Water to wine
19 August 2009
Volume 11, Issue 33
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When the name of your
organization is built upon the concept of refreshing water, it is always of
interest how various enterprises use water in marketing their products. As a
general rule, new and improved signifies that someone found a way to use more
water and hence make the product weigh more, or be softer, or smoother, and
still charge the same, or more money for the ÒimprovedÓ product. In reality the
water is essentially a free filler to give you less of what you think you paid
for.
I like to have bacon and
eggs at least once on weekends for breakfast. A man can only live just so
healthy and then life becomes a drag. The best bacon I ever had came from a
meat packing plant in Wilbur when my mother lived there. They had to close
their doors when the state required expensive upgrades to their facilities that
could not be justified based on the potential returns.
I have made my own dry cured
bacon, but it takes facilities that I no longer have at my disposal. Costco has
dry cured bacon, one of the few places it is available, but I really donÕt like
the taste. So I am continually on the lookout for different brands of commercial
bacon to try out. Last week at the supermarket, there was a 20 oz packet of
thick sliced bacon, which was nearing the pull date and marked down. I decided
to give it a try. When I open the package Wonder Springs, as I tried to guess
how they got so much water in something that is supposed to cook up somewhat crispy.
Since that time, I think I
have figured it out. Now the true goal is to sell you as much water as possible
and still make you think you are getting a good deal. To do that you create a
brine that will give you the smoke taste you think will sell. Once cured it is
pretty squishy so you deeply chill and maybe even freeze the bacon slab so that
it will slice evenly. Then while it is still frozen you package it for
distribution. Once the frozen water thaws you have the squishy wet bacon I
popped in the pan and it shrank to about two-thirds the precooked size.
Now that energy prices have
made the transport of water much more expensive we are beginning to see many
more drinks delivered sans water. You must add your own water in your own
container. The manufacturer gives you a powder in a little Mylar tube and you
add it to your own tap, bottled, or designer water, which saves everyone money,
especially the luscious drink maker. However it does make you think, I am
paying a whole lot of money for a few grams of artificial sweetening and
flavoring, when the chilled attractive bottle looked like a better deal.
We could go on with lots of
other illustrations of water in all aspects of enterprise but, many readers
understand my distain for ethanol in fuel, which is really just water that has
had one of the hydrogen atoms replaced with an ethane group, ethane hydroxide
if you will. This wonderful chemical reaction gives us wine and beer, and all
derivative beverages. That is where the utilization should end, especially for
those who cannot use these beverages in definite moderation.
But no, the corn lobby can
only sell so much whisky, and moonshine is highly frowned on by the federal government,
hence it is now blended at about a 10 percent additive to our motor fuel. By no
amazing feat, your vehicle now gets about 10 percent less in fuel economy.
Older cars that donÕt have parts designed for ethanol have problems, as to
virtually all highly efficient small engines like on chainsaws, water pumps,
even snowmobiles and watercraft. Succinctly put, ethanol from temperate climate
planted and harvested crops will always be a loser except in the eyes of the
varying special rights special interest lobbies and their federal government
cronies.
All this points out that
America, not all that long ago, used to be thought of as the home of high
quality goods and services, at pretty much all levels. Now it seems to be how
can we squeeze a little more profit out of something by changing (cheapening)
the formula. After all in a consumer society, global corporate management
believes that people are too stupid to know the difference, especially if we
sell it as new and improved. And since everyone else is doing it, over time the
quality of everything deteriorates to the point to where any semblance of the
product to the original is pretty much in the marketing hype.
As we debate reforming
national healthcare it looks like everything is either watered down or the
American people are, or about to get hosed.
To say that is all about the
money is simplistic and basically denies any philosophical underpinning that
separates the human condition from the chipmunks, sasquatches, and polar bears.
I suppose it is too much to say that you have reverence for your Saturday bacon
and eggs, but at least the pig is committed and the chicken is only involved.
However, it wasnÕt all that long ago, that your Chevy was reverenced as
American as hot dogs and apple pie. Now I assume the New General Motors are
still going to make some type of Chevrolet, but they will never be the classic revered
Chevy.
In a world that teaches
everyone that this is all there is, there ainÕt no more, and we evolved here
out a slough of goop struck by lightening, there seems to be no a priori
evidence for any basis for reverence. In a world in which reverence does not
exist, the fault for the lack of transcendent reverence lies directly with
Christianity, and specifically Protestant evangelical Christianity, which has
become so material in achieving Òyour best life now,Ó it is really no different
than those making soupy bacon.
Christianity has lost its
power to transform the culture, because it has divorced itself from the power
of God. Specifically modern evangelicalism has just substituted a New Testament
covenant of law, for the Jewish Old Testament covenant of law. So the Jews had
the Ten Commandments and the Torah, modern evangelicalism has the Ten
Suggestions and heaven helps those who help themselves.
What is missing is the
covenant of grace, amazing grace that saved a wretch like we. As Jesus said the
righteous have no need of a savior, hence Pharisees in Jesus day didnÕt need
redemption, nor do the Pharisees of today. You can get a witness from pretty
much every heathen and pagan in the world, as well as most non-evangelical
Christians, that Òself righteous bigotsÓ populate most of evangelicalism.
Wesleyan holiness, Arminianism,
as well as revivalism are deep rivers running through evangelicalism, hence the
belief that little good could can come from Calvinism. However the systematic
Calvinist has some theology that would lead evangelicalism out of the evolving
created Slough of Despair. That theology is encapsulated in the concept of
Guilt, Grace, and Gratitude.
Summarized briefly, in order
to understand GodÕs Grace properly, you must also fully understand your sinful,
condemning, guilt before GodÕs holiness. Once, and if you get the guilt right,
then you objectively and emotionally begin to grasp the depth of GodÕs grace.
When you understand that you have freely been given that gift of grace with no
merit of your own, and are justified as holy before God because of JesusÕ
incarnation, death, and resurrection. Then you experience the gratitude that
empowers you to actually produce good works in the power of God, rather than
your own strength.
Being a little simpler
minded, as we began this blog format in November 2006, we posted two articles
based upon the concept of wearing your CAP. CAP stands for the acrostic:
Condemnation – Adoption – Praise. The first was ÒWear your cap!Ó http://www.wondersprings.org/pastarchives/pastarchives/files/wearcap11-15-6.php
the second, ÒThanksgiving CapÓ
http://www.wondersprings.org/pastarchives/pastarchives/files/thankcap11-22-06.php
To put these concepts in a
form more familiar to old fashion Christian fundamentalism you might use the
terms: Sin – Repentance – Worship. However to be worthwhile you
must understand that repentance is not generated within the individual, but
rather a gift of GodÕs grace and legal adoption as one of his children.
There is a worldly concept
that seems to think that all the world needs is love. As with all worldly
endeavors there is an element of truth in that, but love by itself must be
framed in some sort of context. Pastors are famous for teaching the Greek definitions
of love, which is a variation on that worldly theme. However the power of God
rests only in love that is the result of human gratitude, praise, and worship.
All three words signify the unity and diversity of GodÕs ÒAppreciation LoveÓ to
use a concept developed by C. S. Lewis.
If you think about it, Appreciation
Love is an attribute of God, and a gift of his grace to his human family.
Appreciation Love is both time sensitive and timelessly eternal. Therein lies
that power for God to be present in his triune personality in any of our
circumstances, whether they be pleasant, difficult, or mundane.
To put this in a relevant
context, let us look to what is happening in the United States concerning
healthcare. As a general concept that most would agree upon, we are paying for
wine and getting water. To turn this around if you want water healthcare, you
should be able to get it. If you want your own special vintage you should be
able to get that also. This shows the unique individuality of each human being.
What the President and his
cohorts donÕt seem to realize is when it comes to life and death, and
healthcare is really about life and death, only the very liberal believe that
one size fits all. Further complicating the issue, which no one is talking
about, is healthcare is an individual expression of ones life and place in
history. Everyone reveres and has Appreciation Love for that concept and true
or false, a lot of people are beginning to take the threat to their personal
eternity personally.
There is an old and very
wise saying in the field of Christian missions. That truth acknowledges that
you are immortal until such time that God is done with your pilgrimage on this
earth, and then you get promoted. Most people, and that includes most Christians,
do not share that worldview. However the truth of that reality, of GodÕs
deliverance from absolutely impossible situations, personally and in print, are
really countless in frequency. Appreciation Love made the calming way, when no
natural way existed.
Put another way, if you have
invested your whole life into yourself, even others, and worthwhile projects,
without the power vested in gratitude, praise, and worship, to and from God,
your healthcare is your one gift to make it last. Hence price is not the most
important product, and you will do whatever it takes to pay and extend the
reality that someday you will have to come to grips with your own mortality.
Appreciation Love is the only power on this earth that can truly transcend that
reality of human mortality.
When I had my heart surgery,
with excellent medical insurance, previously absent for the span of almost 20
years, it was amazing the grace through Appreciation Love that I experienced.
When they lay you on the stainless steel gurney and tell you to count back from
100, either the cardio-vascular surgeon, perhaps the best at this specialty in
the world, will do his job or that is the end. When they are replacing your
aortic valve and your ascending aorta to the arch of the arteries that go to
your head, it either works, or you are in eternity. There is no closing you up
and saying you have this long to live; that is it, finished. From the diagnosis
of this condition through all the preparations I was absolutely convinced that
there was nothing to fear.
Only the Christian church
and Christians can truly deal with death. You didnÕt pass away, or even pass on
into some Elysian Field, you died to this world, and you await the hope of the
resurrection of the dead. From that point according to Christian theology you
will have an unblemished view of God and enjoy him forever, in the company of
uncountable numbers of others. However it is an exclusive family, a family not
based on being a good person, but a family based on your blood brother Jesus Christ.
Instead most Christians seem
to think that ObamaCare is the issue by which socialism will be fought.
However, if the church and Christians would spend their time and resources on
the furtherance of Appreciation Love and begin to again proclaim this gospel of
good news, without all the worldly hype, healthcare as well as the other cares
of this world will be changed from tepid water to vintage wine in communion
with the savior Jesus Christ who did it all. Then in that future date Wonder
Springs will mean the fluidity of Appreciation Love as the taste of GodÕs living
water. Living water is the drink all humans seek, but few are those who will
accept the reality of its cost.
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