Then realize the from the abundunce of the heart the mouth speaks.

Richard

Just a thought folks
Richard

I search for a church for two years and stumbled upon Cornerstone.  I must say it was the only church that I had visited that when I read the bible the teaching really lined up with God’s word. 

Every Sunday I would walk out going how in the world can I actually do this.  It is definitely not a feel good church.  You will be stretch in almost every area.  But I wouldn’t want to be around any one less then people who encourages and inspires you to have an accurate picture of who God is while going out and sharing the Gospel. 

I’m actually meeting my next door neighbors spending time with them hanging out building relationships and sharing the Gospel.  I’ve been a Christian for a long time and only been going to Cornerstone for 3 months.

I haven’t read his book Crazy love yet but I think it’s funny that the word crazy is in the title.  That’s what I thought about them when I first started going…man these people are radical and crazy.  But in a good way. 

I’ve never meet a group of people who love God so much that they would be willing to change everything in their lives to glorify Him.  They don’t just talk about it…they are doing it.

Keep up the great blogging and ministry, Shaun!

Elysa Mac

I was at a missions conference (I am a missionary) recently and Wes Stafford of Compassion was speaking.  He said something I had never heard him say before.  He said that Compassion leads 500 people to Christ a day.  WOW!  Now those who have been hard on Mitchel don’t start saying “I told you so!”.  One thing that ministries like compassion often fail to do is to communicate how they also meet spiritual needs.  They get much more response as they share about physical needs – especially from today’s culture.  They see more response from Christians when they talk about a child who is suffering physically than they do when they talk about the spiritual needs.  I saw kids flock to the compassion table to pick up a card to support a child.  Would Wes have had the same response if he had said, “Who will sponsor a child’s spiritual growth and health?

It’s all about our own relationship with Christ because if that is not there then the outflow of that love we have recieved will not flow to those who need it both physically and spiritually.  I’ll bet you a fiver that if Mitchel has a glass of water and someone else needs it he will give it to them because he loves Jesus.  We don’t do ministry (both physical and spiritual) because of the needs of our world.  We do ministry because we are filled with a holy spirit who is in the process of making us like Christ!  And no one understands humanity’s needs like Jesus!

So the conflict rages because we have failed to keep both the spiritual and physical in perspective!  When someone like Wes Stafford says a child needs our help we don’t do it just because a child needs our help – although that in itself is admirable.  We do it because it’s what Jesus would have done and because we love Him. And we do it because of the hope that is in us!  A hope of an eternity where suffering like we see in our world does not exist. An eternity made possible by the Gospel.  Each man, woman and child we minister to in a physical sense gets a glimpse of eternity as we interact with them as Christ would.

“Now I make known to you, bretheren, the gospel which I preached to you,, which also you recieved, in which you also stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain.  For I delievered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried and rasied on the third day according to the Scriptures…”

1 Corinthians 15:1-4.

If this helps – I’m glad!  If not – my apologies.