"Strange how we are affected by our dreams. Some are gone with our waking. Others never leave. How will those that linger change our lives? My dream, sometime between sleep on 7/10 and waking on 7/11, has remained with me. I am faced with the fear each time I remember. Not just the fear of pain, but the fear of shame. My dream took me back to a younger age, back to the little church in my neighborhood. This scene was not one from my past. There beside the church was a mobile guillotine, although I never saw the blade itself. There were about six young girls my age standing side by side - waiting - waiting to die for the name of Christ. And I was hiding. My fear of dying was overshadowed by my fear of being a disappointment to Jesus. I kept asking myself how I was going to react when I was captured. Would I cry and beg for my life? A part of me feared that I would. I turned and looked at the girls, patiently waiting to die. No tears. No shame. I wondered if I would have that peace when it was my turn. I asked God to please let me have that peace when it was my turn.
Now I think about how many times I have walked past that church when I was the age in my dream.I guess it is only natural that in a dream about being that age, I would go back to where I was at that time. I was approximately the age when I was saved, 15. I have really thought about what it would be like to know that your stand for Christ would mean your death. Our freedom to worship has always been so secure, but that is changing. For forty years it's been slowly turning. Now the turn is much more rapid, and I'm not sure it can be stopped. I think we face an evil we never believed would come to us. An evil that is destroying the foundation of our nation. An evil that will make us choose life and shame or death and Christ. But to die for Christ is to live with Christ."
It's been about six and a half years since I had that dream & recorded it in my journal. I have seen even more changes taking our nation and world further & further away from God. I believe time is very short. As these past years have strengthened me spiritually, I look forward to seeing my Lord. My fear is for those I love who are not prepared to meet Him. So what do we who are ready do when we have those we love who are not? We must not cease praying, while accepting that the ultimate choice is not ours, but is that of those for whom we pray. "....The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much." James 6:16b KJV "Even so, come, Lord Jesus." Revelation 22:20b KJV
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