I LOVE CHARACTER STUDIES

Tonight Journey kicked off another character study series. This time on Elijah.

I think I'm gonna have to add this to the mix in high school and do an annual character study. I really think they are great and they inspire me to want to not waste my life on crap that doesn't matter- which is really really easy to do in my estimation/observation/experience.

Tonight I was reminded of how we all have choices and if you want to make a seriously influential dent in the history of the world, then you don't have to be great... you just have to be tight with a GREAT GOD. What a reassuring truth that is for a schmuck like me.

I loved this 1/2 a verse about Elijah and his obedience to God.

• "So he did what the LORD had told him." (1 Kings 17:5a)

Simple enough. Yeah.... now go do it. Elijah changed the world because he did.

As I thought about this truth in service, several other characters came to mind. Ed mentioned three of them in service. Here's the first ones I thought of that validated the point even further:

• ABRAHAM: "Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness." (Genesis 15:6)
• ENOCH: Enoch walked faithfully with God; then he was no more, because God took him away. (Genesis 5:24)
• NOAH: “Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God.” (Genesis 6:9)
• MOSES: "The LORD would speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend." (Exodus 33:11a) "Moses did just as the LORD commanded him." (Numbers 17:1)
• DAVID: “As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?” (Psalms 42:1-2)
• JOB: "Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil.” (Job 1:8)
• SIMEON: "Now there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him." (Luke 2:25)

There are countless others in the Scriptures, but these all seem to me to be people who took God at his word and bet the farm that a life with God is way better than one without.

"I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be my people." (Leviticus 26:12)

I want to push my chips to the center of the table and bet the farm on that truth too.