Forecast

        This past weekend we braced for a huge snowstorm that never came. Our area was forecasted to receive 8 inches of snow, instead we received about 3/4 of an inch of sleet. Hundreds of churches cancelled their services, businesses braced for the worst and it never came. Oh we had to deal with slippery roads due to the ice, but the deep snow forecast turned out to be a non-event. But in fairness, predicting the weather is a tough job especially in St.Louis. The whole weekend make me think about how some skeptics view this whole "God Thing".
        Jesus promises to be with us in this world and lead us by the hand to the next. The next world, Heaven. The life we lead now shows the world we believe Jesus' "forecast". When the weather men tell us that the weather is going to turn bad, we make preparations. Store shelves are emptied, gas tanks are filled. Are we preparing for His return in the same way? Sharing His love and mercy. Bringing hope to the hopeless? I truly believe that many believers are so burdened by the things happening  in this world, they lose focus of the next.
        We live in a world where we are conditioned to be skeptics. Love never fails? Divorce is rampant. God hears our prayers? Evil things happen everyday.Broken promises everywhere. This list could go on and on. Skeptics look at Christians much the same way as we look at the weather  people when they "miss it" with a forecast. The weather people have their training, computers, and radar to predict the weather and they still get it wrong, alot! But Christians have the Bible, The Holy Spirit, as well as other believers to counsel us, and we still get it wrong, alot! That's not God's fault, it's ours. Our lack of faith and stumbles don't make God any less real, but those infractions do make others (who may be on the fence) question God's very existence.
So what's the answer? Stand behind God's forecast!

Admit when we are wrong. Remember God's reputation is at stake.
Love each other, even when it's not convenient.
Live like kids of the King, even when the world says you're poor.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. Ephesians 1:3-6

This is Jesus' forecast, period!