Liebster Blog Award

Liebster

And a big shout out to Kim from  http://unwalled.wordpress.com/2012/11/27/liebster-award/

for nominating me for the Liebster Blog award. If you have never checked out her blog Unwalled please give her a read!

For those who may not know, the Liebster Award is an award given to blogs that have less than 200 followers as a way to show encouragement and appreciation to fellow bloggers, as well as to spread the word about new blogs. 

The conditions of accepting the award are as follows:

A) You paste the award picture into your blog.- This picture is at the top of the blog. Prettyish huh?

B) When you receive the award, you must post 11 random facts about yourself.- Those of you who have been reading me for a while have already heard about all my strange musical instruments and know how many kids I have and all the normal 11 things about myself that would make this part of the post boring; So I’m going to take a different tack with this one. I am going to share 11 Scriptures which have special meaning to me.

Here we go.

1. And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to [his] purpose. Romans 8:28   This is one of my life verses. I have walked through my share of good and bad. But God turns everything! everything! everything! into a blessing if we do not forget to love Him through the good and bad times!

2. You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, all whose thoughts are fixed on you! Isaiah 26:3 Peace through every moment in life is possible if we only just keep our eyes turned on Jesus. Turn your eyes on Jesus look full in His wonderful face and the things of Earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace

3. Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me. John 14:6 Maybe these next two verses should have been numbers 1 and two but I am just laying these out in random order. I am so thankful that Jesus settled this issue for me all those years ago. When I came to the realization that practicing witchcraft was getting me no closer to the living God this verse cleared the way for me to repent and come to a right faith!

4. Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God.” John 3:3 The next question asked of Jesus was “How is this possible?” With man it’s not but with God it is and I am so glad that Jesus showed me I could be born again spiritually and have a fresh start on life.

5. But when people keep on sinning, it shows that they belong to the devil, who has been sinning since the beginning. But the Son of God came to destroy the works of the devil. I John 3:8 Having come from a rather potent sin background myself I was well acquainted with the devil and his demons. I actually called them angels. I talked with them took advice from them, channeled their power. I am so glad Jesus destroyed those works in me!

6.  If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. John 15:7 I love this verse because it reminds me that not all of god’s promises are unconditional. Answered prayer doesn’t come without a constant seeking of God and His will for me and for those I pray for.

7. A psalm of David. The LORD is my light and my salvation— so why should I be afraid? The LORD is my fortress, protecting me from danger, so why should I tremble? When evil people come to devour me, when my enemies and foes attack me, they will stumble and fall. Psalm 27:1,2  I love this verse because it reminds me that even when things look lost and my ship appears to be going down, I am truly unassailable as long as I stay in the place of His grace.

8. 51 But let me reveal to you a wonderful secret. We will not all die, but we will all be transformed! 52 It will happen in a moment, in the blink of an eye, when the last trumpet is blown. For when the trumpet sounds, those who have died will be raised to live forever. And we who are living will also be transformed. 53 For our dying bodies must be transformed into bodies that will never die; our mortal bodies must be transformed into immortal bodies. 54 Then, when our dying bodies have been transformed into bodies that will never die, this Scripture will be fulfilled:

“Death is swallowed up in victory. 55 O death, where is your victory?     O death, where is your sting?”

56 For sin is the sting that results in death, and the law gives sin its power. 57 But thank God! He gives us victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ. I Cor. 15:51-57 Do I really need to explain why I like this one?

9.  For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a commanding shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God. First, the Christians who have died  will rise from their graves.  Then, together with them, we who are still alive and remain on the earth will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Then we will be with the Lord forever. I Thess. 4:16,17 This is one of the weirdest truths in the Christian faith. It makes me smile to think that Star Trek wasn’t that far off with the whole “Beam me up Scotty!” thing!

10. The LORD appeared to us in the past,  saying: “I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness. Jer. 31:3 I know this was directed toward Israel, but I am grafted in…adopted. His love is for me as well and for that I can never say “Thank you!” enough.

11. Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, [which is] new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and [I will write upon him] my new name. Rev. 3:12 I just think this verse is great incentive to let the Lord liberate me from every evil thing!

I hope these inspired you! I am way over my word allotment for the day so I shall finish this tomorrow! 🙂  

Missions Conference 2012 Pt.10

J.S. one of the field directors for the Asia-Pacific field came to open up our missions conference. He came to us “Tired, Empty, and Dry” and told us that this is exactly where the church needs to be because only when we come to the end of ourselves can God truly begin to work.

Here is J.S. sermon from that day!

http://cornerstoneag.net/2012/09/23/redeemable/

Missions Conference 2012 Pt. 9

On Wednesday night of our Missions Conference, Cornerstone church welcomed Pastor Don Lance to the podium. Pastor Don has been doing short-term missions trips to  Haiti for the last several years. He and our Pastor are working on a short-term trip for summer 2013.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TjKCasKXYQ&feature=player_detailpage#t=3s

Pastor Don shared a timely word from John chapter 4 regarding Jesus’ trip through Samaria:

It was the habit of Jews travelling from Judea to Galilee to go around Samaria (even though the road through Samaria was the quickest route) because the Jews hated the Samaritans. But in John chapter 4 Jesus doesn’t go around Samaria he goes straight through the hateful place because there is work to be done there. It’s an interesting thought that the community of Samaritans Jesus preached to might have been the very people the first Christians fled to when the persecution against them broke out in Acts chapter 7 and 8. What would the reception of those first Christians been like, I wonder, had Jesus not taken his disciples into an uncomfortable situation in advance. The application of course is for us to remember that when God puts us between the devil and the deep blue sea it is never without reason. God wastes nothing especially our discomfort.

Missions Conference 2012 Pt. 8

Chosen People  Ministries visited Cornerstone during this year’s missions conference. Chosen People is a ministry dedicated to bringing the gospel to the people of israel throughout the nations. Mitch Foreman (of Chosen People) came to share a two day conference (five sessions) with us regarding the histor and prophetic nature of God’s chosen people.

Here is Pt. 5: http://cornerstoneag.net/2012/10/02/middle-east-conference-part-5/

Missions Conference 2012 Pt. 7

Chosen People  Ministries visited Cornerstone during this year’s missions conference. Chosen People is a ministry dedicated to bringing the gospel to the people of israel throughout the nations. Mitch Foreman (of Chosen People) came to share a two day conference (five sessions) with us regarding the histor and prophetic nature of God’s chosen people.

Here is Pt. 4 : http://cornerstoneag.net/2012/10/02/middle-east-conference-part-3/

Missions Conference 2012 Pt. 6

 

Chosen People  Ministries visited Cornerstone during this year’s missions conference. Chosen People is a ministry dedicated to bringing the gospel to the people of israel throughout the nations. Mitch Foreman (of Chosen People) came to share a two day conference (five sessions) with us regarding the histor and prophetic nature of God’s chosen people.

Here is part 3: http://cornerstoneag.net/2012/10/02/middle-east-conference-part/

Missions Conference 2012 Pt. 5

Chosen People  Ministries visited Cornerstone during this year’s missions conference. Chosen People is a ministry dedicated to bringing the gospel to the people of israel throughout the nations. Mitch Foreman (of Chosen People) came to share a two day conference (five sessions) with us regarding the histor and prophetic nature of God’s chosen people.

Here is Pt. 2: http://cornerstoneag.net/2012/10/02/middle-east-conference-part-2/

Missions Conference 2012 Pt. 2

On Sunday Chai Alpha Campus Ministries from UMASS Amherst came out and shared their ministry with us. They made free lattes for the congregation and shared about the Freedom Cafe they are setting up on the campus.

check out the work of Chai Alpha to the 30,000 UMASS students in Amherst here:

http://amherstproject.com/

When I consider the miraculous work that our missionaries do I am humbled by the fact that God would even allow me to be a part of this glorious kingdom He is building.

Here is Shane Adams’ and Dan Johnson’s testimony along with Sunday’s message “It’s Time To Take A Stand”

http://cornerstoneag.net/2012/10/07/its-time-to-take-a-stand/

 

 

Missions Festival 2012 Pt. 1

Our church just finished its annual missions conference! I am so glad to be part of church that celebrates and participates in the mission of the church at a local, regional, national and world level! Here is a taste in reverse order of what God did this year in our missions conference.

Last night we had Watoto African Children’s Choir with us. “Watoto is a holistic care programme that was initiated as a response to the overwhelming number of orphaned children and vulnerable women in Uganda, whose lives have been ravaged by war and disease.”

 

Melanie and Joe’s Journey Pt. 3

This week due to time constraints I have found it necessary to put these two posts about the kid’s journeys to the Far East together.

Joe spent most of his week building walls for a church and then helping with a VBS. But what I got from him were a lot of pictures of food. Apparently my son aspires to be the next Andrew Zimmerman

Here are a few of the yummy things he ate this week.

heart, liver and gizzard

Octopus and squid

green bean/ kidney bean/ coconut and jelly (like spam jelly) snowcone

 

 

Joe is going for the full experience of living in and among the people. He is trying to learn as much of the Thai culture and ways as he can in the short time he is visiting the country. I am so proud of him and his cast iron stomach! 🙂

Meanwhile Melanie is meeting so many wonderful people and is just having a blast teaching English and learning Thai.

Mel with a teammate and some of the kids she is teaching.

She looks born to it!

 

I swell with joy as I hear about what God is doing through Joe and Mel! Thanks for praying!