Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me,
for in you my soul takes refuge;
in the shadow of your wings I will take refuge,
till the storms of destruction pass by. Psalm 57:1 (ESV)

The storm that blew its way through the Philadelphia area yesterday will not be long remembered. An early in the season storm, it arrived and departed quickly making more of a mess than most of us expected. The afternoon rush was horrible. Many of us have already heard stories of spin-outs and fender-benders and half-hour commutes becoming three-hour nightmares.

But today dawned clear and the late-fall sun and 36-degree air are doing their part to send the slushy snow packing.

We will hardly remember the inconvenience. Continue reading →

Sunday is Stewardship Sunday at our church.  For those of you who are not a part of the LPC family or maybe not much familiar with the ways of churches, it is the day when we make a promise to support our church’s work financially throughout the coming year, in this case 2019.  We pass out pledge cards for people to complete and return.  Many of us will list a specific dollar amount and how we intend to make our payments – weekly, monthly, annually, etc.

Outsiders tend to find the entire process strange if not offensive.  They are correct.  It is strange and offensive.

Some of our friends in other church traditions don’t like the pledge card part of our process, and some of our faithful and generous members quietly decline to participate in the pledge card system. They find it strange, if not offensive.  I can see their point. But, come on, it’s just the way we do things. Continue reading →

It says so right on the license plate.  Washington is the Evergreen State.  The assumption of towering fir trees and snow-capped mountains is richly rewarded as you head east on I-90 from Seattle.  The climb up and over Snoqualmie Pass offers spectacular view after spectacular view, the Evergreen State expectations not unmet.

But then you reach the other side of the pass and towering firs are replaced by sagebrush and wild grasses, the snow-capped mountains with plateaus and bluffs of stark volcanic rock. This is a view from the east side of the Cascades in what they call the Columbia River Basin. Continue reading →

Becky and I are on our way to Ephrata, Washington, as this edition of the E-pistle is posted or sent.  We’re looking forward to a wonderful few days, and, for once, “once in a lifetime” is the perfect – and accurate – description of what the weekend holds in store.

Ephrata, Washington, is the new hometown for our son Christopher, his wife Katie, and their four children.  Six good reasons to visit Ephrata anytime. Our seventh good reason to visit this last weekend in October, 2018, is that Christopher will be ordained as a Teaching Elder in the Evangelical Presbyterian Church, and installed as Pastor of Family Life at the Community Church of Ephrata, a growing and vibrant EPC church in central Washington. Continue reading →

I am an early riser by preference more than necessity.  The early morning is a good time.  The middle days of October have little light to share with their early hours, however; the sun not showing itself until past seven.  It’s just plain dark when I first go out in the early morning.  Finally this week, early risers reaped one of the precious rewards for quitting their beds when no hint morning light has begun to gild the skies.  The air was cold and clear, and there were the stars which for weeks had been hidden behind dreary gray clouds. Orion the Hunter in the southern sky, the Big Dipper, Ursa Major, in the north. Continue reading →