Clouds without Rain
The Weather Man has been announcing so often very recently that we all have had very minimal rain over this Summer, but then there is usually always clouds up there and you regularly get a light shower, but it is of no volume, nothing to fill the tank or to stop the grass from turning to straw, so this got one thinking. Then this verse in Proverbs came to mind, as found in Proverbs 25:14 “Whoso boasteth himself of a false gift [is like] clouds and wind without rain.”
It is so easy for us to be like this verse found in 2 Timothy 3:5 “Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.” We so easily get full of, well everything, promising so much, to so many, waving the Flag that we are a great Christian, but “when push comes to shove” as they say, there is nothing to back it up, we are just promising clouds without rain, or a “red sky in the morning” and then deliver a dry and sunny day.
We have this verse as found in Luke’s Gospel, Luke 6:38 “Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again.”
We oft hear people complaining about receiving so little in life, so maybe the problem is really in their own back yard, when they are themselves giving out so very little, or out of pure selfishness, and you hear them complaining about the rough path that they are on, so maybe it is past time to swap tracks, and to deliver what was promised, and to quit being “clouds without rain.” Maybe we should have more of this verse as found in 1 Kings 18:41 “And Elijah said unto Ahab, Get thee up, eat and drink; for [there is] a sound of abundance of rain.”
On a Gaither Video, Bob Cain sang a duet and the punch line goes something like this, “my heart is at flood stage and it’s about to overflow, the river of mercy is rushing through my soul, the love of God keeps filling me, and it grows and grows and grows, my heart is at a flood stage and it’s about to overflow.” Here we have clouds and they are pouring forth abundantly from out of Heavens bounties.
There was a cute saying a while ago and it goes something like this; “God sends the rain on the Just and the Unjust Fella, but more upon the Just, because the unjust stole the justs umbrella.” God sheds his love abroad, regardless of anyone or anything but we so often throw up so many rules and measures, that nobody ever get the refreshing rain from us, but then it is so easy for us to claim to be Christians, and then turn out to be nothing more than selfish and self-serving and eternally lost (but good christians,) we are just “clouds without rain,” something that looks so promising, and yet turns out to be so worthless, how so very sad that all the power of the Gospel, that can so easily transform sinners into saints, has not been unleashed upon the soul of the alleged saint.
Paul had this for us in Romans 5:20 “Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound:” and we have this in 1 John 3:4 “Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.” The Law shows us sin and sends us to Jesus, Jesus fixes us up and sends us back to The Law, and then we find more faults with ourselves, so back we go to Jesus. This concept I believe was first expounded by the Wesley Brothers of Methodist fame.
Colossians has this for us in Colossians 1:27 “To whom God would make known what [is] the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:” Here Paul has a concept of the Believers being full of Christ as Christ is abundantly within, and this is a mystery, or in our concept, The clouds may not be that big and full, but boy can we be abundantly blessed by much real long soaking gift of showers of blessing; this is a real cloud and it has real rain that falls on the parched fields and forests. Why are we all not such channels of heavenly blessing to those about us that they are permanently wet from the showers of blessing flowing through us to everybody we come in contact with.
The other gift that we Christians are supposed to be splashing about, like a child spreading peanut butter, who gets it upon everything, is the Fruit of the Spirit. The fullness of this is found in Galatians 5:22-25 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.”
I think linking the concept of “Rain” with the functioning of the “Holy Spirit” is Biblical, as we oft read about the showers of the “Early Rain” and the “Latter Rain” which brings us back to the very beginning, “Are we Clouds without Rain?” We all feel that “I’m Ok” but if God commanded, “Beam him up Scottie,” and you in an instant stood in the purity of Heaven, what now, would you be “a fish out of water” or would you sigh and say, “I’m Home!”
Dear Reader; There are not many days left before this old world gets to the end of the road and that is it, all over, so why not today and every day remain, “In Christ,” “Full of the Holy Spirit,” and forever be “a Cloud dispensing bountiful rain.”
