8/5/2020

Well, it’s been a while—15 days—since I wrote something for a blog. I’ve got more than one thing to write so I want to get the more somber written first. I’ve lost another friend.

My good friend, Charlie has passed away. Dr. Charles Warlick; the best dentist I ever had, a friend I shall never forget, and a saved, bible believing, lover of our Lord Jesus Christ, and one of the most positive thinking people I’ve ever known passed away last week. When I met Charlie and Corene, they came to a bible class I was teaching in the Physical Therapy clinic in Wimberley, TX. They were such a joy to have in the class and they brightened the entire atmosphere with their smiling faces and intense purpose for being there.

[A very special side note to them coming to the class: there was a parking spot with just a little incline at which he parked his then 35 year old ’67 VW Beetle. Since he walked slowly and determinedly using two canes, I suggested he park on one of the flatter spaces to make that easier. He laughed and said, “no, thank you. I coast down this little incline and pop my clutch to start the bug.” I said something like, Oh, aren’t you gonna wear out the clutch? He laughed and said, “It’s easier to get a clutch than it is to get a starter!”] 

His caring soon encouraged his son Chuck and his family to attend our church some 35 miles away, which they did. So Charlie and Corene just got up earlier on Sunday and drove down there, too. I know I was very inadequate in explaining what a great blessing that was to Barb and me. (Chuck and Laura are now business partners with me in the Blue Jug stores I often talk about.) 

It’s very difficult to say goodbye to Charlie. I know we’ll be together in eternity, so it’s just so long, Charlie, I’ll see you soon. Just like when I last saw him.

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As the China produced pandemic drones on, and all kinds of people have the flu, some getting proper treatment and recovering in 6-10 days, others struggling longer, some other it costs their life, so there is a lot of reluctance to just let things get back to normal. I’m sorry, I just don’t understand. I listen to the arguments, the politics, the medical experts, the “non” believers, the locals and the non-locals. I read the charts, the articles, the pundits and opinions. Now, I listen to the teachers of our local schools (we have several teachers who buy our water and put it in their classrooms because it advantages them for the children to get good water and that right in the room.) Without fail, the preponderance of thought says “Go back to school and do the best you can. don’t worry about having it or getting it, just deal with it if it occurs.” I agree. Stop closing down, stop running people out of business, stop making new lies about the numbers, and treat the sick with what really works! Natural and long standing medicines have been proven to work for this! At least 3 and as many as 6 or more doctors have massive numbers of proven cured patients with two or three existing medicines, but that isn’t good enough! Somebody has to get to make a vaccine! Make sure you understand what I think  of that: WE DON’T NEED A VACCINE, 97% OF US WILL NOT GET THIS FLU. IF WE DO, WE HAVE MEDICINES WHICH WORK! IF YOU MAKE A VACCINE, I WILL NOT GET IT, NOR WILL I ENCOURAGE ANYONE ELSE TO DO SO. Just so you know what I think.

Now, here’s the one last thing for this blog. We’re in our newly remodeled old home, very comfortable, neat and compact, though as roomy as we need. The time is now come to worry about the yard. One day real soon we will begin work on our back yard; a bit of terracing, a few flowery garden sitting areas, a covered patio, making full use of the space with a fenced back side fit for our new addition coming soon. (Not a baby! we’re not that foolish! Just a doggie that loves me.) 

Then, we’ll do the front yard with so little grass to mow, I might just clip it with my sideburn trimmer on my razor (well, a bit more than that, I fear.)

Then, we’ll have a party.

Thanks for reading, the Elder

7/21/2020 — Finishing the Trip-(finished writing 7/22/2020)

Our time with family in New York was precious, as usual. The difference, though, was because of the “what’s-goin’-on-now.” Each day we were there we had fun, ate waaay tooo much and came home faaaat! But it was fun seeing who could eat the most ice cream, my son or me….I won’t bother telling the winner. And, of course, we now regret that part. We collectively worked the NYT crossword puzzle each day, just to see how fast we can complete it correctly. I’m amazed: that’s a tough crossword. 

Saturday morning was “goodby time” and as always, a little sad. As time goes fleeting by, it is a little harder each time. No surprise there. We couldn’t see our granddaughter who lives in NYC, not a convenient time for them to “escape,” I guess. Maybe soon, we hope. We did get a couple more hugs than when we arrived, in spite of the existing problem, hard to say goodby without a hug!

So we headed West, then South to go through Pennsylvania and Virginia. Two truly beautiful states. When fatigue took its toll for the day, we came to Salem, VA, near Roanoke.

Salem was once the largest city in Virginia. Today, it is about 25,000 and thriving, but not quite the powerhouse town it once was. There is a beautiful campus for Roanoke College, a beautifully restored downtown which looks to be a very healthy business climate, and this town hosts some big sports tournaments each year. Since the hills offer a lot of beauty naturally, it is a “destination city.” That means people go there on purpose and don’t just stop for a night of rest like we did. All this makes me want to go back, sometime.

We decided to head South on Sunday morning to attend church at Charity Bible Church in the countryside near Hamptonville, NC. Charity is pastored by Bro. Brian Sipes, our friend and one the best Grace preachers we know. It was great to see many friends we’ve been in fellowship with for years and we had a very pleasant surprise, too. Bro. Sipes had been out of town all week and had asked Kevin Wooten to preach in his place. Even though the Sipes family returned and were there for the service, Kevin preached (taught) a tremendous message about the times we are in and why as bad as things are today, this is nowhere near what the wrath of God is going to be like, nor can we, the church the Body of Christ, be here for that coming “great tribulation.” He just did an excellent job.

After saying our “goodbyes” we headed home, ready to be done with our trip, tired but happy we took the trip, saw all the folks, saw some new places, etc. We arrived home about 9pm Sunday night. Whew! (The adventuresome afternoon will be spoken of in a later blog, I think. I don’t want to write about that now. Safe, but adventuresome.)

[Note: Those who refer to the current crisis as a pandemic must have more fear than me about the numbers they hear, or they must be more unsure of themselves, ie, their health, than me. It’s quite alright with me to be around those whose caution is greater than my own. I’m not putting them down or elevating myself here.  Sometimes it just surprises me where I see it. When I greet people who don’t want to shake hands or hug as we usually do, it’s ok. But, it isn’t the same. When they back away to honor the “6 feet” safety rule, it’s ok. But, it isn’t the same. Many things happen in our lives which do wind up changing us, I’m just sorry this is one of them. Since as far back as “flu” or influenza has been defined, we have known when it comes it kills people. To Quarantine the ailingis not uncommon for such things, but how did the powers-that-be get us to believe the un-sick should quarantined, though? Every other time in history, those quarantined were the ill folks and their homes. Shutting down the economy in such an ignominious way—how did they get us to go along with that? It is a shameful thing we have done. This has cost so many people their livelihoods, so many people their dignity, their self-respect. And for what? Can anyone boast about the number of lives we’ve saved? Or how we’ve shortened the time-span of the problem? No, …no, we can’t…we can’t….that’s sad.  There is no charge for this intrusive paragraph, just didn’t know how to go on without saying it.]

Now that we’re back home in our “new” digs, there is work to be done. After all, the masthead picture (above) is of our old home—what’s the point in that, right? We’re starting work on the yard this week. We don’t yet have our plan complete, but we know some ways we can start, then add to it as we go. I’m looking forward to this now. Pretty sure I couldn’t think this way while in the home we just moved from, as it required so much more work. This work will fill and architect the landscape away from continual labor, we believe.

An interesting side note about the “pandemic:” our Blue Jug Alkaline Water and Health Markets are all doing rather well. We’re not experiencing any storeowners speak of struggling. Mostly because our number one product is the best water to drink in the whole wide world!But a couple of other reasons: we all offer healthy snacks, some stores have alternative health aids such as,  Structured Silver, CBD oils and tonics, herbal tonics, etc. These are things that keep our bodies in as good a shape as possible. That’s very good news for anyone thinking of getting into business for themselves! In fact, that is great news!

Thanks for reading, the Elder

7/16/2020—7/17/2020

A Brief Interlude

Purposeful interruption in the writing go the continuing saga of our 60 years of married life, so please excuse me. We’re taking about 10 days of driving about 2500 miles and seeing relatives in Indiana in two different places, then we skirted over to Middletown, NY, to visit with our second son, his wife & children, as well as another of our grandchildren, our daughter’s oldest who also lives here. So here’s a short synopsis of the trip:

Last Saturday, we left town about 6:30 am and drove a rather long and strange route to get to Franklin, IN. I wanted to go across the Ohio River on U.S. Hwy 231, that’s somewhere near Owensboro, KY. What a bridge! It was very strongly designed (new) and had a truly eerie feel about it. Look it up. The support for this span was elevated high above the bridge lanes so that twice you drove under huge concrete masses—almost scary! Seriously, look this up. Very unusual. 

After the bridge, I wanted wanted Barb to see, because it is beautifully quaint, Salem. My phone GPS let me down. The first because following directions as they were told me, missed the town, the second because the GPS routing compared to the signs on the highway simply led me around the town and we were going away from it before I realized what had happened. …Best laid plans, right? By that time, it had taken longer than it should have so we just went back to boring old Interstate usage and went to Franklin.

We ate a wonderful meal at the Big Woods restaurant in Franklin, not seeing anyone wearing masks except the wait staff who lowered theirs when talking to us—ineffective usage, I’d say.

Sunday morning we meandered around and finally found a breakfast meal in my home town, Trafalgar, IN. In fact, at a restaurant which is the old school building which was built while I was attending high school next door. That was fun, the waitress let me tell her a couple of short stories of my infamous days there, so that made my morning. 

At noon, we went to the country event center in Samaria for my family reunion. Not very many of us because of the virus, I suppose, but extremely enjoyable. My 93 year old sister and I were the eldest, the rest were nieces, nephews, grand nieces, grand nephews and spouses with one granddaughter of one of my brothers and 3 grandsons of one niece. As I said, not many there. Good food, good conversation and fellowship that lasted till 4:30. I’m glad we went.

From there we drove to Winona Lake, a resort area we have heard about all our lives, but neither of us had ever been there. What a beautiful “secret” Indiana is hiding out in plain view. Truly a beautiful place in a “lake district” of Northern Indiana between South Bend and Fort Wayne. Several things in and around Winona Lake were very interesting, but the time element for us was very short so we confined our enjoyment to the Winona Lake Village—a collection of Victorian era homes which have been converted to unique small businesses and shops. Right on the bank of the lake, the walking paths throughout and all lawns, sitting areas, etc., were spotless and so pristine. Easy to see how the respect and pride of the community shone through. It would have been easy to spend 3 or 4 more days there. But, on we moved!

Barb’s nephew and his wife have an absolutely beautiful 36 acre country home, loaded with all the stuff country homes should have: 8 acre lake, 2 ample gardens growing everything from black raspberries to tomatoes, all small wilde animals making unscheduled appearances as well as deer and in the Winter, there is otter which play in the snow and the lake. Their home is very well done and kept beautifully by the maid-in-residence (his lovely wife!) Noticing the quality of the home, I mentioned to Barb its doors and windows probably cost as much as our whole house. They reminded me of what we saw in Germany many years ago. We really enjoyed our time with them and warned them we were coming back and staying longer (doubtful, but the warm sentiment was there.)

So, Tuesday morning came and we headed to New York. A very good and uneventful trip, found us arriving at our son’s home at 6:30pm, safe and sound. No “border” cops harassed us or anything. We liked that. We’re enjoying our stay and I’m writing this on the third day, Friday the 17th. 

Wrap-up coming soon.

Thanks for reading, the Elder

7/7/2020

Something about a Saturday night conversation must have resurfaced this morning as a Neil Diamond song came rolling through about 4:30am. We had a discussion about his acting in The Jazz Singer, and about the storyline, about a young Jewish singer who didn’t want to follow tradition and become a Cantor. Today, the SIMH was one of Neil’s hits:”Holly Holy.” He said of this song he was trying to show a spiritual connection between “a man and a woman instead of between a man and a god.” He missed it a bit. It was very well done, borrows phrases from the bible and he used a church choir as backup, but he missed it a bit, primarily because the real God of the Universe was not what he was talking about. Just another SIMH.

Carrying on into our 2nd decade of married life: from January, 1974 on, we were involved in continuing bible study. We learned about the method God wrote down (through His Apostle Paul), a practice that cannot fail to teach us the Lord’s plan. It is referred to by Paul in his instruction to the young Timothy whom he knew would be carrying the work of the Lord on after his demise. He told Timothy, “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”-2 Tim.2:15. When we saw these simple words and desired to be able to say we were “rightly dividing” instead of “wrongly dividing,” we truly began to understand the plan of God for the time frame in which we lived.

From then on many changes came our way. The business which I had started in Anniston (which was already being ill-affected by the “oil-crisis” non-crisis) fell into worse shape than I could get a grip on and I was forced to close it in April, 1974. That didn’t deter personal bible study. After closing, I found a job which I was good at, but for reasons I will not bore you with, I only kept that job for one week after training. That didn’t deter personal bible study. I found another job which was about as boring as a box of rocks and required considerable driving. The miles on the road gave me quite a lot of time to listen to cassette tapes of the bible, different preachers, many radio programs—almost like another college education! Especially since it was more like an informal “seminary!” That didn’t deter personal bible study. Nothing took time away from personal bible study! It was somewhere along about August of 1974 that I became aware of my lifelong intended commitment to the word of God and the overwhelming desire to teach and preach what I believed. Hard to explain, but I knew I must become a preacher.

Looking back on that decision, it came about solely through a continual mental insistence that I speak (“we also believe, and therefore we speak”-2 Cor.4:13): speaking of the Word of God. Having seen through most of my life, but specifically the 10 years from when I trusted the Lord for salvation, that church-isms, 4 points and a sad poem sermons, or long “altar calls” and invitational pleas did not truly show anyone the plan God had for their lives in the way four or five “rightly dividing the word of truth” bible classes would make it known.

So, I knew I was going to preach and teach the bible. I didn’t know where or how or to whom, but it was my sole intention from then on. Still is. Retire? Not a chance. The Lord knows when my last day in this life is, but I see no reason at all to be deterred from the purpose the Lord had when He followed up the “study” instructions to Timothy (and all us little Timothys) by saying to us, “Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.”—2 Tim.4:2. The next verse explains that there will be a day when men will not receive the truth, will seek to just be pacified and hear fun stuff; will be unable to accept rebuke and want mostly “pablum” for their spiritual food. I think we’re almost there, folks. Not many want to know what God said about the stuff we see in this world.

So, with that decision made, late in the Summer of 1974, I started a bible class which was for the most part, a disaster. Thankfully, I was among a couple of good friends and some family and they didn’t shout me down or throw me out. And, discouraged by the experience of how poor I was at it, yet not one single that of forgetting about doing it. And, even that, didn’t deter personal bible study!

By November of ’74, I really was not doing a good job for the folks I worked for and my friend John Sanford had gone to work for a franchisor of pizza restaurants. He said, “Come go to work for me.” I said I don’t know anything about the restaurant business. He said, “Neither do I, we’ll learn it together!” So I did. Life changed radically, once again. 

Restaurants require time, I mean lots of time. Lots and lots of time, especially if you know very little about the business. We moved to Birmingham, I was put in charge of the “company owned” 5 restaurants. About the time I was getting comfortable, the company took back 5 more restaurants from failing franchisees and guess who became their supervisor? Yep, the novice Jerry! What a travesty. But, John said keep doing it, you’re doing fine, these stores are doing so poorly they’ll look good just because you get them cleaned up! So, we hired some trustworthy people to manage them, turned a couple of them around and put up with the rest of them.

I learned many things on that job, I learned how to talk with people (mostly employees) about the Lord without intimidating them or being over-bearing (I really needed to learn that one—I was so sure I was right I just bowled people over! That’s not good, not good.)

But other things I learned—here’s a short list: I learned to public speak; I learned to train people about detail work, patiently; I learned the pattern of the executive mind (I had to constantly deal with the top three of the company, luckily one was my friend who hired me.) I also learned office politics!?! An altogether different subject which is best avoided. 

So, somewhere in the middle of the second decade of our married life, Barb and I had come from Trafalgar, IN, to Birmingham, AL and with our 3 children growing up so fast, we were hanging on, hanging on, mostly to the Lord our salvation in more than one way.

More to come, hope it isn’t boring.

Thanks for reading, the Elder

6/26/2020

Some tune with no words (and none ever came to mind) was the absent SIMH this morning.Trying to think of the words made me remember Billy Preston once wrote and sang a song called “Will it Go Round in Circles?”—which had an opening line saying “I got a song that ain’t got no melody-oo-oo-oo! I’m gonna sing it to my friends…” So let’s just substitute that for my SIMH. Fun, huh?

The Saga Continues:

The last half of our first decade in this long marriage was filled with even more changes. We stayed in Danville, but I switched jobs and started selling carpet, working for a man who was just 2 months older than me. (His college education and experiences placed him years ahead of me, though.) He told me I would see more opportunity developed in the first year with him, than I would have in 5 years on the other job. He was right, I am sure. Although most of the opportunities were developed through and by his entrepreneurship, thus for him, only just observed by me.

I did learn an enormous amount of business and sales techniques which have always been helpful. I learned about loyalty, about failed friendships, and about when to make the big decisions. And, yes, most of the learning came through observation and mistake correction. Some of it was very hard to do. At one point, I took him his keys and walked off. He came to our house later, asked if we could talk. Five hours later I went back to work for him, not because he “talked me in to it,” but because he reasoned with me about a convivial timing in leaving—page 1 of learning that acumen had occurred with the jewelry store. This time, I stayed a little longer with this man, even returning later for an additional 18 months, and am still good friends with him.

Early in the second decade of our marriage we bought a couple of pieces of property to expand our income. It was primarily rental homes with the idea of my full-time work staying the same and add in the proceeds of the rents collected. It was modest at first, but Barb and I could see down the road to bigger and better income. Then, a couple of notable things occurred. We were blessed to be expecting our 3rd child, the first two being 10 & 9 years old. Our daughter Sarah  was born in October ’71, Brian had turned 9 and Steve would soon be 11. Also, during that time, Barb had come to realize something wasn’t settled yet between her and the Lord. One morning, she awakened me to tell me that she had just come to realize Christ died for her! And from that moment on, she trusted Him and Him alone for salvation.

She almost immediately began to to question what we were being taught, or rather were not being taught. We would leave the church and she’d ask me if I could remember what was preached. Most of the time, I could not. It didn’t bother me too much because I was on a 50 hours a week job plus the care of the rental properties—I wasn’t trying to get a bible education. This caused considerable unrest at our house and shortly, I was not treated as I believed I should have been at my job, causing me to desire to get out of it all! 

We had real close friends who at about this same time confided they were seeking a possible move to the South to get out of an undesirable job situation, as well. He and I drove to Sylacauga, AL for him to look at an opportunity. He liked what he saw and as we headed back North, we stopped in Anniston, AL to spend the night. The next morning, I was struck with a picture in my head that this is the city to which we should move. I’m not sure why and I knew I would have a whale of a time explaining that to Barb upon returning to Danville. She readily accepted it.

From October, ’72 till January, ’73, we took a couple of quick trips down to Anniston, finally settling on making the plan to move in February. I gave my boss notice (I think I gave him 3 weeks), and the plan was put into gear. We moved South. A few weeks later, Barb was invited to a women’s bible class and once again, our world changed. She really began to see things in Scripture; she would show me, I would argue that wasn’t what I’d been taught, she would give me proof passages, I had none. In November, the husband of the bible class teacher called me and told me of their plans to start a couples class in January, ’74, was I interested in attending? I said yes, we would be there. I wasn’t very happy with my wife knowing more bible than me. So, in January, 1974, we began to learn what it meant to practice “rightly dividing the word of truth” as the Apostle Paul told Timothy to study—2 tim.2:15. Brother E.C. Moore from Pensacola, FL was our teacher—he taught us how to study God’s word. He taught us to not take his word, only take the Lord’s word. What a life change was headed our way!

More to come.

Thanks for reading, the Elder

6/24/1960—6/24/2020

HAPPY 60TH ANNIVERSARY TO BARBARA PHELPS LOCKHART & ME!

Yes, we really did get married 60 years ago today at the ripe young age of 17! We’ve lived. We’ve experienced. We’ve got a lot to say about it all! (Well, at least I do.)

You know, every decade has some momentous happenings which were unique to us, but many also unique to 1.) our families; 2.) where we lived; 3.) the effect and the whole affect on the rest of our experiences. Perhaps in the following paragraphs I can relate something pertinent and poignant, even purposeful to other people and to their lives. Hope it’s not boring.

In the first two years, we lived in 6 different places. Some were partly furnished, some were fully furnished, some we paid for, some we didn’t (briefly with moms & dads.) When we went to the 7th place to live before we were 20, we felt independent. We sought the place out, we negotiated with the owner and agreed to terms. To save a little money, I put the tile down on the new bathroom floor—had never done anything like that and, probably haven’t done that good a job on things like that since! About a year later, we stepped up a notch in neighborhood quality with almost the same rent and felt better yet about ourselves.

During years 3 & 4, I worked two jobs. My day job was in the office of a factory—Hamilton Cosco, Columbus, IN. My evening job was 5-9pm at Dalton&Payne Mens’ Wear—an excellent specialty store the type of which has now mostly gone away. Those two jobs were, for me, a college education. If grades were given, I wouldn’t have rated high, but I would have graduated proudly anyway! Leaving both jobs at the same time, I took one job making the same money as two had been providing. Another advance move….

Barely 4 years into the first decade of marriage got us transferred to Danville, IL. There, I became manager of a jewelry store at 22, youngest they’d ever had in the 10 store chain. In the second year we bought our first house, another new adventure. We did it with no money down: the older man who owned the house put $400 cash in the bank as if he had gotten it from me, priced the house at $12,400, I financed by FHA with 3% down—his own money—and got a $12,000 mortgage. Think about it: mortgage, interest, and insurance on the purchased home was a 25% less payment than the former rent only had been. Thanks to Bill Hunt, our realtor, we saw how the “game was played!”

After having trusted the Lord Jesus Christ as my Savior shortly after moving to Danville, we became members of an American Baptist Church. The year I turned 25 (1967) we had two boys in school and the church asked me to teach a SS class for “Under 30 Married” (you probably know those classifications, right?) A 33 year old friend of mine saw me go into that class the first Sunday and said, “what’s Lockhart going into that class for?, he’s as old as I am!” I laughed and told him I was 25—he said, “That can’t be! We both have two kids in the same school years!” My point is though we had been married for 7 years, it was as much a strange thing to have been married that long at our young age then as it is now. Didn’t see that often, but that’s part of our first decade story.

More later,  no doubt.

Thanks for reading, the Elder

6/20/2020 & 6/22/2020

Another stepping-stone of our lives is beginning to take shape; we moved (I’ve already written about that), we sold the little sports car mistake (or, as my Momma would say, “I got shed o’ that car!”), and recovered completely by getting another Honda. To drive a Honda is a big help to most thoughts about driving. Hondas really have served us well. In fact, so well that the reverse is also true: being without a Honda brings the surety of wanting a Honda! Well, knowing absolutely nothing about the automobile, and always depending on another person’s discretionary buying powers, we have this used Honda we hope serves us as well as the 5 previously owned one’s we’ve had. We’ll see.

After coming home with the Honda last night it doesn’t really surprise me to awaken with this song as the SIMH this morning: “Falling In and Out of Love”—by Pure Prairie League. Not a giant hit, but very lamentable condition to listen to in Americana sound. Back in 1988, it probably blazed a new style uprising. Better known when they started in the ‘60s as being “Country-Rock” they became more famous for “Amie” and “Bustin’ Out” than for the one in my head, but when it all rolled into the ‘90s, Americana genre is where most of their plays were happening. (I have no idea how their success is continuing. Just a SIMH.)

Somehow we’ve managed to live through another week of our current madness, whether the pandemic, the politics, or the general unrest, we’ve truly gotten through another week, anyway. One of my go-to places to synopsize the days politics and news events is on FOXnews—The Five. The last two days, the lone featured person on their who is an avowed Democrat (and is, seemingly, unashamed of it) a pundit named Juan Williams, has decided to let ‘er rip! Somewhere about last Tuesday, or so, Juan really got pummeled by the young conservatives Greg Gutfeld and Jesse Watters. He decided to fight back Thursday and Friday, so in his commentary on certain subjects he railed on them. It was, to say the least, pitiful. Mostly,I like Juan; his comments are heartfelt, generally. But these two days he wasn’t commenting, he was angry about what he calls “the big picture.” I hope and pray we’ll not see his big picture come about. Seemed very clear to me it is the thought of another “great divide” in this nation.

6/22/2020 

Social distancing seems to me to be more like scattering or strewing. With hay or straw, you call that “tedding,” and like straw as barn stall cover, I doubt if it really has much affect. I watch it, I participate in it in restaurants, even at church yesterday in Chattanooga, and I wonder about the principle (if it is a principle) and practice of six feet of separation in public. Seems too far-fetched for me, yuk, yuk! Whatever happened to greeting one another with an holy kiss? That would be the biblical thing to do, right? There are some commentary folks who put some of the more aggravating things about the current pandemic into words better than me, so let them rave on about the “new normal.” But, frankly, I’m done with the subject. It will probably remain a major part of conversation around me, but let’s try not to let it dominate good conversation. It doesn’t have to include it.

Walking to work: Now that our move to downtown Fort Payne is 94.7% complete, I’ve found it invigorating to walk to work. It’s only about 5 blocks (4 1/2, actually) and sidewalks almost everywhere. Very comfortable and comforting in a “life-is-good” sort of way. I’ve met a new neighbor, seen who is out working early for the city and lawn care engineers; it’s a very healthy feeling and it’s one of the reasons we made this move. Walk more, mow less = great combination!

This little walk reminds me of “Get your coat and grab your hat, leave your worries on the doorstep, Just direct your feet to the Sunny Side of the Street” and you know what?, all the way from my house to the store is sunny side! Then there’s always “Walking in the sunshine, Sing a little sunshine Song”—I think that was Roger Miller (of “Dang Me, Dang Me, they oughta take a rope and Hang Me” fame.) 

At the store, we now serve coffee, varieties of tea, smoothies, protein shakes, and Kombucha-on-tap! We have all the good stuff. Couple all this with the yum yum goodies from Butter Snob Baking and you’d wonder where the water went! Let me be clear: water will always be our number one product. After all, we make water to be “the way it’s meant to be.” (Great slogan, by the way.)

Once more, my scatter brained approach to the Sunday afternoon bible class recording and re-posting to YouTube was detrimental: I forgot to hit record on the Zoom broadcast, so now, if possible, I have to figure out how to download to  my computer the Facebook presentation, then copy it to the YouTube channel. Sorry I don’t still have an engineer in the next room handling all that stuff. What’s up with forgetting to touch record? It’s just a simple touch; mumble, grumble, mumble, grumble.

Thanks for reading, the Elder

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