This week at Cornerstone

Wednesday, December 9
LDI- 6:15-7:30
College/Career Bible Study- 7:45-9:00

Friday, December 11
Women's Prayer Time-Sanctuary 12:00-1:00


Saturday, December 12
Wrappping up the year with a parents day
Drop off your kids babies-5th grade
Contact church office for more details 665-1944


Hope you have a great Monday.
Tara

This month we are focusing on Lottie Moon on Saturdays, so we will continue that on Sundays with ways to pray for missionaries.

BLESS -- an acronym to guide your prayer for a missionary.

B -- Body Pray for physical health and nutrition.
L - Labor. Pray for their work.
E - Emotions. Pray for emotional health and well-being of the missionary.
S - Social. Pray for their social relations, their families and extended
families. Pray that God will keep marriages together.
S - Spiritual. Pray for their spiritual condition.

contributed by CMA missionary Lisa Miriam Rohrick

Have a wonderful Sunday!

Searching For The Savior Saturday

Welcome to a new month and new focus on Searching For The Savior Saturday. As a Southern Baptist, we have now entered into a season of giving to support the missionaries that we send out, like Tim and Marsha. Some of you may not have grown up in a Southern Baptist Church and maybe wondering "Who is Lottie Moon?" and "What did she do?" In doing some research on the International Mission Boards website, I ran across these awesome parts of letters that she had written to Southern Baptist while she was a missionary. Amazing letters and I wanted to share them with you today. I hope you take some time to read through them. Pray about what the Lord would have you to do during this Lottie Moon Season. Each week we will be learning a little more about Lottie Moon and foreign missions. I hope you enjoy.

"At another house two women learned very fast; I say women, but one was a girl about twelve or thirteen, already married, however. There was a little child about three years old. My sister asked, 'Who is the True God's Son?' The little thing replied, in a very sweet voice, 'Jesus.'"

- Lottie Moon
Tungchow, China
Published in the July 1874 Foreign Mission Journal

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"Our hearts were made glad last Sabbath by the baptism of an individual who has interested us by his firm stand under the persecutions of his ... family. They fastened him in a room without food or water, and endeavored to starve him into submission. Providentially, they did not take away his Christian books. He studied these more closely than ever. The pangs of hunger he satisfied by eating some raw beans he found in the room, and when he wanted water he commenced to dig a well in the room in which he was confined. Chinese houses are built on the ground and do not have plank floors as with us. When the family discovered the well-digging they yielded. They had no wish to ruin their dwelling. The man has shown that he is made of stern stuff, and we hope he will be very useful as a Christian."

- Lottie Moon
Tungchow, China
July 1874 Foreign Mission Journal

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"How many there are ... who imagine that because Jesus paid it all, they need pay nothing, forgetting that the prime object of their salvation was that they should follow in the footsteps of Jesus Christ in bringing back a lost world to God."

- Lottie Moon
Tungchow, China
Sept. 15, 1887

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"Why should we not ... instead of the paltry offerings we make, do something that will prove that we are really in earnest in claiming to be followers of him who, though he was rich, for our sake became poor?"

- Lottie Moon
Tungchow, China
Sept. 15, 1887

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"Is not the festive season when families and friends exchange gifts in memory of The Gift laid on the altar of the world for the redemption of the human race, the most appropriate time to consecrate a portion from abounding riches and scant poverty to send forth the good tidings of great joy into all the earth?"

- Lottie Moon
Tungchow, China
Sept. 15, 1887

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"What we want is not power, but simply combination in order to elicit the largest possible giving."

- Lottie Moon
Tungchow, China
Sept. 15, 1887

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"I would I had a thousand lives that I might give them to ... China!"

- Lottie Moon
Zhenjiang, China
August 27, 1888

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"Thirty miles from Pingtu city is a gold mine. Nestled close among low-lying hills are two foreign houses and the buildings over the mine. Several American miners are there in the employ of the Chinese government. These men are living a hard, dull, isolated life, in a remote region, far from home and friends, with the sole purpose of worldly gain. So much for the devotees of Mammon. One cannot help asking sadly, why is love of gold more potent than love of souls? The number of men mining and prospecting for gold in Shantung is more than double the number of men representing Southern Baptists! What a lesson for Southern Baptists to ponder."

- Lottie Moon
Pingtu, China
Feb. 9, 1889

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"It is a great mistake to say that the Chinese are not hospitable. A more graceful, hearty hospitality than that of the Chinese I have met in no land."

- Lottie Moon
Pingtu, China
Sept. 10, 1890

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"When the gospel is allowed to grow naturally in China, without forcing processes of development, the 'church in the house' is usually its first form of organization. God grant us faith and courage to keep 'hands off' and allow this new garden of the Lord's planting to ripen in the rays of the Divine Love, free from human interference!"

- Lottie Moon
Pingtu, China
Sept. 10, 1890

If you would like to read more, please visit the IMB site at www.imb.org .
Laboring For Him,
Pam

A favorite cookie recipe at my house. Kids love to help make these.

Peanut Blossom Cookies

1 bag Hershey kisses
1/2 cup shortening
3/4 cup creamy peanut butter
1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
2 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
granulated sugar

1. Heat oven to 375'F. Remove wrappers from Kisses.
2. Beat shortening and peanut butter in large bowl until well blended. Add sugars; beat until light and fluffy. Add egg, milk and vanilla; beat well. Stir together flour, baking soda and salt; gradually beat into peanut butter mixture.
3. Shape dough into 1-inch balls. roll in granulated sugar; place on ungreased cookie sheet.
4. Bake 8-10 minutes or until lightly browned. Immediately press a kiss into center of each coolie; cookie will crack around edges. Remove from cookie sheet to wire rack. Cool completely. Makes about 4 dozen.

Enjoy.

Psalm 127:1 says "Unless the LORD builds the house, the builders labor in vain; Unless the LORD guards the city, the watchman stands guard in vain"

If you are a child of God, you can know that whether you live in the heights or the valley, the mountains or the lowlands, the Lord in watching over you.

I hope that is a comfort to you today.

Love
Tara

I thank God for His Indescribable goodness. Enjoy.

What do You want of me, my LORD?

I've shared before about the day I went walking in the park and it was a perfect day. The sky was blue and cloudless and there was a gentle wind, just like today. The lake spread out before me like a mirror catching the reflection of the trees and landscape. It was spectacular. With each step, I praised my KING. That is, until, the disruption happened. It was horrific. Two ducks were gliding across the lake (a male and a female) and one of them was squawking at the other. It was so loud and unceasing that the entire mood of the park seemed to instantly change. I wanted to cover my ears; I wanted to yell at the bird to be quiet. Yet, as they moved across the lake I suddenly hoped that it was the male who was being so utterly obnoxious. But it wasn't. It was the female, the wife. I hung my head. Then I knew it was a picture of how I talk to the LORD (and even my husband at times). OUCH! A one-sided monologue of complaints. How that bird's voice destroyed all the beauty around it; it was a curse and not a blessing. And so on that day, the LORD, in HIS great mercy, began a work in me. A work that continues on today. It is a work of being still at times and listening.

Why is this so hard for me to do?

The difficulty comes in receiving. The difficulty comes in believing. The difficulty comes in hearing and applying. The difficulty comes in being still and not always doing. Perhaps you are here with me. And so our KING invites us to come and speak to Him and then invites us to rest and be silent. The silence is not only so He can speak life into us but so He can touch and heal us in our still surrender to Him. I know that the LORD had me be a part of the prayer ministry so that I would be praying more consistently. He started the noon-time prayer hour on Fridays for women so that we could come together and pray to HIM. We see Him answering our prayers but not until recently did we add a time of silence at the end--to see what He might say to us. He is growing us in prayer.

I'm learning that prayer is not a monologue but a dialogue and that our Jesus wants to speak to us and strengthen, encourage, comfort and lead us. Yet, surprisingly, the struggle remains and I still may sound like that quacking duck--and even avoid the silence, but He waits and reminds me. PRAISE our KING for His love and mercy. PRAISE HIM who teaches us what is best.

Joanne Schulze