NEED SOME RAIN

Pastor Todd Christopherson
Mid American Stock Car Series
July 17, 2012

First, our condolences go out to the Miller and Einhaus families. Both families lost Dad’s last week and we lift the families up in prayer knowing only God can comfort and strengthen you at this time.

We really had some good racing. Thanks to all that came out this week and thanks to the Ronald McD. House coming out to MIS. What a good cause and good support they give to hundreds of families.

Wow! It is hot and we need some rain! We were looking around the track and there does not seem to be a green blade of grass to be found. Of course the weeds are still green. The heat has been on us for some time now and most are looking forward to relief from it. Few of us enjoy this much heat.

As I thought about the heat and grass that is so brown, I thought what a great illustration God is giving us. So we have gone days in high heat and without rain and we watched the grass loss color and dry up. We can be like that too. If we think we can go without God’s Word, His Spirit, and His fellowship we too can dry up. Our life can get way out of sorts. Our relationships can get fractured.

Just like with grass, the best thing is to have an adequate amount of rain daily, not enough to water log the roots and not to the point of starving them out and leaving it brown and crushing under foot.

Read these verses: John 6:33 "For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world." John 7:38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him." John 1:1-2 "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning."

We see here that Jesus gives life through the Spirit and through His Word. We need to have a daily amount that is right to keep us “green”, in other words, in fellowship with the LORD. For some that is a verse a day to think about. Some it may be reading a chapter a day and some an hour of study and reading. You and the LORD know what is right for you. But for all it needs to be daily. Each of us needs that daily rain of God’s Word into our life. This also helps us to battle sin.

So I hope you are in the Word daily. One of the greatest encouragements I can hear is when ones say to me, “Look at what I found this week.” Or “As I read this week I learned… from my Bible reading”.

NEED SOME RAIN: THE WEEDS

Last week we talked about needing rain. God did not open up His storehouses of rain yet in South Central Wisconsin. We are being declared a severe drought. So we continue to pray that in the LORD’s timing we would get rain. In the mean time, may we learn the lessons God would be teaching us.

Here is one. As we look across the parking lot it is hard to find a blade of grass, but if God pours out His storehouse of rain (His Spirit and His Word) the grass would come back green and strong. The green we see right now is that of weeds. The weeds are still growing too and they are adding to their numbers.

When we ask God to show us the lesson here is what I see. If we do not have time with the Word, prayer, fellowship of believers, the Spirit’s work in our life, if we do not surrender to the LORD and His ways, we are led astray and the weeds grow. The weeds are sin. We can see some big weeds out there and if we get to them when they are small it is easier to pull them and get rid of them. As they (weeds/sin) grow, the roots get deeper and stronger and that makes it harder to pull them and get all of the root. Just like with sin. If we get it right away or even better, before it goes from a choice, a thought, it is better than when we have repeated the sin even to the point of a stronghold sin. The other problem with weeds is they multiply. As I walked around the track the other night I saw lots of small new weeds. That happens with sin too. If we let sin go, there will soon be a new one we give into and soon we get blinded to the sin in our life.

Proverbs 24:30-31 "I went past the field of the sluggard, past the vineyard of the man who lacks judgment; thorns had come up everywhere, the ground was covered with weeds, and the stone wall was in ruins."

Zephaniah 2:9 "Therefore, as surely as I live," declares the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, "surely Moab will become like Sodom, the Ammonites like Gomorrah- a place of weeds."

1 John 1:8-10 "If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives."

We see the hope in verse nine. God is faithful and will forgive us when we confess the sin. I hope you are a weed puller. I hope you find the sin in your life and confess and repent of the sin you find and lets not forget to pray for rain.

Hope to see you at a track soon and have a great day racin’ in the SONshine,

Todd
Feel free to contact me at:
torch_for_jesus@yahoo.com, 608-630-7301 or 512 Chippewa Court, DeForest, WI 53532