One more night with the frogs

There was a meditation that I did this morning, there are times that I always tell you that there are times, I am making a confession here, sometimes I take my time in the morning and look for a little book of daily meditations that I have to read. called, The upper room, and this morning I came across a meditation that caught my attention the headline of that reflection and I wanted to share it with you. That day's meditation was called “One more night with the frogs”, likewise, “One more night with the frogs”.

Turn with me to the book of Exodus, chapter 8. I think some people look at me like, hmmm…. Where is this going? I'm going to “One more night with the frogs”. I think this was a preaching that I also heard a long time ago from Dante Gebel, I don't know how many of you know Dante Gebel, but Dante Gebel preached about this uuuuf, I heard that a long time ago. But this morning I came across that meditation that is from today and I don't know when I read the text, there were several things in this text that struck me like this, not that they struck down forgiveness, that stood out, I don't know, I'm going to share them with us today.

It says in verse 1, “Then Jehovah said to Moses, 'Go into Pharaoh's presence and tell him, Jehovah has said so, let my people go to serve me and if you do not want to let them go, behold, I will punish with frogs all your territories and the river will breed frogs which will climb up and enter your house, in the bed where you sleep, and on your bed and in the houses of your servants in your town, in your ovens and in your troughs….”

What is a trough? I was half lost. That's like a pot, right? Ok, like a pot. Okay.

Verse 4, “…and the frogs will come up on you, on your people, and on all your servants,' and Jehovah said to Moses, 'say to Aaron, stretch out your hand with your rod over the rivers, streams, and pools, that he may bring up frogs on the land of Egypt. Then Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt and the frogs came up and covered the land of Egypt, much emphasis on the land of Egypt, and the sorcerers did the same with their incantations and made frogs come over the land of Egypt..."

I mean, what kind of minds are these sorcerers of Pharaoh? Instead of having done the opposite, of removing the frogs, they brought more frogs. That is, that I…. I'm going to that myself.

“….Then, verse 8, Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron and said, 'Pray to Jehovah that he will remove all these frogs from me and my people and let your people go so that I may offer sacrifices to Jehovah.' And Moses said to Pharaoh, this is where the key is, 'Deign to tell me when I should pray for you and for your servants and for your people so that the frogs are removed from you and your houses, and that they only remain in the river? ' And Pharaoh said….”

Let's say it in chorus, and Pharaoh said, who would think of saying tomorrow? I would have told him, look right now, leave now. Why are you going to want to stay with the frogs all night and have the frogs leave tomorrow morning. What head does it fit in? But look at this, please don't make me laugh because I want to concentrate. Look at this, that phrase is very interesting. Frogs, I believe, that we can identify frogs as anything that stagnates us. A frog is an ugly thing, although there are children who catch the frogs, who give the frogs kisses, and I don't know if you've seen photos like that. But a frog is something ugly, something disgusting, I mean, unless it's a Puerto Rican coquí, that's fine, that's something else. The coquí is more passable. But a frog is a frog, sticky. Can you imagine that you wake up one day and that you have like five frogs in your bed? That you are going to open the fridge and suddenly a frog comes out. That you go to the bathroom and suddenly a frog comes out of the toilet or something. Can you imagine something similar? That sucks. That sucks. Look at Gloria, Gloria stays like Pastor Omar, what are you talking about? That sucks.

Why tomorrow? Hey, Lucy come here, finish your preaching. Look at that, it's interesting. They got used to having the frogs for one night. Ah, I can deal with frogs for one night. That's nothing. I step on them, I crush them. But look at that, my brothers, those ugly things that we don't like, that stink, that are disgusting, many times they are things that are in us. And you can define it in any way. There are times when they are character traits that stink, character traits that make one ugly, that are like…. Why do I have to keep dealing with this?

People who suffer from some kind of addiction too, that's another way that these frogs can manifest themselves. People who struggle with addiction to cigarettes, or drinking, or partying, from bar to bar and you name it, exactly, they say yes, I'm going to stop drinking tomorrow. I'm going to quit smoking tomorrow. Ah, I'm not going to the party again tomorrow. Eeeh, no, I don't look at a woman with lust again, yes, tomorrow. Clear. So many things, so many things. I won't say a bad word again starting tomorrow. Not a bad word comes out of my mouth again. Diets start not only on the first day of the year as a new resolution, but they also start tomorrow.

I'm going out to exercise tomorrow. And tomorrow it rained and he doesn't go out to exercise. Look, I'm going to be responsible, calling people, you know when? Tomorrow. Ah, I'm going to start praying. Tomorrow. Although praying is not a frog. No, no, no, praying is not a frog. The frog is not to pray. Fasting too, not fasting can be another frog. What else, what else can we identify as a frog? Ah, I'm going to pay all my debts, tomorrow. Tomorrow, I start saving money, tomorrow. I'm going to find a financial analyst to help me pay off my debts. When? Tomorrow. Ah, I'm going to give the tithe tomorrow. I'm going to call my grandmother who has been calling me for a long time and I don't answer her call. When? Tomorrow. See the idea? See the idea?

What does this well-known saying say: don't put off until tomorrow what you can do today. Let me continue reading the text because something very interesting remains. In other words, today's meditation left it there in verse 10 but I kept reading and discovered something very interesting. Says:

“…and he said, tomorrow, and Moses replied, 'it will be done according to your word so that you may know that there is no one like Jehovah our God. And the frogs will leave you, your houses, your servants, and your people and they will only remain in the river. Then Moses and Aaron left Pharaoh's presence and Moses cried out to Jehovah concerning the frogs, God see if you can please get these frogs out of here, and Jehovah did according to the word of Moses. Look at this... and the frogs died in the houses of the farmhouses and fields and they gathered them in heaps and, look at this, and the land stank."

Listen, I don't know, but that phrase caught me. You know why that phrase grabbed me, because many times when we begin to deal with those frogs and we begin to look for a way to kill them, that can be a process that stinks a lot and many times when we begin to feel that bad smell, we are intimidated and we stepped aside and left it there. TRUE? There are times that this is the tendency, that when there is something that stinks, if it is a smell that makes someone nauseated, what is he going to say? You deal with that, I can't. Or go and clean it yourself. Because there are times when we don't even clean it and leave it lying there, let the sun consume it alone, the sun and the air and the rain and the serene and things like that that consume it alone. But meanwhile the plague is still there.

And I believe, my brothers, that in this process of getting rid of the frogs it is necessary to be a very intentional process. I think you have to pray to God to give you a strong stomach to be able to bear those bad smells.

Do you know how those bad odors can manifest themselves many times in life? They were talking right now about diet and exercise. Do you know how you can start to manifest that bad smell? When you start exercising after years that you may not have been doing, what is the first thing you are going to have to deal with? Pains. The fatigue, the body that is stiff and the first week is removed and does not return to exercise. The thing stunk so much that he left it there.

The same goes for diet. He begins to feel skinny, so tiny, tiny, and a little salad with tomatoes and eggs and a very tiny, very skinny chicken breast, and suddenly he sees me next to him and I start to eat a very greasy pizza and it's like that Omar's pizza looks like Gloria right now and she wants to take the pizza from me. Then my pizza is going to become that pest that is going to distract you from what you really have to do.

When you start to deal with those frogs that are well ingrained in you, that cause so much disgust, but when you start to kill those frogs, that you really begin to find those aspects of character that are well centered on you, that you say, Like wow, this is worse than I thought. I thought this was something very superficial, but this goes deeper. No, but I still hear. Until there is battery life I will keep talking. Tomorrow I will change the battery of the microphone. Thanks for the effort. Now this mic starts to suck.

But look at this, my brothers, because I believe that God intentionally wants us to deal with those frogs that are in our lives and there are going to be moments where those frogs are going to start to stink. When God begins to give us the strength and authority to know how to destroy them and eliminate them from our lives, many times we will have to deal with situations that will cause pain, that will cause disgust, that will cause discomfort, which is like I don't want to deal with it now. I was very comfortable as I was before.

That was Pharaoh's problem, when he said that tomorrow, that means, look, no, not now, there are many things, maybe it was time to have tea and he preferred to have tea in the company of a frog than to drink a tea with your table totally clean. And I believe, my brothers, that many times that tomorrow continues to become the other tomorrow, and the day after, and the day after, and the day after and we continue to linger around, how do you say that in Spanish? Lingering, you kind of think about it and it stays there, it stays there, and we don't really deal with what needs to be dealt with. Courage is required, my brothers, it takes a truly committed spirit to put those things aside so that they stop stinking, that they stop bothering and that they stop bothering, so that one truly opens up to what God wants to do in the midst of our lives.

Obviously in this story the frogs were a plague, of the many others that God sent, do you know why? because of Pharaoh's stubbornness and there are times when our frogs become many other plagues because we are stubborn in not wanting to open up to God's treatment in the midst of our lives. And we are fighting and fighting with the same thing, the same thing, the same thing here, there, from one side to the other and we are there, there, and there.

There are times that oneself without wanting one allows and attracts those plagues to one's life. But God's intention is a totally different one. God's intention in all this history is to be able to bring freedom to a people, to be able to free a people from their slavery, to be able to free a people from their situation of oppression in which they found themselves. And isn't that what God wants to do in the midst of our lives? to bring freedom to our hearts, to be able to feel that we are leading a totally abundant life according to the things he wants for us. But then we find ourselves at this crossroads that we start to judge, ok, either I keep this frog or I keep what God has for me.

I don't know if you are following me, my brothers, but this is something that is very deep. I'm not saying this is the case for you, but maybe you know people who are well used to living with their frogs and it stinks, stinks. And I believe that we have that both on a personal level and at what level of our service and our ministry with others, we have to be very aware of those areas where there may be frogs hiding out there and not wait for tomorrow to deal with them but today , in the moment, start from today and start saying, look, Lord, take these things out, we are going to kill these things, even if it stinks for a while but the mere fact that we are going to take them out and burn them or We are going to bury or whatever, but after that smell is gone, what will remain is the smells of God, so to speak, the glory of God, what God wants to do in the midst of our lives.

But this does not come easy or natural to us. We cannot do this by our own strength, we cannot do it by our own courage or care. This requires an intervention from God. Obviously here in this story Moses had to intercede for God to be the one to remove all that plague from that region. And right now Jesus intercedes for us so that God's purposes are fulfilled in our lives and that we can get rid of those imperfections that are in us with the power of God, the help of other brothers and sisters who can pray for us, that they can advise us, that they can shake our hands, that they can help me carry that bag of frogs and get them out of my life completely.

God works in all these ways, my brothers, but here the key to this joke for tomorrow has to do with that aspect of stubbornness that often blinds us, stubbornness, clumsiness, ignorance, but in this case stubbornness is seen of a king, of a pharaoh that maybe he thought he could deal with it on his own, but in the end he realized he couldn't. And look, I don't know how you define stubbornness, but stubbornness can separate us from what God truly wants to do in the midst of our lives. And there are times that it does so in subtle and hidden ways, that many times we get so used to those things, however, they are things that are preventing the flow of God from truly running in us and through us to bless others as well.

So, look, I told them that in ten minutes I was going to finish, I did my part. But I want to take a moment to pray about this. I mean, I'm not saying that you confess whether or not you have frogs in your life, it's not that. But I want us to pray, my brothers, because perhaps the biggest frog that we deal with is stubbornness. How barbaric, I'm telling them stubborn, Lord, forgive me. But do you understand where I'm going?

Sometimes the biggest frog we deal with is our own foolishness. Thank you. There are times when we get blinded by the things that seem commonplace in our lives, but nevertheless it is those same things that sometimes limit us, stop us, rob us of what God wants to do in us.

That is to say, that I encourage you that tonight we can pray and we can pray with this in mind. Whatever it is that is in me, first of all, may God give me the discernment to be able to identify it and once I identify it, may God then give me the courage to know how to face it and get rid of it, even if it is a process that takes time. , although the bad smell lasts, but that it gives us, as it were, the inner strength that we need so that I have to clean with chlorine, and throw free breeze in the air, to clear the bad smells, but that God gives us the firmness and the consistency that you don't have to wait until tomorrow to do something but that I start today and continue tomorrow and the day after and continue and so on and so forth.

That is what God wants to do in the midst of our lives. Once we manage to do it in our lives, we then become living testimonies for other people around us, other people who may be dealing with other frogs and who knows if more frogs than you had and that then God He can use us as that Moses to put us in the middle, to intercede so that God removes the frogs from that other person. Or help that other person get rid of their frogs too.

So my brothers, I invite you, I did not intend to bring a message that was too extensive, but you understood the idea, right? It's not tomorrow, it's today. Is now. It is in this very second. Whatever it is, my brothers, you give it a first and last name to whatever that little frog is out there bothering you, even if it's a song as cute as the coquí, but it's still a little frog.

In the name of Jesus, Lord we approach you. Father, there are times when these frogs are so hidden in us that there are times when we don't realize them, but nevertheless they are hidden there. There are times when those frogs are singing and very strong, and we know they are there but we do not even dare to grab them to throw them out and that is why we need an intervention on your part, Lord.

Father, I ask that each one of my brothers and sisters who are here today and even those who are listening to us on the Internet, Lord, that you give each one of us the power, the grace, the firmness to know how to deal with those ugly areas in the midst of our lives, Lord, and be able to get rid of each one of them, Lord, even though in the process we have to deal with bad smells, even though in the process we have to deal with conflicting situations, although in the process we may have to face dealing with a sense of shame or guilt, Lord, but may all of this work for us to reach the fulfillment of your purpose in the midst of our lives.

Your word says that all things work for good in the lives of those who love you, Lord, in the lives of those who are looking for your purposes to be fulfilled in our midst. So, Lord, I beg you right now here in the company of each one of my brothers and sisters that you give us that wisdom and that discernment to know how to deal with those imperfections in us, Lord.

Father, the truth is that perhaps I do not know the full purpose for which I am communicating this message but I know that there is something in this, Lord, and you know each one of the people who are here listening and receiving this word now. same. So I only beg you that your word fulfills the purpose for which it is being sent right now, Lord. Yes, perhaps this matter of the frogs does not identify with them, but the idea of postponing things for tomorrow yes, Lord, things that perhaps you are seeking for us to decide now, today, in a crass way, Lord, and Do not keep postponing things for tomorrow, or the day after or the day after, Lord, but today you are looking for us to make a firm decision for you, Lord. Look, still for this, Father, I beg you, Lord Jesus, that you help us to discern your voice, that you help us to discern your voice, Lord, to know how to respond to your treatment in the midst of our lives.

And you know what? something occurs to me now, this was something I was reading about this morning and it is the mere fact of maybe people who have to reconcile with God directly, people who need to reconcile their lives with God in a very direct, very intentional way, people who maybe keep saying, look, you know what? Tomorrow I am going to continue doing my thing, and we keep postponing it, that restoration of a relationship with God. I don't know if this is the case for you tonight, or perhaps someone who is seeing me on the Internet, that perhaps you need to reconcile your life with the Lord but there is a frog there that you keep saying tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow tomorrow. Look, today, as the word says, today is the day of salvation, today is the day where we can reconcile with the Lord, where we can start over. Today is the moment where God's mercies become new and we can start once again, a life of close relationship with God. So if that is something that reaches your heart wherever you are, I just ask right now that this word reaches and fulfills its purpose.

Lord, if today right now you are touching a life that needs to reconcile with you, Lord, or a life that needs to accept you for the first time and give itself completely to you for the first time, Lord, I ask that this word arrive right now to each of their hearts and that you bring with your Holy Spirit the conviction of your presence in the midst of that life right now, Lord, that that man, that woman, that young man, that old man who is receiving this word right now , Lord, may he make the decision to reconcile with you, to restore his communication with you, to restore his love with you, to ask your forgiveness for his faults, Lord, and to find a way to start again under your grace and under your mercy, Lord . I bless that person, Lord, wherever he is, whether it is here in this room or through the Internet, if he is seeing me now, and I believe so, right now there is a person who is reconciling with you, Lord We bless that person and declare the covering of your Holy Spirit upon him, Lord Jesus, right now.

We thank you for this time, Lord. Thank you that your word never comes empty, Lord, but rather fulfills the purpose for which you send it. We thank you, Lord, in the name of Jesus. Amen and amen. Thank my Lord. Thank you.