There are some who say that if you put a frog into a pan of boiling water, it will hop right out fully aware of the danger. However, if you drop the frog into a pan of cold water and ever so slowly increase the temperature a few degrees at a time, the frog will cook to death.
Like the proverbial frog, the church for years has been sitting in the pans of the world. Over time, ever so slowly, the evil one and his minions have been increasing the temperature of the water to be more in line with the world’s desires. The church has been lulled to sleep and is either dead or at best, lukewarm!
The frog never saw the danger arriving until it was too late, but sadly the same cannot always be said about the church. This is particularly true over the past few decades. Pastors who at one time would have stood for the truth have succumbed to the need for a paycheck and no longer preach the entire counsel of God. And the temperature increased!
Members who were willing to be part of that blood-bought throng and stand in the gap where it counted became more interested in being entertained. The more they wanted to be entertained, the more entertainment they had to have in the church in order to keep them happy and willing to come. And the temperature increased!
Bible schools and colleges that were once bastions of the truth and solidly in the ranks of evangelical fundamentalism have watched their enrolment numbers decline. To compensate for the lack of this revenue, worldly courses, worldly standards, worldly music, etc. was introduced in order to attract more students. And the temperature increased!
As the temperature increases in the church, the people and the pastors are often becoming lethargic. Nobody seems to really be taking notice of the real problems as to why they are in the mess they are in. Instead of realizing the danger and jumping out of the pan, they are calling for “icecubes” to be added because it is easier and requires no effort on their part.
Lukewarm describes the problem in many churches. They are not on fire for God, but are being cooked to death by the fires of apathy, complacency, liberal theology, and worldliness. Many churches should be sitting up and heeding the warning found in Revelation 3 when the apostle John speaks to the Laodicean church. God said that He wished the church was either cold or hot, but because they were lukewarm, He was going to spew or vomit them out of His mouth!
Why have these things happened? Why are so many believers glibly swallowing the ½ pills of poison? I believe the answer is in the next part of the verse found in Romans 12:2, “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”
We have spoken already about being conformed to the world, and many believers would readily agree that to do otherwise is bad. But because they fail to follow the next command, they are failing miserably. They are swallowing more and more pills. They are being cooked to death as the temperature increases.
The truth is that in all of these areas we have covered and more, the evil one and his minions realize they can win many of these battles and will continue to do so as long as we are convinced to deal with his attacks through our emotions. They want to convince us that, “This isn’t about your brain. Your heart and your feelings are what matter the most!”
But this does not line up with the Word of God which reminds us in Jeremiah 17:9 that, “The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it?”
The church is being stewed to death in the pots and pans of the world because they have surrendered their minds to the fickleness of the heart.
Get to the heart of a person and you can often influence the direction they are taking or should be taking. The evil one knows what it has taken to get the church lulled to sleep. Make emotions more important than the mind. Make sure those in the pew react to what the pastor says or doesn’t say based on how they feel, NOT on what they think or what they KNOW the truth is!
The apostle Paul knew dangerous changes would occur in the lives of believers if they just stopped at trying not to be conformed to the world. That process involves reform or even conformity to a set of rules, laws or regulations. So, he continues in his charge to the Roman church by instructing them in what it was that truly needs to be changed – THE MIND!
He speaks of the transforming of the mind and uses a Greek word that we know in English as metamorphosis. The word literally means to change form. In other words, if we as unbelievers were thinking like the world, then when we become a new creation in Christ, we must begin to change the form of our mind. We must begin to think of Christ and as Christ would have us to think.
It is not possible for us to say that we belong to Christ, to say we love Him, that we worship Him, and that we want to serve Him when our minds are filled with the pollution of the world!
I readily admit that not only desiring this, but truly living in this frame of mind that is completely foreign to the world and the natural man is EXTREME! It is difficult, and the more time passes, I am convinced it will not become any easier until the day we find ourselves standing in the presence of the Lamb Who was slain for us from before the foundations of the world! This is the direction that the evil one, the world, and the flesh do not want you to go. For to do so means you will start resembling Christ!
Part of this transformation or metamorphosis means we must stop thinking of our sin like the world does. It means we must stop trying to categorize our sin like the world and like most believers tend to do. It means we must remember that every time we sin, we must start remembering (thinking, meditating) on what that sin cost God the Father and God the Son!
Let’s shoot straight here – every time we enjoy a movie and the ½ pill of poison that comes straight out of Hollywood and ultimately the pit of hell, we should remember the sin of our enjoyment which lasts but for a moment was enough to crush the Son of God beneath the wrath of the Father!
Every time we listen to that which does NOT bring honour and glory to the Lord Jesus Christ, every time we watch that which demeans the God-given institution of the family, or demeans the sanctity of marriage between one man and one woman, or demeans the authority God commands be established in the home, in the church and in human authority, every time we speak a word that is a foolish talking or jesting or a euphemism (a substitute curse word for the real thing), every time we cannot be bothered to be careful what we allow to enter our minds – WE HAVE SINNED!
That sin is the cause for why we are told in Isaiah 53 that it pleased the Father to bruise His precious Son! Next time, the world plays its romantic music or digs in its heels with some lame excuse as to why that sin is acceptable – REMEMBER, THINK, CHANGE YOUR MIND, MEDITATE, BE TRANSFORMED!
Friend, do you want to know the will of God? Stop searching high and low for what is already revealed in Scripture! Doing these things which we have spoken about is the ONLY way to “prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”
God will NEVER reveal to you more from His word when you are NOT WILLING to obey what He has clearly commanded from you and ALL who have been bought by the blood of the LAMB!
One final thought – a larva that does not change into a beautiful butterfly was never a butterfly to begin with. You cannot make a butterfly out of what is not present!
A life that is not changing and has no desire to change does not possess the ability to change to be more like Christ for there is none of Christ present!
Desiring to be Transformed into His Image,
The Desert Pastor
