It has been a long time since a post has been put forth. It is kind of like the weather, it might best be described as a drought. A drought is gripping a great deal of our nation and in many places crops have been sown only to die in the fields. Record setting tempatures and lack of rain is taking its toll on almost everything.
This summer in an adult Sunday School class we have been studying the general or catholic epistles. They are letters written not to one particular congregation, but to God's people in a variety of places and times. This Sunday we studied the book of Jude, a short but powerful scripture that has a profound message for God's people in any time. In verse 12 the author uses these words:
"They are waterless clouds carried along by the winds; autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, uprooted...." These are the descriptive words of dought... waterless clouds, autumn trees without fruit....and it is a powerful analogy of life that is lived out far from our calling to be God's people.
Jude was written in a time of great struggles in the 1st century church, where there were those who were failing to live within the grace of God and who were instead perverting it. At times each of us might be able to say that our own life looks more like a waterless cloud and fruitless trees, we each fall short of the glory of God and time and time again fail to be the people that God has called us to be. Maybe there are times that we feel that we are in a "spiritual drought".
If that describes your spiritual journey at this time, why not take the time to drink deeply from the well of God's grace, to immerse yourself in the refreshing presence of God that comes in worship, in bread and wine, water and word. The God who brought forth life from a tomb can bring forth new life in the desert places and renewal in parched places of our lives.
