Heart Tracks - The Company Of Frogs

      I recently heard writer and speaker Christine Caine ask a penetrating question as concerns the scripture found in Exodus 8:10.  A plague of frogs is upon the land of Egypt, and Pharoah, whose stubborn refusal to listen to God has brought it upon them, finally pleads with Moses to entreat God to remove them from the land.  Moses, with God's permission answers him, in effect, "When would you like this to happen?"  Pharoah's reply?  "Tomorrow."  Caine's question was, "Why would anyone want to spend another night with the frogs?"  Why would anyone?  Why would you and I?

Like the cripple at the pool of Bethesda, we say we want healing and wholeness, yet we never get into the healing water, and always, from our viewpoint, with good reason.  What's your good reason?  Why would you want to spend another night with the frogs?
    The pool at Bethesda is an apt description of much of the church today.  Just like then, crowds gather at the weekly "pool", but few receive the healing that's to be found there.  There are so many reasons for this.  Many believe that just being aware that there is a need for healing is enough, but awareness of the problem is not victory.  Francis Chan says "We like to hear and get convicted and then think that's success", and that we gather to listen to words that we'll never apply to our lives.
We hear but don't receive, so we leave the gathering as we came, lame, wounded, blind, deaf.  Jesus asks us when we would like to have this healing, this wholeness, and again and again we answer, "Tomorrow."  Always, it's tomorrow.  But that tomorrow never comes, and so, neither does the wholeness of life found only in Him.  We prefer the company of the frogs, to the intimacy of true fellowship in and with Him.  The frogs, as loathsome as they are, have become familiar to us, even comfortable.  We're attracted to what Christ offers, but most often, we prefer to wait for tomorrow.  Yet God is the God of "NOW!"

    What is your response to Christ's invitation to be free of your particular "frogs"?  What crippling agent, whether it lies in your past, present, or future, holds you in its grip, refusing to release, and though you wish to be free, in the end, you tell Him once more, "Tomorrow".  None of us need spend one more minute with the frogs, let alone one more night.  He calls us to Himself, right now, to come, to transact life with Him now.  To receive His life fully into ours.  To see the frogs done away with.  Now.  Not in a tomorrow that never comes, but here, in the present.  Free.  Free from the grip of our "frogs" and the chains that accompany them.  The company of frogs fully exchanged for the company of Himself.  Will you have such company?

Blessings,
Pastor O