Today's reading: 1 Kings 19-22
"Elisha then returned to his oxen, killed them, and used the wood from the plow to build a fire to roast their flesh. He passed around the meat to the other plowmen, and they all ate. Then he went with Elijah as his assistant." 1 Kings 19:21 NLT
I didn't have a lot of bridges to burn or amends to make when I was saved at age seven.
Let me be clear, I needed a Savior desperately, even at that age, but my list of transgressions might have been considered paltry in the eyes of some--but in the eyes of God, I was a sinner. A sinner, through and through. My deeds could not save me. My actions condemned me. My self-sufficiency left me facing death. My seven year-old sins were just as condemning as any sins found in any prison.
But at that small wooden altar in that little country church, I asked God to save me from my sins. I believed and still believe, all these years later, that He did just that.
I have nothing to go back to. Nothing beckons me from my past. I have no recollection of another life. I have no pull from previous living that might draw me away from Him. I have no ghosts from my pre-God years haunting my days and nights. I really never have lived without Him--although how closely I chose to walk has varied over the years.
And yet everyday I need to picture in my mind that very spot at the altar where I 'burned my plow and cooked my oxen'. I need the reminder of what He did for me, what I accepted and where my new life began. I sometimes have to drag satan back to that same place to remind him of who I am, too. I often ask God to remind me of the 'fire' that was started in me that day and the change that came over my life.
Do you have that place? Do you know the time and day when you turned from all you knew to all He offered?
We do not segment our lives, giving some time to God, some to our business or schooling, while keeping parts to ourselves. The idea is to live all of our lives in the presence of God, under the authority of God, and for the honor and glory of God. That is what the Christian life is all about.
-- R. C. Sproul
