The Thorns of Boiling Frogs

"8 Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.

9 Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world." 1 Peter 5:6-9 ESV

There is a strange question that we like to ask occasionally down here in Texas.

Question: How do you boil a frog?

Answer: Very slowly.

Its a bit absurd, but the logic goes like this:  you can't drop a frog in a pot of boiling water, because the frog will just immediately jump out. (Yes, I know you can put a lid on the pot, but just go along with this.)

So how do you boil the frog?  

You put the frog in a pot of lukewarm water, and slowly turn up the heat.  As the heat is slowly raised, the frog gets cozy and relaxed, even sleepy.  His will and strength leave him, so by the time he figures out somethings wrong, he's already being cooked.

Its a funny concept, but there is very serious warning in it: Don't get too comfortable.

As husbands, fathers, and as godly men, its very easy to get too comfortable.  And this is Satan's best weapon against us.

Generally speaking, no one wakes up one day and says "Hey, lets ruin my life today."  Satan does not normally make someone have an affair, become an alcoholic, become entangled in pornography, or become a drug addict in one day.  Godly men are too powerful for that.

So Satan tempts VERY slowly. The picture of the very little bikini at the supermarket checkout. The occasional drink. The little extra pain killer. The co-worker who seems to understand you like no one else does.

Little by little, we feel like we can control ourselves in these situation, and since we are "in control", we can stand a little more, and since this feels good, that must mean that more will feel even better! Bikini-less women, the extra drink, the stronger pain killer, the occasional "harmless" flirt.

These lead into pornography diminishing, or even replacing marital relations, an actual affair, or needing a number of stronger drinks or medications just to get through the day.

Then, one day, you wake up in the boiling pot.  A ruined marriage, in jail with a DWI/DUI. And you have to have more of the addiction just to feel numb.

Godly men fall victim to this all of the time. Satan uses our pleasures and desires to pull us down. Pornography (the personal thorn of yours truly) and affairs appeals to the basest of manly nature: sex and power. Substances start off by either numbing pain or increasing feelings of pleasure, but ultimately numb the addict to any feelings of happiness or pleasure.

And Satan has a field day because the Church likes to treat these issues like the elephant in the living room. "Aren't we good Christians because we're not like those people." 

But the very sad fact of the matter is that these issues are affecting families in our own churches all of the time.  Right now. Even pastors. Because pastors are men too.

None of us men are immune to the temptations and desires the world likes to send our way. It takes other men and Godly wives to help resisting the snares.  Even in Genesis 2, God makes this plain when He says "It is not good that you should be alone."

Men, drop the pride, and share the darkest parts of the heart, not only with God, but with your wife, and/or a trusted brother in Christ.

What you do in secret will be brought to the light (I think I've read that somewhere), and no matter how "victimless" it seems, someone is being affected.

PMV

Heard from the boy's room this afternoon...

Lord Of The Rings - FTW

EPIC WIN!  Lord Of The Rings, Filmed in New Zealand, Beautiful Woman playing and singing like an angel.

John 16:3

Its an old urban legend from the 2000 election between then Vice President Al Gore and George W. Bush. Al Gore was apparently attempting to incorporate Scripture into a campaign speech to demonstrate his devoutness to faith, and meant to quote the ubiquitous John 3:16, which states:

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life." - ESV.

But Vice-President Gore transposed the numbers so that he referenced John 16:3, which states:

" And they will do these things because they have not known the Father, nor me." - ESV.

The gist is that in a feeble attempt to give the impression of Scriptural knowledge, VP Gore exposed a lack of reading Scriptures that smacked of poetic justice. "Divine" justice some would say.

There are few things that annoy me more than misuse or abuse of Scripture.  Scripture taken out of context or applied incorrectly is bad enough, but I detest when The Word is used to support an argument that has nothing to do with the text, as if since its from The Bible, its automatically a "correct" argument.

Bullpucky.

Case in point - President Obama referenced Luke 12:48 in a campaign speech to defend raising taxes, saying, "For me as a Christian, it also coincides with Jesus's teaching that for unto whom much is given, much shall be required."

Lets look at Luke 12:48:
"But the one who did not know, and did what deserved a beating, will receive a light beating. Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required, and from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more." ESV.

Firstly, there is a reference to a beating.  What does Obama's statement have to do with a beating? Lets take a look at the context:

Luke 12:35-48

35 “Stay dressed for action and keep your lamps burning,
36 and be like men who are waiting for their master to come home from the wedding feast, so that they may open the door to him at once when he comes and knocks.
37 Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes. Truly, I say to you, he will dress himself for service and have them recline at table, and he will come and serve them.
38 If he comes in the second watch, or in the third, and finds them awake, blessed are those servants!
39 But know this, that if the master of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have left his house to be broken into.
40 You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.” 

Ok, so Jesus is saying be ready for when the Master arrives.

Its not in there. 

But wait, there's more!

41 Peter said, “Lord, are you telling this parable for us or for all?”
42 And the Lord said, “Who then is the faithful and wise manager, whom his master will set over his household, to give them their portion of food at the proper time?
43 Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes.
44 Truly, I say to you, he will set him over all his possessions.
45 But if that servant says to himself, ‘My master is delayed in coming,’ and begins to beat the male and female servants, and to eat and drink and get drunk,
46 the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know, and will cut him in pieces and put him with the unfaithful.
47 And that servant who knew his master's will but did not get ready or act according to his will, will receive a severe beating.
48 But the one who did not know, and did what deserved a beating, will receive a light beating. Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required, and from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more.

There it is!  At the last part of a parable concerning being ready for when the Master of the house arrives!  What does this have to do with raising taxes???

One could make an argument for Verse 33 and 34:

 "Sell your possessions, and give to the needy. Provide yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." But there is no indication of any kind that you're supposed to give the money to the government.  Certainly, said government is not needy.

"Render Unto Caesar" inevitably arises.  Yes, as Christians, we do pay our fair share, but we also give to the Lord as well. And we give to the needy. Again, the government is not "the needy".

The point of all of this is that the abuse of Scripture to achieve a worldly mean can only result in demonstrating that a person "does not know the Father or Me."

PMV