Memories; The Road Behind and the Road Ahead

It’s been a rough week. My dance card was full and I wish I could get a slow dance more often. Tuesday I ate lunch with a friend at a nearby restaurant to discuss a wedding, not ours, but her grandson’s. She wants me to be her chauffeur again. Wednesday I had plans to go to the historical society, but I needed work done for my basement sump pump system. That was the only time they had available. I also had a workman over to repoint my chimney. The mortar chinking had deteriorated and needed replaced. He was the husband of a nurse I used to work with. (Hello Lynnie)

The entire week, my evenings were blessed with sermons by evangelist Jeremiah Clark’s revival services. I had a great time attending every night. Friday and Saturday I was in Ohiopyle, Pennsylvania frying sausage for their volunteer fire department. It’s an annual and I’ve worked there for nearly 50 years helping these men and women of the community. How can a person write about so many memories? But knowing me, I’ll try.

One memory that sticks out vividly happened many years ago. We used to rinse the greasy electric roasters when they were returned empty of the sausage patties. Once fried, we stack patties in roasters to keep warm until served. About mid-afternoon, a park ranger stopped by to ask that we quit rinsing the roasters, because there was a grease slick floating down the Youghiogheny River. Unknowingly we were polluting the stream, probably causing the river rafters to slide through their trip too quickly.

When I first started volunteering at the annual Sausage and Buckwheat Festival, three women were frying sausage. Each woman fried four sausages in two cast iron skillets over gas burners. The raw whole hog pork sausage was pressed by hand before they were placed into the skillets and fried. It was a tedious process. Now the sausages are already pre-pressed. We still fry them on griddles over gas flames, but the griddles hold up to 40 patties at one time. Leaning over those hot griddles is rough on my back, but frying the pancake and buckwheat cakes is an even more demanding job. The smoke and heat from their griddles fill a small room. It’s necessary for limited ventilation, because the griddles must be kept at a certain temperature to “bake” the cakes properly.

The flavor of the buckwheat cakes was great this year; slightly sour, but they were fried nicely brown and airy. The buckwheat batter is started the week before the festival to allow the batter to ferment just like our forefathers did in past generations.

 

Half Hearted or Lukewarm

Many of the churches today have someone behind the pulpit that no longer believes the reliability of Scripture. When the questions were posed, “Was Jesus born of a virgin? Was Jesus the Son of God? Or Is the Bible the Inspired Word of God?” More than half could not answer “Totally Agree” to these questions. So many churches have become spiritually weak without conviction. Some have become little more than entertainment centers instead of preaching the truth of God. When pastors and teachers lose faith in the Word of God, if they were honest, they would leave the ministry instead of misdirecting a generation into an eternity without Christ and without the hope of salvation.

Revelation 3:16 says, “So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.” This is what God says about so-so Christians. What does it say about those who are misdirecting the saved and not reaching unsaved people?

If a cook keeps adding water to soup, it soon loses its flavor and nutritional value. It doesn’t whet the hungry person’s appetite and does little to strengthen them. It will eventually weaken the person and they will die. The same is the Gospel when it’s lost its savor. The preacher ignores the facts of the Gospel and doesn’t share salvation’s plan and will lead the unsaved for an eternity of punishment in Hell.

Isaiah 9:16 “For the leaders of this people cause them to err; and they that are led of them are destroyed.” The followers of these unfaithful leaders are being led to destruction.

Mark 13:6 “Many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am Christ; and shall deceive many.” Again, pastors and teachers who stray from the truth will lead many down a road of destruction, disinformation, and into the torturous fires of Hell not hearing of the redeeming blood of Jesus.

Matthew 24:5 “For many will come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.” The warning about deceivers is repeated in Matthew. We must be vigilant.

2 Timothy 4:4  “And they shall turn away their ears from the truth and shall be turned aside unto fables.” Satan uses these false and weak leaders to lure congregations into a false sense of security. They lull their listeners into a belief of salvation based on works, on prayers to false gods, in almsgiving, or other false thoughts. They will teach anything but redemption of sin through the cleansing blood of Jesus Christ.

Leaders, if you don’t teach or believe the truth of the Bible, get out of the ministry. Don’t be guilty of sending countless numbers of people to Hell because of your ignorance.

Traditions

Most families have created traditions to celebrate the different holidays. They display different decorations; some of which have become heirlooms, passed down to their children. Certain foods are served to honor memories of childhood celebrations. At the beginning of the year, some traditions serve sauerkraut and pork. Others serve black-eyed peas, collard greens, and salted pork. Easter celebrations may share colored eggs, chocolate rabbits, or braided breads. Thanksgiving a turkey with bread stuffing, sweet potatoes, and pumpkin pies topped with whipped cream may grace the table. My wife Cindy would serve spaghetti carbonara and deep-fried smelt on Christmas Eve, while my mom, Sybil Miner Beck would bake deep-dish French toast for brunch on Christmas day.

Most traditions are harmless. They help pass the joyous celebrations of holidays to our children. Many times they’re links to memories and do not affect reality. At Christmas we celebrate the arrival of the Magi at the Manger. The Bible doesn’t record that there were three Wise men, nor did the Kings arrive to worship the Christ Child in the manger. That tradition strays from the truth. Many believe that Eve ate an apple in the Garden of Eden, but not so. The Word of God only records that it was fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. All are minor variations, but even that can cause folk to think there are lies in the Bible.

When traditions conflict with biblical, the traditions are wrong and become harmful, and when tradition is promoted above the truth in the Word of God, it should be cast aside. When books are added to the Bible or an entire religion is based on “New Revelations” from God, avoid them like the plague. Galatians 1:8-9 reads, “But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.”

In the Revelation, the Bible warns, “For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.”

Celebrate family traditions, but don’t let them contradict with the truth of the Bible.

 

 

Snake Oil Salesmen

Snake oil is a term used to describe deceptive marketing, health care fraud, a scam or outright lies. A "snake oil salesman" is a similarly common expression that’s used to describe someone who sells, promotes, or is a proponent of some valueless or fraudulent cure, remedy, or solution. Snake oil comes from the concoction that was sold as a cure-all elixir for many kinds of physical problems and diseases. Many 18^th and 19th-century shady entrepreneurs advertised and sold mineral oil mixed with various active and inactive household herbs, spices, drugs, and compounds, but contained no substances derived from actual snakes whatsoever. It was labeled as "snake oil liniment." The peddler made unsubstantiated claims about its efficacy. These patent medicines claimed as cure for a panacea of symptoms and diseases, were extremely common from the 18th until the 20^th century This was particularly in vogue among vendors who masked addictive drugs such as cocaine, amphetamine, alcohol, and opium-based concoctions or elixirs. They were often sold at medicine shows as medications or products promoting health. Often shills were hired to extol the virtues of the product.

There are still snake oil salesmen today in medicine, politics, telephone scammers, and yes, even in churches. That list includes false teachers, faith healers, and prosperity preachers.

An interesting side note, rotgut whiskey of the old West often had two rattlesnake heads in each barrel. Rotgut wasn’t aged and had extremely high alcohol content. Its recipe used dubious quality of grains and corn in its fermentation bases. Whiskey labeled as bourbon was actually distilled from low-grade molasses. Whiskey that was shipped West in the 1800s might have started out as bourbon but along the way, but it was watered down and mixed with other ingredients to increase the profits. One favorite western whiskey recipe was Ol’ Snakehead. Its ingredients were: one gallon of alcohol, a plug or twist of tobacco, black strap molasses, red Spanish peppers for spice, five gallons of river water, and two rattlesnake heads to give it “spirit.” There was a saying, “Drop in a horseshoe. If the shoe sinks, it ain’t ready yet but when it rises to the surface and floats, the whiskey’s ready.”

Now I will share the point I wanted to make about the original snake oil salesman. The Bible says Satan appeared in the Garden of Eden as a serpent. He enticed Eve to eat the forbidden fruit by telling her that she could be like God and know the difference of good and evil. He was a liar then and has been passing on the same lie that caused his fall from Heaven. That old snake wanted to be equal to his Creator and he’s been a snake oil salesman since then.

 

Wise Unwise Wisecracks

Knowledge and wisdom are two entirely separate entities. You may have understood the principles and reasoning behind facts, but until you actually apply them in your life, they gather dust. All of us have made unwise decisions in our lives, mostly because we’ve not applied the knowledge that we know is right. Hopefully mistakes will cause wisdom. Reevaluating the choices we have made can teach us of where we went wrong. I’ve seen the question posed, “What would you tell a younger you to change your past?” I’m not sure that I would listen. I would have to see the consequences of those choices before I would change them. I would have the facts, but would I have the wisdom to see the need for those changes.

If I would have had the foresight I would have studied harder, ate less, and exercised more. Would I have done those things? Probably not; they involved doing things that took up too much of my leisure time. They would have interfered with the “more pleasurable” times in my life. I wasn’t the most athletic kid in school. Sports were fun or I didn’t like to compete. The one activity in gym that I detested was rope climbing. I was chubby and didn’t have the arm strength. I wasn’t Tarzan, so when would I need to perfect that skill? The skill I honed was a quick retort or wisecrack. It made people laugh and most times it caused a threat to back down.

Now that I’m older I recognize everything I needed to know, need to know right now and all I will need to know is found in one book. Wisdom fills the pages of the Bible. God has given us the facts. He has written the guidebook and the plans for a successful, joy filled life. There is no need to “Google” and answer. It’s found in God’s Word. If that young me would have listened, that is what I would have told him. Read, understand, and apply the tenets of God’s holy Word.