A Fifth Year in Review

Has it been five years?
Five years and hundreds of posts later, much has changed. This year is no different.

I am busier. That is something of an understatement. Between a loving wife, three growing children, a series of novels, my Bible studies, this blog, and a full time job managing a new store, I have been busy. God has been gracious on so many levels that I hardly know how to even recount them.

I finally taught publicly at New Hope Bible Church for the first time early last month, and things went very well by the grace of God. I was invited to teach again; something I intend to do when time permits, something I also feel will be when the Lord allows. For now He clearly has other things in mind for me, and I am content (most of the time) to follow His leading.

Having moved to a new store to manage I have already encountered a number of opportunities to preach the word. One is to a young lady who is a professing Christian but seems to know very little of what she confesses. She did not even seem to clearly understand what her favorite verse meant, which both puzzled and startled me. I have another opportunity to both debunk the theory of Evolution and refute the claim that the Bible has been radically altered over the course of time so that what we presently possess is a government engineered product, while much of the real Bible had been removed ages ago. There is much evidence to the contrary which I will (God willing) bring to the table in a later post.

I am more than a quarter way through book six of my fantasy series, the Canticles of Andurun. One more book, and the series concludes.

My wife wants a farm. She wants to move (not far) to a plot of land, get some animals and have a farm in the next few years; I believe she said within five or so. This is something that we have brought before God in prayer, and will continue to do to determine what His will is in this manner.

For now I have been deprived for a season of my fellow believers at New Hope, and I scarcely have time for my writing or Bible studies. Much time is devoted to running my new store (which was in rough shape when I arrived five weeks ago) and being a father and husband to my family. We regularly practice family Bible reading (we are reading Acts presently) and I read my children a book called The Lamb by John Cross. Otherwise when Daddy has his private Bible reading I usually have at least one child on my lap and I end up reading aloud. That's how I just read most of Isaiah.

The only blog I presently follow is Being a Christian Today, which I continue to find insightful and comforting. My ability to peruse writing apart from my "required reading" (joking; I put Bible reading first when I have any time to read) has diminished, but everyone I do or have followed is often in my prayers.

Thanks for everyone who takes time to read What's in a Name. I'm just glad that the layout has remained static for the most part for so long. Small victory for me!

Yours in Christ,
Ian