You ever have God dreams?

I have had several, and I believe that the dream  I am about to describe to you definitely qualifies. Now when I first woke up that morning, I thought maybe I had eaten something that made my brainwaves reverse course or something, but as I have considered it, it was a beautiful confirmation of what Christ has been doing in me.

At the first of the dream, Jesus and I were sitting at an outdoor cafe/coffee shop in some big city. In my dream, Jesus just looked like a middle eastern man. He was dressed in what I would assume was the type of clothing that He would have worn when He walked the earth.

We sat, sipping our coffee, and talking. We weren't talking with our mouths though, it was as though we were talking telepathically: thoughts passing from His mind to mine, and my mind to His. I don't really remember the conversation, but it was relaxing, easy talk, like two friends who knew each other perfectly.

After awhile, Jesus says: "Let's take a walk." So we get up from the table and begin to walk around the streets of this city. As we would walk by people, Jesus would direct me to look at them, and when I did, He would explain to me why they hurt. He described abuses and injustices and scars laid on these people by the very ones who were charged with their care. Fathers, grandfathers, mothers,  friends, and other relatives.

So after a time, Jesus says it's time for Him to go, and we step through this little arched gateway into a sort of courtyard that is just green and beautiful and lush, right in the middle of this stark, cold, concrete and steel city. I notice a door on the right, and Jesus says:"I'll see you soon" and grabs the knob to open the door to leave, then He stops and turns back to me and asks:"What was that beat you were playing in Church yesterday?" I thought for a minute, and I say: "Oh this one?" and I start "beat boxing" this beat I was playing on the drums in church the day before (I am a drummer.) Jesus says:Yeah! Yeah! that's it! Do it some more! So I keep doing this beat, and pretty soon I am dancing to this beat there in front of the Lord, having a great time, and I can see from his face He is enjoying it too. Then He says: "Man, that's really funky!" and turns and leaves through the door. That was the end of my dream.

When I awoke, a smile came immediately to my face. "what a silly dream" I thought. But, as the days and weeks went by, I was able to consider what it meant.

See, at that particular time, i was struggling a little bit, trying to be "good." I had also begun to strongly consider leaving the Church we were in (which we have since done) because it had become very controlling, so naturally my heart was full of doubt and second guessing as to where I stood with God. I have come to understand several things from this.

First, God loves me. He made me. He knows me, completely, wholly, and intricately. The best thing is that even though He knows me in this way, He still chooses to Love me, and call me his friend. I think David expresses this truth beautifully in Psalm 139:

¹ O LORD, you have searched me
       and you know me.

 ² You know when I sit and when I rise;
       you perceive my thoughts from afar.

 ³ You discern my going out and my lying down;
       you are familiar with all my ways.

 ⁴ Before a word is on my tongue
       you know it completely, O LORD.

 ⁵ You hem me in—behind and before;
       you have laid your hand upon me.

 ⁶ Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
       too lofty for me to attain.

Second, if God has me, He has me. I am going to be fine, whatever comes. Wherever I go, whatever I do, or however hard I fight against those things He is trying to refine in me, He never gives up. Again a truth expressed from David's heart in this same Psalm.

⁷ Where can I go from your Spirit?
       Where can I flee from your presence?

 ⁸ If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
       if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.

 ⁹ If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
       if I settle on the far side of the sea,

 ¹⁰ even there your hand will guide me,
       your right hand will hold me fast.

 ¹¹ If I say, "Surely the darkness will hide me
       and the light become night around me,"

 ¹² even the darkness will not be dark to you;
       the night will shine like the day,
       for darkness is as light to you.

Third, all of my gifts, talents, and desires, He designed in me, for the edification of others, for my enjoyment, and for His. See, I think God loves it when His children live a life free of care and worry, and we dance like no one is watching in the joy He gives us. Again, it is in Psalm 139:

¹³ For you created my inmost being;
       you knit me together in my mother's womb.

 ¹⁴ I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
       your works are wonderful,
       I know that full well.

 ¹⁵ My frame was not hidden from you
       when I was made in the secret place.
       When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,

 ¹⁶ your eyes saw my unformed body.
       All the days ordained for me
       were written in your book
       before one of them came to be.

Finally, He thinks fondly of Me, and you, all of His kids, a lot! So much so that He does endearing little things like give us silly dreams to encourage us.

¹⁷ How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!
       How vast is the sum of them!

 ¹⁸ Were I to count them,
       they would outnumber the grains of sand.
       When I awake,
       I am still with you.

To anyone who reads this, I want to encourage you that your God, Yahweh, Jehovah, Elohim, El' Shaddai, Loves you like no one ever has, just as you are. He likes it when you revel in the talents He has given you. He thinks of you, a lot. He will never let you go, you are His, and He will get you there.

There is such a fascinating paradox in this scripture that is missed by many people.

Jesus...

Standing outside the door...

of HIS Church....

Knocking to come in?

And they don't even realize he isn't there...

Revelation 3: 20Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.

Hey! Hey! Here I am! Outside! It's supposed to be my church! Do you not see?

Seems strange, until you understand what he is saying in the warning to the Laodecian Church.

Revelation 3:14"To the angel of the church in Laodicea write:
      These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God's creation. 15I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! 16So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. 17You say, 'I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.' But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. 18I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see. 19Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest, and repent. 20Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me. 21To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne. 22He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches."

We say we are rich. Look at this huge church we've built! It's beautiful! We have 2500 members! We take in $10,000.00 a week. But despite all this, we are blind,  naked,  wretched, and poor. Why? Because HE'S OUTSIDE!! All of our buildings, and programs, and videos, and offerings done in the flesh is a stench in God's nostrils.

The great thing is that he said if any man answer the door, he'll come in and eat, be intimate, with them. Even though we've closed him out of many buildings that are supposed to be his, we just need answer the door, he is there,  waiting....

Let those who have an ear hear what the Spirit says to the Churches....

Do you feel it?

The dissonance?

The disconnect between how you thought it was going to be, and how it actually is?

I suppose, given today's "purpose driven" church culture generation, it's no wonder we are so far off track in so many places. The world, the culture, our families, what do they tell us? Measure up! Pull your weight! Wok hard! Certainly, the ability to work is a gift from our Father, but I think the problem really is that we have sort of traded in the freedom of being sons for the bondage of being servants. The real rub is that this same "theology" ( I use that term very loosely here) is preached from pulpits all over the country, and honestly, it's just wrong.

Consider with me for just a moment, the plight of the average new believer. Our current pastor, bless his heart, always wants to get new people in the church, "Plugged In," to some activity, or class, or some "things" to do. This is a fine approach if you want people to be gone from your midst within a few months. This approach does nothing for the believer except foist upon them a new, "holy" revision of the same system they had hoped to be free from when they accepted Christ. I am afraid my Pastor is not alone in his views.

"Just as I am" is one of my favorite old hymns. It touches me so deeply because there is such deep truth there of how God views his children. He accepted me, just as I am, and He certainly does not wish to leave me the same as when He found me. The question, to all of us, is what mechanism, what methodology, what way will we take to become more like him? Our own works? Or his unconditional acceptance?

Look with me for just a moment at the story of Mary and Martha found in Luke, chapter 10:

38As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. 39She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet listening to what he said. 40But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, "Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!"

 41"Martha, Martha," the Lord answered, "you are worried and upset about many things, 42but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her."

There are several extremely important principles at work in this one story, and several others like it found within both the old and new testaments.

First consider Mary. She sat at the Lords feet, listening. What was she gaining? What was she experiencing there? Imagine yourself in that situation, and that you have the ability to physically sit at the feet of Jesus, letting his words wash over you and cleanse, and soothe, and encourage. You see, a son, or daughter in this case, sits on their daddy's lap. A son allows the father to just love them, free of condition, or expectation. A son of a good father knows beyond everything going on around them, and above anything that they "do" that they are Loved. A son comes boldly before their father to ask for help, to have questions answered, to just be in his company.

I have five sons ranging from 1 year old, to 16 years old. Admittedly, sometimes I am too hard on them, too insistent that they "do their chores." The funny, and very revealing thing is, that when I come home from work, regardless of whether or not they have "done their chores," they all meet me somewhere within a few feet of the door to hug me, to welcome me home, to get a reassuring kiss on the head, or a playful round of slap boxing. No hesitancy, no conditions. They come boldly because they love me, and they all know that I love them, regardless of what they have "done" that day. They are my sons.

Now look at Martha, poor, busy, uptight Martha. Whats the first thing we see in the description of Martha? Distracted. Poor, distracted, uptight, misguided Martha. I think it is obvious, her intentions were good. She liked a clean house. The meal must come together just right. She wanted to make sure that everything was "perfect." After all, this was no ordinary meal, the master  was coming. But in all of her busy-ness, she missed what Jesus tried to illustrate to everyone He came in contact with, His unconditional love for his children.  So involved in work for the Lord, she forgot about the Lord.

Look now at Martha's directive to Jesus: "Tell her to help me!" I find it curious that this was their house, not his. Undoubtedly, Martha was no stranger to bossing Mary around. Mary, by worldly standards, was probably considered a screw up. Many feel that this Mary was the woman caught in adultery, in fact, in one of my other posts I sort of make that connection. So why would she tell him, to direct Mary to help her? She was jealous. She was angry. She was just beside herself that someone would have the audacity just to "sit" in the masters presence. She had it all backwards. 

Now look at Jesus response. "Martha dear, why so uptight? Only one thing is needed, Mary's doing it, you are not." He didn't love Martha any less, or Mary any more, but he was revealing a deep truth about how God wants us to relate to him. Too bad most of us don't feel we've "worked" enough to earn a spot at Jesus feet, so we throw ourselves, often to the detriment of good spiritual and mental health, into works. More groups, more outreach, more activities, committees, and meetings adds nothing to our walk. In fact, this approach will leave us empty, frustrated, angry, and jealous. Somewhere down the road, we will look back at all of the works we have done, "in Christs name," and realize that many of them led us further from Hm, not closer to Him. 

I guess it is not a new thing. The Lord addressed it through the prophet Isaiah.

29:13 The Lord says:
         "These people come near to me with their mouth
          and honor me with their lips,
          but their hearts are far from me.
         Their worship of me
         is made up only of rules taught by men

Jesus addressed it in the parable of the prodigal son.

Luke 15: 25 “Now his older son was in the field. And as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. 26 So he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant. 27 And he said to him, ‘Your brother has come, and because he has received him safe and sound, your father has killed the fatted calf.’
28 “But he was angry and would not go in. Therefore his father came out and pleaded with him. 29 So he answered and said to his father, ‘Lo, these many years I have been serving you; I never transgressed your commandment at any time; and yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might make merry with my friends. 30 But as soon as this son of yours came, who has devoured your livelihood with harlots, you killed the fatted calf for him.’ 31 “And he said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that I have is yours. 32 It was right that we should make merry and be glad, for your brother was dead and is alive again, and was lost and is found.’”

Paul addresses it in his letter to the Galatians very directly in chapter 3:

3Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort?

Are we so foolish as to cast off the freedom of living like beloved sons for the heavy yoke of living in labor like hired servants? Now don't misunderstand, labor for the Lord, when motivated by the Lord's Spirit is a great and commendable thing. The real problem occurs when we go about the work, the what, before we understand the who. God called us, all of us, when we had nothing but works forged in darkness, without condition, to step out of that darkness into the light He wants to bring. We get called, then what do we do? "Let's go back to Egypt!" It's safe, it's familiar, it's what we know. Jesus wants to erase this paradigm, and give us a new one so that any works we find ourselves doing are directed by him, and free of the cumbersome load that comes from believing  that this is how we get to him.

The Father in the story of the prodigal told the older, harder working, more"faithful" son:  "Son, you are always with me, and all that I have is yours." Like in the garden, back to the original design, God sometimes desires that we just walk and talk with him. That we don't come before him with a bunch of "stuff" we have done to present as the price of admission. Just come, sit, learn, and be loved, like a son.

Micah 6:8 He has showed you, O man, what is good.
       And what does the LORD require of you?
       To act justly and to love mercy
       and to walk humbly with your God