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  • Running from God – 3 – Elijah

    Running from God – 3 – Elijah

    Are you loyal to God?

    A fair question.

    Deuteronomy 6:5 KJV And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.

    You shall love the Lord your God with ALL.

    Jesus even adds some definition for us of the well-recited Hebrew in the familiar Greek.

    Mark 12:30 ESV And you shall love [agapaō] the Lord [kyrios {Note the meaning & implication of calling God, ‘Lord‘}] your God with all your heart and with all your soul [ psychē] and with all your mind [dianoia] and with all your strength.’

    I don’t want to get into the subtlety of this (a whole other sermon), but note that ‘psychē‘ is the Greek word for ‘soul,‘ not ‘mind,’ as you might imagine from all the false teaching of the world and those opposed to God. Jesus and Moses both taught that GOD is to be worshiped personally with ALL of our grateful being.

    Peter had stood on the Mount of Transfiguration and witnessed Jesus and Moses and Elijah together! So how could this man deny three times that he knew the Christ, Jesus, his friend being beaten for our sins?

    As I cautioned earlier, let’s not to hold Peter to a higher standard than we hold ourselves. Elijah also had run.

    1 Kings 17 

    elijahs journeysElijah Predicts a Drought

    17 Now Elijah the Tishbite, of Tishbe in Gilead, said to Ahab, “As the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, before whom I stand, there shall be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word.”

    …  5 So he went and did according to the word of the Lord. He went and lived by the brook Cherith that is east of the Jordan.

    [So far, so good; like Peter when he wanted to build shines for worship. (But then, of course, Jesus told Peter not to build shrines.)]

    6 And the ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning, and bread and meat in the evening, and he drank from the brook.7 And after a while the brook dried up, because there was no rain in the land.

    It was Elijah’s familiar faith to which Jesus pointed when He taught us:

    Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds! – Luke 12:24

    God feeds the ravens; the ravens fed Elijah; therefore have faith: God can even send ravens to feed us.

    The drama and the drought progress.

    1 Kings 18

    After many days the word of the Lord came to Elijah, in the third year…  Now the famine was severe in Samaria.

    The King and God’s people are indicted through Elijah of turning their backs on God.

    Are our national and world leaders – is the 21st c. church so different in our ineffectiveness?

     17 When Ahab saw Elijah, Ahab said to him, “Is it you, you troubler of Israel?”

    18 And he answered, “I have not troubled Israel, but you have, and your father’s house, because you have abandoned the commandments of the Lord and followed the Baals. 19 Now therefore send and gather all Israel to me at Mount Carmel, and the 450 prophets of Baal and the 400 prophets of Asherah, who eat at Jezebel’s table.”

    A contest! It would be like saying: Bring in all the Oprahs and Choprahs and Hawkings and Dalis; bring in all your priests who worship ancestors and cows and earth; bring in all your princes of oil and casinos and sports; bring in all your stars of Hollywood and Bollywood and worldwide web brothels!

    Need I suggest more to add up to more than these 850 prophets of false worship in these last days? You know the sects of prophets of angels of destruction and men of reproduction. You know well the crowds opposed to the rule of the Living God!

    A contest here: Almighty GOD and his one Prophet Elijah vs. 850 prophets of idols the people loved.

    To be continued…

  • Running from God – 2 – Peter

    Running from God – 2 – Peter

    Stepping back a moment into the opening days of Jesus’ earthly ministry we take a look at the Apostle who denied Jesus three times before the cock crowed twice:

    Luke 9:

    And he called the twelve together and gave them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases, 2 and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal…

    6 And they departed and went through the villages, preaching the gospel and healing everywhere.

    7 Now Herod the tetrarch heard about all that was happening, and he was perplexed, because it was said by some that John had been raised from the dead, 8 by some that Elijah had appeared, and by others that one of the prophets of old had risen…

    18 Now it happened that as he was praying alone, the disciples were with him. And he asked them, “Who do the crowds say that I am?” 19 And they answered, “John the Baptist. But others say, Elijah, and others, that one of the prophets of old has risen.” 20 Then he said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” And Peter answered, “The Christ of God.”

    Take Up Your Cross and Follow Jesus

    23 And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. 25 For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself?

    26 For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when he comes in his glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.

    The Transfiguration

    28 Now about eight days after these sayings he took with him Peter and John and James and went up on the mountain to pray. 29 And as he was praying, the appearance of his face was altered, and his clothing became dazzling white. 30 And behold, two men were talking with him, Moses and Elijah, 31 who appeared in glory and spoke of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem.

    The work Jesus was ‘about to accomplish at Jerusalem‘ at the end of His earthly ministry was His Holy Sacrifice of His Body and Blood on the Cross of our Redemption.

    The Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world would die for Peter, the very Apostle who had witnessed Jesus with Moses and Elijah!

    Peter, the very Apostle who would deny knowing Jesus three times,  knew with certainty that the man being beaten and bloodied beyond recognition for our many sins was the Messiah, that Jesus IS the Christ Who IS.

    To be continued…

  • My Love – 7 – Love never ends…

    My Love – 7 – Love never ends…

    1 Corinthians 13

    The Way of Love (agape)

    7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

    8 Love never ends.

    Once again, the ‘love‘ we proclaim though scripture from this letter of Paul to the church at Corinth is the agape love of God. Christ’s love and perfect earthly example should permeate every kind of love relationship we have with others, including of course, the love of a husband for his wife and a wife for her husband.

    You can never love too much.

    You can love in the wrong way,

    but never too much.

    Suppose we take the famous scripture of the ‘love chapter’ and put it into the context of ‘The Four Loves’ described by C.S. Lewis of the four Greek words for love. And let’s take this a step further for a moment and begin with the way the world first thinks when the word love is mentioned:

    Eros bears all things, Eros believes all things, Eros hopes all things, Eros endures all things.  Eros love never ends.

    Is this true?

    I can testify by my own divorces that eros love (romantic love) often bears little, believes only at first, hopes less and less and indeed Eros love does end. This, of course, is why our vows before God are so important to our Christian marriages.

    The same could be said of friendship love or affectionate love. Friendships certainly end and so all-too-often does the affectionate love of a parent for a child or child for parent. These tragic endings fill counseling offices and psychiatrist couches.

    Love frequently does end; the other loves fail.

    Therefore I caution us that we can indeed love in the wrong way. We often do not, as sinful and unfaithful human souls, look at love from the perspective of God.

    We think that we have only so much love we can give – only so much friendship we can give – only so much love for one child or for our mom or for our dad to give – only so much we can endure and hope and believe for the love of our life, the wife or husband of our vows. After all, ‘we are only human.’ We are limited in the flesh; we are limited in our love for one another.

    All this would be true, except for the one love for which we were created by God – agape love, which permeates our very being and relationships to every other.

    You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your strength and all your mind. (Sound familiar?)

    Other loves only become timeless in the overflowing love of Jesus Christ when the deep well of God’s love pours forth from our sinful hearts into the love-starved souls of others.

    We are made for Him and we are made for each other. We are created to love each and all; but only in the right way and with the love of God pouring from us.

    When we are empty, God will give us more.

    When we have given all, God will give us more.

    When we cannot bear this soul, God will give us more.

    When we can no longer believe, God will give us more.

    When we have lost all hope, God will give us more.

    When we cannot endure, God will give us more.

    When we think our Eros romance

    or our Philia friendship 

    or our Storge affection

    will end;

    God will give us more.

    For Agape love is not only unconditional,

    the Agape love of God is eternal.

    Agape love never ends.

    The King James English actually encourages us in God by assuring:

    Charity never faileth.

    And the NASB & other versions translate agape: Love never fails.

    Yes, Paul points out that other signs of God working in the lives of the church may fail at times. (We are just a gathering of His imperfect sinners.)

    God gives us His gifts to use in His way in our mortal time.

    Pour forth the unfailing love of Christ Jesus. Embrace every soul in His love.

    (Love one another, as I have loved you, our Lord commands.)

    The love of the church may be evident through varying gifts to different saints (Christians) as different times. Yet Love never fails. God’s own love and charity towards us never fails His purpose.

    It is appropriate reminder to us as I conclude this 7-part series on My Love, to remind us of the love of God for me, a sinner, and for you.

    God has not failed us.

    The Cross of Christ Jesus never fails.

    We are saved by the grace of the sacrifice of our Lord, Christ Jesus.

    As we near the end of these last days I appeal once more to your faithfulness to the Lord Who IS faithful to those who love Him. Be faithful to God in every kind of love God so richly gives to you from the deep spring of His eternal love.

    Have you failed in your love? Have you failed God? Have you failed your beloved to whom you are wed? Have you failed a friend? Have you failed a parent or a child who needs your unconditional love?

    ekpiptō – to fall out of, to fall down from, to fall off; to fall from a thing, to lose it; to perish, to fall: from a place from which one cannot keep,  from a position, to fall powerless, to fall to the ground, be without effect of the divine promise of salvation

    In Christ Jesus, we have God’s unfailing love. By grace we cannot fall. God’s love never fails.

    Peter reminds the faithful of the importance of us not failing Christ Jesus, if indeed He IS our LORD.

    2 Peter 3: NKJV

    10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. 11 Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, 12 looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat?

    17 You therefore, beloved, since you know this beforehand,

    beware lest you also fall from your own steadfastness, being led away with the error of the wicked;

    18 but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

    To Him be the glory both now and forever. Amen.