What a great day!

Yesterday was a great day at Cornerstone. We had several new guests in service with us. In fact, we had 98 total in service and one person rededicated their life to Christ.

We had a great time at the dinner on the grounds. There was lots of great food and fellowship. Then, we had a great business meeting.

All in all, it was a great day!

The Facts of Life

You remember the old 80s Sitcom the Facts of Life. The opening line of the song went like this... "You take the good, you take the bad, you take them both and then you have the Facts of Life." My day yesterday could be summed up by that phrase. :)

First, the good. We had an amazing day yesterday at Cornerstone. It is hard to believe that we have been here for 7 1/2 months. We had our biggest attendance day yet. 102 people were in attendance. It was the first time that we went over the century mark in attendance. Sasha is doing our Kid's ministry and they had 23 kids in their service. Sasha said that the kids really entered into worship yesterday. Ron and Heather Rhoads are with us in Revival Meetings this week. Both services were awesome yesterday with great times of worship, great preaching and great altar services.

Now, the bad. Last night, after service, Ron and Heather came over to the house to watch the second half of the Dallas Cowboys playoff game. I had recorded the game on our DVR. Suprisingly, no one had revealed the score to us. So, we watched as if the game were live except for being able to fast forward through commercials. I couldn't believe what I was watching. It was a nightmare of penaltys. The special teams were horrible. The defense and offense were not bad with the exception of the penaltys that kept giving the Giants chance after chance. In the end, the 'boys lost. With that, both of my Super Bowl picks (The Colts and The Cowboys) are gone from the playoffs.

The good far outweighed the bad. I'm so excited about what God is doing at Cornerstone. Be sure to come to Revival meetings Tonight through Wednesday at 7:00 p.m.

From the recesses of my mind.....

1. We had a great day yesterday at Cornerstone. Last night service was great. Jimmy White, Pastor of Northside Church, came and spoke on the glory of God. It was a fantastic message and we had a great time in the altars.

2. College Football needs a playoff system. I have said this before but maybe someone from the NCAA will find this blog and read it. :) Take the top 16 teams according to the BCS....no automatic bids. Then, you would need 14 bowls plus the championship game to get on board. You could still rotate the championship game between the various bowl sites or you could get brand new venues on board (example Jerry's World...aka Cowboys new stadium). Currently, there are 31 bowls, plus the championship game. So, there could still be 17 bowl games of non-playoff teams. With this system, you would have 14 less teams in bowl games. It would make the bowl games more exciting and bring in more money (which is what the bowls are all about). You would still get the top 50 teams in college football in bowl games. It makes sense. You would still have disagreements over who should get in to the playoffs...much like March Madness and the "bubble" teams. However, I would rather argue the merits of BYU (the current #17 team in the BCS) deserving to be in the playoffs over Tennessee (the #16 team in the BCS) than have a faulty system without a true champion. The playoffs could start the third weekend of December (after finals) and still end Monday, January 7th.

11-1

How 'bout them Cowboys! What a great game! Now, I know some naysayers might say that the Packers didn't have Favre. Favre went out in the second quarter, but he had thrown 2 INTs at that point. Rodgers came in and made a comeback. So, that argument is futile. The Cowboys are the real deal.

We watched the game last night at Dennis Smith's place. He's got a great setup. So, we watched the game on his 42 inch HDTV. Nice. It was our first Guy's Night Out. We had a great time. There was a lot of food and lot of great conversation. On top of that, we had a great game.

Weekend Reflections

1. Worship was awesome yesterday. Yesterday morning, there was a word from God crying out for us to worship him. There was a wonderful presence of God in the place. Last night, we were singing the song "Everlasting God." I have to admit. I wasn't "feeling" it. After the song was over, the congregation erupted in spontaneous worship. It was awesome. I was pleasantly suprised by the reaction and the worship to God. He's amazing and he deserves our praise.

2. Mady had her last Soccer game. This season seems to have flown by. I was really proud of her. She got in and kicked the ball a couple of times. Then, the rain came and the game got called.

3. Sasha and I had a date night. We really connected. With two kids and us both having jobs, it is sometimes hard to find the time to focus on one another. We had a great time.

4. Little Peyton got to come home yesterday! He is now one month old and they released him from the Hospital. Please continue to pray for him. They still may have to do surgery because an artery is closing.

It never gets old...

Again on Sunday, we had one person commit their heart to Christ. It never gets old to see lives changed in an instant. I've said often that God can do more in an instant than we could ever do in a lifetime. I love to see people give their lives over to God.

We started a new series on Sunday called "Formed." In this series, we are looking at the relationship between the potter and the clay found throughout the Bible. Sunday, we talked about how God formed us from the dust in his image. We were made in God's moral likeness...sin free. Then, sin entered the world and Romans tells us that we all have sinned. Ephesians tells us that we are God's Masterpiece and he created us anew or formed as anew in Christ Jesus. The Potter created the masterpiece, but sin tainted it. So, he throws us back on the spinning wheel and recreates us. When we allow ourselves to stay on that wheel, then he will finish the work that he started.

Family Fun Fest Recap

We had a great time last night at the Family Fun Fest. From 6:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m., there was a steady stream of people. We had almost 450 registered attenders and we know that there were those that did not register. We estimate that over 500 people attended the Family Fun Fest at Cornerstone. We served almost 300 hot dogs and drinks! We gave away one $100 gift card to Wal-mart and 5 $20 gift cards to Wal-mart. I'm going to be posting a lot of pictures of the Family Fun Fest soon over at http://www.cornerstoneatlanta.tv/

I personally passed out over 3 bucketfuls of candy as I walked around and met countless people. Today, a man met Sasha at her school. After she introduced herself, he asked her if she was "Rusty's wife." He said he had met me last night at the Family Fun Fest.

I want to thank all of the workers. At Cornerstone, we believe every member should be involved in ministry. Several of our new families got involved last night and helped with the booths and clean up. We had everyone from our students to our senior adults pitching in to pull off this event. We could not have done it without you. THANK YOU!!!!

Today, we sent out flyers with information about our church to approx. 120 families that attended last night! I am praying that if they don't have a church home that they will connect with God at Cornerstone!

My aunt and uncle drove down from Texarkana to come to the event. They suprised us. We were not expecting them, but it was a wonderful suprise. When we were in Oklahoma City, our nearest relatives were 4-5 hours away. Now, we are only 25 minutes.

Mady had a blast last night. She loved the inflatable slide. Sasha took lots of pictures of her and Kenzie. I wanted to post a few on my blog.

Mady was Uniqua from the Backyardigans T.V. Show. The Backyardigans is one of the best and most creative kid's shows out there. Mady loves it.

Mackenzie Striking a Pose