Author: RCCM

From a sermon series on 1 Kings by See Huang Lim, a missionary at IBF. Last month, we saw how God sent a drought to discipline the Israelites under King Ahab who turned away from the worship of God to the worship of Baal. Then, we witnessed the great contest between the 450 prophets of Baal against the prophet Elijah at Mt. Carmel. God demonstrated that He alone was God by bringing down fire from heaven, showing that Baal was a false god. This miraculous sign was meant to draw the Israelites back to God. Today, we continue our story of Elijah, which deals with prayer. [Read 1 Kings 18:41-46]

From a sermon series on 1 Kings by See Huang Lim, a missionary at IBF. Today’s story is a dramatic one. 1 Kings 18 is about the fiery contest between Elijah and the prophets of Baal. During this time, Israel had turned away from worshipping the one true God, in exchange for gods like Baal. Elijah’s mission was to bring them back to the God of Israel. [Read 1 Kings 18:1-40] There are 3 characters I would like to reflect on from this passage: 1) Obadiah shows we serve God in diverse ways, 2) Elijah was just a servant of God, 3) God demonstrates his power and judgment. With each

From a sermon series on 1 Kings by See Huang Lim, a missionary at IBF. When I was a child, the one thing that I was afraid of was that my mother would die. I had nightmares in which I saw the lifeless body of my mother. In 2011, it felt as if the nightmare came true when I received an email from my dad, telling me that my mother had a stroke. I flew home from the U.S., and though I was happy to learn that my mother was alive, she was a shell of her former self—unable to talk, walk, or eat. It was as if I had

From a sermon series on 1 Kings by See Huang Lim, a missionary at IBF. We have been going through 1 Kings for a while. Today’s passage is the starting point of the prophet Elijah’s ministry. From it I would like to draw 4 points: 1) God’s unexpected way of provision, 2) worshipping God in the midst of hardship, 3) how Elijah points us to Jesus, and 4) the widow’s act of faith and obedience. Let us pray. [Read 1 Kings 17:1-16] Here is a brief summary of the background. Verse 1 tells us that God permitted a drought to happen in the land of Israel as a sign of

From a sermon series on 1 Kings by See Huang Lim, a missionary at IBF. In this sermon series on the book of 1 Kings, we will soon reach a turning point and enter the fascinating story of prophet Elijah. Today’s is the last passage about evil kings, and it revolves around King Baasha. King Baasha rose to the throne by murdering the previous king. His actions set a pattern for the next few kings; they, in turn, became king of Israel through assassination. Today’s passage is bleak, but I believe it will not leave us hopeless. There are 3 ideas I want to reflect on: 1) God may allow

From a sermon series on 1 Kings by See Huang Lim, a missionary at IBF. Today, I would like to share some reflections about how some people respond to the idea of religion, especially in Japan. We will still read a passage from 1 Kings as part of our on-going study of this book, but I won’t focus on the passage. I’ll only summarize its main point and then reflect on two common attitudes towards religion. [Read 1 Kings 16:8-28] Background The reason for this chaos and death is the same for all 3 kings. The root of the problem was idol worship. Idol worship was not a new problem

From a sermon series on 1 Kings by See Huang Lim, a missionary at IBF. My last few sermons focused on the Northern Kingdom of Israel during the time of 1 Kings. Today, we will read about the Southern Kingdom of Judah, about the first 3 generations of kings there. The first is King Rehoboam. The second is his son Abijah. The third is Abijah’s son Asa. When you read about the kings in this book, you might think their stories sound very similar. That is true. But each king’s story contains one or two details that are unique. I’ll focus on these unique details. [Read 1 Kings 14:21-15:24.] King