Hey all,

I just wanted to share a short devotional time with you.

Philippians 4:1 says the following:“Therefore, my brothers, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm thus in the Lord, my beloved.”

As Paul entreats the Philippian church to stand firm in the Lord, so too do I request the same for each of you.  Stand firm in the Lord. Let him be the rock and your foundation.  He says this because in the previous passage, God’s people are regarded as citizens of heaven.  As God’s people we are “from heaven” so to speak.  Therefore, as we are temporarily in this world, stand firm in Christ as his citizens.

However, my heart is to point something else out to you as each of you serve your campuses.  The Philippian church joined with Paul in ministry.  Paul was away from the Philippian church but the leaders themselves in the church served their church in twofold.  First they aided the growth of the church even though Paul could not be there.  Second, they supported Paul in his ministry as he was traveling around doing missionary work.

Paul was so pleased with this that he called the Philippian church his “joy and crown… my beloved.”  Basically Paul is saying this: He is calling the Philippian church his CROWNING ACHIEVEMENT.  

So I ask us all to adopt this attitude of Paul in two ways.
First As Paul cannot be at the side of the Philippians, he trusted in those in the church to uphold the work of the church.  Staff and I love each and every one of you but cannot be at all places at all times.  We ask that you “stand firm in the Lord” and that THAT will help you to serve your campuses well.  Join with the staff as we do ministry. Although we cannot be everywhere, we will try our very best to shepherd each of you so that you can stand firm in the lord and so that your work on your campuses will be fruitful. 

Second, I ask all of us to serve in a way where our campuses, GOD’S PEOPLE will be our “joy and our crown… my beloved.”  I hope that at the end of the year, you can say, these people on my campus, in my small group, are my crowning achievement.  All the churches had issues, but none was more faithful than the Philippian church.  I hope we can look back at our campus in 10 months and can feel that this was so very fruitful and that the people were your crowning achievement.  Your grades are important.  No one denies that, but I really believe God will be more pleased with His people saying “God look at these people.  You called me to serve them and you allowed me to be a part of their spiritual growth.  They are my crowning achievement.”  rather than “God I did my best in school and got straight A’s even though I had to abandon all these people you’ve called me to serve.  The implication is not that grades are unimportant.  The point is that God’s PEOPLE are more important.  

As the staff wish to say at the end of the year, “our core leaders were our crowning achievement” we hope that you too will join in saying “my small group and campus is my crowning achievement.”

Blessings and grace to you all!

“The Wise and Foolish Builders” Matthew 7:24-27 (New International Version)
24 “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. 26 But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. 27 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”

Hello gang, My name is Changsoo Lee a.k.a. Olivia, Izzy, Parker, and Andy’s dad.  I was mistakenly added to this email list, but graciously left on so I can reminisce about my own college days which was so important in my own spiritual formation.  I can’t tell you how encouraged I am to read what you’ve shared, and have hope in Christ that Cornerstone Church’s vision is being lived out by many student leaders in a concrete and tangible way; “to transform lives that will impact the world.” http://www.cornerstoneboston.org/about-us

Our church believes that many of you will serve in various leadership roles in your life time; families, churches, work places, businesses, governments, mission fields, etc.  Our church is so privileged to have the opportunity to shape and impact this life-stage in the lives of many students who call Cornerstone their community while God has placed them in this area.  All you SG leaders have the distinct pleasure and/or pain of serving at the grass-roots level to see how God is working in and through you to achieve this challenging yet so meaningful work of building community through which we can observe the transformation of lives that will have a lasting impact in this world and eternity.
This parable, coming at the end of the sermon on the mount, (Matthew Chaper 5, 6, & 7) can really help all of us keep certain perspective as we go about everyday things.  If we think about it, we all engage in building something; Lego sets, portfolio, academic achievements, credentials, friendships, communities, images, careers, bank accounts, families, homes, houses, and the list goes on.  The question this parable inevitably asks each of us to deeply examine is which foundation am I building my life on?  Is it fame, fortune, looks, achievements, self-worth/self-preservation/selfishness, relationships, addictions, family, Christ?  It’s one thing to say what our foundation(s) is/are, but the truth will emerge when trouble comes and knocks down whatever we’ve built and exposes and tests the foundation that we’ve built it on.  Notice in the passage same scenarios affected both builders, but the outcome is drastically different.  As many of you alluded to in your devotionals and comments, this life will have many ups and downs, but it’s how we respond in light of God’s Grace which will not only set us apart, but sustain us until the Day of Christ’s return.

During college, my family housed a young man from Korea attending a private high school in preparation for university education in the US.  Our families were close friends and he lived with us for 4 years and got accepted to Washington University in Saint Louis, MO.  The summer before he was to start college, he went to Mexico for a mission trip, as he’d done the previous summer, but lost his life in an accident in the river.  As a parent myself, I can only imagine how difficult this trial would be.  Many people, families, and churches are torn apart when tragedy like this occurs.  A group from our church, including my senior pastor, went down to Mexico and was closely followed by his mother from Korea.
What took place in Mexico during the funeral service was a true demonstration of life built on solid rock, the Christ, and a great reminder for all who were there to bear witness to how God works in mysterious ways.  His mother, even in her great sadness, thanked God for having had the opportunity to nurture him and see him grow and mature into a man of God.  She gave praise to God for all the mysterious ways that He will work through this tragedy.  She gave his remains to be buried in Mexico and started a mission’s center and a local church, which to this day serves as a beacon of hope and a light to that area, both as a symbol of life sacrificed and a tangible facility that the community uses as a refuge during heavy rain seasons.
The response his mother exemplified made a lasting impact in my own life.  Would I be able to response in such a way?  Would I be able to praise God and thank Him despite trials and tribulations?  Would I be able to hold on to the faith and believe in goodness of our Heavenly Father, who’s love is demonstrated and evident in Christ’s sacrifice?

24”Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.”  The answer is so simple yet so complex; so easy yet so difficult.  Let us remember Christ each day and follow His example each day.  So we can stand on Christ, the solid Rock, when the trials come and let Christ, the foundation, be shown for all to see.
 
I’ve always enjoyed this hymn and it seems more meaningful in light of this passage.

“My Hope is Built on Nothing Less” by Edward Mote, 1797-1874
1.  My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness;
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly lean on Jesus’ name.
On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand.
2.  When darkness veils His lovely face,
I rest on His unchanging grace;
In every high and stormy gale
My anchor holds within the veil.
On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand.
3.  His oath, His covenant, and blood
Support me in the whelming flood;
When every earthly prop gives way,
He then is all my Hope and Stay.
On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand.
4.  When He shall come with trumpet sound,
Oh, may I then in Him be found,
Clothed in His righteousness alone,
Faultless to stand before the throne!
On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand.

Sorry this is a bit delayed, I just figured out that I get wifi in the hotel lobby (I’m away with my family at the moment). Finally managed to shoo my brothers away to have some alone time with God. :)

I like the idea of having “the best of both worlds.” But as a Christian, this is something I cannot have; I can’t have one foot out the door and the other kept on the sinful and worldly side of things. Yet knowing this apparently isn’t enough because my physical and emotional desires often win over my spiritual obligation to the Lord. Verse 23 says “he must deny himself and take up his cross daily.” I think denying myself implies becoming one with the Lord. Walk in step with the Spirit as I am reborn by the blood of Jesus Christ. This reminds me of a discussion I had at bible study this past Friday. We were reading 1 John 1, about how we are not just given a new life because we were good, but a price was paid for our sins. Likewise, each of us has a cross to pick up and carry to the top of the hills. Like we’ve been saying all this time, being Christian isn’t exactly a walk in the park. We have to struggle with our sins, perpetrators we may face, Satanic temptations, etc. Whenever I complain to my mom about something (that always ends up being nothing), she often uses the expression of “carrying the cross”. Every one of those small things that upset us or shake us in our spiritual growth, is like a cross we have to carry. After all, Jesus carried a cross worth all of our sins. Compared to that, my petty complaints are more like papercuts (although those do sting…). Plus, while Jesus had to pay for our sins on his own, we have Him to help us carry our cross. Seriously… when is He ever going to stop being so good to us?! Just kidding… that thought is actually very frightening. And… no matter what the circumstances, I have to be prepared to drop everything to follow Christ. And not just once in a while or whenever I feel like it, but every single day. 

Despite the amazing grace and mercy He shows me, what’s in the second passage of Luke is the single most difficult thing for me. The fact that He must come before my family… they mean everything to me. My worst fear is losing any of them. Last summer I experienced what it was like to see a friend’s family lose its mother. It was probably one of the most horrifying things I have ever witnessed. And ever since then, I’ve developed this paranoia of finding someone dead in my house when I got home or receiving a call from someone telling me the worst news. I even get upset when someone from home calls me more than once in a row. But I’m also afraid that I am that man in verses 59 and 61. Actually even worse because I secretly believe that the more sinful I am, the more likely God is going to take away the most important thing in my life. If I were to tell you my number one priority, I think my family would be my most truthful answer. But you know, having read what I just wrote, it seems almost silly too. He gives and takes away because everything, even my family, belongs to only Him. I’m not entitled to anything in my existence. Anyway, this topic will probably remain under my list of things to pray about for a very very long time. But something I read today: “Very often what God first helps us towards is not the virtue itself but just this power of always trying again.” Man, God is so dang wonderful and gracious…

That’s exactly why He deserves us to love Him with all our hearts, souls, minds, and strengths. Nothing, even things we personally value very highly or things we hate, should ever come between us. We love Him because He first loved us, not the other way around. Let’s all remember to thank God for his grace and not credit anything to our abilities because even those come from Him anyway!

I don’t know how I ended up with the topic of redemption, but it is perfect..my life is the definition of a life redeemed a million times and more, even though I do not deserve it.

Jesus showed me what it meant to truly be redeemed when I entered college. Coming from a sheltered life, I became victim to the freedom and to the lack of responsibility that we call college. I was an excellent student in high school; responsible and on top of my game. I was a huge goody two shoes, and I never had trouble with with anything.

On the other hand..freshman year was so much fun; I could stay out as long as I liked, attend as many church/school functions as I pleased, and I had no one to tell me what to do. In high school, my curfew was 9pm, and I could only choose between Friday Night youth group gatherings or Saturday morning prayer every week..one and not both. Stuvi was heavenly and the upperclassmen were like drugs, and having my friends over whenever I wanted to got to my head. I started sleeping when the sun came up, and the consequences I faced were..very bad.

Soon, I was missing classes and unfortunately, one midterm (ask me about this story in person if you want to hear more), and missing chances to serve as well. Spring semester of my freshman year, I remember not going to classes for two and a half weeks straight. Things spiraled out of control, and what initially tasted so sweet quickly turned bitter. 

I ended up losing all my scholarships, grants & financial aid, and as an extended result, decided to take a semester off my sophomore spring semester. I hated my parents for keeping me at home, but I needed the time to slow my life down and figure out everything that I did wrong so I could fix it and become a new creation in Christ.

Between the beginning of my freshman year and the beginning of junior year, I feel like I went through a mini hell because of my irresponsible actions when I first came to BU. I strained my family through the experience, had very low self-esteem, and felt like I could never make things right. I truly believed that I had messed up the rest of my life, lost my opportunity to go to a great grad school, and ruined my integrity as a good student. I felt judged by a lot of people who would look at my grades and tell me “no”- how was I supposed to explain my lapse of judgement as opposed to what they thought was a lapse of intellect? I hated it when people thought I was dumb or had behavioral/psychological problems because of my transcript; I had never felt so harshly humbled in my life.

Currently, I’m still dealing with the aftermath of the first two years of college. I briefly share my experience (yes, there is so much more that I cannot write out here!) with you all so you can get a real life snapshot of a life redeemed. I ended up being able to come back to BU, met all you lovely freshmen, and received my financial aid back. The story isn’t complete though..it is complete when I graduate and see how God has enriched my life at BU. It is complete when I finish the work he has set out for me here.

Psalm 130: 3-4 says “If you, O Lord, should mark my iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness, that you may be feared.”

We must believe that Jesus will redeem us and mark each of us as his own. Without his redemption, we cannot stand on our own. We would probably die without his redemption because we would be consumed by our own guilt. Those countless times in the past when I felt overwhelming guilt..they were lies from satan telling me that I wasn’t good enough, that I would cut it and that I should cease to live a good life here on earth.

With Jesus’ salvation, he has paid for all the sins we have committed and will ever commit. That is a weighty burden that our Savior took for all of us, so may we rest assured that no sin is big enough to ever keep us apart from our Father. Romans says that we will always fall short..we will, but we need to have faith that Jesus has already paid for our shortcomings.

Thanks for reading this long post. I wanted to share a part of my testimony because I don’t know when I’ll ever have this many people to hear about how amazing God has been in my life.

-Naomi

sorry this is a day late everyone.!

so love…love love love…
we need to love our neighbors. do onto others as we want to be treated. dont judge. dont be hypocrites. nothing is worth anything if you have not love. BUT. we dont do it. we dont love everyone. theres always that one person that bothers you inside your mind. and sometimes. people cant even love themselves. then howww does this work?

well. obviously its something that cant happen over night. we cant wake up tomorrow and start loving everyone and becoming righteous. its a process that takes a lot of work and a lot of meditation.

40”The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’
^ this tells us how we treat the people around us is how we are treating Jesus. I think we forget most of the time that everyone around us are Gods people. Gods creation.
Isnt it funny how the PRIEST ignored the guy on the street? .. he avoided him at all costs and WALKED on the OTHER side of the street. thats sad. but thats really the reality of how we are today. we dont want to go the extra mile.
I mean. I dont think Jesus is telling us to go out and start bringing all the homeless people to our homes.

but i feel like hes saying to focus. focus on ourselves. love one another. truly. think about it. if we dont love the person sitting next to us. what proves this “love” we have for helping people out? such as bringing home a homeless person. feeding them. giving “love”…. is that really love? thats just following standards to be a “nice” person.

I think to become active lovers in our community. we have to start WITHIN ourselves and work our way out.
so lets prepare our hearts to love. each other. and everyone else. inside and outside our boundaries to inherit eternal life and ..let us treat others as we would treat Jesus . with our whole hearts!  <3    :)

have a nice dayyyyy~~~~~~~~~~~!!!!!!!

In our walk, I feel like everyone reaches a point where there’s something that stands in the way of where we’re going.  Whether it’s a multitude of doubts, stress, or burdens, there’s always something that seems to distract us from where we’re supposed to be going. It’s so easy (almost dangerously too easy) to stray our eyes from Christ, the only thing we need to keep our eyes fixed upon. Where we look, we will go. We have to check our hearts and our minds and see where we’re looking because the times where I’m not growing in Christ is when because I’M NOT LOOKING AT HIM. Faith is alive, and it’s one thing to look at Christ, but the next step is to walk towards him. The world will know we are Christians by our love, of faith in action.  

We need to have faith to obey because we have a God that utterly loves us. I mean for me, I definitely have had a partial faith; it’s easy to obey when the times are good or when I have a spiritual high but I realized that the reasons why our spiritual highs die down is because we lost faith to obey. We need to bring awareness to our motives (whether we’re slaves to sin or righteousness) because God isn’t going to force us to love him (even though he can) but because he loves us, he wants to lead the ones who want to be led.

We need to have faith in the church, community through accountability. When I read the passage from James 1, I immediately thought of a metaphor I heard once from a sermon; there are two parts of our bodies that we can’t see on our own: our most precious part of our body (our face) and our most vulnerable part of our body (our back). Accountability can sometimes be hard to hear from other people because I feel like our faults are magnified and scrutinized. But we need to have open hearts, slow to anger and have faith in the community that they will speak truth into our lives. We need encouragement so that we could see how precious we are and accountability so that we could see how vulnerable we are.

I think it’s so hard to realize how precious each person really is. Once we have faith and God’s vision in our hearts, our actions will naturally flow out. God loves us so much, and when we see things as he does, our perception of worth will completely change and our actions will change as a result; once we see the potential and beauty in each person and how precious God believes they are, we’ll definitely go all out our of the love that God placed in our lives. 

I guess the title is kind of cheesy, but I like it. Anyways, the passages we were given are about Saul and his conversion into Paul. And as we all know, we was the man who quite possibly was doing the most harm to Christians(may not be accurate) but turned into one of the greatest servants that the world has ever seen. Praise God that he used Paul to do so many great things.

But the main thing that stuck out to me was that we can see the Special revelation in how God hand picked his servant. God struck him with blindness and started talking to him, how could he not serve Christ Jesus? So, what stuck with me wasn’t who God chose to further his kingdom, but THAT he chooses people further his kingdom. Yes, he can and will choose drug dealers, murderers, just all around “bad” people, and even those whose lives aren’t as fantastic or intense as other people’s lives have been. But i really don’t think thats the point. God chooses his servants. No person is fit for the job that God requires, but God will work through you. Since God chose you to do these things, there is no reason that you should do otherwise. Your background, or your history, or whatever, does not make you ineligible to be the tool that God uses to change lives.

My life hasn’t been altogether that difficult, i’ve never really strayed too far from following the rules. My life never that exceptional turnaround that you hear from a lot of speakers that is so encouraging. But none of that changes that I am a wretched sinner and even if the outside world can’t see how God’s love and grace has changed me, i assure you that I can. And I know that my God has chosen me to work through me. And he gives us this blessing of being used by him, simply because we are his children, it is in his nature to Love us. I don’t quite understand why he loves us so, but all I know about that subject is that he does love us, and thats good enough for me.

sorry if this was long and makes little sense, or deviates from the topic. Oh, and its titled the rescue because its God swoops down in the midst of our sin and then saves us and uses us. Not our own strength in any way.

Before coming to Cornerstone or BU, I never really considered or thought of rebuke and how it could play such a huge role in our relationships with our brothers and sisters. As many people know, I’m definitely not a confrontational person, so it’s so tough for me to even think about rebuking anyone. However, I do believe that rebuking is necessary in our walk with God. It shows our love for another—to strive as a community for the betterment of one body in Christ. It’s basically another form of accountability, and it keeps us grounded. It helps us to open our eyes to things that we ourselves may not have seen before, and it brings about positive learning experiences. In Matthew 7:3-5 it says,

“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.”

It can be hard to discern between judging and rebuking. Judging comprises of looking down on others for certain demeanors or actions—a very negative outlook on a person, and with a judging attitude, one believes that he/she is better than another. But I believe that with rebuking comes love—a love that wants to share and teach. A mother is not going to let her child play on a dangerous road just because it’ll make the child happy. Because she loves her child, she will do whatever it takes to protect and rebuke her child so that he/she will learn. And in that same sense, I believe we, as small group leaders, should rebuke one another in learning experience. Even though it may seem negative and pride-crushing at the time, like it says in Proverbs 15:31, 33, “He who listens to a life-giving rebuke will be at home among the wise. The fear of the Lord teaches a man wisdom, and humility comes before honor.”

I hope that as a small group leader, I would learn to have the boldness to rebuke and also have the humility to be rebuked so that we will all benefit and grow further into fruitful relationships. I also pray that our rebuke may not be a form of judgment or self-righteousness, but a way to express love that is eminent of God’s presence. 

Psalm 31:19

.

Oh, how abundant is your goodness,
which you have stored up for those who fear you
and worked for those who take refuge in you,
in the sight of the children of mankind!

John Piper—in his sermon—considers these two important truths. Piper says that fearing God isn’t “another” requirement, but it’s the way you receive Jesus, it’s the way you come to Jesus—humbly, reverently, without the mentality that you deserving anything, trembling. Piper equates running from our God to destruction. And in every sense of that analogy, I completely agree. I think it’s because when we’re not walking hand in hand with God, we are so much more susceptible to stray further and further away from Him. Romans 5 tells us that “There is only goodness for those who fear Him.” But then I thought, but being in genuine pursuit of God and His heart is the hardest thing that I’ve ever encountered. There are the infamous “trials” that He tests us with, temptations that bombard us from all sides, and the general desire to be more and more like Him and less like ourselves. How are all these things good? It’s so hard to find joy and goodness in times of pain. But then it says, “Even their pains are filled with profit.”  

And then I got it. It reminded me of what Brooke Fraser said during a hillsong concert last year: we are the gold and He is the potter. God wants to mold us into something that’s of worth. But like gold (when found in its natural state), we are filled with so many impurities. But gold, when heated up by fire, it starts to melt and the impurities—little by little—surface. And as it surfaces, God wipes it away. And more of our flaws surface, God wipes them away.. and away.. until we’re pure enough so that God can see His reflection in us.  

Just like the piece of gold in the analogy, God desires us to become more like Him. And the pain and suffering we inevitably persevere through, is the same as the fire that the gold suffers through. It may seem unbearable at times, but it is God’s way of showing our sin, and wiping us clean of them. How the gold’s pains are filled with profit. How God loves us so much more than a piece of gold. I wonder at the possibilities of the outcome of our pains.  

I wish I was in constant fear and revenance before my God. I wish I trusted Him enough in my times of confusion and frustration with things, other people, but mostly myself—so that I would not run from Him but seek Him all the more. I wish I would take refuge in Him during those times so that God’s work on me would progress rather than take a hiatus. I wish I was so in love with God, that nothing and no one else would matter. I pray for our small groups this up and coming year.. that we would have hearts filled with a fear of our God that we would tremble.. so that just like the gold, we would be refined.  

Sorry this was long. Wherever you are across the world, I hope you are enjoying your summers and receiving grace and clarity from our God :)

hahaha… my fellow intern tune & the cab driver got into an intense convo about china while running errands this morning for our office. i zoned out but this is pretty interesting.

HOOORAH! hump day is over!