Observations from behind the counter – Working Christmas

I work at a store that is open every day of the year. Which means, unless it falls on a regularly scheduled day off, I work every holiday. Thanksgiving and Christmas are especially busy. And Christmas Eve and Day, when almost everyone else is closed, is crazy. What follows are just a few observations about working on Christmas.

I confess, for some reason, I had a hard time this year getting into the Christmas spirit. And the week leading up to Christmas day was terrible. People were out all night long. The crowds and busyness and rush-rush just suck the spirit of the season right out of you. I can’t imagine working in a retail store or restaurant that is non-stop busy. I’m sure you have heard the saying, Working with the public wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for the public. I will Amen that.

Saturday night, Christmas Eve, about 12:10 am. A woman is in the store on the phone, wandering around looking for something. Finally, she asks me, “Do you sell wine?” I tell her we do but I can’t sell it to her now. She asks why and I tell her it is after midnight. (In South Carolina you can buy beer 24 hours a day except between midnight Saturday night and 7 am Monday.) She murmurs, “South Carolina!” Then she comes to the register and once again mutters, “South Carolina! Why is everything closed on Christmas here?” (For the record, I’m glad nearly everyone closes on Christmas.) I tell her, “Everywhere I’ve lived as an adult, everybody always closes on Christmas. Where are you from?” “D.C.” And I gathered they aren’t so backward up there. But you know what, I’m pretty sure she got off for Christmas and would be mighty upset if she had to work Christmas Eve and Day. She just wants stuff available for her. Which led me to this conclusion:

People in America are more concerned about convenience than they are motivated by conviction.

Which ties in to another observation:

America is a consumer culture, not a contemplative one.

There was a mild uproar over some stores opening on Thanksgiving night for the Black Friday sales. Yet every store open was packed out. I had people wandering around Christmas night waiting for Wal-Mart to open back up at 5 am! Kohl’s (an area department store) ran a big TV ad announcing they were opening at 5 am on the 26th. And I bet there were people there at 5 am, too. If a store will open people will shop. Americans are consumer mad, they just have to get out and buy something. I had people all night just coming in to buy chips or soft drinks or candy or cigarettes or to get $5 worth of gas. Just to get out of the house and buy something. I told a police officer last night, “If every store in Rock Hill would close for 2 days, we would have riots!” In fact, I have finally figured out why there was such a mad rush West in early America – stores were not open long enough back East!

So many people live day to day, they could not plan ahead for two whole days. I’m sure of it. They get enough gas or beer or tobacco for right now. And plan to do the same thing tomorrow. I know, I see a lot of people every single day, getting the same thing each time. There are people who come in 2,3,4 times a night and buy one can of beer each time! I have a guy who comes in every week day morning and buys one 35¢ pack of gum. And he brings exactly 35¢ each time!

One of the biggest fears in America is to have “nothing to do.” People are so stimulated these days they don’t know what to do with themselves. Contemplate? I’ll tell what I’m thinking about, Where can I go? What can I do? and Who sells what I wanna buy? !!

What you said got me to thinking

I’m sure that has happened to you. I was following a family conversation on facebook and a reference was made to me. This conversation was a potential minefield so I stayed out of it. (Just in case any family member involved in that discussion should happen to read this, I am still staying out of it!) I commented just to keep the facts straight, but it got me thinking. There are those who would say that is a dangerous thing, but I did it anyway!

Perhaps you are wondering, “What was said that would make you think?” It was suggested that because we lived in a house provided by the church we can’t relate to people who struggle having enough money. My initial response was, “HA! Obviously, you don’t understand – the pastor in a parsonage is there because neither he nor the church has much money.”

But it got me to thinking about my life. And money. Right now, we have way more money than ever in either of our lives. I guess we both grew up middle class, but middle class in the 50s and 60s was a little different. I like to tease Mary because when she was young she got to go to a pool. I tell her, “You grew up rich. We were so poor we didn’t even know people with a pool!”

I don’t remember much before being 10 years old or so (a lot goes into that and I would write about it, only I don’t remember!). I do remember Hawai’i. There were 8 children and two parents. All living in a small three bedroom house. Our next door neighbors, the Gumapacs had 13 people living in a slightly larger house (and they had cousins in Honolulu, 18 of them living in two adjoining apartments). I shared a room with two brothers. But my sisters had it really rough: 4 girls and a baby in one room! I don’t know how my parents provided enough food for us with only my Dad working. We never went out to eat, probably in part because they had not yet invented all the fast food joints we have now. Our big night out was going to a Shakey’s Pizza Parlor. We could watch them make the pizza. I always got a pepperoni and green pepper pizza, even though I didn’t like green peppers. No one ever bothered to tell me I could order the pizza minus the peppers! We got most of our clothes from the Salvation Army, but so did a whole lot of other people. When I was in the 6th grade I was a Junior Police Officer (crossing guards). We had to wear khaki pants, which in those days was poor man’s clothes. Then they changed it to blue pants. Rather than buying me a new pair of pants my mother dyed my khakis blue. I took a lot of ribbing the next time I wore my “new” blue pants! When we got into high school we began to get store bought pants. And since most people had very little money school lunches were subsidized and only cost 25¢, and everyone had to spend a week working in the cafeteria. But we were happy. I knew there were some folk who had more than we did but it didn’t bother me – I could beat most of them up, I mean, most everybody was in the same condition we were. Beginning with my 9th grade year, my Dad wanted me to go to school in the next town. So he got a “District Exception.” What he didn’t get was a ride. This meant I had to find my own way from Kaneohe to Kailua, so I hitch-hiked to school. In those days I hitch-hiked everywhere. But it is true, we endured all this while living in Hawai’i!

My Dad died and after my junior year we had to move to Nashville. What culture shock! The first summer we lived with my Grandparents. Some of us slept in a travel trailer in their driveway. We must have moved up in the world because we rented a house then my Mother bought a house. January after I graduated (another long story) I went off to the University of Tennessee at Martin. I came home in the summer and went back that fall. While at school this time my Mother re-married and moved to California. So there I was, stuck in Martin, TN. In the midst of all this I had met Mary and we had begun to talk about marriage. Long story short, I dropped out of school and began working at a Sonic Drive In.

Then we were married. I was 20, she was 19. I was working at Sonic and she was still in nursing school. Like college students everywhere, we had no money. When she graduated we moved to Memphis so I could pursue my schooling at Mid-South Bible College while she got into nursing. When she got pregnant I had to go to work full time and school part time while she stayed home with our first daughter. Eventually I graduated and headed off to the ministry.

My first church, Pensacola, was very small. As was the salary. We were there for a couple of years and then moved to Macon. A bigger church but not by much. After 3 years we moved to York. This was a little bigger church and more financially stable. All three churches provided a parsonage. This was part of the older way of doing things. But we weren’t getting rich. The unspoken arrangement was, “We can’t offer you a lot of money but we can offer a house for you and your family.” But you know what, I wasn’t in the ministry for the money. Oh, I know all about how a lot of pastors are doing quite well, thank you very much. We just wanted to serve the Lord. We ate. We all wore clothes. We were happy. As little as we had, our children had way more than I had growing up. My Dad had something he called the “Weak Week” box. If you were too weak to pick up a toy then it was put in the box for a week. Oh how that killed us because we didn’t have many toys. I tried that with my girls. They wouldn’t put something away and into the box it went. A month later we discovered it was still there! They had so many toys they never missed it. The “weak week” box didn’t last long at my house.

I’m sure we could have used and would have enjoyed more money when I was growing up and when we were raising our girls. But we were happy. It is true that at one point Mary went back to work part time as a nurse and we used that money for vacations and extras. And since we had made a commitment to being home with our children, I stayed home with the girls when she would work. Now we have more money than ever. Of course, the children are all grown and gone. Most of them far away! Of course with more money comes more taxes, ugh!

But let me stress again, this is not a thinly veiled response to that facebook conversation I alluded to. Everybody has to make their own choices and live with the consequences. It just got me thinking about our lives. We didn’t have a lot when we were raising our girls and even less when we were young. But we had enough. I have never been that interested in having a lot of money, anyway. Good thing, huh? ’cause we never did. Until now, or so the tax man sayeth!

Another favorite carol

My last post was “One of my favorite Christmas Carols”  about an old and obscure song that I had introduced to the church. The carol? "A Great and Mighty Wonder." And I said it was one of my all-time favorites. And that got me to thinking about another song I introduced that became one of my favorites – “From Heaven Above To Earth I Come.” It was written by Martin Luther for his son Hans in 1540. Luther, who loved Christmas, entitled it Vom Himmel hoch da komm ich her. Since most of us don’t know German, it was translated into English by Catherine Winkworth in 1855. (If you know and like hymns, especially older hymns, then you are familiar with Winkworth as well as J.M. Neale.) We sang this to the tune, Sagina (And Can It Be That I Should Gain – a hymn I believe every Christian knows by heart!) I hope I am remembering this right, but I think I remember the praise team singing the first two stanzas and then the congregation joined in on the third stanza. If not, that is how I always wanted to do it! Another great carol!

From Heaven Above To Earth I Come

ANGEL
From Heaven above to earth I come
To bear good news to every home;
Glad tidings of great joy I bring
Whereof I now will say and sing:
To you this night is born a child
Of Mary, chosen mother mild;
This little child, of lowly birth,
Shall be the joy of all your earth.

"This is the Christ, our God and Lord,
Who in all need shall aid afford;
He will Himself your Savior be,
Himself from sin will make you free.
He brings those blessings, long ago
Prepared by God for all below;
Henceforth His kingdom open stands
Open to people in all lands.

CONGREGATION
Now let us all with gladsome cheer
Follow the shepherds, and draw near
To see what God for us has done
In sending us His glorious Son.
Give heed, my heart, lift up thine eyes!
Who is it in yon manger lies?
Who is this lovely baby boy?
’Tis Jesus Christ our only joy.

Welcome to earth, Thou noble guest,
Through whom e'en wicked men are blest!
In mercy come to our distress,
How can we thank thy gentleness?
Ah, Lord, who didst all things create,
How cam’st Thou to this estate,
To make the hay and straw thy bed
Whereon the ox and ass are fed?

And thus, dear Lord, it pleaseth Thee
To make this truth quite plain to me,
That all the world's wealth, honor, might,
Are naught and worthless in Thy sight.
Ah! dearest Jesus, Holy Child,
Make Thee a bed, soft, undefiled,
Within my heart, that it may be
A quiet chamber kept for Thee.

My heart for very joy doth leap,
My lips no more can silence keep;
I too must sing with joyful tongue
That sweetest ancient cradle-song—
Glory to God in highest Heaven,
Who unto man His Son hath given!
While angels sing with pious mirth
A glad new year to all the earth

One of my favorite Christmas Carols

We went to church this morning and sang Christmas Carols. That was nice. And how those brethren sang! As we sang, I remembered that I regularly introduced a new Christmas Carol every year. Usually some really old obscure song that I had discovered. You see, I had learned that old Christmas songs had really great words, and if we could learn them they would be brand new songs to us.

One of my all-time favorites is "A Great and Mighty Wonder." This was written in the 7th century by St. Germanus and the original title was μεγα και παραδοξον Θαυμα. It had been translated into English by John Mason Neale (who translated a lot of ancient songs). All of this was in its favor. All we had to do was learn the tune. The hymnbook had put it to Ellacombe (The Day of Resurrection, another old hymn also translated by J.M. Neale!), which is a bright tune and easy to learn. So we learned it and sang it every Advent season thereafter.

I love this carol and am enjoying singing it again. I hope you can join me. If you don’t know it or have forgotten how it goes, just grab a hymnbook and look up the tune Ellacombe. I mean, everybody has like 10 different hymnbooks lying around, right? OK, so maybe collecting hymnbooks is one of my eccentricities! But you can also go here for the sheet music.

A great and mighty wonder.
A full and holy cure:
The Virgin bears the Infant
With virgin honor pure!

Repeat the hymn again:
Repeat the hymn again:
"To God on high be glory
And peace on earth to men!"

The Word becomes incarnate
And yet remains on high,
And cherubim sing anthems
To shepherds from the sky.

While thus they sing your Monarch,
Those bright angelic bands,
Rejoice, ye vales and mountains,
Ye oceans, clap your hands.

Since all He comes to ransom.
By all be He adored,
The Infant born in Bethlehem,
The Savior and the Lord.
__________________________
"A Great and Mighty Wonder"
μεγα και παραδοξον Θαυμα
St. Germanus, 634-734
Translated by John M. Neale, 1818-1866

My daughter knows Uzbeks or, We were a “cutting edge” church

In a recent Facebook post, my daughter, who is living and working in South Korea, casually mentioned that there were Uzbeks at a restaurant she was at. I was shocked and asked her, There are Uzbeks in Gimahe, South Korea? She said there were quite a few.

OK, you may be wondering, What are Uzbeks? And, What does this have to do with the church you used to pastor being cutting edge? Fair enough. Uzbeks are the people from Uzbekistan. What? You’ve never heard of Uzbekistan? All this got me to thinking about being an innovative church and I immediately thought of three ways that we were on the cutting edge.

Contemporary Worship. We were by no means the first church to ever use contemporary music etc. We may well have been the first in York. But that wasn’t our goal, we just wanted to encourage people to worship the Lord - so, we went contemporary and casual before it was the cool thing to do. But we messed it up by insisting on having Scripture reading and prayer time in our services! This has obviously become popular and “in.”

But, being true to myself, I also latched on to two other “cutting edge” practices that have not as yet gained wide spread approval.

Praying Through the Window. For years I had been using Patrick Johnstone’s Operation World in my private devotions. And they began to talk about the 10/40 Window (“The 10/40 Window is located from 10 degrees south to 40 degrees north of the equator. There are 69 nations across northern Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia in the 10/40 Window. Nearly 4 billion people live here, including 90 percent of the world's poorest of the poor. It is estimated that 1.6 billion of these people have never had the chance to hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ - not even once! The seat of every major non-Christian religion - Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Animism, Atheism, and Sikhism - is headquartered in the 10/40 Window. Two-thirds of the world’s population (4 billion) live in the 68 nations of the 10/40 Window” click here for more info ). I believe we began participating from the beginning. Window International Network provides a 31 day calendar with information about and prayer points for each nation and people group in the window. We made calendars available for personal use and then prayed as a church during these 31 days. Since Uzbekistan is in the window we prayed for them.

Ramadan. As a church we observed Ramadan. Not really. But we did participate in 30 Days of Prayer for the Muslim World.  And these 30 days always took place during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. This grew out of Praying Through The Window and I’m sure that is how we heard of this. And since Uzbekistan is 96% Muslim, we prayed for them then too. So we prayed for Uzbekistan at least twice a year.

I know they are out there, but I have never known another church that participated in Praying Through the Window or 30 Days of Prayer. (We also took part in the Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church. I knew of one other pastor who did as well). That has got to be the definition of cutting edge – being out in front of everybody else! Although honestly, that was not why we participated. We were part of the Christian & Missionary Alliance and our motto was Pray · Give · Go. So we were praying for the unreached of the world.

Anyway, I thought it was cool that my daughter had met Uzbeks in Korea, even though they were in her words, “super drunk.” And it got me to thinking about Uzbekistan and how I knew of it and I realized, "We were cutting edge." Just not in a cool way! My hope is: that it was truly a good work; and if it was a good work, in the promise, For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love, which ye have shewed toward his name; and most of all, that our prayers were in some way effective and that there will be Uzbeks in that day singing with me:

I’m redeemed, I’m redeemed,
Jesus saves me and keeps me just now, Hallelujah!
And I join with the throng round the throne
In the song, I’m redeemed by the blood of the Lamb.

A good word for Advent

This is from John Wycliffe’s comments on the Creed. What a good word for the Advent season. As we celebrate His incarnation, we must also ready ourselves for His return. What a sobering picture he presents. This is the backdrop for understanding grace.

I believe that He is to come, to judge the living and the dead. Here we should believe that the same Jesus Christ, very God and very man, shall come to the judgment in the same manner, and with the same wounds that he suffered and bare with him to heaven, and shall judge all mankind, both good and evil, according to their deeds.

That shall be a dreadful judgment, and a fearful Judge. For Christ, who shall be Judge there, is now meek as a lamb, and ready to bow to mercy ; but there he will be stern as a lion to all that are damnable, and judge according to righteousness. Before the stern Judge, beholding all saints, angels, and fiends, all men and women shall yield reckoning of all their living in earth ; of all the deeds that they have done; for what intent and to whose worship they did them; and not only of great trespasses, but also of those that seem small. For of each idle word man shall account there, as Christ says himself. Each word that edifies not the hearer turns into peril to the speaker. That is an idle word which profits neither the speaker nor the hearer. And since reckoning shall be held of such, much more and without comparison, harder reckoning shall be of sinful speech, as of backbiting, slandering, scorning, false accusing, lying, swearing, cursing, and licentious speech. Also man shall yield reckoning of all the thoughts of his heart that inclined to any sin. And not only shall we account for deeds done, which we should not have done, but also of deeds left undone, that we should have done. As those that have not done works of mercy to poor needy folk, nor given to them, nor lent to them, nor helped them in their suffering, as Christ shall reveal at the judgment.

Also of all the time that man has in earth, he shall yield reckoning, how he has spent it. Also man shall account there of all his worldly goods, how he got them, kept, spent, and lent them. Also of all powers of body, as strength, comeliness, swiftness, skill of body — in whose service these have been spent.

Also each man shall yield reckoning of the keeping of his own soul. Therefore God commands in the book of his law, that each man carefully keep his own soul. The father and mother also shall account for their children whom they chastise not ; as is expressed in holy writ, how Eli was punished for his sons, because he chastised them not, as he should have done. Also each pastor shall account for his people, how he taught them by living and by word ; as God says by his prophet, a great dread shall be at his judgment.

Of the multitude of accusers, man's own conscience, which is defiled with sin and not amended, shall accuse him, not secretly but openly. Also a man's own sins, which he would not leave, shall accuse him. Also holy writ shall accuse them that knew it, and heard it, and lived not according to it. Such shall bear with them the sentence of condemnation. Also God's creatures which a man has used out of measure and in sin, shall accuse him there, and be as ready to take vengeance upon him as they were before to serve him. The fiends also shall be ready there, accusing sinful men and women, for they, as traitors, enticed to the sin, and when the sin is done they will accuse man of it. And therefore in the book of Revelation the fiend is called accuser of Christian men. Also the benefits which men have received of God, who did not worship him with due service for them, shall accuse them, and be alleged against them. And the torment which Christ suffered in time of his passion, both wounds, cross, nails, and spear, shall accuse sinful men.

Therefore, all Christian people, consider this truth, and flee the unlawful lusts of your flesh, and covetings, and deceits of this deceivable world ; and believe ye and keep this firmly fixed in your mind, that Christ shall appear in the judgment, stern as a lion to wicked men's sight, and judge both the living and the dead. Of the great dread of that day God speaks by the prophet Joel. The day of the Lord shall be a great day of deliverance, a day of wrath, and of vengeance, of misery, of bitterness ; the day of complaining and of accusing, the day of dread and of trembling, the day of crying and of sorrow, the day of darkness and of mourning, the day of calamity and of bitterness ; a dreadful day of parting from God for ever.

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Joel 3:11-16
11 Assemble yourselves, and come, all ye heathen, and gather yourselves together round about: thither cause thy mighty ones to come down, O LORD.
12 Let the heathen be wakened, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat: for there will I sit to judge all the heathen round about.
13 Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe: come, get you down; for the press is full, the fats overflow; for their wickedness is great.
14 Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision: for the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision.
15 The sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their shining.
16 The LORD also shall roar out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shall shake: but the LORD will be the hope of his people, and the strength of the children of Israel.

As I said at the beginning, this is the backdrop of grace. In the light of the Day of Judgment, how sweet grace appears! How wonderful forgiveness! And how necessary repentance.

Is celebrating Christmas biblical?

This year, Advent begins November 27. The world does not understand or distinguish between Advent and Christmas. Sadly, I don’t think the average Christian does either. Well, liturgical churches probably do, but not your average evangelical church and I’m almost certain very few contemporary churches would. For so many people, the Christmas “season” begins the day after Thanksgiving. And it ends on Christmas Day. By then they are thoroughly sick of it all, having heard Christmas music since All Saints Day!

There is a difference between Advent and Christmas. And Epiphany for that matter! But I’m not writing about that. I’m asking, Is it biblical to celebrate Christmas?

There are those who emphatically say, “No!” And, Why not? “It’s not commanded or observed in the Bible.”

I will admit at the beginning, they are correct. But, does that make it unbiblical? Are we only to do things explicitly mentioned in the Bible? Think about this. We meet on Sunday, that is according to explicit apostolic practice. But, what time do we start? Not mentioned. Have a song leader or praise team to lead the singing? Not mentioned. Meet in a building? Not mentioned! And then you have TV, computers, internet, Nook Color. None of these are even remotely mentioned in the Bible.

I believe we have three criteria for determining if something is biblical: precept, prohibition, principle. If something is commanded, it is a sin not to do it. If something is prohibited, it is a sin to do it. But what if a matter is neither commanded nor forbidden? Then we apply biblical principles. When there is neither command nor prohibition we have freedom that is guided and guarded by biblical principles and the Holy Spirit.

Is celebrating the birth of Christ commanded? No. Is there an approved example of it? No. Is celebrating the birth of Christ forbidden? No. So then, does celebrating the birth of Jesus our Savior violate scriptural principles? I believe that answer is also, No.

Obviously, there are elements of Christmas celebration that are unbiblical: the parties, the drinking, the carousing, the excess, the profligacy. The rampant materialism is also a huge problem, as well as the debt caused by it. These are simply and undeniably wrong.

Advent and Christmas are part of the Church Year. This is a way of teaching the life of Jesus in an orderly way. The year consists of Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Holy Week, Easter, Pentecost, Kingdomtide. In this way, every year you cover the birth of Christ, his baptism, earthly ministry, death and resurrection, the church, and second coming. The church year is not commanded in the Bible, but is there anything wrong with it? Oh I know, it is Catholic. But you know what – GASP - not everything Catholic is wrong or bad. I have never cared for Lent and the Lenten season, but I am persuaded, if evangelical churches followed the church year in their teaching, or at least in their Scripture Readings, their people would be much more biblically literate. (Oh if we could just get all these Bible believing churches to read the Bible and pray in their worship!)

But what about the tree and wreath and lights and candles? Not to mention the Yule log – which I won’t since no one does this anymore! “Surely,” they say, “we can demonstrate that all these were at one time used by pagans in their feasts.” To me, this sounds a lot like the conflict in Corinth, “The meat in the market was dedicated to idols. You cannot buy that and be a Christian.” And the contact then was much closer than the tree and wreath are now. Paul told the Corinthians (1 Cor 8-10) that eating that meat was OK, as long as they didn’t eat it to honor the idol. I think we have a precedent here.

Now, I understand that these elements were taken up by the Church from heathens. (As were the names of each day of the week.) Those pagans were concerned about life (evergreens) and light (candles and fire) and the hope of a new day. They held these festivals in winter in the hope and anticipation that life and light and warmth would return. Does the Gospel not address these concerns? In the depth of our cold, dark, long night of despair caused by sin, Life and Light and Hope have come!

Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.

I believe this can be a great tool to help us focus on Jesus. And I am convinced that the parties and consumerism/materialism are a much greater danger to our souls than the tree. Advent and Christmas can be a wonderful time to teach the incarnation and blessings of salvation that flow from it, as well as the need to prepare myself for the return of Christ.

Do you choose not to celebrate or in any way observe Christmas? You’re free! But don’t condemn those who do.

Do you choose to celebrate Christmas? You too are free! But don’t judge those who choose not to observe it. And keep your focus on Jesus.

Christmas is such a joyful time. The lights, the tree, the candles, the music. I am persuaded this is a reflection of the “good tidings of great joy.” I think Isaac Watts got it right:

Joy to the world! the Lord is come!

Let earth receive her King;

Let every heart prepare him room,

And heav'n and nature sing.

Joy to the earth! the Savior reigns!

Let men their songs employ,

While fields and floods, rocks, hills, and plains,

Repeat the sounding joy.

No more let sins and sorrows grow,

Nor thorns infest the ground;

He comes to make his blessings flow

Far as the curse is found.

He rules the world with truth and grace,

And makes the nations prove

The glories of his righteousness,

And wonders of his love.     

(Psalm 98 Part 2 C.M. The Messiah's coming and kingdom)

Christmas is the message that Jesus, the Son of God, became a man so that we might be reconciled to the Father, and gathered into the Family of God. All through the salvation provided by the incarnation, cross, and resurrection of Jesus! Amen!

I say, Celebrate the Incarnation of the Son of God. Celebrate Jesus. Celebrate Christmas!


In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God . . . And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth . . . No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has declared him.

On The Belief

This is one of the first things I read on my new Nook color. This is from the Writings Of The Reverend And Learned John Wickliff. I am posting this, not because it is some oddity to be gawked at, but because this is quite a statement on faith and especially because it really spoke to me as soon as I read it. 
Just a few brief notes. Belief is synonymous with faith. The belief is the faith and this section serves as an introduction to an exposition of the Apostles’ Creed. The fiend is the devil. I don’t know about the original spelling, this is pretty much the way I have it. I have made a few changes to make it an easier read, such as “bears witness” for witnesseth and shows for showeth. Finally, the loadstar is the pole star, by which mariners used to steer their course at night, before the invention of the compass.

ON THE BELIEF

The ground of all goodness is stedfast faith, or belief. This, through grace and mercy, is obtained of God. Faith was the principal ground that enabled the woman of Canaan to obtain health of soul and of body of Christ, for her daughter, who was evil treated of a devil, as the gospel bears witness. And the centurion was much praised of Christ for the stedfast belief that he had in the power of his Godhead. Faith is likened to the loadstar, for it shows the haven of grace to men rowing in the sea of this world. Faith is the eastern star that leads spiritual kings to worship Jesus Christ, through withstanding of sin, as the east star led three kings when Christ was born. Faith or belief is as a stone lying in the foundation of a strong building, that bears up all the work. For as the building stands stiffly that is well grounded upon a stone, so each virtuous deed is strong when it is grounded upon the solidity of belief. For upon this stone, that is, solid faith, Christ said that he would build his church, that is, man's soul. A man that hath lost his right eye is unable to defend himself in battle, for his shield hides his left eye, and so he has no sight to defend himself from his enemy ; even so he that has lost the right eye of true faith, is unable to withstand or fight against his spiritual enemy, the devil. - Saints, as St. Paul says, through stedfastness and true faith, overcame kingdoms, Heb. xi. They overcame the kingdom of their flesh through holiness of soul and body ; and the kingdom of the world by setting at naught riches ; and the kingdom of the fiend through patience and meekness. The want of stedfast faith is the chief cause why men fall into deadly sin. For if a man truly believed that soon after he committed a sin, he should lose one of his limbs, he would through that belief keep himself, and flee from that sin. How much more if he believed that God would punish him in body and soul for evermore, if he died in that sin? If man's belief and trust were firmly set in God, all fear of man, fantasies, and fear of this world, would grieve him but little, or not at all. Christ said to his disciples, that if their faith were as great as the seed of mustard, and they should say to this hill, Pass hence, it should pass ; and nothing should be impossible to them. St. Jerome says that faith is likened to the seed. If the seed be not broken, the virtue thereof is not known ; but the more it is pounded, even the stronger it smells ; even so a man who is firmly grounded in the faith, the more he is pounded by persecution, the greater and the more fervent is his belief. Thus if man's faith were as great as the mustard seed, he should remove from himself the hill of pride, and all other false deceits of the fiend.

This faith makes our souls so able to receive heavenly gifts, that we may get whatever we desire of the faithful Lord. Oh, blessed is the soul that believes right and lives well, and in well living keeps true faith. While Peter had true faith, he went upon the sea as upon dry land ; but when the firmness of his faith failed, he began to sink, and therefore Christ reproved him as of little faith. Thus it fares with us, who are staggering and unstedfast with the wind of each temptation or fear. Therefore, brethren, let us set all our belief and full trust on Him who is almighty, and not in any vain thing that may fail in any time. Trust we stedfastly that nothing may grieve us farther than He will suffer it, and all things which he sends come for the best. And let no wealth of this failing world, neither tribulation, draw our hearts from firm belief in God. Let us not put our belief or trust in charms, or in dreams, or any other fantasies ; but only in Almighty God. And let each man and woman take heed to themselves, for good living makes man to have firm belief and trust in God, and evil works draw him into despair.

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Amen! The part that I have put in bold is the part that spoke to me. Spoke? Convicted me. God forgive me for my "want [or lack] of stedfast faith."

I just want to be happy

A friend of mine told me about a recent encounter he had with a young man. This young man has a habit of getting into trouble and my friend asked him, “What do you want out of life?” He answered, “I just want to be happy.”

I’ve been thinking about that.

What is happy? I’ve looked up the word and done a brief etymological study. I know how it feels, but I cannot put into words what it is! Is it the same as satisfied? content? fulfilled? pleased? excited? fun?

Is it wrong to want to be happy? I don’t think so. I don’t think anybody says, “I want to be sad or miserable all my life.” Is happy a goal or a by-product? Can I say “My goal in life is to be happy?” Of course I can say it, but is it realistic?

I’m not mocking the young man. His statement has caused me to think about this. When pressed, he defined happy as having what he wanted. And most of us would agree, we are happy when things go our way or we get or have what we want. So, happiness often seems to depend on our circumstances. But is this dependable? How many of us get everything we want? All the time. And have you noticed that sometimes the thing you think you need to be happy doesn’t work as planned?

Like Breyers Peanut Butter Cup Ice Cream. Not too long ago I was at Bi-Lo and saw some. Oooh, it looked good and I wanted it. I wrestled with this during my next couple of trips to the store. Finally I decided, this would make me happy. Alas, I was disappointed when I had my first bowl. It did not make me happy.

Surely there is nothing wrong with having what you want, but just as surely you can’t pin your hopes of being happy on that. Well, except for a Nook Color. I’m pretty sure I would be happy with that!

Therefore, I think that happiness itself cannot be your goal in life. You can’t aim for it in the sense, “If I have or do (fill in the blank), I will be happy.” Happiness has to come from another well. Because no one gets everything they want all the time. Besides, if you always got everything you wanted, when you wanted it, would you ever develop character? Trials, difficulties, disappointments, delays etc develop strength, patience, endurance, perspective. Now, I’m no different than anyone else, I don’t want delays and disappointments any more than you. And I don’t always respond well to them either. But we have to admit, they are a part of life.

This friend of mine participates in triathlons. This involves a lot of training. Is it fun to run, swim, and bike all the time? Is he happy when he is climbing another seemingly endless hill? Is he even happy during the grueling meet itself? Honestly, I don’t really know, but I kinda doubt it. It must make him happy because he continues to do it, but I would guess the happiness is the fruit of this.

Don’t we all do things we don’t want to do, just because they need to be done? Take work for example. Are you always happy to have to go to work? Are you always happy to cut the grass, take out the garbage, fix supper, wash dishes. I’m gonna guess, No. Yet we do these things because they need to be done and that is what responsible people do. You can be happy while doing them, or happy to have them done. But that is my point – happiness cannot be tied too closely to circumstances, it has to have another source.

Again, that is not to say that circumstances themselves can’t make you happy. I’m pretty sure that I will be happy if I am able to get an iPod!

I see a lot of people come to my store who seem pretty unhappy, like they have bad circumstances AND have not found the other source of happiness. Just sour people. I see a lot of men with their girl friends or wives who look exasperated and totally put out with everything the girl says or does. I’m always amazed because THAT itself would make me unhappy, but the women seem totally oblivious to it. I always think, your guy is such an unhappy camper, why are you with him? I’ve noticed a lot of parents are like that with their children. That is sad.

So, what is happy? It is hard to put into words, but I know it when I feel it. Can your goal in life be, “I just want to be happy”? Of course, you can have any kind of life goal you want, but I think if this is your goal you will be sorely disappointed. I don’t think happiness is something you can aim for, it has to be the fruit of the way we live. And I think we have to be careful not to tie it too closely to possessions and circumstances. We have to find that other fountain that transcends these. And I repeat, I don’t think it is wrong to be happy because of possessions or circumstances. For example, I am always much happier when I’ve had enough sleep!

And then there is the deeply personal question, Am I happy? I am today, because this is my day off!

Since I believe in Jesus, I have to wonder if the Bible says anything about happy. You know what, it does. Maybe I will write another post on what the Bible says about it. Meanwhile, in closing let me quote a stanza from one of my favorite hymns.

Worthy is the Lamb, who shed His precious blood
To restore a world to happiness and God
“When no eye could pity and no arm could save,”
Jesus for our ransom, Himself freely gave.  ~ Johnson Oatman, Jr.

I used to have problems with the second line. But I don’t any more. I believe one of the results of being reconciled to God is a happy life. But then, that is another post!

My Debt to the C&MA

When I became a Christian I joined a Baptist church. One Sunday night my pastor recommended a book (The Holy Spirit: Who He Is and What He Does by R.A. Torrey) that had a tremendous impact on me. Then I went off to college and was introduced to the charismatic renewal. As a result my eyes were opened – God still wants to do what the New Testament talks about! We moved to Memphis and the Baptist church we were an active part of made it clear, they wanted to no part of baptism with the Spirit, spiritual gifts, healing and more. So we had a parting of the ways.

We were churchless. Then I began to listen to a local pastor on the radio – Loren Calkins of Alliance Bible Church. He was going through the Book of Acts. I was impressed: he was going through verse by verse AND whatever it said, he believed. Not only did it happen then but similar things happened now. And he didn’t make a big deal of it, there was just room for God to be God and do what He said.

One afternoon he talked about something he called The Four Fold Gospel. That is, Jesus Christ our Savior, Sanctifier, Healer, and Coming King. I was excited. When I got home I told Mary about it. “I just heard about this Four Fold Gospel. I’m not sure about the Sanctifier part but this sounds a lot like where we are!”

I contacted Pastor Calkins. He visited us and we visited the church. We were still so Baptist that we said, Let’s give it a month and if we like it we will join. At the end of the month we joined the church. We affiliated with this church, a part of the Christian and Missionary Alliance because of the Four Fold Gospel and their openness to God. I found out later on that not everyone was so open to the gifts etc. As a result of their interaction with the early Pentecostal movement (some of this movement came out of the Alliance, such as the Assemblies of God and Four Square), the Alliance had developed a position toward spiritual gifts: “Seek not, forbid not.” This is an obvious compromise and in some cases the actual position was, “Seek not, forbid not, hope not, better not.” Despite this, there was expectation of fullness of life and blessing.

I can tell you wonderful stories of this expectation. I remember hearing Bob Battles sharing about an earlier day when there were three lines at the altar during the invitation (salvation, sanctification, healing) and that they used to sing, “I was there when the fire fell!” Then there was the fairly new Christian (I can’t recall his name, but I heard him tell this story), saved under Glen Tingley’s amazing ministry in Alabama, who was sent out to pastor a new work. A woman came to the altar to be anointed with oil for healing. He objected, “Sister, I’m not sure about this. I need to look into this.” She said, “Pastor, I don’t have time for you to study this. I hurt too bad. Pray for me!” He did and the next thing he knew she was running around the auditorium, praising God for her healing! And then there was L.L. King. He told us how he came to pastor a church in Nebraska and discovered the young people were not interested in spiritual things. He set about praying for them to be saved. And every single one was born again while he was the pastor! All with just an emphasis on Jesus.

But the bonus was missions. We were introduced to the world, God’s working in the world, and these amazing people called missionaries. I know the SBC has the largest Protestant missionary force, but when I was in the SBC I never met missionaries. I only knew about the Annie Armstrong and Lottie Moon Easter and Christmas offerings. In the Alliance, missions was our middle name. Literally!

And what stories we could tell about missions! The first church I was pastored was Brent Alliance in Pensacola. Once a month those dear ladies would meet as the Women’s Missionary & Prayer Fellowship. The meeting would start at 7 pm and routinely lasted until 10:30 or 11:00 pm, with most of that time spent in prayer. We learned where Irian Jaya was and how Bill and Gracie Cutts went to work among the Moni tribe. They prayed and preached but nothing happened. Nothing. Then one day they woke up and found their yard full of people who explained, “We are hungry for God” and a great awakening occurred among them! I was reminded of this when a friend said to me, in a discussion about “seeker sensitive” churches, “No one ever goes to church seeking God.” I disagreed and he amended his statement. And it reminded me, the Moni came seeking God before there was a church! Then there was R.A. Jaffray. He went to China, then to the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia). While in China, in a prayer meeting, God poured out His Spirit upon them and all the gifts were manifested. No hype, no fanfare, just life. John A. MacMillan  went to China and then the Philippines. He wrote a book, The Authority of the Believer, which was about spiritual warfare - before the charismatic movement. Powerful teaching. Once again, and this was the coolest thing, there was no “Look at me, see what I can do.” It was simply the expected fullness of Jesus. We had a strong work in Viet Nam that was mightily affected by the war. When the Montagnards (mountain people from Viet Nam) came to the US, we were in York and took a lot of aid to Raleigh, where Betty Mitchell was. Then Helen Evans came to Charlotte to work with them there. Both of these sisters had been missionaries in Viet Nam. In fact, Charlie Long, then the pastor in Raleigh, had also been a missionary among the Montagnards and worked on a Bible translation for them. The last I heard, Helen was in her 80s and still working with them! Amazing and awesome people. And every year we had two missionaries for our annual Missions Conference (I still prefer the older name, Missionary Convention). So I have many more stories like these.

I know this is rather random and even disconnected. But it is my friend’s fault. His comment got me thinking about all this. The Christian & Missionary Alliance has changed a lot in the last few years, especially the last five years and I am no longer affiliated with them. But I am grateful for the years I was with them. And still long for a church where the fullness of life in Jesus is taught and expected and experienced, and where the mission is: “The Whole Gospel for the Whole Man for the Whole World.”

Do you like working third shift?

I am constantly amazed that I get asked very few personal questions. There are people I talk to and I know a lot about their lives and they know . . . my name! I know all about them but their name. I did get asked once, “What are you doing working here?” But the most common question is, “Do you like working third shift?”

Good question. Most of the time it seems to be linked with either “Aren’t you scared to work third?” or “I would be too scared to work nights.” So, first of all, I am not afraid at night. I am constantly amazed at how many people are ruled by fear. The promise is, For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.

Now, back to the question of whether I like third shift. Sure. As long as I can sleep during the day! You see, I sleep all day and even if I wake up at 5 pm, I still have 5-7 hours before I go to work again. I like that. It feels like you have a life.

As far as this job is concerned, I like third shift best. I always have a variety of things to do, besides people. There is usually a time when there are very few people coming (as in periods of no activity on the road at all). During those times I head to the cooler and my favorite, outside.

It is really nice to get outside and wander around the lot. I especially like the cooler nights. It is awesome to watch the moon – we create such light pollution the moon is about all I can see. I love it when I go out and there is no activity at all. It is nice when it rains and awesome when it snows. Of course, I love snow so that is no surprise.

I find it most amazing when it warms up during the night. Yes, warms up. It surprises me every time. I come to work and it is kinda cool and then by 2 or 3 I realize, “It is warmer than when I got here.”

Now, after all this nice and quiet it is quite a shock when people start coming back in because they are up and heading to work!

So, it would seem that I like third shift because it is quiet, slower, offers me a variety of work to do and a chance to get outside. I can be alone and think about a lot of different things. Sometimes sing, sometimes write. There are also people that I talk to and a couple that have become my friends. I don’t consider myself a “people person” but there is God’s grace! A guy I was training noticed that people talk to me and said, “They tell you everything” after a woman I had never seen before or since shared with me rather personal relationship matters. And they do, because I care and notice them and inquire into how things are going for them. I have a few people who come by and hang around a while and we talk like old friends. I don’t mean to imply no one else here does this, I’m just writing about what I like about third shift.

But there is a downside.

The people. Just as there are people I like and minister to, there are people I do not like. I don’t even know them but I don’t like them. I’m nice and all that… Second shift gets angry people and I get weird people. And a lot of people on something. I have several regulars that I don’t think I have ever seen sober. Ever.

I have to count my drawer more than anyone else. When I arrive, at 5 for 'close of day', the other drawer whether I get on it or not (end of day paperwork), then when I get off.

I also have to count every cigarette in the house every night.

There is nobody awake at night, so if I have a problem I have to figure it out on my own. If I ever get robbed no one will know until the morning! I hurt my back one night in the cooler. I could barely get back up. It was 3 am and I had to wait for the next shift to come in because I knew no one would be awake to answer their phone! How bad? I wound up in the ER and was written out of work for three days.

Sleep is a big problem. We have “blacked out” our room and that helps a lot. It’s not as dark as I would make it, but it helps a lot. If not for that I would lay down and in an hour, two at the most, I would be wide awake. People ask me all the time, “How do you stay awake at night? Energy drinks?” I tell them I just try to get enough sleep. I do not drink those energy drinks.

The biggest problem and drawback to third shift is your days off. You really need two in a row because the first day is often a wasted day. You are never sure, Do I sleep all day, feel good but stay up all night? Or, Do I stay up all day and fall asleep about 7? Or, Do I sleep a couple of hours and hope to fall asleep around 10 or 11? I’ve done all three. The second day is a much more normal day. Even so, it is not unusual to wake up around 3 or 4 at night. What do you do then? I try to fall back asleep, but when that happens I am usually fully awake by 5. But I just get up, whether it is 3, 4 or 5, and take solace in this, I don’t have to go to work!

As you can see, the third shift person thinks about sleep all the time. You never seem to get enough and when you do sleep it is really sweet. Often my best sleep comes the day I go back to work. There have been several times when I didn’t sleep well Sunday and Monday and then slept most of Tuesday before going back to work! Oh well. And, your first night back is often the most difficult because you haven’t had enough sleep.

The deeper question is of course, Do you like working here? But that is another post. Let’s just say I feel like Moses in the desert. And I don’t mean I am another Moses! Just that I’m in a desert place. Maybe more like Israel in the wilderness. I just hope I haven’t already been to Kadeshbarnea!

Now it's late and I'm off to work!

Granddaddy, why do we have to warm up chicken mcnuggets?

“Granddaddy, why do we have to warm up chicken mcnuggets? And why do cold drinks get warm?” Great question. I love such inquisitiveness.

I launched into an explanation of the second law of thermodynamics: “over time, differences in temperature, pressure, and chemical potential equilibrate in an isolated physical system.” Right. He’s 9, so I paraphrased it. Ha! I need it paraphrased. Anyway, I said that warm things (like chicken mcnuggets) lose their heat until they reach the outside temperature and cold things lose their cold until they too reach room temperature. So, food needs to be heated and drinks need to be cooled.

Often this second law is presented as the law of decay, as in ‘this is why everything tends to fall apart.’ While this is true, I think this is essentially a matter of energy – without an outside supply, everything loses energy. This loss of energy is really a transfer of energy as everything has a tendency to balance.

Later on that night I thought more about this. Does the 2nd law of thermodynamics apply to the spiritual life? Does hanging out with lethargic, apathetic, skeptical people affect you? Will hanging out with joyful, excited, active, believing people have an impact on you? I believe the answer is self evident. If you hang out with apathetic or skeptical people there is a tendency to become like them. If you are already skeptical, you most likely will not rise above them. If you hang out with excited, believing people there is a tendency to be lifted above your complacency. On the other hand, since we are people and not chicken nuggets, such people may repulse us. We may decide we don’t like the people we are around and choose another environment. Free will sure messes with the 2nd law!

Personally, is there a tendency for me to lose energy? Is this also not self evident? We are prone to think that one spiritual encounter is good for the rest of our lives. But do we not need fresh infusions of love, joy, faith, the Holy Spirit? Left to ourselves we run down, run out. This physical law seems to apply to the spiritual realm as well.

Jesus said, I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. Here, cold and hot are both good things, and both require an outside source of energy to maintain. Without that energy we become lukewarm, the same temperature as everyone around us. And lukewarm doesn’t seem to impress Jesus. The good news is, God has not left us to ourselves, he warms up our chicken nuggets and cools down our Wild Cherry Pepsi!

The question then is, How does God do this? What are His means of grace to supply new infusions of energy? I know what they are and I need to avail myself of them lest I become lukewarm and spewable.

I talked to my Grandson about Halloween

The other day my Grandson asked me about Halloween. “Granddaddy, why don’t you do Halloween?”

What a tricky spot! I know there are those who would consider this a good time for a tirade against the evils of Halloween, but he’s 9. And his family does Halloween.

Instantly my mind was filled with all kinds of thoughts. The history of Halloween and all of our reasons for not participating.

Halloween began as a Celtic celebration, Samhain. November 1 marked the beginning of the new year for the Celts (especially of Ireland) and this was a period of “no time” for them, with the climax on October 31 (their days began with evening, so the night of October 31 was for them the beginning of November 1). This was a time when the spirits of the dead would roam the country side. The people would light bonfires so they could see. They would also have lanterns made from pumpkins and other gourds. Offerings (treats) would also be left out for these spirits so that they would not do mischief (tricks) etc.

The Catholic Church (this is not an attack on Catholics, they were the only church in the area at the time!), in an attempt to aid the full conversion of the Irish and English, offered the first alternative. They moved All Saints Day to November 1st. In those days All Saints Day was known as All Hallows Day, hallow being the Old English word for holy. Since for both the Celts and Anglo-Saxons the day begins the night before, that made October 31 All Hallows Evening, shortened to All Hallows e’en. I mean, if you are going to remember the dead, why not dead saints, right? This idea obviously did not really work.

All this went through my head. How much of this will he understand? How do I answer his question and honor his parents who allow him to participate in Halloween?

Finally, I said, “Well, since you asked . . .” I simply explained that Halloween emphasizes death and witches and spirits and we didn’t want to do that so we didn’t take part. “Didn’t you go trick or treating when you were a kid?” “Yes, we did.” I didn’t tell him that we did a lot of tricking too.

After my brief explanation he replied, “I don’t do any of the witches and spirits. I’m just having fun.” I said I knew that and tried to emphasize that we weren’t saying we were better than anybody or that people were bad because they did Halloween, that was simply the way we tried to honor the Lord. This led into another discussion about the original Santa Claus, St. Nicholas. We’ve talked about Nicholas a lot lately.

I also told him that we used to offer an alternative and called it Fall Festival. He had only heard about Trunk or Treat and asked about that. He probably knows more about that than I do. I told him that we used to have a big party at church: we would have games and candy, a big fire, cook hot dogs and make s’mores, and have a hay ride. Those were a lot of fun. (I know there are people who are so opposed to Halloween that they oppose the Fall Festival as well. And that’s fine. We just need to walk in love toward one another.)

Anyway, I tried to answer his question and explain why we didn’t do Halloween without making him feel bad or his parents look bad. He asked me if I was working on Halloween and I told him, “I work every Halloween.” Then I found out Tuesday night that I am off! Yeah! I hate working Halloween, one of the three biggest drinking nights in Rock Hill. When I called to tell him I was off, he asked me to go trick or treating with him! How do I get myself into these spots??

Labels

When I was in Bible College I had to take a class on personal evangelism. We did a lot of door-to-door witnessing. Every Catholic I encountered told me the same thing, “I was born Catholic, raised Catholic, I hope I die Catholic.” As a result I determined that I just wanted to be known as a Christian. I wasn’t opposed to denominations as such, I simply didn’t want that label to become my identity. At the time I was a part of a group known as the Christian & Missionary Alliance (more about them later). Just before graduating I attended my first District and Prayer Conference in the Southern District. The first night of Conference, a brother stood up to share (he was pastor of one of the churches in Birmingham). He said, “I was born in the Alliance, raised in the Alliance, and I hope to die in the Alliance.” I wondered, What am I getting into? Labels!

When I began this blog someone asked me if I was Reformed. I answered, "I have a lot of respect for the Reformation and the reformers, but I am not Reformed." I have since suspected they no longer read my blog (that would have to be the reason since my posts are well written and incredibly interesting!). I’ve read a good bit of Calvin and Luther and Zwingli. And I searched diligently for Zwingli because he is the forgotten one. After reading his stuff I know why! I enjoy Calvin’s commentaries and his Institutes of the Christian Religion gave me a love for the Church. But I really enjoy Luther’s sermons the most. What a heart he had for the people – you can feel it in his sermons. Yet I am not a Lutheran and I’m not a Calvinist.

Just the other day I was called an Arminian. Which I think is funny because I have only read one work of Jacobus Arminius, and I have to confess, I couldn’t follow it – very scholarly. Oh, I know the “points” set forth by the Remonstrants and that most people today are not aware of them and that modern “Arminianism” bears little resemblance to them. Truth is, most of contemporary Arminianism is a lot more like Pelagianism. Another label! While someone may find Arminian leanings in me, they definitely will not find any Pelagianism.

I always preached and taught from the Bible. Nevertheless, a local Presbyterian once called me a “liberal.” Why would he do that? We had women deacons (deaconesses). Never mind that it was a result of a literal reading of the Bible that led us to that conclusion! What really is a liberal and conservative anyway? “Liberal” occurs in the Bible and means generous and is a good thing. “Conservative” doesn't occur at all. Oh, I know how they are used. Most people would call me stupid and out of date and stubborn before calling me liberal! I like how Adam Hall (better known as Rabbi) described liberal, “A liberal is anybody to the left of you.”

Another label applied to our church was “charismatic.” Probably because we went to a “contemporary” worship service way before it was the in thing. That is, we had a praise team and an overhead projector, and encouraged people to sing and clap and raise their hands. We just wanted people to worship God in Spirit and in truth. We sang choruses and hymns, read Scripture and had prayer time, and allowed people to testify. We were indeed open to whatever God wanted to do and if that included manifestations of the Spirit, then that was great! I was in York for 20 years and we never had a public manifestation of tongues. But we were charismatic! Someone from the District office visited me one day and when he saw our drums and guitars on the platform he commented, “You certainly look like a Full-Gospel church.” I asked him, “What’s the alternative, Half-Gospel?” Labels!

I believe in the sovereignty of God, am I Reformed? I believe man has a choice, am I Arminian? I believe in the baptism with the Spirit, am I Pentecostal? I believe the gifts are still for today, am I charismatic? I believe in baptism by immersion for those who are able to confess their faith, am I Baptist? I believe the history of God’s dealings with mankind is marked by different covenants, am I Covenant? I believe there is a difference between the Old and New Testaments and that we are no longer under the law, am I Dispensational? I believe the Bible is the Word of God, am I a Fundamentalist? I believe the Catholic and Orthodox Churches really can trace their roots back to the New Testament, does that make me Catholic? Orhtodox? I’ve read a lot of John Wesley’s sermons and like Charles’ hymns, am I Methodist? Read more A.B. Simpson, am I . . . wait, he has no following. Oh yeah, the Christian & Missionary Alliance. Am I Alliance? Can’t be, they kicked me out. So many labels. Reminds me of the time in Bible College when we were discussing the millennial positions, you know: pre-mill, post-mill, a-mill. One brother said, “I’m wind-mill. I believe it’s all gonna blow over!” I’m classical pre-mill (how’s that for a label?) but that’s still funny!

My main problem is all this reminds me of the situation in Corinth, “Now this I say, that every one of you saith, I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ.” And what was it the Holy Spirit said about that? “while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I of Apollos; are ye not carnal?” I just want to be Christian. Apostolic. Holding to what they wrote (the Scriptures) and the faith they deposited in the Church (Apostle’s and Nicene creeds). None of these other labels are found in the Bible.

Now, I don’t want to pretend to be more spiritual than anyone else. When I am looking for a church I check out their statement of faith, just like everyone else. There are things I look for and notice, that I am drawn to and tend to avoid. And I know that I am reading the label just like everyone else. I just wish more folks would emphasize the “Christian” first and their distinctives second. Like Wildwood Calvary Chapel in Yucaipa, CA. They have a great statement of faith. It begins, “We believe in what is termed "The Apostles' Creed" as embodying all the fundamental doctrines of orthodox evangelical Christianity.” They then go on to spell out what they emphasize. Great! I was so impressed that we attended while we were out there. Wonderful service. There were three reasons I was drawn to the Christian & Missionary Alliance: their distinctive - the Four Fold Gospel, their missions emphasis, and their big tent approach. There was a lot of diversity within the Alliance. Fellowship was not based on agreement on every detail, but on Jesus who is bigger than our differences. I liked that. That seems so Christian, so apostolic to me.

So, I am simply a Christian. Oh, I have distinctive beliefs, but I will read a wide variety of authors: Calvin and Luther and Wesley and Simpson and Chrysostom and listen to an even wider spectrum of speakers and fellowship with everyone who believes in Jesus, because the Holy Spirit says, “Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are yours;  Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours; And ye are Christ's; and Christ is God's.” To that I say, Amen.

Early Church on The Image of God

My last post consisted of my understanding of what the Bible says about man being created in the image of God. In this post I simply present a few selections from Irenaeus and Tertullian. I found them to be insightful and thought-provoking.

Irenaeus
130 AD – 202 AD, Bishop of Lugdunum in Gaul (now Lyon, France). He was a disciple of Polycarp who was a disciple of the Apostle John
And then, again, this Word was manifested when the Word of God was made man, assimilating Himself to man, and man to Himself, so that by means of his resemblance to the Son, man might become precious to the Father. For in times long past, it was said that man was created after the image of God, but it was not actually shown; for the Word was as yet invisible, after whose image man was created, Wherefore also he did easily lose the similitude. When, however, the Word of God became flesh, He confirmed both these: for He both showed forth the image truly, since He became Himself what was His image; and He re-established the similitude after a sure manner, by assimilating man to the invisible Father through means of the visible Word.

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Now God shall be glorified in His handiwork, fitting it so as to be conformable to, and modeled after, His own Son. For by the hands of the Father, that is, by the Son and the Holy Spirit, man, and not merely a part of man, was made in the likeness of God. Now the soul and the spirit are certainly a part of the man, but certainly not the man; for the perfect man consists in the commingling and the union of the soul receiving the spirit of the Father, and the admixture of that fleshly nature which was molded after the image of God. For this reason does the apostle declare, “We speak wisdom among them that are perfect,” terming those persons “perfect” who have received the Spirit of God, and who through the Spirit of God do speak in all languages, as he used Himself also to speak. In like manner we do also hear many brethren in the Church, who possess prophetic gifts, and who through the Spirit speak all kinds of languages, and bring to light for the general benefit the hidden things of men, and declare the mysteries of God, whom also the apostle terms “spiritual,” they being spiritual because they partake of the Spirit, and not because their flesh has been stripped off and taken away. For if any one take away the substance of flesh, that is, of the handiwork [of God], and understand that which is purely spiritual, such then would not be a spiritual man but would be the spirit of a man. But when the spirit here blended with the soul is united to [God’s] handiwork, the man is rendered spiritual and perfect because of the outpouring of the Spirit, and this is he who was made in the image and likeness of God. But if the Spirit be wanting to the soul, he who is such is indeed of an animal nature, and being left carnal, shall be an imperfect being, possessing indeed the image [of God] in his formation, but not receiving the similitude through the Spirit; and thus is this being imperfect. Thus also, if any one take away the image and set aside the handiwork, he cannot then understand this as being a man, but as either some part of a man, as I have already said, or as something else than a man. For that flesh which has been molded is not a perfect man in itself, but the body of a man, and part of a man. Neither is the soul itself, considered apart by itself, the man; but it is the soul of a man, and part of a man. Neither is the spirit a man, for it is called the spirit, and not a man; but the commingling and union of all these constitutes the perfect man.

Tertullian
Quintus Septimius Florens Tertullianus, anglicised as Tertullian (c. 160 – c. 220 AD), was a prolific early Christian author from Carthage in the Roman province of Africa. He is the first Christian author to write extensively in Latin.
In this respect will the image be less than the reality in that, while it possesses beyond doubt the true lineaments of divinity, such as an immortal soul, freedom and its own mastery over itself, reasonableness, capacity of understanding and knowledge, it is even in these respects an image still, and never amounts to the actual power of Deity, nor to absolute exemption from fault, — a property which is only conceded to God, that is, to the reality, and which is simply incompatible with an image.

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How then do you suppose that in God there is anything human, and not that all is divine? Him whom you do not deny to be God, you confess to be not human; because, when you confess Him to be God, you have, in fact, already determined that He is undoubtedly diverse from every sort of human conditions. Furthermore, although you allow, with others, that man was inbreathed by God into a living soul, not God by man, it is yet palpably absurd of you to be placing human characteristics in God rather than divine ones in man, and clothing God in the likeness of man, instead of man in the image of God. And this, therefore, is to be deemed the likeness of God in man, that the human soul has the same emotions and sensations as God, although they are not of the same kind; differing as they do both in their conditions and their issues according to their nature. I mean meekness, patience, mercy, and the very parent of them all, goodness, — why do you form your opinion of the divine displays of these (from the human qualities)? For we indeed do not possess them in perfection, because it is God alone who is perfect. So also in regard to anger and irritation. We are not affected by them in so happy a manner, because God alone is truly happy, by reason of His property of incorruptibility. Angry He will possibly be, but not irritated; anger because of the wicked, and indignation because of the ungrateful, mercy on account of the erring, and patience on account of the impenitent…

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If the number of the Trinity also offends you, as if it were not connected in the simple Unity, I ask you how it is possible for a Being who is merely and absolutely One and Singular, to speak in plural phrase, saying, “Let us make man in our own image, and after our own likeness;” whereas He ought to have said, “Let me make man in my own image, and after my own likeness,” as being a unique and singular Being? He is either deceiving or amusing us in speaking plurally, if He is One only and singular. Or was it to the angels that He spoke, as the Jews interpret the passage, because these also acknowledge not the Son? Or was it because He was at once the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, that He spoke to Himself in plural terms, making Himself plural on that very account? Nay, it was because He had already His Son close at His side, as a second Person, His own Word, and a third Person also, the Spirit in the Word, that He purposely adopted the plural phrase, “Let us make;” and, “in our image.” In the following text also He distinguishes among the Persons: “So God created man in His own image; in the image of God created He him.” Why say “image of God?” Why not “His own image” merely, if He was only one who was the Maker, and if there was not also One in whose image He made man? But there was One in whose image God was making man, that is to say, Christ’s image, who, being one day about to become Man (more surely and more truly so), had already caused the man to be called His image, who was then going to be formed of clay — the image and similitude of the true and perfect Man.

So God created man in his own image

And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.  So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. Genesis 1:26-27

Lately I’ve been contemplating man being created in the image of God. At first I was thinking in terms of what a friend of mine called “personality traits” and how they / if they reflect the image of God. For example, some people are very organized and orderly, some people have a very established routine for everything, others are creative etc. I began by wondering if these traits are a reflection of God in some way and how they might have been corrupted by sin.

As I thought about this I realized anew how foundational this is for a proper understanding of the Bible and how sad it is that you don’t hear much about this these days. I know you can’t preach on this every week and I’m aware that while I taught this I probably didn’t emphasize it as I should have, but I believe there are other reasons this is not mentioned much today. One is there is not really much teaching of the Bible these days. Oh, there is preaching every week and they often use the Bible, but there is not much depth to it. Another is that so many evangelicals are now proponents of evolution. They deny the literalness and historicity of Genesis. How can they declare verses 1-25 are purely symbolic and have no or very little relation to reality and then stop at this verse and say this is literally true? By accepting evolution they are saying we are really the image and likeness of a monkey and only secondarily the image of God. Such people have an ongoing problem with the Bible because Paul reflects a literal and historical Genesis in his epistles! But I digress.

As I meditated on this I settled on three questions about the image of God in man:
    What is the image of God?
    Was it effaced in any way by the fall?
    Does the Gospel address this and offer a remedy?

So I searched for “image” in the Bible and then I researched both Jewish thought and early Christian thought on the image of God. I discovered some neat things. But first, the Bible. And what I offer is just a summary of the teaching on the image of God.

What is the image of God?
There is a tension throughout the Scriptures between physical and spiritual image. I mean, the very word image is physical and is often used for the images the heathen made of their gods. The Jews were often tempted to make an image of God. Then in the New Testament, Jesus is said to be “the image of the invisible God.” That is, you cannot see God so he became visible to us in Jesus Christ. But surely there more to the image of God than some physical resemblance. And that is also evident in Jesus who said, If ye have seen me ye have seen the Father.” But that being said, there is no clear cut answer provided by the Scriptures, “the image of God in man is…” I don’t think it is that hard to define, but then, there has been a lot of disagreement over the years! Even so, there is something about man that reflects God. My friend suggested that this is only true of mankind considered as a whole. But I believe he is wrong. Each man bears the image of Adam who was made in the image of God. But what is it about man that reflects God? His intelligence, his free will, his ability to determine his own course, his awareness of himself, his being spiritual, his creativity, his emotions, his ability to do right and to know God, his dominion. Isn’t this cool? All of creation is God’s handiwork, but mankind is the capstone of it all. We are a part of creation, yet we are unique. We are not simply upright, hairless monkeys, fortunate accidents of time and chance. No, we were created by God in his image and after his likeness.

Was the image effaced in any way by the fall?
As in the case of creation, the church is often not teaching the fall of man. Adam was a special creation of God. But then Adam and Eve succumbed to temptation and sinned. This had a deleterious effect on mankind, yea on nature itself. “In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” What did this do to the image of God in man? Some have suggested that the image of God was completely lost by the fall. Genesis 9:6 seems to answer this for us. After the flood, when God commanded Noah and his sons to repopulate the earth, He instituted capital punishment (government) with these words, “Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man.” Even though the act of creation is past tense (made man), the image seems to essentially still be there. So, it has not been completely effaced or removed, but sin has had a significant impact. There is no doubt about this. Read the Bible. Watch the news. Work with me one night and meet some of the people I see every night! Something was lost. Something new was introduced. There is a corruption in man. The reflection of God is marred.

Does the Gospel address this and offer a remedy?
Yes. The Gospel restores the broken image of God in man. While the Old Testament mentions this image of God only in Genesis 1 and 9, the New Testament mentions it several times. And there is a new emphasis: Christ is the image of God. Here again we find the tension between the physical and spiritual. Christ is “the image of the invisible God” and “in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.” This is the incarnation. We are also told that the Son is the express image of his person. As far as the image of God in us, conversion is described as “ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.” (The old and new man are so often misunderstood: The old man is what we were in Adam, the old Adamic race; the new man is the new creation, the new race in Christ, all that we are in Christ.) And the the new man “is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him.” And “we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.” Salvation is a restoration of the image of God, yet this is renewed and deepened. Finally, there is the promise, “For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.”

Isn’t this amazing – the gospel is so much more than “Get saved and go to church.” There are depths to plumb, nuggets to discover. Such life! Such abundance! Such riches!

My next post will be excerpts from Irenaeus and Tertullian concerning the image of God.

We went to Augusta on Monday

This week I was scheduled to be off on Sunday and Wednesday. Split days off are bad enough when you work 3rd shift but we had planned to go down and see Mary K on Monday – before Deuce is born. I don’t like to do this but I called the guy who works for me on my days off and arranged it so that I could indeed be off Sunday and Monday. That helped me and him, it turns out. So Mary fixed her schedule and it was set, we were going to Augusta on Monday. All we had to do now was call Mary K and see if it would fit into her plans! Since it did, our plans were set.

Monday morning dawned and I found out that Mary had not been able to sleep the night before. She stayed up and worked on her schooling and put a Boston Butt in the crockpot to make some BBQ. But, because she had to sleep some time, we left a little later than we had planned.

I guess we got there about 1:30. Just a few minutes after Mary K had laid Lucca k down for her nap :-( So we ate some BBQ. It was really good, even though I was distressed to learn that Mary K now applies mustard sauce to her BBQ! So we visited for a while and when I went out to check on Mary K’s tomato and pepper plants – they are huge and very fruitful! – I must have let the screen door bounce because the next thing I know, they are holding Lucca, saying the door had awakened her. It really was an accident, but one that had a happy ending!

We played with Lucca, see the video on fb and then went outside and walked around the yard and neighborhood with her while Mary took a “power nap.” We went back inside and woke Mary up and went for a ride to a nearby park but it was really too wet. We went back to the house and Mary wanted to see Lucca watch Tangled. I confess, I fell asleep during the movie. Ask Tiernan, that happens a lot!

Since it was now suppertime we decided to go to Pantera Bread. I was still rather full from the BBQ (I also had a slice of home made bread that Mary K had made) so I took pictures while they ate. Lucca K wasn’t really hungry either and after a while she started asking to go outside. It was so cute, she asked her mom and got nowhere so she looked at me with a look that said, “I know you will not let me down – Outside?” And I didn’t let her down! I’ve been doing this with the grandchildren since Aimee was born. I picked her up and out we went.

We were at a strip mall, and there was another one across the street. Anyway, we walked to the end of the sidewalk to a graveled break between where we were and yet another strip mall. There was a fence and a sign that said, St. Andrew Presbyterian Church. Since it was a driveway and an open gate, in we went. Ask my girls and grandchildren, this is not at all unusual. And we discovered a little oasis. This church has a really  nice building and grounds, it is designed like a sanctuary in the midst of the commercial madness around it. We wandered around, tried a door or two, and discovered a little playground. And then after a while we returned to the restaurant.

What a great day and visit. But now it was time to come back to Rock Hill. I thought about driving home but told Mary, “With it being both night AND raining, you probably better drive.” I realize this was a wise decision since my night vision is not very good anymore and in the rain it is near terrible, but can you fathom how bad this makes you feel? I told Mary that and then asked her if she could just put a blanket across my lap!

A good day and great visit. You can see a few pictures on my fb here  Next time down will probably be to see Deuce.

Wyoming

I’m reading a book on the history of Wyoming. (T. A. Larson. History of Wyoming. Dr. Larson was the foremost authority on Wyoming history). Actually, I have probably read all I’m going to read – I was mainly interested in the early white contact and entrance. Interestingly, this book has very little information on the pre-contact Indians, dismissing them thus, “Not much is known about the natives of the area before a.d. 1800. From what is known, however, it can be said with some confidence that . . . there were probably no more than 10,000 nomadic Indians when the white man came.”

What an interesting picture we have of early Wyoming. Apparently, the fur traders or mountain men were the first white men in the area: “Not a hole or corner in the vast wilderness of the ‘Far West’ but has been ransacked by these hardy men . . . and these alone are the hardy pioneers who have paved the way for the settlement of the western country.” (F. Ruxton, 1847). A truly hardy and intrepid bunch of men.

“The mountain men established an image of the free roaming individual who lived in the wilderness, unhampered by the restraints of civilization. The image sometimes outran the reality – mountain men were out to make money, after all, and they depended on civilized society for many of their needs, including guns and liquor. Nevertheless, more than the cowboy, the pioneer settler, or any other frontiersman, the mountain men achieved an independence from civilization. Here he is as depicted by one writer:

‘The mountain man was almost Indian-colored from exposure to the sun. His hair hung upon his shoulders. He was bearded. Next to his skin he wore a red flannel loincloth. His outer clothes were of buckskin, fringed at all the seams. The jacket sometimes reached to the knee over tight, wrinkled leggings. His feet were covered by moccasins made of deer or buffalo leather. Around his waist was a leather belt into which he thrust his flintlock pistols, his knife for skinning or scalping, and his shingling hatchet . . . Peering vividly out from under his low crowned hat of rough wool, he was an American original as hard as the hardest thing that could happen to him.’” I like that last sentence!

But then, when the rest of the white men came “Wyoming was a thoroughfare rather than a destination.”

“Wyoming proved more attractive as a thoroughfare than a destination. No one wanted to live in Wyoming – they just wanted to pass over the ground because it led somewhere else. Settlers looked at bare Nebraska and saw future cornfields and feedlots. They looked at a Texas terrain of flat, bare plains and envisioned enormous herds of cattle. They even saw promise in the sterile slopes of the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. But Wyoming – why, a fine place for a road to Oregon.” I love this last sentence as well!

“The great thoroughfare through central Wyoming has been known by several names besides ‘Platte River Road’ since the 1840s – Oregon Trail, California Trail, and the Mormon Trail. Somewhere between 350,000 and 400,000 emigrants, most of them men, moved west between 1841 and 1868 along this thoroughfare...” (55,000 in 1850 and 50,000 in 1852 alone)

This is an incredible number! Every time I read this and think about it I picture it as a tsunami of white people. Rock Hill has a population of 70,000. In one year almost the entire city of Rock Hill passed through Wyoming! And then again the next year and the next!! That boggles my mind. I had never really thought about it, but the West advertised, “The settlers on the West Coast were aware that the country  would really develop only with increased numbers of Americans to join them. They waged a campaign not only to attract more settlers, but to ensure that Oregon and California became states.”

“Travel along the Oregon Trail, at least in Wyoming, was not so much dangerous as it was monotonous.” As one traveler, T.S. Kenderline, put it in 1858, Wyoming is ‘A gloomy, God-forsaken country.’

“Desert countries are notoriously cold at night; so it should surprise no one that Matthew Field on the Green River on August 16, 1843, wrote, ‘Cold as January! ice at 6 and mosquitos at 8 a.m.’ ”

What confusion existed as ‘civilization’ came to this wilderness! This is how Margaret Carrington described the Ft. Laramie store, “the long counter . . . was a scene of confusion . . . Indians dressed and half dressed and undressed . . . mingled with the soldiers, teamsters, emigrants, speculators, half-breeds, and interpreters. Here cups of rice, sugar, coffee, or flour were being emptied into the looped-up skirts or blankets of a squaw; and there some tall warrior grimacing delightfully as he grasped and sucked his long sticks of peppermint candy... The room was redolent of cheese and herring…and smoke… To all…Mr. Bullock…gave kind and patient attention, and his clerks seemed equally ready and capable, talking Sioux, Cheyenne or English, just as each case came to hand.” What a scene! Some trading posts were not so friendly to Indians. But you get the picture.

I am impressed with the mobility of the people in a day when there were no cars or planes and even before trains. First, that people would walk from the east coast to the west coast! And then, once in Wyoming, they thought nothing of going to California or Oregon, then returning, or going back east for a visit, then returning. On foot or horseback! Such travel seems to have been common, no big deal. To me, driving 4 hours to Edisto is a big deal!

And what is also amazing, with so few people in such a big territory, they constantly bumped into each other! I know people who live here in Rock Hill that I never see!

Just a few thoughts from my reading about Wyoming. I am fascinated with the West, the Indians, and the earliest forays of whites into this “wilderness.”  I won’t keep you in suspense and force you to seek and read the book – Wyoming finally became a state :-)

Observations from behind the counter

Just a few incidences from my exciting life working 3rd shift . . .

One night, around 4:30 am, a man came in. It was clear he had just been released from the hospital. (I see a lot of the recently released - you can tell them apart by their white wrist band.) The truck was still there and I was checking it in. This man was acting really strange – just standing at the counter, looking around nervously etc. So strangely that the truck driver said to me, “You need to be careful. He is acting weird.” I talked with the fellow a little. He tried to buy some snuff but couldn’t find his money and made a big deal about that. Told me his girl friend had dropped him off and was coming back, that he was a pastor etc. Then he asked when McDonalds across the street opened. I told him 5 am and he asked if he could hang around until then. I told him No, because I had a lot of things to do before 5. He was kind of shocked but said he understood and assured me several times he had no intention of robbing me. And went no where! He was even more shocked when a few minutes later I told him he had to leave the store because I had to go into the cooler to get the doughnuts etc. I told him this again and he finally went outside, and hung around out there. I was concerned because he had begun talking to customers and I thought he was panhandling. One man came in and asked if everything was alright because the fellow outside was upset – I assume at me since I ran him off. Finally, around 5:20 he went to McDonalds. I was glad and thought it was over.
The next night, or morning for non-third shift folk, a woman came in who works at the hospital. She comes in nearly every night and we talk about this and that. She asked me if a white guy had come in the night before, “bald and wearing a blue shirt.” I said yes and she told me he had been at the hospital the night before, had been kicked out by his wife because he was high, and needed a ride so she offered him one. But he had begun to act strange, popping pills and trying to take her car. She said she felt bad about it but dropped him off at the store. You should have seen her face when I told her he had referred to her as “his girl friend”!


On Saturday night a Latino man came in, who I have seen before. He had his son with him, some where between 3 and 5 years old. I like children so I started talking to the little guy. He handed me what he wanted, I scanned it and gave it back. His Dad made a point of making him say Thank you. Then as they left he made the little boy say Thank you again and Good-bye and Have a nice night. It was cool to see someone teaching manners to the next generation.

This man came in last night who I usually see on Saturday night. He comes in with his kids after skate night. Nice people. But he came in last night (Tuesday). Said he had just gotten off work. He is some kind of engineer. He was in around 1 or 1:30 but said he should already be in bed. Then, as he was trying to explain what had happened at work he simply said, “There is an abundance of ignorance.”

It is funny but people think I am their friend because they see me so often. And they do tell me things. One night a couple of years ago while I was training someone a woman came in. I made small talk with her and then she told me she was staking out her estranged husband’s trailer, ‘cause if she could catch him cheating it would help her divorce. After she left, the trainee said, Man, they tell you everything!


I like to banter with people. I often tell them, “I’ve got to be up all night, might as well have fun.” But some people are just not nice people. They don’t talk, they don’t smile. I try but they never smile. Some I have cracked, some just think I am cracked.


I’m a good worker but a bad salesman. I have a hard time cramming all our high priced stuff down their throats. Especially cigarettes. They want us to push our 3 pack deal of cigarettes. I won’t do it. I will sell them and give the best prices, but I’m not pushing cigarettes. One guy came in and asked me about our cheapest cigarettes and then asked, “What do you recommend?” I said, “Honestly?” He said, “Yeah.” So I said, “Don’t smoke.” He kind of laughed, said I was right, then bought a pack of cigarettes!


I hate it when people come in and start calling me “Boss.”


I am amazed at what people wear out in public. Some people have obviously been out to a club and have very little clothing on or so tight I have no idea how they can sit down. I have seen women in super small & tight shorts and high heels. Or sometimes a really short skirt and clunky boots. And I wonder if they have mirrors at home or if someone really told them that looked good! And I am constantly amazed at the number of people, men and women, who come to the store in their pajamas. And one woman last night was in her pajamas and going back to the hospital waiting room!


Finally, one night I was mopping and this fella comes in. Right away he starts talking to me about the end of the world. He says, “Now listen, if I could prove to you that the world was about to end and that I had this ship that would take you to another safe planet, would you pay to get on it?” I said, “No. I mean, I believe the world is going to end but I have believed in Jesus.” He said, “You can’t beat that ship!” No, you can’t.