Safely Home

I have just finished reading (again) the novel Safely Home by Randy Alcorn. Now I am not a fan of religious fiction as it as they often give a distorted view of both Christianity and the world. However, this is one novel I would recommend. You cannot read this novel and not have a burning in your heart for the persecuted church, a desire to see the Word of God in the hands of all peoples and a desire for the things that are eternal. At our local Bibles for Missions store our primary field as we raise money for the Bible League of Canada is China. Every one of us should read this book. When you go into a store and pick up an item check to see if it is made in China and then pray for those people who made that item. Very likely they are people of the underground church who are being persecuted for their faith. If you have any ideas of how to support the underground church in China I would like to hear from you. Let us pray for the persecuted Christians in China today.

The Still Small Voice conclusion

3. Go back.

God’s first instruction to Elijah was that he had to go back the way he had come. When we have failed God He calls us to go back. In tenderness our Lord gave these instructions to the church at Ephesus: Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. Revelation 2:5. The instructions to the church at Ephesus are the way that God deals with His fallen children. He calls us to remember, repent and return. He asked Elijah what he was doing there. He wanted Elijah to remember. God then spoke to Elijah in the gentle voice calling him to repent. Then He told him that he had to go back the way he had come. God had a new work for Elijah but before he could do that work he had to go back.

We should note that Elijah obeyed immediately. There was a fresh ministry for him. He had to anoint Hazael king over Aram, Jehu king over Israel and Elisha as his successor. God was not finished with Israel and these three men were to bring God’s judgment upon the nation of Israel. Elijah saw that another would take his place but God still had a ministry for him.

The Still Small Voice Part 3

2. Where is God?

How often people have looked for God in movements but have missed God because He was gently speaking to their heart. We have looked for God in signs and wonders but have missed Him because we were seeking His power more than we desired Him. Often we have missed the blessing because we have sought the blessing rather than the Giver of the blessing. A. B. Simpson wrote, “Once it was the blessing now it is the Lord.” Are we desperate for God or are we desperate for His blessings? God wants us to desire Him more than anything else. John Piper has said, “God is most pleased with us when we are most pleased with Him.” Are we delighting in God or in His blessings? If God didn’t give us the healing we desired or the ministry we long for, would we still delight in Him? Until our desire is for Him alone then all these things are just things.

Simon the Sorcerer was the power of God at work in the disciples and he wanted that power for himself. He saw the power but he missed God. He attempted to buy the power so that he, like the disciples, could perform signs and wonders but his desire for power only brought the wrath and judgment of God.

When God met Elijah in the still small voice it was then that God gave him his instructions. God had met Elijah on Mount Horeb or Sinai but He desired to show Elijah that He was going to do a new work, a work that was not based upon the Old Covenant of the Law but a ministry based upon grace. Mount Horeb spoke of the Law, the gentle breeze spoke of grace.

The Still Small Voice Part 2

1. The Lord is gracious.

After Elijah had fallen the Lord gently ministered to him. First he needed food and rest. How often do we suffer spiritually because we do not take care of ourselves physically?

Elijah was hungry for God. He had traveled to Mount Horeb the mountain of God and there he spent the night. Mount Horeb was significant to Israel because there the Lord had met with Moses and had given him the Law. During the time when Moses was on the mountain it was alive with wind, thunder and lightning. Elijah encountered much the same as he was on that sacred mountain.

First there was the wind but we are told that God was not in the wind. Then there was an earthquake but once again we are told that God was not in the earthquake. Next came fire but again God was not in the fire. Finally there was a gentle voice, a gentle breeze and God spoke to Elijah in the quietness of that moment.

It would have been easy for Elijah to expect that God would be in the wind, earthquake or fire. He knew that God had come to this mountain before in the wind. God had spoken on Mount Carmel by fire. Nature expresses the presence and power of God. However, God was not in those things. Elijah was the prophet of fire and power but when God revealed Himself to him it wasn’t in the things that made Elijah strong but it was in the gentle breeze of God’s grace.

The Still Small Voice Part 1

One summer when my second son was thirteen years old I took him and his two younger brothers on a canoe trip in a remote park in Northwestern Ontario. After a long and difficult portage we arrived at a beautiful pristine lake. We canoed all afternoon and finally we found a spot to cook our supper. We knew that it was not a place where we should set up camp to we continued down the lake. Around eight o’clock that evening we still had not found a suitable camping spot. We had been warned that there were bears in the area so it was important that our camping spot would be safe. As dusk was beginning to settle a man on an island we were passing by called to us and invited us to set up camp by him and his son.

We set up our tent and then put the food that we had brought with us on a rope between two trees, high up out of the way of the bears, or so we thought. We had settled in for the night and at midnight the other man called to me that there was a bear in the camp. He and I went out with our flashlights and found the bear up a tree trying to reach his food. We threw stones at the bear to get him down and chase him away. When he left we went back to bed and about thirty minutes later the bear returned. This time he was after our food and he had managed to knock the containers out of the trees. We gather up the food and other camping supplies and brought them up to our campsite. I lit a fire and sat by the fire to keep it burning. I sat there for the entire night until the other man got up at about sunrise the next morning. At that point I went to bed.

During the night as I sat there alone by the fire I listened to the sounds of the remote area. I heard owls and coyotes but otherwise it was extremely quiet. I wondered if this is what it was like as Elijah sat in the mouth of the cave on Mount Horeb. In the stillness of the moment you could hear the voice of God.

And after the fire came a gentle whisper. When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave. 1 Kings 19:12 -13

"Be still, and know that I am God.” Psalm 46:10

Adopted for Life

Our son gave us the following book. I am looking forward to reading it as soon as possible. It is especially relevant today as it was 21 years ago today that our daughter came to live with us. As I listened to Dr. Moore talk about his book I realized that I had never thought that Christians often don't know the significance of adoption in their lives. We are all adopted into the family of God. Once we were outsiders and then we were part of the family. We often talk about being born again and new birth but adoption in many ways is the best picture of how we come into the family of God. Notice that Dr. Moore autographed the book for us. Thanks Russel Moore.

Back to Basics

Last Sunday Peter Ralph preached about the beginning of the Gospel. The Gospel is about a person, Jesus Christ. The Gospel begins before he shows up, it begins with John the Baptist but when I read the Scriptures I see that it is all about Him and the Gospel. Edmund Clowney and Tim Keller do a wonderful series on the centrality of Jesus Christ to all Scripture. It is all about Him.