Posts with the category “cornerstone-blog”

The fall of 2022 was a very difficult time for our family. My husband Sam and I had recently moved to Marion after stepping away from a ministry position that we loved. We were dealing with deeply rooted church hurt, fractured relationships and broken trust, and the death of the vision we had for our early twenties. On top of it all, I was growing sicker by the day from an undiagnosed illness that...  Read More

Friends and family are hands down what keeps me steady in this crazy life—other than God, of course. Over the years many have come and gone, but the ones who have remained all have one character trait in common: they know how to love. Not just by their words, because that is a very simple thing to master. No, these friends love first with their actions, and their words are a confirmation of who th...  Read More

Gardening runs in my family. My grandparents had big gardens. My dad also had a garden every year until he passed. My mom has such a green thumb; she loves trying to see what she can grow and is working on having a garden in her yard, as well as helping my grandparents with their garden this year. I also share in the enjoyment of having plants around. I love watching plants grow and produce things...  Read More

Chances are that if you have ever been driving your car and waved at me, I didn’t notice. Now, that is not because I am oblivious to what is going on in traffic—quite the opposite. I can get so hyper-fixated on observing vehicles that the people sort of fade away. But this is not because I’m a car-nut either. Honestly, I care so little about what a person drives, I barely know what kind of make or...  Read More

Last Sunday morning, I was all around church as the service was happening. I ended up with my two little girls in the Family Room as Pastor Michael was nearing the end of the message, and what he said really caught my attention. I knew that I wanted to go home and listen to the rest of the sermon he preached on Psalm 51 and about David’s sin preceding his confession.For years I have struggled with...  Read More

Discipleship: It’s for Everyone!I spent at least thirty years of my life wishing I could be discipled. I don't think I'm alone in this desire. For many years, there were older women that I wanted to sit beside in the hopes that what they had would rub off on me. Unfortunately, I never had the guts nor the vocabulary to ask them. Yes, I was timid, but along with that, I was not in a church where I ...  Read More

Connection within Community: Church Small GroupsNoah Webster, in his 1828 dictionary, defines connection as “a state of being knit or fastened together.” In this definition, a bond is formed. All the way back to Genesis, we learn that human beings were not created to be alone (Genesis 2:18). When God created Eve, it was so that Adam would have a helpmate and not be alone. God knew community was vi...  Read More

Connection: How to Resist the Winter Blues I leave work at 5:00 p.m. It’s already dark, it’s raining for the fourth time this week, and the trees are bare and shriveled. I pull out the weather app, and it says the low is 6 degrees. As someone who was born and raised in Florida and Alabama, this does not bode well with me. Overall, I feel the weight of an inexplicable melancholy permeating everythi...  Read More

Love God. Love Others.One of the great take-aways that I have received from Cornerstone has been the “Up, Out, and In” principle of love. Loving God is upward, loving others is outward, and loving ourselves is inward. These are intrinsically tied to one another; loving God requires loving others, and loving others requires a love of self (not to be confused with worship of self, which is sinful). ...  Read More

1 Corinthians 13 is one of the most well-known and quoted passages in the entire Bible. It’s often read at weddings or taught at youth events. It reads: “Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believe...  Read More

“Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” So Abram went, as the LORD had told him...” Genesis 12:1-4a ESVIn the fall ...  Read More

New beginnings can be exciting and overflowing with anticipation, yet simultaneously intimidating and steep with challenges. As followers of Jesus, we are blessed with a different perspective on the new year than most. The world tells you that January 1st is the big opportunity to get your life together. To make it happen, rewrite your life and rewire your habits. From a surface-level view, it can...  Read More

“Like a drama unfolding, the curtain was opening; / an audience of angels was holding its breath; / a census, a manger, two travel worn strangers; / the stage was finally set; / Angels folded their wings at the throne, worshiping; / As God whispered, I love you, my Son; / Jesus took off His crown and laying it down; / Said, Father, Thy will be done; // The time had now come for God's only Son; / T...  Read More

Welcome to Advent week 2! As I read the texts leading up to the Birth of Jesus, I try to place myself in the shoes of those that God is interacting with. Sometimes that takes a lot more cultural and historical context to sort out all the nuances. But there are always aspects that we can relate to more readily. These are real people with real problems and experiences, just like us.For example, it t...  Read More

I grew up as a true Southern Baptist—I’m talking a monthly-potluck-eating, wooden-pew-sitting, Alabama-boondocks-living Southern Baptist. I thought I knew everything there was to know about church by the time I got to grade school. You can imagine my surprise during my junior year of high school when my youth pastor introduced our church to a season called Advent. I had never heard of this traditi...  Read More

Reading the Bible, Hearing the Voice of God  As I am writing this, I look as shelves of books. Hundreds of books, ranging from classic novels, to systematic theologies, scores of Biblical commentaries, books on church growth, and Christian living. Each of these books are noteworthy, having contributed to the field of literature, theology, ecclesiology, or living the faith.  I am reminded of walkin...  Read More

Don’t Skip the SunscreenThe Temptation of Jesus. We often pass over the first few verses of this experience and jump straight into stones becoming bread, the promise of kingdoms, and some sort of angelic trust-fall. As if the only thing we need when Satan shows up with wild and bombastic ideas is to say “no” and spout off a few Scripture references. First of all, the texts from Mat. 4, Mark 1, and...  Read More

In the first of three The Lord of the Rings movies, Frodo and his closest hobbit friends (the Fellowship), along with three humans and a wizard (Gandalf), embarked on a journey to Mount Doom to destroy an evil ring. During this journey, the Fellowship lost Gandalf in a battle with a wicked demon. This event took the wind out of the sails of the Fellowship, and Frodo was in a dark place, as he had ...  Read More

Joshua was afraid to take on the task God called him to do. And who can blame him? Moses, the friend of God, was his predecessor, and he left Joshua with impossible-to-fill shoes. Sure, Joshua had been groomed for his task by Moses and by God. He was a warrior with a proven track record. But this job—this was more than leading battles and military campaigns. This was leading the nation of Israel, ...  Read More

I love the fact that Cornerstone encourages personal expressions of worship. While our leaders often encourage expressive forms of worship - raising hands, bowing in God’s presence, even silence during the weekly worship gathering, these leaders acknowledge that no single form of worship is uniform among God’s people. This is how God designed worship, a personal expression of one’s relationship wi...  Read More

Face to Face with Jesus John 4:16-26In Olivia Lane’s song, Woman at the Well, she sings, “I heard a story from the Bible, When I was just a little girl, About a broken-hearted woman, Who met the Savior of the World.” In this poignant story, the Apostle John tells us about an unnamed Samaritan woman coming to collect water at Jacob’s well in Sychar. John is the only gospel writer to tell this story...  Read More

Simon Peter, also known as Cephas, was one of the first followers of Jesus Christ. At times most of us can identify with him. He had one of the most unique personalities of all the apostles. Peter was known as being enthusiastic, strong-willed, impulsive, and brash. Peter was also a natural-born leader, and quite possibly at his own appointment, became the primary spokesperson for the Twelve.By tr...  Read More

The Cross and Our Growth HabitsTrees. That’s one of the images that comes to mind when I think about Jesus hanging on the cross. For some, this may seem abstract or odd, and for others this may harken back to familiar imagery within scripture. Occasionally, “cross” and “tree” are used interchangeably in the New Testament, depending on your preferred Bible translation. Verses referring to the cruci...  Read More

Extreme situations tend to rip the doors off the carefully concealed places of our hearts and minds and expose what's deep within us. The crucifixion did just that for Jesus—what poured out of Him wasn't what we would expect from someone the Romans tortured.Compassion, love, and forgiveness flowed from Him just like His blood. We see Jesus practicing what He preached and providing an example for u...  Read More

If you have been around Cornerstone in the last few weeks, then you have probably witnessed the unprecedented heartbreak and shock that came with the firing of one of our executive pastors. My husband and I sat with our family during that Thursday night church meeting, listening to Pastor Michael and our elders share the appropriate details and responses from the events that had transpired. Afterw...  Read More

I knew that I was sick in November of 2021. It was terrifying because I could feel that something was wrong, but I struggled to articulate it. Even though I armed myself with an ever-growing list of alarming symptoms, I was routinely dismissed, ignored, and even harassed by the doctors who were supposed to be helping me. Many of them told me that my symptoms were normal for a young woman, that not...  Read More

Throughout Jesus’ ministry, He makes it clear that the Kingdom of God does not look like what we would think or expect. I believe that He continues showing us this in John 13 when He washes the feet of the disciples. I’ve seen a few weddings where the man and woman being wed wash each other's feet. In fact, my husband and I had talked about doing this at our own wedding. We bought a beautiful basi...  Read More

Have you ever had a friend or family member call you up and share a circumstance or situation out of their life that has left them shaken? SHAKEN. RESTLESS. CONFUSED. ANXIOUS.As you listen to them share the details you also may not know how to respond. You can tell by their countenance that the experience feels as though what was under their feet felt solid is now shifting sand. What was true may ...  Read More

Work is a gift from God. It doesn't always feel like it, but according to the Bible, it is. God gave Adam work in the brand new world. God gave Noah work--a job that made absolutely no sense to him. God even gave Jesus work. It stands to reason that He gives us work too.I have to admit, I've had jobs I did not see as a gift. They were drudgery that I looked for an escape from, and I escaped in way...  Read More

Fulfillment in a Vaporous LifeBefore diving into Part III, be sure that you have read Part I and Part II of this blog post so that you have an understanding of what I mean when I refer to the word hebel and its applications throughout the book of Ecclesisates. With the prior segments in mind, what should we conclude, then, from the teachings of Qoheleth, the author of Ecclesiastes? Is life essenti...  Read More

Hebel Applied Before diving into Part II, be sure that you have read Part I of this blog post so that you have an understanding of what I mean when I use the word hebel. Qoheleth, the author of Ecclesisates, has no qualms with opposing the prevailing, idealistic view of Wisdom. Though he recognizes that “there is more gain in wisdom than in folly” (2:13), he also acknowledges that “what happens to...  Read More

IntroductionHebrew wisdom literature explores the way the world works in order to instruct readers in how to live. It seeks to “make wise the simple” (Ps. 19:17) and to make our paths straight (Pr. 3:6). Three of these biblical wisdom books are Proverbs, Job, and Ecclesiastes; these three provide a unique and necessary perspective on life. Proverbs presents an idealistic view of life: if you do ri...  Read More

It would be difficult to find a passage in Scripture that scared me more as a child than Matthew 7:21-23. Every year or two, a good old-fashioned Baptist revival would roll through my hometown, and the visiting preacher would read those verses from the pulpit—his sermon conjuring images of hellfire and brimstone. His voice would boom, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the king...  Read More

The Will of GodThe final thing we must address is back in Matthew 7:21 when Jesus says that only those who “do the will of my Father” will enter the kingdom of God. This naturally poses the question, “What is the will of God?” This is another one of those intimidating church questions that confused me as a young believer. We can blow it up so often to seem like something that is ambiguous and unat...  Read More

Good vs. Bad Fruit If a false teacher is known by their bad fruit, then it makes sense that true disciples of Jesus would be known by our good fruit—but what is this good fruit? Obviously, the first place most of us would think to look is the Fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22-23 which says, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness...  Read More

Mr. and Mrs. Arrington were old when I was a kid. Although physically they were slight people, they are still some of the mightiest people I’ve known. Shortly before my family went to Ecuador as missionaries, the Arringtons had us over for dinner. As an eleven-year-old, I was less than thrilled. I wanted to spend the afternoon at my friend’s house, not sitting quietly while my parents visited for ...  Read More

I grew up in church. I am quite confident that I had been taught the Golden Rule or at least had heard of it, but it wasn’t until the 5th grade that it started taking shape in my life. My teacher, Mrs. Dimmick, loved people, but more than that she loved Jesus. She knew the importance of memorization. Every morning of my entire 5th grade “career”, we recited 3 things: the Pledge of Allegiance, a po...  Read More

I have a confession to make: I'm a closet worrier, and the thing that causes me to worry most is car accidents. Yes, I know. We're not supposed to worry. I know that if (or when) something happens, God will still be with us and will walk with us through whatever it is. I know this. I find peace in this--usually.Several years back, I traveled a lot without my husband, which meant I was the one driv...  Read More

“How is being hungry going to make me any closer to Jesus?” You cannot always tell why someone asks a question. Maybe this person felt her pastor asked his church to engage in a senseless task. Perhaps she knew Christians modeled fasting in the Bible but was unwilling to be hungry, and the lack of explanation salved her conscience. Maybe she was afraid that she would commit to the church-wide fast...  Read More

I was 13 months old when my mother, my older brother, my twin sister, and I were out on our daily walk. It was an average, unassuming morning until we were struck by a negligent driver carrying a tractor trailer full of concrete. My siblings and I were left lodged upside down in a ditch, battered and bruised in our stroller. My mother was killed instantly after taking the brunt of the force to pro...  Read More