6/17/2020

Oddity of oddities: The Song in My Head 

For two days in a row now, the SIMH is Cindi Lauper’s “True Colors”—how strange is that.There is one line in there which can be used to explain this, although I must confess this line was not the clear memory, just a tucked away one: “I can’t remember when I last saw you laughing – If this world makes you crazy and you’ve taken in all you can bare” (because that’s about the way I feel, lately.)

Well, I wrote in the last blog about the madness which has invaded my country and that I didn’t have any answers for her; that the inmates were running the asylum, etc. And low and behold, it has become worse! It is incredible that the Seattle fiasco (CHAZ or CHOP—it isn’t any wonder they don’t know what to call it!) is going on in America. Wondering what is going to become of the group and the area and who is going to win the debate concerning their grievances? Me, too. It surely must come to an end. While it is true we’ve never seen anything like this before, we did live through the ‘60s when riots all over college campuses occurred, students sitting in president’s offices for days; dorms being forced to house whoever showed up, students not going to class but running wild in the streets throwing anything they could pick up at the authority!

This went on partly because of an unreasonable war (Vietnam) and for an added freedom to indulge in drugs at will and live in an antinomian state (where no moral law is obeyed and if a law is written that inhibits one’s personal desires it does not have to be obeyed.) This abhorrent behavior ran rampant for a while, finally being squelched as the attention-getter of the media when some bigger fish-to-fry came along. But, the historical influence of the era made normal activities less than prudent which today are the norm and people of my generation are the last ones to even recall how things were before. 

“Tune in, Turn on, Drop out!” was the cry of the Timothy Leary crowd. Sit-ins occurred on most campuses at one time or another, altering the flow of normal business and normal schooling to no true improvement, only chaos. The “changed” generation produced the likes of politicians who say things so inane as “if you want to read what’s in the bill, you have to pass it first”….and the same generation produced the people who actually did put into law a bill not one legislator had read! The miserable end of the useless war left an entire veteran community with little hope of any respect, though they simply obeyed their leaders.

Today, we ask the police departments to protect lives and properties to their own peril and when a few undisciplined and/or untrained make horrible judgment calls, riots occur demanding the “defunding” of a police system? And some demagogues find it a career building opportunity? Let’s tear down another generation’s norms for our newly formed and (no doubt) better norms? Or, let’s show we can best live antinomian, we know that’ll work!

What causes these seemingly generational deviances? The slow, but definite eroding of absolutes. Plain and simple. The removal of respect for and dependence on our God-breathed Bible as the absolute standard for truth and justice. (I learned 47 years ago that the true Word of God is found in a King James Bible.) Most doubters love to rush to the portion of the Bible where God dealt with a nation and will point at the absolutes and say “if that’s God, he’s barbaric!” thereby showing a failure to understand the Lord’s purpose at the time, and religion never comes to see what the Lord Jesus Christ actually did for the world His Father loved. 

You know, Jesus said to His disciples once, “Greater love hath no man than that he lay down his life for his friends,” then when Christ gave the Apostle Paul the message to bring to us He said, Christ died for “ungodly” “sinners” who were “enemies” of Almighty God—in other words we gain knowledge of the message after completion of His work on our behalf—Christ died for ALL, God has forgiven us ALL our sins (see Rom.5:6,8,10,11 & Col.2:13.) Seeing the purpose of God as His book of truth comes to completion (probably around AD 68) tells us what and where absolute truth sits. 

No, it’s not found in the changes at the whims of whatever prevalent political persuasion has come along. No, it’s not found in an altering of our preferences to a new thought or philosophy. And, there are no better heroes to follow. The truth of the world is this: A system has been put in place to usurp the authority of God’s infallibility. It was started by the events of the garden of Eden, (and if you doubt those events: a serpent talking with a woman, etc., I suggest you study Mt. Hermon) and the evil of that system grew in direct proportion with the earth’s population, until the usurper’s followers massively outnumber the Creator’s followers, that due to the freewill He gave them while full knowing the direction mankind would take—but, He loved us in spite of it. 

But, He did not leave us without testimony, nor without hope. Individually, from Acts 9 (about AD 34), till the next great descent from Heaven (at present almost 2000 years), our Creator has given us the greatest testimony of Himself possible: the virgin born Son of Almighty God has come and died for our sins, was buried, and was raised again for our justification. The only requirement for standing fully justified before “God, the righteous judge” is for us to believe on Christ for a sealed salvation. That comes by trust. We need only hear, believe, trust that what has already been done for us by Christ is sufficient.

I hope you have done that and are willing to testify of your moment of salvation to all that come your way.

Thanks for reading, the Elder

6/4/2020

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

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

Family heritages do, indeed, form great tapestries!

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

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

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

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

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

Simple.

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

Thanks for reading, the Elder

5/29/2020

One week from today we will go to our truck rental place and get the equipment necessary for our move. Then on Saturday, the 6th of June, we will have the movers load us up and take us to our new home: 403 3rd St., NW in beautiful “residential downtown” Fort Payne, Alabama. Just a step or two more than 3 blocks away from the center of the historic downtown area and an easy walking distance to restaurants and other businesses as we need them. In fact, add only a block or so to the North to get to our daughter’s store—Blue Jug Alkaline Water & Health Market. We are very much looking forward to this move. It will be the 22nd place we will have lived in our (soon to be) 60 years of marriage!

I’ll change my blog page heading picture just as soon as we move. It’ll be a select look at one part of the new place—don’t yet know which part. Might need to do a slide show over the next several blogs. There isn’t much about the remodeled look that resembles the 6 months ago look. I have the old look in a photo list, next I plan on taking new shots of every angle and every room. We’ll see how it best shows our home.

Awaking very early this morning, caused me to go back to sleep for a little bit. But, upon the second arousing the same song was with me; a true SIMH for today. Some song categories make perfect sense when placed under subtitles in the index of old hymnals (I don’t know if hymnbook companies still do this or not.) “Where Could I Go But To The Lord” comes under the heading “Refuge.” A perfect fit. J.B. Coats wrote this inspiring hymn of perfect refuge in 1940. His inspiration for it went back to a childhood memory of a dying neighbor’s reply when young JB asked him if he knew where he was going when he died: “Where could I go but to the Lord,” said the old gentleman to the young lad. 

Living below, in this old sinful world

Hardly a comfort can afford

Said the first verse,

Neighbors are kind, I love them everyone

We get along in sweet accord

Said the second, and the third:

Life here is grand, with friends I love so dear

Comfort I get from God’s own word

But, when each verse’s point left us here, in a world in which agreeing with the Lord has become so out of step with our society, the title question, “Where could I go but to the Lord?” is all that is left to conclude. JB’s neighbor was right, what other refuge is there? None. It’s the perfect refuge song.

“Where could I go, oh where could I go?

Seeking a refuge for my soul

Needing a friend, to help me in the end

Where could I go, but to the Lord?”

Recognizing this song’s emphasis carries a certain hope of mine for the future. I think of those who’ve come my way with regard to how I’ve been privileged to “present” the Lord to them and whether they have responded in favor of the Lord in their lives, my hope for each one, be they close to me or simply a one time occasion, my hope is the same: finally, our refuge is the Lord. To whomever is reading this, consider: 

The Lord Jesus Christ died for our sins (all of them: past, present, future); 

was buried (the symbolism of the burial is the taking of the cause of Christ’s death, our sins, away from the presence of The Father), 

and thusly; The Father had the justification to raise Christ from the dead (thereby justifying all mankind.)

In return, The Father sent the message via the Son, The Lord Jesus Christ to the “chief of sinners,” Paul and said, in essence, “Go tell the world this great message and only add one requirement: Believe ON the Lord Jesus Christ and you’ll be saved.”

With all else we teach, whether from Genesis or from The Revelation or anywhere in between, this is the over-riding message for all-time. It is the safe and final refuge for anyone’s soul.

Thanks for reading, the Elder

5/23/2020

The SIMH today was a John Fogerty hit from a while back about Vinnie and the po” boys playin on the courthouse square—“Down on the Corner”—great music from my past (and some of you have the same past, I think) —we call it “real” rock ’n roll, don’t we? Anyway, it was probably rolling out of my head because I saw a video clip of it a couple of days ago with Fogerty and some of his family making music at their home—old teenagers to young twenties playing with the “ol’ rocker.” It was fun to hear them singing this and “Who’ll Stop the Rain,” and listen to his story about going to Woodstock and performing there. Which, by the way, was in the middle of another flu epidemic, which had no effect on the half million people at the festival. (Amazingly, nobody died due to the flu!)

Old rockers and I are somewhat simpatico (I think I’m using the word correctly.) I have this great hope for all them like as if they were my audience while I’m preaching them the gospel instead of me being in their audience. I want them to have gotten saved, to somewhere, sometime in their lives, to have heard how that Christ died for their sins, too; and that maybe they have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ and been saved. I pray for them and other celebrities because I know just a little bit about that culture. And, oh! how they need the simplicity which is in Christ Jesus! You can hear the agnosticism and vague knowledge being written in songs and scripts…what chance they can hear the gospel of Christ?

Another momentous week has come to an end. Our house is settling in towards completion with painting, then floor finishing, then trim work, from baseboards to closet rods, etc. We’re scheduled to move in on June 6th. We’re sooo looking forward to it. This has been a long siege, partly due to an overwhelmingly wet Winter and Spring. Much of the work and the completions were slowed because of it. Contractors go through this all the time. I don’t know how they manage to keep themselves on an even keel. Our main “general contractor” says he’d rather do remodels than to do new construction. He is an old Hoosier (like Barb and me) and he worked for about 25 years on historic home restoration in Indianapolis. Maybe that’s why he likes remodeling so much. He’s good and his crew is well trained. They walk in, go to work, never look at-a-loss, etc. Just get ‘er done! (By the way, Indiana friends and relatives, his name is Brian Johnson. Raised in the Shelbyville area, worked into his late 40s in Indianapolis, now been here in Fort Payne for about 12-14 years, I think.)

We’ve already gotten to know several of our neighbors, partly because we know some of them from association with Sarah’s having lived there and some of them have been water customers for sometime. One we met because a contractor asked permission from her to drive equipment onto our back yard by crossing over her drive …which he broke a segment of, then ran some equipment in which (due to very heavy rains) left big ruts in her yard..A little touchy for a moment or two, but seems to be working out OK now.

Another neighbor has had to have brain surgery, and so all the rest of us around have kept tabs on him and his wife. He came through it extremely well, told me he feels so good simply because there’s no cloudy or fuzzy thinking now! I asked him if he could get me an appointment!! Yet, another (next door) neighbor’s husband died about a week after we started the work. He was 89, a very nice man, who worked on painting a retainer wall between his property and ours, finishing it proudly about two days before he had a massive stroke and passed away. His widow has allowed our workers to use her driveway for parking this whole Spring, a very great gesture, in light of the wet weather.

Across the street a neighbor I’ve known for several years because of my minor involvement with a downtown improvement action, has given us use of a seldom used driveway to also accommodate our workers. All in all, the neighborhood seems glad we are re-doing this house…maybe they knew how bad a blight it was to theirs, I don’t know.

Well, we have the store back open with regular hours, and getting on with the new plans unfolding! Jason has Butter Snob Baking up and running even though his regular job—you know, the one that actually pays him to work—has kept him pretty busy and kept him from putting together a stock baking inventory ahead, sells out most every day. (And, I think he likes that, but wishes he sold out of a lot more inventory, ya know?) Sarah’s Cuppa Blue Jug Coffee, Tea and Kombucha is almost ready to burst onto the scene. Next week should make a big difference in how the store will operate all Summer long. I’m looking forward to that, as well as seeing all our regular customers back in the store (we are about 75-80% of normal.)

Thanks for reading, the Elder

5/18/2020

It is a quiet Monday morning. Not too unusual, but a bit irritating. When you show up and open a business which is customer-activated, that is, customers entering the business or there will be no business, and the customers don’t come in at the rate you expected or in the manner you need them, it can get frustrating. I could try to wave them in off the streets, but I’m not sure we would obtain the desired results. When we first started this business 5 1/2 year s ago, and a day started like this, I would grab a bunch of coupons and hit the street walking and handing out coupons for a free gallon of water! It produced results, but it looks unseemly for a veteran business like ours to do that now. Am I wrong? Is that what I should be doing? No. 

We’ve changed our dynamic so much! From the simple small business approach trying to educate people on the value of Alkaline Water to their life, we’ve become a vital purveyor of many things healthy, not just water alone. So, our catering attempts are broader and scaled up to include a multitude of “healthy alternatives” not only for water, but for other healthy drinks, for diet substitutes which help people off the habit of “junk” food and into better personal health habits, even including food supplements and health restoration products! Now we are watching as that dynamic incentivizes our niche, widening the acceptance to a broader audience (hopefully) as we go. The more people who recognize the benefits of our product line, the higher the number of our clientele, and the greater our success.

Well, so much for a commercial about my daughter’s business in which she allows me to participate, I’ll now get on to more sophisticated use of your time as a reader. Reading blogs should be helpful, don’t you think? The evolution of reading is pretty interesting to me. When the King James translators were commissioned by the king to present an accurate English rendering of the bible it was to be  “fit to be read unto congregations” as the first several printings said in the title. By signifying it was “Appointed to be Read in Churches,” it was given the name suffix, 1611 Authorized Version. 

Inside the first generation to have this great tome read to them, up pops the antagonists to say, “Who does this king think he is, claiming the authority from God to write his own version?” which, of course, was never the point. The king authorized the Realm’s ownership of the translation and thereby authorized the clergy to use it as they had privilege to do. King James, nor the Crown ever made money from the version, only the printers made wages off the labor of it. Would the antagonists deny the printer’s right to earn a living? (How insolent can become those who would stand in opposition!)

Once printing became a more common mass production, personal books and bibles became usual and ordinary. Another 2 or 3 generations began to produce large volumes of many authors’ writings, be they an accurate account of history, or a fictionalized history, or just plain fiction, great volumes began to be formed and common people learned the art of reading, the value of reading, the habit of reading, and through advanced schooling, the necessity of reading. 

But, then came radio(the 1920s.) Radio brought first entertainment, then news and commentary. Before a generation had passed, radio was the normal evening entertainment in homes to such a degree that parents had to insist their children read or they never would! Then came the war, the second massive war of the last century, and with it the insistence of dance music, records played in massive volumes, to the degradation of the reading habits of millions of young and old alike. But then,….

Came television. Oh my, did things change! Visual programming on the “tellie” swallowed up the living rooms of Americans in a way the libraries had never infiltrated! Reading became less habitual and perhaps, it was thought, less important. Moreover, within a decade or so, came full color television! Hey! Recliner chair, 6-pak of beer, color tv, what else could a man need, right?

Yes, I knew working men who thought that was all they needed. Then, to enhance this, what did we get? PAY TV! Getting the sports programming and  such stuff 24/7/365!  Make that, Recliner chair, (2) 6-paks of beer, and ESPN multi-channels! There, it just couldn’t get better! Then along came an end of sports. What? No! that can’t be! A flu virus stopped it all, from every pro sport to every college sport, to every high school sport, to every little league sport. Nothing scheduled. Whoa!

Enter reading again. Well, partially. That’s where this blog comes in. Most of us who have lived through the evolution beginning with radio till today have discovered we can read (at least) a few pages of blogs. It won’t wear us out too much. So,

Thanks for READING, the Elder

5/16/2020

This morning is a beautiful Spring morning on the mountaintop. Our days are numbered here in this house, since as I mentioned a couple of blogs back, we have sold this house and are only a few weeks away from moving (probably 3 more.) As I stepped out into the “florida” room, I noticed some bird sounds and listened for a mockingbird. Not forthcoming, however. But, in my beady little brain, the SIMH today was an oldie, “Listen to the Mockingbird,”—written by Alice Hawthorne, actually a nom de plume for one Septimus Winner —yes, that was his name; a very storied man who wrote under several different names. He was a distant relative of Nathaniel Hawthorne, and there was a real Alice Hawthorne who was a victim of the bombing at the Atlanta Olympic events in 1996. But Mr. Winner, who lead a very storied life, wrote this song in 1855, and its often repeated and recorded history yet goes on. (PS: If you are a civil war buff, Septimus Winner ought to be on your research list. Lincoln had him arrested for treason, but cooler heads prevailed.)

Tomorrow will be the first re-gathering of the grace group in Alexandria, AL since the epi-pan-demic-atritionists took over the country. I know, I know, I shouldn’t be so cynical! But, doesn’t it churn up just a little cynicism in you to think how long flu-type viruses have attacked Americans and none before warranted any of this? Just a little cynical? At any rate, thankfully, none of the Alexandria family of “grace believers” have had this strain attack them, noticeably, at least.

It’ll be great to see them again after several weeks of not having meetings. We’ll probably skip all the hugs and sit a bit apart, but it will still be enjoyable. Now if the preacher will actually do a good job, perhaps no one will be too angry—-lol.

Truly the most missed thing about the temporary halt in church and bible class gatherings is the fellowship. For bible study, we can do it by ourselves and/or with our household. Or, we can go online and get any sort of bible teaching by any sort of preacher/teacher we desire. But, the personal contact isn’t quite the same. Even with programs like Zoom where we can actually view and talk with each other; or FaceBook where viewers can write greetings or questions, it’s not the same as the “up close and personal” greetings, the occasional eye to eye contact and the “see you soon” goodby after a friendly chat. Just not quite the same.

We are a gregarious people. It’s true, some of us are more gregarious than others, but we all have a deep abiding need to be in company with another person or persons from time to time. When the bible speaks of this to the Hebrew church of the first century the Lord’s inspired words say, “Forsake not the assembling of yourselves together…” That’s pretty plain and simple. And let me tell you, they had a much harder time doing that than we do. In fact, most American towns were built with churches placed strategically in an easy to walk to reach of neighborhoods. People would work six days, then begin their Sunday walk with greetings to each other as they walked, even to differing churches. Pretty civil thing to do, right? They had a longing for the greeting! Gregarious, we congregate!

In fact, when I engaged in the building of a church meeting house in Texas I learned about certain things the general public is unaware of in regard to local churches. For instance, few if any cities have zoning regulations about where churches must be built: you can put a church most anywhere with no regard to what the area consists of. (Try that with a tavern or night club, ha!) Also, there was no parking lot size requirements in the city coding, because most towns built in America’s great growth period —1820s to 1920s—had most people walking to church, or horse hitches Which were not a space issue. 

When I asked the city (New Braunfels, TX) what their parking space code was for churches, the man hesitated with a rather odd look on his face. So I said, “you know, like how many spaces for cars does a shopping center need, etc.” He said, “Oh, I know what you meant…”, then with a grimace on his face he said, “None, we don’t have a code.” That’s when I learned about the churches can be put anywhere, the idea is people will walk if it’s convenient and so forth.

Here’s another very gregarious act of a community nature: Church bells were not placed on most churches originally for decoration or uniqueness. They were as a service to the people. In small farming villages, they were rang incessantly if a tragedy struck or a house or business was afire. Also, when a baby was born, or a wedding or funeral was about to commence, there was a certain ring. 

Bells had another purpose in many small towns where limited funds came into play. If two or three congregations pooled their monies to build a church, often one group would meet at 9am, the next at noon, the third at 3pm. They would use a different bell to call their people together and a different bell at dismissal so as to not run into each other. I guess you’d call that “selective gregariousness,” I don’t know. Maybe that’s where the term “denomination” came from (just kidding.)

So, today we will congregate, but we most definitely will not denominate! To denominate is to name separately or separate for the purpose of not including others. (Added bonus today: denominations are not your friends, they are separatists—see the root word.)

Thanks for reading, the Elder

5/13/2020 (started 5/11)

The wonderful SIMH today was Amazing Grace, but not just as we normally sing it—you’ve probably heard it sang from the noted version of “Amazing Grace, The Sweetest Sound I Know,” as sung by seven members of the South African choir I think it is from a Seventh Day Adventist seminary. A truly wonderful rearrangement with smooth sweet-sounding voices. (I’m writing this at 9:30, after being up 4 hours and the sounds are still in my head. ) We do, indeed, live in amazing grace. Hallelujah, what a Savior!

This past Sunday was the first day for many churches to be back on something similar to normal schedules. Hopefully, most had normal to better than normal crowds attending; not for the sake of high attendance, but for the sake of normalcy prevailing. It is enough, folks. We do not need to live in fear. We need to face the problem and build our own immune systems the way nature’s God intended us. Eat well, sleep well, work well. Eating means great limitation on processed and refined products, more natural foods. Sleeping means 6-8 hours straight through with variation being account of age. Working means do what you do expending energy to tire the body while fully obeying eat and sleep, full well knowing your energy is going to be restored by new foods, regular sleep, etc. Never, ever depend on meds or chemicals to rebuild your immunity. 

Any of us may from time to time and often even permanently need chemicals to replace something we can no longer create or use naturally. But, this sort of medicinals, be they stabilizing or even healing, most times cannot rebuild one’s immune system. It takes the natural foods and natural habitat (eat, work, rest, eat, work, rest, repeat) to make us as healthy as we can get. [note: work may only be light exercise or may be full days of labor,  depending on capabilities.]

Now you know my thoughts on that, just come up with your own applications of the needs of your body and for those to whom you may give care. I promise not to interfere. 

Sunday, I used the story of David and Goliath to make an application of the battle which rages today between the truth of God’s word and the general discontent with it amongst those who doubt or outright deny the truth of it. Those who have an innate desire to have no god or a god of their own making will most often parade their position and “war” against those who simply believe the bible means what it says as it says it, where it says it, to whom it says it, and for what purpose and end result it so succinctly defines. 

It is a battle-royal, but don’t get me wrong; it isn’t physically life or death, only spiritually. A spiritual battle. The analogy is thus: here comes Goliath with not only all the world offers, but also with all the bravado, all the effrontery and a huge cloud of witnesses, backing him to win against the simple straightforward approach of the anointed of the Lord!Here comes little David, with the voice of the Lord, armed with the knowledge and assurance that he was right! David’s power came from the deliverance of the Lord’s intentions, which shall never, ever be resigned nor subjugated! 

All today’s world offers by all its “goliaths” is an attempt to look as though there just isn’t any winning against it! This goliath I’m referring to is the system which runs the three paths of mankind’s ruin: religion, politics, and money. It appeared (as a serpent beguiling Eve and Adam) in all three forms in (of all places) the third chapter of Genesis. Some 4,000+/— years later, John wrote about the three this way: the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life,-1 John 2:16. These three were spoken of by the Lord Jesus Christ in His ministry to Israel and the Lord again through Paul in his ministry to us in Romans through Philemon. 

But as the Lord simply told His Apostles, “In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” -John 16:33. Then, almost immediately He was crucified, buried, and arose from the dead, and for 40 days assured them He was the winner and they were His forever. 

The Lord, giving a complete revelation to Paul in order to bring His Salvation to even us, as far removed from His will as we are naturally, gave Paul these words we are to take title of: “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: And the life I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. I do not frustrate the grace of God…” -Gal. 2:20,21a.

Take the Lord at his word; just like Paul did, just like the Apostles did, and just like our example, David did. Trust Him; “And the things of this world shall grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace.”—from the chorus of the song, Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus.

Thanks for reading, the Elder

5/9/2020

A reflective Saturday morning is upon me. What a week we have had! We finished with the little things we wanted to fix and spruce up before we put this house on the market and on Monday, 5/4 our house was listed. On Tuesday we had two showings; on Wednesday we had two showings and some folks in Texas received pictures, etc. from a realtor. Also on Wednesday, we had two offers. On Thursday we had two more offers and the couple in Texas began driving to come see the house—they drove straight through arriving Friday, noonish. By 4pm Friday, we had two very fine offers and the couple from Texas won the bid at an excellent sales price. Yes, that’s a lot to reflect on. 

Of course, we now see a much clearer path to getting ourselves moved into the smaller house down the mountain and close to downtown Fort Payne. Perhaps about 3 weeks from now, we’ll be moving in. That house will be finished by then, we’re pretty sure. Painting, floor finishing, and trim out is about all that’s left to be done on the interior, The outside, that’s another story. But, we believe we’ll move pretty fast to make it presentable for our 60th Anniversary celebration! (TBA) sometime around the 24th of June.

We’ve used several specialty contractors as well as a general contractor to totally redo the house to which we’re moving. Two of the people we contracted specialty jobs with are dragging their jobs out horribly. The roofers, the siding people, the general work; these were done swiftly and efficiently. The retaining wall against the hillside, that contractor has had many problems and for the most part it is understandable why he’s not finished. The rain started on a heavy and often pattern, “set in” is a good term, and has kept him from being able to get any of his jobs done (we’re just in his mix, somewhere) and besides that, he has had equipment failures on big equipment that might have broken some people. Finally, weather is looking up, his main tractor is being fixed and we’re hoping he’ll finish in a couple more days.

The electrician, is a mystery. He hasn’t got a good reason for being so slow. He lies to us about when he’ll be there, he comes by and doesn’t do anything, and what he’s accomplished is haphazard—not in the wiring and safety of it—but, such as a new breaker box system, all wiring tied in, but no labels as to what each breaker services! One man who has used him before, told me he never labels anything.!? How weird is that? We will not put up with this contractor if by Monday most, if not all is finished. (Yes, this man works on weekends. Sometimes.)

This morning, several songs wound their way through my thoughts, from Beatles to Jim Reeves. The one song which I will call the SIMH today, was done by Jim Reeves, but he wasn’t the version in my head. My wife, Barb and I sang this song as a duet in the Baptist church we joined after I got saved: “How Long Has It Been”—by Mosie Lister, written in 1956. He said he wrote it after remembering the childhood prayers he was taught in his christian home. He began to wonder if others could remember their prayers and soon wondered how many still prayed regularly. He said he started writing, wrote the whole song in about 10 minutes, laid it up on the piano and went on about his day, not even wondering if it was worthwhile. It turned out that over 600 artists have recorded it, it sold over a million sheet music copies very quickly, and the rest is history. (This song fits my “reflective attitude” this morning, don’t you think?)

Remember, trust is to be in the Lord. Allow Him to direct your path. At best, our understanding of things is weak, but the Lord’s way is always correct, never containing an error.

Thanks for reading, the Elder

5/4/2020

This is the week we start to expand our store hours back toward normal. We’ve been open by appointment only on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and this week the plan is to add a day, Wednesday. (Sigh) It’s an improvement, that’s for sure. My rather strange SIMH today was “Just Another Manic Monday” (an old R&R song by a female group.) When I pulled it up and listened to the lyrics, rather 70s-80s lines and intent as they were, I glanced down the “comments” list and found the far reaching effect of the COVID-19 mess: A nurses’ group of frontline workers have adopted this as their theme song. Manic? showing wild, apparently deranged, excitement and energy ?? Well, maybe it does fit as a theme.

I have certainly enjoyed the current series of Bible class messages I’m doing (does that sound strange?) and I hope and pray all who watch and listen are following along by reading the passages and not just listening to me talk. While it is what I believe about what the Lord has done and is doing, it is also backed by Scripture which is written TO US, not just about the manner in which I am attempting to show God’s plan for mankind. 

Religions, as a general rule, sort of lose sight of the Supreme Being’s plan in favor of their own. How many times have you heard or read that you should read this book or that book to understand God’s plan for you? Why would it be that a man or a woman writing a 20th or 21st century opinion should be thought of as a better “Author and Finisher” of our faith? Just go with what the Lord has preserved. He promised a great thing to us, in any of the dispensations identifiable, when He said in Matthew, “…my yoke is easy and my burden is light..” and also when He said through James 4, “…the wisdom which is from above is…easy to be entreated.” 

All man-made and organized religions, be they Christian or some other ilk, have tenets for their position which are designed by their founders or have been adopted by some form of updating system. Imagine updating God’s word: can you? Oh, my! Many have tried! They are called “versions” because that best defines them: a particular form of something differing in certain respects from an earlier formand an account of a matter from a particular person’s point of view. 

Well, that explains why the 20th century had about 100 versions of the bible written and copyrighted, I might add. See, that’s how they claim it as their own and make money off what is their own point of view while displaying on a cover, with unmitigated gall, that it is a holy bible. Aacck! It’s enough to make one ill! If you detest out loud, some will say, “Well, the King James is a version.” No, it isn’t. It’s the word of God, else what would they be objecting to if it was just another version. Version-aires want the KJB gone! Some countries have or are considering banning it from being sold. (I don’t know if any are trying to confiscate the possession of it or not, but that did occur in the 19th century under Roman Catholic jurisdiction, I have read.)

Here is a simple test to know whether you have the true word of God in your hands:

THE 7 VERSE VERSION TEST! text me and I’ll send it to you.

You know, before I was saved, for a little over 2 years I worked part-time selling men’s clothing in an upscale (though not at the top) men’s wear store in Columbus, IN. Mr. Dalton was the owner and a hard man. He was tolerant, yet strictly principled. He never put up with foolishness, yet he had a great sense of humor. I turned 21 while working for him. What is significant about that is how much he taught me about the coming world for me after I reached my majority. And he wasn’t even aware he was teaching me. Even though I wasn’t saved until  we moved to Danville, IL just after my 22nd birthday, I was a believer—cannot remember ever seriously thinking Christ wasn’t the answer—and Mr. Dalton seemed to recognize that, but he would never engage or enter into a conversation about the Lord. His son, a year younger than me, had many ideas foisted upon him at college (like, “I don’t think a loving God would send anyone to hell—there’s no hell!” he would say.) Young Mr. Dalton seldom agreed with me.

Concerning being taught by Mr. Dalton: he once allowed a high school student employee and me to “rat out” a young man of low reputation whom he had also hired. He didn’t like it (neither did we), but he believed in our sincerity. I’ve questioned myself about this over the years and wondered. Upon our explanation of our opinion the other should not be working in the store, Mr. Dalton asked us why we thought we had better insight than he into that other lad’s character. My answer was he seemed too secretive, which contributed to a phoniness when he approached a customer. Mr. Dalton stared at me for what seemed like an hour (probably a few seconds), then he said, Mr. Lockhart, have you studied psychology? No, I said. He turned to the lad with me. My compadre answered, I know him at school and I wouldn’t leave him near my locker, if that tells you anything. So, Mr. Dalton fired him. Yes, I have often wondered, was that right or wrong.

Mr. Dalton respected me and my work ethic, my commitment to my family, and my ability to not anger the customers, even if I was somewhat inept for a while when it came to knowing the products I sold. When I quit, I said I hope to see you again soon. His very curt reply was, “Not likely.” I can’t express to you the hurt I felt at that. As though he could with one short statement crush my confidence level. I went past his place to say hello once after that, but it had a very unfriendly feel. I never went back. At that age, fully 30% of my work-life had been working for him. To Mr. Dalton, I was just another part-timer who came and went in a moment of time.

Thanks for reading, the Elder

4/25/2020

WORDS: The Lord Jesus Christ told the Hebrew people in Matthew 12:37, “for by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.” I wonder, if the Washington, D.C. world knew that verse was in the Bible, would it make any difference to any of them when they speak?, those that make outrageous and unfounded claims against others and the public: would it matter? Dispensationally, we know how to make an application of the truth in the verse. It is a valid principle of “the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom” for our lives. To the saved, and one who is willing to practice “rightly dividing the word of truth” it will make a difference in making an application of this wisdom to “perfect(ing) holiness in the fear of God.”- 2 Cor.7:1—in other words, be careful what you say. Be careful about those things for which you are using the Scripture as a support document. 

About 1966, I began writing advertising copy for newspaper ads, first in the jewelry business (where stretched truth about products often appeared), then later for carpet and furniture where simple truths about products were a must. That’s where I first learned how much it mattered which words were used and which just wouldn’t do. Later, I wrote copy for radio ads and (a few) tv ads. These media were even more pointedly succinct, no hype or blather when time, like space to a newspaper, was a large factor. Then, in January, 1974, I began to study the Bible where truth is all there is (even in the stories about god-cursing men), the Bible is telling us the truth about them. To see what I mean, look up churlish in a word search—KJB, of course— and read the whole story about the man who was churlish. hint: David rescued his widow. 

Coming around to 2021, the “era of the COVID-19”—where is truth? Can you find authoritative words meant to convince a person, or all persons, of some deep abiding truth about this so-called pandemic? Hardly. Every time the health leaders speak, as soon as questions arise, there is most often a quick side-step of something like “well, we don’t really know, cause we’ve never had anything like this before,” and no definitive answer is forth-coming. No truth. No resulting conclusion. No way to make a hard and fast rule. No end in sight. No (or very limited) success, either. So, dear sovereign friends, why are we placing ourselves in subjection to an authority which cannot become authoritative? Why do we not take our place as the sovereigns that we are and decide for ourselves how to resolve this debacle?

We do not take the strong personal stance because, at least the majority of us, have not been taught how to care for ourselves, for our own and for our neighbors! For the last 50 years, our supposed education system has been the victim of two very prevalent themes: the first being the dumbing down of the classical education processes held dear for the previous 350 years; the second is its replacement ideology of socialism(lesser and/or greater) influences by educators who write books and leave the classrooms to the graduate students to teach. 

Somewhere in the ‘40s (I think), college professors became the unmitigated recipients of tenure. Terrible word, tenure: clearly defined as “guaranteed continual employment.” This manifested itself as a horrible result of its meaning in the mid ‘60s. Without controversy, could you convince anyone this would be a good proffer? That is, hold this out to someone as theirs if they want it? If you would think there were situations where this is good, I’m really worried about you. Yet, each institute of higher learning (another strange and seductive phrase) has several of these positioned professors. Guess which ideology the bulk of these proclaims—well, it isn’t classical education!

Having read and listened to politics, philosophers, and preachers for about 67 of my 77 years, I have noticed the word usages and misuses and by 1965 (that’s 54 years ago, and about 9 years before I began studying the bible), I could see untruths winning over absolute truths. It has been very dis-heartening and constantly worsening, and has reached clear unto this present curse: A pandemic and a world-effecting shutdown for which there is no need. Yes, millions are or will be sick. Most will recover. Hundreds of thousands may die, they always do. There are so many people in the world today, that a tiny percentile sounds horrifically huge when listed by the number. No, I don’t want anyone to die. But, I’ve noticed: they do. People die, something is going to cause our deaths (except the Lord comes.) The activity which shuts down the freedoms of the people of the world is a quieter and more complacent and acquiescent form of hostage-taking. Nothing less. Do the people even notice? Barely, if even at all. Very sad.

WE, (remember my use of this word in the previous blog?) are the government and WE are not doing what we should be doing. Either WE get it back to normal, or we fall prey to those who will enslave us to their professed doctrine—the one which has been being taught since about 1965. Just follow the bouncing ball along the pathway to complacency and you’ll get along fine. Kept. By. An. Oppressive. Governance.

If that’s what you want, ok. As for me, few things make me glad I’m old, but this sort of thing just about fills me up. Perhaps I won’t have to view too many more years of it. (Been thinking about my words if when I reach 100, the reporter asks me what I think of the 21st Century…what about you?)

Thanks for reading these words …the Elder