I have observed that the enemy’s most cunning deception can be a comfortable life.
Everyday, more and more, we fall prey to being ‘comfortably deceived’. We are so comfortable that we often don’t even realize when the deception happens….NOW THAT IS CUNNING!
Did you know that if you put a frog in pot of water and then turn the heat under the pot on low and let the water slowly warm up…turning up the heat ever so slightly over time…to the point of boiling, the frog will never jump out. It simply adjusts to the slow warming of the water, becoming comfortable in it a little at a time. If the frog had been put in the pot when it was already hot, it would jump. But with the gradual warming…it stays in the pot ~ comfortable and happy ~ until it finally boils to death.
We can grow so comfortable with our earthly situation, deceived in the fact that we are using earthly things to fill us in ways that were intended to be filled by God, that like frogs we can find ourselves boiling to death.
2 Timothy 3: 2-4 is where he speaks out about this and is specifically referring to the end times.
Lets look at how Paul describes man in this warning and compare it with things we see in ourselves in society today. Paul's words are first and the comparison follows in ( ).
Lovers of themselves
(Me, myself and I generation)
Lovers of money
(Keeping up with the Jones’)
Boastful, Proud
(We are a ‘trophy’ driven nation)
Blasphemous
(Our society has developed a tolerance for irreverent language toward God. Our Parent’s would never have tolerated some of the things parents tolerate today. Definitely not our grandparents.)
Disobedient to parents
(Society is now tolerant of disobedience and biased against discipline)
Unthankful
(Most young adults today have an entitlement mentality, expecting things to be done for them. Our government philosophy reinforces this)
Unholy
(Holy is to be spiritually pure. Our church is no longer pure in spirit; we have churches that claim the name of God but are not pure in their teachings)
Unloving
Unforgiving
Slanderers
(Gossip magazines are tolerated and even enjoyed)
Without self control
No absolute truth
(Whatever feels good….do it)
Brutal
Despisers of good
(It’s ‘cool’ to be bad)
Traitors
(No loyalty…tendency to cling to the latest and greatest thing or person)
Headstrong
Self driven
Haughty
(Looking down on others to create a sense of pride in self….’clicks’)
Lovers of pleasure rather than God
(Simple pleasures like television, internet, music. If we love it and listen to it or watch it when we know God would not approve…this is what this describes. If we wouldn’t participate in it if Jesus was sitting in the chair beside us…it is loving that pleasure over God.)
Do you see relevancy in these words to life today? I am not here to say we are in the end times, but I am asking us to stop for a minute and ask ourselves…are we frogs in a pot of warm water, totally unaware of the heat being turned up?
Just think about the changes in what is acceptable in today’s society vs 50 years ago….and even 100 years ago. I think we could say there is a difference of night and day in what was acceptable 100 years ago and now. A difference of cold and hot. Not boiling yet…but definitely getting hotter. But, it just feels warm to us. Maybe a little uncomfortable, but definitely not so much that we are jumping out of the water.
God speaks to us about being luke warm in Revelations, 'being neither cold or hot, you are luke warm…I am about to spit you out of my mouth.'
To be hot or cold is to be extreme on one side or the other. But we hate that word…don’t we? “extreme”.
When we think of people who are extreme, we are amused and even sometimes put off by the people who are extremists in their beliefs. Muslims who are radical about their prayer life; so strict and unwavering in their religious structure and duty. People who are radical advocates for causes like saving owls, whales and trees. However, they show commitment in a way that a luke warm Christian does not.
God seeks believers who are extreme; not in the middle, wavering between pleasing many things. He is a jealous God who desires to be put first.
Do I think I am a frog? I'd have to say that I think the water feels pretty warm sometimes. Not that I want to be a frog. On the contrary, I want to be an extremist. And so I start each day asking God to let me feel the heat and look for God to work out my salvation one day at a time.
What do you think?
Tami
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