A Time To Remember

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 our spiritual 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. He makes sin look irresistible so that we will accept it. And what do we do? All too often, we are tricked by the wrapping and we end up taking the sin and running with it. And we don’t have much problem doing that, 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 mean. I have worn a beard for most of my life. The reason I wear it is because it is hard for me to shave. I don’t have the outward scars to prove it, but I got my face burned quite badly when I was in high school and I am still paying the price for it.

The trick back then was to take a Zippo lighter’s inside casing out 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 young boy wants to be seen as ’cool’, 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.

Now, that would have been okay, except that my face started to burn. To make a long story short, I smothered the flames with a towel, somebody called my dad and he took me to the hospital and I came out of the ER with almost my entire face bandaged. I had to stay that way for nearly 4 months.

When I took that lighter from my friend and started to show off, I was just like that frog. I was getting myself into hot water, but did not realize until it was too late, that I was about to get burned.

That is what our nation has been going through for years. America has been taking small steps, one after the other, deeper into sin and godlessness.

One small step does not seem so great, but a few small steps will end up being a mile, won’t it?

When something clearly threatens us, such as Pearl Harbor or 9-1-1, we are quick to react and defend ourselves, but how to we handle it when the danger isn’t so visible? Too often, we tend to just ignore it. After all, it doesn’t seem to be threatening, does it? And the heat builds up slowly, without our noticing it at all – or at least until we find our goose cooked.

An example of the things that are too subtle for Americans to notice is the rising tide of violence in this country, especially among our young kids. Every week, we see evidence of road rage or a murder during a robbery.

My wife has talked about secular TV shows. Every sitcom shows the man of the family as a bumbling idiot who cannot make decisions; the wife as the only one who can make rational decisions; they show a homosexual neighbor who is always a ton of laughs and fun to be around, and kids who smart off to their dads. It is no wonder the American family is falling apart.