Where Is The Pickle?
"Heinz 57 Varieties" is a very popular and familiar sign around almost every super-market today. In the infancy of this company it was noted for pickles, but now the pickles have all but lost out to peppers, relish, mustard, catsup and such like. They still have pickles but you may have to examine 56 other delectables before you find what you are looking for.
Trying to find the pickle can prove to be exasperating; but trying to find the right religion can make the pickle-hunt look like child's play. The face of "Heinz" rounds off at "57" varieties but the face of religion exceeds 300 varieties. Woe is the man who, without any knowledge of God, starts his search for sacred things through the hideous maze of the many faces of religion today! He will find many combinations of religious things as he continues his search for that which is spiritual. Each in his own way, will proclaim that his is the correct formula, or at least safe to follow. They may differ as much as hot pepper and cole slaw but will each claim that his differences are minor and that it really doesn't matter which one you choose so long as you can be happy.
In the "57 Varieties" that Heinz makes we are left to decide for ourselves which we shall choose. We may choose one or we may take them all, depending on our taste and according to our ability to purchase. However, in religion you would call a man insincere that would try to hold up the doctrine of two churches at the same time.
The same man, however, may choose one sect this week and another the next week and the majority will count him of sound mind, even when the two churches teach opposing doctrines. Both churches may accept the man into their fellowship on the same confession. They may even claim union while being adverse in their creeds.
Honest people who think for themselves can see through this folly. The Heinz company may continue to offer "57 Varieties" and may even add to their number in order to please their customers, but, what thinking man, with the faith of a grain of mustard seed, is ready to say that the 300 varieties of religion, with all their confusion, is pleasing to God?
Jesus prayed that "they may all be one, as thou Father art in me" (John 17:20,21), and the apostle Paul admonished that "Ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment." (I Cor. 1:10)
God's Word does not come in varieties! We either have it or we do not. We either do it or we do not. We may not change about religiously between "pickles" and "beans." We are for him or we are against him. (Matt. 12:30) In God's religion there is not even the variation of the kind, viz., different kinds of pickles. Heinz pickles come dill, sour, kosher, plain and sweet. Good people, at times, will try to make God's word so. There are some who are always puckered (dill or sour), some who mix the two covenants (kosher), others that go about dripping honey from the mouth (sweet).
It is foolishness and lest we find ourselves jesting we put the jar lid on good and tight right here. Let us take a good look at the religious mess of our day and determine to do what we can to resolve it.
Dreaming, hiding, hoping, and wishing will not do it. However, abiding will eliminate the hideous face of religion. Abiding in God's Word, that is. "Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God." (Rom. 10:17) "Without faith it is impossible to please him...." (Heb. 11:6) "Whatsoever is not of faith is sin." (Rom. 14:23) Do you own a Bible? We encourage you to read it and meditate upon it in view of your own salvation. Get yourself out of a pickle by doing what God says.
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