A man decides that what he needs is a good frog shot. When he goes to get it, others, those with the proper training, start the complex procedure which consists of two critical elements.

They immobilize a frog by stretching it out and tying its legs and feet.  This enables them to scrape the poison off its back; this is truly a special frog.  To make sure they do the next part of the procedure correctly, they get a burning coal and all is ready.

They take the coal and burn the man in several places and then they apply the poison from the frog to the seared areas.  Immediately, the body, having no idea what's going on, goes on the attack.  His face swells and he becomes violently sick, so sick that the trained professionals think he's going to die.

The poison continues its work; the pain intensifies beyond human ability to endure.  When he's had enough and can stand it no longer, he does what every other patient before him has done - he runs to the river and jumps in to stop the poison's agonizing assault.

You can get a frog shot in Brazil; all you have to do is ask.  (Insurance won't cover it.)  A good question is, "Why?"  There are many reasons a Brazilian tribesman might ask; most are physical, but one isn't.  One is spiritual.  A frog shot is good for cleansing, a spiritual cleansing of the "bad."

Frog shots are part of the Universal Human Religion (UHR), the largest religious group in the world.  At last count, its membership was in the billions and statistics show it's growing yearly.

One of the major doctrines of the UHR is that a member must suffer for the bad things he does; there must be a cleansing. Every member of the UHR takes a frog shot.  It's required.  Frog shots vary from group to group, member to member in the UHR.  The frog shots, depending on where the member lives, may cause a little suffering, or, in the case of the Brazilian, a lot.  The suffering is at the discretion of the individual member of the UHR.

Jo Anne gets her frog shot every year, always in the spring.  She doesn't set the time; trained professionals set it for her a long time ago.  Her frog shot consists of suffering, but her face doesn't puff up, she doesn't feel the heat of a live coal, and she doesn't become so sick that she has to run and jump in a river to make it stop.  Her frog shot consists of giving up something every spring.  This year she decided that her frog shot would be giving up Fox News for the annual pre-set time.

Harvey is different than Jo Anne.  He gets his frog shot more than once a year.  His frog shots are assignments a trained professional gives him.  Every week or so, he knows he needs cleansing, so he goes and tells a trained professional about the bad things he's done and the professional gives him his frog shot which is something(s) he's to do to get clean.  Neither Jo Anne's nor Harvey's frog shots are as dramatic as their brother's in Brazil, but they're still frog shots; they vary only in dramatic degree.

The problem is that, to each of the three, the frog shots make perfect sense. They've never questioned the cleansing value of the shot, everybody "just knows" that's what you do to get clean.

And that's the point - that's what YOU do to get clean.  There are two books in the world which call the frog shots of every culture into question: the books of Romans and Titus.  Paul wrote about frog shots: "Since they did not know about the righteousness that comes from God and sought to establish their own . . ."  They "pursue righteousness [through frog shots], but have not attained it."*  ". . . "He saved us, not by righteous things which we had done [like self-imposed frog shots], but because of His mercy."**

The Bible is the only book in the world that tells us that we don't and can't cleanse ourselves. If it's to be done, God must do it.  If there's suffering to be done for cleansing, God must suffer.  That's the message of the gospel - God the Son suffered on the cross for our sins so that through faith alone in Him alone we might be cleansed. God the Father put the poison on Him when He "bore our sins on the tree."*** We can put down the searing coals; He took the burning for us.

When the agony of "My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me" became so white-hot, He didn't go jump in the river to make it stop; He stayed nailed down until He could rightly shout, "It stands finished!"

As a fish is blind to the water in which he swims, so each culture is blind to its own brand of frog shots.  Frog shots are an example of II Corinthians 4:4: "The god of this world [Satan] has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ."

What better example of Luke 8:11ff do we need? - "The seed is the Word of God. Those along the path who hear are the ones who hear, and then the devil comes and takes away the Word from their hearts so that they may not believe and be saved."  The gospel comes along and there's Satan with his prescription of a frog shot instead, dispensed with his admonition about the gospel, "Cleansing just can't be that easy!"

Frog shots in Brazil for cleansing?  Giving up Fox News during Lent for cleansing?  Doing man-conceived assignments (penance)?  Stupid is as stupid does.

Dr. Mike Halsey, Pastor

* Romans 10: 3; 9:31        
** Titus 3:5
*** I Peter 2:24