Loading The Dishwasher

Loading the dishwasher is an everyday occurrence.
Emptying the dishwasher is part of my morning routine.
Everyone has his or her own system.
No two people load the dishwasher in the same way.

Some people put the utensils faced down in the utensil basket.
Others have the forks, knives, and spoons pointing up to make sure they get clean.
Some people would never dream of putting pots and pans in the dishwasher.
Others put everything in there, except the proverbial kitchen sink.

I have had many helpers through the years.
Even my own children have their own way of loading the dishwasher.
The open door of the dishwasher used to be a platform for the littlest one to stand on.
Once there, they could easily reach the things on the top rack and help me put things away.

That didn’t last long when my husband told me what that did to the door hinges!

When we got our gas fireplace, I had no use for a practical hook I received as a gift.
It was a brass hook that hung on the handle of the fireplace flue.
It said OPEN on one side and CLOSED on the other.
It helped us remember to close the flue after the fire burned down in the fireplace.

Now I use the hook on the door handle of the dishwasher.
Everyone, including me, tends to open the dishwasher during the drying cycle.
Without thinking, we open the door to put something inside.
Now, if the hook is hanging there, everyone knows the dishes are clean.

Brilliant…unless I forget to hang the hook!

Loading the dishwasher always seems to cause one controversy.
That is whether to clean the dishes BEFORE they go into the dishwasher.
There are people in both camps.
Why clean them? That’s the dishwasher’s job.
You have to rinse them first or else it will be too hard to get them clean.

I am in the rinsing camp.
I scrape off all the food scraps and then rinse the dish before loading it in the dishwasher.
There are those that think it is an absurd thing to do.

I have had people load the dishwasher for me without rinsing the dishes first.
The next morning, more often than not, some dishes will still have food on them.
Don’t make more work for yourself. Just put the dishes right in, a friend once said.
She wasn’t around the next morning when many plates needed to be cleaned again.

In the first century, controversy ensued about the Gentiles and their role in the church.

Some men came down from Judea to Antioch and were teaching the brothers: “Unless you are circumcised, according to the custom taught by Moses, you cannot be saved.” This brought Paul and Barnabas into sharp dispute and debate with them. So Paul and Barnabas were appointed along with some other believers, to go up to Jerusalem to see the apostles and elders about this question…Then some of the believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees stood up and said, “The Gentiles must be circumcised and required to obey the law of Moses.” The apostles and elders met to consider this question. After much discussion Peter got up and addressed them: “Brothers, you know that some time ago God made a choice among you that the Gentiles might hear from my lips the message of the gospel and believe. God, who knows the heart, showed that He accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as He did to us. He made no distinction between us and them, for He purified their hearts by faith. Now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of the disciples a yoke that neither we nor our fathers have been able to bear? No! We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are.” (Acts 15:1,2,5-11)

The controversy in the early church caused much debate.
Should the Gentiles become Jews in order to become Christians?
The Jews could not believe that God would also give His Spirit to Gentiles.

Barnabas, Paul, and James who were leaders in the early church, spoke on their behalf.
They talked of signs and wonders that God had done among the Gentiles.
A letter was sent to the Gentile believers asking them to honor four Jewish practices.

…It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us not to burden you with anything beyond the following requirements: You are to abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals, and from sexual immorality. You will do well to avoid these things. (Acts 15:28,29)

Gentiles becoming Jews before they became Christians.
Cleaning the dishes before you put them in the dishwasher.
Both seem absurd.

The end result is the same.
The dishes are clean.
The Gentiles are cleansed, forgiven, saved by the power of the Holy Spirit.

I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed. A righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: the righteous will live by faith.  (Romans 1:16,17)