 Welcome to the June edition of Cornerstone Connect. We have a very special program planned just for you. Anna Fry and Pastor Gary Mitrick join us to explore God's love and how it transforms, empowers, and is unconditional. Then Crystal Tillman will share a special gift offer just for you. And I'm going to share a personal story of how Cornerstone Network has impacted my life and ministry. All that and more coming up next. Amanda Brocker, welcome to Cornerstone Connect. Have you received your newsletter in the mail? If not, please give us a call at 888-665-4483 or go to ctvn.org and make sure you get this connection. We love to let you know what's happening. And I think it's really important to know a little bit of behind the scenes and what goes all on here at Cornerstone. These people work really hard. That's what I can promise you. They wear many different hats to get a lot of jobs done, but ultimately our goal is getting accomplished because of your love and your support to our network. So we can't thank you enough. Well, I just want to tell you, there's a few of you who wrote in and we can't thank you enough for writing in and letting us know how you are and what you're enjoying. This comes from Lori. She said, blessings to you all for your kingdom work. Thank you, Lori, so much for supporting our network. This is from Carol. She said, thank you for the movies you show during the block party. We all love a little block party. It's so great to watch Christian films such as The Savior. I also like Bible discovery, origins, hard questions and many more. I watch Cornerstone every day. Pray for good health. May God bless you and keep you in his care. And we do just that. Father, we ask for good health. For Carol, Lord, we ask for your, just your word to flow through her, bringing healing and wholeness to every fiber of her being in Jesus' name. Thank you, Carol, for writing in. And this comes from Linda. She said, God's blessing on the fund drive. Those are always awesome to do. We enjoy them, kind of like camp meeting. The Cornerstone family, you are a joyful, steady blessing, a light in all the darkness. Thanks for all the excellent programming as well. Thank you, Linda, so much for writing in. And this is from Sandy. And she said, I want to let you know how I love watching Arlene when she is cooking. I learn so much from her. I think we all do. Arlene helps me just like take a breather and not go at the pace that I'm normally running at and try to make sure I sit down at the table with my kids. That's really important. And this letter comes from Tracy. She said, thank you for all the wonderful programs on Cornerstone Network. I watch every day. I really love Joseph Prince, Dr. David Jeremiah, Dr. Robert Jeffress. Please continue your television ministry and thank you for your support, State Tracy. This is making a difference in people's lives and we could not do it apart from you. This comes from Kathleen. And she said, I love Cornerstone TV. I've watched it since Norma and Paul but I think she meant Russ. We're with it. It is my church away from church and we are so grateful to be here for you. I know our new tagline is Hope Happens Here because it really does. This comes from Lynn. She said, dear CTVN, thank the sisters for the broadcast recently on the topic and word of God on mercy and truth. It helped me put into perspective with grace in life today. You know, that is so important and that's really our ultimate goal is to help people grow with God to cultivate that relationship that you can have with Jesus. So no matter when you tune in, I know all of our programs are exalting the word of God and they're meant to connect you deeper with your heavenly father. I'm just gonna read one more. This is from Gail. She said, thank you for the many prayer partners who have been a great spiritual and emotional support in the caring required for my mother. Let me tell you, it is so important to us that we are here for you. And Gail, we pray for God's strength as you care for your mom, that he would give you that empowerment from his spirit that you need for every task at hand. And thank you so much for your contribution to our network. Well, as we celebrate Father's Day this month, Pastor Gary explores how our father's love for us is transforming. Watch this. Well, I have the privilege of sitting here with Pastor Gary Metric today. He's the chairman of the board here at Cornerstone Television and has been for a lot of years, Pastor Gary. And we got to sit together to work on the cover article for the June newsletter all about receiving a fresh revelation of the fullness of our heavenly father's love. Yes, yes. And, you know, of course in June, we always celebrate Father's Day, our natural fathers. But it's interesting because I believe that many times many of us have experienced conditional love from our earthly fathers, but our heavenly father's love is unconditional. You know, one of my favorite scriptures is first John 3.1. It says, behold, how the father has lavished us with his love. And think about that, Anna. I believe one of the greatest revelations and understandings as a believer we can receive is just a revelation of our heavenly father's love, knowing how much our heavenly father loves us. Because how many of us have been hurt, disappointed, maybe even abused by a natural father or a natural person's love. And then many times we transfer that and that's how we see our heavenly father. Right. And also it says in Romans that nothing can separate us from God's love. That's right. That's so good. And you know, if you get anything else out of this article and out of our time together, just know Jesus, God, your heavenly father, he loves you. I always like to say he's not mad at you, he's mad about you. And he has a plan for your life that's good to give you a future that's full of hope. Yeah, it's beautiful. The second aspect that you talked about was how God's love transforms us. Can you talk about the power of salvation? Well, you know, the Bible says when we receive the Holy Spirit in 2 Corinthians 3, verses 17 and 18 says we are changed. We are transformed from glory to glory by the Spirit of the Lord. So when we receive Christ into our heart as our savior, I always say the greater work that he does is the inner work. He's making us Christ-like. He's making us more like him. You know, Joe Namath used to stand in front of a mirror and say, I can't wait till tomorrow because I get more handsome every day. A Christian ought to be able to stand in front of a mirror and say, I can't wait till tomorrow because I get more like Jesus every day. I know, it's such a wonderful fact that salvation is not just fire insurance, although that would be plenty if that's what it was, but God desires truly to give us abundant life through that gift of salvation and the fact that it's one day at a time walking closely with Jesus that that transformation happens. That's so good, that's so good. What a gift that is. Yes, and so lastly you say that God's love empowers us. Like we have work to do as ambassadors of Christ. Well, Romans 5.5 says it's the love of God that shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. You know, you might say, I got a loved one, I got a spouse, I've got someone at work my boss, my next door neighbor, I just don't have any love for them in myself. But the Lord says, what's not really your love, it's God's love in you that's flowing through you out to them. So God can give you love for the unlovely, the unsaved, the ungodly, you know, we all need a love for souls. We need a love for the lost. How many people, hundreds of hundreds of people are in our life throughout a week? I don't know the Lord. And if we don't have compassion and love for them, we're never going to reach them for Jesus Christ. Right, and as God's love fills us, it compels us to go out and love those who are even hard to love. So Pastor Gary, in the little bit of time that we have left, if somebody is watching today and they so lot, like they just feel like their faith is dry, like their relationship with God, it's like, where are you Lord? Can you just minister to them and encourage them in practical ways, how they can draw close to their heavenly Father and experience that fullness of his love? And I would just say that if you would just ask the Lord to show his love to you, ask him for that understanding, that revelation of a Father's love. And if you will do that, I believe that is a prayer that he will answer. And then I would just pray that you would just, just ask the Lord to open your eyes. He said that the eyes of our understanding would be enlightened. Maybe that you would just have a different perspective on how you even see yourself, how you see other people and even how you see your heavenly Father. If God could just remove those blinders and lift off of you whatever, old ways, old paradigms that maybe you were processing and thinking, maybe there's some of you watching, you don't like yourself. Did you know you were made in God's own very likeness and image? He created you to be just like him and know your heavenly Father loves you and know that you just ask God to give you even a love for yourself. And I do, I just pray that today that you would have a revelation and an understanding of your heavenly Father's love on this Father's Day month. God created us for a relationship with himself. He wants us to be his, we are his children. Pastor Gary, thank you so much for just pouring your heart out today. You're welcome. Amanda, back to you. Well, I am so glad to welcome Crystal Tillman, our Cornerstone Marketing and Development Director and I hear you have some praise reports for us about what's happening here at Cornerstone. Absolutely, and first I have to say that just God is faithful. If you look at where we've been over these last 44 years and how he started off Russ and Norma with a word from the Lord and where we've come since that time, it's truly amazing. So I really gotta thank our partners. I've gotta thank you guys out there for all that you do to help us spread the gospel. And we have some tangible testimonies that came out of our last fundraising time together, one on the financial end, after the pledges were already counted, another $23,500 came in from people that said, yes, I want to spread this great commission, I believe in what you do. And even more importantly, because we're here for the gospel, we're the salvations that came in. And from what I heard, there were some from Washington PA, Pittsburgh PA, the Poconos and even Dallas, Texas. And so that really is a credit to what our partners allow us to do here. And the one gentleman was 89 years old. So when you partner with Cornerstone Television, you're really helping to spread the gospel. That's right, and there is nothing more important than those souls being saved. That's really the fiber of who Cornerstone Television is. So talk to us about, you know, what can we do to keep Cornerstone on air? We never wanna see this die out until we finish. And God says it's done. We wanna continue being that light in this dark world. Well, when you join with us, you're really the hero of all that we do. So you may see what happens in the studio and even what happens at the prayer line, but it's really our partners that make that possible. So we had given some suggested levels, 25 a month, $50 a month, $84 a month. I'm not going to go into fundraiser mode right now, but I will say that we ask our partners to pray to the Lord about whatever He would call you to give and to commit from now on to do that each and every month. So we ask our partners to call that phone line that will appear at the bottom of your screen, 888-665-4483. Or to go to the website, ctvn.org, hit that donate button, hit recurring so that through the summer months, when we forget about things, when we're at the beach enjoying our vacations, we know the ministry is still sustained. And I can really speak to the value of what we do here personally. You and I know we've seen what happens in that ministry center and how those partners are faithful to say, okay, do you know who Jesus is? And many times, even though someone's called in for a prayer, they don't know what salvation means. They don't know that Jesus died on the cross for them, that they can accept them hemmed into their hearts and that He's coming again. And so our prayer line and what we do here makes that more accessible to them. That's right. And the prayer line has been here as long as our programming has been, which is amazing. It all costs money, but because of faithful supporters, it's how we've existed. And I know you have a special offer here for like first time donors. And they probably have a full screen but I'm just gonna hold some of these things up. You may have seen this before advertised praying on another level by Pastor Jay Gilbert, a great way to go through 30 days of prayer and journaling together. We've got our cornerstone television t-shirt, which features the hope happens here. And I know they're displaying that on the screen for you. And then in these troubling times, it is great to realize that fear must not win. So we have this resource also for our partners to encourage them in this season. So if you've been sitting out there and you're a first timer or you've been watching for a long time, but haven't figured out how to partner with us yet, now is a really good time to get in and to feed back into the gospel ministry so that others can be discipled and hear about the message of salvation. That's right. So I'm just thinking, you know, I might not be that first time donor, but I'm truly eyeing up this t-shirt that you guys had made. And is there a way possible for me to just get the t-shirt if I'm not a first time donor? Absolutely. Just give your best gift out this month. Say you want the t-shirt and we'll send it off to you. All right, everybody needs to get their merch from Cornerstone Television. It's exciting times. And I just say thank you to everything that you're doing to get Cornerstone out there. I see signs literally everywhere that I drive around the city. And I just, I thank you for leading well in our marketing and development area. And I know that these testimonies mean something very important to you and that lost soul. But I just, for yourself, what does it mean to you to work here at Cornerstone? Well, I've always believed in only associating myself with missions that I agreed with and that was to the advantage of the gospel and to the advantage of truth. So I am a personal beneficiary of what we do here at Cornerstone Network. I grew up watching all of the Christian television programs and it helped me through various seasons of life to watch Joyce Meyer and Charles Stanley who recently passed away and just the legacy that is here. So just to be a part of continuing that and continuing the mission of Russinorma is incredible. Amen. Well said, we love you and we love you. Our donors and supporters, thank you so much for every gift. Well, coming up, I am going to take a moment to share how Cornerstone Network has made an impact in my personal life and ministry. Stay tuned. God spoke to our beloved late founders, Russinorma Bixler, this scripture from Isaiah, raise his signal high to the nations. Your giving and support of Cornerstone Tells Your Network is helping us raise a different signal nowadays, a digital signal through the airways. Take a look at this map. Your donation helps us reach and impact people who watch our programming on our website at ctvn.org and the streaming platform Roku. Here's a list of the countries. USA, Canada, Mexico, Jamaica, Colombia, Brazil, Puerto Rico, Barbados, the UK, Ireland, France, Spain, Czechia, Germany, Sweden, Finland, Turkey, Israel, Kenya, South Africa, India, China, Russia, Japan, the Philippines, Indonesia and Australia. And you know, this is just a list of the many countries that we reach and it's all because of your faithful partnership with Cornerstone. Your gift is helping us to bring hope to people around the world and we just wanna say thank you for being part of our family. Each month we highlight a Cornerstone Cares Partner here at CTVN. This month it just happens to be the Dream Center, a ministry close to my heart. Watch this. Pittsburgh Dream Center is an outreach ministry that's focused in serving the people of the community and of our city and John Maxwell says people don't care what we know until they know truly how much we care and that's what we've done for the last 12 years is to find a need and ask God how we can bring healing to it, to show people that we truly care and has given us a platform and an opportunity to share our faith in action but also in words. It is about showing people, can you imagine that are hurting, they're angry about their life situation and so they act out in violent ways because they don't know any other way to express themselves but God has given us this opportunity that that one that may is filled with anger in the moment but that they might would know there is a God who sees them, a God who cares about them, people on the earth who love them and that's why I believe that in this season God has called the Pittsburgh Dream Center to be planted in McKeesport. The National Security and Safety Commission ranks McKeesport the fourth most violent city in America stricken by poverty, addiction, violence. There is nothing human that we can do to fix the problems of our communities. God is our answer and we must turn to him and we know that we have this place in McKeesport on purpose and with a purpose and it's kingdom business. We have an acronym that we use called GROW to describe who we are. For the G, we are generous. We love to give to people so that they can know the heart of their Heavenly Father just like God gave Jesus for us. The R is relational. We wanna make sure we're building and cultivating relationship because life is meant to be done together and then the O is outreach. So we have several different forms of outreach we do, some of which we are grateful that Cornerstone Television has partnered with us because hunger relief is a huge need in our areas. The different ministries are adopt a block where we go door to door with groceries and other needs that people might have and we love the opportunity that we have to sometimes go inside their home and gather and pray with them. Another ministry we have where we reach out is Bags of Hope and this is where the children in the McKeesport School District, they went to bed hungry. The reality is that in Allegheny County, one of every four children go to bed hungry. So we wanted to be a part of this hungry leaf and we said yes. So we pack bags of hope every week and deliver them to the schools so that way these children can take home a bag of food for the weekend and then the W is God's word. Every outreach that we do, adopt a block or street outreach when we take a hot meal down and we walk the streets of Pittsburgh and we let those people know that they are seen. We're doing this because we're standing on God's word. Well, from our hearts here at the Pittsburgh Dream Center, we just wanna say a huge thank you to all of those who support Cornerstone Television Network. I know that our life and everyone Gary that we serve, their lives are changed because of your donations. Yes, and thank you for your giving, thank you for your graciousness. Into the kingdom of God, we're part of his kingdom and we are trying to advance it here in McKeesport. So we just ask that you continue to pray for us for wisdom, but also for the city of McKeesport. They're strongholds in this city, just like many different neighborhoods and communities. And through prayer, we'll break down those strongholds, we'll break that evilness from that. So thank you for your prayers, thank you for your support and God bless you Cornerstone Television. Through the support of Cornerstone Network, the Dream Center is able to make an impact in the community. But Cornerstone Network has made a difference in the lives of my family as well. In my life, I grew up in a Christian home and so I knew Jesus from a young age. I dealt with a lot of insecurity. So as I graduated high school, not sure what to do, enrolled in the community college, it was that time the enemy just came like a flood and really gripped my heart with fear. I literally thought I was gonna lose my life, I was gonna die and I couldn't shake it no matter what I did, no matter how much I prayed, no matter how much I thought about peace and just ask God for that. So I came to the point and I drove from Somerset going up to college and this was probably about six o'clock, seven o'clock in the morning to get ready for an eight o'clock class. And I knew of Cornerstone Television, my mom watched it faithfully for years. So I knew where Cornerstone was, I'd pass it on my way and I figured I'm just gonna go up, I can't go on. So I drove up the hill, I don't know who it was, but I knocked on the door and a gentleman came and I told him my story very quickly of how I just felt in despair and he graciously invited me and it sat down with me. He took about 10, 15 minutes and just prayed with me. He shared Jesus with me and at that moment I can honestly say it changed my life. I never had that fear grip me like it did before, but just knowing that Cornerstone's available certainly on the air, but for me it was a personal encounter of Cornerstone that helped set me free. Wow, I just love to hear how God is using Cornerstone Television Network even in my own life. And he told me that story. I was a little bit in awe because who knew that years later God would bring me here to work. And I can remember my own life coming here in the late 90s, my dad was in a gospel group called Jerusalem Ridge and Gary and I came to the studio for the first time and being in awe of the work that was done here and then while we were in Oklahoma, what helped me feel at home was watching Arlene at home and GEB broadcasting carried at home. So I was elated to be able to watch that, but it's amazing to me of how God uses this little network to do amazing works and bringing multiple people from around the world to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. Can you just imagine it? And we're a part of it. You're a part of it. When you support our network, you become that arm, those feet going and declaring the word of the Lord. So thank you so much for your gifts to this station. And I just have to say, so many of you have wrote in, I got to read just a few more of these. Thank yous. This is from Susan. There are so many programs that fill my heart with joy, provide strength and encouragement. I praise the Lord and give thanks for the programming. Hope today, hard questions, origins, radiant life, The 700 Club and more. We are so thankful to be here for you, Susan. And this is from Sharon. She is like, I heard about your need for the new equipment and I wanted to help to be a blessing to others. We can't thank you enough, Sharon, for being a part of helping us stay on the air and have equipment that literally goes 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Apart from your help, Cornerstone would not be here. So you just got to know the love and gratitude that comes from our heart. But being this is a month of celebration of fathers, I cannot help but think about the love that Pastor Gary had talked about, that our Heavenly Father has. And it takes us to John 3.16. It's a well-known scripture for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever should believe in him should not perish but have eternal life. That is the good news. Jesus and his blood blots out the sin that we've created and he makes a bridge between the divide that our sin created and now we can fully receive the love of our Heavenly Father. We pray that for you.