Turkey season is upon us and I’ve been tuning up on my turkey calling. Unfortunately I’ve left a couple of my diaphragm mouth turkey calls in my shirt and my wife accidently washed and destroyed them, so when in town the other day I bought a couple more.
Turkey calls have varied sounds; some are raspy and some are clean, some are loud and some are soft. I couldn’t wait to tear the package open and try them out, so as I was driving back to Honey Lake on I-10 I was trying to rip open the thief proof containers without having a car crash. Finally I was successful and I excitedly put the call in my mouth and blew some air through it and instead of a hen turkey “in the mood” sound coming out, the absolute worst sounds I’d ever heard came out.
Huh?
I thought I might have it in my mouth backwards, but after I checked I discovered that was not the case. I tried it again and again with the same results. I moved it forward and backward in my mouth pressing it tightly to the roof of my mouth with my tongue and it still sounded like a dog howling at the moon instead of a turkey. Exasperated I wondered if they had come out with some new fangled call that I had never heard of.
Finally I set it aside and tried the other call that I had purchased. Ahhh…A nice yelp, yelp, yelp, and then a few purrs and clucks restored my confidence. I sounded like an excited hen turkey for the rest of the drive to the plantation.
When I got home I decided to read the instructions on the call that sounded so bad and I discovered why it sounded strange. Sigh… I had mistakenly purchased a coyote howling call.
Egad! I didn’t even know they made a coyote howling call.
There were several different types of mouth calls in close proximity to each other in the store and in my haste to get this chore over and get back to my beloved Honey Lake I didn’t look at it that closely. The packaging and call itself looked exactly like a turkey call and was manufactured by the leading maker of turkey calls and therefore I bought it.
As I sit here looking at the empty package and coyote call it reminds me of how people buy into various belief systems. The packaging of some of the churches that espouse very strange doctrine look enticing and authentic enough, but if we aren’t careful we can buy into a poor substitute for the real thing.
I belong to a Baptist church, but don’t consider myself a dyed in the wool Baptist. I am non-denominational and am so for a purpose. I’ve been to some Baptist churches and others that strayed far from the Bible, (usually to the right). I’ve been to some Episcopal churches and others that strayed far to the left of my understanding of the Bible and belief system.
Not long ago I had an irate reader of Words for the Day take me to task about my belief system. He was upset with something I’d written and wrote to let me know about it. In trying to discuss the issue with him I learned what the root of the problem was. He wasn’t arguing the Bible Scripture with me; he was arguing his own logic that is not in the Bible. He didn’t believe the Bible as it was written and felt it was subject to “progressive” interpretation.
This reminds me of what some in the Obama administration are trying to do with our constitution. They believe it doesn’t need to be interpreted as it’s written, but needs progressive interpretation, (by them of course). It is a dangerous course for our country when it comes to interpreting our laws from our own logic versus what is written in our constitution, and it is even more dangerous for us individually to add or subtract from God’s laws as divinely written in the Bible to accommodate our societal mores and desires of the times.
I know what the Bible says because I’ve read it for myself numerous times and I study it virtually every day. I believe it is the Holy inspired inerrant word of God and His only means of communiqué in this modern era and I base my entire belief system in it. Some seem to think it needs to be modified and modernized to fit today’s wicked society to accommodate the lusts of this age; I am not among them.
Don’t go for a package that looks like the real deal. (You don’t want to spend eternity howling in agony from hell; better to live life purring like a kitten in heaven.) Read the Bible and listen to God. Then find and join a church that preaches directly from that Bible and teaches its true meaning in Sunday school.
Duet. 4:2
Do not add to what I command you and do not subtract from it,
but keep the commands of the LORD your God that I give you.