The Lord Appeared in a Dream

Over and over the Bible makes the statement, “The Lord appeared in a dream”. The Lord appeared in a dream to Gideon, to Joseph, to Daniel, to Jesus earthly father Joseph, to Paul, and to prophets. Do you think God still appears to people in dreams? The word appeared could also be translated “showed” or “to lighten”. In other words God revealed His will to them in this unique way. He showed them things they were in the dark about. Rose and I have lost something and looked everywhere we could think of with no avail. A number of times after we asked God to reveal the location, in a dream during the night the places were revealed to us. In the passage of Matthew concerning Jesus earthly father Joseph, again and again the Bible says God appeared to him in a dream. Joseph always responded with instant obedience and God rewarded him with safety and blessing as a result.

“While he was thinking about this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, "Joseph, descendant of David, do not be afraid to take Mary to be your wife. For it is by the Holy Spirit that she has conceived.”

(Matthew 1:20)

A married couple from India moved to Canada so the husband Bhupinder Singh could work for a major bank as an Information technology professional. One night, after praying and reading their Sikhi scriptures, his wife Mona had a dream. In this dream, the Lord Jesus himself came to her and told her about what she has been praying for. At that point, they had never read the Bible or knew much about the Lord Jesus or gone to any church. She immediately realized that the Lord Jesus is the true, real & living God. “That’s why He knows what I have been praying as per my Sikh scriptures. She immediately accepted the Lord Jesus. Bhupinder thought, I have got everything from my own Guru / religion, so why do we need a new God?" Bhupinder began to seek out the truth about his wife¹s new revelation. He called a local church and spoke with a pastor. Bhupinder asked him,"Do I have to change my religion or my dress code to come to your faith?" He was told that Christianity is not a religion but a direct relationship with God and that whatever kind of dress he wore, it was okay. "I wanted some proof that what the pastor told me was correct". So I asked him to give me a Bible. He gave me a copy of New Testament. ”

After I started reading the New Testament, all my questions were answered in the first hundred pages. I soon realized that all the books I¹ve read earlier are just derived from the Bible. Now I am reading the original book.” "My wife and I started studying the Bible seriously," Bhupinder says. "Soon we stopped reading and following other scriptures. We started doing everything according to the Bible. Our entire life has changed. We spend a lot of time reading the word of God. We meditate on it and use it in our day to day lives." "The Lord has also blessed us. He is using us to bring lost souls to Him in our social circle & South Asian Communities”, says Bhupinder. “We are seeing a big change in their life through physical and most importantly spiritual healings, answered prayers and quick resolution of issues by blessings from true & living Lord.”

Whether through dreams or through His Word, God is still speaking to his people. Will we hear his voice and respond with instant obedience like Joseph did? God’s power and presence will flood our lives when we respond in this way to His voice. Joseph was an ordinary man, but God used him in extraordinary ways because of his obedience. When God appears to you and me, will we respond like that? God still used ordinary people to do extraordinary things when we are eager to obey Him.

Selah,

Al Yoder

9/15/2011

Brothers and Sisters Loved by God: Assurance Even in Suicide

For we know, brothers loved by God, that He has chosen you.  1 Thessalonians 1:4

Do you need some good news today?  Some encouraging word to get you started in the morning, or maybe something positive to counteract the overwhelming negative attitude that pervades the culture outside of Christ?  How about this statement from 1 Thessalonians.  What better news can there be than that the all-powerful God of the universe loves you?  In fact, not only does He love His children, He has chosen them as His children.  We are not His children because we chose Him, but because He chose us.  That is good news indeed.  If it depended upon my choosing Him, I might fall away during a low time in my life.  I might question my status as a child of God during a time of discouragement.  If it depends upon my complete and unquestioning faith in God, then I'm afraid I'd be in and out of a right relationship with Him depending upon my attitude and ability to think correctly.  But God has made it clear that He has chosen us, and He sustains us even in the worst of times.  His love breaks through any circumstance.  

In Romans chapter eight, Paul lists a whole host of things that we are tempted to think can rock our world and take away all of our hope.  But he says that none of these things, in fact no thing at all, no part of creation, can keep us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.   

He begins His list by saying that neither life nor death can separate us from God.  Do you know someone who has committed suicide?  Have you been taught that suicide is an unpardonable sin?  This teaching is nowhere to be found in scripture.  To be sure, suicide is a sin, it is a terrible sin.  But our sins have been forgiven in Christ.  His sacrifice and atonement are the antidote for sin once for all time.  Christ's one-time sacrifice atoned for sins into the past and out into the future, both to Old Testament believers and into the future to us.  It was a once for all time sacrifice, not one that must be repeated every time that we sin.  When a believer dies, there is not some necessity of a final confession before he passes on.  That is a theology taught by our Roman Catholic brothers and one with which we disagree.  Confession is important in overcoming sin, but it is not the thing which forgives us of our sin.  Christ's atoning work overcomes sin, and that work is complete.  And God chose us for Himself, and neither life nor death can separate us from His perfect love.  Once we are His, we are always His.

And I am sure of this, that He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.  Phil 1:6

Has God begun a good work in you?  The promise is that He will bring it to completion.  Did He begin a good work in a loved one who took his or her own life?  Be assured, be certain because nothing is more sure or certain than the Word of God, that God will bring His good work to completion in that loved one, even though their life may have ended in a tragic way.  There is little that can be said at a tragic time like this that can take away the pain.  We grieve rightly because it is a sorrowful thing to lose someone.  But we must never bring question into a situation in which there is no question.   God loves His children, He has chosen us and He will finish the work He began in us.  Thank God for the assurance we have in Him, that our salvation is sure not because of our perfect behavior and right thinking in the matter, but because God has chosen us, He loves us, and He will not let us go once we are His.  

My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.  I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.  My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand.  I and the Father are one.  John 10:27-30

The Whole Picture

Some people read the Bible by opening it at random and without looking point his finger at the page. They look at that as God’s word for them for the day.  Sometimes that works positively, but other times it has a negative effect because it is taken out of context. Such was the case of the man who said, “Lord, show me what you want me to do”…using that method. His Bible opened up to the scripture that said, “Judas went out and hung himself.” He than closed the Bible and reopened it pointing to, “Go and do thou likewise.”  That’s why it is unwise to not compare scripture with scripture to get the whole picture. At times we communicate with people by only giving them a small part of the whole picture. Yet we expect them to understand where we are coming from. It’s not fair to the person who wants to be our friend. It’s also not fair to the Holy Spirit when we try to interpret what he is saying based on one verse of scripture.

“These things we also speak, not in words which man's wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual.”

I Corinthians 2:13

A Texas teacher was helping one of her kindergarten students put on his cowboy boots. She could see why he had asked her for help, because even with her pulling and him pushing the little boots still didn’t want to go on. She had worked up a sweat by the time the second boot was on. The little boy said, “Teacher, they are on the wrong feet.” She looked, and sure enough they were.  It wasn’t any easier to pull the boots off than it was putting them on. She managed to keep her cool as they worked together to get the boots off and back on the right feet. Then the boy announced, “These aren’t my boots.”  Once again, she bit her tongue and struggled to help him putt the ill-fitting boots off his little feet. No sooner had they gotten the boots off when he said, “These are my brother’s boots. My mom made me wear them.” Now the teacher didn’t know if she should laugh or cry. But she wrestled the boots back on the little boy’s feet again. As she helped him into his coat, she asked “where are your mittens?” He said, “I stuffed them in the toes of my boots.”

Sometimes, like the little boy, we only give people bits and pieces of information. Yet, we expect them to understand what we need from them. If the little boy would have shared more information with the teacher up front, the job would have been much easier for both of them. If we allow God to share more information with us up front, we will see the whole picture and our lives with be infinitely more balanced and meaningful. Comparing scripture with scripture is treating God fairly and it makes our life easier because we see the whole picture.

Al Yoder

9/7/2011