Just Like Me

Texas, including Houston, experienced very heavy rain last weekend as Hurricane Patricia morphed into a tropical storm. It's supposed to rain heavily again this weekend. It's a mixed blessing- we need it but not too much at once. It's the age old weather dilemma which is in the hands of The Creator. This is from September 6, 2011.

The news in Texas is not good. Wildfires are destroying property and fatalities are now being reported.The last time I checked, Houston was twenty-one inches under the norm for 2011 in rainfall. A peek at the long term weather forecast shows the probability of rain in the next seven days is zero per cent. Many are praying for rain. In fact, many of my students, who typically pay attention to forecasts only as it relates to beach trips and ball games, are praying for rain. And I would imagine, the following verses from James, chapter 5, have found their way into sermons coming from various pulpits across the Lone Star State:

  Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops.

Do you what I find amazing about that verse? Not the rain part- the just like us line! Look at what this most famous prophet of Israel did. Besides all of his prophetic utterances which came to pass, he kept a widow and her son alive miraculously with a tiny bit of food. He won a standoff versus a contingent of pagan priests. On more than one occasion, he called fire down from heaven. He parted the Jordan River, he raised the dead, and he was taken up to heaven in a whirlwind!!! And, the writer James says Elijah was just like us! I have never thought about performing any of those wonderful feats and yet we're told Elijah was just like us. So, the way I see it, the rain part just falls into place! Let's keep praying.

Applicable quote of the day:
"I don't consider myself a pessimist. I think of a pessimist as someone who is waiting for it to rain. And I feel soaked to the skin."
Leonard Cohen

God bless,
Steve
Luke 18:1
http://www.hawleybooks.com/
E-mail me at steve@hawleybooks.com