Jeff Hampton – Page 104 – Jeff Hampton, Writer

October 27, 2020

Reformed and Re-formed

For Wilshire Baptist Church

Sunday was Reformation Sunday around the world. It’s the day when Protestant denominations and independent churches recall the time in 1517 when monk and theologian Martin Luther nailed a list of questions and propositions regarding repentance and salvation on the door of a Catholic church in Wittenberg, Germany. At Wilshire we usually make some mention of it, but not this year. Except for an organ postlude of Luther’s “A Mighty Fortress is Our God,” there was not any specific mention of the Reformation, and that’s fine with me. I’ve never considered it a big flag waving day.

October 21, 2020

In the Clouds

For Wilshire Baptist Church

I recently spent a week in a digital fog when my computer would not boot beyond the sign-in screen. Through diagnostic programs I could see that everything was still on the hard drive; I just couldn’t get to it. And when I tried the prescribed software fixes, none of them worked. That left me with three options: take the computer to a repair shop and hope they could fix it; buy a new computer and transfer my data; or . . . gulp . . . erase the hard drive, reload the operating system, and pray that all my data was safe in the cloud.

October 13, 2020

The Nature of Things

For Wilshire Baptist Church

Late Saturday morning we took a walk at White Rock Lake between helping set up Wilshire’s Fall Festival in the parking lot and taking it down later. It always amazes me how taking an event down takes a fraction of the time as setting it up. I’m sure it’s because dismantling doesn’t require as much planning, coordinating and attention.