Richness in Christ

Words That Burn in My Heart

1. Where and How Does Riches in Christ Begin?
2. Riches in Christ and the Journey into Community
3. Riches, Intimacy and Cornerstone Communities
4. Riches in Christ and Decision Time
5. Riches in Christ and the Journey into Grace
6. Intimacy and Richness
7. My Response to Jesus' Call to Intimacy
8. Three Essentials
9. Riches in Christ and Finishing Well
10. Revisiting My Core Purpose
11. Cornerstone Communities and the Shield of Faith
12. Richness in Christ and Church Pure and Holy
13. A Simple Plan

Sustaining Richness in Christ

A canopy of worship over all you do and are

We in America are in very grave danger of losing everything we have.

Our cities are subject to terrorist attacks. Traditional values are being scoffed at, disregarded, even trashed under what some consider to be more up-to-date, more relevant values and lifestyles.

Our Christian faith is increasingly attacked, even silenced in places by those who think they have a better idea. Traditional family values, including the sanctity of marriage and life, are openly violated and ruled unconstitutional by some courts.

Sexual integrity, personal integrity, integrity at any level, is under attack from almost every quarter.

Churches are more and more compromising God's Word, worshiping God, and walking in God's ways in favor of whatever is popular and brings in both people and dollars.

None of this pleases God. It is worshiping gods other than the One True God, building idols, misusing God's name, and giving up the sacred in favor of the profane.

God is not happy, and God will not allow this to continue without a God-response. There is always a price for mocking God and the things God holds dear (Galatians 6:7). It has been true of every generation in the past; God will not make an exception for us.

Only the richness of our intimacy with Christ can change these things.

One goal of Cornerstone Communities is to promote a "canopy of worship" over every home and every community in America. Why? Because evil cannot operate in an atmosphere of worship when that worship is of the Most High God.

Developing a "canopy of worship" over a home and a community will greatly impact a community's culture, values and lifestyle. It will render us unsusceptible to the enemy's attacks at every level. How do we know that? Because one of God's promises (just one among many promises) is "Seek first God's kingdom and his righteousness and every thing else will fall into place". (Matt. 6:33)

Worship involves exalting God above all else. It involves confessing to God our failures and selfishness, and seeking God's forgiveness. It involves changing our attitudes and lifestyles and living instead in ways that truly honor God.

Cornerstone Communities is dedicated to building a canopy of worship over every community in America, and ultimately over America itself that God may protect us from both our enemies and ourselves.

A Plan:

1. Pray, asking God's plan for your community.
2. Invite others to pray with you.
3. Establish your home as a home or praise and worship
4. Then, begin developing a home of praise and worship in each block of the community.
5. From there? Wherever God leads.

Visionary? Yes. Will it work? Yes. How do we know? Because God has promised that that which is totally dedicated to Him, honors and glorifies Him, will succeed. Bill Gass, writing in "The Word for You Today" says, "For it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose (Php 2;13 NIV). You may be flawed and limited, but the God who lives and works in you is not! Go ahead, risk, reach, for it is God who works in you."

Henry J. Taylor reminds us that "Vision lit every lamp, built every church and business, performed every act of kindness, and created more and better things for more people. It's the priceless ingredient of a better day."

"Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and your plans will succeed." Proverbs 16:3

Many around us are wringing their hands and wondering, "What can I do to help turn this nation around?" Well, here is a most simple plan. It can begin with just you: 24 hours of praise and worship music in your home. Seek first God's face and he will lead you to others who have the same heart and cry for America that you have.

Canopies of praise and worship over communities will eventually result in a canopy of praise and worship over our nation.

Proverbs 14:34 states,
"Righteousness exalts a nation,
but sin is a disgrace to any people"
Note these words from Psalm 33...
"Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord...(V.12)

"...the eyes of the Lord are on those who fear him,
on those whose hope is in his unfailing love
To deliver them from death
and keep them alive in famine.
"We wait in hope for the Lord;
he is our help and shield.
In him our hearts rejoice,
for we trust in his holy name.
May your unfailing love rest upon us, O lord,
even as we put our hope in you." (Vv. 181-22)

May the Lord's blessings fall gently and joyfully upon your canopy, and may you rejoice without end in your richness in Christ.