On Inauguration Day

Dear Cornerstone family, 

I’ve had the privilege to be your pastor since our inception in 2011. In that time, we’ve passed through the election of Barack Obama, Donald Trump, and now Joe Biden. At the beginning of each of these administrations and at strategic times throughout their administrations, I’ve taken time to encourage us in the simplest and, arguably, the most important of all our Christian civic duties—prayer. 

Paul writes to Timothy, “First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:1-4). 
 
Three observations from this text: 
 
1. We are commanded to pray for our governing officials no matter who they are. Regardless of whether you voted for Biden or not, every single one of us is commanded by God to pray for him. Let’s storm the gates of heaven for him, asking God to protect him, uphold him, guide him, and turn his heart toward the things of God (Prov. 21:1; Micah 6:8).
 
2. A prayer for governing officials is a prayer for peace. Notice how Paul ties a particular hope to this prayer. Pray so that “…we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.” Peacefulness, quietness, godliness, and dignity is linked to praying for those in authority. If we sincerely desire to see the shalomof God spread throughout our land and the world, let’s hit our knees and boldly ask (and keep asking!) God for what we know he loves to give (Matt. 7:7-8).
 
3. A prayer for our governing officials is a prayer for the accomplishment of the great commission. Paul notes that when the church enjoys the freedom to live out the faith in peace, to openly share the gospel of grace and serve our communities, then more people hear the good news and come to a saving knowledge of the truth. This is God’s desire! He desires that “all people to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth” (v. 4). If we want to see the tide of wickedness and division stemmed in our country, with more people coming to know Jesus Christ, let’s give the Lord no rest until he establishes the church and makes her the praise of all the earth (Isaiah 62:7; Rev. 21:1-4). 

Right now, before you move on to something else, stop and pray. 

• Pray for President Biden and his administration. He has an overwhelming task before him, and he needs the Lord’s help. 
• Pray for all our elected officials, Republican and Democrat. 
• Pray for the shalom of God in our country and throughout the world. 
• Pray for the spread of the gospel and the advance of the kingdom of God in our time.
• Finally, pray that the Lord would hear and answer these prayers according to His wisdom and glory. 
  

Your servant,
Nate 

A Long December and a Reason to Hope

Sometime after Christmas, but before New Year’s Day, I pull out the album Recovering the Satellites(1996) by the American alternative band, The Counting Crows, and listen to their smash hit, “A Long December.” Given the year we’ve had, I found myself resonating with the opening line of the song more than ever: “A long December and there’s reason to believe, maybe this year will be better than the last.”

In looking to the year ahead, the lyrics express both hope and reticence at the same time. The writer recognizes that there’s reason to believe things could be headed in an upward trajectory, but there’s enough uncertainty and question that he’s not yet ready to bank on it. “Maybe this year will be better.” Maybe not. Who can say for sure? 

As Christians, our hope for the future is more certain than, “Maybe this year will be better.” As we looked at last week from Psalm 11, we know the end of the story. All who are upright in heart will behold the face of God (1 John 3:2). Our destiny is face-to-face, never ending fellowship with God in perfect love and holiness. Now, ponder this: no matter what happens in 2021 that future is ours in Christ Jesus right now. 

Read that sentence again. Did you catch that? That future is ours now! Yes, I know we’re still waiting for that future, and we don’t know how long it will be until Christ returns and the fullness of the kingdom comes. But I’m telling you that by faith, you can lay hold of that future today. And when you do, that future becomes to you a present reality. 

As I write that sentence, I’m experiencing that very reality. My heart wants to jump out of my chest with hope! I’m sensing the solid joys and lasting pleasures of my eternal future in Christ even now as I write this. It’s as if I’m standing in that eternal future now, experiencing the joy and peace that Christ has won for me. 

Friends, this is what the life of faith looks like. Notice, I said the life of faith. Faith is not mere knowledge or feeling or action, though it incorporates all those things. Faith is a principle of life at work inside the true believer. It is, as Jesus told Nicodemus in John 3, a new birth that produces a new life empowered by the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:25). 

As we enter 2021, let’s reject reluctancy born of worldly hopes, “Maybe this year will be better.” Instead, let’s set our hopes higher—to the certain future of a new heavens and new earth, where every tear is wiped away, and every joy and lasting pleasure are secured, and each day is better than the one before. Yes! Let’s let that future lead the way in 2021.

Preparing for Christmas

Every Advent about this time, I pull together a few quotes from my Yuletide reading to share. This year, sadly, my seasonal reading was cut short by research for upcoming articles, conferences, and classes. Even with that, I snuck in a bookish exploration or two. Below are a few jewels from my treasure hunts, as we draw the waiting season of Advent to a close and prepare for the festivity of Christmas.   

“Maybe Christmas” he thought, “doesn’t come from a store. Maybe Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more.”—Dr. Seuss 

“Christmas says there is a cosmic scheme of things. God made us as his image to reflect his glory. We have sinned and fallen short of that glory (Romans 3:23). But the Son of God, who is the very image of God (Colossians 1:15), was sent by God, and came in love to restore his image. Through faith in him, we discover that our lives fit into the ‘cosmic scheme of things.’ He recreates in us a love for himself and restores us to fellowship with himself, which transforms self-directed love into love of our neighbors. That is the destiny for which we were created.”—Sinclair Ferguson 

“In the Christian story, God descends to reascend. He comes down; down the from the heights of absolute being into time and space, down into humanity… down to the very roots and seabed of the Nature He has created. But He goes down to come up again and bring the whole ruined world with Him. One has the picture of a strong man stooping lower and lower to get himself underneath some great complicated burden. He must stoop in order to lift; he must almost disappear under the load before he incredibly straightens his back and marches off with the whole mass swaying on his shoulders.”—C.S. Lewis 

“There is nothing so secular that it cannot be sacred, and that is one of the deepest messages of the incarnation.”—Madeline Engle 

“We have nearly arrived at the great merry-making season of the year. On Christmas day we shall find all England enjoying themselves with all the good cheer which they can afford. Servants of God, you who have the largest share in the person of him who was born at Bethlehem, I invite you to the best of all Christmas fare—to nobler food than makes the table groan—bread from heaven, for your spirit. Behold, how rich and how abundant are the provisions which God has made for the high festival which he would have his servants keep, not now and then, but all the days of their lives.”—C.H. Spurgeon 

Grace & Peace,

What Other Meaning

“People don’t talk much about the Spanish Influenza, but that was a terrible thing… It was like a war. It really was. One funeral after another, right here in Iowa. We lost so many of the young people. And we got off pretty lightly. 

People came to church wearing masks, if they came at all. They’d sit as far from each other as they could. There was talk that the Germans had caused it with some sort of secret weapon, and I think people wanted to believe that, because it saved them from reflecting on what other meaning it might have.” (p. 41)

The lines above are from Marilynne Robinson’s novel, Gilead. Written in 2004, Robinson could not have known that in 2020 we would be facing a pandemic complete with mask wearing and international drama regarding who’s to blame. But as the ole saying goes: the more things change, the more they stay the same. 

History is a great teacher. By knowing history and the nature of things, Robinson wrote a piece of historical fiction that mirrored the future, which reminds us that our time is not nearly as unique as we think it is. 

“What has been will be again,
    what has been done will be done again;
    there is nothing new under the sun.”—Ecclesiastes 1:9

What struck me most about Robinson’s lines this time (I’ve read the book three times) was how we search for explanations and people to blame when tragedy happens. It’s only natural. When a crime is committed, family members want to find out who did it and why. They want a face, name, and explanation. They want to know who is at fault. They want them to pay. To have these things will bring about some peace they suppose. 

We’re no different when big tragedies strike. Just watch the news: “COVID-19 is an attack by China! Dr. Fauci and the CDC have made things worse! Trump mishandled the virus. He is to blame!” 

Robinson suggests a better way. Instead of grasping for human explanations and pinning blame, let’s consider “what other meaning it might have.” For it might be that COVID-19 is the instrument of Someone who is mightily at work in a mysterious way (Isaiah 55:8-9), who is ordering all of human existence according to His good and sovereign will (Ephesians 1:11) for the good of His people (Romans 8:28) and the glory of His name (Romans 11:36). 

In the final analysis, COVID-19 is God’s virus, and He will do with it exactly what He determines to do with it. Thankfully, He’s clear in the Scripture on exactly the kind of things He’s determined to do, so we’re not left in the dark during tragedy. So, let’s move from finger pointing to raised palms and begin tracing this tragedy to the purposes of God revealed in Scripture. For the sooner we do, the sooner our minds and hearts have the chance to see “what other meaning” is afoot. 

The Most Beautiful Tree in the World

There’s an Old English poem from the 8^thcentury that I circle back to during Holy Week from time to time. It’s entitled, “The Dream of the Rood.” The word “rood” is a middle English word meaning rod or pole or, depending on the context, a tree or cross.

As the author begins the poem, he says he’s recounting the “most treasured of dreams” wherein he sees “the strangest of trees.” A tree that’s “Lifted high in the air, with light all around it” standing as a “beacon.” He can see that it’s “drenched in gold” with “gleaming gems set fair around its foot…”

It is the most beautiful tree he’s ever seen.

Later in the poem, the tree speaks for itself, recounting its history and telling its story. How it was cut from the forest and carried up a hill where, “…a young hero, God almighty… strong and steadfast, stripped for battle,” mounted her and died.

At this point we realize that this most beautiful tree is nothing more than an ugly wooden pole of execution. How can this be? How can a beam of wood used for crucifixion be described with such beauty? Ah, the wonder of this tree is not found in its outward beauty but in the story of love that it tells. Yes, for on this tree, the Savior of mankind climbed, “filled with purpose and love” to “ransom mankind.”

The story of what’s wrong with the worldstarts with a tree. when Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil; and plunged the whole world into sin and misery. Surely even the present trials that you and I are facing are a byproduct of that fateful moment.

But the story doesn’t stop there. The story of what’s saving the worldbegins with a tree, too. Upon this tree, the cross, the Lord Jesus Christ took the full and unmitigated wrath of God for the sin of His people. “He made him to be sin who knew no sin,” Paul writes to the church of Corinth. Yes, Jesus was charged with the guilt of our sin, receiving the judgment we deserved. Why? Well, Paul continues, “so that we might become the righteousness of God in him” (2 Cor. 5:21).

It makes sense, then, why the poet ends the poem with a soaring prayer of praise. He gives thanks to God for the “blessed beam,” for it is only under the shade of this tree, where “true refuge” is found.

Fascinatingly, the story doesn’t stop here either. For when all is said and done, and one day, oh, I pray, not too long from now, when Jesus Christ returns and all His people are together in the new heavens and the new earth, the tree of the cross will give way to yet another tree, the Tree of Life. We read of it in Rev. 22. And it will be the most beautiful tree we’ve ever seen. It will bear 12 kinds of fruit, indicating complete perfection. And its leaves will be so powerful that the nations will be healed by them (Rev. 22:2-3).

What is this Tree of Life? It is, of course, the final fulfillment, the full flowering of the tree we remember today, the cross of Jesus Christ. Which is why when we look on that ugly rood of execution where Jesus died, it is to us the most beautiful tree we’ve ever seen. For even now, that tree of death is for us the tree of life.

This is Good Friday. Thanks be to God.

Happy (Almost) New Year!

Dear Cornerstone Family,

Happy almost New Year! I hope your holiday season has been replete with rich festivity and deep reflection on the incarnation of Jesus Christ. I know it’s been a special season for the Shurden family. Like many of you, we spent quality time with friends and family, gave and received lots of gifts, and consumed way too many calories! We’re entering 2020 with our hearts full and our pants tighter, which is exactly as it should be.

As I take a few precious minutes to collect my thoughts and offer prayers to God for the year ahead, I was prompted to pray for you, the Cornerstone family. As I prayed, I stumbled across words that distilled my heart’s longing for Cornerstone this year—that we would be increasingly known for radical displays of life-laying-down love for Jesus Christ and His mission. Yes, that’s my heart in a nutshell, and I believe I can say with confidence: that’s God’s heart for us. For as we’re increasingly taken by the beauty of Christ’s life-laying-down love for us in the gospel, we can’t help but increasingly display the life-laying-love of Christ to the world around us!

So, let’s dream a little. What if we really let love for Jesus Christ and His Kingdom occupy the throne of our hearts this year? How would we prioritize our time differently? How would our technological habits shift? How would our interactions with neighbors change? How much more would we read our Bibles and pray? How differently would we spend our money? What topics would mark our conversations? What goals would we set our hearts toward?

As we prepare for 2020, pause sometime this week and give your heart an honest shake. Ask yourself this question, “How would my life change if I really let the fame of Jesus’ name and the glory of His kingdom take precedent over everything else?” Sit with that question for a bit. Let the implications sink in. Write down what God brings to mind and don’t be afraid of where this reflection might lead. Simply trust God and begin praying toward the change you know God wants for you—the change God wants for all of us.

Then, on Sunday, come expectantly to hear from God in worship. We’re kicking off 2020 with an important three-week vision series to set the spiritual tone for our year together. From selected Scriptures, we will consider the true and lasting freedom of gospel faith, obedience, community, and service. Leaning on God’s grace, let’s press on together for increasing radical displays of life-laying-down love for Jesus Christ and His mission this year.

I can’t wait to see where God takes us in 2020!

Your servant,
Pastor Nate

Trust God with Kayne’s Profession

Most of us first heard the name Kayne West back in the early 2000’s when his album, The College Dropout, debuted. It was the first of what is now seven albums, each of them wildly successful. In fact, West has sold more than 140 million albums worldwide. By any standard, he is easily one of the best-selling music artists of all time.

Despite the success, West has been the subject of much debate over the years. From his inflammatory political comments over the years, to outbursts on stage at music award ceremonies, to his public struggles with addiction and mental illness, West has been unpredictable at best and unstable at worst.

But in a twist no one saw coming, West reported in September that he had become a born again Christian. From that moment, West became an outspoken advocate for Christianity. On the night of his new gospel album release, Jesus is King, he appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live. Kimmel asked West if he considered himself to be a Christian music artist now, and West responded, “I’m a Christian everything.”

Not surprisingly, West’s profession of faith and release of Jesus is King has been polarizing. Many Christians have wondered, “How should we respond to this news?” Some have responded with joy, hailing West’s conversion as a public display of the power of the gospel. Others have responded with skepticism; fearful this is a publicity stunt or a religious high that will disappear as quickly as it came.

To be honest, both responses are understandable. On the one hand, Jesus tells us that heaven itself rejoices when one sinner repents (Luke 15:10). At the same time, the Scripture teaches us that true faith produces true fruit (Matthew 3:8) and is confirmed by perseverance to the end (Matthew 24:15; Romans 5:3-5). Therefore, both of these realities should be honored whenever someone makes a profession of faith.

In the end, however, our focus shouldn’t primarily be the heart of the person making the profession but on the God who is Lord of the heart. Truth is, we don’t know anyone’s heart. If we’re honest, we don’t even know our own heart most of the time (see Jeremiah 17:9). Therefore, we must rejoice in and trust God with Kanye West’s profession just as we do for ourselves and pray for him. For in the end, it’s not your profession of faith that saves you; it’s the God of your profession that saves you. And that’s true whether its Kanye West or you or me.

You Can’t Do It On Your Own

“My heart is heavy. My mind is a blur. I can’t really feel anything until all the sudden I feel everything and then break down. I’m not really sure why I’m here. I just need help.”

I penned those words in the notes of my first counseling session. The man who had come to me for help was riddled with depression brought on by a series of traumatic events extending back to childhood. He’d reached a breaking point in his life. You could literally see the pain on his face; it was as if he was wearing it. His shoulders were slumped, his eyes darkened, his appearance disheveled.

Though you wouldn’t think so, this was the look of a man on the cusp of radical transformation. Over the course of the next couple of months, his posture changed, his eyes brightened, and he began tucking in his shirt. In saying that, I don’t mean to suggest, of course, that he was doing anything sinful by slouching or not tucking in his shirt, but, in this case, the fact that these things changed was evidence of a bigger, deeper change. This man was finding renewal in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

That man would become to me an example. An example I would need to remember when I had my own bout with depression years later. It was fairly low-grade as far as depression goes, but for someone who is typically glass-half-full about life, it was deeply unsettling. Mental fog descended into my psyche. Impatience and frustration replaced kindness and empathy in family and ministry difficulties. Emotional scars that I thought were long gone resurfaced and haunted my thoughts.

Though I’m not sure it was noticeable outwardly, it was inescapable inwardly—I needed help. I needed friends to cry with, counselors to speak with, and pastors to care for my soul. I needed someone to serve me the medicine that I had served others but was unable to receive from myself. Hear me when I say this: I couldn’t do it myself. Even though I knew the answers, I couldn’t “hear” the answers from myself, for myself. I needed someone else to minister them to me. Only then could I be helped.

Many of the people you’ll come in contact with today are suffering in silence. If you’re one of those, take heart. You’re not alone. God has given you the church. Put yourself under the ministry of the gospel. Reach out to a friend for prayer. Approach a trusted pastor, elder, or mentor for help. Don’t despair. There is a way forward, and it’s bound up in the means of grace that God extends to you in the church.

On the flip side, if by grace you’re walking in a season of spiritual encouragement, give thanks and minister to those around you. Listen for the heartaches and needs in the conversations you share today. When appropriate, remind those around you of the gospel’s promises. Pray with and for those in need around you. In every way, serve the medicine of grace. For if history holds true, you’ll need them to do the same for you very soon.

 

God Meant It For Good: An Introduction to the Joseph Story

God Meant It For Good: An Introduction To The Joseph Story

The Joseph narrative is “a hero story par excellence” according to Leland Ryken. From the key characters, to the setting, to the intrigue and suspense—all woven together with the presence, power, and plan of God—makes the Joseph story one of the most captivating redemption stories in the Bible.

Add to this the fact that Joseph is among the most exemplary in character in the book of Genesis. He trusts and obeys the Lord despite walking through many tragic and unjust circumstances. Yet as one heartbreaking event after another unfolds, God’s providence intervenes again and again to rescue and redeem.

With that said, questions exist about whether the Joseph story enjoys the same level of significance in redemptive history as the stories of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. For instance, throughout the Bible, we read about the “God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob” (Gen. 50:24, Ex. 3:5, Acts 7:32), but Joseph’s name is never included in the list. A variety of explanations have been advanced over the years; some suggesting it’s best not to think of Joseph as a patriarch but to instead approach the story as a historical bridge. That is, a story that connects the books of Genesis and Exodus by giving historical explanation for how God’s people end up in Egypt.

Though it is true enough that the Joseph story is a historical retelling that gives explanation for why Exodus opens in Egypt, this explanation alone doesn’t go far enough. It says nothing for instance about the theological basis or spiritual purpose behind the narrative. When we take in the whole of the Joseph narrative, the theological and spiritual import comes clear. The Joseph narrative is first and foremost a story of the faithfulness of God to His covenantal promises through the display of his providential power and care.

This is best summarized in the key verse of the Joseph story, Genesis 50:20. As one of the most powerful men in the world at the time, Joseph looks at his needy brothers who decades earlier sold him into slavery. As readers, we half expect Joseph to let them have it, but Joseph does no such thing. Instead, he sees his unjust suffering as a part of God’s sovereign plan of salvation: “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, for the saving of many lives”(Gen. 50:20). In a sentence, Joseph summarized the truth of his life and the place of his story in redemptive history. For God meaning for good what we mean for evil and saving many lives in the process is at the heart of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

On that note, God means good for us in the study of Joseph this fall. Do not miss the blessing He has in store for you! Commit to read each week in the Cornerstone devotional as we course through selected Scriptures exploring the main themes from the weekly sermon passages. And as we see Joseph suffer, often undeservingly, for the saving of many, let’s look to the greater Joseph, the Lord Jesus Christ, for He alone is the perfect Suffering Servant, who suffered undeservingly for the salvation of many more—even you and me.

To My Friend, Josh Patrick

Dear Josh,

God must really love you, brother. For He’s been writing one of the best stories with your life. For real, it’s been a real page-turner: full of comedy, tragedy, and unexpected twists. I’d be lying, however, to say I’m not heartbroken by this latest chapter. I didn’t see this coming. Not this fast anyway. Not like this. I trust the Writer of this story. He knows what He’s doing. But I’ve had to confess to Him today that everything in me wants to rip this
page out.

About a week and a half ago, you texted me and said you knew you were entering into a very different season. You weren’t sure all of what that meant, but that after the test results came back on Tues., we’d sit down and talk about it over lunch. Well, we never got to sit down and talk about it over lunch…

Turns out the next lunch we’ll share will be in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. And when that day comes, bad reports about spreading cancer cells and tumors will have completely given way to the good reports about the eradication of disease and death. And the tears I’m crying today will be no more then.

That’s going to be some kind of lunch. I can hardly wait. So, save a seat for me at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. We’ll have a lot to catch up on. And in case I forgot to tell you, you’ve been the best friend a man can ask for. Love you, buddy.

Together in the Lord,

Nate