One Good Runner

By Greg Laurie, Op-ed contributor Friday, July 01, 2005

And Elijah came to all the people, and said, "How long will you falter between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him." 1 Kings 18:21

In light of the rampant immorality within, terrorism without, and widespread violence that America is experiencing, it would be easy to say there is no hope for our country today. Life, we suspect, will only get darker. Certainly nothing we could ever do as individuals could turn things around or make any kind of difference.

I want you to know that is definitely not true. If we look at the history of Israel, we see how often our history parallels it. God established the nation of Israel. He ruled over it. Despite the attempts of revisionists to rewrite our history, our founding fathers established our nation on biblical principles, and the Lord has blessed us as the years have gone by.

In the midst of Israel's idolatry, wickedness, and immorality, spurred on by the wicked King Ahab and Queen Jezebel, God decided to intervene. The Lord decided to raise up his man. He'd done it before. The man God sent for Israel's release was Elijah. His very name summed up his purpose; it meant "My God is Jehovah" or "The Lord is my God." In fact, Elijah's name was a rebuke to the king and queen of Israel. It essentially said, "Your god may be [the false gods] Baal or Asherah, but my God is the Lord."

God intervened in the history of the nation Israel and turned it around; periodically He brought about a great revival. We can hope and pray He will do the same for us. When we look at the conditions when Elijah emerged on Israel's scene, we see that they were strikingly similar to our own. One man running well in the spiritual race did indeed make a difference..

—Greg Laurie, Losers and Winners, Saints and Sinners

Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Bible text from the New King James Version is not to be reproduced in copies or otherwise by any means except as permitted in writing by Thomas Nelson, Inc., Attn: Bible Rights and Permissions, P.O. Box 141000, Nashville, TN 37214-1000