BOILED ALIVE<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
 
Before I even start to write I can hear some of you saying, oh no, not him again?  And with that, some of you will just send your cursor up to delete and that will be the end of it.  I am sorry, because maybe you are shooting the messenger instead of the message.  I know, most of us have heard about the process one must follow to successfully boil a frog.  For those who have not heard I will repeat.  You place the frog into a pan of room temperature water.  Then, you very slowly increase the heat so that the water temperature very gradually increases until it reaches the boiling point.  Presto, you have a boiled frog.  But, if you make the poor choice of either trying to throw the frog into the boiling water or raise the temperature too quickly the frog will alertly sense the heat and jump out.  Is God permitting the former process to be present in today's United States?  At this time I am more interested in the adage of the frog boiling than I am in proving the fact scientifically. 
 
Yes, to some of you this will be another repetitive article.  But, to you pastors who choose to read this, don't you sometimes think that your sermons are repetitive?  You parents, don't you think that some of the 'lectures' you give to your children are repetitive?  Do athletes think that their hours of practice are repetitive? You students, don't you think that some of your music practice and school course studies are repetitive?  To you who spend some time reading the Bible, don't you think that God's admonitions are repetitive?  And to you woodsmen, don't you think that the strokes of your sharpening hone on your various bladed instruments are repetitive?  Would you think that you could put a truly keen edge on a knife with just one stroke of the hone?  No, the best edge, the best musician, the best athlete, and the one who walks the closest to God is the one who has not only endured those repetitive practices, but have grown to cherish and love them, not for the sweat, toil and muscle ache they brought about, but for the final result. 
 
Well, what I am about to write is not coming from one who thinks he has had that final stroke of honing, but one who is even more mystified by the thought that God is still chipping away at his very coarse and vulgar being.  If God sees a diamond under all of that, He sees something that none of us, including myself, see – yet I am thankful that He still makes His presence known to me.  After all, isn't that diamond supposed to be the God likeness I was created to be, and am still so far from attaining?
 
This past week has provided me with another of life's experiences that is one of God's wake-up calls.  Some of you may have enjoyed such blessings and even profited from the experience.  America has gone through many such experiences in the past few years and has taken almost exactly the same approach that I take.  We both go through a short period of grief and humility, then pledge that we will turn and walk a straighter path, but in the end we succeed in pushing all of that out of sight and continue merrily along our path, which is too well worn and comfortable to accept any significant change.  Can you remember how patriotic and agreeable the nation, including congress, was on 12 September 2001?  Each time that I take communion, I reflect upon a life that I feel unworthy to present to God and pray that I will walk away from the communion table and elements and take up a life that is renewed to live for His glory.  But, it seems that the length of those promises is getting shorter and the return to my broken path quicker.
 
Many of us have been asked the question, 'What would Jesus say about your conduct, thoughts and deeds if He were to suddenly appear at your side, where you are at that moment enjoying life?'  That question might be a little too abstract, as none of us can truly comprehend Christ's righteousness and holiness.  Maybe a better question would be, 'What would your mother or grandmother, who possibly departed twenty or thirty years ago, say if she were to suddenly appear at your side?'  Would you then enjoy the joke that you just listened to?  Would you be watching that television show?  Would you be accepting the use of some of the language that has become a part of your vocabulary?  I think with even such a mortal, who certainly does not have Christ's righteousness and holiness, would make me uncomfortable,.  What about you? 
 
What is happening is that God has placed America in a boiling cauldron and has the heat turned on.  We are all quietly and inattentively experiencing a slippery slide into coarseness, vulgarity, uncivility and depravity because it is so subtle and influencing the entire culture.  It is not until we have an out of 'the box' or out of the culture experience that God reminds us about our degraded condition.  While in the cauldron, we are sharing stories, using language, and observing events with each other that seem to be the acceptable mode of conduct.  But, is that the way that God intended for us to live?
 
When is the last time we in the majority really became burdened over the number of shootings that are happening in the minority community?  Amongst ourselves we even tolerate demeaning jokes about 'those' people.  When is the last time that we became so disgusted with the vileness on the television that we found the courage to quit paying the subscription fee to have that brought into our homes?  When is the last time that we became so offended by Hollywood that we were willing to picket the outlets for their garbage?  When is the last time that we were so insulted by a Congress, which passes legislation that not only has not been read but has not even been written, that we were willing to vote them out of office – and let them know that there tenure is about to end?  Well, on that last one I must admit the Tea Parties have caused some of the 'Silent Majority' to come to life.  When is the last time that we became so incensed with the academic content of our government 'education' system that we were willing to give up some of our money to send our children to a private school or to give up our time to home-school them?  Aren't children a gift from God and aren't we supposed to be the one's who see that they are molded and shaped according to His image?  Is that being done by the government?  Or are we just too willing to let all of these things happen because we either do not want to take the time and effort to be what we should be or that we lack the courage to be one of those willing to live at the tip of the spear?
 
Maybe, just maybe, we are no different than the Israelites of about 2750 B.C.  That was around the time that they started to spend forty years wandering around in the wilderness.  Now, why did God allow that to happen?  It was because Moses had sent out twelve men to spy out the promised land and bring back a report on what they found.  When they returned, the report of ten cowardly spies was that the challenge ahead was to daunting and that the Israelites should turn back to Egypt.  But, there were two brave men, Joshua and Caleb, who not only saw the blessings of the promised land, they also trusted in the strength of their God to fulfill His promise.  'And they told him, and said, We came unto the land whither thou sentest us, and surely it floweth with milk and honey; and this is the fruit of it.  Nevertheless the people be strong that dwell in the land, and the cities are walled, and very great: and moreover we saw the children of Anak there.  The Amalekites dwell in the land of the south: and the Hittites, and the Jebusites, and the Amorites, dwell in the mountains: and the Canaanites dwell by the sea, and by the coast of Jordan.  And Caleb stilled the people before Moses, and said, Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it.' Numbers 13:27-30 (KJV)  Are we today a member of the ten or one of the two who are willing to charge ahead, in spite of our neighbors, fellow church members, co-workers and political 'allies' to reclaim the America that we are seeing eroded out from under us?  God responded to the cowardly majority report by allowing those people to wander in the wilderness for forty years, until all of those who were of age at the time had died.  Are we willing to let God leave us in the wilderness for that many more years – and maybe even more.  
 
God did send me a message this week to remind me about my own submission to the cultural coarseness and lack of value for the better and more civil life that I once knew.  Yes, there are too many moments that I would not feel honored to have my mother or either grandmother be my companion.  But, it took a valued person outside of the American cauldron to remind me that what I thought was just an ironic piece of levity could be offensive.  We should hurt when what we have done hurts others.  Yet, I know that it probably would not have been seen as such by most, if any, of my contacts within the cauldron, as I am familiar with the daily on-going two-way traffic that we are tolerating and the discussions that we enjoy.  As long as we live alike we will continue to be boiled alike.  We need to have those 'out-of-the-box' experiences to awaken that in us, which is slowly dying.    . 
 
The question now is not was it one of God's warning shots but what am I willing to do about it?  I pray that as these events continue to pile up around me that I will not be so quick to dispose of them in the future as I have been in the past.  No, I have not arrived, and yes, God will have to continue to chip away at me.  But, I do hope that He does see a buried diamond and that in the end it will have been worthy of all that He has done, for it is not of me but all of Him.  He should be working in each one of our lives to reclaim not just us but also our nation.