"When I leave I wanna go out like Elijah"

I had the honor of seeing Rich Mullins perform this song live and I have ALWAYS loved it!! This weekend God sent me to 1 Kings to do a little reading on our chariot-riding friend and let me tell you that I think he and I are going to be GREAT friends in heaven! Not because I'll be in the same social circles as him there, but our sarcastic personalities will link us together! (ok, ya'll know I'm kidding right?!)

Anyway, as he's callin' out the prophets of Baal for speaking against God and they're praying for a little "sign" from their god and he busts them, oh land sakes it just cracked me up!! They cried out to Baal from morning til noon and nothin! They danced around the little altar they made doing their best to get his attention. (I'm sure they thought nothing like a little prophet electric slide would get them noticed!) So what my friend Elijah say? (this is the VV -Valarie Version) Yell louder ya'll! He must be in a yoga class or maybe he's on the cell phone, did he go on vacation and forget to tell ya'll? (see I told you we'd be GREAT friends!)

So what do they do? They cut off the slide music and start slicing themselves with their swords! WHAT?! Now if I was a bystander to this little "show" that right there would've made me jump on God's side! Ain't no WAY I'm gonna slice myself!! C-R-A-Z-Y!! So they kept this up til it was time for the evening sacrifice and what did they get....a big fat NOTHIN!!! This is where it gets good! Elijah calls the people over and rebuilds the altar these bozo's had torn down and then he places 12 stones around it, dug a trench around that. He lays out the wood, cuts up the bull (in more ways than one! haha), and puts it on top. Has them pour 4 large jars of water on it not once, but 3 times so it's good and soaked and even the trench was filled up. Then he steps back and sets the whole thing on fire - no - then he starts his own version of the electric slide - no - then he whips out the trusty sword - no! HE PRAYS!!!!

Do you get that?! He PREPARES the altar, goes thru the steps of getting the sacrifice ready and then he PRAYS!! And what a prayer it is! "O Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, let it be known today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant and have done all these things at your command." Ok, let me pause for a sec here. He first makes it clear to ALL who are listening exactly who it is he's praying to and makes it clear that he IS who he says he is! "Answer me, O Lord, answer me, so these people will know that you, O Lord, are God and that you are turning their hearts back again." I Kings 18:36b-37 Does that prayer hit you like it hits me? He could've asked God for revenge on these false prophets or he could've asked God to blast them all off the planet - anything! But what does he pray for? For God to show Himself to the listeners so that they will turn back to Him! He doesn't ask for any harm on anyone (at least not yet anyway!) or for God to do anything magical or mystical! He just asks for God to reveal Himself to be the One True God so that people would know He's calling them to Himself! Does that blow your mind?!! It sure did mine!!!

Now if you don't know the rest of the story you'll have to go read it, but if you do, you know that God showed up and He showed off that day!! I love that about God! He's a show off kinda God!! So Elijah was an amazing man - flawed with a sarcastic tongue - but God still did some AMAZING things thru him. Now, PLEASE don't think I'd dare compare myself to this amazing prophet I'm just saying that stories like his give me such hope! That's why God has them in the Word in the first place! To encourage us that we WILL mess up but He will clean us up!!! Love that about Him!!

Ya'll have a great one - the little ones will be here soon!