Tempus Fugit, Believe!

6/4/2020

An old friend, family friend, and a fine man, Lyle Waltz passed away this past Sunday. He was 91. My sister, Margaret, who is now 93, was married to Lyle’s brother, Wendell (Wendy.) Lyle lived in Selma, AL, for the past 50+ years  of his life. I’ll miss his smiling face. Here’s some interesting things about Lyle’s family and mine—parallel families from Southern Indiana:

The Waltz family were farmers on the same creek our family (the Lockharts) were. We were downstream about a mile from them. My Father decided to sell our farm and move into town when I was almost 5, the Waltzes continued farming along the fertile creek “bottom” land. They had a beautiful old farm, well kept and hard-worked. The Waltzes had 10 children: 2 girls, 8 boys. The Lockharts had 9 children: 2 girls, 7 boys. (Our seventh boy died in infancy,) Lyle Waltz was the fourth boy, I was the 6th boy in the Lockharts and he was 14 years older than me. His youngest brothers were 2 & 3 years older than me making Lyle to stand between my sister Margaret and brother Ken. I could keep writing about the parallels with us two families till anyone reading this would be asleep, so perhaps I’ll just refer to them from time to time and you’ll know to whom I’m referring. 

Family heritages do, indeed, form great tapestries!

The SIMH this morning isn’t explicit. I hear the tune and can’t bring out any words except “..yesterday, just before dawn..” The music drones on, but I’m not able to remember the name—rock ’n roll, by the way. No need to remember it. Good riddance, I guess.

I’m perplexed. I’m saddened by my country. I have no answers for her. I see no way to solve anything. The asylum is now being ruled over by the inmates..and we elected the inmates. Nothing is winnable, nothing has a good resolution awaiting it. The only Scripture which I think fits this time is Romans 3:10-18 (KJB, please. It is spoken so clearly there.) No matter which news channel I turn on, none are saying the right things. Nobody has an answer to the question, “what do we do now?” The Lord told us, He forewarned Israel about how bad the yet unfulfilled prophecy will be, and He has left us here to catch a glimpse of how horrible it will become, mostly to help us see what we (by grace) have escaped. That being said, here’s the only message worthy of any news time (and it will not be heard there), or any personal conversation time (and we’ll weary of telling people who won’t believe.) But, let me write it clearly:

The Word of God declares: “…how that Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures, and was buried, and that he rose again the third day, according to the Scriptures,” —1 Corinthians 15:3,4. Those are the gospel words which save us from the wrath of God. To explain the power of these words, the Word declares, “ (Christ) was delivered for our offenses, and was raised again for our justification.) —Rom.4:25

As the Scripture continues to explain this, the gospel is referred to as “..the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth..” —Rom.1:16. Further, the Scripture adds this: “..it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.” 1 Cor.1:21. 

As sad as our world is now making us on a daily basis, the really great news is the above two short paragraphs. There is no call on your life to join anything, to go anywhere, to follow any ritual or rules list. You’re not told to plead or beg or promise. You’re asked to “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved..”

Simple.

Oh, one more thing: the Scripture also gives you an assurance by saying this: “..after you believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession,..” Ephesians 1:12, 13 and “whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.” Eph.4:30. You want and need comfort, there it is. Now how can we stay in a sad mood with these great and precious promises? Go read the Scripture, there is nothing in the world worth trusting but God’s word on the subject! And we have it every time we open a King James Bible.

Thanks for reading, the Elder