Corona Devo 1297

Preserve the teaching of God; entrust his instructions to those who follow me.  ~Isaiah 8:16

~~~

Have you ever preserved (or "canned") tomatoes?

By "preserve", I mean keep/store-up-for-later/follow-the-(time-tested)-steps and tips...for storing/canning/"preserving" them, so that they won't spoil, and so that they will last.

It's a process.  You can't just "say" you're going to can tomatoes.  There are steps, and an order to them, and I know them because my mother-in-law entrusted those instructions to me, just as her mother entrusted them to her and her mother before her.

First (of course), you need red tomatoes, and we usually acquire them from any local farm that sells them by the bushel (over 9.5 gallons). 
 
Then you have to let the tomatoes rest and ripen, preferably single-layer on a table for a day or two.  And then you're off and running for preserving them.  

Boil a big pot of water and (1) place your whole tomatoes in to boil for about three minutes or (2) pile tomatoes in a stopped sink and pour the boiling water over them to blanch in sink tub.

Then we core, skin and quarter the tomatoes, careful to cut out any questionable spots, dark areas, or green (unripened) areas...filling a large pot with the "cleaned" tomato flesh.

When the cleaning is finished, heat the pot to boiling, adding unmeasured amounts of salt and sugar, only to be defined by multiple taste-tests, each time using a fresh teaspoon to dip and then slurp until perfection-of-flavor is reached.


Then the red-gold (tomatoes and juice) are ladled into jars, carefully (and cleanly) lidded and then the batch is placed in a canner pot of boiling water to cook and seal...and be preserved.

It's a lot of steps to learn, or to be entrusted with, but I am blessed to have had the process passed down to me.  Preserved/canned/stewed tomatoes are delicious and worth every part of the process and effort they require.

~~~

Okay, so the Bible is nothing like preserving tomatoes, but if you were tracking with me on all of the steps and realizing that it is a process to preserve tomatoes...then we can enter into the same idea for the teaching of God.

We're taught God's Word.  

Someone read Bible stories to us, or discussed passages with us when we were old enough to understand them.

If we are in a Bible study, we discuss the Bible with others seeking to live it and learn how to apply it to our lives.

We see the lives and examples of Christ-followers, and their walks make an impression on us.  How they deal with life, how they respond to difficult people and adversity, and how they handle blessing, and they learn that from somewhere: the teaching of God.

The Bible and God's teaching is all around us, in others, in our heritage and in our very beings.  We must preserve it.  

Just as we were taught the Bible and God's Word, we must preserve the teaching of God, both in ourselves (by study, memorization, discussion), and also by entrusting it to others.  This is the way the process works.  This is the way that preserving the teaching of God has always worked.  We must entrust his instructions to those who follow us (Isaiah 8:16).

I was taught how to preserve tomatoes.  But in one meal, one jar of tomatoes is gone forever.  Not so with the teaching of God.  Anyone and everyone that we will entrust his instructions to, will live forever in Heaven with God.  

But--it's a process.  You can't just "say" you've accepted Jesus into your heart and make no changes in your life and heart.  There is a progression, steps, and it's a journey.  We all traverse it in different ways, and God welcomes every step we take towards Him.

Faith is definitely a process, and in order to be a part of preserving the teaching of God, we must enter in.

Who will follow God?  That is up to each man and woman unto themselves.  (Is there a decision that you need to make today?)  

Who will we entrust his instructions to?  I pray that there is no limit on that batch. 



Preserve the teaching of God; entrust his instructions to those who follow me.  ~Isaiah 8:16


Blessings,

sarah

https://sarahsundy04.blogspot.com 

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