{"id":682,"date":"2010-09-16T21:20:47","date_gmt":"2010-09-17T01:20:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.bottlerockettheology.com\/?p=229"},"modified":"2010-09-16T21:20:47","modified_gmt":"2010-09-17T01:20:47","slug":"sometimes-we-miss-the-rain-for-the-storm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dave.dlscott.info\/?p=682","title":{"rendered":"So thirsty.  If only it would rain!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Planning a life without God is living a life without God.\u00a0 Living a life without truly listening to God is living a life of our own choices.\u00a0 Christian or otherwise.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>(Isaiah 37.6) This is what the LORD says<br \/>\n(Isaiah 37.21)\u00a0 This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says<br \/>\n(Isaiah 42.5)\u00a0 This is what God the LORD says<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Picture a planet on which God hasn&#8217;t spoken.\u00a0 We are left to ourselves, to think for ourselves, plan our own way, decide our morals and ethics.<\/p>\n<p>Ah, now this is the life!<\/p>\n<p>But how discouraging and unnerving as one system of thought, one philosophical system falls victim to the next and that one to the next, and what is certain one day is scoffed the next decade.<\/p>\n<p>Imagine a planet on which God doesn&#8217;t interfere with our lives.\u00a0 No looking over our shoulder, no fear of God&#8217;s judgment.\u00a0 (He isn&#8217;t there.\u00a0 Why fear him?)\u00a0 God no longer tells us how to live our lives, how we should speak to other people, how we should relate to each other.\u00a0 God is absent.\u00a0 No more of his righteous intrusions.<\/p>\n<p>And isn&#8217;t this the world we have tried to create?\u00a0 Christians and non-Christians as we do not listen when God talks.<\/p>\n<p>I am reading through Isaiah and again and again I read &#8220;this is what the LORD says&#8221; and again and again I breathe the air of heaven.\u00a0 God is not absent; he has spoken; he is there; he speaks to me.<\/p>\n<p>Now listen to and feel the rain fall.\u00a0 Read the following verse, hear the chorus or raindrops on the roof and siding and step outside into the goodness of God.<\/p>\n<p>And listen to him speak to you words that last way past the end of this age.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Isaiah 55.10-11<br \/>\nAs the rain and the snow come down from heaven,<br \/>\nand do not return to it without watering the earth<br \/>\nand making it bud and flourish, so that it yields<br \/>\nseed for the sower and bread for the eater,<br \/>\nso is my word that goes out from my mouth:<br \/>\nIt will not return to me empty,but will accomplish<br \/>\nwhat I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&#8220;This is what God the LORD says.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>How refreshing and encouraging.\u00a0 God has spoken, written it down in fact, everything we need to know, everything we need to live as he intended.<\/p>\n<p>But even as Christians, we sometimes live in the other world because we deny the power of God in our lives.<\/p>\n<p>God&#8217;s word is well and good as long as he is waving his wand of blessing in my direction, taking care of me, putting my people in office, supporting my various agendas.<\/p>\n<p>God speaks to us.\u00a0 Say it again, Dave.\u00a0 Okay.\u00a0 God speaks to us!\u00a0 Can I get an &#8220;amen&#8221; from the back row?\u00a0 What a tremendous blessing when he &#8220;interferes&#8221; with his living words.<\/p>\n<p>Let&#8217;s not resist so much the voice of God.\u00a0 Let the words on the page become living words in your life.\u00a0 Let this be a spring rain &#8211; &#8220;this is what the Lord says&#8221; &#8211; on our thirsty souls.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Planning a life without God is living a life without God.\u00a0 Living a life without truly listening to God is living a life of our own choices.\u00a0 Christian or otherwise. (Isaiah 37.6) This is what the LORD says (Isaiah 37.21)\u00a0 &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/dave.dlscott.info\/?p=682\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-682","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3dxA8-b0","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dave.dlscott.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/682","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dave.dlscott.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dave.dlscott.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dave.dlscott.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dave.dlscott.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=682"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dave.dlscott.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/682\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dave.dlscott.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dave.dlscott.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dave.dlscott.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}