Tues.’s Devo - Spreading the Gospel

Read: 1 Kings 18:1-46; Acts 11:1-30; Psalm 135:1-21; Proverbs 17:12-13 The drought was in its third year and God told Elijah it was time to go to Ahab, who had been looking everywhere for him for these three years. *** Ahab had met with his officer in charge of his palace, Obadiah. Ahab was running out of pastureland for his horses and mules. He sent Obadiah one way to search for grass while he went the other way. Obadiah ran into Elijah who was on his way to see Ahab. It took some convincing to believe Elijah was telling the truth, but Elijah did meet with Ahab. *** Ahab blamed Elijah for the famine and drought, but Elijah blamed Ahab and his family because of their Baal worship. He told him to round up all the worshippers of Baal and Asherah and meet him on Mt. Carmel. Eight hundred and fifty false prophets met the one prophet of God. Elijah proposed a duel. They would each offer a bull on their own altar and see which god answered in fire. *** The prophets of Baal took all day calling out to Baal, cutting themselves and doing all sorts of rituals, to no avail. Finally, at the time of the evening sacrifice, Elijah prepared his offering. Then he built a trench and had the men pour huge amounts of water three times over his offering. Elijah prayed to the Lord and immediately the fire of God came down from heaven and burned up the bull and all the water. The people fell down worshiping the Lord. Elijah called for all the Baal prophets to be seized. Elijah took them down to the Kishon Valley and killed them there. *** Elijah told Ahab to go eat and drink something because a mighty rainstorm was coming. Ahab obeyed while Elijah went back to the top of Mt. Carmel and bowed down in intercession. He would pray then send his servant to go and see if God had responded. On the seventh time his servant came back saying he could see a small cloud rising from the sea. *** Elijah told Ahab to hurry and get in his chariot and get home. The sky turned black and the storm came. God empowered Elijah to run even faster than Ahab’s chariot. He ran all the way to the entrance of Jezreel. *** Think of the miracle of this. Elijah hadn’t eaten all day and had slaughtered 850 prophets, then he ran for miles! *** One of the things I take away from this story is that in the midst of a famine, Ahab gave to the Lord what they were in lack of which was food and water. He had the king give up two bulls that would have produced a lot of meat and he had over 9 gallons of water poured out on the altar. When we are in need of something from the Lord, we are to give what we have, of what we need. God takes our offering and multiplies it and gives it back to us. *** In Acts, the people of Jerusalem had heard what had happened with the Gentiles before Peter arrived. The Jewish leaders criticized Peter for going into the home of a Gentile and eating with them. Peter told them the whole story and their criticism turned to praise. They then understood that the gospel was for the whole earth. *** Others that had been scattered to far places like Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch preached the word of God and brought the gospel to the Jewish people there. Some of the believers who went to Antioch and Cyrene began to tell the Gentiles the Good News and many of them believed. *** When the church at Jerusalem found out, they sent Barnabas to Antioch. He was encouraged when he got there and saw how God was moving among the Gentiles. Barnabas went on to Tarsus to find Saul and brought him back to Antioch to help disciple the new believers. That was the place they first called the believers “Christians.” *** The prophet Agabus came to Antioch from Jerusalem with a word from the Lord. He told them that a great famine was coming upon the entire Roman Empire. This would greatly affect the believers in Jerusalem so they took up an offering and took the gifts back to those in Jerusalem. *** Lord, remind us to give of our need and our abundance. Thank you that your Gospel was given to us also. May we be faithful to give it to others.