Tue, Jan 30th - 12:13PM

Say Much in Little?

Tue, Jan 9th - 2:10PM

Happy New Year...so now what!

Wed, Dec 6th - 3:28PM

What I have been doing!

Thu, Jul 6th - 1:03PM

A shared Experience of Learning!

Talking with Lee and her sharing her dreams made me revisit my old journal.

It was nine years ago, but is still very vivid.  Yes, it’s true. I have pondered its meaning and have asked the Lord for wisdom.  Could it be that my prayer has been answered, or are there things yet for me to learn in the future from this?  At this point I can not exactly say, but I’m enjoying the journey regardless.  As my wife put it, the journey has been wonderful and difficult at the same time.  I will start by saying that I’m not one who dreams often, or remembers them for those of you who understand such things as relates to science.  Why do I write about such things?  I’m hoping that through my experience I will gain a greater understanding of the magnificent of our Lord.  My dream……………

I was in college and sharing a room with two other individuals.  I remembering going to sleep that night with nothing too interesting happening in my life, not at that point, especially in my spirit.  Things were quiet.  Something woke me in the night and I’m still not sure what it was.  I was sleeping on a loft and remember looking down at my desk clock as it read 3:33am, then my eyes drifted over to the side and into the far corner of the room.  Two figures, whom I knew where not my roommates, were standing there silent.  They were only silhouettes and were illuminated with the soft glow of the moon (however, the moon was not out).  I remember looking at the other two bunks and seeing my two roommates asleep and turning my head back to the two figures that had now moved across the room toward me.  I remember feeling really tired and didn’t struggle in the least as they grabbed me by the arm as if I was a twig blowing in the wind.  One on each side of me they walked as my feet drug the floor behind me.  As we came to the door of the room it opened, but it wasn’t to the normal hall outside of our room, it was a long, stone corridor that had the cool feeling of a damp basement with small wisps of wind that graced my face and stunk of rot.  I up righted myself and began to move my feet under me after I realized that the two men where not doing harm to my arms, wrists actually, and began to walk by their sides.  This is when I noticed that they dim light that illuminated them was now beginning to grow.  They were built like men with the skin of bronze, just as you would think bronze skin would look.  I remember their faces being chiseled like stone, and as I talked to them, not once did they move their eyes, always glancing forward, never blinking or loosing focus.  Never did they speak.  I remember thinking that they must be angels of the Lord, but I was unsure of our setting and couldn’t figure what we were doing in a place such as this.   The further we walked the more then began to glow with white light.    Finally we came to the end of the corridor where there was a chair placed right in the center.   The two men gently picked me up over the back of the chair and sat me down like you would a child.  As my arms fell to their sides each one stood behind me with one hand on each of my shoulders and they began to glow more.  This is the first time I noticed large iron bars placed in the wall directly in front of me with a darkness that drifted far back behind them.  I remember feeling sucked in by the darkness that radiated from behind those bars.  Then I felt something coming forward.  It’s very hard for me to describe that experience.  I couldn’t see anything moving towards me, but I felt it.  I remember feeling warmth radiating from the hands of the two standing behind me as the room grew damp (that’s the best way I can explain it).  Then the light from the two standing behind me caught motion behind the bars and I saw a face come into the light until it was close behind the bars.  It was the most beautiful face and was that of a man’s and yet had the features of a woman.  The skin was a cold, pale blue (look at the cone of a flame. That is the exact color of blue).  It was looking right at me and not saying anything but removed the head dress it was wearing.  It didn’t do anything but stare for a long time.  I think that it was wearing a long robe, but I could not distinguish its color.  Everything just seemed black.  Again it just stared.  It had lifeless eyes, like black marbles and they were staring hard, piercing my soul.  Then it opened its mouth and started shouting, its face becoming distorted, disgusting.  It kept shouting “she is mine, she is mine.  You will not take her from me.  She is mine.”  The walls were shaking from the power of the voice, it was shaking so violently.  Then as quickly as it started it stopped and we left the same way we had entered.  When we walked back into the room I saw myself sleeping sitting up in my bed, and in that moment woke up and was sitting there.  I must have sat up in bed, have been so tired that I did not realize I had fallen asleep again.  Then I must have started dreaming.  So odd.  I asked my roommates if I was talking in my sleep or if I had awoken them in the night and both said they had slept completely sound.  Hmmm I’m really not sure its meaning, but what I can tell you is if it was in fact the Devil who I saw, or any agent of evil, the Lord was protecting me the entire time.  Notice how the two angels never left my side.  If anything, I know that the Lord will always protect me.  Perhaps it was the Lord's way of saying "see, you can trust in me.  Even amongst this great evil have I not protected you?" This is how I understood the dream.  I still praise God to this day for his protection and understanding.  The journey continues and further down the road I know I will be looking back at what I had learned.

JOB 1: 12

Tue, Jun 27th - 12:46PM

Where is the answer to my prayers?

Exodus 4: 10-12 "Who gave man his mouth? Who makes him deaf or mute? Who gives him sight or makes him blind? Is it not I, the LORD?  Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say." 

It is very easy for me to get caught up in the flesh, I hope you understand what I mean when I say that.  I often put the Lord on a human level and so my thoughts about Him stay at that level as well.  It’s not intentional and I know the Lord does not view it that way, and Praise his name that he has never left my side.  So what am I talking about you might wonder?  I would like to show you how Christ has really worked with me, held my hand and guided me in a direction that he choose, and I didn’t have a clue what was going on because I somehow was looking in wrong direction.  This is a nasty habit that I have and always seem to find myself laughing when and answer to my prayer is revealed.  About two years ago I was having a very nice conversation with my sister-in-law, her husband, and my wife.  I was telling them how God began to speak in my life (post two of this blog).  It had come to my attention that the Lord told me two very distinctive things. 1. To go out into the wilderness and 2. To start speaking with my father. How would one come up with such an assumption?  After some prayer and contemplation it could only be the Holy Spirit Speaking to my heart.  First I will address the wilderness portion, and then move to number 2, so save any questions you might have for I pray they will be answered after my explanation.  I found myself pondering this “wilderness” and thought the strangest things you ever did hear.  Was I to go into the woods and pitch a tent?  What if I did and the Lord spoke to me?  Hundreds of ideas were swarming through my head, always coming back to the same thought.  What in the world does the Lord mean?  Shortly after that my wife and I (who are big outdoors people and love to hike) were heading off for a vacation in the woods to do some very intense hiking.  I thought, well, this must be what the Lord wanted?  I felt sort of amused at the fact that it all made sense and was coming about just as the Lord had said.  It was a wonderful vacation and I witnessed many wonderful things, but I felt the urge to still go out into the wilderness.  Odd, I thought to myself.  What could the Lord possibly be talking about?  There was an itching in my spirit.  The only possible way that I could describe this “itch” to you is by relating it to a sneeze.  Imagine the feeling you had to sneeze, and yet, there was no relief from the actual action of sneezing.  That was the feeling in my spirit.  I had just spent three days in the wilderness and yet I felt that wasn’t what the Lord wanted or what he was talking about.  So I decided to move onto my father.  It was a beautiful summer afternoon and my mother and my wife were doing some shopping as my father and I sat quietly on a park bench.  I thought this was the opportune time to “talk with my father.”  I laid it all out on the table.  The whole notion of the “sneezing” feeling in my spirit and thought I would get some sort of divine inspiration from my father.  I remember telling my wife that “all my dad said was that he would pray for me and I could find all the answers I was looking for in the Bible.”   A thought that I appreciated, but not what I was looking for.  So, I prayed and struggled with some things, but never received the answer I was looking for.  Notice the last few words in the last sentence (answer I was looking for.)  I was sitting on my back deck one night about a week ago, just chatting with the Lord, a very informal conversation when all of all of a sudden it hit me.  I reflected back on the past two years of my life in a moment.  I realized the situations (many I would never want to relive again and yet many that were completely wonderful) that I had faced in the past two years brought me very close to Christ.  I realized that during those two years I was completely in the wilderness.  I praised the Lord and gave a smile.  He never, ever ceases to amaze me.  After my Mom went to be with the Lord, my father opened up.  I can’t even begin to tell you the amazing conversations we have had, most centered on our Lord and Savior!  One thing that I am learning is our Lord is a very patient God.  He will not always act and respond the way we want because he is God and we are his children, and we are human.  It was wonderful to have my prayers answered and to see what I learned.  So, why am I babbling on about this subject?  I think the person who said “the Lord works in mysterious and wonderful ways” took the words right out of my mouth.  Maybe you will think about that the next time you find yourself questioning God, questioning yourself.  May your thoughts be enlightened by the Lord!