I thank God for my gift ~

If we could personally sit down and talk about the things in life that really matter,
I would share with you how Jesus has changed my life.
Now please note... I am not talking about religion.
Religion is the devil's substitute for a real relationship with God.
Besides, if it were possible to work our way to heaven by
being good, then Jesus died needlessly. But that is not the case.....

God made you, He loves you and He desires for you to know Him intimately.

But how on earth does one enter into a relationship with God?
Simply by talking to God in prayer.
You have to come to the end of yourself. You have to realize your need for Him.
You have to understand the fact that you just can't do it on your own,
and you need to see that Jesus Christ died on the cross for you!
He died so that all who accept His free gift of salvation will not only go to heaven
when they die, but they can live a happy and fulfilled life in the here and now.
It's simply telling God that you're through running your own life and that you need Him!


I'll tell you this.... God is faithful and He doesn't want you to be confused about this.
He wants to clearly reveal to you the truth.
And the truth is in Jesus, as it says in the book of John...... Jesus is
the way, the truth and the life, no man comes to God the Father, but through Him.

I encourage you to carefully consider what I have written here.
Take a hard look at Jesus and what the Bible has to say about Him.
And remember, it's not about religion, it's not about being good or a long list of do's and don'ts.
It's about whether or not you accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior,
accepting His free gift of salvation for you.
It's the most important decision you can make in your entire life,
because this is what you were created for ... fellowship with God Himself!


It's all about Jesus and His love for ...... you.



John 3:16-17

For God so loved the world,
that He gave His only begotten Son
that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish
but have everlasting life.

For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world,
but that the world through Him, might be saved.

Thank you to my friend Elin Criswell from www.TheCountrySoaper.com for letting me use her beautiful words. I could not have said it better!!

Is there Lye in your Soap?

Soapmakers often get asked about the use of lye in their soap. The fact is that lye is indeed used to make soap. While in many minds, “lye soap” brings up images of grandmas and washboards and red, red hands, anyone who has used handmade soap knows that it is quite mild and moisturizing. Sound like a contradiction? Well, the truth is that the lye was there, but now it’s gone. Is it magic? Sort of. It’s chemistry!




Why lye, anyway?
Soap, by definition, is the result of a chemical reaction between some kind of oil (like olive oil, coconut oil or cocoa butter) and lye. Lye is a solution made with either sodium hydroxide (to make bar soap) or potassium hydroxide (to make liquid soap). The reaction is called saponification. That’s it. Beautiful in its simplicity, no? The other stuff (colors, fragrance, flower petals) adds to the enjoyment of your shower or bath, but is really unnecessary if you just want something that will clean.

Lye can be added by the soapmaker, like I do when making our cold process soap, or it could have been added in a manufacturing facility. In fact, some soapmakers use a soap base that can be melted and then colored and scented. In that case, the soapmaker doesn’t have to handle the lye, but it was still part of the process in becoming soap at the factory before the soapmaker got it.
No lye? No soap. Period.

Where’s the lye?
“But hold on,” you might say, “the soap I buy at the store doesn’t have lye.” It may seem that way, depending on how the soap is labeled. Some ingredient labels list things like “sodium palmate”. This is the chemical name for the result of mixing palm oil and sodium hydroxide – oil and lye again! That bar of soap was made by blending in some already-made palm oil soap. The lye that went into making the sodium palmate was used up by the time it went into the soap, so it doesn’t have to be listed on the ingredient label. Or maybe the label lists “saponified olive oil”. Now that you know what saponification means, you can understand that saponified oils are oils that have been reacted with lye at some point, even if the label doesn’t actually say “sodium hydroxide”.

Another very common reason that a soap label may not list sodium hydroxide is that it’s not soap. Surprised? Many bars in the market today are really solid detergents. Read the labels carefully and you’ll see that they are called “body bars” or “beauty bars” since they can’t call themselves “soap” because they aren’t made with oils and lye.

How can lye soap feel so good on the skin?
If lye is used to make soap, why is handmade soap so gentle? The trick is that the lye gets used up during saponification. That’s right. The chemical reaction transforms the oil and lye into (Ta-da!) soap and glycerin. The soap cleans your skin (but not so much that all the oils are stripped off ) and the glycerin is a humectant. That means that it attracts moisture from the air and onto your skin, helping it stay moisturized and supple. And unlike Grandma, modern handmade soapmakers are able to formulate their soap using high-quality, beneficial oils and just enough lye to get a mild, conditioning bar that still gives a lovely lather.
So have no fear! Use handmade soap and enjoy all the benefits that it brings. Because the magic of chemistry has turned those oils and lye into something completely different and lovely: some of the best soap you can use on your skin!

Compliments of Ruth Esteves and her company Sirona Springs