HALF ONE THING AND THEN THE OTHER

MERRY MONDAY BY PARRIS BAILEY-

“And Elijah came unto all the people, and said, How long halt ye between two opinions? if the LORD be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him. And the people answered him not a word.” I Kings 18:21

Sometimes people just can’t make up their minds when it comes to following Christ. It’s almost as if “we devise a formula” that we are comfortable with. A special formula that gives us our creature comforts and just enough Christ to feel religious. Elijah saw that same problem in the people of Israel. But he called it limping between the two. Let’s look at some of the definitions that I have found. Matthew Henry said “people that are unresolved under their convictions, unstable and unsteady in their purposes, promise fair, but do not perform, begin well, but do not hold on, that are inconsistent with themselves, or indifferent and lukewarm in that which is good.”
Spurgeon preached; “Ye are half one thing, and half the other. You come into the society of the saints, and try to talk as they talk; but you are like a man who has been taught French in some day-school in England; he makes a queer sort of Frenchified English, and Englishized French, and every one laughs at him. The English laugh at him for trying to do it, and the French laugh at him for failing in it. How long limp ye, wriggle ye, walk ye in an absurd manner, between two opinions?” In adopting either opinion, you would at least be consistent; but in trying to hold both,
to seek to be both one and the other, and not knowing which to decide upon. How long hop ye upon two sprays? So the Hebrew has it. Like a bird, which perpetually flies from bough to bough, and is never still. If it keeps on doing this, it will never have a nest. And so with you: you keep leaping between two boughs, from one opinion to the other; you get no rest for the sole of your foot, no peace, no joy, no comfort, but are just a poor miserable thing all your life long.”

I believe those that try to serve God and mammon is like standing in Niagara Falls- you will flat out get your brains beat in. The interesting thing about God is we cannot decide all of this on our own. We simply lack the will power. None of you, if left to your natural judgment, to the use of your own reason, can ever decide leaving the world behind. This is the work of Grace that comes supernaturally to our hearts. Have you ever seen a Christian that has never cursed, smoked or drank suddenly try to pick up those habits? They look absurd and silly. Elijah called down fire and that sorted things out immediately. They asked for rain but He sent the fire.