Cornerstone Boulder Weekly Podcast

Wonders: How do we Respond? ~ Pastor Aaron Wardle

When we're talking about wonder one of the most important things to be aware of is that God still moves in wonder-working power. The question isn't whether this will happen, but how we'll respond when it does. Aaron lays out three kinds of responses to wonder: the expectant, the observer, and the skeptic and talks about how each of them have a role to play and a direction they need to move in order to appropriately experience the Wonder of God. 

It's a Wonderful Life ~ Rabbi Gene Binder

Gene lays out a menu of all of the different ways that we are encouraged to experience Wonder and gives some of the reason why staying connected to the experience of wonder is so important. We can get to the places where we feel as though we are too hurt to open ourselves to wonder or where we become too prideful in our knowledge to experience wonder. Yet, wonder is the experience that is able to change our perspective, move us out of our ruts, and engage in the invitation to engage in a whole new world. 

Our Faith in God's Pla'im ~ Pastor Brian Carlucci

We're often faced with the choice between being overwhelmed with what we don't have or moving forward with what we do have. Moving forward requires that we see the world in a different way, we look at who we are, what we have and what we can do. When we look at those things through the lens of trust in God, it's called having faith, and as we step forward, we make ourselves available to His Wonders.

Our Strength & God's Pla'im ~ Pastor Brian Carlucci

Brian takes a look at a very familiar story and some of the details within it that show us how God partners with us to work wonders in the world. Something wonderful happens when we build a history with God and allow Him to direct our strengths towards His purposes.

Language of Journey ~ Rabbi Gene Binder

Rabbi Gene concludes the Psalms series by looking at the Psalms of Ascent and how these particular Psalms gave the Jewish people a melody of ascent as they approached the dwelling place of God. For us, they can do the same: giving us language of anticipation, hope, and journey as we make our way through life looking towards our coming home.

Language of Confession ~ Pastor Brian Carlucci

Confession is a word that can carry a lot of baggage, but as Brian shares in this message, the language of confession we read in the Psalms invites us into the grace of God. As we learn these "vocabularies of prayer" in the Psalms series, we want to take particular time on how we approach God when something is wrong with us: knowing that He wants to help us and restore us.

Language of Closeness ~ Pastor Brian Carlucci

The Psalms are full of language describing the joy and the blessing of approaching God and recognizing how near He is. Whether this language is about God's proximity or about God's intimacy, the idea of the closeness of God is, if anything, even more true for us today. Listen as Brian and a few special guests share what this means for us and how we grow to recognize this blessing in our lives. 

Language of Joy: Psalms of Praise ~ Rabbi Gene Binder

Following his message on Psalms of Lament, Gene takes a praise break this Sunday! As we look at the language of the heart, it's important for us to understand the necessary push toward being uninhibited in our emotions towards God. We were meant to be emotionally vibrant creatures, not frigid ones. When we choose to engage with both loss and joy, lament and praise, we deepen our hearts and encounter a richer connection with God and with one another. 

Language of Loss: Psalms of Lament ~ Rabbi Gene Binder

Life is a continual experience of acquisition and loss and when we experience loss it always leaves a mark. In order to be healthy and whole we need a way to process through our loss, to truly feel it and to experience all of the stages of grief. The Psalms serve us in this way, they liberate us to experience our loss and to move through it in a way that keeps our hearts alive. Life is a continual experience of acquisition and loss and when we experience loss it always leaves a mark. In order to be healthy and whole we need a way to process through our loss, to truly feel it and to experience all of the stages of grief. The Psalms serve us in this way, they liberate us to experience our loss and to move through it in a way that keeps our hearts alive. 

Honest to God ~ Pastor Aaron Wardle

The book of Psalms is more than just a simple book. With several different writers over nearly five centuries, the book of Psalms is a collection of all of those psalms that were deemed important for the spiritual health of the Hebrew people. As Aaron shows in this talk, they didn't leave anything off-limits or out of bounds, but chose instead to provide a language of complete and utter honesty before God. Within the Psalms we have many different words that encourage us and invite us to be honest before God and that help us to develop a sincere relationship with Him through whatever circumstances we might find ourselves living through.