to gather again until February, when we heard from three more ladies in our own congregation, encouraging us to love well in all circumstances. April saw us in the Chapel, laughing and crying along with several of our own dear sisters about the unexpected seasons the Lord brings. The advent of summer brought the much-anticipated return of our large group Bible study, with two fellowship suppers thrown in there just to give us a chance to catch up. And while all that was going on, small group Bible studies took place in person throughout the year.

Whew.

This ministry year promises to be full as well. And I have a confession to make: sometimes I look at our family calendar and all the different colored dots and all the maneuvering it takes to get five people everywhere they need to be and think, “I just want to sit on my couch! Don’t other people want to sit on their couches? Are their couches not comfortable? I really like my couch! Do I have to put ‘sit on couch’ on the calendar just to make sure I can sit on my couch?”

If you feel like that, too, please know we are not scheduling things for the women of the church just to fill our calendars. When we are making plans as a Women’s Ministry Team, we ask ourselves this: How can we serve? Our goal is not to get every woman to participate in Women’s Ministry, but for the Women’s Ministry to serve and encourage every woman in the church (taken from Women’s Ministry in the Local Church, Ligon Duncan and Susan Hunt).

In 2021-22, the Cornerstone Women’s Ministry is aiming to serve through small group Bible studies that see women studying the Word together, (Romans 15:4), the relaunch of a Young Mom’s Encouragement Group where some of our more seasoned mothers will train the newer ones (Titus 2:3-5), quarterly fellowships that facilitate a time to deepen our friendships (1 Samuel 18:1), a retreat (Hebrews 10:24-25), and all the way back around to large group summer Bible study for part two of our study of Revelation (Psalm 119:11-12).

These plans are purposeful, and we believe all these things help us fulfill our vision, which simply states:

Cornerstone’s vision for Women’s Ministry is grounded in God’s Word where

women grow in the context of God’s people, always aiming for the glory of Christ.

I would love to chat with you and answer any questions you have, so don’t hesitate to reach out. My door is always open. (Well, I don’t have a door, but I can meet you in my “office” at Merridee’s.) Please watch for upcoming dates, jump in where your calendar allows (while keeping a little couch time!) and let the Women’s Ministry serve you in Christ Jesus for His glory.

Grace,

Martha Brooks