There’s an old hymn I sang in church where the refrain goes:

Showers of blessing,
Showers of blessing we need:
Mercy-drops round us are falling,
But for the showers we plead.

Major Daniel Webster Whittle penned these words after serving in the American Civil War. Whittle referred to this passage in Ezekiel for his image of the Lord soaking his people with blessings like a day-long rain:

I will make them and the places surrounding my hill a blessing. I will send down showers in season; there will be showers of blessing.

Whittle turned to Jesus while lying in a hospital, his arm amputated above the elbow. In his despair, Whittle opened a New Testament his mother gave him as he left home. He read the small book over and over, and saw his way to salvation in Christ. His moment of conversion is powerful:

While laying in the hospital, a young man begged a nurse to pray for him, but she refused. He then begged Daniel who said “I can’t pray. I never prayed in my life. I am just as wicked as you are.” The young man again begged Daniel to pray for him. He felt God speaking to him, so he knelt at the boy’s bedside…

Major Whittle wrote “I dropped on my knees and held the boy’s hand in mine. In a few brok­en words I con­fessed my sins and asked Christ to for­give me. I be­lieved right there that He did for­give me. I then prayed ear­nest­ly for the boy. He be­came qui­et and pressed my hand as I prayed and plead­ed God’s prom­ises. When I arose from my knees, he was dead. A look of peace had come over his troubled face, and I can­not but be­lieve that God who used him to bring me to the Sav­ior, used me to lead him to trust Christ’s pre­cious blood and find par­don. I hope to meet him in hea­ven.”

In the middle of a bloody field hospital, arm throbbing from amputation (without anesthetic), lying next to a dying man, Daniel Webster Whittle embraced the Sender of Blessings. It’s a joyous mystery to me how some choose to follow the Lord in the midst of carnage and darkness.

Whittle wrote more than 200 hymns after the war. He never forgot the Lord’s goodness to him in granting him salvation. I love his line from his hymn I Know Whom I Have Believed:

I know not why God’s wondrous grace to me He hath made known;
Nor why—unworthy—Christ in love redeemed me for His own.

Whittle lived from that day in the hospital to the day of his death experiencing the blessings showering around him. As he wrote hymns one-handed, he never forgot the Lord’s goodness. Whittle’s example makes me aware of my need to pay attention to the goodness of the Lord, to peel off my coat and soak in the showers.

Ezekiel 34 in reading the Bible in 2023

I forgot to set the clocks back.

Daylight Savings Time expired here in Colorado this morning at 2 am. I knew I should fix the clocks last night, but I got busy. Then I fell asleep watching a football game and crawled into bed. Only this morning at 6 did my wife turn to me and mumble, we forget to set the clocks back. Sometimes lack of action leads to fortuitous circumstances. I blissfully snored for another hour.

More often our lack of action leads to problems. Ezekiel received this message from the Lord regarding his unmotivated audience:

My people come to you, as they usually do, and sit before you to hear your words, but they do not put them into practice. Their mouths speak of love, but their hearts are greedy for unjust gain. Indeed, to them you are nothing more than one who sings love songs with a beautiful voice and plays an instrument well, for they hear your words but do not put them into practice.

Notice the repeat of the phrase, they hear your words but do not put them into practice. When it comes to a life of faith it’s the doing that matters. These folks thought of Ezekiel as a traveling minstrel. The wild-haired prophet made for good entertainment. But give credence to his warnings? Let’s not get crazy.

When faith competes with entertainment, faith loses. Formerly an after-hours activity, in our era of 24/7 amusement fresh diversions wait eagerly at our fingertips. The hard work of living the faith loses to lazy distraction.

But as Ezekiel understood, the words of God are the basis of life, not just another option to scroll through. With that in mind, gathering with the saints keeps our lives on track in ways a recorded service fails to accomplish. We need each other if we’re going to actually live the faith and push back the distractions.

Let us keep the faith, and put God’s Word into practice in the company of others. Over time we’ll find ourselves in a better place, and we’ll realize it was the doing that mattered.

Ezekiel 33 in reading the Bible in 2023

Photo by Jon Tyson

Jesus made a couple of astounding promises to those who follow him. First he proclaimed, Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them. Jesus referred to the Holy Spirit, later to infuse many in his audience, and present in those who bow to him today.

A little later Jesus said, The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it more abundantly.

With these dual promises of abundant life and the power of the Holy Spirit, why would anyone hesitate to follow Jesus? Sometimes the message is muddled or unavailable. Often the life of the messenger (myself included) blocks a clear and compelling view of Jesus.

A root cause for many is an unwillingness to surrender. Jesus calls for obedience to his ways and his teachings. Jesus asks those who follow him for everything—all they have and all they are and all they hope to be. Basically, to change your entire reason for living.

But what a change! Not a life without pain or challenges, but one now in touch with the Master. Think about it—how many people do you know who truly live a joyous, abundant life? I know only a few, and they all follow Jesus.

There’s definitely something to his promises. Don’t hesitate to commit.

John 7 & John 10 in reading the Bible in 2023

Photo by Ümit Bulut

Jesus spoke firmly to a crowd of religious leaders who contested his connection with God the Father. He said, You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life.

A person can study the Bible for years and not know Jesus. I’ve met many who do so. Students and professors when I took graduate classes in religious studies, tour guides steeped in biblical history, friends familiar with the teachings of Jesus, and even pastors who refuse to believe all that Jesus claimed.

The words in the text are not magical. No incantation summons up Jesus. Rather, the illumination of the Holy Spirit reveals the teachings of Jesus to our minds and hearts.

To know and understand the Scriptures, I need the Holy Spirit as my guide. I pray, Holy Spirit, open my eyes and show me wonderful things from your law. I lean into impressions as I read. I jot down thoughts. I dive in hoping to discover more about the Lord and myself. The Scriptures are rich when laid open by the Holy Spirit.

It’s possible for diligent study to veer off path. I want my learning to lead me closer to the Lord rather than farther away.

John 5 in reading the Bible in 2023

Photo by Aaron Burden