Day Trip

We went to Dublin yesterday. No, not a quick trip to the emerald isle. It’s a town of close to 5,000 whose biggest claim to fame is Dr. Pepper.

The soft drink wasn’t invented there (that was Waco, Texas), but the oldest Dr. Pepper plant is there. Built in 1891, it still produces what Texans know as Dublin Dr. Pepper, and it is different from all other plants. Here, instead of the high fructose corn syrup sweetener used by other soft drinks, they still use Imperial pure cane sugar. Other plants haven’t since sugar cane from Cuba became unobtainable.

For most north Texans (and lots of other people), Dr. Pepper is the soft drink of choice. Among those, Dublin offers the best of the best. We missed their annual birthday celebration in June, when the town is officially known as Dr. Pepper, Texas.

I like their website’s closure:

“Bill Kloster was a man of conviction. When small bottlers have been gobbled up by conglomerates, the tiny, independent Dublin Dr Pepper plant remains. Its signature product is produced just like it was more than 100 years ago. Bill wasn’t afraid of bucking marketing trends because he believed in the unique quality of his product.”

In some ways it describes the two-dozen people who went from our church to the plant. We are an independent, fundamental Baptist congregation. Our daily lives differ from those first-century Christians in secular ways, but we continue to meet on the Lord’s day to hear preaching (though usually not as long as Paul’s.)

And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow; and continued his speech until midnight. [Acts 20:7 KJV]

We bring our tithes and offerings for His work, just as they were instructed to do.

Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him, that there be no gatherings when I come. [1 Corinthians 16:2 KJV]

When someone comes to the understanding of a central truth:

For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; [Romans 3:23 KJV]

And they’ve made public their profession of faith in our Lord as savior:

For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. [Romans 10:10 KJV]

They come for baptism:

Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. [Romans 6:4 KJV]

And, they worship the Lord, our God.

Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. [Matthew 22:37-40 KJV]