A Note From Chris - November 25, 2021

Happy Thanksgiving, Cornerstone!  Sometimes, the holidays can be a stressful time. However, as I spend some time reflecting today, I cannot help but be thankful.  I’m thankful for my family and the way we love.  I’m thankful for our church and the way we minister to our community, get messy with one another, and share hope.  I’m thankful for friends and the richness they bring to my life.  My heart is grateful, and I love what we get to do together.

And while I’m thankful for so many things in life, the gratitude I feel for Jesus cannot be compared to anything this life offers.  Because he lived, we wake up each morning with mercy and grace waiting for us. Because he died, we have hope to get through all that life throws at us. He is our Savior and our hope.  And as we enter this holiday season, I long to feel grateful throughout this season for the gift of a Son, born unto us.  He has given us reason to be thankful this holiday season and beyond.

Every year I spend time preparing my heart for this next month as we race toward Christmas.  I never want to enter that moment unprepared, and I want to encourage you to take some time this Christmas to prepare your heart for the birth of our Savior.  I would recommend the follow three resources to help you and your family arrive at Christmas with an open heart.

1. Come Let Us Adore Him: A Daily Advent Devotional by Paul David Tripp.  This book of daily readings for the month of December will help you slow down, prepare your heart, and focus on what matters most: adoring our Savior, Jesus.  You can order that here.
   
   
2. Consider studying Advent by J.D. Greear as a family through RightNow Media (provided by Cornerstone).  There are 5 videos that are each about 12 minutes long and a downloadable guide to enrich conversation. You can find that here. (If you don't have a RightNow Media account yet, request your free one here.)
   
   
3. Unwrapping The Names of Jesus: An Advent Devotional by Asheritah Ciuciu. By focusing on the person and character of Jesus throughout the Advent season, readers will prepare their hearts so that when they admire the live nativity, sit in the candlelight service, or wake up on Christmas morning, they can join the faithful who sing from the bottom of their hearts, "O come, let us adore Him, Christ the Lord!" You can order that here. I  hope you will join me in preparing for the holiday season.

Last week I mentioned our year end giving push to fund Cornerstone CARES.  If you are prepared to do that you can do so now here; however, we will be collecting these funds through the end of 2021.  As you are thinking through any shopping you will be doing this Black Friday or Cyber Monday, know that gifts given on Giving Tuesday will be used as a jump-start to our Cornerstone CARES giving.  I look forward to celebrating all that we will be able to do because of your generosity.

Yours & His,
Chris VandeLinde