Who do we worship

Sunday's primary lesson was about Elijah and the false priests of Baal.  Remember the time that the children of Israel were so wicked that Elijah called down a famine of three and a half years.  Toward the end of that famine, he met with the wicked king Ahab and told Ahab to gather all the children of Israel and all 450 of the false prophets of Baal, and the 400 false prophets the other idols.  They were all to meet at Mount Carmel.  When everyone was gathered together, Elijah asked them an important question, that we need to ask ourselves today.  1Kings 18:21. "How long halt ye between two opinions?  If The Lord be God, follow him,  but if Baal be God then follow him." 

Then he did the experiment.  Remember?  He asked the prophets of Baal: 

        Get two bullocks and you take one and and cut it in pieces and lay it on wood, with no fire under it.  Elijah said he would take the other bullock, and lay it on wood and put no fire under it.  

Then he said in Verse 24:  "call ye on the name of your gods , and I will call on the name of The Lord: and the God that answereth by fire, let him be God."

So all 450 of the priests of Baal, prayed all morning and afternoon, and cried in loud prayers and nothing happened.  They even danced and jumped upon the alter itself, and cut themselves til they bled, but nothing happened.  

So, Elijah sets 12 stones on the alter to represent the 12 tribes and then he sets the dry wood, and then the cut up bullock on top.  He proceeds to pour 12 barrels of water over all.  Then he prays to God and God sends fire, and it consumes the bullock, the wood, the rocks and all the water.

And the children of Israel were all convinced that The Lord is the one and only true God.

And the rains came and the famine was over.

When we liken this story to our day, we can certainly see how many different idols that people today worship, instead of God. It might be sports that interfere with going to church on Sundays.  It might be that we worship nature, and say we enjoy being out in the mountains instead of at church.  We might think that our time and our choices are more important than God's commandments are.    Whatever is the most important thing to us, is what we worship.  Whatever we think about all the time and whatever we spend our love, our energy, and our devotions toward, that is what we worship.  

Of course we have many interests and duties that take much of our time and that is as it should be.  It is a blessing to be serving a mission, where we don't have all the outside distractions, and we can truely worship and serve The Lord.   But we all need to ask ourselves, if we are not a bit like the priests of Baal, who put the faith in stone and beautiful idols.  

I thought it was interesting to read in the Bible dictionary, that Baal had many names.  One of which is Zeus.  After living here in this part of the world where the Greek Gods as well as the Roman Gids were worshipped, and where we can see the ruins of their temples,  I can easier imagine what life was like when the children of Israel got so wicked.

Those other gods have no power to save us, nor do they have power to answer our prayers.  Only our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ have the power to save and to forgive and to bless us.