Contentment- A Puritan Prayer

Heavenly Father, if I should suffer need, and go unclothed, and be in poverty, make my heart prize Your love, know it, be constrained by it, though I be denied all blessings. It is Your mercy to afflict and try me with wants, for by these trials I see my sins, and desire severance from them. Let me willingly accept misery, sorrows, temptations, if I can thereby feel sin as the greatest evil, and be delivered from it with gratitude to You, acknowledging this as the highest testimony of Your love.

When Your Son, Jesus, came into my soul instead of sin He became more dear to me than sin had formerly been; His kindly rule replaced sin's tyranny. Teach me to believe that if ever I would have any sin subdued I must not only labour to overcome it, but must invite Christ to abide in the place of it, and He must become to me more than vile lust had been; that His sweetness, power, life may be there. Thus I must seek a grace from Him contrary to sin, but must not claim it apart from Himself.

When I am afraid of evils to come, comfort me by showing me that in myself I am a dying, condemned wretch, but in Christ I am reconciled and live; that in myself I find insufficiency and no rest, but in Christ there is satisfaction and peace; that in myself I am feeble and unable to do good, but in Christ I have ability to do all things. Though now I have His graces in part, I shall shortly have them perfectly in that state where You will show Yourself fully reconciled, and alone sufficient, efficient, loving me completely, with sin abolished. O Lord, hasten that day.

Gateway Fellowship / Cornerstone Fellowship - One Family

Gateway Fellowship, the church that I have been serving as the Lead Pastor for over 7 years, began to pray just a few short months ago that The Lord would do something special in us. You see, as a church plant, we have met in many different buildings but never really had one to call our own. We have met in store fronts, and day care centers, and have prayed specifically that one day God would give us a permanent home to meet in. Often times, we haven't been able to do some of the things that we felt The Lord leading us to simply because we didn't have the resources for it. We were in need of a great children's program, a place for youth, and some more people who had a deep passion for the Gospel. Little did we know, He already had a plan in mind.

Cornerstone Fellowship, a church in Caddo Mills, had begun praying almost the same prayer for their church about 4 months ago. They too were praying God would do something special in them. They were looking and praying for some new faces to help serve in ministry alongside them.

Cornerstone has a building and property and an established presence in Caddo Mills, which is exactly half the distance between Royse City and Greenville, where the majority of our church family resides.

The Lord put together a chance meeting between two pastors of two different churches, who in reality where praying basically the same prayer. Over the past month we have met and prayed together and talked about the possibility of our two churches coming together and becoming one church. I can't begin to tell you the "strength" I see with the possibility of us joining forces.

There were some things that needed to be discussed and prayed over. After many weeks of prayer and meeting with key leadership from both churches, Cornerstone Fellowship decided that they would vote on a pastoral shift in their church that would put me in the Lead Pastor role and their current pastor would function as the Executive Pastor. 

This morning, Cornerstone Fellowship, by unanimous decision, voted that I would become the Lead Pastor. Gateway Fellowship, will merge with into the fellowship at Cornerstone, and we will begin meeting together as one body of believers next week.

If you don't have a church home, I would like to invite you to worship with us at Cornerstone Fellowship in Caddo Mills. God is up to something and we are very excited about the future of the church.