At The Cloud Appreciation Society we love clouds, we’re not ashamed to say it and we’ve had enough of people moaning about them.Read our manifesto and see how we are fighting the banality of ‘blue-sky thinking’. If you agree with what we stand for, then join the society for a minimal postage and administration fee and receive your very own official membership certificate and badge.
After several days of persistent rain and some snow, I spotted something too marvelous for words from our lounge window round about midday: a baby-blue sky and fluffy white clouds! I galloped down stairs and took some photos from our front door and thought.......
Imagine in all of the whole wide world, there is ONE and one place only, where clouds can be found and marvelled at: and this place is limited to Hertfordshire. How the scientists, thrill-seekers, journalists, tourists and artists would flock to the little county of Herts just North of London! Visitors and cloud-spotters would fly back through a cloudless sky, raving about real clouds witnessed first-hand.
Imagine you have never seen a cloud in all your life. Now, have a peep at the pictures I took a few hours ago, and see, look........... as if for the very first time. For a moment truly look at........clouds.
Joni Mitchell sang of clouds:
“Rows and floes of angel hair
And ice cream castles in the air
And feather canyons ev’rywhere.."
Far more dramatic than my snappy snap snaps, are the photos on the Cloud Appreciation Society website. We hope you will view this fiery-cloud image, keeping in mind that Jesus said he will return on the clouds.
It is no secret: we are clearly told that Jesus will return on the clouds. Every eye will see. When He comes - Maranatha! - the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of God and of His Christ. And every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord.
Bless the Lord o my soul
and let everything that is in me
bless His Holy name today
- and on that great eventful day!
Maybe, to you, Jesus is a handy swear-word, or just another good model, or a fairy-tale, or a faint shadow in your distant past. Maybe you are on a quest to squeeze the best out of life, detached from Jesus Christ. If He is not your Lord and King now, be very careful.......that is a day you will not be able to roll with the punches.
What follows is hard for the proud, self-reliant to swallow.. No human being can force another human being to believe. But in all fairness, to make an open-eyed decision, options need to be considered.
The Bible and Clouds and God's Presence
Bless the Lord o my soul
and let everything that is in me
bless His Holy name today
- and on that great eventful day!
Maybe, to you, Jesus is a handy swear-word, or just another good model, or a fairy-tale, or a faint shadow in your distant past. Maybe you are on a quest to squeeze the best out of life, detached from Jesus Christ. If He is not your Lord and King now, be very careful.......that is a day you will not be able to roll with the punches.
What follows is hard for the proud, self-reliant to swallow.. No human being can force another human being to believe. But in all fairness, to make an open-eyed decision, options need to be considered.
Between us and eternal life there are two great obstacles. One is that we are spiritually lifeless and dead. The other is that we are sinfully corrupt and guilty. We cannot inherit life as children of God if we are dead and if we are guilty. But God so loved us that he did two things.Lenticularis Clouds
He sent his Spirit to cause us to be born again, to quicken us and make us pass from death to life. And so he overcomes the first obstacle.
But in perfect harmony with the work of his Spirit God sent his Son to die for our sin (John 1:29) and remove the guilt of all who believe in him. So the moment we believe in him, even though we are sinners, we are authorized in him to lay hold on the inheritance of the children of God. And so the second obstacle is removed.
This is a great salvation for sinners like you and me. It is full and free and corresponds to our exact need and condition. I offer it to you this morning in the name of Jesus. Receive him as he really is. Believe in him as the all-satisfying end of your search for peace. "How to become a child of God" John Piper Desiring God
The Bible and Clouds and God's Presence
Genesis 9:13-16. God was present to the children of Israel during the exodus as a pillar of cloud by day and a fiery, cloudy pillar by night. Moses went up on the mountain where "the glory of the Lord settled on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it for six days" (Ex. 24:16). The cloud represents the presence of God. Note that God called to Moses out of the cloud (24:16), descended as a cloud (in a cloud?) on the tent where Moses was (33:9), and descended in a cloud and spoke to Moses when he went up a second time for the stone tablets (34:5). Scripture says that Moses' face glowed and that people could see that glow after he had been in the cloud, in the presence Of God.
