I'm No Stranger to the Rain

If you listen to a little country music, you may recognize my blog title as the title of a popular tune. I thought of it because of the tremendous amounts of rain we have been having. It's beautiful really! But in life it is not so fun...although it causes us to grow.

Should you want to do some research about troubles in life, start with your Bible. When you open it and begin to read, you will discover that every character in it, especially those greatly used by God, were no strangers to the rain either. The more I live the more I know we are all in need of much grace as the umbrella to cover us during life's storms. Eve, ate the fruit...Abraham, lied...Moses, got so mad he broke the commandments of God, not to mention his sheer disobedience of striking a rock he was told to speak to....Samson, fell prey to a stalking woman losing sight of his strength....David, committed adultery with Bathsheba...Elijah got so depressed he begged to die.....Thomas doubted to the point he let his mind out think the reality of those who had seen the risen Lord....Peter, cursed, fought, mouthed off, quit, pouted, questioned, got naked (I'm not making it up...read your Bible!)....on and on the story of men and women and their tragic lives of love, loss, pain, depression. The amazing thing is, virtually every one of these Bible heros faced their own failures...failures which resulted from the rains of life that turned into a flood.

I have zero tolerance for hypocritical dupes who point their proud, egotistical noses upward and act like they have never seen a day of drizzle in their lives. Failure is part and parcel to the human frame! If we were perfect, we wouldn't need a Savior! But we desperately need a Savior, one who will come out in the downpour (a place very uncomfortable for those with their noses in the air) and drag us, yes, even carry us to a place of safety. We all have sin. I place myself at the head of the list. But I refuse to believe I am the only one on the list. Rain doesn't just come down in my back yard. It rains on the just and the unjust. The good, the bad, the pretty and the ugly get rained on. We look in the mirror to discover poop on our faces! Hopefully you make it to the mirror before some smug 'ultra religious biggot' comes along and gladly points it out for you.

You know, the church has to be a place to invite people in out of the rain. We don't ignore the rain, nor the fact that most folks are soaked with it. We just want to help dry them off, prevent sickness and cold which hurts all the way to the bone. Yes, it rains...it rains on us all! I certainly am no stranger to it. Are you?

Satan is at Work....The Church Must Awaken!

We cannot look at church in the manner that I fear some do. To some, church is merely a community institution that primarily takes care of a few kids, and provides a social function each Sunday. If this is our view of the church we have missed all that Jesus intended this holy institution to do. The church is to be a dynamic, spiritual force that is pushing back evil.

Satan has not let up. In fact, since he knows there is little time left for him to work he has 'poured on the coals' and is working through every venue he can find. Much secular music and media is filled with evil. It is getting to the grey matter of our children. I have never seen so many young people struggling with drugs, suicide, and promiscuity as our generation. The sorcery, or drug usage, has reached epidemic proportions. The fallout is the loss of the ingenuity our children should possess.

Right here in our own community we have become desensitized to the sickness of gambling, as a huge casino is gobbling up money, family, morals and revenue needed for our local government. Sin abounds! Since this is the generation to which we are called to minister, what shall we do?

One thing is sure, we cannot have church as usual. There has to be a unique mixture of using the technologies that relate to this generation, blended with powerful service spawned in the fires of prayer. The only weigh to fight Satan is with the name of Jesus, the Blood of Christ and with the Holy Spirit. The church that operates as such will find itself always working against the darkness.

I believe our best days are here. But doing our best means being our best week in and week out. The church must not dodge our responsibility. We must go back to our knees in prayer and asking God to be exalted in our midst. If we will, He will. Re-read 1 Chronicles 7:14. I know I want to see the church reach its potential. We can still turn this godless, atheistic, secular, liberal society upside down through God.

This is the kind of church our world needs in the worst way. My prayer is we all will do our part to help make it so. "Where sin did abound....Grace did much more abound!"

Blessings,

Tim