¡Sapo Asado!

In addition to my employment at Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary, I serve as a pastor to Hispanics at La Iglesia Bautista Nueva Vida (New Life Baptist Church). Last week, the men of the congregation traveled to the family farm in Missouri for a weekend retreat. We hiked through the beautiful Taum Sauk park and learned how better to determine God’s will for our lives.

 Early in the morning as we sat around a campfire and prepared to sing, we were shocked to observe a plump toad leap into the middle of the burning pile of wood! Later the roasted corpse became visible as the wood turned into powdery ash, and the Hispanic men cried, “¡Sapo asado!” (“fried toad”). Because we were unwilling to scorch our hands to rescue the toad from the blaze, the animal died in the fire.

After all, a toad is a toad. People, however, are not toads, and the Bible teaches that it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment (Heb. 9:27). The judgment which awaits those who do not know Christ is an eternity of suffering in the fires of Hell (Luke 16:19-31; Rev. 20:14-15; 21:8). The good news is that God is not willing that any should perish in Hell, but that all should come to repentance so that they might live with Him in Heaven forever (2 Pet. 3:9; 2 Tim. 4:18).

Those of us who are believers should tell our family, friends, neighbors, and those who cross our paths about the glorious forgiveness that is available through Jesus. When we share the Gospel and a person is saved, Jude explains that in a sense we have pulled them from the fires of Hell. How exciting is that?

And have mercy on some, who are doubting; save others, snatching them out of the fire; and on some have mercy with fear, hating even the garment polluted by the flesh. (Jude 22-23)