March 1–RUN!

Happy Friday. We are supposed to have a bitter weekend to usher in March here. I hope the weekend holds better weather for you but if not, stay in, build a fire and make a big pot of chili (once again!). 


When Georgia and Oscar went to Israel, she told me that when she saw Mt Carmel, she could have sat and looked at it for hours thinking abut the prophet Elijah running up and down and up and down it, praying down fire to consume the water soaked wood, making fools of the prophets of Baal. I think I know exactly what she meant. One of my very favorite Bible passages is when the prophet Elijah out runs the chariots down Mt Carmel for about 20 miles! He was certainly a Rabbi of great passion. 


When the Jews thought Jesus might be Elijah, that really wasn’t such a bad thing. They held him in great esteem as a man of intense passion, a man who wouldn’t let anything get in his way of serving God, a man of great faith and zeal. Jesus must have been such a man with a great devotion to the Lord and his disciples who wanted to be like him must have the same passion. 


“When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?” Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.””

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭16:13-16‬ ‭NIV‬‬


So how did they translate that passion, that fire, that total devotion to a Greek culture where leisure and pleasure was the order of the day? Well, they did, using the metaphors of the Greek games where the passion and intensity was huge. “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us,”. Hebrews‬ ‭12:1‬ ‭NIV Maybe in our society where we’ve lost the intensity and some of our passion, we can take this lesson from the disciples and understand our passion for other areas and transfer that to serving our God. 


Lord Jesus forgive us when we let up and walk instead of run, when we approach our discipleship with something less than passion, when we hold back some of ourself rather than give it all to you. We pray that we would be consumed by you and we would out run chariots like Elijah and that we would finish our race with nothing left because we left it all on the track. We worship you Lord and we praise you for your mighty works and for your wondrous grace in our lives. Amen and amen. 


Love you dear one,

Pam


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