Pray For Rain

It was a dark and stormy night… really.  I had just finished a wedding ceremony and many from the wedding party were meeting for dinner at a Japanese steakhouse.  A torrential rain storm had opened up and just getting from the car to the front door of the restaurant was a swim Michael Phelps would be proud of.  I walked inside and the owner / host greeted me with a question that annoys the bejeebers out of me, “How do you like this weather?”  I answered the only way I know how, truthfully.  “The weather is wonderful.”  The host was completely caught off guard by this jovial response, “So you like all this rain?”  Again, the truth, “I love rain.  I’m looking forward to a great dinner here tonight and I hope all the animals and crops that are on the menu tonight got a whole lot of rain before they came to the kitchen.”  Let’s get a word from our Great Chef… I mean Sponsor:

He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. (Matthew 5:45)

This verse explains that God is impartial, regardless of man’s wishes or wisdom.  Pay close attention to the phrasing of this verse.  Read it from the perspective of human thought - “you get what you deserve”. 

The sun rises on the evil… and also on the good. 

He sends rain on the righteous… and also on the unrighteous. 

The bad people deserve bad weather - a scorching blistering drought; the good people deserve good weather - plenty of rain to water their crops and cool the earth.  Jesus basically told us "the weather is wonderful" and the righteous understand the great value of rainfall.

Here’s a fantastic song, Trouble In The Fields, from one of my favorite singer / song writers, Nancy Griffith (second verse and chorus):

There's still a lotta love, here in these troubled fields
There's a book up on the shelf about the dust bowl days
And there's a little bit of you and a little bit of me
In the photos on every page
Now our children live in the city and they rest upon our shoulders
They never want the rain to fall or the weather to get colder

And all this trouble in our fields
If this rain can fall, these wounds can heal
They'll never take our native soil
But if we sell that new John Deere
And then we'll work these crops with sweat and tears
You'll be the mule I'll be the plow
Come harvest time we'll work it out

Nancy, raised in the arid Texas panhandle, knows how desperately farmers need rain.  City slickers eat food, but aren't involved in growing it so they see rain as "bad" weather.  Let’s think about it.  Does NASA send explorations to the Moon and to Mars to see if there is any sunshine there?  No, the search for life is the search for water.  All this is an excellent example of how self-focused we can become.  Followers of Jesus look to Him for guidance about what is good and profitable for us.  Followers of Jesus trust God to be greater than the circumstances of our lives and whether we like them or not.  The next time your picnic gets rained out, take a moment to thank God that you have food to eat at all.

Clark H Smith

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Through The Ice

Living in Alaska, my dad took my brother and I out ice fishing in the winter of 1969.  We actually didn't go fishing, but it was a good sounding excuse for us to drive out in the middle of nowhere and just play in the forests and on the frozen river ...well, sort of frozen.  My brother was off chasing squirrels or something as Dad and I walked down the frozen river.  In the winter, at 40° below zero, the ice will freeze two feet thick on slow running rivers.  Dad saw that we were approaching a place where the river was running fast and shallow and the river was not frozen there at all; instead it bubbled up through the ice over the rocks.  He told me to wait and let him take the lead, to avoid the thin ice.  He took one step to move even with me and one more step to move ahead.  With one more step he disappeared from sight, down through the ice, and into the brown water of the Chena River.  Dad was gone.  More on this thrilling adventure after a word from our Sponsor:

“…whatever is not from faith is sin” (Romans 14:23b) 

For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God (Ephesians 2:8)

Did you ever wonder why Christians believe you can’t be saved (get to heaven) by doing good works?  Think about it, if you get condemned to hell for doing bad works (sin), why can’t you get admission to heaven by doing the opposite, through doing good works?  That’s the whole idea of karma (not a Christian concept) – balancing out the positive and negative work as we go through life.  Why didn’t Jesus set up a points system for works… steal a candy bar, lose 5 points on your eternal tally; kill your neighbor, forfeit 100 points; go to church twice in a month, +10; go on a mission trip to Africa, +50?  That seems so much simpler, at least easier to keep track of.  Jesus said the greatest commandment is to love God.  Ever wonder if you love God enough?

In the Romans verse above, Apostle Paul explains that the problem is not the sin, but the lack of faith that leads to the sin.  Let’s take Adam and Eve as an example,  they ate the “forbidden fruit”.  But why?  They had all the best food in the world available to them right there in the Garden of Eden.  I believe that when Eve was tempted, she lacked faith that all the rest of that food was as good (or better) than the fruit she had in her hand.  What about your sins?  Is it possible that you lied because you didn’t have faith that the truth would set you free.  Is it possible that you stole because you didn’t have faith that God would provide for you.  Is it possible that you lusted because you didn’t have faith that God would give you complete fulfillment with your spouse?  The Bible teaches that whatever is not anchored in faith results in sin.

Followers of Jesus follow Him through faith.  A lack of faith caused our separation from God.  The life of faith is the only path back into fellowship with God.  (see Hebrews 11:6 also)   Now, let’s go up north again and see where this perilous adventure takes us.

In northern climates public service announcements run on TV repeatedly, informing you how to pull people out of the ice.  But there’s a big difference between lakes where the water is still and rivers where the water is flowing.  When you fall through the ice on a river, the current pushes you past the hole you fell through and you wind up trapped under the ice – dying within a couple minutes due to hypothermia and drowning.  The only hope a person has is to, somehow, resist the current and come straight back up through hole that you went down through – in spite of the flowing water.

A lifetime passed in half a second… and as fast as he disappeared, Dad popped straight back up out of that hole.  I laid down, gave Dad something to grab onto and managed to get him out of that frozen river.  Dad recovered beautifully, probably too shocked to even get sick. 

You get my point?  You have to come back the same way you left.  Sin, bad works, is a problem, but it’s not the initial problem – a lack of faith is the start of us moving away from God.  Followers of Jesus come back to God the same way we left – through faith.  Good works are great, but no matter how great a swimmer my dad may have been, he could never swim well enough to get back to a hole he had been pushed away from.

Followers of Jesus live by faith - truly live!

Clark H Smith

ps - This is my favorite illustration of all because it is so terribly personal, it was a moment where life and death was so real in front of me, and because it tells the profound truth of our relationship with God.  Would you do me a favor?  Click that "f" button just below here and share this on Facebook.  Even better, when you share this blog post, share your story of coming back to God through faith.

A Glimpse In The Dark

In October of 1982, I was visiting a friend at the University of Missouri.  College kids being all social and everything, I wound up meeting “a girl”.  Eight months later… we were married.  I highly recommend “love at first sight” if it’s really love and if you are seeing things clearly.

We actually only saw each other face-to-face about five times before we got married.  In the Spring of 1983, Alyse was doing “clinicals” in hospitals in Missouri, Oklahoma, and Texas so I (from Dallas) visited her a couple times when our schedules allowed.  Alyse’s last clinical was at Shriner’s Burn Hospital in Galveston.  At night, we walked along the beach.  I wanted to take a picture of this beautiful gal, but it was pitch black and I couldn’t see her to focus my (old-timey, manual focus) camera.  Eventually I figured out that as cars came down a side road and turned onto Seawall Blvd, the car lights would sweep across the beach and I had a split second to focus.  I think you’ll agree that the image was well worth the wait and the effort.

Now’s a good time to catch a word or two from our Sponsor:

“I see him, but not now;
I behold him, but not near;
A star shall come forth from Jacob,
A scepter shall rise from Israel”
(Numbers 24:17a NASB)
 We don't yet see things clearly. We're squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won't be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We'll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us! (1 Corinthians 13:12)

In the Old Testament, the Savior (the Star, the Scepter) was prophesied, but He was yet to be seen.  We got brief glimpses of the Messiah through the prophets.  Then, on that blessed night in Bethlehem, Jesus stepped into our world and we saw Him, full of grace and truth.  But He was only on this planet for 33 short years.  In reality, today our glimpses backward to the time of Jesus are only slightly better than the ancients’ glimpses forward.  But in both cases those brief sightings are rare and rewarding.

Those glimpses of Alyse on Galveston beach were a metaphor for how seldom and precious our times together were.  We actually didn’t even speak together on the phone very much.  Back in the day, long distance phone calls were expensive so we wrote a LOT of letters back and forth.  We still have those letters - among our most prized possessions.   This October, we celebrate knowing each other for 29 spectacular years.  Although we now live under the same roof – going through all the motions of life together – the urgency of those first eight months still lives in our hearts.  Those letters are just as precious to us today as when they arrived in the mail 28 to 29 years ago.

Followers of Jesus are an odd bunch.  We follow a person who was anticipated for a couple thousand years, He showed up for 33 years, and now has been absent from the earth for a couple thousand years.  Glimpses of Him are wonderful and precious.  And those letters!  The writings of Jesus’ words and the letters of the people who knew and followed Jesus are precious to us as well.

On that pitch black beach, even when I couldn’t see the one I adored, I still knew she was there.  We talked and I felt her presence.  Followers of Jesus walk the same way – by faith, not sight – talking with and celebrating the presence of the One we adore - Jesus.

Clark H Smith

ps – Have a favorite photo of a loved one that captures a moment in time?  Visit my Facebook page, post it up, and write a note about what it means to you.