Dream Skippin'

When I was a kid, and my family went to a lake, I would soon get bored with whatever we were doing, and go down to the beach by myself. Of course, I'd grab a stick or a rock and throw it out into the water. Why? Because I was a kid, and I was bored. Gotta do SOMETHING!

"Quit throwing rocks in the lake! You'll fill it up!"

"Yeah, right," I said to myself, and walked further down the beach. That's when I saw another kid skipping stones on the surface of the water. So, I tried it. It didn't go well. Lots of distance, one big splash.

Then I saw another kid doing the same thing, so I copied what he was doing. It wasn't long before I was stone skippin' for real. 21 splashes was my record.

Last night I could NOT sleep. I kept waking up, falling asleep, repeat, repeat, repeat. It was like I was skippin' stones again, only with my consciousness, not water.

This happens every once in a while. Kind of like a family trip to the lake. And I have discovered something. Dream skippin.' The place between asleep and awake is where dreams occur. At least for me.

Dreams get born from our overactive imagination, or pepperoni pizza. But also, dreams can be born of God.

“I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions." - Joel 2:28

"And He said, “Hear my words: If there is a prophet among you, I the Lord make myself known to him in a vision; I speak with him in a dream." - Numbers 12:6

"In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon, Daniel saw a dream and visions of his head as he lay in his bed. Then he wrote down the dream and told the sum of the matter." - Daniel 7:1

So, dreams can come from God, but they can also can come from spicy food. So, how do we discern truth from gas?

I once had a dream that was SO incredibly real, I still remember it to this day. Nothing ever came of that dream, to MY knowledge anyway. Weird.

And have you ever had a dream that was really enjoyable, but then you woke up, and then tried to fall back asleep again? How did THAT work?

When I have a dream that seems important, I actually get out of bed and write it down, in case I forget it before morning. That happens a lot. Many have even made appreances in these stories.

Sometimes dreams are just dreams, but then there are times when dreams are so incredibly vivid that they must mean something, right? Are they from God? Only God knows for sure.

Now here I go again

I see the crystal visions

I keep my visions to myself

- Stevie Nicks

Dreams - Fleetwood Mac

Do You Hate Me?

“If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters - yes, even their own life - such a person cannot be my disciple." - Luke 14:26

That verse always makes me pause for a moment. Jesus wants us to hate everyone? No. Jesus simply wants us to love Him more. More than anyone. Even ourselves.

Who do you love most right now? A spouse? A parent? One of your kids? A super-best friend? Jesus wants us to love Him more than any of these. And that's where we often struggle.

How much do we love Jesus?

The key to understanding the meaning of this verse is to look at the Greek text. In the picture above we see that the Greek word for 'hate' is 'misei.' It actually means to "love less."

Perhaps a better way to understand this verse is to substitute those words for the word 'hate.'

“If anyone comes to me and does not love less their father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters - yes, even their own life - such a person cannot be my disciple."

Going one step farther, the translators COULD have said, "you must love me more than these." But that's not what scripture says.

The point of all this, I think, is our priorities in life. Is Jesus really our #1 love? We need to remember another verse in order to help us in this.

"At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven." - Matthew 22:30

People tend to think that, when they die, they will be reunited with dead loved ones, or can finally marry the one they truly love. That's not what Jesus just told us. We will all be worshipping and serving God, together.

God gives us friends, children, and spouses as earthly objects of our love and affection. But do we love Jesus more? Remember, God created us all in His own image. He is the creator of ALL things; therefore, we are His. Whatever He says, goes.

Many will struggle with this, but I think that's the point. Jesus said what He said to make us stop and think. Do we really love Jesus more than these? Paul has something to say about this.

"An unmarried man is concerned about the Lord’s affairs - how he can please the Lord. ³³But a married man is concerned about the affairs of this world - how he can please his wife -  ³⁴and his interests are divided. An unmarried woman or virgin is concerned about the Lord’s affairs: Her aim is to be devoted to the Lord in both body and spirit. But a married woman is concerned about the affairs of this world - how she can please her husband. ³⁵I am saying this for your own good, not to restrict you, but that you may live in a right way in undivided devotion to the Lord." - 1 Corinthians 7:32-35

One more verse to close with and I will leave it to you to wrestle with.

"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength." - Mark 12:30

What's In A Name?

Early Saturday morning I awoke at 1 AM. I got up, went to the bathroom, and returned to bed. However, I was not able to get back to sleep. The name of someone from the Bible kept repeating itself in my head.

Eliehoenai, Eliehoenai . . .

Who the heck is Eliehoenai anyway? I finally dozed off, hoping not to forget this guy's name until morning so I could look it up. Here's what I found.

Eliehoenai was man's name from the Old Testament. He was a Korahite, and a returning exhile. He was a descendant of David, and both a Simeonite and a Benjamite. He was also a priest of the Lord.

But the cool thing about the name Eliehoenai is in it's meaning. 'El' means 'God' and 'ehoenai' means  'towards Jehovah (are) my eyes.' Basically, it means 'my eyes are on God.' What a cool name!

AND, it is a great reminder for all of us. No matter what situation we find ourselves in, we should always 'Eliehoenai' - look to God.

What does YOUR name mean? My name is Bob, or Robert. It means 'fame, bright, glory, honor, praise, renown, shining, light.' I was named after Robert the Bruce, king of Scotland.

Do our names, given at birth say anything about who we are . . . who we become? What about Jesus?

The name Jesus means 'Yahweh saves' or 'Yahweh is salvation.'

Perfect.

"²⁰Behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him (Joseph) in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. ²¹She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” - Matthew 1:20-21

Perfect.

Punctuation

Do you think punctuation in a sentence is important? Let's see.....

My three favorite things are eating my family and not using commas.

Well, I guess that answers THAT question.

Punctuation is VERY important when trying to relate a thought or a concept to someone in writing.

Did you know that in the original Hebrew text of the Old Testament, there were no vowels or punctuation at all? It's true. No spaces between Greek words in the New Testament, or punctuation either. And no verse numbers or headings anywhere in the any original text. Parchment was hard to come by so every square inch counted, I guess.

It wasn't until the Masorites - ancient Jewish scholars - that punctuation was added. That happened between 700 and 1000 AD.

When the New King James Bible was first published in 1611 there were still no quotation marks. There STILL aren't to this day. So how do we really know who said what?

I bring all this up because of one Bible verse - John 3:13

Jesus was talking with Nicodemus about being born again and who is in heaven. Here is the present day New King James Version of John 3:13:

No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven.

There is a quotation mark preceeding this verse (back in verse 10 of the NKJV). That would seem to indicate that Jesus said these words. But the KJV still has no quotation marks at all. Read the verse again. It almost sounds as if the Apostle John himself was commenting on who is in heaven.

Remember, there were no quotation marks in The Bible until 1600 years after John wrote all this, and after Jesus' death, resurrection, and ascension.

"SOMEONE" decided when and where they thought quotation marks were used. It wasn't John. And they were way smarter than me.

So, what does all this mean? Pay attention when you read the Bible. Analyze it. Look at all the footnotes and subscripts. She what was changed and when. And pray for the Holy Spirit to guide you as you read.

We should seek the truth above all else. And Jesus IS the truth.

"Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true. As a result, many of them believed, as did also a number of prominent Greek women and many Greek men." - Acts 17:11-12

How Was Biblical Puncuation Decided? - Christianity.com

Definitions

We Americans have a common language - English. You'd think that communicating with each other would then be easy. Far from it. You see, although we speak the same language, our words often have different meanings and definitions.

Example: Do you believe in God? You might say 'Yes' but is it the same God that I believe in? Umm..... who knows?

Jesus needs to be defined these days because Jesus has several different meanings, depending on the religion. Jesus of the Bible is not the same as the Mormon Jesus or the Jesus of Islam. Make sure to define your Jesus!

Do you believe that Jesus was the result of a physical, sexual relationship between God and Mary? If you do you might be a Mormon. If you believe thay Jesus always was as part of the Trinity since the beginning of time, you might be a Biblical Christian. See what I mean?

And the Jesus is Islam was merely a prophet, not God. This Islamic prophet,  Jesus, was brought forth to proclaim the coming Messiah, Muhammad.

Make sure who you are believing in and praying to before bowing your head or worshipping with others.

"In the beginning was the Word (Jesus), and the Word (Jesus) was with God, and the Word (Jesus) was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind." - John 1:1-4