OOPS! & Other Necessities

12/11/2019

Starting over. Ever start a project of some length and suddenly find you have reached an “oops” spot and reasoning says, “wait, you can’t fix this, go back to square 1 and start over?” We think we’ve just reached that spot in one of our projects. To tell the first part of the story up till we reached that oops moment, would be neither fair to previous participants nor productive to our thinking. Let us simply proceed to relate the new way, after the “oops!” I’ll keep you posted here about all the goings on it takes to get from this big house into the smaller house having gone through remodeling, etc., ok? Bits and pieces, and it’ll take months to get finished, we suspect. Certainly, at this moment it is a sketchy schedule of a whole bunch of small workloads so that we cannot now build a complete timeline.

Today, as if matching some of the activity which brought about the need to go back to sq.#1 caused this to come out as today’s SIMH: “The Games People Play”—Joe South. Remember these words? Oh, the games people play now, “Talking about you and me, and the games people play… Never saying what we mean, never meaning what we say…” Yep, an indictment of our society. Joe wrote and recorded this in 1968, becoming a big hit the next year. He also wrote several other hits by other artists—“Don’t It Make You Wanna Go Home” comes to mind. He was successful, took a bad dive after a brother committed suicide, then rebuilt his life after about 1987. Joe passed away in 2012. His most noteworthy quote is this: “going through (addiction recovery) is very helpful, but it isn’t a cure until it is a spiritual rehab.” Oh, the need for a Savior was not mentioned.

Which brings up the need for every person to come to know the eternal life that is in Christ Jesus. You see, there several are spiritual rehabs that work inside people who are addictive personalities. And many spiritual happenings will prove very curative toward the flesh and spirit, but they are not leading that person to understand their need for the next life—the promise of things to come! The Apostle Paul wrote “For bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.”(1Tim.4:8) Without instruction, our world’s vast majority will not see how that Christ died for our sins, was buried, and was raised again for our justification. Without hearing this, how can the “(life) which is to come” have any hope? It cannot. The only way to eternal life is “in Christ.”

That’s why it was so enlightening and continually helpful to me the day Bro. E.C. Moore upbraided me about teaching an hour long bible class without mentioning the gospel of Christ. It is the only reason to teach a class—how can it be left out of any class? Our gospel, hid to them that are lost by a little “g” god of this world, can only become recognizable to anyone willing to believe it for salvation. If it isn’t spoken of in messages spoken to crowds or recorded to be heard by others, the scholarship of the Scriptures is fruitless. I’m amazed how well men can learn and teach powerful messages of the “many infallible proofs” concerning God the Father, Jesus Christ the Son, and the Holy Spirit, yet fail to use the words which have the power to save and grant eternal life (see bold letter words.)

The Lord made this point so clearly and exacting that when Paul was writing to the Corinthians (arguably the most carnal bunch of believers to whom he wrote ), it very succinctly states “For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.”(1Cor.1:21) So, “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved..” is the clarion call. Hence, the created necessity of any message in the name of the Lord including this call to the listeners. The bold words above and the quoted words of Paul and Silas in Acts 16:31. Salutatory words, like an announcer saying “Welcome to Wrigley Field”..or “Madison Square Garden” or any other oft repeated opening statement, our most prevalent words should be the “power of God unto salvation” every time we rise up in Christ’s name.

We arose this morning to an icy covering on the ground and a dusting of snow atop it. This is a good day to wait for higher temperatures for going down the mountain. I know the roads would be warmer than the lawn and rooftops, but why take the chance until it is actually warmer and the sun does what it does best. Breakfast is about ready.

Thanks for reading, the Elder