In Search of the Irish Elk
This post is an excerpt from Eric Ludy’s message entitled, "Majesty Lost." We pray as you read this you will be inspired to live out that radical Christianity that Christ modeled for us, that rooted Christianity that refuses to settle for anything less than lives wholly submitted to the Father.
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"When you look at the Word of God, and then look at the world of modern Christianity - do you see a discrepancy? Some of us don’t want to see the discrepancy. We want to tell ourselves, “No, it’s kind of similar; there’s a similar vibe between the book of Acts and what we now have today.” We come up with elaborate excuses for why there’s so much impotency as a Church, and why our prayers seem to hit the roof over our heads.
Yet, the Word of God is timeless; it’s eternal. And the Word of God is what defines Christianity as it is meant to be. Our God is not altered, He is not evolving, He does not change, He does not lie, there is no shadow of turning in Him. He is rock-like; and our God has not moved - it is us who have moved. We’ve moved and lost sight of the Rock. You build upon anything else and it will fail you when the winds and the rains come and beat against your house.
Have you heard of the Irish Elk? The Irish Elk is officially classified as extinct. It’s hard to give an accurate understanding of how big this animal is. At the top of its brow it stands about 10 feet tall; and on top of its 10 foot tall head, it has a rack of antlers that spans 12 feet in width. (12 feet wide, just on top of its head - that’s bigger than Goliath! - and it even went up 5 more feet into the air!) That’s 15 feet of massiveness!
What you’re looking at here is something that I would liken to true, biblical Christianity - that’s Christianity the way God intended it to be. We love seeing these majestic elk. Their size and presence stirs us for some reason; there’s something about it that’s just moving to our heart. They are regal animals. However, what's the height of a modern elk that you would see today?
Some professionals estimate the average elk of today is 5, maybe 6 feet, if it’s a big one. Their rack of antlers may be a couple feet above that - we may see one that’s up to 8 feet when you include it all together. But when you take a modern day elk and stand it next to an Irish Elk… well, there’s a massive difference.
We might have been impressed with the modern day version of the elk before, but our problem is that we’ve lost sight of the Irish Elk version of Christianity. Many don’t even believe it exists! Some honestly believe that it has gone extinct. We don’t go after it, thinking glibly to ourselves that, “God doesn’t intend to do those kind of things in a man or woman of God anymore, does He? That kind of thing He only did back then; those are things of yesteryear, not for today.”
You see, we need a rack of antlers like the Irish Elk! Something that causes the world that’s driving by to slam on their brakes and stop their cars and point and shout, “Did you see that?!”
If you research the Irish Elk, you’ll find that, despite it being officially classified as extinct, sightings are still regularly reported. Now, correct me if I’m wrong, but if sightings are still being reported, should the extinction label be removed? I mean, doesn’t extinct mean gone? No more? See, this is biblical Christianity, and this is what God wants to bring back.
Despite being officially classified as extinct, there remains a true, biblical, brawny Christianity: the type of Christianity you see in the New Testament, the kind that stands on a rock and is unmoved in its generation. It’s the type that knows the power of God, that “George Müllers" its way through to support 1000 orphans in order to grow them up entirely on faith. Oh believe me, there have been sightings like this that have been exemplified throughout Christian history!
CT Study, at the age of 52, goes into the heart of untamed Africa, where cannibals live, and lives there with cannibals for 20 years, and turns Africa on its head for the Gospel. Jim Elliot goes into Ecuador to evangelize the Huaorani people (also called Auca: translated “savages”) and converted the tribe at the cost of his life. George Müller, CT Studd, Jim Eliot - who are these men? They were Irish Elk.
Let’s behold majesty again, fall flat on our face, recognize our uncleanness and the uncleanness of the system around us, and allow our God to clothe us in His blood, allow our God to cleanse us with His blood, allow Him to regenerate us and to set our feet upon the Rock, and to make us tributes to His glory!
The world may not believe that the stature of a true man or woman of God can grow 10 feet at the brow, they may not believe that the rack of glory that we are to carry as Christians spans 12 feet in width and rises another 5 feet above our heads - they may not believe it… But we believe it!
“Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the LORD; awake, as in the ancient days, in the generation of old” (Isaiah 51:9), as in the generations previous to us. We know who You are, God! We believe, and we have not forsaken You. We know that You neither slumber nor sleep. We know that You are waiting for a generation to rise up with faith: child-like confidence that You are exactly who You say You are; because when You say it in Your Word, You cannot lie. And when our God promises, we can take it to the bank.
I want to see this majestic rack of antlers, the rack of glory, back on the Church of Jesus Christ again. And I want your lives to declare to the heavenlys what God can and will do through lives wholly submitted to Him. “For the eyes of the LORD roam to and fro throughout the whole earth, looking to give strong support to those whose heart is completely His” (2 Chronicles 9:16). O Church, may this generation see what elk are supposed to look like."
