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Sauerkraut -- More Than Cabbage By Robert Berendt A recipe from a dying old man taught me about more than just preserving cabbage. God has His own method of preserving -- it's called conversion.
love sauerkraut! I love it in a Reuben sandwich. I love it fried, boiled, on its own or with something else. I love to dip my hand into the sauerkraut barrel to sample the developing flavor. I love it as a side dish or as a main dish -- with potatoes and sausage or heated and mixed with ground beef. I like the smell of it as well as the taste. I love to make sauerkraut -- though I have not done so for some years now. Sauerkraut is good for a person physically, and it has some wonderful lessons to teach. It was developed as a method for preserving cabbage and other vegetables when refrigeration was not available. It has special qualities due to the state of fermentation and change that it undergoes. Sauerkraut can be made in different ways and can have some differences in flavor -- but there is an unmistakable taste and smell that sets it apart from all other foods. My method of making sauerkraut was simple. It originated by my visiting an old man who was selling a whole barrel of sauerkraut that he had made. He was ill and was going into the hospital. He gave me a very good deal at a time when our family was feeling a financial pinch, and he threw in his recipe free of charge. That batch of sauerkraut was so good that when the old man died late that year, I decided to make my own. Making sauerkraut
I kept beating that cabbage until it began to release some of the water content. The idea was to beat much of the fluid out of the cabbage and bruise the cells. Then as the water level rose and the stone crock was finally completely full, I selected a large glass plate and found a good stone to place on top of it. The plate just fit into the top of the stone crock and as the stone was placed on, the fluid level rose and covered the plate. I needed to be careful that no cabbage was floating, because that would develop mold. Only the fluid was to come above the glass plate.
Allowing the cabbage to be treated and stored this way makes it last for a very long time without decaying. I could not help but think about the process we humans must go through at the hands of the greatest "sauerkraut maker" of all -- our Heavenly Father. Cabbage is cabbage, but when it is converted it becomes sauerkraut! God's conversion process Almighty God does not allow anyone to mess with His process. John 6:44 tells us that only the Father can draw a person to Himself. That calling and our response is the beginning of a wonderful process -- one that will result in eternal life for the chosen, a condition that will never see corruption. We first need to be humbled and beaten up just a little. In Acts 2:38 we are told that the first step is to repent. Psalm 51:1-4 gives a good description of the inner emotions and understanding that we are to arrive at. Job also expressed his understanding in Job 42:6 when he stated that he abhorred himself and repented in dust and ashes. We cannot enter the process until we come to that state.
In 1 John 3:4-6 we see that we are to shun sin for the rest of our lives. The process of learning to think according to God's way continues in us until the day of our resurrection or judgment. Paul states in Romans 6:1-4 that a converted person (under grace) should not sin. We walk in newness of life. Sin is defined by the commandments of God. Knowing those commandments and keeping them faithfully is an imperative for a converted person. Sauerkraut differs, so do we Just as it takes a while for the beaten cabbage to ferment into sauerkraut, so, too, it takes time for a human who embraces Jesus Christ as his or her personal Savior to develop into a converted child of God.
We, too, differ within the Body of Christ. In 1 Corinthians 12, Paul points out the differences among the members of the Body of Christ. He calls some of them the hand, some the eyes and some the hearing, but all are part of the body and work together. The lessons learned in loving one another is the real work that goes on inside of God's sauerkraut barrel. We find in 1 Corinthians 13 a description of the final product that we are meant to become. Jesus Christ stated that the words He spoke were the words of the Father and His actions were the will of the Father (John 5:19,30,36; 8:28). Jesus Christ and God the Father were one, so much so that Jesus could flatly tell Philip that "he who has seen Me has seen the Father" (John 14:9). Thus we humans have a good look at God the Father through the life of Jesus Christ.
We do have a large part to play in learning, developing and exercising our will to follow in Jesus' footsteps. But God the Father is the superior "sauerkraut" maker of all time. To Him alone belongs the glory and honor of the completion of His Creation. Cabbage has no will, but we do. God waits for us to be "willing cabbage" in His Hands. He will turn us into that everlasting "sauerkraut." God wants us all to be saved, to gain the gift of eternal life. Copyright 2006 by United Church of God, an International Association All rights reserved. |
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Keywords: conversion baptism saurkraut and conversion
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