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To the Editor:
Sadly this note was posted on the door at the Elizabethton Fatz Cafe location: “We are sorry to announce that after proudly serving this and many other communities for years, Fatz Cafe will be closed permanently, effective August 23, 2023.”
Sadly many people in Elizabethton lost their jobs without notice. We pray that they find employment where God wants them to work.
On Labor Day we think about the importance of work. The Bible tells us to do all things including work for the glory of God. 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. 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) It’s more important than ever to be employed and stock up on food and water because experts say they believe prices will skyrocket and there will be food shortages by winter. The Bible tells us soon the price of enough bread for one person will cost a day’s wage. In the future non-perishable food in your house will be worth more than any amount of money in your bank. Only Christians have eternal rest and can rest in peace when they die because they are resting in the finished work of Jesus on the cross to bring them salvation and heaven. In John 6:29, Jesus says the work God wants everyone to do is “believe on him (Jesus) whom he (God) has sent.” Satisfying God doesn’t come from work we do, but from trusting in the work Jesus did. Jesus is our rest. There’s a day coming soon for Christian believers in which their work and race of this life will end. No more running, no more labor. That day is the bright hope for Christians, the day Jesus returns in the air to rapture Christians to heaven. Believing Christians will soon be leaving. That day will be like no other in the past or future. Because the Bible is true that promised day is an absolute certainty. Don’t miss it for the world!
If you have health and strength to work and are employed and not behind in your bills you should thank God. We should pray for our low paid workers and unemployed because they can become depressed and get in debt. The Bible says stay out of debt and to owe no one but to love. The government said Tennessee unemployment has gone down to the lowest jobless number ever at 3.1 but they count the part-time low paid workers as employed. The good paying full-time jobs with benefits have gone down while the cost of living has gone up. As a result more Americans are behind on their bills than ever before this Labor Day.
The cost of rent is higher than ever. Car payments are higher than ever. Almost 40 percent say they struggle to pay their bills. Twenty million Americans, which is more Americans than ever, can’t afford to pay their rising utility bills and are behind in paying. It will be a cold winter for millions. Because of COVID-19 and wasteful spending by our government the national debt is now a record over 32 trillion dollars ($32,000,000,000,000) and growing. Just like our American national debt 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 higher inflation 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. Our lives can be ended quickly and unexpectedly. Just like employees of Fatz Cafe lost their jobs quickly and unexpectedly. “Seek the Lord (Jesus) while He may be found. Call upon Him while He is near.” God’s labor is 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