A Nation Remembers

Tomorrow, we will celebrate our nation’s Memorial Day. That is the day we set apart to honor those who have died in the defense of our great nation. Those who gave their all so that we could have it all. Those who made the ultimate sacrifice, so that we might not have to.

As we look back into our past, we see that America has been in conflict since her beginning. We often talk about Christians having many storms in their lives, but we see that our nation has had many storms in her great life, too.

And, as we look at the many conflicts she has endured, we also see the many blessings God has given this nation. But, we must remember that we have received those blessings because we have chosen, as a nation, to walk with God and to honor His glorious name.

But what are we doing now? As a nation, we have chosen to oust God from every corner of our lives, haven’t we? And, in the past, if we have received past blessings because we honored Him, what is in store for us now, as we go about the business of dishonoring Him?

Let me change tempo for a moment and relay a story to you about cooking frogs. First of all, let me tell you right up front that this is one person who sees no benefits at all from eating a frog.

As a young boy, I went frog gigging, but only because it was neat for us kids to go out at night by ourselves and have an adventure. A Tom Sawyer kind of thing.

But, any time I gigged a frog, I would give it to my cousin Larry, who took them home and then his family ate frog for the next few days. Not for me. That is why God made peanut butter, so that I don’t have to eat frog.

But I have heard that there are two ways to cook a frog. One way is to put that frog in a pan of cold water and very slowly heat it until the frog is cooked. By heating it ever so slowly, the frog is unaware of the temperature change until … well, until his goose is cooked, so to speak.

The second way to cook a frog is to quickly drop the frog into a pan of boiling water. If you do that, he will do the same thing you would do if somebody dropped you in boiling water. The frog will jump sky high and start hopping all around the kitchen, wondering what happened.

Now, if you choose this method to cook your frog, you have to keep repeating this process over and over again until either you or the frog gets too tired to fight it anymore, in which case you will either have a frog for dinner or a frog as a pet.

Let’s go back to the first way of cooking a frog. That is where you heated the water up so slowly that the frog didn’t know he was in trouble until it was just too late. That analogy can be applied to the sin in our lives as well. In fact, I think it describes it quite clearly.

We have already discussed how sin is presented to us by the enemy in very pretty wrapping paper. It is made to look absolutely irresistible so that we will accept it. So, we too often take the sin and run with it. And, to be truthful, we don’t seem to have too much problem doing so, either.

But, if we are not careful, we can be spiritually and even physically, in very big trouble before we realize that we are about to get burned.

Let me give you a personal example of what I am saying. You all have noticed my beard. I have worn this beard for many years. And, the reason I wear it is because it is very hard for me to shave daily on different parts of my chin. I don’t have the outward scars to prove it, but I got my face burned quite badly when I was in the tenth grade and I am still paying the price for it.

A friend of mine smoked and he had a Zippo lighter. The trick back then was to take the lighter’s inside out of the case and light the lighter. Then, you would put the bottom of the casing on your mouth and blow it like a trumpet. The fire would shoot out about a foot or so, and the rest of your friends would think you were really cool.

Well, we were talking about that and I decided I would try it. After all, every boy in the tenth grade wants to be seen as ’cool’ to his peers, right? When I blew on it, the flames shot out pretty far, and then they did something I had never seen them do before. Just as quickly as they shot out, they came back, and they landed on my face.