Let's Get Ready to Ramble!!!!

No offense to Boxing Announcer Michael Buffer but there is so much going on that this blog is going to be a bit of a ramble.  keep up if you can....

1. God is doing some amazing things at Cornerstone.  Last weekend we had a record Sunday attendance, save Easter and Christmas.  Somebody asked what we did to get everyone there.  I said, nothing it was a God thing.  It is His church and He has decided that it is time for us to grow to the next level.  Now we just have to make some adjustments...
2. Speaking of Adjustments, I cannot wait to move over to the other building.  We have brand spanking new chairs and 3 times as much space to fill up in all three services.  No kidding, our church could run 1,000 in the space we will have....Let's fill it up!
3.  Today I have to go to the store for some toiletry items.... this is not usually news, but it is for our Missions trip to Nicaragua.  We have 8 people from our church leaving this Sunday afternoon and will spend a week doing construction on the Hope Center in Teco!  You can see the progress made by previous groups, and we will be doing all kinds of stuff.  I will be taking part in a baptism, I am guessing my part will be to distract the crocodiles, a la Steve Erwin, and then preaching via translator on Wednesday night.  Seriously pray for me to not screw that up!  I plan on telling my buddy Paul to let me speak in English, and for him to just preach in Spanish.
4. Speaking of World Hope, tonight we are going to a celebration dinner at First Baptist Orlando, celebrating all that God has done this past year through World Hope.  I am so glad that we have a strategic Missions Partner like Hope.  I don't know any missionaries who balance Evangelism and Ministry like them.  Jesus served people AND preached the gospel.  To do one and not the other is inadequate.
5. I will be meeting today with Gabe to work on some stuff for our upcoming message series Kaleo.  It is going to be awesome, and I want to kick this one up a notch.
6. It has been 1 month since Ward came along side and started working with us in our small groups.  God has given him a vision to make our church the most biblically literate church in the world, and I believe that Ward believes God will do it!  We are working with our small group leaders on Wednesday nights and are looking forward to getting everybody excited and engaged.
7.  This Sunday will be my last message from Gideon.  I am going to miss that dude! He has taught me a lot about myself and how God wants to use me and how to find His plan for me.  This weekend we will see that God want's us to do MORE with less.  Prolly a good message for 2009!
8. Let's put the recess back in recession!  I am tired of all the complaining!  Let's enjoy the downturn seriously!  I remember when the lights went out as a kid and we "GOT' to use candles!  That was a blast.  Just cause we have less, does not mean we have to pout!  Let's kick up the creativity and put recess back in recession!
9. Just got word from Paul in Nicaragua, that as soon as our team leaves, a surgical team will arrive from Canada.  I am not a Dr. but I can do my part by building an examination room.  That is teamwork!
10.  BTW for any of you who skip church when I skip town, I will not miss a weekend service, and I will know if you are not there!  More so, you will miss out our presentation on the 7th and 8th if you are not there, and I may not post pictures here simply out of spite!  Don't miss!
11. Giving was great in January!  We took a step forward this year, and set an aggressive budget.  Each week we need $5,000 to come in so that we can continue growing forward.  I told someone the other day that February will be the test for the rest of the year.  Moving into the larger room requires that everybody get on board and share the load.
12.  I don't know a time when I have been more hopeful about what God is doing in our church.  We do not have another "growth barrier" until we hit 400 in attendance and I can't wait to get to the foot of that mountain. Let's enjoy the journey!

Get Jesus out of your yard and into your home!

Okay, here comes a rant, so be warned.  All over people are putting statues of baby Jesus all over their yards.  People I never see leaving for church on Sunday mornings have spent literally hours constructing a lean to in their front lawn to display a plastic Jesus.  I even read this morning how more people are installing surveillance cameras to catch "baby Jesus thieves" who like to collect lawn ornaments and such.  Now I am not a big fan of the  way that Santa and his shelf-elfs have taken over Christmas, and I do think the atheists need another season to claim as their own, but really, get Jesus out of your yard already!  Jesus did not come to this earth to lay in the manger for 2,000+ years.  Why do we insist on celebrating His birthday as if he was still a newborn.  I mean, I don't celebrate my wife's birthday by dressing her like a newborn and sticking her outside in the cold all night.  The advent of God coming to this earth is what we should be celebrating, not his birth, not the fact that he was a cute baby.  My Christmas wish is that all who want to celebrate Christ's mass (leaving heaven) would go to the Lord's house to actually spend some time with Him.  God forbid that we waste time getting plastic Jesus out of the attic, just to leave him out of our homes.

Vomiting

The 2008 election has reminded us of a valuable lesson.  Politics is sickening!  Last night President-elect Obama won the election by making no apologies for being the most liberal person in Washington.  In the end, the "Maverick" middle of the road guy lost.  As a pastor and conservative, I was never a fan of John McCain, and though Palin sweetened the ticket, I still felt she was the orange syrup they put in really bad medicine.  The defeat for the Republican party was in fact a victory for conservatives.  My fear when Bush left leading and started following, and his numbers fell, was that the Republican party would leave their moral conservative base in exchange for what has become known as "Fiscal Conservativism."  (I would rather lose an election than a political party.) The thought was that Christians care more about their pocketbooks than they do their Bible.  What is amazing to me is that in a year when Republicans lost heavily, the FL Marriage Amendment overwhelmingly won with 62% of the vote.  This is clear.  When you water things down and serve luke-warm ideas, people are not inspired, people don't campaign, people don't vote.  What we can learn as believers is that we cannot win the battle for souls by compromise.  Luke warm never works.  Look how Jesus states it in Revelation 3... " ¹⁵“I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. ¹⁶So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth. "


So the day after the election, I pray that Republican Party will be vomiting.  Now is the time for all of us to turn to Christ, and follow Him without compromise.

Teach my smart phone a lesson

I have a pretty smart phone, Motorola Razor to be specific. It can do anything. Well, I once tried shaving with it, but it was not so good. But here is my dilemma, Why don't smart phones know it is 3:17 A.M. when the battery gets low. Last night the phone starts whimpering like a 6 month old, and you know it wont just go back to sleep so you get up and plug it in. I am telling you I was ready to plug it into the trash can, but then I would still hear it annoyingly beeping from the depths. And while I'm on the subject.... When you put the little sucker on vibrate and the battery is low it does the same thing. it vibrates, draining your precious little battery every 2 minutes until it dies. Well, I feel better getting that off my chest. Maybe I need a smarter phone that when the battery gets low it can tell me and I can say, I know my dear, I will take care of it as soon as we get home. To which the phone will reply... "Are we there yet?"

Since when is being rich a sin? - um... yesterday.

It is now official; dying rich is a mortal sin according to the Pope.Failure to recycle has also been added to the list that will get you sent straight to the slammer. I don't intend to rant in this post, but to mourn the loss of the spiritual compass that would deny Christ's work on the cross by adding additional and even questionable laws to the salvation of man. Jesus said on the cross "it is finished!" By that he meant that it was paid in full, no questions, no doubts, asterisks or blanks to be filled out 2000 years later. I applaud that the Catholic church is for the environment, and that rich people should help with the cause of world hunger. However, to say that one has to do anything short of trusting Christ for salvation is not only an insult to me as a believer, but is an insult to Jesus who shed his blood for the remission of sins. I look forward to next Sunday as we celebrate communion, and then on Easter as we celebrate His victory over sin and death. I for one am glad that Jesus did not leave me with any unpaid bills.