“No Turning Back” 

Sometimes I wonder which actor will play me when they make a movie about my life. Will it be Paul Newman or Arnold Schwarzenegger, or perhaps Boris Karloff. Boris starred as the monster in the original Frankenstein movies…. yes Boris was quite a handsome and charismatic actor…. what elocution and articulation as he uttered those famous lines…..“uuuuuugh… master….uuuuugh…. clomp, clomp, clomp.” Some of my siblings said I reminded them of Boris…. hmmmmmm. 

But I will tell you this…when they decide to make a movie of the great prophet Elijah, only one actor can play that role. You guessed it… “the Duke….John Wayne”. Elijah was bigger than life… he was a tough guy with a lot of guts. Elijah was a “Biblical John Wayne”. I bet Elijah even had a slow Western accent. 

One of my very favorite biblical scenes is Elijah taking care of the prophets of Baal in 1Kings 18:18-40. Talk about a tough cookie. The odds are stacked against Elijah…. the evil king Ahab and his equally evil wife Jezebel, along with 450 prophets of Baal and 400 prophets of Asherah vs one Elijah. It’s the showdown at OK Corral, but the odds are 1,000s to one …. stacked against Elijah.  But what does Elijah do? He doubles down. He mocks his evil enemy. “The Duke” is  leaving nothing behind…he’s pushing all his chips into the middle of the table. Listen to some of these great lines…. “

•  And Elijah came near to all the people, and said, “How long will you go limping with two different opinions? If the LORD is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him.” 
• Setting up the test, Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, “Choose for yourselves one bull … call on the name of your god, but put no fire to it…. they prepared it, and called on the name of Baal from morning until noon, saying, “O Baal, answer us!” But there was no voice, and no one answered. And they limped about the altar which they had made. 
• And at noon Elijah mocked them, saying, “Cry aloud, for he is a god; either he is musing, or he has gone aside, or he is on a journey, or perhaps he is asleep and must be awakened.
• Then Elijah  made a trench about the altar …  cut the bull in pieces and lay it on the wood. Fill four jars with water, and pour it on the burnt offering …do it a second time , do it a second time,  Do it a third time … and the water ran round about the altar, and filled the trench also with water…
• Elijah the prophet came near and said, “O LORD, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that thou art God in Israel, and that I am thy servant, and that I have done all these things at thy word. Answer me, O LORD, answer me, that this people may know that thou, O LORD, art God, and that thou hast turned their hearts back.
• Then the fire of the LORD fell, and consumed the burnt offering, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench. And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces; and they said, “The LORD, he is God; the LORD, he is God.”
• And Elijah said to them, “Seize the prophets of Baal; let not one of them escape.” And they seized them; and Elijah brought them down to the brook Kishon, and killed them there.

I love this great scene. Elijah is all in. He’s putting his very life on the line in serving God… no 50%, no 99.9%….. he’s all in …100%. We need the spirit of Elijah in our day. We need to declare our trust in the Lord… no finessing, no qualifications. Either we win big, or we lose big. But in truth, we’re headed to this big test in a few years anyway. When we die, we’re at that moment of truth …there’s no insurance policy, no ace in the hole… 100% for the Lord. So even now, “Let’s decide to follow Jesus, no turning back.” 

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