Living in the Spirit
October 12, 2015

Scripture Reading: Joel 2:21-27

Do not fear, O soil;
   be glad and rejoice,
   for the Lord has done great things!
Do not fear, you animals of the field,
   for the pastures of the wilderness are green;
the tree bears its fruit,
   the fig tree and vine give their full yield.  

O children of Zion, be glad
   and rejoice in the Lord your God;
for he has given the early rain for your vindication,
   he has poured down for you abundant rain,
   the early and the later rain, as before.
The threshing-floors shall be full of grain,
   the vats shall overflow with wine and oil. –Joel 2:21-24

Joel is speaking words of hope here, recovery from drought. The economy will recover the food will grow again in abundance. There will be enough to eat. Hope comes and goes here in Oklahoma as we ride the roller coaster of rain and no rain. We had floods in May and ample rain in June and July but then the drought began to seep back upon the weather maps on the evening news. Red is the color we definitely do not want to see on the maps, but now once again there is red in the county that normally has the most rain of all. The beauty of fall is lost in drought. The trees go from green directly to looking almost dead.

Joel knows drought is a fickle thing. He reassures his people that God is in the early rain and to take that as a sign that God is the god of the harvest. The challenge we face today is whether our own actions are contributing to weather irregularities. While we worry about drought the people on the east coast are drowning in the out of control flood of waters from a tropical storm.  The people on the west coast are living in drought continuously now. Is this just a normal cycle of weather life or is our ignoring the impact we have on the climate costing us greatly?

We were commanded care of the earth by God at creation. That was obviously done for a reason. Dominion does not mean license to do whatever we want. It means responsibility so that we and all the animals can rejoice for long into the future on this earth that God has provided.

Prayer: Lord, make us good stewards of your provision. Amen.

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of American. Used by permission. All rights reserved.