Bittersweet Farm

Bittersweet Farm

BIG NEWS!

Filed Under: Circuit-Riding, Current Thoughts

BIG NEWS! On Wednesday I was in Pennsylvania. Lois was here in Michigan. Kyle called and conferenced us both in on the call. “Dad, Elizabeth and I wanted you both to find out at the same time that you are going to be grandparents.”

I shouted, I danced, I haven’t stopped smiling since that call. God is good. We have all been praying every day that God would give Kyle and Elizabeth a child. Now we humble ourselves and plead for a safe, healthy delivery. The baby is due on Wesley’s birthday, the 10th of December.

Of the “photos” that I keep in my memory is one of Kyle just a few seconds old eating from his mother’s breast. You’re not supposed to do it this way, but immediately our whole world began to turn around him. How we adored that little boy. How kind and merciful it was of the Father to make me a father. I haven’t gotten over it, still. And now my first-born son is going to be a Dad.

It is a beautiful spring Lord’s Day evening as I write this. Sunday I preached at Grace Christian Fellowship in Bay City. We will be there for the next two weeks, too. My series of messages is on How to Build A Community of Grace.

Message One: How to Overcome a Dark Past.
Message Two: How to Have a Bright Future.
Message Three: How to Build a Community of Grace to Help Others Who Have a Dark Past Have A Bright Future.

How’s that for a mouthful?

Appalachian Trail Hike

Filed Under: Current Thoughts

This morning I “section-hiked” the famous Appalachian Trail. I’m proud to say that I hiked the entire width of the trail.

The Pennsylvania section of the trail is rocky and it would be a challenge to hike it with a pack.

The Trail runs from Springer Mountain in Georgia to Katadin in Maine.

Looking south toward Maryland and the mountains.

A New Generation Begins

Filed Under: Current Thoughts

GOODGOODNEWSGOODNEWSGOODNEWS! I am going to be a Grandfather by Christmas!

At about five o’clock I got a call from Kyle. He conferenced in Lois and announced to us that Elizabeth is going to have a baby before Christmas. We have been praying EVERY DAY that they would have a baby. I am going to be a grandfather! This is serious business. It is now the “wise sage” season of my life. God is good to each of us, but he has been especially good to Kyle and Elizabeth this evening.

Cumberland Valley

This afternoon the girls were tired and took a nap at the B&B while I drove out through the Cumberland Valley toward the mountain to a farm where they grow decorative gourds. I picked out a gourd wren house for Lois. I think she is going to like it.

It was a beautiful day so I drove on to see Carlisle. I found a neat little independent bookstore there and spent a half hour browsing and chatting with the proprietor escaping without making a purchase, though I was tempted by a nice selection of Wendell Berry books.

I “rode the local” back, skipping the interstate to follow the valley through bergs and past farms back to Shippensburg.

Tomorrow between lunch and dinner I am going to “section hike” the Appalachian Trail which passes just a few miles from here. You can count on pictures of that adventure.

Seminary Ridge Church

Filed Under: Current Thoughts

This is the church I am always pastoring… just before I wake up.

I visited Gettysburg today with Holly, Heidi, Hannah, and Monica Huber. It was a beautiful day. Very sobering to think what happened here. I thank God for our great nation.

Generations to Come

Filed Under: Current Thoughts

But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light (1 Peter 2:9)

Last night just before the service started the power went out and I preached in the dark. We are preaching and living and raising our children and grandchildren in the deepening darkness in our culture and in our time. Spurgeon had a sense of the waning spiritual light during the years of the Downgrade Controversy in England. If Charles Spurgeon lived in a dark hour, how much more do we? Spurgeon’s words may apply to our time more than they did to the people and in the era in which he spoke them:

“Look you, sirs, there are ages to come. If the lord does not speedily appear, there will come another generation, and another, and all these generations will be tainted and injured if we are not faithful to God and to his truth today. We have come to a turning-point in the road. If we turn to the right, mayhap our children and our children’s children will go that way; but if we turn to the left, generations yet unborn will curse our names for having been unfaithful to God and to his Word.

I charge you, not only by your ancestry, but by your posterity, that you seek to win the commendation of your Master, that though you dwell where Satan’s seat is, you yet hold fast his name, and do not deny his faith.

God grant us faithfulness, for the sake of the souls around us! How is the world to be saved if the church is false to her Lord? How are we to lift the masses if our fulcrum is removed? If our gospel is uncertain, what remains but increasing misery and despair? Stand fast, my beloved, in the name of God! I, your brother in Christ, entreat You to abide in the truth. Quit yourselves like men, be strong. The Lord sustain you for Jesus’ sake. Amen.”

-Charles Spurgeon, “Holding Fast The Faith,” pp 83-84

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