Isolation in Ministry, Part 2

Last time, I talked about Elijah isolating himself because he was disconnected from God. He was busy being zealous for God but was not personally connected to the life-giving source of the Spirit. So, he ran off and is now hiding in the mountain of God, Horeb.

Here is what 1 Kings 19 told us:

And the word of the Lord came to him: “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

He replied, “I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, torn down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.”

Amid Elijah’s emotional state, he believes he is the only one who serves God. He believes that his life is meaningless. He is tired of doing ministry.

What does God do in this situation?

The Lord said, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.”

Elijah is about to have an encounter with the living God.

The Lord said, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.”

Wow, don’t you wish the Lord would say to you, go out, and the presence of the Lord will pass over you?

I love what happens next, there are three events that most of us would expect to be signs from God.

Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind.

After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake.

After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire.

A Windstorm, an earthquake and a fire, but God was not in them… Listen to what happened next.

And after the fire came a gentle whisper. 13 When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave.

God spoke in a gentle whisper, not in a loud demonstration of His power, but in a quiet voice. Psalm 46:10a says, “Be still, and know that I am God.”

What did the voice say? God asked the same question as before. Do not mistake the three events; they had a purpose, and they were to remind Elijah of who God is and His power. I think God had hoped the demonstration would serve as a way for Elijah to grow in his confidence and faith in who God is.

Then a voice said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

In other words, Elijah, have you now found hope and purpose once again?

Elijah, unfazed, replies with the same answer as before, “I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, torn down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.”

Sometimes, when our mental health pushes us into isolation, we lose sight of who God is and His power. Sometimes, everyone around us will remind us of how great God is, and deep down, we know that truth. But that knowledge does not remove the dark shadow of gloom.

Elijah heard God’s voice and felt the earth move, yet he was unmoved from his mental state of depression and feeling lost.

The Lord responds to Elijah’s heartfelt answer with a few action steps to restore the prophet and reassure him that God is still in charge. He tells Elijah to go and appoint two new kings over the divided Israel. He told him to go and anoint Elisha as his successor (future replacement).

But, then, God addressed one primary concern or feeling in Elijah’s answer - I am the only one left. Elijah felt alone and had no hope because everyone had turned to worshiping false idols.

Look at what the Lord says in verse 18, “Yet I reserve seven thousand in Israel—all whose knees have not bowed down to Baal and whose mouths have not kissed him.”

This is a critical theological point: regardless of how we feel and how things might seem, we never know what God is doing in other people’s lives. God had reserved or kept 7,000 who had never worshiped a false Idol. Elijah, you are not alone!

Isolation can make us feel all alone but look to Christ, and you will see Him and His church with arms wide open. Trust Him; He has you and thousands of others just like you. You are Not Alone!

TTFN

Costly Discipleship

Tammy and I have been considering joining a Spa. There is much to consider, expense verses what we can gain from the membership. In truth, the membership will require us to use the gym otherwise it becomes a waste of money, and people might joke about having a gym membership we never used (like we have not done that before).

Last time I talked about the cost of becoming a follower of Christ. Jesus calls us to evaluate the cost of becoming a disciple of His. Picking up in Luke 14 the Lord tells us the price of membership in Him.

The hefty cost is found in verse 26 - “If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers, and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple.” Our English translation uses the word hate, but the concepts is more that we must “Love” Jesus more than father and mother, wife and children, brothers, and sisters—yes, even their own life. Anyone who loves these more then Jesus will never risk everything for Him, thus he says in verse 27, “And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.”

Jesus is saying that you have to give up everything that might hold you back from giving your life for His sake. In light of the exorbitant cost, Jesus instructs those seeking to follow Him to evaluate the grand cost before they start. His two examples speak of each person evaluating the cost and acting shrewdly by planning for success, either in building or in seeking peace.

So many people profess Jesus or claim to be a Christian yet have not calculated the cost, and when the pressure comes, or the material struggle becomes so great, they abandon the sincere faith, clinging only to the name. Others fail and suffer ridicule for even trying to be a Christian, because they could not make to true commitment required. Jesus ends His teaching on the matter by saying that Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, it has become worthless.

Imagine if Jesus said the cost to become a disciple was that you had to pay a million dollars, who among us would not sell everything in order to be with Him everyday (see the Parable of the Hidden Treasure and Costly Pearl; Matthew 14:44-46). What if that cost was even greater, you must give all of your worldly possessions to follow Him (Rich young ruler comes to mind; Luke 18:22).

However, in this text (Luke 14:26-36) Jesus is raising the bar to the top. You must give your life, pick up your cross and follow him. But it must be a true commitment to carry your cross, an instrument of death. In reality Jesus is saying the cost of being His disciple is to die to self…

How much is Jesus worth to you?

All Fools' Day

I hope you will have a wonderful April Fools' Day, or All Fools' Day, as some call it. Yesterday was Easter, and I spoke about the calendar confusion in which Easter is not at the same time as Resurrection Sunday, yet the church missed the boat, still celebrating an event that is not for another couple of weeks.

Did you know that some speculate that the origins of April Fools are likewise tied to a change in the calendar? In 1563, the Council of Trent ordered the transition from the Julian calendar to the new Gregorian calendar. When France switched in 1582, many people were lost in the transition.

In the Julian calendar, New Year began with the spring equinox around April 1. People who were slow to get the news or failed to recognize that the start of the new year had moved to January 1. As a result, they continued to celebrate New Year's during the last week of March through April 1 and became the butt of jokes and were called “April fools.”

The funny thing is that just as Easter is tied to fertility worship, the Julian calendar (as well as the Hindu calendar) is tied to the spring equinox. The word equinox comes from two Latin words, meaning “Equal Night.” because the length of day and night is equal on this day. At the equator, the sun is directly overhead at noon on this day, only twice a year.

All of creation cries out there is a God!

Our Creator has demonstrated His majesty, power, and beauty in all His creation. Simply looking up into the sky we see His handy work. The sun, moon, stars, indeed all of the heavens declare there is a God.

Christians often jokingly call April Fools Day the Atheist holiday, but in reality, it truly is a day when people fail to recognize there is a creator, and are foolish in their actions. They look up at the heavens and declare, “There is no God.” Check out what Paul said in Romans 1:20-23.

For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

Paul says that the fool rejects the apparent truth of God, demonstrated in creation, and then worships the creation itself. True foolishness is alive and well today. Yet, as Christians, we have faith in our creator, and because of the cross and resurrection of Jesus from the grave, we have God’s wisdom made perfect in us. Let me leave you with these words from Paul in 1 Corinthians 1:18-30:

For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written:

“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise;

    the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.”

Where is the wise person? Where is the teacher of the law? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.

Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption.

Be Encouraged Fellow Pilgrims, we have a Risen King.