Welcome to the El Camino Baptist Church blog. We wanted a place where our ministry leaders could share things that God has laid on their hearts. Please feel free to comment and join in the discussion as we share how God is moving through His church.Other places to find us on the web are our website, Youtube, and Facebook. You can also check out Hoss' music blog at hosshughes.com.









Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Elijah

I was looking over one of my favorite passages yesterday. In fact, I believe it's one that I've blogged about before. It comes from I Kings 19. God presents himself to Elijah not in a great wind, or a great fire or in a great earthquake...but in a still, small voice. But I have never spent time looking at the surrounding passages. Here's what I find:

1) Elijah experiences a spiritual (and I'm guessing emotional) peak. This is the miracle at Mount Carmel where he defeats all the prophets of Baal in the Battle Of Who-Can-Call-Down-Fire-From-Their-God. I Kings 18:20-40

2) Elijah experiences testing. Queen Jezebel basically sends him a message saying that her life mission will be to see him die. I Kings 19:1-3 Elijah responds by running away, wanting to curl up and die and taking pity on himself. I Kings 19:4-10 If you've been keeping track at home using Ron's 4 P's of Responding to Testing, Elijah just punted and pouted. But....

3) Elijah experiences God in a brand new way. Elijah spends time with God on the mountain. He saw His power and heard His voice. I Kings 19:11-18

4) Elijah begins his discipleship of Elisha. Now that Elijah has gone through all of these things, he is better equipped to train his replacement. I Kings 19:19-21 (Each one, teach one.)

How often does that happen in our life? We have a spiritual high of sorts. We are tested. Through the testing, we see God anew. It is then that our ministry is strengthened and we can be fruitful beyond what we thought possible.

Hoss

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