To the editor:
In Elizabethton we can be thankful the Star announced new jobs are coming. We hope our new Mayor Barnett will put unity and new jobs as his priorities. New employers and new jobs bring in more tax dollars allowing the county commission to keep services the same without raising taxes.
On Labor Day we are thankful for employment and think about the importance of work. A philosopher said, “work keeps us from three great evils: boredom, crime and poverty.” Physical work can also keep us from the evil of obesity. Tennessee has one of the highest obesity rates in the nation. The Bible requires everyone to work hard and calls laziness evil and foolish. The Bible says, “If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat.” One reason the Bible gives for working is “in order that he may have something to give to those in need.” The Bible priority is to help your family and church first. (Gal. 6:10) Jesus said in John 6 the most important work God wants us to do is, “that you believe on him (Jesus) whom he (God) hath sent.” Make sure you and your family attend church to get spiritual food. A great program at churches for children is the AWANA program.
It’s more important than ever to be employed and have extra food stocked up because at any time terrorists could cut off all electric power. A discharge from the sun could also cut off all power. Perry Stone says the rapture of Christians by Jesus the Son could cut all electric power off. The Bible tells us soon during the seven-year tribulation the price of enough bread for one person will cost a day’s wage. In the future non-perishable food in your house could be worth more than any amount of money in your bank.
If you have health and strength to work and are employed you should thank God. We should pray for the unemployed because they can become depressed and get in debt. Many who have been unemployed a long time have sold everything in yard sales and pawn shops and are selling their blood plasma every week. Jesus knows the pain of the unemployed because He was rejected and gave all His blood to pay our sin debt. The national debt is over 19 trillion dollars and growing. Our sin debt keeps growing. This Labor Day, thank God for allowing us to work and thank Jesus most of all for His finished work on the cross and resurrection, which is the “good news” and the only way to pay our sin debt and have eternal life. Amid the bad news of rising college student debt and rising national debt, the “good news” is the “good news”!
Warning! God offers eternal life through His son Jesus only while you are alive. Call 1-888-need-him. Our lives can be ended quickly and unexpectedly. “Seek the Lord (Jesus) while He may be found. Call upon Him while He is near.” God’s labor is the most important and the only work that will last. “Except the Lord (Jesus) build the house they labor in vain that build it.” (Psalm 127:1) Thankfully, God is still actively working and is very much in complete control. Presidents and Supreme Courts come and go, but God alone is supreme on earth as in heaven, now and forever!

D.D. Nave
Elizabethton