1 Kings 18:21 Elijah went before the people and said, “How long will you waver between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him.”

This is the story of the most dramatic “power encounter” in the whole Bible, short of Jesus’ cross and resurrection. The events of the exodus were misty folk tales for most of the people. Since this was in the northern kingdom of Israel, they didn’t even have the temple worship to remind them of the true God. Through Elijah, God set up a demonstration of His reality that would echo throughout history. The question Elijah asks here is one that applies to every person in every age. We are free to choose whom we will serve, but we cannot fail to make the choice, because that is choosing to serve the devil by default. That’s something most people don’t realize. Yesterday a man came into the gallery (we are having a show of my photography, Cathy’s papercraft, and the calligraphy of a lady in the church) and told me, “I used to be Methodist, but now I’m Sokagakkai.” (That’s a rather militant Buddhist sect, equivalent to Jehovah’s Witnesses.) I asked him why he had changed, and he said, “Oh, I was in Seicho no Ie (another of the Japanese “new religions”) for a while too, but found that Sokagakkai was most satisfying for me.” He’s made his choice, and unless he repents, he will live with that choice for all eternity. I certainly wouldn’t want to be in his shoes! The problem is, people choose religions because of cultural pressures, convenience, or in his case, what pleased his flesh. I once heard a Sokagakkai person say, “The Bible insists we do impossible things, like love our enemies. Sokagakkai never does that.” We have such trouble believing that God never asks us to do anything He doesn’t enable us to do, if we will yield ourselves to Him in faith. I recently saw a strictly secular comment that “There is no growth without pain.” I presume it was talking about mental/emotional/spiritual growth, because simple physical growth isn’t necessarily painful, but taken that way, it’s quite in line with the Bible. We don’t like to make hard choices, to be obedient to God instead of indulge our flesh, but we bear the consequences of our choices whatever they are. As Elijah said, the question is whether we will choose God.

This is applicable to me every day of my life. I seek to encourage others to choose God, but my own choosing needs to be consistent, and I’m not 100% in that. Right now I feel He is directing us in a project that is quite literally impossible for us. Some in the church are in panic stage, thinking of all the things that could go wrong. It is quite true that those things could go wrong, and the way will not be easy, but if God is directing this, it will succeed. We lost people when we built our current building, and that was painful indeed. We are looking at a far bigger project right now, and we very much run the risk of losing people, when we have very few to lose! I am to trust God and speak and act as He directs, however painful the immediate consequences. If this is His idea, as I believe it is, I am to let go of it and let Him carry it through, because He is more than able.

Father, this is a painful time of growth indeed. Help me not draw back, but let You do in and through me what You desire, for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!