Baal and Friends

Never think for one minute that there is only one god, we as Christians, know the real and living God of the universe, Creator of the world and everything in it. (Genesis 1, John 1) God well knew that His chief creation, mankind, would worship other Gods. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God... (Exodus 20:3-5) God standeth in the congregation of the mighty; He judgeth among the gods. (Psalm 82:1)

A Baalist or Baalite means a worshiper of Baal. In the Old Testament, Baal is referred to as a false God. There was a Baal of Tyre, a Baal of Carthage. We are familiar with the worship of Baal by Ahab and Jezebel, the worship of God by Jehu and Elijah (1 Kings 16, 2 Kings 10). On one of my several trips to Israel, standing on Mount Carmel, looking across the great valley of Jezreel, I realized the reality of the true and false God. Staring at the world around me, recapitulating history before my life, it is so evident that man has given more attention to false Gods, than the disclosure, the will, the way, the sovereign God of the universe. For many, their god is money; others—pleasure, others—power.

I stopped going to church years ago. The only way you can learn to live with a disability is with a sense of gratitude, and I did not leave the church worship service with a sense of gratitude, rather a sense of being unwanted. The reason you find so few disabled people in church, restaurants, public meetings of any type, as I have been told several times, “disabled people make others uncomfortable.” And in turn to show their disdain for disability, they make you uncomfortable. I find great satisfaction in worship at my home, certain services, continuously, all-day long, the very best in preachers, music.

Recently, a friend called and said he would like to take me to lunch after his church service. His wife was out of town on a business trip and he said he would like very much to eat with me. He knew my lonely lifestyle on the weekends. In the restaurant, as the parishioners (those who had attended church) came in, according to him, most dressed acceptably for a worship service. There was a time we dressed up for Sunday service, but I understand that now, many dress down. I have actually heard of flip-flops and shorts in Sunday worship service. I said to him, “let me know how many of these church people pray over their food before eating.” He reported to me (I am totally blind), that none did. It is not just a matter of thanking God for your food, but it is very important in this time of synthetics, when your food is bereft of any nutrition, that you pray for your food before it enters your body. Many do not know this, but the margarine used in cooking in most restaurants is just a few degrees from plastic...so many synthetics (aspartame, sodium glutanates, etc.) are not digestible. You will never find these chemicals in tissue, there is no nutritive value in eating many colorful foods, rather it takes any energy to rid your body of toxicity.

It has always been a mystery to me why some people attend church at all. Worship means “worth Him”, do they have any idea of their hypocrisy?

In my chiropractor's office, a small boy was fascinated with my white cane as he ran around the office. I asked his name, and learned that it was Isaac. I said, “Isaac, come here and give me your hand. Dr. Morris wants to bless you.” I do not make a big deal of my blessing of a child, I just take their hand, and in my heart, ask God to guide this child in this precarious world. I doubt if these people had any idea of what I spoke.

The Creator of the universe, Who we worship in spirit and in truth is jealous. He expects our full commitment and devotion. Every week of my life, I make a list of all the people with whom I have come in contact during the week and ask for their blessing. I think some of them would prefer not to be on my list, because from every evidence, they do not want God involved with them, and would like me to keep God out of their life.

Many have asked me over the years, “how can you tell a Christian? One to whom God is real.” My answer has never changed, always the same, “one who is in love with God's Word, the Bible.” The Bible is the most bought and banned book in the world...66 books, 27 in the New Testament, written hundreds of years after the 39 of the Old Testament. God's love letter to the world. It is the “manufacturer's handbook”; theology, history, science, even nutrition, it is the answer book for everything.

The first Bible was completed around 95 AD, and until the printing press, and until the Bible was translated into English, a Bible was a very rare thing, loved, prized, protected. Think of those who attend church, who never opens its pages. One lady in the First Baptist Church, Wilmington NC, said that, “Golgotha was the disciple who killed the prophet David.” When I asked another older, wealthy matron of the church why she attended church, she said, “some very nice people come here. It is not because of a Jew born in a stable.”

The 30 inspired writers gave every prophecy and promise we will ever need. The weeping prophet Jeremiah was ashamed of the his people's abomination. (Jeremiah 6:15) The historian Ezra, returning from captivity, finding those who had returned earlier in sin said, “I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to thee, my God: for our iniquities are increased over our head, and our trespass is grown up unto the heavens” (Ezra 9:6) Fisherman Peter said, “that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.” (2 Peter 1: 20-21)

The entire Bible has one central theme: Jesus Christ; one message: sin's ruin and Christ's redemption. Today's Baal worshipers, so intent with their idols, never thinking of eternity, knowing the uncertainty of life, most have never spent 20 hours studying their faith, the reality of a true and living God, the faithfulness of those who trust.