10/10/2018

“Everything I do, I do it for You” —Bryan Adams did this song in 1991. He wrote it with some help from his friends. It speaks of commitment in love, by love, for love, with love and of love. Pretty sure he wasn’t thinking of the Lord’s love at the time, but it fits. And, after all, our love for one another should fit the principle “as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it.” Anyway, that was the SIMH this morning.

Just a note of follow-up about Ray Pavy from yesterday’s Elder’s Blog: Ray spent a year recovering from his accident into a wheelchair, then went back to Indiana University and graduated in 1965 (as IU’s first wheelchair bound graduate) and got a job a year later in a small high school in its last year before it was to be consolidated. They had not won a single game the year before—he took them to a winning record and even a win in the state tournament—How would you like to have been on that team!? think you’d have stories to tell? Wheelchair bound coach, going from 0-18 to winning the first game of the Sectional!?! That’s success!.

Mr. Pavy coached for 6 more years, then took a vice-principal position and did that till retirement. He’s still very active and a leader in his community.

Oh, by the way, he said it was many years before he could start his day without saying, “why me?” (maybe knowing the Lord better would have made that better, that’s my prayer for him yet today.)

Well, it’s a foggy morning on the mountain, but a pleasant 67, 69 on our porch. Buddy is out in the yard, loudly making sure the neighbors are up and not going to be late for work. (I know they are truly appreciating it.)

We’re doing pretty well in our project to get the 3 new Blue Jug stores open. Might not hit the end of October expected date, but shortly after that, I think. amazing things get in the way. One of our hopes-to-improve is a Critical Path Approach, a path of progress from decision to opening for our new store owners. If we can show that to new store owners when they are deciding to go for it, I think they’ll be more likely to not stumble and have to look back at wasted time. Another worthy project.

One of our new stores is using a modified water system, small enough to fit into certain other businesses, yet sophisticated enough to produce 100s of gallons of our water daily. I want to be able to show this to things such as health food stores, coffee shops, perhaps nursing homes, workout gyms, etc. These kinds of units will provide our water in places we cannot reach in many cities. We just have to make it compatible with other businesses and service facilities.

This weekend, Barb and I will be in Newport, TN. On Sunday, I will be preaching at Bible Believer’s Cowboy Church in Newport. Know anyone near there? Invite them for me. Sam Gerhardt is the pastor there and he is away for a Bible Conference in Illinois, oh, yeah, they have bible believers in Illinois! Just kidding!!, don’t write me about the snide remark. (I gotta figure out how to get emojis on this blog.) The people in Newport are wonderful friends and I fully expect them to NOT throw anything at me from the audience.

Thanks for reading, the Elder

10/9/2018

Aaah, cooler weather. The folks around this mountain and down in the Wills Valley (Fort Payne) have mostly been griping about the heat. This week the cooler days and nights are getting here. This morning has really cool feel and it is fine to feel it, but I sort of liked the warmer weather—guess I’m the one out of step, huh?

Judith Kay Cohen used to be a singer, She married a man in 1985 and I don’t believe she’s recorded anything since. She really took the music world by storm in the 70s and was said by one of those r&r prophets to be the next big star, gonna make the world forget about the rest of the females in rock music. But, she chose otherwise. I don’t know anything about her life since 1985, except that she’s still married to the same man, has a couple of children. The reason I’m writing about her is that story instead of what might have been. You see, she was Juice Newton, and one of her songs, “Playin With the Queen of Hearts” was the SIMH this morning. I applaud her decision and hope that it was an Holy Spirit led decision that moved her away from the limelight.

Many lives, like the one just mentioned, do not turn out in the manner all indicators show. Some are changed by tragedy. In the basketball season of the ’58-’59 Indiana high schools there were two boys neck and neck for the high scorer of the year. Last game of the season their teams played each other—it was the talk of the year! In that game, one scored 51 points, the other 49 points, wow!

Almost immediately after the finish of the season, both boys committed to go to Indiana University. Excitement really grew in anticipation of the pairing up and how great it would make IU’s future! But, oh how things changed. Ray Pavy was in a car crash which left him partially paralyzed, never to play basketball again. Jimmy Rayl went on to play, but not with his other super star buddy.

You can read all about this if you want to by just putting their names in Google. The multiple press stories are still fresh in the basketball history of Indiana. Both are in the IHSAA Hall of Fame. At the time of tragedy I was finishing up my Senior year. With all my teammates, we mourned for Ray Pavy. We saw something in the tragedy that many probably didn’t. Our coach brought this up once, telling us to be careful on the road, don’t over-step what we should do, etc., because we were not invincible (teens have a tendency to think, “not me .”)

Isn’t it interesting how quickly life can change for us. Fifty years after young Mr. Pavy was paralyzed, his wife and care-giver was in a multiple tragedy at the 2011 Indiana State Fair. She had a long road to recovery, but no further stories showed anything more to say here.  (Anytime you get to thinking life isn’t fair to you, perhaps this story will keep your thoughts in perspective.)

So, my friends, thank the Lord for this day, thank Him for knowing you because of Christ’s sacrifice for you on the cross, and get on with living your life the way God’s Holy Word has directed you. And in case you don’t know that way, or have forgotten it, just obey 2 Tim.2:15. (And read and re-read and re-read Rom.8:28-39, ‘bout 50 times!)

thanks for reading, the Elder

10/8/2018

Well the square table talks recently have been broad based discussions to be sure. But, in an over-all sense, they seem to always be about why we can see some perilous happenings and others cannot. It isn’t that we’re alone in seeing these things as bad-to-evil. Oh, no, many of our acquaintances and friends on FB see these same things. But to the larger audience, the city, county, state, nation, world: our question which has yet to be answered at the square table is why can’t they get on board with this?

Of course, at the top of the list is always, why people cannot see the Lord Jesus Christ for who and what He is for us. Followed by seeing the Bible as God’s word, and then a desire for fellowship around those two subjects (and not religion.)

But, there are other subjects: Vaccinations, water, dangerous traffic routing, politics, public bickering

Take water, for instance…and no, this is not a commercial! But, every few days for the last 12-15 years there has been another crisis with a water system effecting an entire city, sometimes several cities along a certain watercourse, to the point that even boiling the water will not clean it up enough to drink. Is there not enough interest in clean healthy water to cause more preventive and curative measures to be drawn up? Who and how many true experts in what is happening to our water supply would it take to fix this? More than we have interested in it, that’s for sure.

Or, in our town, a ridiculous traffic situation with a simple answer, yet there isn’t any, zip, nada, zero, nil, interest in even talking about it amongst the leaders. Sometimes one of them will nod, or even say, “oh, I agree with you.” Then walk away or change the subject.

What causes otherwise “movers and shakers” to avoid as if it were the plague, this question? Reminds me of Austin, TX, who had leaders in the 60s & 70s who said, “we want to keep Austin small.” That’s head-in-the-sand politics. So now they’re sooo big, sprawling with traffic snarls you wouldn’t believe, all due to lack of foresight. Been working on it sense the early 80s and still not fixed.

How many rants can you take in one morning? So sorry.  Maybe I’d better get the other half of the square table discussion group to write about a couple of these things.

The SIMH this morning came quickly, maybe because when I opened my eyes I thought I had overslept (not a chance.) The Everly Brothers had several big hits in their day and one them was bouncing around: “Wake Up, Little Susie!” (You know, they are out on a date, went to a drive-in movie, boring movie,  fell asleep, yeah, yeah, yeah….now go sell that to moms and dads, right?)

Hope Monday is your favorite day of the week!! Get on with it!

Thanks for reading, the Elder

10/7/2018

Well it’s Sunday morning and this may be short. Gotta hit the road soon. For the SIMH today, I could have kept the first one in my mind (can’t remember it now), but when I got up and started to move around it left and Travis Tritt’s big hit, “Anymore” came to mind. I never really listen to country music very much, but this is a beautiful, sad ballad. I appreciate expressions of love through music.

Got another subject in mind to write about, but not enough time. So I might come back to the blog and write more later in the day, perhaps early evening. Right now, it’s important to go elsewhere.

Thanks for reading, the Elder

10/6/2018

Sometimes I’m amazed at how a day unfolds and the odd way time-consuming events step in with which to be dealt. Yesterday, just before I was to leave the Blue Jug store, a tall athletic looking lady came in (guessing 50-55 years old) and asked me to tell her the benefits of Alkalinity. She then asked to sit and I got her a chair. She was wearing a walking cast (“boot”) and using a cane. In the course of the explanation, I asked her what happened to her foot, and her story went like this.

“Two years ago I was training for a tri-athlete competition on my bike, and at about 20mph a large dog came out of nowhere, not seeing me, nor me seeing it. I had no time to hit the brakes and hit him straight on; we tumbled and I found myself sprawled across the middle of the road, having flown through the air, and hitting the pavement. Several months later, after having repairs to 7 broken bones and multiple ligament/cartilage mendings, I was trying to figure out rehab. The long slow program had begun but was difficult from a chair. Now, I am able to get around and I come up with a stress fracture in my left foot, not knowing how that occurred.”

“My employer’s daughter and son-in-law get this water from you and I want to know if you think it will help me.”

I told her about our water, she took a free gallon with the promise to come back at near closing time to get more to take home with her. What a tragic story! Even though this happened two years ago, we could easily see the athleticism in her, though I’m sure, just from muscle loss alone, she’s probably 15-20 pounds lighter than before the accident. If she continues to stop in and we get to watch her recovery, more interesting aspects will surely come to light. …People lead interesting lives, do they not?

This is another beautiful Saturday morning, with a birthday party to attend this afternoon. Musing a bit about a conversation I had yesterday afternoon with a man who is sure of his salvation, but had two different times in his life he noted as possibly when he got saved.(?) OK, not my salvation. But I’m hoping he gets that settled “down deep” as the Lord said. I asked him to describe both times and he concentrated his explanation on the latest one. If he’s saved, I agree with that story. The first was sketchy about whether it was just emotion, etc. Hopefully, I used the correct references to make the point that salvation is a moment of trust—trust in the work Christ has done for us. Done at Calvary, finished by resurrection, told by Paul, sealed by God, the Father with His Holy Spirit. Hopefully.

A pastor friend has resigned a church he was at for 8 years and is moving to central Texas, about 80 miles North of where we were. He is starting a new phase of his ministry there with family. We’ll be praying for him and his wife and watching with great interest.

When a man chooses to start a bible centered and Spirit led ministry there are several things I know will happen: first, an enemy will show up, he’ll be in many forms and what he wants more than anything else is to stop the testimony of the saving power of the gospel of Christ (Rom.1:16.) Secondly, the preacher/teacher will make mistakes, a few, perhaps many, and some will hurt. But, he shall not fail because he makes mistakes and must remember “our sufficiency is of God” and not man.

Thirdly, though he should keep records of where his support comes from for future references, he should never consciously take note of who it comes from on any sort of scale, i.e., and let it form preferences or favoritism. That’s vital, but not difficult if he remembers the second note above.

Fourth and last but not least, he should work at his ministry like it is his full-time job. And most of his time, like most of the time on a normal full-time job, is taken up by preparation. Study. That’s the preparation. And study is work. And you are never done. You work, we’ll pray.

Multiple SIMH today, none of good noteworthiness.

Thanks for reading, the Elder

10/5/2018

Once again, I am amazed at the SIMH on more the one front: I’m not a “fan” of very many singers or artists though I admire many. Phil Collins is a singer that has had many songs I’ve enjoyed and he, like Sinatra, Elvis, Joel, et al, has endured through decades of popular music. But the song still lingering this morning is a Phil Collins song that I may not have ever heard had it not been on an album Barb purchased and sometimes plays thru. “I Can Feel it Coming in the Air Tonight” was written by Collins and done in 1981. I’ve been up an hour and it’s still hanging in there. Many others have recorded it besides Collins—hmm, perhaps I should.

Some other music which I truly enjoy listening to includes some rock, some Southern Gospel, old hymns, John Denver, Alison Krauss (one reviewer said of her, “I’d listen to Alison Krauss sing the menu at Denny’s” — I probably would, too.) Alison Krauss does Paul Simon music better than Paul Simon. I really like the Eagles music, a bunch of left coast musicians who created an infectious sound. Just like most pop stuff, no real redeeming value, just enjoyable.

My first introduction to hearing music I enjoyed, but seemed out of my bailiwick came from radio in the ‘50s. While Elvis, Conway, Ricky were all getting more and more air time, I was listening (usually late at night for better reception) to a Nashville, TN station, WLAC, play rhythm ’n blues and Black Gospel. I heard “Searchin’” by the Drifters long before it was popular. In those early teen years I listened to Dinah Washington and Brook Benton before the world knew about them—before television and American Bandstand!

Sometimes I would nod off to sleep, then wakeup shortly to black Memphis preachers —they came on WLAC after my R&B music went off. I enjoyed listening to some of them. One man, if he was on, to whom I would always listen was a man I thought was Dinah Washington’s father, turned out he wasn’t, but he was a notable preacher to his audience. Pretty sure, as much as I can remember, he spoke of the work of Christ on the cross with a great passion. At any rate, he caught my attention each time with his distinctive voice and style. Wish I could mimic it here, but I don’t think you could hear me.

During this time period of my life, I listened to a lot of radio as an escape from being in a rather sad house. Though this was a short-lived sadness, it was hard to go through and would have been harder without music.

When I was 15, my brother Don was killed in a late night one-car accident, probably the result of going to sleep. This changed home life considerably. My father, who had pastored churches for about 18-19 years at the time, just sort of drew back a little. I got what our doctor called walking pneumonia during this time and my father drove me to the dr.’s office for what seemed like huge penicillin shots several days in a row. One of those days was a Sunday morning when he would have normally been in church. I asked him if he was ever going to preach again and as tears rolled out of his eyes, he said, “I don’t know, son.” I never continued the conversation. Seems to me it was a total of 8 weeks, he didn’t go preach. Then, when he did go he never sounded the same to me. Less fervor, I’d say.

What an interesting thing to remember this morning.

Thanks for reading, the Elder

10/4/2018

Good morning! (Good afternoon and good night! —remember the Truman Show) this is another beautiful NE AL Fall day. Love these cool mornings. Sitting out in the back porch, I gave Buddy a couple of treats which made him eager for more. When he finally realized I didn’t have any more, he walked off with a “huff” coming out of his mouth and wants to go back outside. (I’m only his friend when two things occur—Barb isn’t here and I have treats.) His health seems better to me and he looks as though he’s gained back some of his weight loss. A good friend just lost his faithful pet a few days ago and I’m appreciating Buddy here today. It’s a great loss when something as close as a pet can no longer stay with us, yet we have the memories.

But the morning sun rises up over the trees and the day breaks filled with hope and joy! Hope for the content of our day, most assuredly, but also hope for tomorrow when the “morning breaks eternal.” And the joy—the joy of accomplishment, the joy of others’ around us being happy and prosperous (weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning. Ps.30:5)

My sound effects this fresh morning are many birds, backed up by a few head of cattle. We live amongst houses but we adjoin a couple of farms and have the benefit of a pasture a few hundred feet away. In fact, our lot was formerly (15 yrs ago) part of a large pasture. We still get the experience of it when instead of grass in early Spring, we get wild onions. We cut them or pull them or speak harshly to them, they still come back. When I speak harshly to onion plants I let them know I know which chemical it takes to annihilate them, so it is in a threatening tone (I think they understand, they didn’t get very big this year.)

I know we’re pretty far into the normal size of this blog and I haven’t yet mentioned the SIMH. OK, ok, I know you’re anxious! It’s a George Jones —“He Stopped Loving Her Today” —done in 1980, Wow! 38 years ago. Ol’ George had a voice, didn’t he? If you have any appreciation for country music, you’d never turn the radio off when George was singing, right?

As some of you know, my Monday night bible class is online at zoom.us/j/2103785748 at 7:00pm Central. Please know you’re invited to join us. Enter the above url and follow the screen prompts. the rest of the “board” and I in Blue Jug land use Zoom for our meetings. It is a great medium, seamless and clear signaled, etc.

Last evening a couple who are several years into bible study and good friends to Barb and me wanted to call me and discuss some Scripture passages. I suggested using Zoom for that. It was a true pleasure, not only because the conversation was edifying and the friendship side of our fellowship was sweet, but because the zoom system was so easy and gave us the sense of being in the same room (and they didn’t have to put on shoes and they didn’t have to smell my breath!) It was fun catching up with their news, telling some of ours, and the bible study was (I hope) helpful.

Technology does get ahead of me very easily, but when I’m used to using a program, and it isn’t complicated, I truly enjoy the “day” in which we live. I was just thinking about how sometimes it is hard to remember everything that is said in an hour or take notes that catch everything. We could have recorded that hour also and I could have sent it to them by email, I think—I’ll check and see if that’s possible. Oh, the possibilities!

Thanks for reading, the Elder

10/2/2018

SIMH today is really something: “In Some Secluded Rendezvous —that overlooks the avenue….” from the early 1930s. This was recorded by scads of singers in the 30s,40s,50s, from people I never heard of to Bing Crosby to Louis Prima/Keely Smith in 1958. But, when I looked it up, the version which appeared was Spike Jones’ version—crazy as all get out!

Spike had a way of making funny that which had been done in all seriousness. His sound effects gave visuals to recordings. When The Lawrence Welk show became popular in the 50s, part of his show was to come on with “champagne” bubbles all over the place. Spike Jones did a version of Welk’s theme song where he couldn’t get anyone to “turn off the bubble machine!” By the time the song came to an end, one could nearly see billions of bubbles and hear the “glub, glub” of the band drowning in bubbles. Spike was to the world, a “oner”—No other like him.

I hope all of you are familiar with TED Talks. These short talks will give 15-20 minute snippets of 100s of areas of thought, progress, regress, funny stuff, scientific stuff, ridiculous stuff, out and out lies, profound truths——the whole gamut of thoughts presented by children, rank amateurs, experts in their field, innovative people, and old folks who’ve “been there!” And yes, some make you angry, some make you cry, some make you want to do something, others make you just sit and think. If you haven’t yet, just visit and scroll through subject matter, or enter a descriptive word or two and see what comes up. It’s better than watching cartoons!

Today, I wanted to see what a man was going to say about his topic—“4 Things We Tell Ourselves About Dying” —it was ruined for me before he got to what they were because he told us we were the product of evolution. (He was English, so he said “ee-volution.”) With that exposed, I knew he was not going to be talking about the will of God, so I wouldn’t waste my time. If I had never heard an evolutionist’s version of it, I might have listened. But, I have heard what they say, therefore, even if his 4 things were different, they would have just been another attempt to denegrate the Creator of the universe and try to destroy the belief in salvation through His Son, our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. So I went to something else.

In the “Omnibus” category of self: we often want people to not be disappointed in us when they see us or hear us, so we improvise our exposure toward what those people want. Much of the time this is very helpful. A sales person, for instance, wouldn’t  approach a potential sale with a scowl or unfit language. This isn’t going to improve chances for a sale—might not kill the sale, but will not help.

In another area of what people see in us can be whether we truly help those we are in contact with or, when we help does it come off almost begrudgingly? Leaving the person to think, “well if I had known I was going to put you out, I would have done it myself” or they give you a never mind look. Helping people, from opening a door, carrying their load, or raking their leaves, or what ever may be the task, should always be because we want to do so. If you think you should want to help, but you don’t really want to, you must discipline your “want tos” to match your “I shoulds.” And you are the only one who can make that change. Self-discipline is the only discipline that exists. As Jim Rohn used to say, “for things to change, you’ve got to change.”

Thanks for reading, the Elder

10/1/2018

Well, off we go into a new month! It seems good to expect some truly good things to happen this month. To begin with, I always expect the Lord to come which, I believe, is only going to happen if the gospel is preached to, heard by, believe on, salvation comes to the last person to fit into the body of Christ. Even though I believe this, I know it could take a while longer than this month. It’s alright with me if it takes another 1000 years—it’s alright with me if it is today.

Another occurrence this month, if all goes well, is more people in 3 states will have a new Blue Jug Alkaline water store near them. We are working with a couple in Louisiana, a man here in Alabama, and a lady in Texas to get their stores open, each of which are in some late stage of getting the door open and offering the world’s best drinking water. This is exciting to see! We’ve (the company) have worked with these folks and they are very hard at work, making ready to see fruition! More in a week or so about this. This is fun! Even the hurdles and hoops we have to clear!

As the month comes to a close, Lord willing, I’ll be in Navarre, FL for a bible conference. I guess the last of this year. (I’m open for more if you want to have one.) This should be a great one. I think it is the 5th year for this (I missed one because a funeral) and I’ve enjoyed them all. People from several states, get to meet new people every year, it seems. The word is taught well, saints are edified, and hopefully, people get saved. (We don’t keep count, the Lord handles that.)

Other than those things, life is normal. Oh yes, I’ll probably have to comment about the Cubs, the Tide, maybe even the Cowboys and those who oppose them. If these teams do worthy things. But, as the song says, there’s rioting in Africa and Texas needs rain—somewhere in Africa and somewhere in Texas these things are always true.

Speaking of songs, I’m not writing about the SIMH today because it is the same one as a couple weeks back. It rarely occurs to have the same song often, but I awoke, slept, woke up again, slept, and finally got up and it’s still there. I mean, I don’t even like the song, it isn’t even true to life! Sheesh!

The Lord said, “for as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.” Modern positive thinkers built on the same basis “You are what you think you are,” and “What the mind can conceive, your will can achieve.” And many other such slogans. But, the Lord’s words were not automatically positive. They are said in a negative way about ego, self, and unrighteousness. So this produces in some of the Lord’s people an attempt to use the words of Paul, such as “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.” In fact, many people change the word “which” to the word “who.” Don’t do that.

The sense of the statement is with the pronoun being “which”—read like this: I can do all things through Christ and the knowledge of that gives me strength. Of course, I know that all strength comes for the Lord, but that isn’t his purpose in these words. Paul is trying to tell us no matter what circumstances we are in (he was in prison when he wrote this) our reliance is on Christ, and our knowledge of “our sufficiency is of God” should keep us from faltering or being laden down with the cares of this life. The previous three verses explain what I mean. Phil.4:10-14 is a favorite passage which I depend on to keep my perspective. Hope it helps you, also.

Thanks for reading, the Elder

9/30/2018

Wondering what the month of October is going to bring for the things I wish for, worry over, and watch: Cubs are looking a might weak this morning, more tomorrow. I wish they had more energy, they’re playing tired baseball. It’s been a terribly hard last 35 days!

My schedule for October will keep me pretty busy; Newport, TN on the 14th, a conference in Navarre, FL the last weekend and probably a couple more trips thrown in. Could be a blessed month. Preaching the cross of Christ is the most important words to be spoken anywhere, anytime, to anybody. It is a privilege to be permitted to participate in it.

While the world (which doesn’t belong to us) rants and raves about dozens of things, most of which their resolution will not make the next things seem less intense, it is calming to take a step back and a deep breath and realize the Lord knows the end of it all. Since He knows the end, everything which occurs is also known by Christ. Even though from time to time it appears the devil is just running roughshod over it all (and he is), we must keep in mind in the end he doesn’t win. He can’t win, God has already said!

We see in an analogue fashion. The God of heaven and earth sees in a 360 degree fashion. (There’s probably a better way of expressing that.) The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ knows the beginning from the end, and all along the way. He has told us in His word how and for what purpose all things will finish. Now, take that deep breath, step away for a broader perspective, and thank Him; first for His sovereignty, next for His salvation so freely given, then for sealing us and keeping us in His Providential care. Daily life? Best to align with Romans through Philemon (of all 66 books in the bible, that part which has His will for our lives spelled out.)

Keep in mind the first “Facet” of our lives this week: That is the part everyone sees. We don’t want to appear phony, neither do we want to be exposed. Slow to speak, slow to anger, speedily help, quickly befriend, calm in approbation, careful in criticism. Measure your words since it is a truth: words go out and cannot be drawn back in, neither are they easily forgotten. To many people who cross our life’s path, we are very important even if we do not know it. Our words should not be as a canker to them, but pleasant and receptive, easy to be entreated. Desire as much, their reply, as your own comments.

Today is the last regularly scheduled visit to Alexandria (I mentioned earlier they have a new pastor), so we’ll both be there today and have a fellowship meal together. I pray for however the Lord leads these folks and for the new pastor to lead and enlighten them for the tasks the Lord has for them. I love these people in Christ, as well as in “this world’s good.”

Thanks for reading, the Elder