Monday Round-Up!

Cornerstone Church Sermon from yesterday! The Book of James: Week 3...

The A.A. program is one of faith because we find that we must have faith in a Power greater than ourselves if we are going to get sober. We're helpless before alcohol, but when we turn our drink problem over to God and have faith that He can give us all the strength we need, then we have the drink problem licked. Faith in that Divine Principle in the universe, which we call God is the essential part of the A.A. program. Is faith still strong in me?

Last... but not least... Here's an awesome video to say, "Goodnight", on...

Not an attack on Christianity, but more of a statement that we all have our crosses to bear. I love Monty Python! Even though it's considered comedy, I get alot from these words.

God Bless!

Step Study Night and This Week's Cornerstone Sermon

"Be quick to listen... Slow to speak... And slow to become angry."

Rusty is back this week with words to live by! It's part 2 of Cornerstone's Book of James series.

Learned quite a bit about listening, communication, and putting what we learn to use in our everyday lives to become better people. I'm not really in a position to be a foster parent, but there are a couple of touching videos later in the sermon about it.

At my 12 and 12 meeting we discussed step 5, who we went to with our life stories, and the differences between the Little Red Book and the 12 Steps, 12 Traditions book. I told my life story to my sponsor, but some choose fellow members or people completely outside of AA. Strangers, clergy, counselors...

Got work bright and early (ok... not so bright and early). Gonna get ready to turn in anyway. Have a great night and God Bless!

All Things New, Pt. 7: Death to Life (Cornerstone Sermon Podcast 04-08-12)

Love the useless facts (watch and you'll know what I'm talking about), but more importantly I love the message.... And I have had ladies' footwear hurled at me. You know who you are. Probably have no idea this blog exists, though. Ha.

This message is about rebirth and resurrection. What better rebirth, next to our Savior, than the rebirth of our lives from addiction. Finding the right path and making this world a better place.

You can't change your past. You can only learn from it and help others through your experience.

The most profound thing I got from this sermon was that a significant sign of maturity is that we can't do it all. We don't know it all. We cannot possibly be in control of everything in our lives. We deal with the now. A philosophy from decades ago in the Big Book.

Thank you, Rusty. It was a beautiful message and quite uplifting. I'll talk to ya in June!

Goodnight peeps. And have a blessed day tomorrow. :)

All Things New: Defeated to Conquered (Cornerstone Sermon Vodcast 04-01-12)

It's my Monday round-up of inspiration! I so look forward to that Cornerstone sermon... And my daily meditation...

Remember that the first quality of greatness is service. In a way, God is the greatest servant of all, because He is always waiting for us to call on Him to help us in all good endeavor. His strength is always available to us, but we must ask it of Him through our own free will. It is a free gift, but we must sincerely seek for it. A life of service is the finest life we can live. We are here on earth to serve others. That is the beginning and the end of our real worth.

Pain Removes the Veil

Thought I'd write a bit about what I heard in the Cornerstone sermon last night. At the very hub of the message, I was reminded of a lot about myself.

How I never grew up from the "Look at me!" mentality that is perfectly reasonable for a kid, but not for an adult.

How, for all of my life, I lived on the idea that this was my world. you just live in it.

And most importantly, in my addiction, how I never dropped the self-will that kept me in the same painful cycle. The sermon's title is My Glory to His Glory. That means something. I'm not god anymore. I turn all of the insanity and pride over to my Higher Power. I recognize that it's not about what people can do for me... It's about what I can do for people in his name.

Ego builds a cardboard fortress that humility must everyday tear down.

Very telling about how fragile even the largest egos are. That was a quote that Rusty found. Another was from CS Lewis... "Pain removes the veil; it plants the flag of truth within the fortress of a rebel soul."

For those who didn't catch the YouTube link last night, here's a link to the audio sermon...

Cornerstone Church Podcast: My Glory to His Glory

Hope the day is going great for you! May post something fun a bit later....

All Things New, Pt. 5: My Glory to His Glory (Cornerstone Sermon Podcast 03-25-12)

In the process of listening to the latest sermon from my favorite church. Thought I'd go ahead and post the link. :)

It's been a very busy day. Going to have to go to bed early. I hope everyone has a great night and God Bless! Here's the daily thought from Hazelden...

Strength comes also from working with other alcoholics. When you are trying to help a new prospect with the program, you are building up your own strength at the same time. You see the other person in the condition you might be in yourself and it makes your resolve to stay sober stronger than ever. Often, you help yourself more than the other person, but if you do succeed in helping the prospect to get sober, you are stronger from the experience of having helped another person. Am I receiving strength from working with others?

All Things New, Pt. 4: Temporal to Eternal (Cornerstone Sermon Podcast 03-18-12)

Just passing through. Quite a bit on the agenda for today, but I did take some time to listen to the latest sermon from one of my favorite churches.

Josh Agerton delivered a wonderful message. Folks who know me well will know why the title caught my attention...

All Things New Pt. 4: Temporal to Eternal

Hope you are having a great day!

All Things New, Pt. 3: Working to Grace (Cornerstone Sermon Podcast 03-11-12)

Just listened to the new podcast from Cornerstone Church in Auburn, Al. They are on YouTube as well, which is exciting. Now I can watch the sermons. The audio is a bit off in this vid, so I'm going to post a link to the podcast too.

One of the things Rusty talks about in his message is that work and good deeds, while wonderful, are still incomplete without God's grace. Another thing that really touched me was being reminded of all the grace and forgiveness that I've been shown... not only from God, but from the people who love me. Even when I didn't deserve it. It's truly humbling.

And below is a link to the podcast....

All Things New, Pt. 3: Working to Grace (Cornerstone Sermon Podcast 03-11-12)

I've been cleaning and doing laundry today, and now it's time to cook. The weather is a bit harsh out, so I think it'll be a night in. I like a good thunderstorm, though. ;)

Have a great evening!

All Things New, Pt. 1 (Cornerstone Sermon Podcast 02-26-12)

Don't have a lot of time to write about it, but I love this new series so far. All things new... Life changes, hard work, surrender, and faith. Thanks for the message, Rusty!

Gotta be at work soon, but I'll write again tonight. Until then, enjoy the sermon. Here's the link...

All Things New, Pt. 1

Old Habits Die Hard Pt. 6- Pride (Cornerstone Sermon Podcast 02-19-12)

Just got back from my 12 Step study and the amazing day that I was blessed with before that.

The Cornerstone sermon from Feb.19th was finally posted a couple of days ago, and I've been very anxious to share it. The last in the Old Habits Die Hard series is Pride. Arguably my biggest weakness and even more arguably the root of all evil... After listening to Josh Agerton talk about the role pride took in the story of the downfall of Adam and Eve, I've become more convinced that not only is the devil real, he exists in all of us as doubt, ego, mistrust, etc. Really. I could name a dozen traits like that, and they all reside in me.

Josh talks about a blogpost he found that is helpful in self-evaluation of just how proud one actually is. I was surprised that not all applied to me, but most did. Reading the comments, alot of people were uncomfortably surprised at how close the list hit home. Bear in mind that there is such thing as healthy pride and unhealthy pride. This is the unhealthy variety. The link is below...

The Fifty Fruits of Pride

And here is the link to the sermon. I recommend this one highly. It's the message that I have literally been waiting for in this series because I know how well it describes me. Pride was my main roadblock in recovery.

Old Habits Die Hard Pt. 6- Pride

Hey! Two awesome links in one night! I'm incredibly grateful for everything I"ve learned today... and from the Cornerstone podcasts. Now that the Old Habits series is over, I can't wait to see what they do next. It's an exciting church to be a part of. Even in anonymity... 5 and a half hours away.

Goodnight and peace be with you.

But for the Grace of God

Got the greenlight to chair H&I once a month. I think I'll ask my sponsor to be my first moderator. Talked to him a little earlier about meeting up tomorrow or Sunday. We're going to go ahead and finish my steps. Pretty psyched about that!

Work went well too. It was a pretty slow night. Just got back and am getting ready to wind down for bed. I'll check out the Cornerstone website first and see if they've posted this week's sermon yet.

When we came to our first A.A. meeting, we looked up at the wall at the end of the room and saw the sign: "But for the grace of God." We knew right then and there that we would have to call on the grace of God in order to get sober and get over our soul sickness. We heard speakers tell how they had come to depend on a Power greater than themselves. That made sense to us and we made up our minds to try it. Am I depending on the grace of God to help me stay sober?

That's not what I was thinking at my first AA meeting. Seeing the word "God" everywhere scared the hell out of me. It took me a very long time to accept him as my Higher Power and that's one reason I failed so many times. Now I know that God's got my back. Whenever I need him, I can call on him. He's always there.

Gonna go ahead and sign off. If Cornerstone posted today, I'll link it here.

Have a great night and a blessed tomorrow!