Elijah mentors Elisha

Discipleship is the core of Christianity. In fact, the essence of discipleship goes all the way back to the Garden of Eden. God mentored Adam and Adam mentored Eve. They both walked with the Lord in the Garden in the cool of the day. Discipleship is almost a lost art in our Western world, yet if you open the Bible to any section, you will find mentoring taking place.

God is the God of miracles

We are living in difficult days. We have been living in difficult days for a couple of years now. People are losing hope and it is leading to some dark places. I was reading some information on the CDC website today on the number of suicide attempts by teens over the past two years. I was shocked by the information. Among 12-17 year olds, during the period of March 29 – April 25 of 2020, there were 540 ER visits by teens suspected of attempting suicide. 408 of them were girls and 132 were boys. During the period of July 26 – August 22 of 2020, the number was 665. 519 were girls and 146 were boys. During the period of February 21 – March 20 of 2021, the number was 1,052.

Elisha chooses mercy and grace

This past Sunday, we looked at our second lesson on the life and ministry of the prophet Elisha. We saw how Elijah took Elisha under his wing and trained him for the ministry. In the beginning of his ministry, Elisha was not quick to extend mercy and grace to his enemies. Instead, he called down fire from heaven on two different occasions to consume his enemies. But, as he continued to minister, we see him change to a person who extends mercy and grace to those around him, even to his enemies.

The passage that we studied in class comes from II Kings 6. But, I want to give some context by quickly recapping what took place in II Kings 4-5. Elisha the prophet has several encounter with several different people in these chapters and there are some common character traits among these people.

Elisha prepared for ministry

Once again, I am preparing to teach our Bible study for our Connect Groups this coming Sunday at Southern Calvert Baptist Church. This is our third week in a row that we are focusing on the life and ministry of the prophet Elijah. We saw Elijah’s encounter with the pagan, widow woman. Then we looked at how Elijah confronted the sin of King Ahab and his wicked wife, Jezebel. The previous article ended the complicated life of King Ahab. This week, we are going to come to the end of Elijah’s earthly ministry. But, before Elijah goes to be with the Lord, he does what all good leaders in the Bible do; he makes a disciple. Elijah prepares a disciple to receive the baton of leadership and continue the ministry. Far too many leaders today miss the most important calling of leadership, to prepare more leaders.

Complicated King Ahab

I finished off the last article with a cliffhanger. Elijah confronted the sins of wicked King Ahab and there was a showdown between the false prophets and God’s prophet, Elijah. Elijah had the wicked, false prophets put to death for their actions. Then, he was sent to pursue King Ahab and his wicked wife, Jezebel. That is how the story ended. King Ahab and Jezebel must pay for their deeds. They rebelled against God and murdered the prophets of the Lord. They led the people in idolatry. The rest of this story unfolds in I Kings 20-22. These are some fascinating chapters in the Word of God.

Elijah Confronts Sin

Once again, I am sitting to write out my lesson for this coming Sunday. At Southern Calvert Baptist Church, we are walking through the entire Bible over a three year period. Last week, we covered the lesson on Elijah and the widow woman from I Kings 17. Jesus actually uses this woman’s faith as an example of what genuine faith looks like. She heard the Word of the Lord and she chose to trust the Word of the Lord, even when it meant putting her life and future on the line.

Elijah is a man of faith. He has a very difficult task ahead of him. He was called by God to take a very difficult message to the leadership of Israel. He publicly rebukes King Ahab for his wicked ways and then he prays according to the Word of God. As a result of that prayer, it does not rain in Israel for three and a half years. There is a severe famine in the land and everyone is suffering. The widow from the previous chapter was suffering because of this event. King Ahab is enraged and his wife actually begins putting to death the prophets of the Lord. One of King Ahab’s own servants, a man who fears the Lord, hid one hundred of the Lord’s prophets in two different caves so that they could not be put to death. He also provided food and water for them. King Ahab does not know about this. Elijah has survived the persecution but he is on the run. Things are bad in Israel physically, politically, spiritually etc. This is where our story picks up in I Kings 18.

Elijah and The Widow

At Southern Calvert Baptist Church, we are continuing to study through the Gospel Project, a three year comprehensive study of the entire Bible. We have arrived at the book of I Kings.

At this point in the history of Israel, things are bad. There is a king named Ahab who is a very ungodly man. God has a faithful follower named Elijah. God had trained Elijah to act during this difficult time. Elijah stands before king Ahab and prays that the Lord will withhold the rain from His people. This prayer comes from the Word of God. In Deuteronomy, the Lord told His people that if they obeyed Him, He would send rain at the right time. He also said that if His people did not obey Him, then He would shut off the rain from heaven. Elijah prayed that the rain would stop, according to the Word of God. The Lord kept His Word and shut off the rain from heaven. How is God going to be glorified in the midst of all of this? Suffering is coming. The drought is going to lead to famine. What is the Lord doing? Is there a purpose in this? Yes, of course there is. Eventually, after three and a half years, the people are going to repent and return to the Lord. Also, the Lord is going to use this situation to draw a person who is seeking Him to Himself.

Being grateful in 2015

Well, a new year is upon us. I am sure that you have already made some resolutions. Have you been able to keep all of them up to this point in 2015? Was one of your resolutions to be more grateful in 2015? I have already written several articles on being grateful and you can read them here. The Bible constantly reminds us to be grateful because gratefulness is not our nature. Our sinful nature encourages us to be selfish. This is why we must constantly be reminded to make an effort to be grateful. A resolution to be more grateful this year is a great resolution to make.