My Favorite Old Testament Prophet!

     This may seem like a weird topic to blog on; but oh well! I feel like doing something on my favorite prophet from the Old Testament; and that is... Elijah!! 

                            

   Who exactly is Elijah?

   Well, Elijah was a Prophet for the Northern Kingdom, during the time of King Ahab who had started to lead the Israelites into idolatrous worship of the god Baal due to his wife, Jezebel, who seemed to wear the pants in that relationship! Elijah was known as the Tishbite, and I assume grumpy old man. Interesting note: We don't really know what a Tishbite is! The Bible Dictionary states that "the meaning of this is quite uncertain, no place being known from which it could be derived." Oh mysterious! He is quite the man of mystery it seems, especially when you note that he really just came out of no where!! His first recorded 'miracle' is in 1 Kings, chapter 17, in the very first verse.

    1 And Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the inhabitants of Gilead, said unto Ahab, As the Lord God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word.

    Now, I don't know if you indeed want to call that a miracle but the first thing (that we know of) that Elijah did is seal up the Heavens and cause that there be a massive famine to slowly creep through the land to punish King Ahab (and incidentally every other Israelite) for worshiping Baal instead of Jehovah. So, yup, real good first impression there Elijah! However, The Lord wanted this famine to go through the land to remind the Isrealites of whom their loyalty belongs to; The True and Living God, not some statue. So to me, that's a pretty grand entrance!

    Now lets fast forward to one of my favorite instances of Elijah! The show down against four-hundred and fifty prophets of Baal!

And in this Corner we have the Tishbite weighing in at 150 pounds!

  Queen Jezebel was killing off the Prophets of the Lord, and Elijah was one of the last ones (that we know of) and he wasn't too happy about it! Nor was the Man upstairs! So Elijah comes down and challenges all of the prophets of Baal (along with four hundred prophets of the forest) to a Prophet-Contest! He has the people come together and prepare two identical sacrifices and then he turns to the Baalites and lets them pick their altar and says to them, "Alrighty then, what we got here is an old fashioned prophet show down! You pick your altar, and you pray to your god, and then I'll pray to my God, and which ever sacrifice gets lit up in Heavenly Fire is the true God!" and the prophets of Baal were like, "Yeah, we will do that. There's four hundred and fifty of us, and only one of you, the cat is in the bag bro!" Then Elijah decides to be gentlemanly and lets the Prophets of Baal go first! So here are the Four Hundred and Fifty prophets of Baal and they are screaming and dancing around their altar, and nothing is happening. I can just hear the 'Who wants to be a millionaire' music in the back ground. Then Elijah starts to mock them; he tells them:

 27 And it came to pass at noon, that Elijah mocked them, and said, Cry aloud: for he is a god; either he is talking, or he is pursuing, or he is in a journey, or peradventure he sleepeth, and must be awaked.

    I love that he does that; it shows that Elijah was the Sass-Master of prophets! So, to do a recap, we have 450 prophets of Baal screaming and shouting for Baal to ignite his sacrifice and Elijah has begun to mock them! They do this till the evening, and the contest started probably around 9 am. And nothing has happened yet! So Elijah scoffs and calls the people together and he repairs the broken altar of the Lord and puts his sacrifice upon it and then he says, 'You know what, this isn't enough of a show-off, I'm going to make it even harder!' and he tells the people to: (1 Kings 18)

 33 And he put the wood in order, and cut the bullock in pieces, and laid him on the wood, and said, Fill four barrels with water, and pour it on the burnt sacrifice, and on the wood.

 34 And he said, Do it the second time. And they did it the second time. And he said, Do it the third time. And they did it the third time.

 35 And the water ran round about the altar; and he filled the trench also with water.

Yup. He doused it in water! Then he says a simple prayer, boiling down to: 'God, I know You are God, and I am Your servant. Let it be known that You are God so that they will worship You again' and the Altar erupts in fire, consuming all of the bullock, all of the wood and the stones, and the dust, and the water! So now we have it, the Lord God is the God of Isreal! Then Elijah tells them of the stakes of the Prophet-Off; he has the people gather all of the Prophets of Baal and kills them all. Every one of them!!

   But wait! There's more to the awesomeness of Elijah! He has one of the BEST exits I can think of in the Bible. In the second chapter of the second book of Kings, we are told that Elijah had found him a successor, Elisha, and the two fellows were out and about in the desert just chatting it up and their eyes are drawn upwards all of a sudden. A chariot of fire drawn by horses of fire appears racing through the horizon and parts Elijah and Elisha asunder! Elijah gets into the chariot and it takes him up into Heaven, and on the way up his mantle (cloak) falls off of his shoulders and lands upon the probably very confused Elisha. Imagine that, here you are talking with your teacher and all of a sudden you get knocked on your butt by a chariot of fire and then you see your teacher going towards Heaven and his cloak falls unto your shoulders! Talk about an exit!!

You Couldn't have told me to bring sunblock?!

        And then there's one last thing that truly sets Elijah apart!

Can I have my mantle back?!

              He has a sequel!! He is one of the few prophets that we know of that actually has his own sequel! You see; shortly after the Kirtland Temple Dedication in 1836 Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdry were praying in a spot by themselves and the Heavens opened up. Elijah had appeared to them, after  Jesus Christ had already appeared and accepted the Temple as His House, and Moses and Elias had appeared as well to give Joseph Smith the Priesthood Keys that they had held in mortality. Elijah came to do the same thing; he gave Joseph Smith the Priesthood keys of the sealing power and fulfilled the promise in Malachi 4:   






5 ¶Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord:

 6 And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite theearth with a curse.

             Thats why we do so much Family History; the Spirit of Elijah rests upon the Church and urges the children to turn their hearts to their fathers and make sure that they have the same options and knowledge and ordinances available to them that the presently living get to enjoy!

               So there you have it folks! That is why Elijah is one of my favorite prophets from the Old Testament. He came out of nowhere, his opening act was a massive famine, and then he had a big ol' prophet showdown (and won!) and then shortly after that he was carried away in a chariot of fire! Then he wasn't done just yet, because he came back and gave Joseph Smith the Keys of the Sealing Authority!

Mother of a (not so)Stripling Warrior!!

                                           







                                        

Happy Early Mothers Day!

           So with Mother's Day being around the corner; I suppose it's my turn to throw in my Mother's Day Blog Post and talk about a couple of awesome women in my life. The first one I would like to talk about is my Grandmother and what I learned from her. 

                                     

My Grandmother has always been, as far as I remember, one of the sweetest ladies I have ever known. Many a childhood memory is filled with her home; since my mother was hard at work being a single parent of four children, I spent a lot of time with my grandmother growing up and it has influenced me in many ways. I often comment, when talking with people about my musical taste, that my Grandmother is the reason that I enjoy Frank Sinatra, Johnny Cash, Dean Martin, Jerry Lee Lewis, and those types of musicians. 

      I believe the biggest influence that she has had on me was as she tried to instill a Christian belief in me as I was growing up. The first one that comes to mind is shortly after our cousins had left and Grandmother and I were talking in the car on a ride to a store or something. She and I were talking, of course, and she ended up saying: "You either believe in all of the Bible, or you believe in none of the Bible." At the time, I chose to believe in none of the Bible. It just didn't make sense, but my Grandmother will always in my eyes be the stalwart witness of the truth of the Bible. Her words ring in my head when I think about believing this scripture but not that scripture.

     The second one that comes to mind is on a trip to the Family History Center in Mesa Arizona, which as anyone from Mesa knows, is right next to the Mesa Arizona Temple. You know, this one Temple:

What is this? A Temple for ants?! It needs to be at least three times bigger!!

      So we go into the Family History Center and I'm helping her (Being bored out of mind because I was a child) look at microfilm and the such before we went through the Visitor's Center at the Temple (Keep in mind, I was not a member at this point and nor is my Grandmother) and in the Temple's Visitor's Center is a wonderful statue of Jesus the Christ. You know, this one statue:

What is this? A statue for ants?!

  And as we were walking past the statue, my Grandmother said: "That's your Savior." and that comment has been within the far back of my memory and was hidden away until one day when I was investigating the Church, and at this point I had decided to join the Church, so the Ferrins and I, along with my Missionaries, were going through the Visitor's Center and I looked at the Statue and the background behind it and tried to remember why it was so familiar and then my Grandmother's words came ringing in my mind and that just touched my very core!

       My grandmother has always stood out as someone of Steadfast Faith in the Lord. I don't think my grandmother has ever once doubted that there is a God and that Jesus Christ took our sins upon His shoulders and allowed us to repent of our sins and be able to make it back to Heavenly Father!!

Now for my Madre!

                              

What my Mother taught me that will probably stand out in my mind is Patience! Now this won't really involve any memories that fantastically stand out as life long lessons but rather just the overall experience! My Mother had to deal with four rambunctious children by herself and that was not hard! Just think of it like this, her children have become: Two United States Marines, one of them becoming a Lawyer, her daughter (Which is just crazy enough) and then me, the Mormon! Yeah, thank your lucky stars that you weren't in her shoes! I can look back on my younger years, even just a year ago and I can honestly say I was an ungrateful punk! She only had my best interests in mind, and as most Sons, (I hope) Did, did not think she knew what she was talking about and only thought that she was trying to take away my choice and fun. I broke her trust on numerous occasions, and I did not show her the respect that she deserved; but through all of it I learned something. My mother had patience and love; she taught me that in the worst of situations, that you should just forget and move on. She taught me that no matter what I did, I would always be her son and her baby and that she would love me. I think the biggest lesson of this that comes to mind (I lied earlier) is when she dropped me off at the MTC. I can only think of three or four times when I've personally seen my Mother cry; the first couple of times was when we were taking care of our sick animals and had to put a horse down that we had about twenty years. The other time being when she dropped me off at the MTC! It was so touching to me that she started crying as she hugged me for the last times for two years. My mother never deserved the way I treated her, but thanks to her unconditional love, I have always been her son, and hopefully always will be! I love you Madre!

With this time of year, I would encourage all of you to look at what your Mother has taught. Examine what she has done for you, and then thank Heavenly Father for the blessings that she, along with others, has brought into your life. As Helaman said of the stripling warriors: "And they rehearsed unto me the words of their mothers, saying: We do not doubt, our Mothers knew it" (Alma 56:48) Look at what your mother taught you, I bet you they knew it before you did!! I leave you with these inspiring words in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.