Main Thing, Conversationally

9/26/2018

Square table discussion this morning found us both ranting on and on…and we’re on the same side! When we go a few days without an early morning talk, we catch up each other about things we’ve read or talked about with others and this morning we were both just plain fed up with the lack of chutzpah on this judicial committee about Kavanaugh. Teenage years are not worthy of any further delay in this proceeding, whether he was a good little boy or a brat! He was a teenager. He grew up, he spent about a decade becoming what studying the law required for him to be where he is. We don’t need to talk about his teens! Nuf said.

The first song to be in my mind this morning was “I’m All Shook Up”—by ol’ what’s his name, you know, had a lot of hair, danced around a bit on stage, owned Graceland. Like “Don’t Be Cruel” it came out on a side B and became a number 1. It was Elvis’ 9th gold record. (I’m not shook up though, just sayin..) Elvis songs will not earn an oft held SIMH position, even though it was an Elvis rendition which started this pattern. I liked his music, but not as special as others, he was never my king, not even in music.

Had another (online) discussion this morning which centered on how people speak about the things they learn from Scripture. If we speak as the Lord said it, things go better in our talks with other people about it. For instance: “rightly dividing the word of truth” is not the same terminology as right division or even rightly divided. Rightly(adverb) dividing(verb) the word of truth(object of the action), to be understood grammatically should always be spoken clearly, the way it is written without using other forms of it. Similar words do not always carry across the same meaning to everyone as they might to the speaker. We who stand and deliver should worry about this a lot more than we do, it seems to me.

Take for instance, the terminology “Paul’s two sendings.” I know what people mean by that, but the Lord didn’t differentiate in that manner. The Lord distinctly sent Paul to the Gentiles, and then through a later appearing in a vision, said to him “I will send thee far hence into the Gentiles” in Acts 22. Well, yes that’s true, that can constitute two sendings, but not if you use God’s words. He went to Gentiles, and he went to far hence Gentiles. The Jews to whom Paul was speaking knew the difference and what it meant, which is why it angered them so! And if we read and believe what we read about the whole ministry of Paul, we will know what he meant. We don’t really need a different terminology to explain it, we just need the words the Lord said and the way Paul explained it in Scripture.

Looking forward to a good day today. Might get to see some friends from out of town. My days seem to fill quickly and enjoyably through conversations with a wide variation of folks from several walks of life. Some young, some not so young, some rich, some not so rich, some have a good testimony, some not so good. I’m very appreciative of them allowing me to be in association with them. I value my time with each one. Yes, even the one’s with whom I like short conversations. One friend told me the other day I could talk all day: I can. He can. Perhaps, we can. We’ll see.

If we try to “keep the main thing, the main thing” it should work out. I wonder who first said that “main thing” thing, was it Zig Zeigler?

Thanks for reading, the Elder