Tim Greenway:Jesus4OurWorld: Jesus, the Purpose of Creation

Welcome to my blog.

God speaks to us each day through the readings from the Holy Bible. These are chosen under the inspiration of God’s Spirit and provided for us by the Church founded and lead by the Spirit of Jesus.

You will find them here. If we take time daily to read, understand and in silence to pray from our heart, Jesus, through his Spirit, will nourish us and our life will be transformed.

Let us ask ourselves: what is God saying to me today through these readings?

May the Spirit of God be with you.

Wednesday 10 June 2020

Jesus, the Purpose of Creation

Cf. Ps 26: 1-2

The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?

The Lord is the stronghold of my life; whom should I dread?

When those who do evil draw near, they stumble and fall.

____________________

Prayer

Father in heaven, you are the source of everything good in our life,

grant that we who call out to you in our needs,

may open ourselves to your quiet inspirations and see what is good

and then by the strength you give us do what is good.

We make our prayer through your Son, Christ Jesus our Lord.

First reading

1 Kings 18:20-39 ·

Elijah vanquishes the priests of Baal

Ahab called all Israel together and assembled the prophets on Mount Carmel. Elijah stepped out in front of all the people. ‘How long’ he said ‘do you mean to hobble first on one leg then on the other? If the Lord is God, follow him; if Baal, follow him.’ But the people never said a word. Elijah then said to them, ‘I, I alone, am left as a prophet of the Lord, while the prophets of Baal are four hundred and fifty. Let two bulls be given us; let them choose one for themselves, dismember it and lay it on the wood, but not set fire to it. I in my turn will prepare the other bull, but not set fire to it. You must call on the name of your god, and I shall call on the name of mine; the god who answers with fire, is God indeed.’ The people all answered, ‘Agreed!’ Elijah then said to the prophets of Baal, ‘Choose one bull and begin, for there are more of you. Call on the name of your god but light no fire.’ They took the bull and prepared it, and from morning to midday they called on the name of Baal. ‘O Baal, answer us!’ they cried, but there was no voice, no answer, as they performed their hobbling dance round the altar they had made. Midday came, and Elijah mocked them. ‘Call louder,’ he said ‘for he is a god: he is preoccupied or he is busy, or he has gone on a journey; perhaps he is asleep and will wake up.’ So they shouted louder and gashed themselves, as their custom was, with swords and spears until the blood flowed down them. Midday passed, and they ranted on until the time the offering is presented; but there was no voice, no answer, no attention given to them.

Then Elijah said to all the people, ‘Come closer to me’, and all the people came closer to him. He repaired the altar of the Lord which had been broken down. Elijah took twelve stones, corresponding to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of the Lord had come, ‘Israel shall be your name’, and built an altar in the name of the Lord. Round the altar he dug a trench of a size to hold two measures of seed. He then arranged the wood, dismembered the bull, and laid it on the wood. Then he said, ‘Fill four jars with water and pour it on the holocaust and on the wood’; this they did. He said, ‘Do it a second time’; they did it a second time. He said, ‘Do it a third time’; they did it a third time. The water flowed round the altar and the trench itself was full of water. At the time when the offering is presented, Elijah the prophet stepped forward. ‘O Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel,’ he said ‘let them know today that you are God in Israel, and that I am your servant, that I have done all these things at your command. Answer me, O Lord, answer me, so that this people may know that you, the Lord, are God and are winning back their hearts.’

Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the holocaust and wood and licked up the water in the trench. When all the people saw this they fell on their faces. ‘The Lord is God,’ they cried, ‘the Lord is God.’ THE WORD OF TH LORD

Prayerful reflection

Jezebel, the pagan queen of Ahab, king of the northern kingdom, persecuted the prophets and believers in Yahweh, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. It was not easy to be true to Yahweh. The winds of unbelief were blowing strong. Elijah, however, has confidence in God and is filled with divine power. “The prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective. Elijah was a human being like us, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain and the earth yielded its harvest.” (James 5:17-18). Elijah is a man of unshakable faith in Yahweh. It is faith, because he does not see. But he trusts. He is able to stand up against the unbelief of his day, because Yahweh is real for him. He knows that Yahweh alone is the true God and Elijah is willing to put his religion on the line in the confrontation with the 450 prophets of Baal. We live in a similar situation. The one-time believing nations have lost their faith just as the people in Israel in Elijah’s time. Not persecution as then, but indifference, ridicule, mockery. Elijah was a man of fearless and Spirit filled faith and was able to prove that Yahweh alone was true God. May we, filled with God’s Spirit and power, become fearless in the face of unbelief. By lives of commitment, may we prove to the world, that Jesus alone is the way, the truth and the life.

Psalm

Psalm 16:1-2,4-5,8,11