Cornerstone TeleVision Blog

Sup bloggin peeps!

I encourage/expect/demand that every single one of you to create a twitter account, add us a friend, and tell every one else about the F4 tweets. You get to know of our daily guests before the average person, have a chance at winning great prizes that we only offer through twitter, and if you want to know what else we tweet you gotta look us up. Go. Now. Like, RIGHT now.

please =)

Chad "Chadillac" Hembree

What's your favorite show on Cornerstone? Let me know in a comment below.

I'd have to say one of my favorites on CTVN (aside from Focus 4 )  would have to be Rescuers. I love to know how God is moving through the world outside of the United States. Plus, Tim is really knowledgeable in the area of missions. Isn't it cool that he can give us the real deal on what's going on in other parts of the world. For instance...didn't know that the people of Iraq really liked Americans. You would never know by watching secular media would you??? Wait till you hear what's going on in Russia, that will really blow your mind! But I'm not going to tell you that because Tim will be sharing some of that with you in the next edition of the Insider newsletter for August as well as in upcoming episodes of Rescuers. So you'll just have to wait  I know the suspense is killing you but in the meantime drop me a line and tell me what your favorite shows are!!!!

Can't wait to hear from you! 

We get some interesting questions here at Cornerstone.  Recently this email came to us:

Why isn’t the Bible absolute in its understanding?  So many different interpretations of scripture. The enemy has a million lies and we have one Bible.  Why does it have differing opinions?  It’s driving me crazy.

My response:

The Bible can be difficult to understand on many points.  However, we must remember that the desire of God is not so much to give us cut and dried “answers”.  His purpose, as always, is that we develop a deep relationship with him.  In doing so, we will have answers that we need, though we will never have all the answers in this life.  We will have God and we will know what to do because we know Him.  Where we need direction he promises to give it. 

Maybe this analogy will help.  To use human terms, God is not interested in the Bible being an instruction manual on how to set up a DVD player.  That’s very cut and dried, “Plug Cable A into Outlet B”.  Clear to be sure, but not very good if your goal is to build a relationship with someone. 

The Bible is more like a novel, a love letter, and a history book rolled into one.  It’s exciting at parts, boring at others.  It lets us meet characters, David, Moses, Joshua, and the best character of all, God himself.  It has plot twists and turns.   In the end the good guys win.  And all of it is true!  Through it all we get to hear the heartbeat of God.  We get to know him.  That’s not so good if we want a quick answer, but it is great for relationship.  And remember as we grow in the knowledge of him the answers will become more clear. 

This is a big area and I probably haven’t answered your question.  But I’ll be glad to discuss this at length with you.  If you have specific areas or questions that you would like to ask about, I’ll do my best to send along my thoughts. 

Blessings, 

Tom

The last couple of days for me have really been a milestone in my personal life as well as my proffesional life. For those of you who do not know I travel around the world and the country quite frequently to cover different ministries for Focus 4. I just got back from a week long trip to the Mexico City area to follow Mark Miller, founder of the American Association For Lost Children (www.aaflc.org). His ministry goes all over the world to rescue kidnapped children and returns them to the rightful parents. He does not charge the families a dime for his services. He works soley off of donations and fundraisers. How much of a blessing is that? unheard of man. I have been looking for a ministry to be involved in my entire life that truly could grab hold of my heart. I have a heart to be involved in the body of christ but never found a ministry that I wanted to enrich myself in and endorse. As a producer of Focus 4 and working at the Los Angeles Dream Center for a couple years I have come along many many many forms of ministry and have been nothing but blessed to have an oppurtunity to work along side and meet some incredible people. AAFLC was different for me after this trip. For a glimpse into the craziness I have put some raw footage up on youtube of a mother and her child reuniting for the 1st time. She had not seen her son in 3 years. She missed hearing his 1st words, seeing his 1st steps, and many other cherished moments a mother has with her baby. The trip had its many twists and turns full of drama and intensity that I can delve into but thats not what was so important about the trip. What was important was that a life was rescued. we were there for the children, not ourselves. When I say "ourselves" I don't necesarily mean pride. Many days we ate one meal in the morning, got 4 or 5 hours at a hotel and traveled 10 hours or more on the most horendous back bumpy roads. My butt felt like I was 6 years old and lied to my mama. WHat I say to that is, no matter how hungry, thirsty, or tired we were we never let our flesh have a voice because it was not about how we felt. It was about rescuing children. I could not type up a couple words to sum up this trip in fear of cheapening the experiance. One can only imagine how incredible the moment is when a mother sees her child again after a long absense due to abduction. Absolutly explosive. One other thing I have to do is shout out to the incredible team we had go out with us. Don, I can't say enough about the respect and admiration I gained for you through out the trip. You are a fantastic man to look up too and you came out with a a true servants heart willing to be apart of the team and not become THE team. Brad, the love you have for your child came through to me on this trip. You are going to be a fantastic Dad. You were such an asset with your spanish now you just need to send me up some oaxa cheese. Keep your head up B-Rad. Elaine. I almost hope I spelled that wrong because no one on the trip seemed to call her by her actual name and butchered it. So I decided to call her E! You were the mother of the group that was such a strong rock for your son Brad. You knew your role in the investigations and that is such a vital part of team work. You brought a calmness to the team. Amber, I was absolutly blown away by your leadership, focus, serventhood and humor. You were more than willing to do anything that was asked of you. You were the glue that kept the team together, and ive got the pink tie ready to go. 6pm right? your pink sweater will live on in these videos lol... Last but not least, Mark. What an incredible leader. The most selfless man I have ever met. He never made this trip about him. For as succesful as he is, there is not one ounce of pride in his body. Please keep him in your prayers. Please. I went on this trip expecting to meet new people/contacts, enjoy myself, and come back with a wonderful story as I normally do. Instead I came back with family that went through an incredible adventure together. i am blessed to have them in my life. My father, Ron Hembree, has a hand molded clay pot that sits in strategic areas in the house so no one can knock it over. It is the most priceless item he has ever owned. I would rather swim with sharks than accidently tip that pot over. It was a gift given to him from an African tribe for saving there villiage. He led a trip with 5 million dollars worth of food and clothes. Many of you know my Dad has been extrremely succesful in ministry. He's worked with Jonny Cash, had his tv show on many Networks all across the country (www.thestreamtv.com), traveled the world, has 2 honorary doctrates, and written scores and scores of books. He always refers to his "Africa Trip" as his most impactful trip of his life. I live about an hour away from the Pittsburgh airport and spent most of that car ride crying my eyes out thanking god for allowing me to be apart of such an incredible mission. After I was done being a big cry baby I called my mom (well, I guess big babies call there mom when theyre crying so I guess I'm still being a big baby). I was explaining to her my trip and all that happened. I ended it by telling her this trip to me is equivilant to my Dads Africa trip for me. life changing. I look forward to working alongside mark miller and AAFLC in the future. I don't know if this blog made sense or if it was gramatically correct. I just spoke and wrote from my heart. welcome to the mind of the Chadillac........ scary

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1MJyF21rO0

Hello everybody in the digital world of Blogs. I hope that you are having a great summer, i hope that you have been enjoying some of the guests that we have brought onto Focus 4. dont forget, i would love to hear from you with any questions of comments that you might have. Focus4@ctvn.org

we also love to give items away so keep checking in with us because you never know when we are going to do that. Cause lets be honest, who doesnt like free stuff??!!?!

well i dont want to bore you but keep checking in, i have been known to drop little nuggets of wisdom from time to time (thats what i tell my self)

I am looking forward to allowing every one into the crazy mind of the Chadillac. I hope you are as interested to hear from me as I am to here from you. Let the blogging begin... du du du dahhhhhhhhhhhh.......

Hi everyone! I am excited to interact with you on the blog. This is just one more way that we can become a bigger Cornerstone Family! Hope you enjoy this as much as us bloggers will! I look forward to hearing your feedback through comments posted after each blog entry. Have fun!!!

Hi everyone,

This is the beginning of what we hope will be an informative and fun space for everyone in the Cornerstone Family.  Our plan is to use this blog space to let you know our thoughts and feelings on anything that comes our way.  Certainly we...by the way...the "we" of this blog consists of Ron Hembree, President of Cornerstone and host of Focus 4 and Quick Study, Tim Burgan, Director of our Rescuers network and host of the Rescuers program, Kyle Hembree, Coordinating Producer of Focus 4, Toni Hembree, Marketing and Publicity Coordinator and regular host of Focus 4, Focus 4 Producers Michele Newell and Chad Hembree, and me, Tom Hollis, Director of Broadcast Services.

As I was saying...we will certainly use this space to announce and discuss upcoming programs and events.  Blogs however, have a way of spilling over into the day-to-day thoughts of the author.  In fact, I’m sure that as we progress, our commentary will be more about society at large and what's going on in our personal lives, than merely announcing programs.  You may even hear a rant or two (or many). We want to hear from you, as well.  There will be a place for you to comment after each entry.  Please be kind.

We are just learning this blog business, so were not quite sure what we’re doing yet.  But at the bottom of it all is our deep love for Jesus and to see that he is glorified.  That is why Cornerstone exists and this blog is just an extension of that.  We hope that it is a fun time for everyone.

Tom