Remember that man’s life does not consist in what he has, but in what he is. Serve Jesus and the church. Oh, let not the best years of your life be years in which you have little communion with God, and in which you do little for Christ! ‘Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven.’ Let not your biography be summed up: ‘He turned to God in his youth, he then became lukewarm, being engrossed in the cares and the business and the social demands of the world, and a short time before his death he saw his mistake, and felt that one thing was needful. For years his spiritual life was barely sustained by the prayers of friends and the weekly services of the sanctuary. He might have been a pillar in the church, but he was only a weight.’ This be far from you. Oh, serve the Lord with gladness, be strong, quit yourselves like men, and abound in the work of the Lord. ‘Draw nigh to God’ (Adolph Saphir).

In 1 Kings 17:1 Elijah appeared suddenly to Ahab, passed on the Lord’s message and then went and lived in another obscure place. Yet his short message has lessons for us as preachers. The first is Elijah’s understanding of who the Lord is.

It is clear from Elijah’s opening words that he knew that his God was alive and aware of what was going on. The prophet knew that his God was not like the inert gods of the pagans. But he also knew that his God was not like the impressions that were being given about him in the northern kingdom of Israel at that time. The rulers of Israel for several decades had imagined that they could manipulate God and his ways for their own ends. They had their own reasons for erecting and supporting alternative places of worship in Dan and in Bethel. Yet all they were doing was demeaning the authority of the living God and their actions revealed that they were indifferent to what he regarded as important. All this flowed from the fact that they did not believe he was alive.

Second, Elijah recognised that he was accountable to God. We can see this outlook in the prophet’s words, ‘Before whom I stand.’ We are not told where Elijah was when said this – he may have met Ahab in a royal dwelling or he may have met him in an open space. The one thing that is clear is that Elijah did not worry too much about being in the presence of an earthly king. Standing includes the idea of showing great respect and Elijah recognised that he was accountable for his actions. So he never forgot that he was in the presence of God, no matter who else was in the room.

This self-description by the prophet also highlights the sense of authenticity that he had. Elijah knew he was different from the false prophets, whether of Baal or any other god. He had stood and heard more than once the Lord’s call to him to serve in particular ways, and this awareness made him brave in his actions. He had no doubts about the role God had mapped out for him.

There is another element that this self-description reveals about Elijah and that is his consciousness of the authority he had as the Lord’s messenger. The Lord had given him a message to say, and a difficult message at that, and this was sufficient authority for Elijah. When a person senses this authority he will speak to anyone, even if the message from God is threatening, as it was here.

Third, his message from God confronted the sins of the time. It is obvious that Elijah had a message of judgement, but we can ask, ‘Why was there a particular form of judgement involving the dew and the rain?’ The answer is that the message about Baal claimed that he was in charge of the seasons, that he was able to control the elements in order to give good harvests. We can see how the prophet’s short message spoke directly to the situation facing the people of Israel. As Elijah was later to ask them, the choice was between Baal and its worldview and Yahweh and his covenant commitments. God’s message always confronts contemporary culture – that was the case in Elijah’s day and it is the same today. The promised judgement, passed on by Elijah, showed that Yahweh was mighty and Baal was non-existent. We must do the same. There is little point in preaching about the threats of a century ago (unless they are still here). We have to be relevant when calling people to repentance.

November 2012 editorial in the Record of the Free Church of Scotland

This month saw the annual Day of Remembrance for those who gave their lives in defence of our nation. It is very appropriate that we show our gratitude for their sacrifices. Yet although they gave their lives we know that they have no influence over the choices and directions of subsequent generations in their nation. In a sense, apart from their example of giving their all, their contribution ceased when they gave their lives. Nevertheless we have an obligation to think about the values that caused them to make the ultimate sacrifice and what it was that they were fighting for.

Their example speaks to us. While we may not be called upon to give our lives in battle we should always be ready to defend the values that we hold dear. Because the fact is, our country is fast losing its Christian heritage and if we don’t give our all it will be gone. Of course, it might be gone even if we give our all, but it is better to lose it after attempting to keep it than losing it without doing anything. After all, we know that in order for evil to triumph it only requires that good people do nothing.

What can we do? Pray is the most important response and it demands participation. We can pray individually at any time, yet it is obvious that united prayer is more likely to be heard. It is surprising, at least to me, how little prayer is being arranged, despite the obvious rapid departure of our country from its Christian heritage. We are in danger of sleep walking into the night!

Why can’t our congregations meet once a week for focussed prayer about the issues that mark our national decline? I know most have short times of prayer attached to our midweek meetings, but such occasions cannot really be called prayer meetings. If we have not got the time to meet to pray about our national situation, there is something very wrong with our priorities.

Of course, we must do more than pray, but we cannot do more until we pray. What else can we do? That is up to you (and me)! Anyone of us can provide a list of things we should do. I suspect each of us already knows a couple of responses we can make. The one thing we cannot do is to wait for someone else to do something.

The people we recalled on Remembrance Sunday are recalled with admiration and affection. Hopefully, future generations of the Christian church will have the same memories of us when they look back to how we responded to our current crisis!

This poem was written by Anne Ross Cousin, the author of The Sands of Time are Sinking, which was based on sayings of Samuel Rutherford. She was the wife of William Cousin, a Free Church minister in the Scottish Borders in the middle decades of the nineteenth century. Andrew Bonar, in his Diary, mentions having a sweet prayer meeting with him. I have been reading her volume of poems called Immanuel's Land and Other Pieces, and one can see the influence of Rutherford in some of them. In it she has several poems describing heaven. This particular poem helped me today as I was thinking about heaven.