Can Your Light Shine With Elijah’s?

March 4, 2007

Good Morning:

In our reading from the Old Testament this morning we learned how Eliu (Elijah) was sent to the hill county by the brook of Chorrath, which is west of and feeds into the Jordan River.  It is a found in deep chasm that runs from the region of Jericho to Jerusalem.  Most of us may remember how Yahweh (God) fed Eliu.  Ravens brought him bread every morning and meat at night.  We are not sure how long Eliu spent there but we know that he was there until the brook dried up as a result of the drought that Yahweh had brought to the land to punish the people of Israel for their transgressions under King Ahab (874-853 BC) and his son King Abaziah (853-852 BC).  In the end both King Ahab and King Abaziah are brought to a bitter end.

But let us focus on Eliu again for a moment.  Who was he?  The book of kings tells us he was a Thesbite of Thesbae or Tishbi as it is also known.  Tishbi is in the land of Gilead on the west side of the Jordan River.  It is a land that was inhabited by the Ishmaelites as we see from Genesis 37:25  “And they sat down to eat bread: and they lifted up their eyes and looked, and, behold, a company of Ishmaelites came from Gilead with their camels bearing spicery and balm and myrrh, going to carry it down to Egypt.”  So Eliu (Elijah) was an Ishmaelite, a descendent of Ishmael the son of Abraham by Hagar the Egyptian wife of Abraham (Genesis 6:3).  Eliu was part Egyptian and part Hebrew but he wasn’t an Israelite.  This is key to the story as we see God (Yahweh) had to go outside of his chosen people to find a prophet that would be true to him and would be faithful enough to stand up to King Ahab.  But isn’t this typical of Yahweh (God) doesn’t it seem that he always picks the underdog, the outcast, and the rejected to be his hero.  Look at Noah, Abraham, Moses, and Enoch who even a majority of modern day Christians refuse to read or abide by the words from God that he gave us.  Heck humanity even killed off Yeshua the Messiah because he was such a reject and outcast to mankind.  So why does God (Yahweh) always pick these losers any way?  Can’t he find a nice respectable person, someone who is at least socially acceptable to deliver his word?

How often we try to pull God (Yahweh) down to our insignificant level.  To try to make him conform to our ever changing society norms, which we find acceptable today and reprehensible tomorrow.  But maybe this is exactly where the answer lies?  Yahweh isn’t even in the same reality as we are.  So why should his chosen people fit into our social standards and meet our expectations of righteous?  God never ever uses people that the contemporary social elite would find an acceptable pier, because those people are exactly the people that God (Yahweh) abhors.  How much wealth does the wealthiest person on earth possess?  How much does that compare to the immense wealth of the universe.  Yahweh has it all; he has no use for all the wealth of all the wealthy combined.  Look at what the messiah tells us today in the Gospel from Luke12, about the wealthy, popular, socially acceptable and elite people.  They are “void of reason”!  They are nobody, unimportant, and their souls will have to answer to Yahweh (God) soon.  So why do we keep looking to them for guidance about our salvation?  Because our treasures are be stored up here on earth not in heaven.  We are rich with money, possessions, our own ego, and Satan.  But we are dirt poor in the wealth of God.  We have no faith or very little at best.  So we turn to the smooth talking Rolex wearing, diamond studded, self proclaiming idols of modern religion for something they don’t have either, salvation.

Now tell me brothers and sisters if these modern religious icons aren’t rich in God (Yahweh) and they don’t have his salvation, then how are you going to get salvation from them?  Most of them can’t even get his name right or refuse to use it as it might upset their cash flow.  You know the almighty dollar!  Your not going to get salvation from these imposters that Yeshua warned us about, your lying to yourself if you believe you are being saved and your soul is going to be required of you, just like the rich man in the Gospel today.  You will someday stand in front of Yahweh’s throne and answer to him why you rejected him for earthly wealth.  What are you going to say?  I liked the music at that church.  Or maybe well the pastor seemed like such a nice person, he was dressed so nice and everybody important in town liked him?  Or maybe this one, he told me all I had to do was believe and I was saved, it seemed like an easy path to follow.  Or what about, I really didn’t have time to do all those works.  That’s the answer I like.  Heck, I use that excuse now and then myself, when I get disgusted with fighting the torrid of misinformation and false preaching out there.  I even use it when I just feel tired or a little lazy, or feel a little pitiful about my own scanty existence.  But you know what?  I embarrass myself when I think about such a lamebrain excuse now.  I sure hope I can come up with some better explanations for why I let so much opportunity to do Yahweh’s works that was afforded in this life already just slip in to oblivion.  Let me know if you have any better excuses for ignoring God’s (Yahweh’s) call to do his work in this lifetime.  I may want to borrow a few of them.

Let me tell you true children of Yahweh (God) he loves you and cares about you.  Yeshua tells in Luke 12 when he compares you, god’s child, to the ravens.  “How much more important now are ye, then the birds?”  I’ll tell you how important you are.  Important enough for God (Yahweh) to send his own son to our reality, to occupy a human’s body, to feel the rejection of society himself, to sense the anguish we fell just before we turn our bodies and souls over to those rich popular preachers to lead us to damnation.  Yea!  Yeshua felt all those things.  He may have fed all those people on the hillside that afternoon but it wasn’t a picnic, it was work, the work of his father, the same father that watches each of you.  Why do you think Eliu was so hated?  He was calling the rulers of Israel and the popular priests of Israel, Yahweh’s chosen people, traitors to God.  He wasn’t being politically correct, he wasn’t being socially acceptable, and he wasn’t being the polite yes man to the wealthy powers to be.  Eliu was being God’s (Yahweh’s) faithful servant and as such he was identifying the evil in his world for what and where it was.  Pretty scary don’t you think.  One day you’re in the in crowd and invited to all the right parties and the next day your hiding in the wilderness for you life and being fed by ravens.  Are you ready for that or all your earthly wealth and possession holding you back?

Yeshua told his disciples that he didn’t come to the world, to our reality, to bring peace.  No my brothers and sisters don’t believe those smooth talkers; they are trying to make you believe that our Messiah is all nice frills and goodie-tootsie.  All that fine singing, rich looking robes, fancy dresses and suites, and slicked up haircuts.  Yeshua tells us he came to cast a fire upon the earth and he is going to guard it personally until it blazes up and spreads everywhere.  The light of God (Yahweh) is hot and it burns within and scorches all the followers of darkness around who those who bear it.  What are you going to do when you are in the Light of the Lord?  That’s the question Yeshua asks of you.  Are you going to be like the dead?  Not those in the graveyard, no-no-no, that isn’t who Yeshua is speaking of.  He is speaking of those bodies walking around with out souls.  They are empty flesh and blood without true and everlasting life.  They know nothing of God (Yahweh), or the Holy Spirit, or the Messiah Yeshua and they will never live because they are not born from above, because they are Satan’s children.  The living are those who are “born from above”, they have souls that will never taste death.  This is so important lets see what Yeshua (Jesus) says himself when asked this question from Nicodemus, “Jesus answered and said to him, `Verily, verily, I say to thee, If any one may not be born from above, he is not able to see the reign of God;'”  John 3:3 (YLT).

Now Nicodemus was one of those popular smooth talking fancy dressing preachers of Yeshua’s time, he was a Pharisee, the envy of all the social want-a-bees.  So we need to see what else Yeshua said about this subject when speaking with Nicodemus.  In John 3:5-10 we see what Yeshua (Jesus) said,  “Jesus answered, `Verily, verily, I say to thee, If any one may not be born of water, and the Spirit, he is not able to enter into the reign of God; that which hath been born of the flesh is flesh, and that which hath been born of the Spirit is spirit.  `Thou mayest not wonder that I said to thee, It behoveth you to be born from above; the Spirit where he willeth doth blow, and his voice thou dost hear, but thou hast not known whence he cometh, and whither he goeth; thus is every one who hath been born of the Spirit.’  Nicodemus answered and said to him, `How are these things able to happen?’  Jesus answered and said to him, `Thou art the teacher of Israel--and these things thou dost not know!’”  Flesh is of this earth and there is no spirit in those born of the flesh (Satan), but those born of the spirit from above are not of this world but are spiritual beings of God’s (Yahweh’s) reality.  Are you starting to see why God’s (Yahweh’s) true prophets and preachers don’t fit in with popular society?

What about you?  Ever feel that no matter how much you try to and how much the popular group at church may say they welcome you, you just kind of have this feeling of loneliness inside you?  Hey you show up every Sunday and do all the volunteer work yet you still feel like your not really one of the group, like maybe your not good enough, or don’t have the right kind or enough faith?  Notice how they are always there to take your donations and tithes but if you’re sick, or loose your job, or get in trouble those same friendly faces are not to be found?  Yeshua asks, “When you are in the light what will you do?”  See spirit doesn’t mix with flesh, just like water doesn’t mix with oil.  The oil floats to the top like cream because it is the good stuff.  Now you can shake the bottle are you want but when everything is quiet, the good stuff gets separated out and floats to the top.  If you are born from above, that is if you are born of spirit you will never fit in with those born of flesh, even in a church setting.  God (Yahweh) isn’t anyone’s fool, he knew this earth would be like this so he built into everyone of his spirits a why to recognize each other and float together above the world of flesh.  Because he loves you, Yahweh didn’t want you to be alone he wanted you to feel in your heart the difference between flesh and spirit.  When you find people of spirit born from above you will know it because they stick to you in good or bad times.  You feel comfortable around them and the feel comfortable around you.  When we read revelations we learn that there is more flesh on this earth then there is spirit.  But this earth is going to pass and with it will pass the flesh, leaving only you and the other spirits like you, who did the works of the father, to live forever with our Messiah.  Yeshua asks each of us, “When you are in the light what will you do?”  When you go into the world this week will you let the light shine through you, like a modern Eliu, or will you seek out the easy and comfortable darkness?  Amen.