God Speaks

I was reading about Elijah recently, about his victory at Mt. Carmel against the priests of Baal. I’ve always loved that story. I read past it this time though, reading about Elijah’s flight into the wilderness right after this great victory.

¹Now Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and ^(A)how he had killed all the prophets with the sword.

   ²Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, “^(B)So may the gods do to me and even more, if I do not make your ^[a]life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time.”

   ³And he was afraid and arose and ran for his ^[b]life and came to ^(C)Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, and left his servant there.

   ⁴But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree; and ^(D)he requested for himself that he might die, and said, “It is enough; now, O LORD, take my ^[c]life, for I am not better than my fathers.”

   ⁵He lay down and slept under a juniper tree; and behold, there was ^(E)an angel touching him, and he said to him, “Arise, eat.”

   ⁶Then he looked and behold, there was at his head a bread cake baked on hot stones, and a jar of water. So he ate and drank and lay down again.

   ⁷The angel of the LORD came again a second time and touched him and said, “Arise, eat, because the journey is too great for you.”

   ⁸So he arose and ate and drank, and went in the strength of that food ^(F)forty days and forty nights to ^(G)Horeb, the mountain of God.

I love this whole chapter but these 1st 8 verses really stood out to me, particularly because the past 9-10 months for me have been very difficult spiritually. Elijah, somehow, after his greatest victory, after seeing the truth and power of God, is threatened by Jezebel and flees (vs 3). It says he went into the wilderness and says “It is enough; now, Oh Lord, take away my life.” How many times in the last months of my life have I just said, “God, that’s enough. It’s enough struggle, it’s enough doubt, it’s enough. I’m finished.” It’s good to know I’m not the only one who has felt that way.

So here Elijah is in the middle of desert, given up, asking God to let him die. As he lays down to sleep and angel comes to him and wakes him up, saying “arise and eat.” So Elijah’s surprise there is food and drink next to him. So he eat’s, drinks, and goes back to sleep. Again the angel comes to him and says “Arise, eat, for the journey is too great for you. Then Elijah, ate, drank and had the strength to travel 40 days through the wilderness.

Many times we find ourselves lost in a spiritual wilderness. We have no strength, we want to give up. “It’s enough!” we say to God. And as we lay down, ready to give up God is speaking to us saying “Arise, eat of my Word, drink of my Presence.” We may get up, read our Bible, pray, then look around and see that we are still in our current circumstance. Disgruntled, we go back to sleep. God comes again, nudges us and says “Arise! Eat of my Word, drink of my Presence. The journey is too much.”

Our Christian journey’s are too much for us. Our will is too weak. Our flesh too strong for us. Everywhere we look the enemy seems to be victorious. Our minds race with doubts, our silent wonderings become impossible to tune out. God recognizes this and wants us to know that he doesn’t expect us to go in our own strength. The only way to make it through this wilderness is to eat and drink of Him. To go in His strength. To walk with Him as our source.

 

1 Samuel

16:6-7 “When they came, he looked on Eliab and thought, ‘Surely the Lord’s anointed is before him.’ But the Lord said to Samuel, ‘Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees; man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.’”

17:18 “Now Eliab his eldest brother heard when he spoke to the men. And Eliab’s anger was kindled against David, and he said “Why have you come down? And with whom have you left the few sheep in the wilderness? I know your presumption and the evil of your heart, for you have come down to see the battle.”

Samuel saw Eliab in the 1st excerpt and thought that surely he would be God’s choice for the next king of Israel. On the surface, he appeared to have it all together. God tells Samuel that Eliab is not his choice, telling Samuel that although man judges based on appearances, God sees people’s hearts. Later on in chapter 17 Eliab again enters the picture, chastising David for his eagerness to go fight, questioning David’s heart and his motives.

While I’m sure I often judge others based on their appearance, my thoughts today go to myself. How often do I judge myself based on how I perceive myself? I remember past mistakes and regrets and feel like a failure. I look at current accomplishments and deem myself a success. The value I attribute myself is always linked to a performance metric of some sort or another. But God doesn’t see that. He doesn’t see my failure of yesterday (or even today) nor does he see my past or present success. He sees my heart. My heart burns for Him, it longs for deeper fellowship with Him. My heart pursues Him.

My prayer is that I would see myself as Christ sees me. Not through the filter of the world, not through the filter of condemnation and not through the filter of pride. Let me see myself from God’s point of view. Let Him expose the areas that need change and spur my relationship with Him to greater heights..

 

David and Goliath

David and Goliath. It is quite possibly one of the most well-known stories of all time (at least within the Western world). Sports reporters refer to “David and Goliath” match-ups between the powerhouses and the underdogs. However, I was re-reading the story the other day and I saw it in a whole new light.

For the sake of space I won’t type the entire story. If you want to read it turn your Bible to 1 Samuel 17.  In the story we see the Israelites are called out to battle their arch-rivals, the Philistines. Camped at opposite sides of a valley, each army is prepared to fight. Verse 4 says “And there came out from the camp of the Philistines a champion named Goliath of Gath, whose height was 6 cubits and a span (about 9 ft).” Skip to verse 10, “And the Philistine said, ‘I defy the ranks of Israel this day. Give me a man, that we may fight together.’ When Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and greatly afraid.”

This is the first part that jumped out at me. I believe our current times draw a parallel to this story. The body of Christ is Israel and the Philistines represent the unsaved and Goliath is the Enemy himself. In this story Goliath is the pride and hope of the Philistines. In him they place all of their faith. He is strong, his armor weighs over 100 lbs, his spearhead ways 15 lbs. He is invincible. The world is standing with all of their faith placed on their “Goliaths.” Their hope is in pleasure, fueld by psychologists who tell them “it’s all about YOU! Do what makes YOU happy.” Their hope is in riches, thinking that more money will supply more happiness. Their hope is in relativism. Everything is relative, there is no absolute truth. Such an attitude leads to moral states we see running rampant today. There Goliaths are speaking, yelling their viewpoints, making their opinion known. Just look at Goliath in the story. It says that EVERY DAY he would go out and defy the armies of Israel. Everyday he would mock their God. And what did they do? Verse 24 says “All the men of Israel, when they saw the man, fled from him and were much afraid.” Unfortunately our response today has not changed from that of the Israelites thousands of years ago. Satan taunts the church, dares the church to act and yet we flee in fear. We allow the agenda of the enemy to rule our nation and overcome the hearts and minds of those who are lost. We flee from taking strong stands against moral relativism. We fear offending someone so we lock the truth up in our hearts. We sit and watch as they make a mockery of Jesus Christ. The enemy is making his stand known and we refuse to utter one word of protest.

Luckily for Israel, in walks David. Merely a shepherd he enters the scene and sees Goliath taunting the armies of Israel. Verse 26 is David talking, he says “Who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?” David walked into the same circumstance as every Israelite warrior but he did not tremble in fear. If only we all had the boldness of David, to see the state of our friends, the state of our city and country, the state of the world in the correct light. God has chosen to use the church as his instrument to change the world, but no one changes the world lying down. To make a difference we must stand up, stand firm, and fight back. We have been fleeing the issues of our time for long enough. It’s time to make a definite, loud stand.

As soon as David makes his stand, attempted discouragement comes in. His brother comes to him and angrily accuses him of coming just to “watch the battle.” His brother questions David’s motive. So many times when we make a stand, someone will come in and say, “Look at you, who do you think you are? Making a stand? You just think you’re better than me and want everyone to follow your beliefes.” David responds correctly and simply turns away and continues with his plan to fight. David didn’t stop to question his own heart, he knew his heart was right and he moved on towards his purpose.

We all know the rest of this story. There is some more I got out of it but I won’t go into all those details. But David goes out and faces the Goliath and strikes him down. He exposes the “unshakeable” giant for what he was - merely human. God is asking the church today, “where are My Davids? Where are those who will strike the giants of the enemy down for me? Where are those who will stand and fight?” Will I stand and fight? Will I engage in prayer? Will I speak of for righteousness? Will I represent Christ and represent truth?

Ok, this is really long and I hope I didn’t lose you. Hopefully you understand what I’m getting at!

 

What If…

What if…It’s such a common question. It’s such a powerful question.

It’s a question I found myself asking a lot lately. I’ve been going through a time of doubt and  dryness and I’d often find myself saying, “What if all this Christianity stuff is not true. What if it’s not real?” The implications are huge. If Christianity is not true then there are a lot of good, well-meaning people living for a lie. If it’s not true then I’m a fool for abstaining from living however I please. If there was no God then why do I work so hard at trying to do the “right” thing. Why would I care what the right thing is? If Christianity is not true then life has no point. If Christianity is not true, then why am I here? Who made me? Am I really an act of random chance? Am I a mere accident that happened despite mind-boggling odds? And if life arose, unprompted, from a primordial sea of gas, or through any other medium, who created that matter in the first place?  The list of questions that remain unanswered never ends.. Who am I? Why am I here? Who made me? Why? If Christianity is not true…I have no answer.

But out of this arises another question. What if Christianity is true? What if there really is a loving God who, for reasons I can not completely understand, decided to create all of this - decided to create me? What if this God wants nothing more than to have relationship and fellowship with me and with us? What if this God became flesh solely to bridge the gap we created between us and Him? God as flesh? I don’t understand it but…what if? What if my life, your life, their lives, have purpose? What if this life is a mere dress rehearsal for eternity with God?

If Christianity is true (and I believe it is!) then the implications are enormous. If it’s true your life has purpose, to know God and make Him known. If it’s true then the best is yet to come. If it’s true then there is a real REASON to live, a REASON to breathe. If it’s true then there is hope for those of us in bondage to addictions and negative lifestyles. If it’s true there is hope for the person dying of cancer. If it’s true there is hope for the aids orphan in Africa. If it’s true we have a responsibility - share it with those who are unaware of this truth.

Can I ever prove mathematically or physically that God is who the Bible claims He is? Can I ever prove the origin of everything? Can I prove what happens after death? Can I prove that Christianity is true and leave NO room for doubt? No. Of course, nor can you disprove it.

You may sit there and read this and scoff and say, “It’s too unlikely. If I can’t understand it and put it on paper then it can’t be true.”

I will not argue with you nor will I condemn you. I will ask you one thing and one thing only. You say what if it’s not true, I say what if it is…