Like Clouds With No Rain

Growing up in West Texas always made me appreciate the times it rained. My family’s heritage was farming and ranching and I can remember the conversations that invariably came up about rain, the lack of it or it’s blessing. My grandparents would always talk about a “cloud bank” that had formed in one direction or the other. It always invoked the hope of rain but most times was only a tease of what could be. Clouds with no rain. They provided a little shade, maybe even a little hope, but nothing that would nourish the ground and make the crops grow. I even read a book once called “The Time It Never Rained” by Elmer Kelton. This was about the dust bowl days of the 50’s and how it affected the ranchers and farmers of West Texas. Once in awhile, a cloud would come up, maybe even throw out a shower, but there was no quenching rain for several years. It was devastating to the long term viability of the ranches.

Christian assemblies often remind me of clouds with no rain. They look good and maybe even provide a little respite from our week but don’t provide any lasting nourishment to the body or even glorify God. Jesus might say that they don’t produce any fruit. Like the fig tree or the temple. Is this what God wants from us?

We come together for a short time and participate in a “worship service,” using lots of modern mechanics to focus on God and “praise” Jesus. The assembly leaders, many young and immature, try to focus the group on God and chide us when our adulation is not spirited enough. Singing to God is our primary expression of love and we are encouraged to “praise” God using this method. We are told that the assembly is “not about us but about God.” The preaching upholds this notion that we are there to praise God and worship HIm. So, we spend the hour, not considering each other, as we have been told, but rather focusing on God and His son.

I guess I used to think that this was what God wanted. It sounds good, doesn’t it. Praising God. Praising Jesus. Taking each other out of the equation for a little while to focus on the important. After all, that would be humanism to focus on ourselves. Oh, we realize that God wants us to consider each other sometime, just not during this hour of “worship.” We might even spend a few minutes shaking hands, patting each other on the backs, saying “Hi!, how are you?” but we know that this is really not the time to focus on each other. Right? At least that’s what we’ve been told.

Of course, Bible believing people usually want to know what the Bible says. Specifically, we should want to know what Jesus says as he is the word of God. How are we supposed to glorify and show our love for God? How do we praise Jesus for what he’s done for us? Why do we assemble? What is acceptable worship and what isn’t? Is our worship in vain like those that Jesus criticized? What is the fruit that really glorifies God?

Could our assemblies really be just like clouds with no rain?


Don Campbell


Heb. 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.
Heb. 6:8 But land that produces thorns and thistles is worthless and is in danger of being cursed. In the end it will be burned.