Elijah's challenge at Mt. Carmel stood above religion.
Though the prophets of Baal ritually shed there own blood,
Elijah's altar, drenched in a lavish baptism of water,
Was licked dry by God's unquenchable fire.
Why, then, Elijah, do you tremble in a cave, awaiting wind
When God, your strength, sings over you a gentle song?
I raise to God, my strength, a joyous song.
My soul, weighted down with the demands of religion
Flies unfettered, released to sail the Spirit's wind.
My righteous striving subsumed by the blood
Of Christ. His righteousness a refining fire;
Burning, purifying, soothed by living water.
The public proclamation of water
Baptism floods out in joyful song.
The inner light of Pentecost's fire
Illuminates the shades of religion.
Dried bones revived by sacrificial blood
Breathe in the life of Holy Wind.
We seek for the Spirit's wind
To stir the stagnant waters
Of our souls. Bought by blood,
We still succumb to the siren song
Of false gods and self serving religion.
Lord, rekindle our coals with revival fire.
Flee the wrath to come in Hell's eternal fire.
Hearken to God's call upon the wind.
The time has come to abandon dead religion
And plunge deep into the Spirit stirred water.
Your life has a place within God's song,
Sung for all time by those washed in Christ's blood.
The Gospel road is paved by the blood
Of the martyrs who willingly passed through fire.
Robed in white they sing redemption's song
From beneath the altar. Their voices on the wind
Carry across to us on this side of Jordan's water.
A great cloud of witnesses to the truth of this religion.
In Heaven our song will glory in Christ's blood.
Shedding our religion as we pass through fire
We will dance in a freer wind by streams of living water.
© Mary Elizabeth Whitlow 2011
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