The Lord allowed me a couple quiet days away and alone with Him. They are coming to an end. Tomorrow I drive out and back downstate and Downriver back to family and church with a renewed love and devotion to the Lord and with a renewed conviction my deep need for Christ.
As I pillow my head tonight the great hymn And Can it Be rings in my heart…
My chains fell off!
My heart was free!
I rose went forth and followed Thee!

If you spend a weekend at Camp Barakel in the winter there are a few things you can count on. You will leave with a sweet taste in your mouth. Sticky buns are a tradition on Sunday morning. You will feed on the Word of God. You will sing Christ-honoring music. You will smell the tang of a wood fire, and you will meet people who sincerely love Our Savior, the Lord Jesus.
I think Jeremy Linsley is the man behind the Camp Barakel Twitter account. It’s worth following. A …

A Classic Re-post from 2005
I slept outside in a tent with the boys this weekend. The weather was ideal to sleep outdoors. The air was cool but not at all cold. The sky was clear. We enjoyed a fire each night including s’mores and a good-natured jumbo marshmallow war. We slept as well as you can on the hard ground, but well enough to sleep in until awakened as I suppose our Creator intended, by the first light of morning through branches of oak and …

Classic re-posted from 2009
Matt Steinbeck is a great Christian guy. He is an experienced outdoorsman with a big, red, Dodge truck. Last summer he planned a trip to Isle Royal on the north edge Lake Superior. Kyle, our oldest son was invited to tag along. There were only five men in the party. They lashed a couple canoes to the Dodge and drove to Copper Harbor on the very tip of the Keweenaw Peninsula. From there they took a four-and-a-half-hour, fifty-four-mile ferry ride northwest to the Island. They paddled into …

A Classic Re-posted from 2003
Homemade whole wheat bread is real bread, store bought white bread is not. Real bread is my preference but it was not my experience growing up. I was raised on white bread that we bought five loaves for a dollar at the day-old bread store. We always had plenty of it because we kept dozens of loaves in the freezer. I’m sure I have eaten thousands of Velveeta cheese and Miricle-Whip sandwiches on white bread in my life-time.
Store-bought white bread made great dough-balls for food fights …

David Kline is an Amish Farmer. He is from Fredricksburg, Ohio. It seems to me that he writes a book about every ten years. I went to sleep last night reading his latest book, Letters from Larksong.
About twenty years ago I found Great Possessions. It was one of my favorite books ever. Ten years ago it was Scratching the Woodchuck. If you want to read David Kline, I would suggest you start with Great Possessions. You will thank me for this recommendation. Great Possessions is a collection of essays …

About to go to bed at the end of a difficult day I did not want my spirit clouded by darkeness so I wrote out this prayer:
“God of Heaven; Make me mighty in spirit so I can inspire others to be mighty in spirit. I would like the gift of a robust spiritual appetite so I will grow into a man with a big, healthy soul. Never allow me to descend to flounder in the foul swamp of pettiness. Help me see beyond the sinfulness of …

Ten inches of snow fell last night from about 3 o’clock Sunday afternoon to about midnight. I had some shoveling to do. There were ten inches in the Granville Cottage driveway.
I dragged my heals getting going reading news on my iPad and then warmed-up the car and went to the gym like a sleigh-ride. When I got home I started clearing the snow. Something about lawn-mowing and snow shoveling clear my mind and stimulate creative thinking like a Venti black brewed Sarbucks coffee with four shots of espresso.
While I was …

Re-post from last Thanksgiving…

Our first-born was here for Thanksgiving Eve. I gave him the pulpit. He brought a brief Thanksgiving message. It was a meaningful message–worth a listen. You can hear it right here:

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Reposted from 2003.
We have had a wonderful week at the Character Inn. The Verity students are arriving from around the country to begin their new term of study. The staff are returning from their holiday. Friday we were preparing for my brother Nathan and his family to visit when I got word that a very special family was stopping by for a visit. Helen and Reinhold Barth, their daughter and two granddaughters wanted to tour the Inn.
I was thrilled. Helen Barth was …