No Turning Back
Now Playing: Let's not turn back from serving the Lord wholeheartedly...
Topic: Struggles
1 Kings 19:19-21

So he departed from there, and found Elisha the son of Shaphat, who was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen before him, and he was with the twelfth. Then Elijah passed by him and threw his mantle on him. And he left the oxen and ran after Elijah, and said, "Please let me kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow you." And he said to him, "Go back again, for what have I done to you?" So Elisha turned back from him, and took a yoke of oxen and slaughtered them and boiled their flesh, using the oxen's equipment, and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he arose and followed Elijah, and served him.

No Turning Back

On December 21, 1620, the Mayflower dropped anchor in Plymouth Bay. It had been a grueling voyage across the Atlantic, taking the small ship 66 days to make the perilous crossing. There had been disease, anxiety and even childbirth among the 102 courageous passengers. Furthermore, they arrived on the bleak New England shore during a hard winter that ultimately claimed the lives of half their number. But when spring came and the captain of the Mayflower offered free passage to anyone desiring to return, not a single person accepted. These folks had made a commitment and they were not turning back.

Elijah's call to Elisha brought the same response. As a farmer, Elisha had been plowing with 12 yoke of oxen. When Elijah threw his mantle on this hardworking plowboy, Elisha took the very means of his livelihood, a yoke of oxen, and slaughtered them to provide a farewell feast for his friends. In doing so, he cut the ties to his old life and demonstrated his commitment to the ministry ahead of him.

Christians need to take this same step of commitment. We cannot live effectively for Christ if one foot is in the faith and the other is in the world. We need to make a clean break with the past and live for the Lord.

If God has called you to a particular kind of service, commit yourself unreservedly to it. Let your past be the past. Put it behind you and move forward with God. There's no greater ingredient for success in serving God.

There's no room for turning around in Christ's service.

(from W. Kroll)

Faltering Between
Now Playing: Are we waiting to make the right decisions ?
Topic: Struggles
Author: Woodrow Kroll
Source: Lessons on Living from Elijah
Scripture: 1 Kings 18:21
Faltering Between

1 Kings 18:21

And Elijah came to all the people, and said, "How long will you falter between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow Him; but if Baal, then follow him." But the people answered him not a word.

Faltering Between

A few years ago, USA Today carried the news that the Procrastinators Club was planning to form a political party, possibly in time for the November elections. "Our party will be the most harmonious of all the political parties," said club president Les Waas. "If we ever disagree on an issue, we'll never get around to discussing it." Waas, an expert at public speaking, said with tongue in cheek that the Procrastinator Party would like to hold its nominating convention by the first week in November. "If we don't get it done until the second week, we might ask the authorities to move the election back a couple of weeks to accommodate us."

The people of Elijah's day were procrastinators as well. The prophet confronted them with an important decision. Would they follow the Lord, or would they follow Baal? Their response to such an ultimatum, however, was to stall. They refused to answer.

Some things can be put off with no ultimate harm. If we don't get our strawberries planted this year, there's always next year. If we fail to get around to reading this year's best-sellers, a new list of them will be available in the future. But the same can't be said for our spiritual lives. The spiritual choices we fail to make will haunt us for eternity.

Are you procrastinating when it comes to reading your Bible? Have you put off spending time in prayer? Is it possible you have never gotten around to trusting Jesus Christ as your personal Savior? If so, stop "faltering" and start making the spiritual decisions that will make a difference for eternity. No one else can make these decisions for you. Make them today!

(from W. Kroll)