Dear Cornerstone Family,
On December 4, 1973 in Birmingham, AL, the Presbyterian Church in America was born. That means that tomorrow is the 50th anniversary of the PCA. To commemorate the occasion, all PCA churches are being asked to remember the denomination in prayer today. We will do just that while rejoicing in God’s goodness––that through many dangers, toils, and snares, God has preserved the witness of the PCA these 50 years. Should the Lord tarry, let’s pray the PCA will be preserved in faithfulness for yet another 50 years.
It’s appropriate that this day of prayer and recognition of God’s faithfulness to the PCA would fall on the first Sunday of Advent. As you may have heard this week on the Life at the Corner podcast, Advent has traditionally been a time of spiritual preparation. As we anticipate the celebration of the incarnation at Christmas, we prepare spiritually for the second coming of Jesus Christ. As the old Roman Missal declared, “Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ is coming again!”
As an aid to your spiritual preparations during this season, our Cornerstone Christmas Devotional is available for you to pick up this morning. You will find daily services, readings, historical tidbits, and personal reflections from Cornerstone members. I want to publicly thank Mr. Greg Wilbur and Mr. Max Shell for their efforts in helping design, oversee, and execute the production of the devotional. They did a marvelous job! I believe you will be greatly helped by it. Please grab a copy—or two or three. Pass one along to a friend or a neighbor. Let’s put the devotional to good use as together we trim our lamps and stay awake, looking for the coming of the King, the Lord Jesus Christ (Luke 12:37).
In addition to the Cornerstone devotional, there are a host of helpful resources on the Cornerstone bookshelf. Run by the bookshelf and check out Jonathan Gibson’s O Come, O Come Emmanuel or Leland Ryken’s Journey to Bethlehem. Both volumes are instant classics! Who knows, you might even find the perfect gifts for the readers on your list.
In closing, please don’t forget to mark your calendar for all that is going on in December at Cornerstone. From our Christmas concert on December 7th to our Children’s Choir performance on December 17th to our Lessons and Carols Sunday services on Christmas Eve, it’s a month full of opportunities to worship and fellowship together. It’s also, of course, an ideal time to invite unbelieving family, friends, and neighbors to join you. In fact, what could be sweeter than celebrating Christ’s coming and witnessing Christ come into the heart of another. Should that happen, it would be a merry Christmas indeed.
Your servant,
