This coming Thursday, February 1, will mark the official Tenth Anniversary of Becky’s and my time at LPC.  Official duties began February 1, 2008, though I had started working off the clock a week earlier by attending a Men’s Retreat at Harvey Cedars Conference Center. It was my first time on the Jersey Shore and a wonderful introduction to the men of LPC.

February 1, 2008, was a Friday; the first of 490 Fridays on which this email/blog was sent to LPC folks and a few others.  Becky’s first volunteer work at LPC was setting up the WordPress platform for the E-pistle, and it was ready to go that first day on the job. Yes, according to WordPress there are now 490 E-pistle posts in the archives.  The math is pretty easy. 49 Fridays a year.

The tagline in the header of the email edition of the E-pistle reads, “News and Updates from LPC/Pastor Bill’s comments on faith, life, and the world.”  The blog edition sticks to the comments on faith, life, and the world. Continue reading →

The advertisements on a social media feed are custom fed to each one of us.  They take our demographics, our browsing history, and whatever other bits of information we drop along the way and build an ad campaign just for us. In the weeks before Christmas I kept seeing ads for dollhouse furniture on my Facebook feed. Becky was looking for a Christmas gift for one of our granddaughters and sent me some links. Google told Facebook all about it.  For several weeks Santa’s would-be suppliers tried to entice me with deals on their most popular lines. Little Ada loved the gift, but I am not sure the ad campaign had much effect. Continue reading →

Springs of Living Water or a cesspool?

This morning’s newsfeed is abuzz with reports that President Trump has likened countries in the global south, specifically Haiti, El Salvador, and all of Africa, to cesspools; his word choice was coarser than mine, however. Though multiple reports confirm the comments, the president denies the particular words, but says his language was tough.

The president’s reported words are troubling if for no other reason than the continued degrading of our public discourse. But there are other reasons. Christians know the President’s cesspool countries to be a part of the world our God loves so much as to send his only son for its redemption and renewal. Christians never see a cesspool. They see the possibility of a spring of Living Water bubbling up to eternal life. Continue reading →

Last week I invited you to tell some stories of how God had been at work in your lives in 2017.  Thank you for your responses; they are a gift to all of us. Some of our stories are printed below. While not attributed, some of the posts suggest their author more clearly than others. The point is not to guess who wrote what, but to listen to the ways God was at work in the lives of those who shared. I find these words encouraging and helpful, and pray that you will, too. You may not have had time to write your response, but as you read these, consider again, how was God at work in your life in the past year – and how is he your hope for years to come?

So, God at work in 2017: Continue reading →

They will be everywhere for the next few days. It may be best to ignore the majority of them. You know, those “year in review” reports at your favorite news source, on social media, or in whatever niche your special interest happens to lie. I looked at the NBC News Year In Review and found in depressing. 2017 was not bad on all fronts, however. I once bought Becky a gift from a knitting supply company and found myself on their mailing list. I’m not kidding, there’s a “Knitting Year In Review” post they’ve invited me to view. It turns out that 2017 was a pretty good year in the world of knitting.

But what about your world, knitter or not? As you look back on 2017, what do you see?  “Our God, help in ages past, our hope for years to come,” Isaac Watts writes in his paraphrase of psalm 90.  How did you see God’s helping, sustaining, joy-giving, sorrow-comforting, hope-inspiring presence in this year now nearly past?

I would love to hear stories of God at work in 2017.  Would you be willing to share one or more with me?  You can text, Facebook Message, or email me (LPC readers who read the email version of this post can simply reply to the email). 

Unless you say otherwise, I will alter your stories for anonymity sake and then post some of the responses – an encouragement for those of us who journeyed with Christ through 2017.