Monthly Archives: September 2013

Jumping frog or dying frog?

Leave a reply

I am sure we have all heard, at some point, the story about two frogs and a pot of hot water! Before I go any further, it is important to say that  I do not know the science behind this, nor have I ever tried this at home. I will use this story to help us understand some important warnings the Bible give us.

The first frog in our story was dropped into a pot of hot boiling water and he jumped straight out. The frog is sensitive to the temperature and somehow knows it is dangerous. It runs for his life! We shall call this frog the jumping frog. The second frog was put into a pot of cold water over the hob. The water started to get hotter and hotter until it boiled and killed the frog. The frog did not jump or tried to escape from his death. Its body got used to the temperature and did not feel the danger. We shall call this frog the dying frog.

You might be wondering what in the world my point is and what the link between the frogs and warnings from the Bible is! Christians are called to live in such a way that brings glory to God. We are called to trust in Him and keep our eyes and thoughts on Him. We are called to be different.

The Bible tells us in Romans 12:1-2

“Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God – this is your true and proper worship. 2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will.”

Note verse 2: Do not conform to the pattern of this world.  We shouldn’t get used to the style and way those that do not trust in God, through Jesus, live their lives. Remember our dying frog in a pot of cold water that got hotter and hotter until it killed it? Well, we could become like that frog: too comfortable and adapt to the temperature of the present world to an extent that we would not see the danger – our hearts could get cold, insensitive to God’s voice and will.

The Bible also tells us in Hebrews 3:13-15

“But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called ‘Today’, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness. 14 We have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original conviction firmly to the very end. 15 As has just been said: ‘Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion.’“

The author of the book of Hebrews is telling us that we should help one another so we wouldn’t be hardened by sin’s lies and have hearts stone, just like those that turned away from God in the desert after God had miraculously saved them from the Egyptians. It is possible we can get so taken by the things the world throws at us that we could turn our back on God.

We need to be jumping frogs –  we need to recognize the danger and jump out of the pot! We need to hold on to God’s promises and be different, in such a way that our lives would attract those who are dying in the pot! Let us encourage one another to live our lives with our eyes fixed on Jesus.

God bless.

Photo album

Leave a reply

Today is my daughter’s birthday! I can hardly believe she is 6! God is so good! She is such a delight to us and fills our lives with fun and happiness! This week I spent a long time looking through photos we have been taking all these years because I wanted to make a selection for a collage. It took me a long time to do that but it was so nice to remember each of those moments! It was almost as if I could hear the laughter, the noise or smell the baby skin, feel the cuddles and little hands on mine! I could even remember little details of the rooms or places we were in when the photos were taken. A love so immense that one might think it wouldn’t fit inside ones heart! What a precious gift! Memories stored through those images on my computer! Every time I look at them I can only thank God for his goodness and his love.

As I set out to school to collect the kids it occurred to me that the Bible is a bit like a photo album. It contains snippets of amazing story that God wrote even before time began. It is full of details to help us understand and remember the plan designed to rescue us through Jesus and his sacrifice on the cross. I love the fact we can open this incredible book and look through its pages and get all the details we need to live to please God.

The more I look at the photos on my computer, the more my heart rejoices in the Lord for He is the One who brought all this happiness to my life. It is the same with the Bible, the more I open it and read it, the more I recognize what God has done for me and in me. I am reminded of the times when I found comfort, security, joy, thankfulness and love.

Thank you Jesus for how you use small things to remind me each day of your presence in my life. Thank you for the beautiful photo album you have left us to help us look back and be prepared for a glorious future with you.

God bless!

“Mirror Mirror on the wall…”

1 Reply

When my parents were here visiting over the summer holidays, they watched Snow White with the kids many times. I believe the most famous sentence in the entire movie is the question the queen would ask her magic mirror every day: “Mirror Mirror on the Wall, Who Is the Fairest of Them All?”. The queen was someone obsessed by the way she looked and she wanted to be the prittiest woman alive. When she found out Snow White was more beautiful than she was, she was consumed by hate and wanted to destroy Snow White. I think we are all familiar with the story.

Sadly we live in a world where women are pressured to look beautiful and young all the time. There is always a product claiming to be better and to make you look better. And when we look in the mirror, we might not be asking the same question, but we are often concerned with the extra wrinkle that has just appeared or the white hairs that keep insisting in growing back.

I have been reading Genesis with our kids and it was so nice to read what the Bible teaches us about creation and how special we are.

“26 Then God said, ‘Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals,[a] and over all the creatures that move along the ground.’ 27 So God created mankind in his own image,  in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. 28 God blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and  subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.’” Genesis 1:26-28

God created us in His image! He created us in His likeness! In the beginning, in God’s perfect world, before sin had entered the world, HE created man in His image! I was thinking about that and the mirror on the wall… we get so preoccupied with how we should look externally so that we can fit in with what the world dictates to us that we forget that we were made in God’s image. All the goodness, compassion, holiness, justice, perfection, the love and all the other characteristics of God are in us too. What an amazing truth! What a relief! I don’t have to look better for the world to see – I am already made perfect!

This amazing truth comes with a great responsibility, specially when we know Jesus personally and trust in Him. Do we live our lives to reflect God’s image? What do I see when I look in the mirror? Am I worried about wrinkles and hair? What do people see in me when they look at me? A fashionable hair style? The last trend in make up? Do they see a young face? Please don’t get me wrong, I think we all need to look after ourselves and look after our bodies too. Wouldn’t it be nice though that we could have people say to us that what they see in us is Jesus? They see someone different and exciting and attractive? They see someone compassionate and loving, someone that does not conform to the world? Perhaps a better question for us Christians would be something like: Mirror Mirror on the wall, can people see in me the God who loves them all?

God bless.