It's On My Mind

March 4, 2020 (Wednesday)

Sometimes we have to improvise.

For example, if our recipe calls for buttermilk and we have
none, we can add a little vinegar to sweet milk, and the
baked goods will believe it’s buttermilk.

There have been times when we learned to “make do” with
what we had because we didn’t have what we wanted.

Yesterday I wrote about secular jobs I’ve had and also mentioned an old car that gave us a lot of trouble. We lived north of Azle in
a country community known as Briar. The car provided a way to
commute to Fort Worth for seminary classes and secular jobs. But
it had two recurring weaknesses: the automatic transmission and
the engine that needed a valve job every 10,000 miles.

I had to back up a high hill to get to our house one day. The forward
gears were too weak for the climb. Those who saw me laughed and
those who did not see me later said they wished they had seen it.
The next day I did it again going the other way. That was the day I took it to a transmission shop and got a rebuilt transmission installed for $75.00. We had very little money and I don’t recall how we paid for the work.

Shortly after that, the brakes went out and I installed a rebuilt
master cylinder from under the car. The pliers slipped off a spring I
was stretching and went strait into my eye. I suffered no ill effects
from that.

Several times I had to do a valve job on the engine. To do that, I had to remove the cylinder head from the 1951 Chevy. I had few tools, and needed a socket wrench to remove the bolts from the engine. I bought one socket without the handle or rachet, and tightened my vice grips on the socket to turn it. But it kept slipping, so I used a file and cut grooves on the socket so that the vice grips could hold it. I removed and replaced the bolts with that makeshift tool. I improvised. Someone showed me how to grind the valves myself at no cost, so I was soon back in business with an engine that ran OK.

As I said earlier in this blog, “There have been times when we learned
to “make do” with what we had because we didn’t have what we wanted.”

The old saying seems to be true, “Where there’s a will there’s a way.”

Paul’s version of that old saying was inspirational: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13 NKJV).

He encouraged the Christians in Philippi with the words, “My God shall
supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus”
(Philippians 4:19 NKJV).

He set the example for us, saying, “I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content” (Philippians 4:11 NKJV).

March 3, 2020 (Tuesday)

The Apostle Paul trained from early childhood to become a Pharisee. Part of his preparation for religious work was learning a trade. Paul (known then as Saul) chose the vocation of tent maker. We can deduce from some of his writings that he found that ability very helpful at times as he made his way from place to place. He often found it necessary to support himself. He made tents, for which there was always a demand in those days of long ago.

I never did learn a trade that would give me an income in case I had no support from churches. I came along about 2,000 years after Paul’s term of service, and things changed.

It is worth knowing, however, that there are thousands of ministers in our country and around the world who make their living in some type of secular work while serving churches. They are known as “bi-vocational” ministers.

I had secular jobs from time to time as I grew up, went to public school, college and seminary. My wife, Wanda, taught school and supported us for a while when I was a student.

My first job was delivering items from a drug store to nearby homes in Houston. Two couples lived next door. The husbands were drafted, and one of the wives loaned me her husband’s “victory bike,” a bicycle with solid synthetic tires, manufactured during World War 2. I made deliveries, riding the bike from house to house. I was only 11 years old, and my grandfather asked the druggist to end my employment because he was afraid for me, riding a bike in busy streets at night.

My next jobs were in the produce sections and grocery departments of several grocery stores. In between those jobs, I worked for a man using his garage to produce some kind of liquid that was either a medicine or a cosmetic. I don’t remember, because I only lasted a day.

My mother and stepfather were in the restaurant business, and at one
time owned several restaurants. I worked in them, mainly waiting on people at the counter and at the tables and booths. Sometimes I was only the cashier.

After going away to college, I worked on campus at manual labor, and soon became a staff member at a church while still a freshman, then became pastor of a church for the remainder of my college days. I was paid by the churches and that helped a lot. I also went to work in a medicine factory, making “Baby Percy” medicine in Waco. When I went to Fort Worth to attend the seminary, I worked in an ice cream factory at first, and later at the General Motors Automobile Assembly plant in Arlington. After that, I worked in a feed store and granary. Along the way, I served churches part-time and received income.

I did not make tents like Paul did, but I worked at this and that, and finally made it through the educational process, graduating from the seminary in 1959, at the age of 27.

We had several old cars during those years, and I learned, out of necessity, to work on them.

OK, that’s all the room I have to write about all this stuff. I guess I just wanted to reminisce a little.

March 2, 2020 (Monday)

March 1, 2020 (Sunday)

TIME MARCHES ON! This was the title of a weekly news program presented in theaters many years ago.  Seen every 4 weeks in theaters

Do you know this man?

His name is Ron Howard, and he celebrates his 66th birthday today.
Perhaps you knew him as “Opie.” He does not look like the Sheriff’s son, does he? Time changes things.

He no longer goes by the name, “Opie,” because he has become quite successful in the movie business, directing such important films as, “Apollo 13.”

When I was a kid the radio at our house played country songs, and one of them was, “Time Changes Everything:” “There was a time when I thought of no other, And we sang our own love’s refrain; Our hearts beat as one and we had our fun, But time changes everything.”

But..does time change everything? It changes how we look, and how we sound, but some things do not change. I still love the Bible, I still love the church, I still love the Lord, I still love to preach, I still love to sing about the Lord, I still love to be with friends at worship, and on I could go, I guess.

Fact is, some things change, and other things in our lives do not change unless we allow them to change.

Today is Sunday. Unless something happens to prevent my going to church, I’ll be there. I’ll be praying for the pastor and worship leaders, for my fellow worshipers, and for my heart to be open to hear whatever the Lord says to me during that holy hour of worship.

I hope none of those things have changed for you.

“Forsake not the assembling of yourselves together, as the manner of some is” (Hebrews 10:25).

February 29, 2020 (Saturday)

In Gilbert and Sullivan’s delightful comic opera, “Pirates of Penzance,” Frederic, having been adopted by pirates as an infant, readies himself to leave the ship. He has served for 21 years, and is now being set free by the pirates. His birthday, however, is on February 29, and when the contract is read, it says he is to be released from servitude on his 21st birthday, and this is only his 5th birthday, having been born on February 29. He must, therefore, remain on the ship for more than 60 additional years.

The story develops from there, and is a lot of fun to watch and hear.

Every four years we add a day to the calendar to make up for the 6 hours we lose in each common year because our clocks don’t harmonize completely with the solar system. A year is actually 365 days and 6 hours. (But not exactly 6 hours, and that is corrected every 400 years–but that’s another story).

If February 29 is your birthday, which one is it, really? How many birthdays have you had?

One of the greatest songs in the show is the one by the “Modern Major-General.” (It has nothing to do with Leap Year but I just like to hear it sung by this amazing man).