Three Little Frogs

 

Kameron, my eight year old son, has a healthy fascination for all living creatures.  I have heard his mother’s alarm go off many times in years past as Kameron dragged another living discovery into our home.  These have included spiders, roly polys, centipedes, baby birds and box turtles. 

 

I came home the other day to find three small frogs in a plastic container just inside the garage door.  They had grass, water and several sticks and stones to jump about on.  All three of them were jumping like Mexican jumping beans, trying to escape their plastic prison.

 

I called for Kameron and we had a long conversation about how wild creatures don’t do well in captivity and it might be wise and merciful to release the three frogs.  This idea was met with strong resistance.  I decided to let the matter rest and address it later.

 

Another conversation regarding the release of the frogs was unnecessary.  Several hours later I saw Kameron talking to his new friends and walking them to separate areas of our property.  I assumed he was releasing them and I was pleased that he had decided to do the right thing without further persuasion from his father.

 

Later that evening I asked him about his frogs.  His answer was surprising and disturbing.  “I took the first frog to the end of the lot where I had decided to throw him into the burn barrel.  I set the second frog in the garden where he has plenty to eat and much to make him happy.  When I returned to get the third frog he had decided to hop away on his own.”   Needless to say I was speechless.

 

While I was trying to compose a response I began to wonder why Kameron thought he had the right to take the lives of two innocent frogs.  It was obvious that any compassion he might have felt for the frogs was overcome by his intoxication with the power he had over them.  Because my mind tends to lean toward theology I found myself following another train of thought. 

 

Three people come to the end of their days and are called to face their judge.  They are anxious as they approach one whom they have been told is powerful and sovereign yet loving and compassionate.  The first one approaches the bench to plead his cause but the judge cuts him short by making a stunning declaration,

 “I conducted a lottery before I created the earth and your destiny was determined before you were even born.  Your lot is to perish eternally in hell,” the judge declared.

“But if you predetermined that my destiny would be hell, then how am I responsible or accountable?” the first one asked.

“No answer to your question is forthcoming because the things you ask me of are a secret matter and will remain secret,” the Judge sternly answered.

 

A second person approached the bench in fear and trembling having heard the preceding interaction.   But, much to his relief he was ushered into heaven by the same God who had so coldly cast off the previous person.

 

Finally, the third person approached the bench with strong reservations about whether he wanted to go to hell and live in eternal misery or go to heaven and live with a god who seemed to be so arbitrary, even capricious.  Had he been deceived by those who had taught him about the love of God?  Was the goodness of this God totally dwarfed by his greatness?  He was told over and over again that “God is love.”  This may be true but observing what had just happened caused the third man to believe this God not very loving.  Would a loving God desiring true fellowship and relationship with his creatures not gift them with the ability to choose or reject that relationship? 

 

The third man looked closely into the eyes of the judge in search of evidence to back the claim that “God is love”.  He decided there was no love to be found or if there was any love it was so miniscule it could not be detected.  The fear peeled away as he realized he was seeing an imposter.  He turned around and walked away determined to search until he found the one and true God who gave his Son for ALL those who would choose Him.

 

It is unthinkable that “God is love” would predetermine evil.  The Calvinist would believe that the love of God is defined by his greatness.  The classical Arminian would believe that the power of God is clearly defined by his great love.  We can do no justice to the sovereignty of God by diminishing his love.  God created man to have relationship with him and to derive glory from him.  Relationship is always a two way street.  No relationship can exist if only one party makes all the decisions.

 

“God is love” indeed!  He loved us so much he was willing to limit his own power to grant to us free will.  Our freedom to choose is a gift from God.  Why did he do this?  Obviously he wanted to lay the foundation for a relationship with us.  Why did he send his Son to the cross?   Was it not because he wanted the relationship to last forever?

Kevin teaches Bible and Apologetics to high school students at Lafayette Christian School in LaGrange, Georgia. He loves writing about theology, apologetics and politics.

The Bridge We All Must Cross

How can one explain the fascination of western culture with death?  In December of 2007, when the body of the Godfather of Soul, James Brown, was transported from the Apollo Theater in New York to C.A. Reid Funeral Home in Augusta, Georgia, the director of the funeral home received a midnight call from the King of Pop, Michael Jackson, requesting permission to come by and pay his respects.  Michael Jackson spent the next five hours viewing the body and grilling the funeral director, demonstrating an unusual fascination with the death experience. 

I have been blogging now for several years.  I have written several blogs about death and what happens to people in the afterlife.  These articles are some of the most popular blogs I’ve ever written affirming that people are extremely curious.  What is it that causes us to have a nearly insatiable curiosity about death?  The typical answer to plug in here is that we are so curious because it is in the realm of the unknown.  But, there are a lot of things we have little knowledge about that don’t pique our curiosity at all.  I know nothing at all about ice fishing in Alaska, or how microbes reproduce and I have no curiosity to drive me to learn of those things.

Perhaps our cultural obsession with death is not so much because it is so distant from us, like an older uncle we never met who lives on the other side of the globe.   I believe we are curious about death because it is like the neighbor who lives next door.  We are reminded daily of its existence.  We see death on the obituary page, we see it on television and we are reminded of its perfect record of conquering all life when we see pictures hanging in our home of those who have already succumbed.  For some, a fascination with death can be morbid, it can lead to an macabre obsession that may cause one to lose his sense of the world he presently inhabits.  On the other hand, a balanced consciousness of death can be healthy if it reminds us of how we are to live in this present world and serves to caution us that there is a hereafter to prepare for.

Death is not an ending for the Christian.  Rather, it is a transition into a life more abundant than the one we are now experiencing. Peter ignited this flame of hope in his followers:  “…set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed.”  (1 Peter 1:13)  We are but wayfaring strangers passing through an alien world.  We are wanderers unsatisfied until we find the new city whose maker and founder is God.  We revel in this hope within us that is capable of smothering our fear of death.  Those who have not this hope “are of all men most miserable.”  (1 Cor. 15:19)

No onlooker can understand this hope in the breast of every Christian if he cannot understand the work of grace in the Christian life.  Grace is the mysterious favor of God.  A GRACE acronym that summarizes this supernatural work of God is: God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense.  It is freely bestowed upon us but it was purchased with the precious blood of a willing Savior.  This grace is the cornerstone of a Christian’s forgiveness of sins in that it satisfies the penalty for our sin.  But grace continues for the true convert in its sanctifying capacity by which a Christian experiences freedom from the power of sin.  A Christian who is entertaining the hope Peter speaks of understands that there is a future demonstration of God’s grace, the glorification of the soul.  Physical death is a necessity before we can experience the grace of glorification, God’s deliverance from the presence of sin. 

The Philippians were encouraged to “work out their own salvation”. (2:12) Our salvation is not just a one moment-in-life experience, it is a lifelong adventure.  We cast off on the seas of salvation when we humble ourselves and confess our sins to Christ.  We then begin a long journey in which we learn to conquer sin through grace which results in the sanctification of our souls.  We must not put limits on how far the grace of God can take us down the stream toward purity.  Paul wrote to the Romans:  “For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.”  (6:14)  As we drift downstream, there is a shining hope in the distance that grows brighter and brighter, it is the hope that we will one day be glorified.  We will land on the shore of perfection and enter a kingdom where purity reigns and where sin lies defeated at the outer gate.

 In order to enter one gate we must exit another.  The “wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23) and “it is appointed unto men once to die.”  (Hebrews 9:27)  All men, with the exception of only a couple (Enoch and Elijah), have had to die a physical death in order to receive the mantle of eternal life.  Christ’s resurrection stripped the fear of death away and replaced it with the hope of everlasting life.

So what happens when you die?  The body is corruptible and it stays here and decays.  The soul is incorruptible, it cannot be destroyed and it passes on to eternity.  Every man has a soul and every man’s soul, whether it be righteous or unrighteous, sinful or pure, will live on forever.  What we are when we die is what we are for all of eternity.  “Let him who does wrong continue to do wrong; let him who is vile continue to be vile; let him who does right continue to do right; and let him who is holy continue to be holy.” (Rev. 22:11)

Death for the unrepentant is a horrific and terrifying thing. The wicked will experience a second death.  “The cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars –their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur.  This is the second death.” (Revelation 21:8)  It is a death that lasts for all eternity and this is why the wise man wrote in Proverbs:  “When a wicked man dies, his hope perishes…” (11:7)

“…They will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”  (2 Thess. 1:9)  Death to a Christian is the bright and eternal hope of living pure, glorified, and sinless forever in the presence of a holy God.  It is the liberation of the soul from the bondage of a sinful earth to the liberty of a sinless heaven.  Death to the righteous will be a refuge. (Prov. 14:32)  With this hope living within us, we can say with the Apostle Paul, “For to me, to live is Christ, to die is gain.”  (Philippians 1:21)

Kevin Probst - Teaches History, Government and Apologetics at the high school level in Columbus Georgia.

“Your Years Will Never Fail”. How to live a very long life.

 

This morning I calculated the number of days I’ve lived in God’s good earth. It is a number I wish could be applied to monies in a savings account or better yet, souls who gave their hearts to Christ in response to my witness. I was briefly paralyzed as I tried to comprehend what it meant to have lived longer than 20,000 days. Were I to live 20,000 more I would one day be declared the oldest man in the state of Georgia.

God has a way of reminding us of our mortality. He designed his creation so we could measure our days. The heavens determine our seasons. Man is powerless to prevent the seasons from coming. We know that summer will follow spring and fall will follow summer. What we don’t know is what the seasons bring with them. Will the winter be harsh and cruel or will it be mild mannered?

During this time of year (September) here in the southeastern United States we find ourselves looking eastward across the Atlantic because we know storms are developing off the west coast of Africa. These storms launch eastward, plowing through the warm and salty waters toward the American mainland. Sometimes they grow into mammoth hurricanes. We know they are coming but we can only approximate their strength and the direction they will take.

I have seen over 20,000 days get swallowed up in darkness of night. It is God’s daily reminder to us that we are mortal and the dark night of death might be delayed but it can never be prevented from coming to claim us.

There is a verse in Psalm 102 that brings comfort to those who struggle with the reality of limited years and numbered days. Though are lives are an hour glass turned over and the grains of sand are sifting quickly from top to bottom, we serve a God who is immortal and in his grace and love he is willing to share eternity with us. Psalm 102:27 “But you (God) remain the same, and your years will never end.” He never changes and he lives forever.

We like to imagine God as being Moses-like in his features. He has lived an infinite number of days so he must appear very old. Actually, because God is ageless he must be a picture of perfect youth. We would more accurately picture Him as being perpetually in his prime. His beauty never fades and his strength never wavers. He is unchanging and his years will never end.

There are certain things we as humans have experienced that God never has. We get old but God does not. We experience failure but God does not. He has never failed and nor can he ever fail. Failure is impossible to one who is omnipotent and omniscient. His strength is sufficient to destroy any enemy and his wisdom can solve any problem.

As the years pass we find ourselves seeking for something or someone to trust, someone who will not fail us in the end. You might believe you are secure because you have worked hard and saved wisely. Your account is stashed with enough retirement money to live comfortably through your old age. But the recent economic chaos seems to indicate that even the wisest and best economic minds cannot dispel the ominous economic clouds gathering on the horizon. Your nest egg might fail you.

Many put their trust in their own wisdom, their own ability to make good decisions but as the years pass the invisible knife severs the connection between the will and body. The mind tells the legs to run but they won’t run anymore. The mind might know the best thing to do but the doing of it may become impossible as infirmity binds us to failure. Where can we find comfort when contemplating such difficulties that lie ahead? The writer of Hebrews offers a phenomenal comfort when he repeats the message of the 102 Psalm in Hebrews 1:12 “You will roll them (years) up like a robe; like a garment they will be changed. But you remain the same, and your years will never end.”

Our days will pass and the years will drop off one by one until very few remain. We will then “roll them up like a robe.” Like shirts on a hanger, we will drape them one by one in the closet. But for those who have been made anew through the precious sacrifice of Christ, they will share eternity with him. Their years will never end.

We are like passengers on a ship at sea. We are at the mercy of the waves without a rudder to guide us. Were the lights of the heavens darkened we would be helplessly lost. We move through an atmosphere of oxygen and air that is more fragile than we realize. A few molecular changes in the atmosphere and it could be changed to water and we would drown or it could burst into flame and we would perish like marsh mellows dropped in a burn barrel. It is too fearful to think on.

But “Your years will never fail.” This earth is attached to an Eternal Anchor and if we as individuals fail to connect with him we have much to fear. But if we have humbly confessed our failures to One who never fails and if we have committed our years to One whose “years will never fail” then we are assured a place in the bosom of the Almighty who is willing to share with us his eternity!

 

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