Election, Selection, Congregating

10/31 /2020 

An electioneering process will be finished in a couple of days. The election, however, may not be over for a week or more. And if it’s close enough to fight about, may not be over for months. Good grief. There’s an old hymn that says “…and We’ll Understand it Better, By and By.” That’ll be something. Not sure I want to understand all this upheaval. But, if you believe you are in the hands of the Lord Jesus Christ, as I do, whatever and whenever will be just right, don’tcha think? Not a bad SIMH for a time such as this. Only found a couple of phrases in all the lyrics that need to be changed to be in line with Scripture. (You know: “if you change words in the songs to match Scripture, you might be a grace-believer?”)

Time changes again. Think about what I just wrote: time changes. Time does no such thing. It is not in our power to change time. The exact same thing occurs every day at the exacting time the evening and morning demand it to be. Just about 100 years ago, give or take a few give and take hours, mankind believed he could improve his advantage in a war with other mankind if he manipulated what time the dawn occurred. It’s been irritating about 50% of the people twice a year ever since! 

Starting into these last two months of the year, our 10th Blue Jug store will open (probably Dec.1) and at the moment, it looks like we won’t get another store open this year. Hard to believe, since several people have expressed the desire to do so and some have paid the initial company services fee. We hear about all this easy money with interests at an all time low, yet no one can get this money to start their business? Since I’m not in charge of authorizing anyone’s loans, I can’t really say how things should be different, but from this angle some of these things don’t add up. 

Ideally, no one should borrow money to open a business, but we live in an era wherein it is done quite often. The cost of repayment is simply factored into the prices charged and life goes on with debt and planned future debt just simply a part of business in general. I guess that’s ok. There are many times in the business world when financing (short or long-term) is essential, necessary for sustainability through a trying time or a compelling advancement in one’s field. I do believe in that use of credit. The balance of debt versus investments offers  another area of credit advantage. For instance, if you have fixed assets which are in a time controlled account while you need a similar amount of cash to be in hand, the penalty or loss of earnings by using the “real” money can easily be the reason to use loans to put the business of your choosing in place. That’s perfectly understandable. Hopefully, this good business sense is guiding people who pursue financing the entire cost. (Historically, I’m not a good example of that. I’m more the guy that is “if you want to know how NOT to do it, call me!”)

Jim Rohn, a favorite businessman and speaker of such things who was popular in the ‘80s and 90s+ till his death a few years back, used to say, “If you want to know what not to do, take a failure to lunch! If you want to know what to do, take a successful person to lunch! Either way, you pay for lunch!—you’re the one that wants the information!” You can still read and/or hear Jim’s wisdom along these lines. You know, someone who has access to all his copyrights is now keeping his business going. He’s worth listening to, although you can’t call him up and ask what he meant by any of it, know what I mean?

Really looking forward to 11/1/2020 bible classes. I’ll be in Alexandria, AL on this morning and I believe we’ll have a good class, maybe even some friends we haven’t seen for a while. Then, the afternoon (4pm—I don’t know if that’s “fast time” or “slow time” since I can’t see any difference) online class, hopefully with a better camera. They promised it would make me younger—not younger looking; younger! Oh, not? Ok, just kidding.) 

Last week in Texas at the bible class I taught, I spoke about how the Lord called us to some things we sometimes put on the back burner of our lives to our own loss. We are living in a forced seclusion atmosphere while the world around us is panicking over a non-pandemic pandemic. Maybe the tongue in cheek calling it a “plandemic” is more accurate, I don’t know. I do, however, know this: the Lord called us to fellowship. Fellowship is not seclusion, it is congregating. Oh, I know the clearest body of the Lord’s instruction for us today is in words-on-pages (Romans through Philemon), not denying that. But, Paul our Apostle continually wrote to groups of saints, only 3 of the smallest of treatises were written to individuals—and that for them to admonish groups of people. 

Not knowing what may happen next, I boldly write to you saying I have been in groups of people almost every Sunday and around people each day from the first warnings of it all till now without worrying over whether or not I was going to get ill or cause others to get ill. I do mask up sometimes so as not to be offensive or be forbidden to enter because of the zealousness of those in authority, but that’s not my point. Yes, I know I’m old and I might get the flu and die. There are lots of flu bugs around and have been every year since Tuck was a pup. Hasn’t happened yet and I thank God for the good health I have. If it does and I die I’ll become another statistic, I know. But, it shall not be a surprise to the Lord to whom I give an answer. And if I don’t get the flu and as I know, I will one day die of another attack on my body and give an answer to the same Lord. Praise His Holy name!

Thanks for reading, the Elder