Making Lye Soap


Rick Tincher


From my childhood, I learned how to make lye soap. It actually is a very simple process, but it is mandatory to strictly follow the directions. The three ingredients are lye, lard, and water. If done properly, these three ingredients will leave you with soap better than any “store-bought.” This soap is pure, with no perfumes that cause some people to have skin irritation.


You first take a pound of lye and mix it with two cups of water. This combination is very dangerous if breathed or touched. After mixing these two ingredients for about a half-hour, let them set for another hour. You then carefully mix in five pounds of lard and continue to mix it for about forty-five minutes. You then pour the mix into a glass or enamel cake-pan and let it set over night. The next day you can cut your soap into cakes. (It will yield ten to twenty bars of soap.)


The spiritual application is this: God has given us a specific way of doing things. If we alter in any way this “recipe,” the result is disastrous and sometimes lethal. If God’s will is followed exactly as He has revealed it, we can cleanse our spiritually filthy lives. (Romans 3:23; 6:23).


Let me mention four areas where men tend to “short-cut” the recipe of God’s Holy Word:


HALF-HEARTED SERVICE. Old Testament King Amaziah served God, but not completely or loyally. 2 Chronicles 25:1-2 records, “Amaziah was twenty and five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned twenty and nine years in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Jehoaddan of Jerusalem. And he did that which was right in the sight of the LORD, but not with a perfect heart.” This lead to Judah’s defeat in battle and the dwindling of Amaziah’s kingship. As Christians, we must offer nothing less than full-hearted service and devotion to God. Jesus said, “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” Matthew 6:33.


INCORRECT WORSHIP. Nadab and Abihu tampered with God’s recipe for Jewish worship, and it was lethal! “And Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took either of them his censer, and put fire therein, and put incense thereon, and offered strange fire before the LORD, which he commanded them not. And there went out fire from the LORD, and devoured them, and they died before the LORD.” Leviticus 10:1-2. Jesus told the Samaritan woman, “... believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.” John 4:21-24.


PARTIAL-TRUTH PREACHING. Paul told the elders of Ephesus, “For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God.” Acts 20:27. Anyone who stands before people as a preacher of the gospel must declare the whole truth. To side-step controversial issues to appease wayward members or immoral people will condemn the preacher and those who heed him.


AN INCOMPLETE PLAN OF SALVATION. To take baptism out of God’s recipe for salvation of man is like taking the lard out of the soap recipe … the lye and water alone is dangerous and deadly. To preach “faith-alone” is also deadly. James says, “Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble. But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead? Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only.” James 2:17,19,20,24.


My dear friend, will you be fully committed to follow all that God has told you to do in His word? “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.” Psalm 119:105. –14310 Wooster Road, Mt. Vernon, OH 43050.


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