“It’s tightening up, boys.”
No, it’s not Pastor Carl Schriver “getting down” with Archie Bell & the Drells in a vain attempt to pile his body into the “wayback machine” and recreate 1968. This is something completely different. You see, Pastor Schriver is also a concrete contractor, and my son Benny Boy is doing some major concrete work today at his house. They’re pouring right now,
and all of our familiar names are on deck: Pastor Schriver, Kelley (It’s his job), Dennis, and Ryan, … and the trucks.
So the trucks show up mixing, the pumper is there hitching, and when they start dispatching the concrete to its appointed destination with appropriate smoothing out, it won’t be long before you hear someone say, “tightening up!” meaning the crew of experts better be out there with their floaters making sure everything is shaping up properly. The cement is “going off,” another way of saying that it is hardening up, and they’ll be sure to “stay on it” as well as get to the edges while they’re still wet so those look good too. It’s all part of a business that depends on very smart men doing very talented things at the very right moment. If you don’t pay attention and it gets ahead of you, about the only way to fix it is with a stick of dynamite!
Pastor Buddy Frankland used to speak of some mythical “Old Moss Backed Deacon” who was quoted as saying “The Preacher doesn’t stir me anymore.” And Buddy’s oft-repeated follow-up was “Did you ever try to stir cement after it’s hardened?” Point well taken.
If our lives are the concrete, we know that seconds count, as our years fly by as a tale that is told (Psa 90:9). We go through our various experiences in life as we are “tightening up” and those experiences act as the floaters, contouring who we are. Without Christ in our lives, the finished product will not be a pretty picture. The forms need to be designed and set by the General Contractor according to the Blueprint of the Bible, and then, we need to make sure we don’t “go off” in some fleshly direction, or fall asleep at the wrong time, or take a misstep directly into midst of the concrete, making a big mess.
One of the great things about the Concrete Expert God, is that through His Gospel, He’s got more power than that stick of dynamite could ever imagine, and he can re-contour the whole job without destroying it. (Romans 1:16) “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.” Now that’s real power! And if I may mix my musical metaphors just a bit, The Contours also had a hit that preceded Archie Bell’s, and it’s title is “Do you love me?”
Let’s show God that we do love Him completely, “staying on it” so that as we “tighten up” we’ll become that perfectly finished job, being “contoured” to the image of Christ! (Romans 8:29) “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.”
Pastor Schriver knows, with God, it’s never too late!
Love and Prayers to all,
Pastor