8:57 a.m. Today's project was to FINALLY rid the kitchen of the smell of the Liquid Smoke that had toppled over and spilled Monday night, was discovered Tuesday, and almost cleaned up Wednesday!
On Monday, we invited Heidi, fiance Pavel, Heather and husband Nick, to a dinner of barbequed beef and pork ribs to celebrate the visit of our youngest son Steven from Fresno. In the Kruckenberg home, we use any excuse to party! But seriously, we don't get to see Steven very often, so I threw a dinner together.
At the grocery store, I passed up the bottled sauces in favor of making my own, which I've done for 30 years at least. Homemade potatoes au gratin and green beans rounded out a fairly economical meal, because I combined ribs from the freezer with a few fresh additions to feed us all. Kriss and Marisela couldn't make it from Long Beach; Sean and Pam were busy.
Dinner went well, and the sauce I'd made with just two drops of Liquid Smoke added to the ketchup and my "secret spices," came out pretty well. As we were cleaning up, I noticed that the cap to the little bottle was cracked off, so I hastily put a baggie over the mouth of the bottle and secured it with a rubber band. Back in its place in the refrigerator door with other condiments, it was forgotten in a flurry of kitchen straightening. Steve, Steven and I had to retire early, because we would be leaving at 4 a.m. for John Wayne airport, for Steven's flight to Oklahoma. His girlfriend Angela would be graduating from Boot Camp at Ft. Sill on Wednesday.
All went as scheduled, and Steve and I crashed for two hours upon arriving home. I kept noticing a very strong barbeque-y smell in the kitchen. When I checked the few leftover ribs, they were sealed in foil, and the barbeque sauce was sealed airtight in Tupperware. Very odd, I thought. I did some spray-cleaning in the fridge, but it wasn't until Wednesday that I discovered that the tiny bottle of Liquid Smoke had tipped over BEHIND the other bottles and flooded the bottom rack on the fridge door! No wonder it was so strong, enough to burn your eyes. So I cleaned with windex, and soap and water, so that just some stain remained on the rack, and then cleaned the vents at the bottom of the fridge and some leakage on the floor under the fridge. This leak was really pervasive! I cleaned the area then with Lysol bleach spray, too, but it only seemed to dim down the odor.
It's at times like these that I wish we had "smell-o-vision" online so that the piercing smell could actually hit you!
Today, I investigated once again, because the smell was not 100% gone. After removing the bottles once again, I noticed the light stains. That's when I realized that leaving even "light" stains was enough to perpetuate the harsh fumes! I did a massive scrubbing of every concieveable part of the lower part of the fridge, with whiter-than white results! I may just get the victory...
Isn't it the same with our sins? God tells us to do--or not do--something, and we mostly comply. Like Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5, who withheld a portion of the financial donation they had pledged and were struck dead, we want to hold onto just a bit of our bad habit, or only sin with our mouths "occasionally," when God has clearly spoken to us on a matter. Like my stained refrigerator door that smelled about as much as it had when the liquid was in a puddle, our "not that bad" sin still reeks!
Our sin stinks to high heaven when partially confessed and repented of, rather than put to death at the foot of the cross once and for all! Partially clean=totally dirty.
But the same God who has the power to forgive sin and clean us up is merciful, loving and merely asks that we repent in 100% sincerity. We need to be ready to make a U-turn. He is powerful beyond description to make things right in our lives, unlike us. He knows how frail we are, how difficult sin is to overcome, and even the excuses we ladle out. But, we are told in I John 1:9,
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Isaiah 1:18 says,
Come now, and let us reason together, says the LORD; though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red as crimson, they shall be as wool.
Let's take these verses to heart and quit settling for partial (zero) obedience!
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