1/10/2020 & 1/16/2020

Interesting: We’re trying to get our Blue Jug store re-opened in our wonderful new location and some of the most bizarre things are getting in the way. We’ve lamented about the plumber for weeks, about his “dragging the feet” in getting his work done. Well, he promised it would be done by the end of last week. mmm—Not quite. He did most of the work, but had 3 or 4 leaks, so he shut off the water, left and has not yet come to fix them!! How does he think like that? Oh, I see, this is just a part-time job for him.

Then, the electrician, twice during the week last week, he promised me he’d be done before the plumber was. He not only didn’t get done, he left the job without telling us we were on temporary power. So we set about to test our system and blew the breaker! Come to find out, there wasn’t enough direct circuits hooked up to test or run the system! So, I asked when to expect him, and he said by the end of this week. After, I pleaded, he has agreed to hurry that up a little. Ya think? Oh, I see, it’s just a part-time job for him, too! Incredible.

Every week we stay closed loses us a lot of 1.) money, and 2.) loyalty. We can’t even figure out a way to gauge that. We will get this store open, it will be beautiful and ample, we will have several more inventory items to choose from. But, we can’t yet tell you when. (“If in this life only we have hope in Jesus, we are of all men most miserable.”—1 Cor.15:19) (Thank God for grace, which takes us to eternal life in Christ!)

Isn’t it a bit ironic the SIMH today is “Just in Time”—I found you just in time, before you came my time was running low”—The song was written by the trio of writers Styne Jule, Green Adolph, Comden Betty, and introduced by Judy Holliday and Sydney Chaplin in the broadway play, “Bells Are Ringing.” But went popular by both Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin. And I find it Just in Time to not go crazy with frustration. sigh.

1/16/2020

Guess what? The Blue Jug of Fort Payne will open this morning! The intercession of the landlord and our pleading has finally brought about the actual finish of our new store building. On Tuesday and yesterday we ran all the testing and filled the tanks with the world’s best water and so we’re officially opening this morning! Our customers will be so glad! Hope we do not disappoint them in any way.

Irony continues: This morning the SIMH was “Come On-a My House”— Rosemary Clooney. It’s my understanding that she hated this song and was talked into singing it against her will, yet it became a big hit in spite of that. Another little oddity is it was written by two men, Ross Bagdasarian (later known as David Seville who created Alvin and the Chipmunks) and his cousin William Saroyan (the famous author) in 1939 while they drove across New Mexico. It is said that as Ross Bagdasarian, he has a lot to answer for, but that is ancient history I suppose. for Rosemary Clooney, it was the first of several hit recordings from 1951 through 1957. She remain popular for many years with a large fan-base from the jazz and the “big band era.”

The new year has already brought us several new prospects for more water stores. This could be as good a year as I had hoped for on a previous blog. We know that if we grow into a group of stores we will switch over to being a franchisor and our stores will become franchisees one of these days. If you wonder why, it is due to regulatory mandates. When a company places regulations on their customers to any degree, the federal government wants to know the demands and the responses fit within their definition of an independent business. It doesn’t take very much involvement by the wholesale company to become doggedly followed by the agency-in-charge. So, when we reach a number, probably around 25 or so, it will be a necessity. It will be forced upon us, but it is also very exciting for which to look forward. PS: It will cost a lot of money and change the dynamic of running the wholesale side of this business a lot.

We now have further plans given to us for the Texas Bible Conference to be held once again in Round Rock this April 24-26. Not only is Barb going with me, but several other preacher friends and their wives will all be there. It promises to be a terrific weekend of fellowship as well as great bible teaching. 

The first conference of the year is in about 6 weeks: Gatlinburg, TN. I always look forward to that felllowship weekend, also. Many people I only get to see once a year will be there. Praise the Lord for His marvelous grace which privileges us to have such times.

Thanks for reading, the Elder

1/9/2020

“I Believe in Angels”—ABBA music. That’s the SIMH today. The words are very contrary to the truth of the matter. In fact, this poet had to have been a “one world” advocate. The words, “I believe in angels, something good in everything I see — I believe in angels,  when I know the time is right for me — I crossed the stream, I have a dream.” Well, that’s not an easy philosophy for someone who believes the bible as I do. And, “If you see the wonder , in a fairy tale — you can take the future, even if you fail.” By the fairytale reference, what is displaced is faith in the Lord and His word. You see, we believers can take the world even if we fail because we know what our future is because of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. But, as I’ve said before, I have very little control as to what song pops into the beady little brain of mine when I awaken each day. 

Yet, I am partial to ABBA. Their music has to drone on for a long while before I weary of it. Just like the style, I guess. This one is way down the list, though. 

For the larger part of our married life and before, I practiced the American plan of eating: “3 squares a day,” you know. Breakfast soon after rising, taking a lunch break, then coming home for a good meal after work. Even the two years when I would leave my day job at 4:30, drive to a shopping center in Columbus (IN) to my evening job from 5 to 9, I’d still find a place to grab something to eat. Since I worked 6 days each week it was only on Sunday that anything was different. Then, when I got out of the restaurant business in 1984, bringing my main emphasis to be on preaching, before long the evenings became driving to wherever I was teaching a class, especially after going to Texas. That not only interfered with evening meals several nights each week, but also breakfast became a later in the morning event. Which, of course, fouled up when “lunch” came about. Oddball eating habits sat in. After 25 years of that, coupled with eating on the run (usually really bad food and junk) it all contributed to clogged arteries and a mild heart attack two months before I turned 70. Thankfully, it was light, and “fixed” with a couple of stents. So far.

During those first 24 years of being married, our Sundays were odd eating days primarily because lunch was the “big” meal of the day. For about 5 years, it was always with family at Barb’s folk’s, usually. Then, with friends after church or someone at our house as guests, but still the big meal. Most Sunday evenings would wind up being something like apples and popcorn, or just go get a milkshake. Oddball enough, right? 

But, since the heart attack, most of our days are timed to be two meals: breakfast whenever—usually I eat by 8am, Barb usually a bit later. Then, only one more real meal fairly early in the evening; maybe four, five or six, seldom later. We usually regret it if we eat very late. Once again, oddball eating habits. If you ask me which is the better way, I’d say it doesn’t matter. What matters more is what is on the plate! But, I’m not sure I would be in agreement with any “norm” that is practiced by people. It seems to me whatever you and your body get used to and how well the balance of foods are make the greater difference.

Some natural advocates say late morning eating and early evening eating is best—quickly becoming the plan to eat inside a 6 hour window and fast the rest of the 24 hours each day. Maybe that’s a good idea. Some now suggest the middle of the day is the best time to eat a big meal (the older I get the more I agree), but that usually stops a regular evening meal, which is still the most popular meal in America by far—“dinner” it’s called. Isn’t eating an odd practice?

The more exciting part of this blog is about counting down the days till we get the Blue Jug Alkaline Water and Health Market back open! It looks like we’ll finally get this to happen by Monday, the 13th! We had to be out of the other building on December 13th, but our new location wasn’t ready and still isn’t. but, we can see the readiness in the making and the days are drawing nigh! this has been tough to take, being closed this long—and costly! We don’t even like to think about how much this has cost us. In fact, it might not ever be measurable, though we will know soon enough if it has cost us very many customers. We get several calls each day from people wanting us to please be open. And we’re going to love being open next week and seeing all our customers and friends to the business again!

Partially putting the new store together has been exciting to see, as well. The new style of store should be pleasing to most people, I think. We have so much more room for adding in other things. Besides what Alkaline water demands we carry, such as containers of all sizes and permanent systems for the home, we’ll have all the healthy items we had before and many more. To get open, we’ll not have a lot of new stuff yet, but will bring it in as we get it ordered and determine how to best display it. Eventually, over the next few weeks and months, it is our plan to add Jason’s Butter Snob Baking goods and display them. Also, we’ll add a Smoothie and Protein Shake Bar and serve coffee, as well. Now that can be very exciting! 

Come see us at 519 Gault Ave, N. in fort Payne, AL!

Thanks for reading, the Elder

1/5/2020

Here we are already the fifth day in the new year! I hope your start has been helpful, hopeful, and heartfelt in every way that is positive for your life! It’s been my new year clarion cry for years to bring a positive message of the pre-eminence of the Lord Jesus Christ in our lives and then carry the same theme for the whole year. It looks like the reasons for such are here again. We live in a war torn world, so starting a new year with the same idiocy ripping through our minds is nothing new. Justified? Not Justified? Why try to figure it out! Let’s go back to being positive about our collective future…..I’m glad to be here and I’m glad you’re here, so let’s do something with this new year besides observing it!

When I awoke this morning, “The King is Coming” was on my mind. The King, the Lord Jesus Christ, and the SIMH were ringing out this is THE King and He is coming and it is our blessed hope. Now that is a good year! Whether 2020 is the year or not, the promise is secure. Back to the SIMH: this song was written by the Gaithers, Bill and Gloria, with the help of one other man-Charles Millhuff (I don’t know if he is a singer or not.) I can’t remember the year, somewhere around 1971or ‘72, I suppose. About that time, we went to see the Gaithers in concert, in the days when it was Bill and Gloria and Bill’s brother Danny. This song was new then, I believe. (I just asked Barb if she knew when it was and she can’t remember us going to hear them in concert. Hmmm, is my mind making that up? No, too vivid—Danville, Illinois, high school auditorium, we saw several concerts there.)

You know, songs come from poetry attached to a tune in someone’s mind. The poem of the King is Coming is stirring, but not particularly true to biblical prophecy in the manner it unfolds THE DAY. But, we accept the poetic license of many other songs and we shall this one. The Gaithers were not of the particular sect which knew anything about what we today refer to as “the rapture” so not many of the lines in the song are actually foretelling the story. But the glorious event is true, it is going to happen. We know nothing of the time, nor why the timing is perfect, except that the Lord is doing it, and not us.

From the bible: When Christ ascended into heaven and many watched Him go, the two “men it white apparel” told the crowd He “ shall return in like manner as ye see him go.” The SIMH follows that pattern which is spelled out in the old Testament promises to Israel describing it. But, the “revelation of the mystery” given by Christ to the Apostle Paul describes a different event (and that because it is told to a different people), an event which is described with these words: “Behold, i show you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump.” “The Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and the trump of God..” (parts of two passages by Paul—1 Cor.15;51,52 and 1 Thess.4:16. The event described by Paul isn’t like the Acts 1 account of the promise of His return. Here’s a short reason why both events are going to occur: The Acts 1 ascension of the Lord and then the promise from the two (no doubt) angels is the fulfillment of Old Testament prophetic plan of God to anoint the Lord Jesus as He is to be “king over all the earth” —described in Zech.14:9 —read the whole chapter. This time is spelled out rather well in many passages and whole chapters in the Old and New Testaments. In fact, Hebrews through Revelation is all about the fulfilling of all that prophecy. 

The event described by Paul in several passages of his 13 epistles is nothing like that at all. When Paul says we, the church which is His body, are granted His glorious appearing, we immediately leave the earth and meet the Lord in the air. The Lord doesn’t return to rule “over all the earth” at the time of our departure, we go! Not the same events and not for the same peoples. So, check yourself: do you really believe all the bible is God’s word? Oh, how I pray that you do! If so, don’t mix things together and expect them to make sense. Study by “rightly dividing the word of truth” as we are instructed to do in 2 Tim.2:15, and allow things that differ to be different. It is amazing what the Lord will show you when you study in His manner. 

Just a reminder: we have a Sunday afternoon bible class (4PM Central time) and would love to have you attend. In person if you live close to Fort Payne, AL just call me and I’ll give you directions-210-378-5748. On Zoom on the computer: go to zoom.us/j/210-3785748 and log in to the meeting. Or, on FaceBook on my page, Jerry Lockhart. That’s all about hearing the class live, Sundays at 4pm. Each of these classes is then put on my YouTube channel, Jerry Lockhart ( or Brother Jerry Lockhart for older ones) and there are many classes recorded there.

Today’s class will be about the above subject. Hope you can join us.

Thanks for reading, the Elder. 

12/27/2019

Today, we start to rebuild our Blue Jug in our bright and shiny new location. This has been nerve-racking, being closed since the 13th. But, getting all the mechanicals of a totally reconstructed building ready to have its new tenants and all that comes with them, that takes some time and patience! We are excited and expectant, nervous and apprehensive, as well as both anxious and reticent! What if we do it wrong? What if we break some vital part? What if we’ve been closed too long and no one comes? What if we make great decisions in our own minds, but not in our customers’ minds? 

Ah, but then the professional attitude begins to permeate all this angst and calm and cool thought processes take over and we slip right into doing exactly what we should do to be as efficient with our time and efforts as it takes to make it all come together perfectly. Or, chaos sets in and reigns! (Just kidding, this is easy stuff!)

My SIMH today is “Stand By Me”—is that fitting , or what? “So Darlin’, Darlin’, Stand By Me, oo-oo-o Stand By Me…When the night is come, and the land is dark, and the moon is the only light I see. No, I won’t be afraid, Oh, I won’t be afraid,…Just as long as you stand, stand by me.” When Ben E. King first wrote this song, he was with the Drifters (a really great 50-60-70s group.) They said, yeah it’s a nice song, but we don’t need it. Mr. King wisely showed it to a producer who immediately put the music ensemble together and they recorded it all in the same day..and the rest is actual Rock ’n Roll history. (Rated #122 out of the top 500 best songs of all time.) It’s been recorded by 400 different artists. Way to go, Ben!

It isn’t often that I can supply you a sports story, a faith example, and a moral conclusion all in one short blurb. but, here goes.

I used to play basketball (as an old man in a kid’s game) with a group of business guys—everything from lawyers to contractors to doctors. One of them I’ll call ML here, was a terrific shot. I would guess, though we had no stats, of course, that his shooting percentage was in the high 60s. He was a doctor, also he was a non-practicing agnostic. (If you asked did he believe in God, he would have said, “yes, probably!”) But for the most part, he was faithless. On the gym floor, we had a “next” system of who plays in the next game and to start that system it was the first 5 to hit a free throw against the next five, then “next” would play the winners of a short game. Winners stayed on the floor.

I liked playing on the team with ML. But, not at first, I had to teach him something. I was a good point guard in that group. As I once dribbled to the left and cut toward the basket, I saw ML coming from the opposite corner, passing the basket and continuing to head towards an open spot. So I threw the ball to the open spot before he got there and it startled him! He barely was able to maintain possession of the ball, turn and shoot. Of course he made it. That’s why I passed it to him. When we had won and the “nexts” were shooting for who we played next, ML came over and said, “why did you throw that pass without me looking at you?” I said, “why were you running toward an open shot and NOT expect to get a pass?” He walk away. From then on, he was always alert to my throwing the ball to him. And we won a lot of those short games. Did he aways get the ball? No. But did he always expect it? Yes, he knew he was the best shooter.

This sports story points out a need for faith: ML’s job as a shooter was to always take the shot if he was (in his own estimation) open enough to take it. Therefore, he should always exercise the “faith to believe” he was going to get the ball. Did he always get the ball? No. But, was he right to expect it? Absolutely. that’s what faith is, expectation of what is not certain. The existence of certainty is scant. But, if we believe in something, faith helps us expect it.

The moral in the sports story is this: If you cannot prepare your mind as well as your body (and vice versa), you will likely miss opportunities for greatness in your endeavor and great grace of our God and Savior Jesus Christ. I saw ML professionally from time to time. Our conversations about faith in what the bible declares as truth got better after that b-ball court experience. I’m not sure he has ever trusted Christ for salvation, but I’m sure he understood faith and reasoning better after our conversations. Of the many thousands of people I’ve met and been around on numerous occasions, ML is one I hope to see in eternity, singing the praises of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords!

Next up on here will likely be more update about the Blue Jug of Fort Payne, an expectation plan for 2020, and another testimony of the Lord in our lives! Hope you’re expecting great things!

Thanks for reading, the Elder

12/23/2019

Eight days from now, we change decades. Not a big deal, right? But, it is my 9th decade. Whoa. Sobering. How much time shall I spend worrying over this? Not a bit. Rather, my hope is to be more observant than ever before, more introspective, more intensely hopeful of seeing “one more person” come to know Christ as Saviour. And, to be ever able to insure the truth does not “fall in the street’ from my lips instead of being worthwhile to the hearers, regardless of how many come my way. That’s all I’m going to say about that, now.

We’ve just gotten word that the new building for Blue Jug of Fort Payne is ready for us to step in and prepare to open on Thursday, the 26th. We think this will coincide with our new system being here to hook up (5-6 hours work probably) and start making water. Things are going to get exciting around here in a few days!! We do seriously believe we’re going to have a beautiful new store. It’ll be a lot of work for several weeks, but we think very much worth it.

For the next few days, before actual labor gets underway to re-open in the new store, I’m engaging in product system packaging for new stores in 2020! We very much need some updating and reaching toward a more perfect package of system, products, training, promo materials, etc. to make the package for new stores more directed toward the perfect “turnkey’ opportunity (one day.) We can do this. Everything we improve for offering now will teach us the methodology of a Turnkey Franchised Store, defining even the very dimensions of our stores. I wonder how long this will take to bring about?

Because our store here in Fort Payne can now truly be a “flagship” store, we can possibly experiment with products, product displays, promotions and events that might enhance our new stores and provide insight and innovations faster than we’ve been able to do till now.

This past Sunday, we had a wonderful fellowship dinner with the folks in Alexandria, AL. As small as that group is, these dinners are some of the best food I’ve ever had and the friendship and fellowship is grand, also! I’ve truly come to love my association with these folks and pray the Lord allows us to continue to be close to them in both Spirit and companionship in service to the Lord who bought us all. Short blog for now, but more about our 2020 hopes and prayerful considerations in a couple of days. For now, let me wish all who read this a very precious and very meaningful holiday with all the blessings of the Lord being manifest in your lives.

Thanks for reading, the Elder

12/19/2019

How quickly go the days! I realized this morning how long it had been since the last blog. (I’ve probably had multiple terrific ideas which have come to me and quickly fled away! No telling what all you’ve missed out on…good grief!) I shall not lament lost thoughts, let’s see if anything good can come from today’s mental gymnastics, ok?

My SIMH was a very good adaptation of an old poem, partly scriptural, partly melancholic and partly rock & roll song: “What A Beautiful Day It Is.” I found several songs with that or similar titles, but I never found the one I’ve had rolling around in my head. This usually means I’m forgetting a key word or the actual title is unrelated to that phrase. Hmm. Nevertheless, the tune and a few words remain —“what a beautiful, what a beautiful day it i-i-is oohaaa” (goes almost falsetto—anyone know what I’m hearing?)

So we’re in this 3rd day of a forced vacation from actually having a Blue Jug Market open. The forced departure from our previous location and the unfinished new location not coinciding has left us in an extended planning stage for what we’ll do when we can get into the new locale. That may be good for us. If you want to watch our progress in getting into the new, then getting the store open again, please follow our page on FaceBook: Blue Jug of Fort Payne. Might be fun! (And, it is going to be beautiful!)

A good friend just texted me and asked me if I actually meant it when I said 120 people saw Christ ascend into heaven. I answered if I said that it was a very bad assumption. He gave me the date and title of the sermon (from 2016). I answered back and said I was crazy most of 2016. He answered “Boy, we’ve never known that.” I think we’re still both laughing out loud about that. It is odd how many things can come out of our mouths wrong, especially things that no one catches right at the moment. I hope no one ever counts all these, but it would be interesting to know how many times I’ve done that—just make an off-handed comment without basis in actual Scripture. (shudder)

I’m really enjoying the Sunday evening (4pm Central) bible class. So far, we haven’t had a lot of new people come, though we don’t know all those who seem to either watch FB live or watch later on You Tube. I’d like more people to come to our house, I miss that kind of fellowship in a bible class. Maybe soon, maybe soon. Several local folks have indicated they wanted to, but have not yet. I’ll do my best to not bug them about it, yet make them know we still do it and we welcome them. That’s another aspect of wanting to keep the class open and alive with “new blood,” so to speak: we must strive to not be overbearing while giving the urgency of learning from the bible what the Lord wants us to know.

This week we will finish the Pivotal Points in God’s Plan message and then swerve into why the church does not go through the Great Tribulation. Hope you can join us one way or the other: If you can drive here for it, that would be wonderful; if you want to see it live you can catch me on FB (go to my wall) & it will stay on FB for a time; if you want live bigger screen, you may join us on Zoom—go to zoom.us/j/2103785748 at 4pmCentral and join the meeting. After Sunday evening, the message will be on You Tube channel Brother Jerry Lockhart or Jerry Lockhart, listed by date and title. 

In taking some of the time off to work on Blue Jug Alkaline Water and Health Market for 2020, we’re establishing a more complete startup grouping as we continue to work toward a future day (perhaps a year) when we can give a “turnkey” offering. We have a long way to go for that, yet we see the need to be bigger and better in what we now offer. Firstly, we desire it to include some other things than just our magnificent and complete water system, things which will complement and augment what needs the stores have when they open. I’m sure all existing stores would agree with this kind of change, a sort of step-up in our approach to help those who desire to be in business for themselves, but who might not understand what actually is compatible with selling the world’s greatest drinking water. “Water the way it’a meant to be” has companions which  are needed to produce “other things” the way they were meant to be, also. Air, for instance. More later about that.

As always, there is still more work to be done, more Bible study to be done, and more folks who come our way with whom to build a fellowship.

Thanks for reading, the Elder  

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

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

12/8/2019 (The above picture is the same yard space as the old one, but 2 years later in full bloom.)

My childhood was filled with church-i-ness. I can’t remember ever purposely not going to church if there was a church service going on. And a common thing for us to do was to sing what was known as “choruses.” We had special children’s hymnals, seemingly always called “Youth Chorus #10,” or #12, or something. I had some favorites, some I didn’t like to sing (I don’t remember why) and some we didn’t sing, probably because the doctrine disagreed with my dad’s. One which I remember and liked to sing is copied below. This morning about 4AM, this was the SIMH. And a pleasant one it is!

Christ for me,

Yes, it’s Christ for me!

He’s my Savior, my Lord and King,

I’m so happy I shout and sing!

Christ for me,

Yes, it’s Christ for me!

Every day as I go my way,

It is Christ for me!     

(written by Alex Burns, 1923, a Scotsman, lately come to America.)

Many of those choruses would involve hand gestures and the acting out motions to describe the words. “Deep & Wide” comes to mind, and “Jacob’s Ladder,” “I’m in The Lord’s Army,” and some others. I think it was an attempt to give kids an outlet for some energy overload or perhaps, an energizer if we were about to fall asleep on the preacher—one way or the other! Since about 1980, or so, I haven’t heard very many of the old choruses. I guess they are passe`. 

A very momentous week is before me, I think. Should say “us” because it certainly involves everyone around me. This is the final week our Alkaline Water store will be in the present location. This happens to be the 61st month of doing business in this building, but it has been sold, as you might have read in previous blogs, and we are forced to move. So Friday, by 6pm or so, this store will be empty. Problem: the new store isn’t ready for occupancy. Sigh. We don’t yet know when we can expect to get into our new place. We know it’s going to be terrific for all the right parameters: the location is more “prime” to our town and to our clientele. It also has more parking and accessibility. And space! We have some good, usable space! 

But, what all this boils down to is work, it will be a long week of work. We have to stay open, but move at the same time. We need the things we need to be open while we move everything about being open — pretty sure that makes no sense. We’ll accomplish this, I’m sure, but not so sure we can keep our cool and satisfy every person who comes by for water. Friday, I connected a 3rd tank so as to produce more water than we’re used to having. So we are starting today with about 400 gallons. As the week goes on, however, we’ll only refill at the capacity of around 190 gallons per day, so we’ll easily be running out of water late in the days the closer we get to Friday. Gonna be fun! (Last week, the last 3 days we closed early to give the old system some extra time to recover, only to sell out again the next day.)

I’m hoping to get by the new landlord’s office to see if we can estimate the reopening with any degree of accuracy. It sure would be nice to definitely tell people when they can come again for water. This is the frustrating part. We had tentative plans to do all this sometime next year, but got forced into it by the present landlord’s peculiar situation. There’s no “blame to lay” but it still isn’t what is best since we have to be closed for a while.

An old friend passed away Saturday. A childhood friend and a whole life family friend. Buddy Cave was 3 years younger than I, but our families attended the same churches off and on for most of our growing up years. In early adulthood, Buddy began to preach, but better than that, he began to study his bible with little or no preconceived notions. He saw many of the same things I saw when I began to study. As a result of that, though we never became close “preacher friends,” we did know we agreed somewhat different doctrines than we grew up hearing. Buddy had some chronic health problems hit him at a relatively early age, and with other reasons untold, he stopped pastoring churches. He did remain active in an organized denomination. 

You may remember me writing about the THS Alumni banquet back in May of this year. Buddy Cave was there and we had a good, but short chat and since the Alumni always want 3 prayers during the evening, I asked Buddy to Dismiss us with prayer. He prayed beautifully, about the evening, the fellowship, our dependence on the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation and promised Him we’d remember to give Him the glory in all things. Now that Buddy has passed away, I’m so glad to have that recent memory.

Thanks for reading, the Elder

12/6/2019 (—another day late production—)

We are in a slightly more busy time frame in our alkaline water business this month. We have one more week to go in this building, loading up and getting our stuff out of here by next Friday, the 13th! So, we’re trying this week to pare out the unusable and trim down what is moveable in order to make the last few days to go as smoothly as possible. Many of you have done something similar, I’m sure. 

This got a lot harder by the interference of a couple of things: one is that Jason’s son is in the hospital recovering from a surgery brought on by what is now called an auto-immune illness. His prognosis is the way to remain healthy from this is a new life style free of several things which can prompt recurrence. So, of course, Jason is not here to assist in the pre-work for moving, he is there where he can best help his son. We can do this, just not as planned.

The second thing which runs an interference is that the new building for the business isn’t ready and will not be ready next weekend. We’re hoping we will not have to store everything for a very long period, less than a week would be workable, if only. We are in touch with the goings on at the new location everyday to get as clear a picture for things to be finished as we can.

Uninitiated by anything I am aware of, my thoughts have gone back to the ‘60s when We moved our young family to Danville, IL, where we lived until February ’73. The almost 9 years in Danville were very formative in three areas of our lives: our two sons went from toddler to teens (that’s a real education) and then the addition of our baby girl, also, rounding out the family to perfection/completion. Some of the blessings we noticed during that period were the people we met and grew to love. I want to tell you about one of them.

One of the first and most friendly people we met when we first walked through the doors of Ridgeview Baptist Church in September, 1964, was a fellow named Ralph with his wife Martha. Ralph and Martha were the perfect host and hostess (also called “Greeters”) for a church to have. To them, it wasn’t so much your first visit as it was a “we’ve been expecting you,” attitude. 

The more we got to know them the more we appreciated them. They once went away for a weekend to Ralph’s home town of Vincennes, IN, and could not return when they intended because all across southern Illinois and southern Indiana an ice storm hit. At that time we lived in Catlin, IL. We were stuck in our small town till the temperature rose above freezing (several days.) Our home had no electricity nor any auxiliary heat and the ice “insulated” us from outside temperatures for a few days (around 50-55degrees inside the house.) Then, we knew our house was going to get colder. Somehow Ralph and Martha, stuck 140 miles away, got word to us to go to their home and stay for the duration, warm by their heat, eat their food, sleep in their beds. We were so very thankful. We remain indebted, in our memories, to Ralph and Martha.

Ralph had an unusual middle name: X. I asked him how he got it, he said he was a “junior” Ralph X. When his father, Ralph, joined the Army to serve in WW1, they asked him for his middle name and he told them he didn’t have one, so the army in its wisdom wrote into his permanent record—X—after discharge “senior” Ralph left it and added the (.) to make it official. Then his son, my friend became Ralph X. Howard, Junior. “A good name is better than precious ointment…” Eccl.7:1. 

Ralph was solid, you know, he did what was right. He read and studied the bible and he had been taught what was right, so that’s what he did! He was never destined to become rich, but he provided for his family. His wife was a school teacher and they lived as good a life as they could muster up, both provisionally and personal disciplined in the manner necessary for doing what was right. Looking back at the two of them, I think they both had a grasp on the “simplicity that is in Christ.” I expect to be with them in eternity. 

To make the pages of this blog, a friend mentioned especially by name has to have had a grandiose peculiarity, know what I mean? Ralph had one: He had a form of narcolepsy and if he sat and was not busy, he would fall asleep. He could drive, he could sit and do paper work, even watch TV some. But, mostly if he was quiet, he fell asleep. So, knowing that about himself, he chose to stand at the back of the church. He was useful back there, almost like a sentry, a sergeant of arms, etc. (although if an enemy had come in like todays’ chicken-hearted shooters, Ralph would have made a friend of him, I bet.) The other useful thing he did was count the crowd, not for a permanent record, just for the friendliness of telling people how many attended.

There was one problem with Ralph standing at the back of the church: Ralph had a deep resonating bass voice….but, he couldn’t carry a tune in a bucket! But, he thought he could, so he sang….loudly. After a few times, the pastor had to ask him to not sing because his volume level and off key was bothering about the last 4-5 rows of attendees! His feelings were hurt, but Martha made him understand that we didn’t love him less because he couldn’t sing, we would just love him more if he would stop!

Thanks for reading, the Elder