THE MOUNT CARMEL MOMENT

Friday, November 1, 2013

Dear Friend, I hope you’re doing great in the Lord’s love. Ancient Israel once stood at a critical juncture before God. THE MOUNT CARMEL MOMENT Word for the Month & for Friday, Nov. 1 Scripture: 1 Kings 18:21 See Message: The Eliyah Generation Israel was a nation that had once known God and His word. But Israel turned from God and His ways. And God called the nation to a showdown. On Mt. Carmel, the prophet Elijah stood against the prophets of Baal. There he challenged the nation with this proposition, “How long will you hesitate between two opinions? If the Lord is God, serve Him, but if Baal is God, then serve him.” America has also once known God. And America now stands similarly divided – in a cultural, moral, and spiritual schizophrenia, at war with the very foundation on which it was established. America is now faced with a similar juncture and decision – to either return to the Lord, in revival, or to descend headlong into apostasy and judgment. Peter Marshall, the subject of the film “A Man Called Peter,” and chaplain of the U.S. Senate, once gave a message entitled “Trial By Fire.” In it he spoke of Elijah’s showdown with the prophets of Baal and prophetically foretold the day America would be faced with the same crisis between God and Baal. Even then, Marshall could see the danger of America turning away from the God of its foundation to foreign gods. In Baal, he saw the danger of self-absorption, carnality, greed, and power. If he could say that then, in the mid-twentieth century, what would he say now if he could see what routinely appears on our television screens: our culture’s mockery of God, its celebration of immorality, its millions of children offered up in abortion to the god of expedience and the modern day altars of Baal. Listen to this quote from a magazine article: “The lackadaisical days when it didn’t matter much whether you were a Christian or not, may be numbered. You may have to declare yourself more definitely than you ever expected as to whether you believe in the Word of Christ or not. This choice, if it is really forced on the Christian world, may be the choice that leads finally to the long awaited religious revival: a revival born in the hearts of the citizens of our time, who, when forced to choose, will find no truth, no comfort, and no inspiration elsewhere.” What magazine was it taken from? It would have to be from a radically Christian magazine. It was from a magazine that Marshall quoted in that sermon. It was an editorial from the mainstream secular “Life” magazine! Do you realize what that reveals? It reveals that we have departed so far from God that a mainstream secular magazine from the America of the past now appears to be radically Christian by contrast – It means America has been radically dechristianized. We are now standing, for real, on the top of Mount Carmel. Marshall closed his sermon calling for decision – that America and God’s people put away the grays and make up their minds, once and for all. Let us all be like Elijah, that we may call a nation to its Mount Carmel moment. But we can only do that if we first have our own. This month, go up to Mount Carmel and have your own Mount Carmel moment and make your decision, once and for all – and may God greatly bless you as you do! Your brother and co-laborer in His love and service, Jonathan