Boiling a Frog

Trust in the Lord and do good;
dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture.
Take delight in the Lord,
and he will give you the desires of your heart.

Psalm 37:3-4

Rev. David Robertson shared on the Wee Flea an interview with the Christian Focus Publications. David must have been asked what his desires were. He said that he desired revival. Then he got more specific.

Whether you watched the video or not, his main desires were as follows, the first two being seemingly paradoxical. He desired:

Christians becoming aware of our culture around us, one with a deep darkness.
Christians becoming aware of the power of the Gospel, to illuminate that darkness.
Bible believing Christians to work together.
New and Creative Evangelism without compromising the message.
Christians to take a serious look at improving Christian education.

After he expresses his desires, he talks about cooking a frog, but he only implies that the frog must be alive for the analogy to work. I suppose he did not wish to offend those animal lovers out there that might also love Jesus.

I am not so limited.

Boiling a Frog (one that is alive):

If you place a live frog into boiling water, the frog will immediately hop out of the pot.

If you place a live frog in room temperature water and slowly add heat until it eventually boils, the frog will make internal adjustments to the changing conditions, until the frog reaches a point where it cannot adjust further, nor can it provide the necessary leaping ability to leap from the pot. It then dies and is cooked – not that I would wish to eat a frog cooked in this manner. Also, I feel it rather bizarre that someone has determined this to be true.

Rev. Robertson paints the picture that our movement toward a secular progressive culture has been a slow process.

In the quote from Rev. Timothy Keller in my post from yesterday, this secular movement started in the US, according to the author that Keller quotes, in the early nineteenth century. Now that is a slow process.

I could go down this rabbit hole of the evil of this secular progressive culture and never return. Remember, those who have read my blog for some time, if I delve into the field of politics, my only suggestion is that we turn back to God. The usual things: Prayer, Bible Study, and attending church – all the things that we do after a disaster. Remember how the churches were filled the Sunday or two after the 9/11 attacks? What of six months later? That is how a frog is cooked – apathy.

But getting back to Rev. Robertson’s desires, we should all pray for these bullet points, because God says that when two or more are gathered together, there He is among us. And the promise in Psalm 37 above is that when we seek God and delight in the Lord, we will receive the desires of our heart.

I think that Rev. Robertson has combined those two things very well in this interview. He delights in the Lord and to spread the Word and promote growth of God’s church. And he desires a few things. A fancy house and plenty of money in the bank are not among those desires. His desire is to grow God’s kingdom in every corner of the earth.

What is the obstacle to that growth? It is not a government that has become secularized and wishes to expunge the name of God from all proceedings. It is not a business world that bends the rules in order to make an extra bit of profit.

It is a lot of lukewarm Christian communities that see no problem with those other things about politics and business, easily joining into that fray to get ahead themselves. But even then, the greatest obstacle to the growth of the Christian community is that we see nothing wrong with that. When I was a ruling elder in a church many years ago, I was told, “Keep your comments about faith and belief to yourself. The church service was yesterday. Today it’s a business meeting and we have no time for God here.” (Maybe not those exact words, but really close)

Are we frogs that are slowly cooking? Have we compromised the Gospel here and there without noticing? Are we going to continue to sit in a pot that is steadily getting warmer and do nothing?

As for me, I will pray for the five bullet points with which Rev. Robertson starts this portion of his interview. And in my thinking, when God has granted our heart’s desire, Rev. Robertson’s first desire will be thrown in as well, a revival.

Soli Deo Gloria. Only to God be the Glory.