11/28/2018

The SIMH this morning, happening both the first and second times I awoke, was “Come Sail With Me”—by Styx (1977). In thinking about why it would be stuck in my thoughts that securely, I looked up the history: the timing of it says I would have heard it repeatedly on the jukeboxes I had in pizza restaurants I owned from ’79 to ’81. They changed about 5-6 songs on the juke box each week on the basis of the numbers of plays. So, if a selection got a lot of plays, it stayed. Like “Barbara Ann”—you remember: Ba, Ba, Ba, Ba, Ba, Barbara Ann!! (In one store we had 3 Barbara’s working at one time.)

Speaking of sailing, I only went “sailing” once, and that on a Catamaran. I was not much fun for the companions, I think. They were young and experienced and brave enough to “fly the hull” and I was old enough and inexperienced on the water in that manner. It gave me a big upset stomach and I begged to be dumped on shore till they finished. I would have liked to have learned it better and went sailing more, on any craft. But, alas: time, money and circumstance led otherwise. It was fun, though. One of my sons has friends who sailed around the world —now that sounds like fun! Oh, except for the perilous part.

I found out quickly that sailers, people on all sorts of sailing vessels, really have a great disdain for speed boats. I will not write here what speedboats are referred to on the water. Might be some of them would read this and think I thought of them like that, know what I mean? I saw what the problem was whilst on the “Cat,” speedboats create a different sort of “wash” that can reek a mild chaos to a sailer. There are rules in most bodies of water, but they are applied about like highway speeding rules are applied. 

Latest stats about boating accidents: they are down (overall) from several years ago. More that 4,000 accidents per year, a little over 600 deaths, 2600+ injuries, with drugs or alcohol contributing factors in more than half. A friend of mine about 25 years ago told me the two happiest days to be a boat owner was the day you bought it and the day you sold it! Might not seem like too sound an investment, huh?

Back to the SIMH, since it doesn’t seem to want to go away: Styx took their name from a mythical river which runs through the “land of the dead.” Notably, that is not a reference to the Jordan River of gospel music fame. No, I don’t believe we will one day “cross the river” to get into heaven, though that depiction has as its example in the “children of Israel” being led across Jordan by Joshua when he led them into the “promised land” of their heritage, so analogically there is a correlation.

My father really like to sing “I Won’t Have to Cross Jordan Alone.” Even though it isn’t a literal truth about going to be with the Lord at the close of one’s life here on earth, the song lyrics have some very clear truths: “Jesus died, all my sins to atone” is a wonderful truth for folks to hear in song. I can say, “amen” to that! And, “when the darkness I see, He’ll be waiting for me” bears some truth, the actual process being we meet Christ in the air, according to 1 Thess.4:16,17.

Oh, hey! I watched Duke clobber Indiana last night in college basketball. The game presented a strange “fan” feeling in my. I’ve been a Duke fan since about 1982, when I met a man who played for them in the 50s who was still playing basketball in his mid-50s. We talked several times about Duke and the history of how they became more basketball-minded than football and that pleased me. But, Indiana is my team by my history. I grew up there, my coach in school was a graduate and big fan of the “Hurryin’ Hoosiers,” so it just sort of stuck with me. Also, I was a big supporter of the Bobby Knight style of coaching. (In my opinion he is once again, getting excoriated by ESPN.)

So, last night, the game was all Duke. Indiana, however, may have found an outside 3-point shooter. That will help them in the games to come. But, my big interest in both schools programs are the coaches. Coach K is legendary—you may not agree with this, but legendary coaches know and understand personalities much better than trained psychologists. Indiana’s new coach (more on him, later) is learning fast. I believe the four greatest influences on young people’s lives, say age 12 to retirement, are these; bible instruction through “rightly dividing” type of study, their parents, their teachers/coaches, and participation in competitive team associations.

You can comment on my belief if you want, it could be a fun conversation.

Thanks for reading, the Elder

11/27/2018

Mark Twain once wrote, “Human bein’s is about as odd a bunch of folk what ever walked on the earth!” and I reckon he’s right in his assessment of us. My dad said many times, “People are funnier than anybody!” and I reckon he’s right, too! What makes us that way? Is there a correlation between the word “human” and the word “humor” both starting with the letters h-u-m, hmm? Maybe so, maybe so. 

Technically, and archaically speaking, humor is the moist (or wetting) part of the eye, or even in the bloodstream, the moisture was once referred to as the “humor” of the blood….I guess we’re past using the word that way, wouldn’t you say? Imagine explaining the tears running down the cheeks of some animal by describing it as “humor was pouring out the eyes!” Just will not jive in today’s literary works!  

And speaking of “jive” —there’s a good word for you: jive wasn’t even a word when Noah Webster finished writing his 1828 American Dictionary of the English Language. Even when “jive” was coined as a word in the 1920s, it meant deceptive or worthless talk, like —“you’re jivin’ me!” Then, in the late 1940s, it became a form of dancing, coupled with the use (similar to the 20s talk) as being a sneer or a taunt! Wait, I just used another oddly known word: “coined.”

We all know what “coins” are—penny, nickel, dime, quarter, or in other parts of the world shekel, shilling, copper, silver, etc. But, what of my usage in the previous paragraph? Coined? Here’s a way to test that usage: think of a phrase, like, “better red than dead,” then ask Google, “Who coined the phrase better red than dead?” In less than 1/2 second, 3500 responses will come up! Someone else knows how to use the word coined, hey?

But coinage, the act of inventing a new word or phrase, or coined as I used it was around in Webster’s day, in almost the same way it is used today. Why do some words last, some words go away, and some words are newly coming into the language? Beats me. 

I can tell you this, if a grammar school teacher or even all the way through high school teachers had brought this up to me then, I would have dived right into dictionary comparisons. The way it was, they just irritated me when I would ask “how do you spell ____? And they would respond by saying, “look it up?” That just served to irritate me. (If I knew how to look it up, I would know how to spell it, I’d reason.)

Back when Noah decided to write a dictionary of the way Americans were using the English language, here’s how he described what he wanted to do:   “In the year 1783, just at the close of the revolution, I published an elementary book for facilitating the acquisition of our vernacular tongue, and for correcting a vicious pronunciation, which prevailed extensively among the common people of this country.”* Could people today who were “elementary” even understand his opening statement? Probably have to think about it awhile.

I mentioned a few lines back a word I’d put into a previous “paragraph,” another choice word—paragraph, Webster: “to write near or beyond the text; beyond, and to write.” … Is that the way you would describe a paragraph? Mr. Webster did go on to say what most of us would give: a distinct part of a discourse or a writing. Originally, in Latin from Greek, a paragraph is “a short stroke marking a break in sense.” 

We do strange things with words over years of usage. The two most controversial words would probably be “conservative” and “liberal” which have alternately been used opposite to what they had been previously. And in our day, “gay” isn’t quite the meaning as when a movie was made called, “The Gay Divorcee,” or the era known as the “Gay Nineties.” Some might say this is an improvement for benefit of whom it applies, rather than the 50s & 60s abhorrent use of the word “queer,” which was an odd use for a word which meant strange, originally.

So, today we have a language which, if given a few more years, will not be in total existence, but will be a different language and we, if we are still alive, will be the ones using it still.

Some words we don’t use anymore: kerfuffle—yes, that is an English word (Scot or Irish)

How about this: Obsequious, what, you don’t use that anymore?

: Meretricious, of course, you would not be so crass!

: Pusillanimous, don’t think of me that way!

I trow this could get long. To wit, as an old nemesis might say to me, you can run on!

Thanks for reading, the Elder

• Opening of Noah Webster’s preface to his 1828 dictionary. A most amazing clarity. —“Clarity, see American Dictionary, Clarity, 2B.”

11/26/2018

If you looked for a blog yesterday, I apologize: I didn’t write one. Early morning was too short, I had to leave early and be on the road. On a couple of occasions, knowing that was the case, I have written the night before. But, you know how exciting football is, I just was too riled up to think of doing that on Saturday night! (Hope you know sarcasm when you read it.) No, I’m sorry, I had the death of a friend on my mind and I just couldn’t get started. Later in the day, it just didn’t occur to me.

My friend John Patterson passed away. John was 80, I think. I met John in July of 1986, about a month before moving to Texas, at a small bible conference held in San Antonio. Bro. John and Bro. Gary Simpson attended that conference because John had become friends with my bible teacher, Bro. E C Moore, and Bro. Moore and I with Bro. Steve Gotberg were there to preach at that conference. Then, in September I started a bible class in Dallas and John and Gary came there and asked me if I could include a bible class in Arlington each trip (weekly.) 

In October of 1986 we begin a bible class in an unused office space. Bros. John and Gary at that time had sort of a partnership, two businesses in one building together. As time went on, Bro. John did what he could do better than most anyone I’ve ever met: he could get people to attend bible classes. Between John and Gary, they soon had a pretty sizable (for me) bible class and for about 15 years I went there every week. Bro. John would also take missionary trips into Mexico and be gone for several weeks at a time. 

The Lord had a great lover of His word in Bro. John Patterson. He could uniquely introduce the gospel of Christ into conversations in a fluent way, and it never seemed to bother the strangers he talked with to just change the subject matter and they would talk freely with him about their personal salvation. I wonder how many people we will know (in eternity) who were first introduced to the truth of salvation by John Patterson. May the Lord be praised for this man’s testimony. Bro. John Patterson a defender of the gospel, a very loving father, and a good friend and supporter of the ministry of reconciliation for which I thanked God often. I will miss not getting the phone calls, some would last many minutes and all of them included a short “bible class”  about whatever was on John’s mind at the time.

When I awoke an hour or so ago, two sisters in Bloomington Indiana were in my head singing—the SIMH today is “No Longer Lonely.” These two sisters sang occasionally in the church my father pastored in Bloomington or during what that group of churches called “associational meetings.” In my memory, I can only think of two songs the sang. Besides the SIMH, they also would sing “Whispering Hope.” But No Longer Lonely was a favorite of mine. It was written in the 1940s by an Australian song writer by the name of Robert Harkness. The chorus was one line, repeated once: “No Longer Lonely, No Longer Lonely, for Jesus is the friend of friends to me.” 

Mr. Harkness heard this words from a grieving Mother who had lost her son in a vicious battle in WW2. She said these words to him after he had shared some Scripture with her. He was a guest of her family and seeing a great piano in the corner of their living room he walked toward it and she stopped him from playing. It had been her son’s favorite thing to do and she couldn’t bear to hear it played, the grief was too great. 

Mr. Harkness shared with her the verse, “Casting all your care upon him, for he careth for you.” The next day, her heart, having the burden lifted, gave the title line to the songwriter as her way of saying how the grief had been lifted off her. He sat down at the piano and wrote the music and the rest of the words to this great hymn.

On life’s pathway I am never lonely, My Lord is with me, my Lord divine;Ever present Guide, I trust Him only, No longer lonely, for He is mine.

Darkest night He turns to brightest morrow, no longer lonely! He is my Friend.He has promised ever to uphold me, No longer lonely! He will be near.

No Longer Lonely, by Robert Harkness. Great consolation for a grieving soul. And the bible verse which prompted the freedom from mourning, 1 Peter 5:7, was one of my mother’s favorite verses. 

Thanks for reading, the Elder

11/24/2018

Over near the Georgia border, in South Alabama, is a small town with a big University in it. Now, from time to time this university has a national powerhouse football team and whoops up on everybody that comes their way. They’ve won national championships, they’ve won the SEC, they’ve got a great heritage in football.

Up near the center of Alabama, out West of Birmingham about 80 miles, is a pretty good sized town and they have a big old school out there which also knows about football and have won “it all” several times and smellin’ another one. This year they haven’t been beaten, and maybe not even challenged real hard, yet.

No matter which one of these schoolboy teams is rated the highest, no matter if neither is rated at all, on the day they play each other, yea, today, both these teams are rated number ONE! That’s right, listen to the fans: they say it is the only game that matters (at least, whichever current team is lower in the ratings says that.) In being in and associated with Alabama college football for 45 years, now, I think I can count with one hand of fingers the number of people I’ve encountered which switched loyalty between teams. 

As general, run of the mill, life activities go, this is the only rivalry friendly enough to be inside families, inside churches, inside offices, inside grammar and secondary schools, and yet not become an all out war! Why, I once had a boss who didn’t want me to talk about the bible or Jesus or God while I was at work, yet these two school’s loyal patrons could yell their arguments up and down the halls! And that, 365 days out of the year!

So, here’s the reason I’m writing this today. Tomorrow, I think I know who’s going to be the happiest, but I have been fooled. I remember a year when the number one selling bumper sticker for Christmas was “Punt, Bama, Punt!” I remember similar bumper stickers with a message somewhat reverse from that, also. It’ll surprise me this year, if the little town down South has that much to say, tomorrow—surprised, you understand, not astounded*. 

(*There’s a famous story about Noah Webster’s wife catching him kissing the cook in the kitchen. His wife said, “Mr. Webster! I’m surprised!” to which he replied, “No, madam, I’m surprised, you’re astounded!.”) (word meaning story). 

So, today, out the window goes records, out the window goes perfection in predictions. This is the war, the battle is on, to the victor go the spoils! And, remember, tomorrow the war is over. Tomorrow, the logic (wherever there is some) will return and no matter who wins the battle today, the new battle for next year, same time, same state, begins to be plotted. No matter which coach says the finest conciliatory platitudes about the other, the plot for next season dominance starts tomorrow. 

It’s ROLL TIDE !! or GO TIGERS !! (or in some towns “war damn eagle!”)

Today, ALABAMA and AUBURN are both NUMBER ONE!!….till 2:30PM Central. Talk to ya at 5:30pm. And the SIMH today is both fight songs!

Thanks for reading, the Elder. Roll Tide!

11/23/2018

And so, the big feast day is over. Hope you all survived the massive caloric intake! Truthfully, it was a magnificent meal prepared by Sarah and Jason (that boy can cook!) and enjoyed by us all! We also watched the Dallas Cowboys win their 3rd game in a row, and later, I watched Butler romp all over their basketball opponent. I call that a good, relaxing day. I sure hope yours was, also, and that, at least, some of those you love the most were with you. Slightly under half our family was here. The rest we loved from afar, yesterday.

Today’s SIMH was a real oldie, written even before I was born: “Skylark”, by Hoagy Carmichael, another Hoosier. This was written 1927, and as most songs of worth to its listeners, it comes back around often. Dinah Shore recorded it in 1960; Linda Ronstadt in ’84, and k.d. Lang in ’97. I have most always liked Ronstadt’s version of anything, and hers is good. But, k.d. Lang did her version for a movie and she nailed it! The only number of hers I really like to listen to, as I recall.

Which begs the question, do I dislike Lang and her music because of her sexual proclivity? No, not at all. If I worried about that, I’d be hard pressed to find someone of either gender to be sure of, right? If I had the chance to talk with her or anyone about this sort of thing, I wouldn’t. (Notwithstanding, I might talk to anyone about anything at anytime, you understand.) No, I would talk with her (or anyone) about whether there had ever been a day in their life when, realizing they were a sinner in need of a Savior, had they put their trust in Christ’s finished work for their salvation. Sinning, an ongoing difficulty, wouldn’t be the question. It would be “who do you trust for payment for any and all sins?”

Black Friday is roaring as I write this (I guess.) It is a big day for most retailers, biggest day of the year for a majority of them. I ran a jewelry store for about 4 1/2 years, back when “black Friday” got its name, in the 60s. In our chain of stores, the biggest day was usually the day before Christmas or the day after Christmas, mostly dependent on what day of the week Christmas. The largest two days ever, were both on the day after Christmas. Black Friday came in a distant 3rd most years. Interesting how things change over time.

In the Alkaline water business, it is difficult to “hype” up a day. Everyone who wants our water likely fall into a routine of getting it once or twice a week and hyping a certain day probably isn’t going to change that. I’ll let you know tomorrow, for today, we are trying some new sales promo methods to see if we can change things a bit.

As of this moment, the new stores look as if they’ll open in this order: Gadsden, possibly before next weekend; The Woodlands on Dec. 7,8; and the Lake Charles store about two weeks before Christmas. Sarah’s store in Fort Payne opened four years ago on Dec. 8, but had a “grand opening” on Jan.8. I thought it was a good way to get open, work out the surprises, then “grand open” a month later. We’re pretty excited to have these 3 added to our chain startup!

Another town is getting close on location, a couple more could move fast, one small town, one larger—2019 might be a good year!

Well, go make this a big day for someone, or just sit back, relax and let “them others” go fight the crowds! Either way, I hope you can ease back into the “double weekend” week and feel good about the way you’ve handled everything. Oh, by the way, there is a football game of some note on tomorrow afternoon (Iron Bowl, Alabama vs. Auburn), in case you forgot that. If you did forget it, you must not live in Alabama!

Thanks for reading, the Elder

11/22/2018(Thanksgiving) 

Of the myriad of things our lives should be filled with, thanksgiving is right up there running over the top! The word of God teaches us that “all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags,” and “It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not all consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning…” How amazing is that! How, though found in the Old Testament, are these truths pertinent to us today? Well, the answer is the #1 reason we should have thankfulness on our lips 365 days out of the year. And, from a dispensational Scriptural approach, the Lord did at one time, intervene in the lives of men directly to stop many who became enemies of God’s plan. His plan for us today couldn’t have gotten here (through time) had He not intervened. Be very thankful we live in this dispensation of time. 

Today, we are faced with seeing all sorts of horrible activities by individuals against the “people of God,” and some “people of God” even performing some atrocities, yet God is silent. What is the difference? Where is God today? Does He not care, anymore? Can’t God stop the killing of the unborn? Why do bad things happen to people who belong to God?

Answers to these difficult situations and horrible occurrences get kicked around the political world as though some “hero” politician is going to be the panacea for everything from world peace to some sort of sanctuary from our enemies! In general, the people have come to want to invite “protectionism” and even embrace it as the last hope. These sorts of vacated thoughts, (meaning we just don’t want to deal with this stuff) are not the answers we seek. Where is the God of our Fathers and what IS He saying about this?

Well, this is not a short subject to answer so it will be painfully short, but, here goes: God gave His word to us in a simple to read, 6th grade grammar, set of 66 (relatively) short dissertations, describing His plan from the first day until the last. Yes, from the first day until the last—read it and see. But, for today, here’s the synopsis of it all. 

God made everything and saw that it was “very good.” Then, from time immemorial, came the one creation which had “iniquity” found in him and disruption to God’s plan began. So, the righteous God instigated the plan we are living out. We are roughly 6,000 years down stream on this plan and there isn’t any doubt of its outcome. God wrote it all out clearly for us all to see with only one caveat: to see it, we must believe it. (I know, many side roads get taken and it is impossible for everyone to believe exactly the same way about everything. That will not change God’s overall success plan, He knew we would be like this, and He still wrote the perfect plan execution to a T.)

The Great God and our Father watched His children become so evil that He could only see one “perfect” man left with which to save His plan. In due time, he added another man which (by foreknowledge) He knew would carry out the next big portion of the plan. Then, another carried forth God’s righteous word in written form. Soon, the sinful nature of man began to chop up the written righteous words, and sell excuses and penitences. After that, God stopped speaking for a few centuries to pave a way for the world to see His Son when the fulness of that time should occur. The people of God, of course, killed the Son!……..But, the Father raised Him from the dead, astounding a few, but inciting hatred and blasphemy in the rest!

Not long after that occurred, the Son, resurrected and restored in the “glory which He had with the Father before the foundation of the world,” slowed down an enemy, the most zealous of all enemies, and made him to understand why he could not win against the One with whom he was fighting. He made this fallen creature, a most ungodly man, to understand how righteousness gets imputed freely, not earned. So, the Great Plan of God takes a turn (like a parentheses in time) to make His power known, to seek all that had been lost all along the way. The Father explained through The Son just how powerful that recent death of the Son had been: it was used as a payment for all sins for all mankind for all time. Then, the Son went on to explain, that magnificent, glorious resurrection showed how full and complete this plan is by providing a justification for , not nations as before, willing to believe this plan (of salvation.) Just believe it. 

That being shown, and the rest of the story yet laid out before us and not having occurred, is the reason the Lord isn’t being heard from today. These horrible events we see and hear of are the futile attempts by that well known enemy to turn the people of God away from the perfection in the plan. the foreknowledge of God keeps His people safe, dead or alive (sorry for the bluntness.)

 He wrote it down, told men to preach it—in season and out of season, don’t quit till you’re done! You see, this salvation, so freely given, was bought with the price of sin payment, and to make it perfect, the Father had the Son, who was perfectly sinless, perform the whole payment for us all. 

Wait! I’m not finished! Then, if we will simply believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, God the Father will seal us; SEAL US, unto the day He takes us to Heaven ever to be with the one who paid the price. Since we are sealed, no amount of evil can get in the way of us being eternally a part of God’s perfect plan. Wow!

In the simplest of terms, in the simplest of ways, for the simplest to hear, this is the answer: “…how that Christ died for our sins (He was delivered for our offenses), according to the scriptures; and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day(for our justification) according to the scriptures:” “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved..”

Now, can you think of anything to be thankful for? If not, consider if He had not died for our sins, had not been raised from the dead, what would be left? Only the failed system of man’s own attempts at being righteous. What a mess, a world missing this, the only hope, the hope of all who seek Him.

Thanks for reading, the Elder.  and “be ye thankful.”

11/21/2018

When I get out of bed with a SIMH which wants to linger awhile, I begin to write this blog by looking up the history of the song. Thirty-eight different artists have recorded today’s song, beginning with a female duet in 1953, followed closely by Eddy Arnold, also in ’53, then Elvis in ’56, through to the latest rendition by Joey & Rory in 2014. In 2008, it was finally recorded by the man who wrote the tune—Chet Atkins. The lyrics were by a writer of some note: Boudleaux Bryant. The version in my head was the tenderly smooth voice of Jim Reeves. The song: “How’s the World Treating You?”

Also, recently done by Alison Krause and James Taylor, a masterful version, which may result in the best memories of it over all. But, a song 55 years old and still being recorded and sang by popular artists is legendary in this world which often treats its citizens poorly. 

Even though the song is about lost love, think of all the ways the world treats people. Many people suffer from things which should never happen to anybody. The bible refers to this as:

 Ecc 9:11 I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.

Many of us who spend time watching sporting events, from Track & Field all the way to the football field, the basketball floor and the Nascar tracks, and we’ve all seen the best be denied the victory, the “also ran” come in first and the “underdog” who cannot win take home the prize. As it is in love, so also is it in many walks of life. The “world” isn’t always being fair. Blaming our losses or other misfortunes on something or someone should not be. We should account that Ecc.9:11 has come about yet again. Then, examine the entire situation which brought about the ingloriousness and see what could have been done differently, preparing ourselves for_one_more _try.

Boudleaux Bryant, with his wife Felice, wrote several big hits. He wrote “Love Hurts” (that’s sold a few mill!) and “All I Have to do is Dream” (a few more mill!) Some folks just turn how they feel into something with which millions of people identify. And so, “time and chance” happens to them, success comes their way and the world (which doesn’t treat people fairly) believes they are genius.

It is, however, our world. We can hide in a closet, crawl into a cave, become total recluses if we want. Or, we can “pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and start all over again!” (another songwriter’s words.) We who are aware of what this world is, who is in charge of it, and how the Creator of it is ultimately going to finish it, are not to be “overtaken” by it. The world doesn’t own you if you have a Savior. If and when you trust in Christ for eternal life, He owns you, He has bought you with the price the Creator demanded as ransom from the fallen one; the usurper who runs the time and chance system in this revolving door of humanity. 

From time to time, we have encounters with people who are brow-beaten so badly that there is a deadness in their eyes; a fearful look that says, “don’t talk to me, don’t make me look at you, don’t expect anything from me.” Recently, we’ve had to deal with a person who’s marital mate has that look. It suggests some bad treatment is going on in their lives, perhaps in their home or family life, perhaps even going back a generation or more. Not much of a way to do anything or try to “fix” it, even if we could prove it. But, we’ve all probably seen this in folks, especially if we’ve been in the public arena of daily contact with people. Time and chance, again? Yes, probably is. We realize the futility of thinking we can be of service to anyone other than the few who purposely come our way. 

Maybe we should just employ the wisdom of God in the manner He wants it employed today, and in the words of yet another song, “Make the world go away, and get it off my shoulders.” Or, with God’s wisdom and the open doors the Lord provides for us, let’s teach the truth about the Lord, eternal life, daily walking close by Him, and let the peace of God rule in our hearts. Amen?

Thanks for reading, the Elder

11/20/2018

There is a lot of activity in the “swirling thoughts” section of my brain this morning. Probably caused by the crazy song that rushed to the surface. The second musical Barb ever drug me to was “Oklahoma,” and the SIMH today is “Surrey with the Fringe on Top.” Yes, well, I never liked it much in the musical, but it seems to me I heard it an abundance of times. Then, when I looked it up, it is as old as I am. Written for broadway in 1943. (Almost as old as me.) Goes almost back to the days when Surreys were the mode of transportation.

Speaking of transportation and music: I’ve been fascinated over the years when I come across an hymn or gospel song which mentions a form of transport. Isn’t it interesting the number of Christian songs about ships and transport over water: “Ship Ahoy!,” “Throw Out the Lifeline,” “Old Ship of Zion,” “Let the Lower Lights Be Burning,” and on and on. Then, of course, “I won’t Have to Cross Jordan Alone.”—Just a river, but you know what I mean.

And then there are the train songs: “Hand Upon the Throttle, and your Eye Upon the Rail”-(may not be the name), and the famous “Train Song.” Never heard it? It was made famous by my Dad. He heard it somewhere in Illinois, on a record way back in the day when you just couldn’t get modes of music real easily. He listened to it, re-listened and re-listened till he learned it. and when he came home and sang it in church, it soon became a favorite in every church he visited. He sang it regularly till he died, I guess. I have the words and once, in a special music time at our church in New Braunfels, I sang it. The people all loved it and asked me to sing it several times but I declined. Even though the song’s lyrics are doctrinally incorrect, there is an excited hope in them—that must be what people like about it. 

Maybe I’ll sing that at the start of next Monday night’s bible class. (That’s at zoom.us/j/2103785748 on Monday evening at 7PM, Central…not that I’m promoting it or anything.)

The Train Song was recorded and you can find it through Google (you can google anything, sheesh!)

So, ships and trains, they’ve been used by gospel and hymn writers a lot for the last 100 years, or so. Songs in general have used all modes of transport: “Walking to Missouri” “Just Walkin’ in the Rain” “Thumbin’ a Ride” —then, “Bicycle Built for Two” and songs about motorcycles, cars, trucks, big rigs, trains—“I’m Movin’ On”, and planes- “Leavin’ on a Jet Plane,” etc., etc.

My Dad was born in 1901. I once said to him, “You know, you’ve seen a lot of inventions in your 86 years, which do you think was the greatest?” He hardly drew  breath to say, “The Airplane.” I said, really? more than radio, television, computers? He said, “Man has always wanted to fly. When that got started, then man had a need for all these other things.” He may have been right. Would radio have fizzled like “ragtime” music if man hadn’t understood it went through the air at a high rate of speed? A precursor to TV success was sonar and radar as military defense, would that have happened without the airplane? I don’t know. What about the computer, Daddy believed nobody would have needed the computer if they didn’t need to keep up with all the flying around the world. I don’t know. He may have been right.

Interesting thoughts today, mostly coming from the genesis of Surrey With The Fringe on Top. I think I’ll leave these thoughts with you and get on with something a little bit more  important: my breakfast! 

Thanks for reading, the Elder

11/19/2018

“Love is Just a Game” —you remember, “winners walk out laughing, losers cry, deal again.” Some of the best lyrics for sad songs come from Larry Gatlin. Today’s SIMH is from Larry and the brothers. He wrote “I Don’t Wanna Cry This Early this Morning”—“All the Gold in California”—“She’s a Broken Lady,” and many others. Larry wrote, the brothers harmonized. Pretty good music, for the most part. 

Monday is here, hope you had a “thankful” day yesterday, and work on all thankfulness for the next four days. This is a great week (even if all of them are great) because we get to be reminded or remind ourselves of the magnitude of spiritual blessings which are right before us. If you’ve trusted what the Lord Jesus Christ has done for you for your eternal life, you’ve  experienced yet only the tip of the pyramid of blessings! As long as we’re in these bodies, we’ll catch the glimpse of glory bright from time to time. But, the flesh and the misery of this world around us will bring a pall over its brightness. 

Our focus should always be about what is next; the day, the task, the privilege, the expectation, the blessing, all that. Even though memories are often precious and worth recalling, as you’ve noticed I call them up in this blog quite often, memories are for the experience of learning. Today, let your mind go back to where you were and what you were doing 8 years ago. Too hard? Ok, go back to somewhere close to that; a spot in your memory, perhaps where you set a goal to be somewhere in 6 or 8 or 10 years which will bring you to the present. Are you there? Did you reach it? Do you still want the same thing? Are you happy with having achieved it?

The answers are not important, the memories are, though. By your memories, you frame the future. By them, emotions are reared to exert thought pressure, your spirit is re-directed to a new action either expected or unexpected. And though you cannot see around the bend in the road, you can know whether you should slow down or speed up, whether you should change lanes now are charge ahead. Memories do that for you. Don’t pay any attention to the idea of forgetting your experiences. Oh, I’m not saying you live in the past, that’s a horrible place to live. (See what Paul said about it in Philippians 3 — press on toward the prize. But for the sake of not being confused, see how Paul’s memories of these people (ch.4) framed his and their futures while still in this life, and how the affect of that will go to their eternal future.)

Live now, knowing what you know now. Live for the Lord, but live for those whom you love, also. Then live for yourself. If you are the Lord’s, follow the inspiration He gave directly to Paul and see how all the Lord’s truth (Genesis to Revelation) will fit and retrofit your life. In addition to priority study of Paul’s epistles (Romans through Philemon), I highly recommend a study of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes. There that’s enough study for one day, right?

Let not the day’s evil distract you. The Lord said you don’t have to add to it, there’s enough evil already there. One of the “evils” which fits in easily to our days is this: we want more than we need. In the book of Luke, a book full of short yet powerful life lessons, the Lord said, “a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.” What you have is not what you are, neither will what you want make you what you want to be. Keep those things separated in your thoughts and plans. 

When we use, “In all things give thanks, and by prayer and supplication make (our) requests know to God,” we must take care to note what happens because we did that: “..and the peace of God that passeth all understanding shall keep (our) hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” How does He do that? Simple: He matches our prayers to His will (see Rom.8:26-30)—we’re His. What answer do we get? Peace. No peace concerning that for which we prayed? Keep praying.

Thanks for reading, the Elder

11/18/2018

“Another One Bites The Dust” ?? How weird is that! The SIMH gets to me some mornings, maybe because of a totally carnal nature yet hanging around in this flesh and it is the first thing about me that is conscious in the mornings. But then, it isn’t every morning, just many of them. I guess you could dance to it (you have to be old to know why I added that statement.)

This song was another “Queen” hit and written by John Richard Deacon in 1980. 

Another high school story came to mind last night as I waited to pick up our to-go order. A man standing near me struck up a conversation about football, then his years as a HS football coach and principal. He asked me if I went to school around here, said he thought I might have “played against one of his teams!” I assured him I was older than him, and we laughed at that reality. So he asked where and what kind of school I had attended. When did anyone from Trafalgar, IN, pass up the opportunity to talk about Trafalgar!

This story came out: When I was a Senior, there was a young man working very close to our town who was just out of school. He hang around the high school, friendly, looking to make friends because he was a long way from home, probably 100 miles, or so. Pre-school each morning, I worked for an hour at the drug store soda fountain selling donuts & coffee & cokes, etc. Just as I was finishing one morning, this young man said he had to drive to his hometown to get more clothes, did I want to go with him? I said, “me, skip school?” So, I did. We were about 25 miles from home, stopped to get pancakes at a well known pancake house (at that time) and sat eating at the counter, when a man walked up to the cash register near us to pay and cleared his throat. 

When I turned and looked at him, it was my high school principal. 25 miles from home and I get caught skipping school by my principal! He said, “Morning, boys,” with a little smile on his face. We said good morning and he turned to leave. Then he looked back and said, “I will see you in the morning, Mr. Lockhart.” I said, “yes sir.”

The next morning I went straight to Mr. Oliver’s office. He said, “What did your mom and dad say when you told them where you were yesterday?” I said I didn’t tell them. He was quiet for a moment, then said, “You’ll tell them tonight, won’t you.”(not as a question, as a fact.) I said I would. Then, he said “I’ll see you in the morning.”

The next morning, he said, “Well, what did your Mom say?” I said, “she just stood there with her hands on her hips.” “And your Dad?” “He said if you had any more school left than 3 months, you’d deserve a good whippin’!” Mr. Oliver folded his arms across his chest, thought a minute, then said, “You gonna do this again? I assured him I wouldn’t. He looked at his watch and said, “Mr. Lockhart, you better hurry to your home room, you’ve got a meeting to preside over,” (I was class president) I left. He never brought it up again. I never did it again. It never appeared as anything on any school record. Good disciplinarian, Mr. Oliver.

Good old days? I suppose. This retired coach I was telling the story to said to me, “Don’t you wish it was that simple today?” Yep, I sure do. But, it isn’t. What can we do? Probably nothing.

Thanks for reading, the Elder