Elijah's Great Run

Preaching through the life of Elijah, we encountered the incredible story (that is almost mentioned in passing) of Elijah running ahead of Ahab’s chariot all the way to Jezreel. It only takes up one verse, the last verse of chapter eighteen of 1 Kings.

The power of the LORD came upon Elijah and, tucking his cloak into his belt, he ran ahead of Ahab all the way to Jezreel. -1 Kings 18:46 (NIV)

There are many who scoff at stories like this in Scripture and say, “It is physically impossible for a human to do something like this.” Bill Maher, comedian and well-known atheist, has referenced this story in comedy routines saying it is just another reason why he rejects the Bible as a myth.

Did you realize that doctors and scientists said it was impossible for a man to run a mile in less than four minutes? They said that our bone structure was wrong and wind resistance was too great and our lungs did not have adequate power as well as the human heart could not take that kind of stress and you would die in such a foolish attempt. It is an impossible dream to try to run a mile in under four minutes.

But 25 year old Roger Bannister didn’t listen to the experts.
He endured thousands of monotonous laps around the same university track. Bannister was determined to shape his body and his mind. On May 6, 1954 at Oxford University in England Roger Bannister was the first known human to run a mile in under four minutes.

I say known because Elijah may have well been history’s first. Since that historic day in 1954, one of the greatest sports achievements ever, 955 runners have achieved the same impossible dream as Bannister did. In fact, those runners have beat the four minute mile over 4,700 times now.

The next time someone you see on television scoffs at something in the Bible, just remember how impossible the four minute mile USED to be. Scripture affirms for you and me this timeless truth:

For nothing is impossible with God. –Luke 1:37 (NIV)

The Other World

Today my family participated in the annual Life Chain event. This is the 23rd year it has been organized. As usual it was our family but the boys had one of their buddies come along. It really does sadden me that so many people don't seem to care.

My sons asked an individual at church today if they were attending and their response was that would mean they would miss their Sunday afternoon nap (which apparently is an unacceptable suggestion). Wow! Standing up against murders of convenience or missing a nap. I can see why the nap was the easy choice.

Because it is hard to stand up against a culture that thinks you're crazy for thinking that an unborn child has rights. It isn't easy to face the car horns and middle fingers and shouts of the pro-death crowd (which is just about everybody these days).

But as I preached this very morning I have to remember that God is never outnumbered! No matter how many voices who have swallowed the blue pill (Matrix reference) are loudly attempting to drown out the voices of those who have swallowed the red pill...I have to remember: God can do much with little.

One totally dedicated life is all God needs to change entire nations! (See the life of Elijah - 1 Kings 18) I am still sad to be surrounded by so many "Christians" who are addicted to the blue pill. They love their connection to this world but are slightly intrigued by the other world. So to scratch the other world itch, they show up on Sundays very faithfully.

But what they don't know is that the other world isn't far away. It's here. It's everywhere. It is simply veiled by all that we can see and feel. But all that we can see and feel is not real...it is a great illusion! And the master magician Satan loves to keep us in awe of it.

If we could only have our eyes opened like Elisha's servant then we would know just how close (and real) the other world really is! I guess I just need to keep praying that God will open the eyes of the "Christians" I know who have a blue pill addiction!

Who's in charge here?

I have been having an ongoing debate with a gentleman I met over Twitter about Scripture. He is Roman Catholic and believes that "The Bible cannot declare itself to be the inspired Word of God. An outside authority must do it. That authority is the Catholic Church." (That is a direct quote from one of our online dialogues.)

I shared with him that even though he may say that the Bible cannot declare itself to be the inspired Word of God, that is exactly what the Bible does do. In 2 Timothy 3:16 Paul affirms that all Scripture is inspired (literally "God-breathed"). And Peter insisted in 2 Peter 1:21 the prophets did not originate their own private predictions, but wrote as "they were carried along by the Holy Spirit."

You see, the fundamental difference between my Roman Catholic friend and myself is this. I believe that the Word of God is inspired, infallible and authoritative by itself. He believes the Word of God is also inspired, infallible and authoritative only because the Roman Catholic Church has said so.

My question would be this: Where does parental authority come from? Is there authority inherent with simply being a parent or does an outside source (like the state) say you have the authority to be a parent? (Unfortunately such an idea isn't that far from reality.)

A parent has authority as a parent because he or she is a parent. Now there are some cases where the state has stepped in and declared a person to be unfit to be a parent. But by and large, parental authority is derived from the state of parenthood, and not the state.

Similarly, the Word of God, validated by signs and wonders and miracles, can claim with no help from an outside source, that it is divinely inspired. There have been occasions in the past where the church stepped in and helped to determine if a book should be in the canon or not based on historical merit. But Scripture is inspired with out the help of the Catholic Church.

The Bible's authority, reliability, authenticity and validity is in no need of support from a religious tradition that subverts the nature of the message of the Gospel by telling men that they can be saved by good works. The epitome of heresy, in my humble opinion, is to think that we can do anything at all to add to the work of Jesus Christ on the cross to atone for the sin of mankind.

I trust in the infallible Word of God, not because the Catholic Church has deemed it to be okay (by the way, the Catholic Tradition has upheld the validity of works that have no historical merit as the Word of God with their acceptance of the apocrypha) but because the Word of God has told me it is inspired from God.

The Lord your God

Over the course of my sabbatical I drove approximately 4,500 miles. That’s a lot of time in the car! So one of my sub-goals in the sabbatical was to listen to the Word of God while I was on the road. And listen I did!

I was hoping to make it all the way through the Bible while I was gone but that didn’t happen. I made it through the first 13 books of the Bible (that’s through 2 Chronicles). There was a phrase that I heard over and over again as I listened to Scripture through my car stereo system. It is a phrase that is so common it is almost not noticeable as you read or listen to God’s Word.

The phrase is “the Lord your God.” I heard that phrase exactly 398 times in the version I was listening to while I was on the road (New King James if you’re wondering).

In fact, the phrase appears 431 times in the whole Bible (NIV)! It only occurs once in the book of Genesis. But in the first five books of Scripture (the Pentateuch) it occurs 308 times. Why is that phrase repeated so often so early in Scripture?
Why did Moses (the author of the Pentateuch) feel the need to use that phrase so much from Exodus through Deuteronomy?

The answer lies in the northeastern corner of Africa, in Egypt. The Israelites were slaves in Egypt for 430 years (Exodus 12:40-41). For centuries the Hebrews were a people group owned by another people group (the Egyptians).

And when God saves them and brings them out of Egypt (which is what we see at the beginning of Exodus) you begin to see the phrase, “the Lord your God” being used over and over again. The reason is because God wanted to embed the thought into the very soul of this people…I belong to you.

AND…if God belongs to them, then the converse is automatically true as well…that people group also belongs to God. He is YOUR God. And you are HIS people.

It is something that obviously they needed to hear over and over again. Because for so long the only gods they knew were the gods of the Egyptians. The only gods that they ever saw being revered belonged to another people group.

Oh sure they had heard the story of Abraham and God’s promise to Him but obviously, after so many centuries, that promise was not going to be fulfilled. But God was waiting for the right time and moment in history to save His people from slavery. And He did so. He did it in such a way that every single god of the Egyptians was proven beyond any shadow of a doubt to be worthless and nothing compared to the God of the Hebrews.

I believe it is a message we need drilled into our hearts as well. He is our God. And we are His people (1 Peter 2:9). We don’t need to keep being lured into idolatry by counterfeit deities…we worship the one true God of the universe! And He deserves our whole heart’s allegiance and affection!

Sabbatical Day 22

Sabbatical Day 18

Sabbatical Day 15