Rebuilding the Altar

I have been reflecting today on that powerful encounter on Mount Carmel. Not a mountain of caramel, that would be something one might find in Willy Wonka’s factory. If you ate a mountain of caramel, you might just look like our youth pastor in this picture. ;) No, I’m thinking of that fateful day when Elijah, the prophet of the one true God, faced down 450 prophets of baal. It is a familiar story for most of us, but if you want to read it again, it can be found in 1 Kings 18.

I have always been fascinated by this episode – what faith, what trust Elijah must have had and what a display of God’s presence and power they all witnessed that day. I wonder what it would have been like to be there and watch it all go down. What it would have been like to hear Elijah taunt the prophets of baal as they cut themselves and called out to their false god. What a moment.

Recently someone pointed out to me that the first thing Elijah did, once the prophets of baal failed, was to call the people together to rebuild the altar of the Lord. The altar was in ruins. The place of sacrifice and prayer to the Lord was in ruins. As a result there was no rain. The land was desolate, barren, and unfruitful.

Elijah rebuilds that altar – the place of sacrifice, the place of prayer – and a fire falls from heaven to consume their offering. God moves in a mighty way. And soon a healing rain begins to fall on their dry and parched land.

One of the primary founders of the Church of the Nazarene once said: A genuine revival will come only by the fire of God from an open heaven, in answer to some soul or souls who dare to rebuild the altar of God and put the wood in order and place upon it a complete sacrifice, and trust God against all odds. ~ P. F. Bresee

May ROC Church come together to rebuild the altar in our community. May we become a place where people offer themselves as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, in a genuine act of worship. And may we begin to experience the presence, the power, and the healing rain, that only God can bring to our land.

Integrity

Whoever walks in integrity walks securely,

but whoever takes crooked paths will be found out.

~ Proverbs 10:9

As we explored the life of Joseph and talked about the importance of integrity yesterday, it reminded me of a story I recently heard about a High School basketball coach. After coaching Blue Collar Bulldogs basketball team for 18 years, Coach Cleveland Stroud finally won a state championship game. Stroud recalled that "it was the perfect night" when they won. "A night you dream of." He was carried around the gym on the shoulders of his triumphant players and their proud parents. The local paper put his picture on the front page. But the excitement was short-lived.

Two months after the championship, during a routine grade check, Stroud discovered that one player was academically ineligible. The young man had only played 45 seconds during the regional qualifying tournament. He struggled for a little bit with the decision, but finally reported the error to the league and forfeited their trophy. When the team gathered in the locker room to lament their loss, he told them, “Boys, you’ve got to do what is honest, what is right, and what the rules say. People forget the scores of basketball games, but they don’t ever forget what you are made of. Winning is an important thing for any team, but your principles have to be higher than your goals.”

May we, like Joseph, learn to be people of integrity who honor God by doing the right thing simply because it is the right thing to do. And don’t forget to thank God for the fleas! (If you weren’t there Sunday to hear the message, ignore that last sentence… or better yet, ask someone who was there what that’s all about.)