12/13&14/2019
The last day of Blue Jug water business in this building is upon us. We are putting the final parts of our move into the truck in the next few hours and be out of this building. However, our new “digs” are not ready, so we will not get open till around New Years day. So, this is a sort of “forced” vacation. Even though this is frustrating to not have the new store ready to slide right in, we sort of like—needed the time off?, I think.
Consequently this morning, the SIMH was the great song by Andre Crouch—“Soon and Very Soon.” Mr. Crouch was a tremendous performer and very much a servant of the Lord. Always his words recognized our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ for what He has done for us, and that we depend solely on His grace for our eternity. I used to see Mr. Crouch on some of the religious programming on TV—he always was the better preacher, his words honored the Lord better than the dude whose next words were usually going to be asking for money.
It’s now Saturday morning, 12/14, and we did get everything out of the old store and into the storage truck, so generously provided by our friend and neighbor. We have known for almost 6 years how fortunate we are to have Greg for a neighbor, and now he saves Blue Jug a ton of work and several hundred $$ in storage costs, most likely. Hard to get better neighbors than that.
Also, Jason, Sarah and I would never have come close to getting the work done if not for our oldest son, Steve. He did a load of work and organized the loading and packing style in the truck. We also had tremendous help on Thursday from a young lady (customer) friend, Victoria. She really helped packing the inventory in boxes. All in all, a lot of work done in two days by some very tired people yet this morning.
It was quite an experience going through the closing of this store, but not having the new one to step into: We began to alert our customers about 4 weeks ago to this fact of “down” time and their need to get extra water as they were able so as to not be out of water and have to resort to tap water or some other lesser quality water to drink. Almost two weeks ago, on Dec. 2nd, people began to buy extra. This continued and increased so that for the entire last two weeks we sold out every day, then having to wait overnight for the system to recharge and refill. All of this week (9th to 13th) we had installed an extra tank to start the week with 125 more gallons than normal, but except for Monday, we sold out every day, yesterday by noon. What an interesting phenomena to reflect back on for other stores to make a note of!
Now we wait. We are not in charge of the work being done on the new store, so we cannot hurry anything along. I don’t guess we want to, we want it to be well done. We now have time to reflect on all we’ve done to be sure we know what to do and what not to do as we continue to streamline and sophisticate our Blue Jug line of stores. (Fort Payne and Wimberley, TX are the two flagship stores for the new store prospects to take their cues from.)
Reflecting back over the five years in the store, I’ve talked with dozens of people about the Lord and His word. Many are receptive to a variety of subjects and many have a testimony of salvation, though not many have much bible understanding. Most who do understand absolute grace (salvation by grace in a time when everyone, either lost or saved, is enjoying the same grace), or understand all the bible is written for us but not all the bible is written to us are of an age when they had been exposed to some semi-rightly dividing preachers. Old independent Baptist men, such as John R. Rice, J.Harold Smith, Adrian Rogers and many others. Also spoke with some who knew of Clarence Larkin or carry a Schofield bible. The number of people interested in independent bible study, however, are few and far between. A couple of people have told me they’ll be at the next class, then back out because their spouse didn’t think it was a good idea. One couple came once, then let some church activity get in the way, saying to me they’d be back to class after a few weeks—but didn’t come back.
Two young men (30s, I suppose) really liked everything and were ready to help start a class. Then suddenly, as though cued by something or some spirit, they were angered over a bible point which when I showed them Scripture, they became angered still more! One of them ask me when I was “born again” and he so hated the explanation that he not only wouldn’t talk to me any more, he declared me to be lost! The other was about eternal security which both his wife and I showed him proofs he said he believed, but he still believed one could lose his salvation. Incredible. (An even greater learning of satan’s devices.)
But, I still have hope out of all this group, I believe a nucleus of believers and seekers will come to the truth of God’s word. We are never told anywhere in Scripture we’ll gain huge crowds of people to come to the knowledge of the truth, are we? The “revelation of the mystery” remains a mystery to most people. We just look for those who will relish and desire the “fellowship of the mystery,” Amen? Amen.
Thanks for reading, the Elder
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