Above is how my day ended yesterday, but what was in between was almost a blur. I know today is Sunday, but I’m doing my photo Saturday Summary today. Sunday’s in the summer are usually a little more laid back but they haven’t been so far, and yesterday was pretty incredible, and exhausting. Within two services we had more baptisms than I could count (pics here), a Uganda team trip meeting (for the October trip), four video sessions shot for our small groups (see April’s blog), a quick trip to Starbucks in severe lightning storms (see photo below), then another Uganda trip meeting (July trip), which was semi-rained out but still took place.
Uganda 2011 July trip update: So our Uganda team is leaving at the end of July (details here), just four short weeks away now, and is commissioned to (among other things) put together a soccer camp of sorts for the kids. The team is all guys this time, and for the most part, skilled in coaching soccer, except for me who will be behind the camera. We follow a full mission team that leaves the U.S. mid-July and we arrive in Uganda about the same time they leave to come back home. We have been meeting together as a team to get to know each other and plan the trip, and yesterday was one of those this-is-what-we-planned but this-is-what-happened-meeting. We were going to meet at a local soccer field and everyone was going to get some practice in, including me with my camera. As lightning bolts rained down we all ran for cover, stood around for an hour getting to know each other better, got out on the field, kicked the ball approximately two times each and scattered when the next lightning bolt came down in close proximity. I did manage to get one shot of Jason kicking a soccer ball to prove that we both got our practice in, sorta.
Driving home about 8pm last night I was so tired I couldn’t really think straight at that point and then all of a sudden the sun burst out of the storm bank just above the horizon line and I pulled over to the side of the road where I could see the horizon (not an easy thing to do in Alabama where you can’t see more than 20 feet because of all the trees) and got the shot at the top. The beauty that only God can produce in the sky with a mix of clouds, rain, lightning, and sun was a truly magnificent end to the day (it didn’t matter that the storm had fried my gate and I couldn’t get into my own property when I got home… but that’s another story).
As some of you may know I am still trying to raise money for these two mission trips, and every single donation helps no matter the amount, even $10 will go a long way when combined with everyone else’s donation. If you would like to help visit the info page or make an online donation here. Thanks!
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This is sort of just a random photo of the day for Sunday. The truck broke after church today so instead of my normal routine after the last service was over I headed to our favorite local mechanic’s parking lot to drop the truck off and headed (on foot) for Toomer’s Corner and lunch at Jimmy John’s (which was only because Moe’s Original BBQ was closed, who knew). There are so many great local places to eat in and around Magnolia Avenue and College Street, or Toomer’s Corner, but it’s also a great place to just hang out, even if you are well past college age. After lunch I snapped a few shots with my iPhone, yes, Ebby came to lunch to protect Deborah. I don’t know what the deal is with the wooden cutout cheerleader but it was odd enough to shoot (at least with a phone), but the Toomer’s Corner National Championship mural is always an impressive sight. Yes I know it’s been there a while but it makes a great photo unless your a Bama fan. Ebby looks quite Hollywood walking down College don’tcha think.
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Worship today was a little different at Cornerstone, Brian was teaching this morning, and the Mwangaza Children’s Choir (also on Twitter) was here in Auburn visiting from Uganda. Cornerstone has been partnering with a nearby community church in Uganda, Buloba Community Church, for several years now and this choir hosted by Africa Renewal Ministries was the catalyst for that partnership. The children leave Uganda in January to do a sort of reverse missionary trip to the United States for 6 months, and to bring awareness to the children in need in Uganda.
If you missed worship this morning at Cornerstone Church this is a quick look at what you missed, but they are also going to be here tonight for a concert at 6:30. Hope to see everyone there, if you are in Auburn you are more than welcome to come.
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Today we continued a series at Cornerstone called “Doctrine: What we Believe”, which speaks to what we as Christians believe, and how we are to go about living out those beliefs (see also How to Teach the Doctrine of Salvation on Sunday Morning for a previous week). Today Josh Agerton spoke about prayer in the life of a Believer and related it back to our gum-ball machine approach we often have to prayer. Put the quarter in the slot (the prayer), and what should happen is out pops the gum-ball (our answered prayer).
This is a brief overview or recap of that message, according to the notes I took anyway. You can always download or listen to a copy of the podcast when it gets posted on Monday (Feb 28th) or you can subscribe to the podcast through iTunes.
The Gum-ball Approach To Prayer: Transactional
Although this is how we often practice prayer, there isn’t a whole lot in scripture that backs up this method of prayer. Scripture says we have a need for prayer, constant prayer that builds a relationship with God, that calls on God. That goes all the way back to Genesis 4:25-26, but when do we actually pray today? When things are going well, all the time, or just when we are in “need” of something? When things are going well, is our prayer life terrible and vice-versa?
This is perhaps because we see prayer as “transactional” in nature. There is an action on two parts where I act, then God acts, making the prayer totally focused on ourselves, not God. I’ve got my prayer, I just need say the right words, send it over the right way, and God will then act and shoot out the “right” response.
The Relational or Transformational Approach To Prayer: Experience
Our approach to prayer should be one of building a relationship with God through constant prayer, in a way that transforms our life. This is what the apostles did in the book of Acts, they prayed. This wasn’t unique to the apostles though. All over scripture we are told to “ask” and it will be given, but how closely do our prayers match up with God’s will? We reach a crisis of faith that leads us to prayer and we “ask” for our answer to be given.
We pray for complete healing, and when that healing doesn’t come (especially in the time frame or way we desire), do we question God’s answer? Scripture clearly says our prayer is heard, but the prayer of Jesus in Luke 22:42 just before He is lead off to be executed is an amazing prayer.
22:41 And he [Jesus] withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, and knelt down and prayed, 42 saying, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.”
Ultimately this is how we are to pray, and the reason is found in Luke 11.
11:10 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.11 What father among you, if his son asks fort a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; 12 or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? 13 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”
As I have prayed for Deborah over the last several months I have tried to keep both of these sets of verses in mind, and I have tried to place them deep in my heart. Is praying like this easy? No way. It requires us to give up our own heart’s desire, something I have found very hard to do. I want my prayers answered the way I ask them to be answered, but deep down, I really want an all-knowing God to answer them to His glory and honor.
The Circular Prayer as Life Happens
This chart above was something Josh went over this morning but it was not meant to be a step by step process to prayer, more of an understanding of how we approach prayer and how God works through prayer (though I didn’t get the counterclockwise thing). I’m a visual person so I loved seeing this as Josh went over it. Basically, with continued, constant prayer, we will continue to build a relationship with God that leads back to God, not to ourselves.
It went like this from the chart above: God is enthroned –> life happens (sickness, job-loss, divorce) –> we have a need or burden –> we ask –> we enter a crisis of faith (I asked, why haven’t you answered yet God) –> faith (we are brought to faith with God) –> receiving (God manifests Himself in some way and you know and understand that God is indeed there) –> thanks and priase –> God is enthroned.
Aren’t sure what the “correct” way to come to God in prayer is or don’t know the “right” way to pray? To pull a saying from Nike… just do it, but Paul probably said it best in Romans 8:25 “the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.”
Often times I write my prayers out since speaking them I just tend to fumble through it. Either way I know He hears my prayers and answers better than I could ask.
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The God of Salvation surrounds us. Psalm 19:1 says even the heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky abovet proclaims his handiwork. (ESV) This photo just reminds me of what a great God we worship.
In our society today there are probably as many personal interpretations of the Doctrine of Salvation, or how one can be saved, as there are people, and presenting an accurate picture on Sunday morning to a host of different beliefs and understandings is important. You could dive into all the different aspects of salvation, comparing and contrasting the doctrine according to Predestinary views, Calvinism, Arminianism, the views of Karl Barth, Liberal or Reformed Theology, to salvation by works, but Sunday morning probably isn’t the place in 2011. With a largely reduced attention span, and a time constraint of 15-30 minutes, depending on your church, a simple and straight forward, biblical based message, might land and grow roots that last.
For one thing, if you actually have educated views on the theology above you probably have an understanding of “how we are saved” according to scripture. If you don’t and are coming at salvation as an unknown, hearing the history of Bonhoeffer’s view on God’s relation to the secular world may fall on deaf ears. That’s one thing I love about our church. The leaders (and today Rusty) don’t shy away from the most important teachings of Christianity. Perhaps during the time of Jonathan Edwards when sermons lasted a few hours, or all day, that might have worked well, but today is a different day.
Below is just a recap of how it was presented this morning.
1. How are we saved? In many ways salvation is a process. It starts with a process, is marked by a point in time, and continues on as a process of living out that confessed faith. Rusty presented Romans 10:9-13, which says it perfectly:
if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. 11 For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” 12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. 13 For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
For the most part, at least in the United States, we no longer have to confess Jesus with our mouths at the risk of death, but we still live by this confession, and we should take it as seriously as Paul did when he made these statements. Philipians 2:12-13 Paul says
not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it is God who works in you
and for us today, that still means we are to “work out”, or put into practice in our daily lives what God has worked out in the Holy Spirit. We are not told to work FOR our salvation, but to work “out” the salvation God has already given us.
2. What are we being saved from? We are saved from death, from the anguish of Hell, and eternal separation from God, but also from the toil of life, a life of purposelessness (Ecclesiastes 1:9), spiritual deadness, and from a life of selfishness. In one of the most exacting and precise statements in scripture, Paul says, for by grace you have been saved through faith, it isn’t ever something we can earn. Only Jesus paid that price for us. Ephesians 2:1-3 explains it like this:
And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the bodyt and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. 4 Butt God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus
3. What are we saved to? We are saved to a spiritual life, a life that matters, and of course Heaven, with an eternity reconciled to God and Christ. As taught by Wesley (and briefly examined by Rusty today), we receive a prevenient grace, then a justifying grace, a sanctifying grace, and then finally a glorified grace in heaven. Once again Paul’s words can hardly be improved upon when he says
Colossians 1:19-22: For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. 21 And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, 22 he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him
and again in Ephesians
Ephesians 2:8-10: For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
There are of course many other ways to present the Doctrine of Salvation on Sunday morning, but this just happen to be the way it was presented this morning, and I think it was quite effective for this church on this day.
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A Day at Cornerstone Church from Scott Fillmer on Vimeo.
This has been done a million times but not by me, and not on this Sunday, so today I took my video camera with me from start to finish through a normal Sunday at Cornerstone Church. The video is a little long I know, I will try to keep the rest of them down to 2-3 minutes but this one covered about 8 hours of the day. It has a cast of many, special thanks goes out to Jack Fisher for putting up with me posting what he didn’t want me to post (always seems to work out that way with Jack) and everyone else that appears on the video.
I would like to make special mention of two songs in the video I briefly used, one was Love Love by Brett Younker and the other was Offering by Daniel Boshta and I would recommend both of their current albums, both of which are available on their websites. I have met both of these guys and they are very passionate about what they do, so go buy some of their CD’s if you like their music. The song Brian is singing throughout the video is Glory to God by Fee which will be released by Steve Fee in a few months.
Cornerstone has two services, one at 9 and 11 and I am usually working both or at least at both. I edited out as much as I could to still make it flow as the day went, but it gets quite busy and hecktic at times. We just launched a new website so check it out if you have time, and if you can make it through to the end of the video you will have seen all 4 of the leadership team at Cornerstone, Rusty, Josh, Brian, and Jack. Enjoy.
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Each year our church has a special evening where they look back at the year to see where God has taken the church, and start to look at what is ahead for the next year. A lot of planning has gone into the events for Sunday night. We will be broadcasting live on Sunday night (see Celebration Dinner Broadcast), which I believe is a first for us, new videos, and some great music.
I took these photos of the rehearsal on Wednesday for Sunday night. Plan to be there if you can, it will be a great night of food and fun while discovering where the church has been and where it is going.
