Easter Ponderings at 4:30 a.m.

It is 4:30 a.m. on Easter Saturday. A few minutes ago I am lying in bed thinking about Easter. The main thought that consumes me is that Easter is about Christ. It is about worshiping the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. I'm trying to fall back to sleep because in a few hours the weekend will start and it won't stop until Sunday night. I wonder if an Easter Egg hunt somehow takes away from our worship of Christ on Easter. I think about the fact that Easter Eggs and Chicks and the fake grass are all some carryover of pagan celebrations into the Catholic church. I wonder for a moment why the Catholic church would celebrate "pagan" holidays, how they could pervert Easter with fertility rituals. Then I think about the fact that Jesus could have scheduled His death burial and resurrection for anytime of the year. The pharisees were truly willing to kill him at any time. But he chose the season of his resurrection. I remember that as I studied for this weekend's message, that when Passover was instituted that it was to be the first month of their year. Another beginning. I thought it was kind of God's plan for the death of winter to give way for the resurrection of life to spring forth. I wonder if God was the one who scheduled this to be the time of the birthing of new lambs, new chicks, and green grass. That it was His intent all along that we celebrate new life, a new year at this Season. I stop thinking bad about the Catholic church, I stop thinking bad about the pagans, I lay there amazed at how God is in control of every detail and that when we just stop long enough to pay attention, that He will reveal Himself to us. He is GOD! One day we will stand before Him in Heaven. We will fall to our knees in worship. We will finally stop. And we will finally understand that it is all about Him.

Easter Notes

1. Lots of calls this week about our Easter services.
2. Lunch with Scott Smith from Community of Faith to talk Parking (I love that guy)
3. We are having the Easter Egg hunt before the service on Saturday and after the services on Sunday.
4. I think we are the only Easter Egg Hunt in town.
5. The Reporter (News Paper) did not change our ad to the one we sent.
6. Someone will read that ad and show up for an 8:15 service we are not having.
7. They will be angry and blame us.
8. We will accept credit for their mistake and apologize.
9. Our Team has spent many hours preparing for Easter.
10. Our members have spent many hours preparing for Easter.
11. Our guests would benefit by spending many hours preparing themselves for Easter.
12. We anticipate 300 people to worship with us on Easter.
13. We anticipate 1 person to be our focus on Easter.
14. Some of the Easter Eggs will have cash in them.
15. Only kids are allowed to hunt for Easter Eggs.
16. Additional parking will be available on the Soccer field.
17. Additional seating will be available because of the sacrifice of our regular attenders.
18. The worship will be amazing.
19. The message will be Bible.
20. The church will be friendly.
21. The Lord will be lifted up.

Explosive

I am not a cheerleader by nature. I read some pastor blogs and it seems that they are constantly pumping the people of their church up with words like greatest and amazing. I have always shied away from SUNDAY, SUNDAY,SUNDAY type messages, but I do believe that this weekend is going to be amazing in the life of Cornerstone. As we approach this Easter Sunday, we do so with a few things already happening.
1. God's People are Praying - It is so exciting to me that our church has talked to God about Easter Sunday for the past few weeks.
2. People are preparing - So much work has gone into everything from the coordination with tickets, egg hunts, music and ministry.
3. People are coming - right now, according to ticket distribution, we have three full services. (Tickets were for regulars, not guests. No one will be turned away at the door.)
It is very possible that we could see attendance top 300 for the first time on Easter Sunday. Please continue to pray with me that God will work in the lives of people on Easter and that we will do our part in lifting up the name of Christ. Also, be busy inviting your friends and neighbors to come and join us for worship. Saturday 6:30; Sunday 9:30 & 10:45

Honey...., eharmony's on the phone.....

So for the last few weeks at random, but never convenient times the phone would ring and "eharmony" would show up in the caller ID. Amy and I had exchanged many curious looks as to who in our household would be receiving calls from the dating website, but never enough to bother to pick it up. I had suspicions about Andrew (6 years old) as he has taken to wearing my cologne and last night he layered his shirts 3 deep before church. If you don't already know, these are obvious signs of a guy on the prowl. Well, today I finally answered the eharmony call. It took a few seconds for the automated answerer to pick up their end of the line and then she asked for..... you guessed it Jackie. I told her that she must have the wrong number, but then again we have at least 4 Jackies in the church. Jacque Conard, Jacki Wanless, Jackie Bartels, and Jackie Wortz! I'll let you know if my investigation turns anything up.

Saturday Night Worship

Our postcards are hitting mailboxes today announcing the launch of our new Saturday Worship Service. Unfortunately, my mailbox came up short. It is always a little troubling when you send out 17,000 cards and your only measure of their actually arriving does not arrive! Well, Pastor Gabe sends regards that his was safe, and my good friend Skip down at the Barber Shop proudly has his displayed by his chair so I guess we are good. Also the phone has begun to ring with people seeking directions. Saturday is fast becoming my favorite worship service. (Please don't tell the Sunday crowd!)

A Wall or a Door?

Everything is going great and all of a sudden, out of nowhere you hit a wall. I can't convey how often this happens in church life, or even life in general. But one thing that I have learned is that all walls have doors. Even the Great Wall of China has gates as the cloud terrace gate pictured here. The goal of every wall encounter is to find the door. Some doors will be open and others closed. I personally recommend trying the open ones first, but then again, what is a door, but simply a wall with a key shaped door. Don't let the walls stop you today. find your way to the door and keep on.

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.

3 Hour Challenge

I want to throw down a challenge for all the people of Cornerstone. We are expecting great things from God this Easter and have been making many plans for how we will accommodate the crowds and orchestrate the service. In all the practical planning we can tend to put too much confidence in planning and programs and not spend enough time in the preparation of prayer. Here is the challenge: Between now and Easter, (18 Days)spend 3 hours praying over the Easter services. We want to focus our prayers on asking the Holy Spirit to help us be effective in Elevating Christ on Easter Sunday. This will be done through music and message, but also through individual ministry. We know that if Christ is exalted, then souls will be drawn to Him, and that is our ultimate end. If you want to sign up for the 3 Hour Challenge, please let me know by emailing me. It would be awesome to have the participation of our entire church family in this most important exercise.

What will you do with your extra day?

All of us complain that we never have enough time to accomplish the things on our to-do list. We whine and complain about wanting more hours in the day, more days in the week ad nosium. What if there was a way to capture an entire day. To literally "Carpe' Diem!" We are now offering, free of charge, an extra day. Here is how it works, every 4 years, we have extra time left over. Don't ask me how it works, I think it is like the dregs of life or that last piece of chicken on the platter thing. Anyway, today only, February 29th, you can experience your extra day. Unfortunately, once it is gone, it is gone. I know there will be some of you who just go on with life without paying much attention. You will go to work, school, etc. and when the sun sets, you will have spent today as you probably do every other day. You will not see today as the opportunity to take care of that necessary thing that you have been putting off, or to tell that certain someone that certain something that you never tell them. I think we will need to brand this extra day in order to get the word out. What if..... we call it leap day! What if we take that concept of seizing the day and apply it to the one day that we must leap upon. Now we run the risk that some will misunderstand and maybe even leap over this day, but we must be more intentional in our message. Please email this to everyone on your list, no wait, please don't. Don't waste another minute of your day reading this blog. Go leap, leap with all your might. This is your day. Your one extra day, go for it!

E.R. discovers the flaw of post-modernisem

Powerful! My favorite line is when he cries... "I need someone who will look me in the eye and tell me how to find forgiveness 'cause I am running out of time."