This post is a complete rewrite of a post from 2019 that I had titled....The Most Beautiful Rusted Door Handles Ever. I'm rewriting it rather than reposting it because it lets me go back in time to find the words rather than just rereading old words.
It was most likely late 1981. The 1950s style strip mall a few miles from where we live was a popular place for a couple or a family to go on a weekday or weekend evening. It had two large department stores and twenty or so smaller ones....a couple of restaurants.....and a grocery store. On one of those evenings my wife was shopping at J. C. Penney's.....and I decided to just walk the concourse of the shopping center.
God had been moving in the hearts of so many Americans for about a decade.....and would continue to do so throughout the 80s. I worked in a large industrial setting....as a union member....just about all of us grimy from the days work....with all of the normal outside interests of sports and recreation.....and hunting and motorcycles....but more than a handful of these men were claiming to be.....born again.....whatever that meant. Society was not divided as it is today....so this phenomenon in the country mixed in well.
Although Ted Turner was just beginning to build his communications empire....we were still a people with three main television channels and maybe a UHF station. Billy Graham's crusades were a staple on UHF at least a couple of times a year....and the 700 Club and a few other Christian programs....were often throughout the day.....just a few clicks away on the television dial. Many celebrities of the day had also become....born again....as was Jimmy Carter who had just left office....replaced by Ronald Reagan who was loved by this blossoming political evangelical community.
I'm starting to ramble here so let me get to the point. I came across a Christian bookstore on that concourse....entered....and came out with a book titled....Evidence That Demands A Verdict....and the next thing I know forty years have passed....we at one time owned our own Christian bookstore for a couple of years.....and all this culminated in these posts of over 13 1/2 years.
The buildings of that shopping center are still there.....if they have not been torn down yet.....I haven't been by in a few months....for I will pull off the main highway occasionally....drive slowly by the empty storefronts.....and stop at the one that was the Christian bookstore....It Is Written. The windows being soaped up....I would place my hands on the same door handles that I opened forty years previous.....those handles now rusted somewhat.....and I would just praise God for His mercies on a worm such as I....not only in saving me.....and having me become one of those born again people.....but keeping me....and blessing me.....even though my dalliances with the world stayed for a long time.
Billy Graham is gone....along with his crusades....and we have a thousand channels to choose from now. The Christian bookstores are all but gone. These blessings were our supply lines in the church....but here is an analogy for you to ponder. You are overweight. Your overall health is deteriorating.....you are sluggish....it has been years of neglect.....and you have had enough......and set about to research.....and learn how to lose weight. I have known so many people like this....who finally became serious about losing that weight.....and they did! Well this is what you have to do today as it pertains to these lost supply lines.
You know that there is a problem. Church....friends....television or radio....or the books that you come across.....nothing helps....but like those folks who finally had enough of being overweight....you set out to find the answers to this problem. It is called....work. You have to put the effort in....and plow on through the discouragements.
A month ago I planted flower seeds in about a half dozen pots....this instead of just going out and buying flowers like I do every year. Those pots have for a few weeks been filled with green shoots.....and I wondered if flowers would ever come of it.....for I have no experience at all in this....and could only follow directions. Well....twenty minutes ago I took a break from the computer and went out on the patio....and looked....what is that.....I had to get close to see it....one single.....tiny.....white petal flower appeared...about the size of a kernal of corn.. The thing is....God is the master gardener. Just make sure that there is enough soil. There may be confusion now but a kernel of knowledge and understanding will appear....and then get ready for the beauty of God's glory to unfold before your eyes!
Addendum: In case you need some information on 'soils'....you might try John Piper's Tree Nursery......just Google this.....John Piper....What Is The New Birth....Part One.
