10/15/2018
Purposeful Monday morning to you all! (I think that means with purpose we approach this day with prayer, planning and practical purpose, using all our prose, poetry and poise!) Just trying to see how many “p”s I could use there.
But it is a good day, beautiful sunrise, cool but not cold. Too many SIMH today to pick one, nothing stayed very long. Maybe because so many other things crowded them out. For a few seconds I had “I Can Only Imagine,” “It’s Been a Long Time Comin’,” “I’ll Fly Away,” and a couple others—crazy, huh?
I believe this is the week everything about the 3 new Blue Jug stores trying to get open is going to speed up. All of the new store owners are working hard to get open, so that the November & December erratic public spending will include their initial push.
That’s the time of year when more people are out spending—even if the spending is the same as the other ten months, these two months have more people out amongst the marketplaces. (That’s been proven since the early ‘60s.) It is actually that there is more money spent in the last two months than in any other two month period. When people say they don’t have any more money to spend at that time of year, they are probably comparing to their own previous year, and not comparing with previous months in the same year. I suspect if we could gather the data all the way back to the beginning of what was called department stores (back to about the 1840-50s) we would see it has been this way since. Frankly, I think this is the best thing about the end of the year. I’ll tell you why:
In 1974, through bible study, I discovered a well hidden secret: Christ was born in late September/early October, not on Dec. 25. Yes, this is true. And it wasn’t retailers who hid this truth. It was first the Roman Catholic church, then the reformation churches just continued on the tradition, instead of studying out the truth about it. For the first time since I was saved in 1964, I gained a true perspective on what is the worth of “holidays,” and the real worth of the holidays is business. It became obvious to me the Lord was not putting forth any special-day-worth. (If you want verses, get in touch.)
From 1962 till 1984 I spent most of my time in the retail business. From men’s wear to jewelry to carpet to restaurants, then back to carpet, a bakery, a hot dog stand, then back to restaurants (I was a glutton for punishment.) I preached also during the last 6 years of that time. From ’84 to 2014 it was mostly preaching/teaching (it was my sole intention.) Then, in 2011 at 69, first with a friend in Texas and now with our daughter, I re-entered the retail world. Another couple, Chuck and Laura Warlick, have been involved in this last 7 years of retail with us. While in Texas, we let Chuck do all the work, I was still pastoring a church and the other partner was not really a retail person. Unexpectedly, that partner went on to be with the Lord and we moved to Alabama. Chuck still does all the work, but we take the credit for it—just kidding! Don’t write letters pitying Chuck!
But, just so you know, I have not now nor ever shall I stop preaching the gospel of Christ. It is just the pastoring that I resigned.
We just got back from a great visit and preaching appointment in Newport, TN. We really enjoyed visiting and fellowshipping around the word of God with the folks at Bible Believers Cowboy church. And if asked, I’ll go anywhere anyone wants me to preach and/or teach what I see in Scripture. In fact, I really am looking forward to being in Navarre, FL, the last weekend of this month. Bro. Byron Wiggins is hosting a conference there.
Closing for today is to say a truly heartfelt “thank you” to all who take the time to read this hodge-lodge I put down daily, whether you are just a passerby, or an occasional reader, or an every day person—thank you.
the Elder
the Elder's Blog 