We do not live in the past, but the past in us.  U. B. Phillips   It is arresting to observe the constancy of older men and women within the variability of historical flux and the inevitable change it engenders. The world has changed, but they have not.  They seem an anachronism to their juniors, Continue reading

Read: Dt. 6:4–9; Eph. 6:4; Ps. 127:3 Introduction Babies as providence All five of our children were born in Lake County Hospital East in Painesville, Ohio. In the maternity wing, there was a large maxim displayed on the wall. Many of you have already heard it. It’s by Carl Sandburg: “A baby is God’s opinion that Continue reading

Read Jn. 10:1–11 and Ps. 23 Introduction When I wrote “Sin Enslaves, But God Is in the Emancipation Business,” I quoted 1 John 3:8, “The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.” Today we learn that Jesus came to earth for another reason: to give abundant life to his Continue reading

A letter from a dear friend that I received today:     I read this today and wanted your thoughts on it please: ________________________________________________________ Some months ago I was listening to Issues, Etc.  This Lutheran pastor was telling us about a woman he counseled years ago.  She had been accosted by two men.  During her Continue reading

Read: Rom. 6:20–23 Introduction Years ago there lived a devout Christian man who attended a sound, Bible believing church every Sunday of his life (as, by the way, every Christian should). His wife was an unbeliever. She didn’t attend. They had a verbal routine every Sunday afternoon when he arrived home. She asked him, “What Continue reading

Read: Jn. 4:46–54 Introduction About five years ago, God revived prayer at Cornerstone. Over that time, I’ve been stunned at how many prayers he’s answered. I should not have been stunned, because answered prayer should be routine for God’s people, but I’ve been stunned nonetheless. We simply cannot lose this momentum. Every day of my Continue reading

Mud Gravity Captain Phillips We Steal Secrets Lone Survivor The World’s End Side Effects Star Trek: Into Darkness Ain’t Them Bodies Saints All Is Lost American Hustle The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug World War Z Iron Man 3 Continue reading

Read: Eph. 4:31–32 Introduction You might find strange that the biblical text doesn’t seem to relate specifically about marriage at all. Paul is giving the church general instructions, but he doesn’t say anything specifically at this point about the family or marriage, which is what I’m preaching about. So, what does this passage have to do Continue reading

Read: 1 Pet. 3:18–22 I want to draw attention to Peter’s unique — striking, in fact — teaching on baptism. I’ve preached many, many times at our church about baptism, but somehow I think this is first time I’ve addressed this passage, which is a very important one. Peter has been addressing the topic of Continue reading

Ever since John M. Frame’s systematic theology was released last November, I intended to promote and explain it for a wider audience, and Tom Chantry’s recent critique has furnished me a suitable opportunity. Did I say “critique”? It’s more like a bludgeoning: “[I]t is my firm opinion that John Frame is one of the most Continue reading

Read Acts 4:11–17 Introduction I’m preaching unusual messages both this week and next. You don’t often hear sermons these days on the topics I’m addressing, but the topics are important, and they’re biblical. One reason Christians don’t know about these topics is that their pastors don’t preach on them. Their pastors rob them of biblical Continue reading

If one sentence summarized Pres. Barack Obama’s theme in his 2014 State of the Union address, it is “Inequality has deepened.” He stated: Today, after four years of economic growth, corporate profits and stock prices have rarely been higher, and those at the top have never done better.  But average wages have barely budged. But Continue reading

Daniel Kirk, NT prof at Fuller Seminary-Menlo Park and prototypical young evangelical scholar (translation: we young-uns can’t abide biblical evangelicalism), wants a Christocentric view of biblical authority. What evangelical doesn’t? But Professor Kirk lets us in on what his Christ-centered bibliology might look like in this comment: There are hundreds of ways in which the OT would Continue reading

Tonight’s debate between Ken Ham (creationist) and Bill Nye (evolutionist) impelled Christianity Today to inquire, “Do Celebrity Debates Help Christian Persuasion?” The answer is “Not really, but they should.” Some “expert” respondents to the question highlighted (and decried) the “celebrity” angle, but, while evangelicalism is awash in celebrity problems, that’s not the chief problem here.  The chief problem Continue reading

2013 was a culturally eventful year for the United States: the Supreme Court upheld principal provisions of the Affordable [sic] Care Act, otherwise known as Obamacare, just as it overturned principal provisions of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and California’s Prop 8, both of which defined marriage as between one man and one woman. Continue reading

Every January many churches in the United States highlight God’s truth as it relates to preborn children, notably in memory of Roe v. Wade, the January 22, 1973 Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion. Actually the term abortion includes the definition of “the expulsion of a fetus from the uterus by natural causes before it is Continue reading

Introduction Cornerstone is a church, not a social club, not just a group of friends (though it is that, too). It’s a church. This first Sunday of 2014, on which we ordain and install a new officer, I feel led by the Holy Spirit to preach about the church. What is the church? The church Continue reading

Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came up to him with her sons, and kneeling before him she asked him for something. And he said to her, “What do you want?” She said to him, “Say that these two sons of mine are to sit, one at your right hand and one at Continue reading

1. Herman Dooyeewerd, Roots of Western Culture 2. Daniel Kahneman, Thinking, Fast and Slow 3. Kenneth Minogue, The Servile Mind: How Democracy Erodes the Moral Life 4. Peter Gay, Modernism: The Lure of Heresy 5.  Michael Reeves, The Good God: Enjoying Father, Son and Spirit 6. Thomas Molnar, Utopia: The Perennial Heresy 7. Thomas Sowell, Intellectuals and Society 8.  John Oswalt, Called to be Holy 9. G. C. Berkouwer, Modern Uncertainty Continue reading

Text: 1 Samuel 12:1–5, 19—25 Introduction Sermonic Four factors have pressed me to preach about Samuel today. First, I’m reading through the Bible’s historical books, and I just re-read this story, and it always rivets my attention. Second, this is the last Sunday in 2013, and this is story conveys great truths for ending our year. Continue reading