Sermon Notes; Introducing My Pastor

Pastor Alberta:

• born and raised in New Jersey
• undergraduate degree in pre-law from Rutgers-The State University
• Married in 1969 to high school sweetheart Donna
• began a career in banking and finance
• A former atheist who received Jesus as Savior and Lord of his life in 1977
• earned his Master of Divinity degree in 1982
• completed his Doctor of Ministry degree in marriage and family counseling in 1989
• Joining the Cornerstone staff in 1992 as Senior Pastor
• resides with his wife in Brighton and
• has four sons and seven grandchildren
• enjoys reading (particularly history), playing golf, and carpentry

Mary and I worship at three churches, one of which is Brighton Michigan Cornerstone Evangelical Presbyterian Church  The church is located on 9455 Hilton Road, Brighton, Michigan

Their senior pastor is Dr. Alberta who spoke today. I've included a brief bio.

Today's message was about holiness. I took a few notes.

Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.

God wants His children, like any father, to be like Him.

In wax museums, wax artists spend thousands of hours studying the likeness of the person they wish to copy. We should be as passionate about mimicking our Heavenly Father.

When mimicking Christ, we naturally move to a list of do's and don'ts and then to legalism.

Questions: Why do people insist on making up rules? Why do they worry that salvation may be lost?

Answer: They don't believe in grace. They don't trust God to keep them.

Philippians 2:12-13 The New Living Testament (a translation) Work hard to show the results of your salvation, obeying God with deep reverence and fear.

In the Kingdom of Chocolate, the King loves chocolate, but all his subjects love black licorice. This could lead to serious conflicts. But what if the King could magically go into the bedroom of his subjects, and zap them with his wand so they would love chocolate? (Dr Alberta, if you haven't guessed, loves chocolate.)

We don't naturally love holiness, but God can transform our hearts with the Word of God to place a desire for God's Holiness in our heart.

Four keys to becoming holy:

1. We are helpless to become holy. It is God's Word that transforms us. And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

2. Pursue holiness by making God's Word the highest priority. Jesus replied, “Are you not in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God?

3. We will find at times we still desire the world. For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.

4. To study God, study Jesus! Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.

Liam

I don't mean to brag but... my grand son is certainly a handsome dude! He has the same bubbly personality as his brother.

iGoogle

iGoogle:

I love to start the day with this page on my computer. It gives me the weather, most of my favorite news sources, and I can rearrange it easily.
Hit the iGoogle link to see what I'm talking about. I use this page often enough that I'm going to put it first in my bookmarks. I haven't quite figured out how to get it to come up first in my browser, but I will. I like how I can rearrange the gadgets. I'll probable have to blog about the gadgets one at a time, but what I do like about this is I can arrange my favorite sources of news from top to bottom, with Huffington Post on top along with Wired. In the right column I have the time and date, and the time of all the countries who view my blog. In the center I have the weather of South Lyon.

Safe, simple, no pressure, value loaded armchair shopping! Click, bookmark and shop this link to sponsor my blog.
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Stop by my The Sheik Geek blog for info on the tech industry.
By the way, all my Ad links are monetized, which means that if you click and buy, I get paid.

Why Men Need Supervision

By the way, all my Ad links are monetized, which means that if you click and buy, I get paid.
Safe, simple, no pressure, value loaded armchair shopping! Click, bookmark and shop this link to sponsor my blog.
Putting all my humorous, insane posts on this blog, also.
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How Twins Are Made

By the way, all my Ad links are monetized, which means that if you click and buy, I get paid.
Safe, simple, no pressure, value loaded armchair shopping! Click, bookmark and shop this link to sponsor my blog.
Putting all my humorous, insane posts on this blog, also.
Find more blogs about My Amazing Amazon eStores for Parable Promoters!

You Are Light

Colossians 1

Take a quark, a tiny particle of matter. In it's natural state it vibrates at the rate of other particles around it, a harmony. Add energy to the quark, and it begins to warm other quarks around it with radiant heat. Add enough energy, & it will EXPLODE into light, announcing to the universe it's new state.
Thank you, Jesus, for the GOSPEL, for it turns us into light for the world to see the TRUTH.
If you believe the Gospel, you have more than a bright future, you are the light of the future.


I have been neglecting my time with You, Lord, but You are gently prodding me to stay close!
Lord, you are the One Who holds back reproach, a punishment we deserve, for we have all failed You.
Thank You for Your mercy, demonstrated by Your Son Jesus & His death on the Cross.
Forgive your enemies! It messes with their heads!
I'm always thanking you, Lord Jesus, for I see faith in my Facebook and Twitter friends.
We have heard the simple, powerful story of GOOD NEWS, & it gives us HOPE!
I pray constantly for you, friends, that you would be filled with the knowledge of His Will.


Thanks, whoever you are, for clicking on one of my blog's Google Ads. Google just threw $.90 in my kitty.

CHOCOLATE! The breakfast of Champions!
If you want breakfast in bed, sleep in the kitchen - the cook
Better living through DENIAL!

The Fatal Glass of Beer

"'tis not a fit night out for man nor beast!" WC Fields, The Fatal Glass of Beer. This movie came to mind tonight because I walked Buster. Rain... wind... cold!!

Boy Underwater 15 minutes Goes Home

Dale Ostrander is back in his Spanaway home after spending a month in the hospital. He was pulled from the ocean by rescuers after spending 15 to 20 minutes under water. Shortly before he was sent to the hospital rescuers found a faint pulse.

His recovery has been amazing. "He is not 100% Dale like he was August 4th," says his mother, " but I believe he will be back and recover fully."
http://www.thenewstribune.com/2011/09/20/1832634/boy-who-survived-ocean-scare-is.html

The Building of Hope

Colossians 1


Today I'm studying Colossians on biblegateway.com. I've bookmarked the link and filed it under Bible links so I can open it quickly whenever I'm on the computer.
Colossians is a garden I come to often, along with I Corinthians 1-3. Those chapters focus on Christ and the Cross, the central part of history, Eternity, and the Theme of God's message.
If you would know who you are, you must know Who God is. If you would know Who God is, you must look to the Cross.
Colossians 1:5 has a beautiful word picture in the phrase: for the hope that is laid up for you. Our hope has been patiently, diligently been built in heaven like a brick layer or stone worker FOR US by God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit each doing their part. His Work of Hope is not composed of a single element for a single purpose, but is all inclusive, design, structure, pattern, soft and hard, jewels and bricks, a building of breath taking beauty. It includes the story of your life, friends and family, your Eternal future, the surprises of beauty brought in daily.
Every element of the Building of Hope which God is making for you contains, comes from, and points to Jesus, and can be found in the Story of The Cross. Jesus DIED so a thief could be in Paradise. Jesus died because of good people, and in spite of good people so good people could realize our goodness is a filthy rag compared to the Beauty of Jesus. Believe that, and you have HOPE!

I cooked again with my magic wok. Mary and I bought an over sized roast. They're all over sized when there's just 2 people. I sliced a hunk off, and cut it into slivers. I had already cut up a yellow pepper, onion, and a sweet potato into strips. Started the meat first, added real beef bouillon, all purpose seasoning, a little agave, Kikkoman's soy sauce, dash of sea salt, added the sweet potato next, then the pepper, onion, and some dried tomato. Mary was very, very happy.


The number of countries that have viewed my blog is now over 80, and the number of languages it has been translated into by Google translation is over 30. I never saw this coming. God is good.
Another confusing but good fact is that sites other than Facebook and Twitter are referring views to my blog at a much higher rate and growing. The Hell messages are by far the biggest draw. Never saw that one coming either.


God gives me the ability to preach sermons in less than 140 characters, which I gladly do for Him. God gets the glory for this.
God is FOR the flat tax... 10%!
God does not believe in atheists, therefore atheists do not exist.


DENIAL is not just a river in Egypt.
Due to budget cuts, the light at the end of the tunnel has been cut off- management
I took an IQ test. The results were negative.