By Van Yandell
Hebrews 2:3 “How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him.”
We definitely live in a disposable but wasteful society. A part of the capitalistic endeavor is to convince us to throw items in the trash when there is still usefulness or product in the container.
I learned many years ago that chain saws were disposable. When living on the farm, we burned firewood for heat and I spent much of my time in the woods and fence rows cutting and hauling firewood. After five or six years, I could trade in my old chain saw for a new one and save valuable time spent keeping it in repair.
Determining I was money and time ahead in the long term, it seemed to be common sense. Similar concepts exist in containers of motor oil and transmission fluid. Take time to place the containers upside-down and allow the oil to drain for a while.
It is readily noticeable in many countries buildings are built to last a thousand years. In Western capitalistic cultures, buildings are cheaply constructed to last 50 years, demolish them and build another.
When the toothpaste tube will yield no more, cut it off just above the cap and find enough left for several more brushings. Turn containers of lotions and dish detergent upside-down and get those last few drops. I learned these tricks in college when spending my own money.
Pickle juice makes a great additive for cole slaw. It can be used as a meat tenderizer or to spice up barbecue sauce. Some chefs add a little pickle juice to meatloaf and others use it for a marinade. Used with baking soda it can be used for a drain cleaner and copper pans can be scrubbed with pickle juice to restore them to a factory sparkle. Don’t throw out the pickle juice!
We’ve heard the old saying, “Don’t throw out the baby with the bath water.” Before capitalism provided new parents with various methods of bathing children, babies were washed last after the family bath, usually on Saturday in a pan or tub. The dirty water was thrown out the back door, thus, the saying!
We so often dispose of the important and credible. We then adhere to the garbage so often screamed at us in today’s world.
The credibility so many place in the words of celebrities from both a political and religious point of view is laughable. We are throwing “down the drain” our right to think and reason the logical for the words of someone that just happens to be on the other side of a camera or microphone.
You can’t go to heaven by being good (John 3:16) or by yelling “Amen” seven times in every church service. You may be fooling others, but God knows the heart.
Luke 16:15 “And he said unto them, Ye are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knows your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God.”
Idiocy and ignorance have taken on a completely new definition and description for the twenty-first century earthling.
2 Timothy 4:3-4 “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. And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.”
It is absolutely amazing how accurately the scriptures have foretold the current world conditions. Are we in the last days? Possibly; but it is also possible we are reaping the fruits for that which we have sown.
Matthew 7:6 “Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you.”
We establish our own priorities and those priorities have consequences. Throwing the pickle juice out in the trash doesn’t amount to much, but throwing away eternity for lies and personal preferences and notions surely does.
To ignore our Creator and His instructions as written and permanently established in the Holy Bible is unconscionable. Such an action is more dangerous as any condition we may establish for ourselves on this earth or in this life.
The Holy Bible is not only our source of Spiritual wisdom; it is our source of knowledge. How could the writer of Leviticus have told us about germs 3,000 years before the invention of the microscope? How could Jeremiah have told us about the vastness of the universe 2,300 years before telescopes were even considered a possibility?
Let’s ask the difficult questions for which only God’s Word can answer. Will we continue to throw out the truth and verifiable while accepting the lies of society? Throwing out the pickle juice will not cost us eternity but listening to the wrong people and believing their lies will cost us more than we want to pay.
We must always teach that eternal salvation is attained by a faith-based belief (Ephesians 2:8) in Christ Jesus crucified (Matthew 27:35) for the remission of sin (1 John 1:9) and resurrected (Matthew 28:6).
Van Yandell is a retired Industrial Arts teacher, an ordained gospel evangelist and commissioned missionary.
