We need 'Fresh Rain!'

"Let us acknowledge the LORD; let us press on to acknowledge him. As surely as the sun rises, he will appear; he will come to us like the winter rains, like the spring rains that water the earth." Hosea 6:3

It’s really been dry.

It’s been so dry that it’s becoming an Internet joke

Last Tuesday, my mother sent me this e-mail:

“Please pray for rain:

"It's so dry in Tennessee that the Baptists are starting to baptize by sprinkling;
the Methodists are using wet-wipes;

"the Presbyterians are giving out rain-checks;

"and the Catholics are praying for the wine to turn back into water.

Now, that’s dry!”

The lack of rainfall has made normally green yards look like the Mohave Desert.

What’s worse is that when you walk through subdivisions, the normal ffft-ffft-fft-fft sounds of sprinkler systems are no more; they are silent as towns put water-usage restrictions in place.

The heat and lack of water has everyone on edge — farmers who may not have enough winter hay for their cattle, mayors who don’t have enough water for their towns; and then there are the snakes …

Say what?

That’s right: Snakes.

Back in June, the Decatur (Ala.) Daily News had the Page 1 headline of “Snake alert in the Valley.” The drought has brought out the snakes in search of food and moisture, leading them to the dog’s water bowl, drain pipes and crawl spaces.

There is good news, though: The drought could be helpful in depleting the snake supply as rats and mice die from starvation.

Folks, despite the fact that we got a little bit last Thursday night, we’re still in need of heap more fresh rain.

Fresh rain.

In the Christian tradition, the thought of Fresh Rain has been associated with an outpouring of God.

As an elemental picture, water, and thus rain, has been associated with the pouring out of God’s Holy Spirit.

It is a pouring out of God’s grace.

In the agrarian age, when farmers depended on the land for living, rain was most often seen as a blessing of God … though, at the wrong time, it could also mean disaster.

A lack of rain is seen as abandonment by God; certainly as a lack of favor.
In Jeremiah we read, “The ground is cracked because there is no rain in the land; the farmers are dismayed and cover their heads.” (Jeremiah 14:4)

It is a picture of a dry and thirsty land where there is no water.

Throughout the story of God and his people Israel, there is this back-and-forth visual of abundant fresh rain interspersed with periods of dryness.

Hosea was an 8th century BCE prophet. You might remember him: He married Gomer, a prostitute, as a living parable concerning Israel. Hosea represented God. He creates humanity; he brings Israel out of Egypt in the Exodus; Israel rejects him. Israel is God’s chosen, just as Hosea chose Gomer as his wife, and yet they do God a disservice. Gomer betrayed her husband; Israel had broken the covenant.

In Hosea’s language, Israel lacked hesed; Israel lacked mercy; Israel lacked steadfast love; Israel lacked goodness; Israel lacked loyalty.

Instead, Hosea proclaims, “Israel’s covenant faithfulness was like a transient morning cloud, or like the dew that evaporates quickly. (Hosea 6:4)

Hosea’s prophetic painted a picture of divine judgment, yet there was this promise of restoration and renewal. Because of Yahweh’s love for the people, he saw a fresh rain coming on a dry and thirsty land.

“Let us acknowledge the LORD; let us press on to acknowledge him,” Hosea proclaims. “As surely as the sun rises, he will appear; he will come to us like the winter rains, like the spring rains that water the earth.”

Israel was in need of a fresh rain.

As I was researching this idea of fresh rain, I ran into the story of Evan Roberts, who had been a committed Christian from his early teenage years. He was a regular churchgoer and even taught Sunday school.

The story goes that one spring night in 1904, Roberts was awakened from sleep and went into "deep communion with God for hours." It was an experience that continued for the next few months until he went away to school in preparation for seminary. Two weeks after arriving at the school, he received what he termed a fresh “Baptism of the Spirit” as he responded to the prayer, “Bend me, O Lord.”

It was then that Evan Roberts the Sunday School teacher, the young man preparing for seminary, became a revivalist with a message for Wales.

Evan came home to Moriah Calvinistic Methodist Church at Loughor within a month, and he brought this message to an astonished church:

Confess all known sin.

Deal with and get rid of anything ‘doubtful’ in your life.

Be ready to obey the Holy Spirit instantly.

Confess Christ publicly.

By the end of the end of the first week, more than 60 responded to the call.

By the end of the second week, Evan began a whirlwind tour of South Wales. Within a year or so, more than 100,000 were said to have come to Christ. (Thanks to Welsh Revival Homepage for this great story of an outpouring of the fresh rain of the Holy Spirit.)

Wales had received a fresh rain.

Oh, and by the way: It all started in what was known as young people’s meetings.

Sisters and brothers, I don’t know about you, but I’m in need of a fresh rain …

Fresh rain — a soothing rain that washes away the stress, the anger, the resentment, that leads me to open my mouth before I have engaged my heart and my spirit.

Fresh rain — a divine deluge that washes away my self-centered motives that diminishes the call of Christ on my life …

Fresh rain — a cleansing rain that washes me clean of all things that call me away from God, that gets my priorities all screwed up.

Fresh rain — a gully-washer of a storm, that rinses clean the cluttered gutters of mind.

Do you ever feel as if you need a fresh rain, a cleansing rain -- or, am I all alone?

Grace and peace ...