Christian Homekeeping: What doest thou here, Elijah?

1 Kings 18-20

Tonight's message was just what I needed! Pastor preached about Elijah and Ahab and the abundance of rain. Ahab tried to blame it all on Elijah for causing the problems but Elijah threw it back in its proper place and told Ahab, it isn't me that troubleth - its you and your people's wickedness! Isn't that like some to blame the one who preached the word of God? But Elijah was bold and he told them it was their own wickedness that troubleth Israel! Elijah had those that worshiped Baal do a 'showdown' of gods. You may remember the story how Elijah taunted them and told them to scream louder, maybe their god can't hear them. Then God came and showed himself to everyone that day with Elijah's sacrifice. Even after that great victory, Elijah goes and gets discouraged. Ain't that like us sometimes? lol Moping and pouting about how bad we have it waa waa waa! Sometimes you just have to tell yourself to SHUT UP!

Notice that Elijah was one of the greatest prophets, yet he himself was even able to let satan discourage him into thinking that there was no one left that was righteous. God asked him twice "what doest thou here Elijah!?!?" Elijah kept whining that no one is left and he's tried to stand for God and waa waa but wait.......did God smite him because of his pity party? No! God encouraged him!! What did God tell Elijah? He told him to open up his eyes!! There are 7,000 that have not bowed their knee - there are those who haven't turned over to wickedness! Christian, be encouraged that there are those who will stand and be counted. There are those who just like Elijah will wave the flag for God and not bow to satan. God wants you to know there are others living holy, you are not alone.

I've been where Elijah was before and its not a fun place to be. However, I've learned over the years, that even if wickedness and compromise surrounds you and seems like everyone is doing it, you can rest assured that there are those which have not bowed the knee. Though sometimes we can't see for the cloud around us and our circumstance - we can know that God has not forsaken us. Pastor was even mentioning tonight about some preachers in our organization who are out preaching we are the only ones saved. How wrong they are! I'm in a group with about 400 other holiness women who attend holiness, trinitarian churches across the US that preach and teach the same as NTCC! These ladies are fine as gold and God exudes from their life and its wonderful to be in the fellowship of the saints! They love to talk about God and soul winning and the wonderful things God has done in their life. Since being in the group - I've been strengthened by them and edified. Since seeing the others out there, it has given me hope and its been a wonderful fellowship.

Pastor was also talking about smiling through it all, even when you are discouraged, etc. This is something I had to teach myself over the years. People ask me a lot why I smile all the time and seem so happy. I had one lady think that I never had a battle because of my cheerful personality. I explained to her that I sure 'nuff do have battles lol - but I make it a point to smile and be happy around others because it could be worse! A phrase I often say (that i got from Dave Ramsey) when others ask how I'm doing is "Better than I deserve!!!" I've been pretty sick over the years and at times almost died, so I know that it most definitely CAN be worse. What I'm suffering now is nothing compared to what I used to suffer in my body - so why complain!?!? I have it so much better than I used to!

Once Elijah got over his pity party, he got out of that self-pity pit!! Don't be downtrodden, that is what satan wants. If satan can get you down, he's got you! Count your joy something so special that you guard it and don't let anyone rob it from you! Keep yourself unspotted from the world and be a testimony and example to others. As another Pastor preached a few services ago - guard your treasures, those that God has given you and those of your church. Don't let satan steal God's treasures! A peaceful mind is often the first thing that goes when we got our eyes off of Jesus. However, all we have to do is get our eyes back on him and the peace and joy floods back in. Ignore satan on the sidelines waving his sin for all to see - don't give him the time of day and just go on and that will be the greatest hit to satan that you could give. He hates to be brushed off as uneffective!!!

The message was a great reminder to not go to the place of discouragement and stay there but realize that God knows all and sees all and just get up and go on and keep serving God! We are on our way to glory!!

Quotes to Ponder

If you’re a friend to all and an enemy to none, then you’re leading no one. - Unknown

The objective in Christian homeschooling is not to teach children how to "deal with the real world." I do not want to teach my children how to merely survive this life. As believers in Christ, we are called to be overcomers! - HE magazine

The modest virgin, the prudent wife, and the careful matron, are much more serviceable in life than petticoated philosophers, blustering heroines, or virago queens. She who makes her husband and her children happy, who reclaims the one from vice and trains up the other to virtue, is a much greater character than ladies described in romances, whose whole occupation is to murder mankind with shafts from their quiver, or their eyes. - Oliver Goldsmith

Long ago I ceased to count heads. Truth is usually in the minority in this evil world. - Charles Spurgeon

In a time of universal deceit, telling the TRUTH, is a revolutionary act . -George Orwell

You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life. -Winston Churchill

It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat. ~ Theodore Roosevelt

Christian mothers too often neglect their home-centered role for the empty promises of fulfillment in the workplace, while they warehouse their children in daycare centers. Parents send their children to secular schools where God is outlawed, and they allow them to watch trashy movies and listen to vile music—and hang out with those who do the same. After years of training in the ways of rebellion through godless schooling, debauched entertainment, and peer association, Christian parents are somehow surprised when their teenagers rebel, forsaking the God of their fathers.- Philip Lancaster

You are as much serving God in looking after your own children, and training them up in God's fear, and minding the house, and making your household a church for God, as you would be if you had been called to lead an army to battle for the Lord of hosts. - Charles Spurgeon

“Why do women want to dress like men when they’re fortunate enough to be women? Why lose femininty, which is one of our greatest charms? We get more accomplished by being charming than we would be flaunting around in pants and smoking. I’m very fond of men. I think they are wonderful creatures. I love them dearly. But I don’t want to look like one. When women gave up their long skirts, they made a grave error….”-Tasha Tudor

SECULARISM is a philosophy that claims that there is no God-or that if there is a God, He is irrelevant. HUMANISM essentially says that in the absence of God, humans can and should act as gods by judging, choosing, and defining what is right for themselves. The philosophy pervading the public education system combines these two philosophies into one.-Ken Ham

The true defining situation for a person is what they do when they are alone and don't have to do anything else. What do they do? Do they do frivolous things? That's when you define what you are. -Kevin Rollins, former CEO of DELL

How can there be too many children? That’s like saying there are too many flowers. -Mother Teresa

Fifty-nine modern nations are plagued by the high-tech benefits of birth-control pills. Each of them have waged a cultural war against babies. Each of them suffer below-replacement birthrates. Each of them face potential extinction. But concerns such as national suffering, dangerous international geopolitics and the disappearance of entire nations are matters that would require mature thinking – something that was successfully bred-out of the American people when they accepted the pill as, in the words of Hugh Hefner, the greatest invention of the 20th century. - Geoffrey Botkin

Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrows; it empties today of its strength. -Corrie ten Boom

Pages

Christian Homekeeping

What doest thou here, Elijah?

About Me

Search This Blog

Topics

Blog Archive

My Podcast

Popular Posts

What I Believe

Quotes to Ponder

My Work - Writings, Photos and Videos