No Waver Zone

Elijah went before the people and said, "How long will you waver between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him."
But the people said nothing.

1 Kings 18:21

In our Christian Education class at church this morning, I taught about how God is unique. I am using a curriculum, What We Believe, from Mission Arlington. (This church has an unusual concept: develop quality teaching resources and instead of shrink wrapping and marketing them, offering them free on the internet.) The topic was perfect for what has been happening in our community. Since our congregation is made up of high school and college students (we are the only family or married couple in our church), they all know someone who has been affected by the events at the high school.

The two main illustrations I used were snowflakes and Mount Carmel. I first had to give some perspective about snowflakes and showed a short video clip of a blizzard. Snowflakes are not part of the common knowledge held by Filipinos, after all. Then we made paper snowflakes as we talked about how each one is different from another - even among the trillions of snowflakes that fall. But while each snowflake may be different, they are not unique. There are countless others that are similar in substance and shape. God, however, is unique. There is nothing like Him in shape, substance, thought, power, time, etc, etc.

The other part of the discussion was about Elijah on Mount Carmel from 1 Kings 18. The people stood by waiting to see who would prevail, God or Baal. This is very similar to what is happening here. But a difference was that they closed the door to multiple options in the future. I am not suggesting that the people of Bontoc execute the spiritists. But as long as people continue to waver between God and the spirits, they will never have freedom. The Bible shows that the hand of God moves when He is recognized as the only option.

I wish this wavering opinion about who God is was limited to the spirits. Too often, we (I) put ourselves in competition for that title. ...but this is starting to sound like a sermon and I am not scheduled to preach until next Sunday.

Thank you for your prayers as we continue to proclaim that God alone, is God.

Grace,
Tom