Here is our Easter sermon from Cornerstone Church.
Monthly Archives: April 2021
2021 Home Photo Challenge 4-3-21
The Home Photo Challenge was fun for me last year. Since I do not think much is going to be changing for me in the way of travel this year, I am going to continue the challenge for myself into 2021. This year I am going to add a little twist. I will give a brief description of each photo I take and write a Haiku to go along with it
IF YOU WANT TO JOIN IN THE FUN.JUST TAKE A PHOTO IN OR AROUND YOUR HOME AND WRITE YOUR OWN BLOG AND POST THE LINK IN THE COMMENTS SECTION BELOW
Life seen through the grid.
The images hide themselves
In rigid format.
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2021 At the Vicarage Week #14
As we go deeper into this new year, God’s vision for it becomes more clear. I suppose that is as it should be. I see this as a year of aligning vision and beginning its execution. As I prepare myself for the role of lead pastor of Cornerstone I see that much of my work will be about preaching people onto the page God wants to unify us on. The steps to our goal are beginning to reveal themselves. Oh there are lots more conversations to be had around our vision but at least we are talking with the mindset of coming to understanding.
Here are some of the things that God is doing this week.
April 2nd– Today was my sabbath. I did rest. I took a nap. I watched the Falcon and Winter Soldier episode 3 and a documentary on William Wallace. I also attended the funeral of one of our long time parishioners.
April 3rd– Today is my son, Joe’s 32nd birthday. have not gotten to his bank in Keene yet to deposit his birthday check yet….next week. It seems there is not time to do all I want or sometimes even need to do. I think I am really learning the lesson of just how little power I have to accomplish my life. If I am ever to do all God has put in my heart it will only be through total reliance upon Him.
April 4th– Easter Sunday! We had 110 in service this morning and 30 on line! A Great day.
Then we were joined by the Franklins for Easter lunch and supper. Amanda arranged an Easter egg hunt for Daniella and we got pictures of the girls with Great-Gramma or as Daniella calls her “Grampa”.
April 5th-Mom has developed a bleeding issue. So today was another Drs. appointment.
The lady at the lab asked, “Weren’t you just here?”
Our response, “Just like bad pennies.”
I am not really sure where that saying comes from but it gave us all a good chuckle which Mom was sorely in need of today. The good news was that the lab tech had no trouble finding a vein! So….apparently Mom’s veins were also “bad pennies” today and in this case that was a very good thing.
April 6th- Today was staff meeting. We are working our way through devotional conversations surrounding our mission. We are focused right now on Acts 2:42-47: They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43 Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. 44 All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45 They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. 46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.
That word fellowship is the word Koinonia. It means community and the principles behind it. One of the points we made is that without koinonia you can have an organization but you cannot have a church…..koinonia is what makes a church different from other organizations. Koinonia is what makes the church an organism or as Paul the apostle said, “a body”.
April 7th- Today I met with one of the ladies who is coming back to Cornerstone after wandering around in the world today. Hearing people’s stories is so powerful and I have to say this lady’s story was soooo powerful.
Tonight we held Thew Wall prayer service, but we are playing with new names. Tonight we named it The Call Prayer Meeting.
April 8th-Today I had to take Mom to the RMV for a new State ID card. It went miraculously well! Tonight I am meeting with another couple returning to the church.
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Saturday Digging Deeper: Winning the Battle Of the Soul
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2021 At the Vicarage Weeks #12 & 13
Adapting to my new schedule as acting lead pastor of Cornerstone has turned out to be quite a learning curve.
My writing has suffered even though I now have a day dedicated to it. This is primarily because I now have A LOT of new writing projects on my plate every week. You may have noticed I am doing a daily devotional video based on my Sunday morning services. This is a first step in helping the church begin to fulfill its vision of doing life together. In the course of pandemic our on-line presence has become more important than we ever dreamed it would and reaching out digitally on a regular basis is absolutely essential.
Anyway these new pieces of life at The Vicarage have required a bit of adaptation, but I am slowly getting there. Here is how it has all gone down over these last two weeks.
March 19-Mom is improving everyday. Friday’s are becoming the day when I attend to the majority of the housework I can’t get to during the week. Things like: cleaning my office, sweeping the stairs and vacuuming the carpets. It is also the day I try to get to extra writing, but today…..too busy with other things.
March 20th– I like to try to practice my sermon a couple of times on Saturdays. This morning I was up at 4 to pray and practice. I got a call for a funeral this morning from the funeral home and called the family this afternoon before I practiced my sermon for a second time.
March 21st– Here is the Sunday sermon Entering the Promise Pt. 4-
March 22nd- Writing day! I am strating to build a new routine: I start by creating my schedule for the week; Then I do my morning video for Facebook which becomes my morning blog; I put together my staff meeting and then create Wednesday night’s Bible study (soon it will be Wednesday night’s prayer focus); The I write sermons. I am in the process of putting together the next 6 sermons in my series. I have the first two sermons pretty well brain written, but the final four, entitled Engaging the Promise, are eluding me.
I find that when I get writer’s block my first step to a remedy for writer’s block is to get my head into Scripture and then into waiting prayer. Then I need to just write.
WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN YOU GET WRITER’S BLOCK?
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I got my sermon for Palm Sunday done and my sermon for Easter blocked out.
March 23rd- I didn’t pray enough today….Things get out of balance when this happens.
March 24th– Over the course of the last three years many people have left our church. One of the things that often happens when a church goes through pastoral transition is some of those people come back. I have set a goal for myself to personally meet with every person who comes back. I met with the first of those parishioners today. It was a very good meeting, after which I had my assistant draft a letter to the parishioners pastor for further conversation.
Here is our Bible Study from the Wall for tonight. It is the final segment of our series on the seven letters to the churches from Revelation.
March 25th-I ministered a funeral tonight. I haven’t had a lot of funerals this year, which is really strange. Before pandemic it seemed like I was “the pastor of death”. I did a lot of funerals! But this year…not so much.
March 26th– Today mom had a Dr’s. Appointment. It was both a follow up from her fall and an annual physical. Mom usually stresses out a lot before these appointments, but this time around she was much more relaxed about the whole affair. I am wondering if it was because we used a wheel chair and so she didn’t feel like she had to walk into the building.
As I have considered mom’s health I am realizing that this fall was probably a long time in the coming. There were little signs all along the way that didn’t look much like signs at the time, but in hind sight explain so much about where we are now in her physical condition.
March 27th– One of the things I haven’t spoken much about is worship leading. Even as I assume the role of lead pastor I am still leading the worship teams. I am singing and playing less and less, but I am still overseeing the worship schedules and practices.
I imagine I will be doing this for a while, and the connectedness between the pulpit and the music is something I want to maintain even as God reveals His next leader for the worship ministry.
March 28th– Here is out service from Palm Sunday.
The Franklins were supposed to come out this weekend but the girls were sick…Oh well next week.
March 29th– Another writing day! I finished my sermon for Easte,r although I might need to edit. It seems a little long.
March 30th– Today was staff meeting and then a trip out to Cheshire Medical Center to take one of our elders to a cardiology appointment.
March 31st– Today was the scheduled congregational Q&A. The meeting where church people were allowed to ask the prospective pastor anything they wanted to know. It was an hour of great conversation. The final vote is on April 11th after service.
April 1st-I was doing the dishes this morning and God downloaded the next four services for the month of April through the first of May into my heart. I love it when He does that.
Well this is has gone on twice as long as usual….sooooooo.
Bye for now!
Lillie-Put 