The Ballestero Blog

They Don’t Make Them Like They Used To!

I can still see the teasing smirk on my Dad’s face and hear the humor in his voice, as he commented on my youthful ineptness. “Aw, they don’t make them like they used to!”

That was a joke for years. We would both laugh at its accuracy. Some things a kid just can’t quite do like his Dad, yet.

When my oldest son was about 7, one day I remarked to him in my Father’s tone of voice, “Aw, they don’t make them like they used to.” We laughed.

It dawned on me at that moment that maybe my Grandpa used to say that to my Dad. It looks like each generation thinks that of the generations that follow.

Building The New Temple

Younger generations of worshippers seem to get upset with their father’s attachment to older things. That very emotion was illustrated in the building of the new Temple after Solomon’s was destroyed.

The younger men rejoiced and the old men wept. They fathers had seen the first Temple. There was no comparison in their eyes. They wept.

The young men had never seen the old Temple and were just happy that there was any kind of Temple. The sound of rejoicing was mingled with the sound of weeping.

The old school always looks at the new and thinks: “They don’t make them like they used to.” Because they remember.

Pastor Ben Pemperton

Brother Ben Pemperton pastored a fairly large church in Saint Louis, after World War II. He was a bachelor until he died.

The following story was told at his funeral. He was out in the aisle preaching on a Sunday night, when a first time visitor walked in. She sat down in an aisle seat next to one of the women in the church.

Bro. Pemperton stopped his sermon and spoke to the new lady.

“We’re glad to have you here tonight.”

“Thank you”

“Do you want to go to Heaven?”

“Yes.”

“Do you want to be saved?”

“Yes”

“Then, whatever you do, don’t sit beside the lady on your right. She’s the biggest long-tongued gossip in this church. Sit anywhere else in this church but next her and you’ll be alright.”

The visitor got up and moved across the aisle and sat beside someone else.

At the funeral, some 30 years later, the “visiting lady” paid tribute to her pastor. She thanked God that her pastor was brave enough to tell people the truth. Because of him, she said, “She was saved today.”

Some of my Gentle Readers, may have cringed at the reading of such boldness by the former friend of my father.

Pastors in this generation have been presented with a lawsuit for saying less. Some congregations would not welcome Pastor Pemberton’s candor.

It sometimes seems this generation wishes to be more politically correct than Biblically correct.

We Soon Forget Bible Examples Of:

• Peter confronting Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5:1-10.
• Paul’s correction of the Corinthian church and the adulterer in 1 Cor. 5:1-5.
• Paul telling a man that he was going to be blind for a season. Acts 13:11.

Paul Wrote To Timothy:

• 1 Tim. 5:20 Them that sin rebuke before all, that others also may fear.

Many in the pulpit today are namby pamby politicians, and too many in the audience would resent a pastor that spoke with plainness of speech like Paul did.

They don’t make them like they used to!

With that being said, one can only imagine how refreshing it is for “old school” saints to visit an old-time Apostolic Church.

I’m not fusing about the new music, because the Bible says to sing s new song. (But, it didn’t say to throw all the old ones away.)

I’m just saying, “They don’t make them like they used to.”

• You don’t want a pastor that tells you if you are wrong or sinning?
• You don’t want anyone correcting you or your family?
• Then there is already Bible about your generation.

2 Tim. 4:3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;

That time is already here.

They don’t make them like they used to!