Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Dreams can be Dangerous

I am trying to read through the bible this year. Meaning that by the end of 2008 I want to have finished this task. In the nineties PF sold bibles that are set up to read Old and New Testaments, either Psalms and Proverbs every day. I never finished the year out back than so now with not so many distractions in my life, I should accomplish this small task.

But getting back to the title . . . I was reading about Joseph and his dreams this week and it reminded me of the first dream that I remember when I was either 5 or 6 years old. My family had a beat up bible story book and it had a great story along with pictures of Jacob leaving home after he stole Esau's birthright and his blessing. In a dream he saw a ladder going to heaven and God telling him that he was with him and would bless him and bring him back to this land. The bible says that Jacob saw angels assending and desending on this ladder.

I was either 5 or 6 years old when I remembered my first dream. My sister Anna who is about 2 years older than me, we'd talk about stuff and we talked about remembering dreams. Up to this time I don't remember remembering any of my dreams. So we talked about how to remember them.

Anyway, I had this dream around this time of my life. I don't know if I ate pickles and ice cream before bed or how it happened, but I was so shook up about this dream that I still remember it to this day. Along with several dreams that I have had over the years. Anyway I dreamed that something like a lion was chasing me down our corn field. Sometimes we would run through our fields of corn and play hide and seek, so this was nothing new but I had a lion after me and I saw a ladder coming out of the skies rescuing me.

I think somehow I heard the scripture found in I Peter 5:8 . . .your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. (NKJV) So I might have been older like 9 or 10 years old because I might have heard the preacher in church preach on this verse. I don't know how it all fits together, I just know that I had this dream and I believe that it has an interpretation; since my family "got saved", I believe that it means that God offered salvation to our family and we accepted Christ and made him Lord of our lives. For me, I accepted Jesus and found God's safety and protection over my life. That even when I was a child God had his hand on my life.

So this Thanksgiving season I am very grateful to God for giving me "salvation", and that he protected my life down through the years and that He will continue to protect me and my family.

Thursday, November 1, 2007

Mr. and Mrs. Clark

This picture was taken at our church in Sheboygan, WI on our tenth anniversary celebration of us pastoring 1st Assembly, which is now called Prasie Fellowship. The church invited family to come help us celebrate as a surprise to my husband and I. My mom fortunately couldn't stand not telling me that we would be having company over the weekend. Thank God she called me on Friday night, or the day before they arrived and let me know that we'd have company over the weekend. Mr. & Mrs. Clark drove my parents to Sheboygan. It was VERY nice to have the Clarks visit my home and see my family and our church.

Mrs. Virginia Clark is the lady that visited our home and would always talk about God. Eventually my parents attended the New Castle Revival Center.

Dick, Ginny's husband was not attending church during the time Ginny was witnessing to our family. Having known how the Amish are; he told Ginny she was wasting her time talking to us. But she felt that God wanted to work in our lives and continued to witness to our family. So Dick told her that if she got my family to attend her church he would start attending church too. So the first time my parents attended church with Ginny, she drove past their house and tooted the horn so Dick could see my parents in their car. I don't know how long it took, but after awhile Dick started attending this church too. He accepted Christ into his heart and life and started serving God. He became their Sunday School superintendent and became involved. So you never know what God wants to do!