February 4, 2010
What a tremendous beginning for the new year here at Crossroads! We just finished our first month, and it was our best ever. Virtually every area of our ministry experienced the best beginning we’ve ever had. We averaged 4,304 in Morning Worship and welcomed 149 new members in the first 31 days of the year. That’s almost 5 new members every day. 46 of those were by baptism. Here’s the unbelievable part: over 100 people are signed up for our Choosing Crossroads (our class for prospective new members) this Sunday morning. That’s more than 100 more people who are already signed up to find out how they can become a vital part of what God is doing here.
We also just finished our stewardship series, The ABC’s of Financial Freedom, and the response has been beyond amazing. Over 2,100 individuals and families made commitments to be at least tithers of the income God blesses them with each week. Hundreds of them committed to tithing and giving above and beyond that, too! We had the largest number ever commit to begin tithing which means there are hundreds of our people who are going to discover for the first time, what so many have already discovered, the incomparable, supernatural blessing of God in their lives.
God promises to “throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing we won’t have enough room for it” (Malachi 3:10). I can’t wait to see what God does in the lives of our people in the weeks and months to come as we trust God together, and do things His way – especially in the area of how we manage the resources He gives us.
This past Sunday night, we had another terrific event. It was the largest leadership meeting we’ve ever had – over 600 in attendance. We announced to our leaders that our next leadership meeting (in May or June) would need to be held in our main auditorium. We’ll still eat but we’ll have to do it like our men’s breakfasts do, in shifts. That way we can feed a larger number.
Yes, it’s been a great beginning at Crossroads . . . and the best is yet to come! I believe one of the main reasons we are seeing such a move of God in our midst is because several thousand people have made the commitment to be ALL THE WAY IN FOR GOD IN 2010!
Remember our verse for the year: “For the Lord God is a sun and a shield; the Lord bestows favor and honor; no good thing does He withhold from those whose walk is blameless” (Psalm 84:11).
This Sunday is the Super Bowl! But the real celebration will be at 8:45, 10:00 & 11:30.
See you here with your family and a friend! It’s going be SUPERB!
© 2010. Barry L. Cameron
Posted in Blessing, Crossroads, Growth, The Church 
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January 29, 2010
She was the daughter of a San Diego policeman. Grew up on the beach and loved the water. In 1924, at the age of six, she competed in her first swimming competition. The following four years she experienced defeat after defeat. But at ten she experienced a life–changing turn of events. She finished fourth in what was called a “rough water” night swim. The next year she took first place in another “rough water” race across the bay in San Diego. For nineteen years she competed in swimming competitions all over the United States and even tried out for the Olympic team in 1936.
Her strength was distance and endurance which may have led to her failure to make the Olympic team because all those events were short races. In 1945, she joined former swimming teammate, Esther Williams, appeared in a motion picture called “Bathing Beauty,” and three years later began training to swim the English Channel. On August 8, 1950, she swam the English Channel in thirteen hours and twenty minutes, breaking the world record held by another American swimmer, Gertrude Ederle. The following year she went back and crossed the English Channel again, from England to France, in sixteen hours and twenty-two minutes, becoming the first woman ever to swim the English Channel in both directions. Her time on the second swim also broke a record for the England-to-France route.
In July of 1952, she became the first woman to attempt to swim the 21-mile distance between Catalina Island and the California coastline. Flanked by small boats and a team of supporters that included her mother, she set out to begin the journey. After approximately fifteen hours of swimming, a thick fog set in and even though she continued to try to make progress, she began to doubt her ability to go on and finish. She told her mother she didn’t think she could make it but continued to swim for another hour before she decided she could go no further and asked to be pulled out of the water.
Florence Chadwick, called it quits not because she was tired or too cold. She said she quit because she “couldn’t see the shore.” Ironically, she stopped barely one mile from the coastline. Two months later, in the same dense fog as before, she swam the entire 21-mile journey in thirteen hours, forty-seven minutes and fifty-five seconds, breaking a 27-year record by more than two hours and became the first woman ever to complete the swim.
In just a few hours, the month of January will be drawing to a close. Has the fog already set in on your dreams? Your plans and goals? The resolutions you made for the New Year? Don’t stop now! Just because the month is over doesn’t mean your resolve has to be. Maybe your goal was to exercise more, lose weight, start saving more money, have a Quiet Time every day, give up some bad habit or start some new ones, get more involved in church, reconcile some broken relationships; whatever, it doesn’t matter. What matters is that you don’t quit. That you get back on track and stay in the race. It doesn’t matter what age or stage of life – it’s never too late to get going again and always too early to quit.
Jesus said, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.” Get back on track today. Get back in the game. Get back where you know you need to be and want to be. Don’t quit. Don’t give up. Don’t walk away when God’s absolute best is just ahead and clearly within reach if you just keep going.
History is literally littered with the lives of those who gave up too soon, who quit on the very verge of victory. People who gave up instead of going on and missed out on the opportunities and victories God had for them. Sure it’s tough to press on when everything seems to be caving in around you. Sure it’s hard to fathom success is just around the corner when you can’t see because of the fog. Sure there’s a price involved. If what you’re pursuing is worth anything it will always cost you something. But those who pay the price and make the sacrifice are always the ones who get to enjoy the perks, privileges and pleasures that come from receiving the prize.
In 1 Corinthians 9:24, Paul said, “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize!”
Today, remember the encouragement of the Scriptures and the example set by Florence Chadwick and get back in the water!
© 2010. Barry L. Cameron
Posted in Christians, Failure, Goals, Passion, Persistence, Quitting, Success No Comments »
January 22, 2010
This week marks the 37th anniversary of one of the most tragic decisions in American history. Since January 22, 1973, when the U.S. Supreme Court legalized abortion, over 50 million babies have lost their lives here in America. Think of it! FIFTY MILLION!
• Fifty million Americans – worse than any war or the holocaust that took the lives of 6 million Jews.
• Fifty million individuals who could have made a difference in our world.
• Fifty million potential wage earners who could’ve helped our economy, contributed to social security, Medicare and Medicaid.
• Fifty million minds who could’ve helped find the cure for cancer, heart disease, muscular dystrophy, you name it.
We’ll never know . . . but God does and God sees. Psalm 11:4-5 says, “The Lord is in his holy temple; the Lord is on his heavenly throne. He observes the sons of men; his eyes examine them. The Lord examines the righteous, but the wicked and those who love violence his soul hates.”
There are some very positive signs the tide is turning again in America. Besides the fact that Norma McCorvey, the infamous “Roe” in Roe v. Wade has repudiated her role in the legalization of abortion in America and now campaigns for life, polls reveal a majority of Americans are unashamedly and unequivocally pro-life. Now, if only the representatives in our “representative” government would follow the will of the people (as they are so quick to quote) Roe v. Wade could be overturned.
Dr. Eric Keroack, from Massachusetts, recently shared on FOX NEWS about a two-year study which revealed 75% of the women who were unsure about having an abortion changed their minds after seeing an ultrasound of their baby. Focus On The Family, the ministry founded and led by Dr. James Dobson for decades, has a program called The Family’s Project Ultrasound, and their goal is to equip 800 crisis pregnancy centers with ultrasound machines.
Pray with me that this would be the last year we ever have to observe one of the worst decisions ever made in our nation’s history. Remember the lives of those who are no longer with us and pray for those who are still with us but who have been forever changed by the inescapable and irreversible affects of abortion. Finally, pray that our nation and our nation’s leaders will repent before God, not only asking for forgiveness but also asking for a chance to make things right – and then, have the character and integrity to once and for all make things right with God.
Surely, there are millions of us who can get on our knees before God and ask for His forgiveness and then, stand up for those FIFTY MILLION who never got to take their first step.
© 2010. Barry L. Cameron
Posted in Abortion, America, Christians, Compassion, Convictions, Family Values, Justice, Repentance, Responsibility, Sanctity of Life, The Church No Comments »
January 15, 2010
This past Tuesday a 7.0 earthquake struck the tiny nation of Haiti, poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. Many called it a catastrophe of “biblical proportions.” Haiti’s president said untold thousands were dead, tens of thousands more are missing and hundreds of thousands have no place to sleep and nothing to eat. For a nation that had next to nothing and now has lost even what little they had, it’s hard to describe the destruction. News agencies have declared the devastation beyond description and reporters fight back tears on virtually every broadcast attempting to explain what the people of Haiti are experiencing.
Once again, the most generous nation on the face of the earth, the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, has responded in rapid fashion. Millions of Americans have already given. Hundreds of church groups and Christian mission agencies are already in Haiti offering help and hope.
This past Wednesday night, in an impromptu offering of love at the conclusion of our worship service, our people gave thousands of dollars to help the people of Haiti. We are partnering with Compassion International, a Christian ministry based in Colorado Springs, Colorado. They have a team of 75 workers on the ground in Haiti, with over 200 projects, ministering to over 65,000 children. One of our former church members, who also served as one of our elders, Rhae Buckley, is on staff at Compassion International and has served as our contact letting us know the best ways we can help. Everything we have given so far and will give in the days ahead is being used to provide basic necessities of food, water, clothing, shelter, medical supplies, and more.
I’m asking you to help us with The Compassion Project – Crossroads’ response to the people of Haiti. We’ve set up a place on the main page of our website where you can give online to this project. All you have to do is designate your gift to missions and the amount you give will go to Haiti through The Compassion Project. It is a safe and secure way to give and whatever you give is automatically credited to your personal giving record.
If you have friends or relatives who want to know what they can do, direct them to our website where they can give to The Compassion Project knowing every dollar they give will go to help the people of Haiti.
As always, any time we give to a special need like this whatever we give needs to be above our regular weekly giving and support of the ministry of Crossroads so other needs aren’t neglected or affected as we attempt to meet the needs of others. Please consider giving a gift TODAY to help the people of Haiti. Simply click on this link: http://www.crossroadschristian.net/online_giving_haiti.shtml and you will directed to the page where you can give.
Thank you for helping us help the people of Haiti!
“You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God” (2 Corinthians 9:11).
© 2010. Barry L. Cameron
Posted in America, Compassion, Earthquakes, Generosity, Haiti, Missions, The Church No Comments »
January 10, 2010
Someone once said, “There’s no pillow as soft as a clear conscience.” Someone else said, “Conscience is what hurts when everything else feels so good.”
Next Monday, our nation will observe Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. He was one of the most prolific and articulate statesmen not only of his time but perhaps of all time. He was a preacher, civil rights’ leader, and Nobel Peace Prize winner. Many would point to him as the force behind where our country is today when it comes to race relations. There are multitudes of great quotes from Dr. King but a few are especially appropriate today. They have to do with the subject of the conscience.
“Cowardice asks the question, ‘Is it safe?’ Expedience asks the question, ‘Is it political?’ Vanity asks the question, ‘Is it popular?’ But conscience asks the question, ‘Is it right?’ there comes a time when one must take a position that’s neither safe, nor political, nor popular, but he must make it because his conscience tells him that it’s right.”
“The good Samaritan represents the conscience of mankind because he also was obedient to that which could not be enforced. No law in the world could have produced such unalloyed compassion, such genuine love, such thorough altruism.”
“The church must be reminded that it is not the master or the servant of the state, but rather the conscience of the state . . .”
This month, the city of Houston – fourth largest city in America, became the largest U.S. city to elect an openly homosexual mayor.
Houston is also home of the largest church in America.
© 2010. Barry L. Cameron
Posted in Christianity, Conscience, Homosexuality, Martin Luther King, The Church, Uncategorized 2 Comments »
