Sermon Video: Is Anything Too Hard for the LORD? - Genesis 18:1-15

 

Through the lens of God's conversation with Abraham and Sarah about the impending birth of Isaac, consider the question of limitations on God's power: Are there any limits? In fact, there are, but they're self-imposed. Nothing constrains God except his own character and promises.

Sermon Video: Abraham and the Covenant of Circumcision - Genesis 17

 

Genesis 17 picks up the narrative 13 years after the birth of Ishmael in Genesis 16.  At this point Abram and Sarai have been in the Promised Land waiting for the miracle of a son and heir for 23 years.  At this point God speaks to Abram, tells him that he will be called Abraham and his wife Sarah, and adds that the promised son, Isaac, is only a year away.  Abraham laughs at this prospect, as Sarah will do in the next chapter.

God also gives Abraham a sign of the covenant that already exists between God and Abraham: circumcision.  This initiation rite wasn't unfamiliar in the Ancient Near East, God chooses something culturally appropriate to set apart Abraham and his descendants as his particular people, the ones he has called into this relationship.

Circumcision functions for Israel in the same manner that Baptism functions for the Church, it proclaims that those involved belong to the larger group, to that they are a part of the people of God.

Sermon Video: God responds to the foolish choice of Abram and Sarai - Genesis 16

 

Abraham and Sarah are heroes of the faith, but they made plenty of mistakes along the way.  One of the most serious of them was the decision by Sarai to offer her slave Hagar to her husband Abram as a 2nd wife in the hopes that a son born to Abram and Hagar could be considered her son by adoption.  This way an effort to "assist" the fulfillment of God's promise.  Here's the thing: God doesn't need immoral help to accomplish his will.

In the end, the plan works in that Hagar bears Ishmael, but is a disaster in all other respects because it spawns a bitterness between Sarai and Hagar.  In the end, God intervenes to protect Hagar and her son, preventing Abram and Sarai's mistake from going further off the rails.

My reaction to the disturbing interview of Dr. Moreno-Riaño, President of Cornerstone University

I'm the author of the Pastoral Letter to the Cornerstone University Board of Trustees.  I'll put that right up front.  I've learned a lot about the leadership of Dr. Moreno-Riaño, and it saddens and disturbs me greatly.  That being said, this interview that he gave paints him as the victim, as someone unjustly opposed because he is doing God's will.  It also portrays the God-honoring men and women who opposed him, most of whom were fired or driven out, as "dross" that needed to be "refined" from the University.  This is both inaccurate (untrue) and highly dangerous.  It is unacceptable.  

In this video I react to the statements of Cornerstone's President, I do so based on both biblical truths about leadership and character, and based upon the testimony of those who have been hurt by the administration.

Why I wrote the Pastoral Letter to the Cornerstone Board of Trustees

This video delves into the passion and concern that inspired and shaped the letter, as well as that of my collaborators in the project, Pastor Noah Filipiak and Dr. David Turner (thank you both).  This is from the heart and deeply rooted in the valuable education I received from 94-98 and 2000-01 at Cornerstone University.