As a boy my brothers and I often played in the bush that bordered on the housing estate where we lived at Frankston. It was not uncommon that to get somewhere we had to cross a creek. We would look for tufts of grass, outcrops of stone or earth or some other dry and solid-looking area and, stepping from one to the other, we crossed to the other side.

The idea was to always move, to never get too attached to the one you were presently on, but to look ahead and move on to the next one.

Elijah’s means “the Lord is God.” Elijah’s ministry corresponded exactly to his name, for he was sent by God to confront the worship of Baal by God’s people, and to declare to Israel that the Lord was God and there was no other.

The first act of the battle scene, as it were, was Elijah the prophet of God standing as God’s ambassador in the very throne room of King Ahab making known God’s judgement to this ungodly King who not only built a temple for Baal in his capital but also actively pursued an anti-God policy which was aimed at the full and final eradication of anything to do with the God of Israel from his kingdom.

That judgement was the application of the curse

Isn’t it true that the unexpected gives life a certain freshness.

It can be little things or big things. Maybe it’s a bunch of flowers when it’s not your birthday or Valentine’s Day. Maybe it’s a surprise birthday party, or a visit from someone you haven’t seen for ages. Maybe it’s the boss calling you into his office and giving you a bonus – now, you’re thinking, that would be a surprise! Sometimes they are not immediately pleasant.

‘Give me a relevant message!’ This is the cry every generation of Christians utter if they are in even the smallest way engaging with non-Christians, whether in overt evangelism or in some ministry of compassion. But it is also a cry they are sensitive to personally as they seek to come to grips with call to live the Christian life in their own setting.

Mother’s Day is a great day for many yet a difficult one for many others, as a result I don’t really want to talk about Motherhood or extol its virtues.

Instead I take this opportunity to speak about commitment – the commitment we should have to our family.

The modern Mother’s Day holiday was created as a day for each family to honour its mother by Anna Jarvis who in 1912 trademarked the phrases “second Sunday in May” and “Mother’s Day”. She also lost a lawsuit aimed to stop its over-commercialisation. Anna had hoped for a day of reflection and quiet prayer by families, thanking God for all that mothers had done.

To stand at a grave side after a funeral, to walk around a cemetery reading the tombstones is one of the most sobering events of life. It is a very confronting scene. In many ways it is a lonely scene.

In this saying we come to the climatic moment of the crucifixion, for it is with this word that Jesus dies. It is a sobering word. Here as it were, we stand at the edge of a newly filled grave. Here we walk around the tombstones of those who have gone before us. Here we are not only confronted with Jesus’ death but our own. May it be that here that we can confront our own by Christ’s death.

The times of Elijah were not just times of spiritual decline bordering on indifference; they were times of open, defiant and aggressive apostasy. We noted last time from the concluding verses of chapter 16 that this was a period where there was open contempt for the Word of God, corruption of the Worship of God, and with a policy of eradication of Biblical faith the carnage of the people of God. God was out Baal was in, and it was planned to stay that way for Israel. A W Pink assesses this period of history saying, ‘Spiritual death was spread over everything, and it looked as though satan had indeed obtained mastery of the situation.’

“If only I was a bit more like brother `X’  then I could do great things like he does. But I am just me” – ie, so don’t expect great things from me.
This is not only using comparison to camouflage a sinful heart full of fear, or indolence, etc. It is also illogical nonsense. I say illogical for it assumes firstly that they are different to you, and secondly it is that difference that makes the difference.
What we learn from Elijah is that he was no different than us ‘ordinary man’ — a man “with a nature like ours” (James 5:17); and that what really made the difference was God’s grace.
When we say we cannot do something that other believers in the past or around us are doing we are failing to realize why it is that these others [...]

Who was Elijah? How was it that he was so honoured with Moses by God in bringing him to talk with Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration (Matt 17:3)? That fact alone should be enough to say we ought to get to know this man and understand his ministry. But a further encouragement to us is a consideration of the times in which he lived. It is rightly said you cannot understand the history of a person unless you understand the history in which they lived. Knowing the times help us to both understand and appreciate the ministry of Elijah, but more they make his ministry very personal to us in the light of our times.