Dennis Peacocke comments

Dennis Peacocke
Dennis Peacocke

The story is told of a smart frog who lived at a university and managed to stay alive by avoiding the science classes' attempts to perform harmful experiments on him. One day the science professor bet the frog a great deal of money that he could boil the frog to death without him even protesting.

"A quick way to make a fast buck, if you ask me!" the frog said to himself. "This fool actually believes he can boil me to death without me hopping out to safety!"

Totally confident, the frog slid into the pan of lukewarm water on the professor's stove. While they chatted, the professor turned up the heat very slowly under the pan. When the water got really hot, it was too late for the frog, because his system had adapted to the gradual increase in temperature, and little by little his strength had been drained from him. The professor won his bet-and the frog lost his life - because the wise scientist knew that slow but constant change can put you in a destructive situation that you would never allow yourself to get into if it came upon you suddenly. The same is true with spiritual or physical corruption. If it comes upon us slowly, and we get used to it in small doses, it can destroy us before we've even become aware that we've been trapped. The scripture speaks to this truth in many places but nowhere more clearly and simply than in 1 Corinthians 6:18 "Flee fornication!" God doesn't ask us to be strong in the presence of sin, since He knows our strength to resist will be gradually sapped as we accommodate ourselves to it. Instead, He tells us to run from it before it slowly boils us to death!

Spiritual corruption is very subtle indeed. Few men or women who start out on their spiritual journey loving God with all their hearts could ever conceive of falling into "major sins" and leaving the sure path of their blessed Savior. But over the centuries, countless saints and leaders have fallen because little by little they made a place for that which ultimately destroyed them. Even King Solomon, surely one of the wisest men who ever lived, was not immune from gradually losing his way. His desire to please his foreign wives and their gods finally wore him down, and the king of Israel and author of the ultimate in natural wisdom-the Proverbs-fell into apostasy. Having walked with the Lord for over 27 years (as well as backsliding in my late teens/early twenties), I do understand both personally and by observing my fellow saints who get "lost" how this can happen.

Of course, no one deliberately sets out to destroy themselves by giving away their self-respect or personal worth. Rather, it's the giving way to "reasons"-why we need such-and-such and so-and-so-that contains the seeds of our destruction. Jesus said that the only sure way to life is by choosing to not choose ourselves (Matt 10:39). If we reject our own conveniences without becoming unnatural or a fanatic, we are promised a clarity of values that will always allow us to recognize sin even when it presents itself gradually and with "good reasons."

May the Holy Spirit grant you and me the grace to be obedient, wise, and cautious so that we can both survive, and be whole enough to be useful to the Master as He is establishing His Kingdom on Earth through men.

Reprinted by permission. This article is excerpted from Dennis Peacocke's book "The Emperor Has No Clothes" available at www.gostrategic.org CR

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.