Photo credit: Mills Baker (Flickr)
As Christians, we are concerned about whether God is listening to our prayers, but do we really understand that God is watching and listening to our lives?
In Genesis 16 and 21, we find the story of Hagar, an Egyptian woman who was Sarah’s servant and who found herself in a very difficult situation with Abraham and Sarah.
The Situation
As many of you know, Abraham and Sarah (at the time their names were Abram and Sarai) were unable to have children. In an attempt to fix this situation, Sarah gave her servant to Abraham in hopes of conceiving a child. Abraham agreed.
But after Hagar became pregnant, things unfolded differently than Sarah expected. Hagar’s pregnancy elevated her status in the household and she despised Sarah, who sought revenge.
Photo credit: Lachlan Hardy (Flickr)
The refining pot is for silver and the furnace for gold,
but the LORD tests hearts.Proverbs 17:3
The parallels in this proverb are very interesting:
1. The refining pot is matched with the Lord, so we see that in the same way precious metals are purified by the refining pot, the Lord purifies people’s hearts.
2. The silver/gold is matched with people’s hearts. It reminds us that while people place high values on silver and gold, God places a high value on people’s hearts.
Lovely and insightful imagery.
Photo Credit: psd (Flickr)
In Luke 17:11-19, Jesus was on His way to Jerusalem and passed between the cities of Samaria and Galilee. As He entered a certain village in the area, He was met by 10 leprous men who stood far from Him and cried out for mercy. The men were far away because it was customary at that time for lepers to live separately from others, because they were unclean.
When Jesus moved closer to where they were, He told them to go see the priests. This would have been very encouraging for them, because under the Law, the priests were the ones who declared lepers clean. So the lepers went, and as they were going to see the priests, they found themselves healed!
Photo credit: nyello8 (Flickr)
The poor are shunned even by their neighbors,
but the rich have many friends.Proverbs 14:20
You definitely get the sense from this proverb that the rich person’s friends are really “following the money.” Which would mean that they aren’t true friends at all.
Photo credit: Stacirl (Flickr)
In Daniel 3, we find three Israelite captives, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, being threatened with certain death because they have refused to bow to a gold statue setup by King Nebuchadnezzar. After their refusal they are thrown into the furnace, and joined by a fourth figure (one “like a son of God”), and miraculously preserved from death. By the end of the story, they are promoted to high-level positions within the kingdom, and God is glorified.
Many of us have heard this story before and are glad to hear that no harm comes to the men because of their faith in God. But there are a few aspects of this story that we rarely think about:
Photo credit: laurakgibbs (Flickr)
If you’re wondering where the name “The Cloud” came from, here’s the answer: from the Old Testament, the New Testament, and technology-speak.
In the Old Testament, the cloud of God, or the cloud in which God was covered, led the Israelites out of Egypt and through the wilderness (it became a pillar of fire at night). The glory of God also appeared to the Israelites in a cloud. So the cloud signifies the presence of God with us. (Ex. 13:21-22, 16:10)
In the New Testament, the Apostle Paul describes the “cloud of witnesses” in Hebrews 12:1 as representing the community believers throughout history. For us the cloud also signifies that we are not isolated, but are part of a much larger community made up of God’s people. (Heb. 11-12)
Finally, in technical parlance, the “cloud” refers to the Internet, so since we’re developing this community using the power and technology of Internet, naming this site The Cloud made sense from a technical perspective also.
