In this episode, I’m going to give some words of thanks and encouragement.

I would first like to thank George Smith, of the “One Minute How-To” podcast. A little over a year ago, he invited me to be on his show to give a one minute how to on any subject I could come up with. Since the show was to air near the first of the year, I thought that reading through the Bible in a year would be a good subject. After all, many people make New Year’s resolutions to read through the Bible, so I thought that if I could offer some tips, that would be good.

I really had no intention of recording the entire Bible as a series of podcasts in the Lifespring! family. To be honest, I didn’t want to take it on, because it is obviously a huge undertaking. I was already very busy with several other shows, not to mention being busy as a husband, dad, tech guy at church, and business owner.

Then, God stepped in. He kept bringing the idea of doing this show to my mind. That’s often how He speaks to me. He’ll keep bringing a subject up until I finally realize that it’s Him talking to me, and not my own idea. Every time the idea would come into my mind, I would remember all the reasons why I couldn’t do the show. This went on for several days, and then I mentioned to my wife, the Lovely Lady LeeAnn, that I thought God wanted me to do the Bible in one year as a show. She said, “Well, if He wants you to do it, then I guess you’d better do it.” I told her it would take lots of time, and she said, “God will work it out.”

So, at this point I need to stop and thank LeeAnn. She has always been so supportive, in every area of endeavor that I’ve embarked upon. Today is our 18th anniversary, and I must say that she has been a remarkable wife. I love her with every fiber that is in me, and she has given up a tremendous amount of time with me this year so that I could do this show, not to mention take up a lot of extra work in our business, for the sake of the show, too. Thanks, Angel.

And speaking of giving up time, I need to thank my kids. They’ve sacrificed time with dad this year, too. I’ve still got two boys at home, 13 and 16, and I’ll be giving them much more of my time in 2008. Thanks, boys. You make me proud to be your dad.

To my guest readers, I say “Thanks”, too. Over the course of the year, a few of you have stepped up to read for me, taking up a bit of the workload, and I am most appreciative. We’ve heard from Russ Blanchette, James Cooper, Steve Gray, Karmyn Tyler, and Denise (whose last name I will not mention as I have not gotten permission to do so). If I’ve forgotten anyone, please forgive me! It’s not so easy to read the Bible out loud for others to listen, and I really appreciate the effort that these good friends put forth to give me a little breathing room.

I would like to thank you, dear listener. Whether or not you have written to me this year, I have seen the download numbers over the course of the year, and I so appreciate having you go with me on this journey through God’s Word over the year. I hope that you have been blessed, encouraged, and strengthened in your faith as you have listened to the reading of the Word.

If you have been with me the entire year, I congratulate you. You decided to listen, and you stuck it out. To put up with listening to this voice every day for a year deserves a medal! I wish I could do something special for each of you, but since I can’t, you’ll just have to accept my thanks and congratulations.

All of you have made this the most listened to show in the entire Lifespring! family…by far. How encouraging it is to know that there is that much interest in hearing God’s Word!

Now for the most important “Thank You.” I thank God for His steadfast mercy and grace. I thank Him for the strength to complete this task. I thank Him for His Word, without which we would have no way to know Him. I thank Him for choosing this weak and flawed vessel to carry His holy and perfect Message. I truly am not worthy, and it constantly blows me away that He chooses me to be His instrument. What a loving and surprising God He is. Thank you, Lord.

What’s in the future for the Lifespring! Family Bible? Well, to begin with, my plan is to rerun the entire year in 2008. The feed will not change, so if you are subscribed, or if you didn’t hear the show from the beginning, you can look forward to episode number one coming out on January 10th.

If you are a Google Calendar user, we have a cool new tool for you. Listener Davy has written a script that will put each day’s episode on your calendar! Just go the the public calendars and search for Lifespring Family Bible and you can add that little daily reminder to your own calendar. You can listen from there, too. Very cool tool, don’t you think?

Also, Davy is working on a Google widget, as well, that you can have right there on your desktop. Let’s all stand up and give Davy a hand! Thanks, Davy!

As far as further recording of the Bible is concerned, I don’t know. Depends on what God has to say on the subject. I have some ideas, but I need to pray and seek His face. If you would like to offer your input, I would love to hear what you’re thinking. You can email me at steve (dot ) lifespring (a t) gmail.com, or phone in a comment toll free at 877-433-9091.

I will be taking a bit of a vacation from recording for the first week or so of the year, then I have a few shows in the Lifespring! family that have been neglected over this past year that I am going to get back to.

In Touch With God’s Character has always been one of my favorites, and I’m looking forward to doing some new episodes. For those who don’t know, let me take a moment to explain ITWGC. I’m known by many names, husband, father, podcaster, church tech guy, windshield repair guy, etc, etc, etc. Each one of those names is an atttibute of mine, a different aspect of who I am. Well, God is known by many names, too. He’s my Rock, my Shield, my Provider, my King, my Healer, my Savior. All of these titles, or names, and many more, are found in Scripture. On ITWGC, I take one of those names and talk about it for about 3 or four minutes. ITWCG is a nice short devotional type of show that easily fits into your listening schedule, and as I said, I’m looking forward to getting back to recording new episodes.

Lifespring! HymnStories is another favorite of mine. I love the good old hymns of the faith, and on HymnStories, I talk about the story behind some of the best known and most loved hymns, then I play the hymn. Sometimes a very traditional sounding version, sometimes a very modern take on the song. This show is based on the books written by Robert J. Morgan, Then Sings My Soul. He very generously granted permission to do these shows, and if you are a hymn lover like me, I encourage you to purchase these books as a way of saying thanks to Pastor Morgan. There are Amazon links on the HymnStories show notes page.

These are just a couple of the shows in the Lifespring! family. There are several others that will get new and revived attention in the coming year, and it would be great if you would explore them. Please feel free to write or call any time. I love hearing from you.

So, I guess that about wraps it up. Oh, one more thing. You may have noticed that the ID3 tags on the shows have said that there would be 355 episodes. Not exactly sure what happened. According to my labelling, this is episode 350, but since I started on Jan. 10, we should have had 355. Either I mislabelled some shows along the way, or I missed some episodes. I am nearly 100% sure I didn’t miss any chapters, but I think I did combine a couple chapters along the way.

One thing I do know is that now is the time to end today’s show. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for listening and for being a part of the Lifespring! family.

Until next time, may God bless you richly, I’m Steve Webb.