INQUIRIES

September 30, 2026 / joseph elon lillie / Leave a comment

Monday night is my assigned night at The Worship Room House of Prayer. I lead worship for the first hour and then lead prayer for the second and third hours. The second hour is what TWR calls worship with the word and I call lecto divine.

The verse we meditated on this week was Psalm 27:4

One thing have I asked of the Lord,
that will I seek after:
that I may dwell in the house of the Lord
all the days of my life,
to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple.

As I sit here typing on the eve of my third sabbatical I am captured by the thought of INQUIRING of the Lord.

I have so many questions of Him just now:

WHAT DOES THE FUTURE HOLD?

WHAT IS HOLDING US BACK FROM ENTERING INTO HIS FULLNESS?

WHAT DO WE AS A CONGREGATION NEED TO RELEASE TO MOVE FORWARD?

Photo by Soumya Bhattacharjee on Pexels.com

WHAT DO WE NEED TO EMBRACE TO MOVE FORWARD?

Photo by Jonathan Goncalves on Pexels.com

Our congregation is taking this next month to discover the answers to these and other questions.

WHAT ARE YOU INQUIRING OF THE LORD THESE DAYS?

ON THE EDGE

September 28, 2026 / joseph elon lillie / Leave a comment

September 28, three days before my third sabbatical as lead pastor of Cornerstone Church. Sabbatical is a vision quest.

We are on the edge of God’s next thing for us as a church. I am preparing now: Preparing to engage with the world in a different way;

Preparing to wait on God until He shows me the future;

Preparing to rest in the Lord and to let His saving grace wash over me to refresh me for the next work.

The church is joining me in this work. When we come back together in November we will have fresh vision for 2027 and 2028.

We are on the edge of something amazing!

A River In Spring

September 27, 2026 / joseph elon lillie / Leave a comment

The wind blowing through the New England tree tops has sounded like a river in Spring, as the first Nor’ Easter of the season makes landfall here in the North East United States. For us in Winchendon it has just been a little wind and rain. It has been far worse for the coastal regions of our country.

I preached my last sermon at Cornerstone this morning. Sabbatical begins on Oct. 1. I will return to the pulpit In November. The purpose for the sabbatical is to take a breather and listen to the sound of the Spirit as He is moving through the world. The sound of Him moving through the spiritual landscape is like the sound of a river in Spring.

It is not hard to hear the sound of the Nor’ Easter in the trees. It is also not hard to hear the sound of the Spirit as He moves through the world. The sound is there for anyone who will listen, but the world is full of sound and distraction, so without taking time to here the sound of a rushing wind… a rushing river… a moving Spirit it all just becomes so much background noise.

A few people have asked me if I am doing anything exciting on my sabbatical. Sabbatical is about taking a pause from the distractions and focusing in on what the Spirit is saying. That is what I am preparing to do. To me that is all very exciting. I desperately want to know what is next.