Blog | Cornerstone Church in Lodi

Recent Surgery

Posted: August 27th 2011

Yes it happened to me. For five years I took meds to stave off the effects of prostate enlargement. Finally I needed to take action and my doctor did a great job of TURP. That stands for Transurethal Resection of the Prostate. After less than a week now I am healing up really fine and should be back in the office shortly. To give you a little play on words I will say that I have been wonderfully "relieved".

This was my first real surgery and I am so pleased with the results. A two hour …

Our Family Almost Had A Terrible Tragedy

Posted: August 16th 2011

It is so hard to even say the words "near death experience". I cringe even thinking about what the results could have been. It still seems so impossible. Things like that could never happen to our special Payne family. I don't even want to enumerate the painful consequences of loss, heartache, grief, anger, disbelief, and despair we would have faced if things were different.

Our youngest son, Brantley, called it "What Kind of Idiot Dies in Paradise?" That was the name of his recent blog …

Jury Duty

Posted: August 3rd 2011

It is the privlege I love to hate. First of all I never get selected. Pastors are routinely rejected. They are the "persona nongrata" in the jury box. I guess they are too rigid in beliefs, too black and white in morals, or too different from the norm to be wanted by either side of the attorneys.

I received the typical summons and date with instructions to call after 5 p.m. the night before I was to appear.

This kind of appointment is always hard because the next day is such a wipe-out. …

Limits And Margin

Posted: July 5th 2011

Our Leadership Team just saw a great vidio series about limits by Andy Stanley. Here are a few things I learned.

Everone has limits, if you don't set them someone else will and you won't like the results.
Our limits should reflect space for us to have some margin. Margin gives us room to do other things like relax and receive the unexpected and have a quiet conversation with family and others withour being pushed. Also margin gives us time to see what God is doing in our lives.

3)…

Temporary Change

Posted: May 31st 2011

And now for a commercial announcement....... We are getting the word out in as many ways as possible.

Sunday Worship will temporarally change to a new location for a few weeks this summer while the Middle School is being remodeled.

Starting Sunday June 5th 10 A.M. we will meet at Nichols Elementary School at 1301 S. Crescent Ave. This is very near the Carl's Jr. on Kettleman St. In fact Crescent runs into Kettleman at Carl's Jr.

Most Sunday's we will meet at this school for June and…

Sad Day You----- Know What I Mean !

Posted: May 25th 2011

What a sad day for Christians. The May 21st fiasco was so very sad for believers. No one knows the mind of Christ or the day of rapture or day of judgment.

The atheists, comedians, skeptics, journalists and all doubters in general had a big day making fun of very serious coming events on God's calendar.

Yes, Mr. Camping was so very wrong! Yes, he brought ridicule to the name of Christ!

Yes, we need to pray for him!

One good thing! Mr. Camping did believers a favor by reminding us t…

Weird

Posted: May 10th 2011

Yes "WEIRD" that's the name of the book I'm reading by Craig Groeschel. The first few chapters are about the use of time. Most people are normal and spend 28 hours a week in front of the TV and 16 hours additionally each week in front of their computers. That is an enormous amount of time. Craig says believers should be "weird" and use their time more wisely.

Craig wrote " we have enough time to do everything God wants you to do", wow! When I complain about not having time maybe my prioriti…

Results Of Resurrection

Posted: April 20th 2011

The writing of the four gospels including 30 chapters on the last week of Jesus life.
The boldness of the apostles to preach the gospel everywhere inspite of persecution.
The beginning of the Christian church which spread very rapidly.
The proof that Jesus is who He claimed to be.
The miracle of multitudes of transformed lives throughout history.
The promise of our own resurrection in the future which may be soon.
The joy of experiencing Jesus promise to no…

Looking Back On Haiti

Posted: April 6th 2011

We had so many blessing of that trip. I wanted to detail just a few

Working with the Haitian Pastor Marc was great . Seeing his dedication and diligence. He started the church from zero and now five years later has approx 100 faithful believers including some who left the Voodoo cult.

Meeting Haitian villagers as we visited from door to door and seeing how they actually live their lives on a daily basis. Several of them were ill and just lying outside on a mat spread out on the ground. Li…

Back From Haiti

Posted: March 21st 2011

It was another world. We traveled outside the city of Port au Prince, about a one and half hour drive. It seemed like we were on another continent. It felt like a different cosmos. Our experience was totally new from last year where we lived in the earthquake ravaged capital city.

Our trip to the village of Merceron was a total shock. This is what we saw. I will just give you a list of things and let you absorb it the way we saw it when we were there.

Women carried water in buckets …