Rain - Womens meeting

Today you will have talked about the budget and the weather.

Nothing new there so it was in Bible days.

Taxes from Caesar

Rain

Rain is good

Hebrews 6:7     Land that drinks in the rain often falling on it and that produces a crop useful to those for whom it is farmed receives the blessing of God. (NIV)

So evil men who promise much and deliver little are like empty rain clouds.

Jude 12     These men are blemishes at your love feasts, eating with you without the slightest qualm -- shepherds who feed only themselves. They are clouds without rain, blown along by the wind; autumn trees, without fruit and uprooted -- twice dead. (NIV)

The “good” God gives rain

As a symbol of his willingness to give all good things. The best of all being eternal life in Christ.

Matthew 5:45 that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. (NIV)

Acts 14:17 Yet he has not left himself without testimony: He has shown kindness by giving you rain from heaven and crops in their seasons; he provides you with plenty of food and fills your hearts with joy." (NIV)

Too much of a good thing

Can bring danger then we need a foundation. Christ!

Matthew 7:25-27 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. 26 But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. 27 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash." (NIV)

Faith

I wish I had your faith! Elijah was a man like us.

James 5:17-18     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. 18 Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops. (NIV)