Improper Mixture
By: O.C. Marler
October 17, 1989. My daughter had just a short time before exited Highway 880 when the earthquake struck ridges swayed and section dropped like pieces of a puzzle. Tiers of falling concrete crushed cars-killing some and trapping others in instant claustrophobic cells. While the earth was still crawling, the shocking news spread around the world.
Upon hearing of the catastrophe an engineer began to weep, saying, “This was not a result of the earthquake! This happened because someone sold out! Some man turned his head and allowed a concrete company to pour an improper mixture. Money lined someone’s pockets at the cost of these lives!”
I saw a piece of concrete taken from the fallen structure. It was
peppered with air bubbles. Sand rubbed off in my hands.
Even though I have no way of validating this story, I can very easily
relate it to the gospel. We are given the ingredients for full
salvation. It is a message that will hold up under any stress. It has
no breaking point. Paul said it this war. ‘For I am persuaded that
neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers,
nor things present, nor things to come. Nor height, nor death, nor any
other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which
is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38,39).
Education has been the main concern for our children – in a lot of
cases, I’m sorry to say, the only concern. College funds are started
at birth, but no thought is given for their spiritual education.
Universities and some smaller colleges have become the devil’s pulpit.
It is almost impossible to get the education a person needs without the
humanistic new-age brainwashing from foul-mouthed professors. This is
an improper mixture – one that will not stand the test of time. It is
full of air bubbles and loose sand and will destroy this civilization –
a civilization where individuals are traded with cold indifference and
total lack of morality.
How could our young people know morality when they have never been
associated with church, their only reference being jokes from comedians
and slander from the news media. The movies that Hollywood produces
are so well advanced in holy or sacred that they openly curse God.
Those who have an improper mixture accept this as a part of their being
entertained. But “be not deceived, God is not mocked. Whatsoever a
man soweth, that shall he also reap.”
The gospel truth is built on the foundation of the apostles and
prophets. Joel proclaimed it first, and the apostle Peter confirmed
it. (Joel 2 and Acts 2). The formula is clear and simple. In teaching
our children to succeed, the first and most important principle is to
seek first the kingdom of God.
In the failure of the freeway, greed apparently tempted an engineer to
allow an improper mixture of ingredients in the concrete; and in an
hour of extreme stress men and women lost their lives. We must not
allow greed for material advantage to tempt us to “water down” the
formula for eternal salvation – to permit improper ingredients to form
the foundation for the spiritual structure of this and the next
generation. The collapsed freeway in California brought physical
injury and death. The improper mixture spirituality brings eternal
death.
The above material was published by the Louisiana Challenger. This
material is copyrighted and may be used for research and study purposes
only.
