November Dream

It was a nice fall day and I was with a group of people standing outside a building, a church I think, and I sensed that a person of some importance was coming out. As the man, dressed in garments I've seen a Catholic priest wearing for a regular mass, green vestment with a lot of gold color, walks past me I recognize him as my father. My dad has been dead for 10 years after struggling with a slow progression of Alzheimer's on his body and mind but here he is quite vital physically and mentally.

When he gets about 5 yards past me I call out his first name, My father stops in his tracks, turns around, sees me, smiles and then calls out my first and last name. I come over to him and we hug. I now sense that this is going to be a final goodbye and that in the least I will never see him alive again or at most I will not see him well. Wondering what to say I simply tell my father to take care.

There is a very large lawn or field that stretches from where we are to a road off some distance where there awaits for my father another group of people.  Behind the road the trees are at their Autumn finest and the sky is clear and blue and I think as my father is walking away that the color in his vestments are a perfect compliment to the beauty of the scene that God has painted.

As my father goes on I am overcome by emotion and first I fall to my knees and then face down on the ground. Then embarrassed because I remember there are people behind me I get up, turn back to the right with my head down so not to make eye contact with them and join the crowd.

It is a morning dream in late November and as I lay now awake very comfortably between my flannel sheets I wonder if this is a dream that has come from God and if so then what would be the symbolism and meaning for me.

My first thought is perhaps my father wearing those vestments represents the priesthood of the believer and that the time for the Church is running out.  Is the crowd that I am with the current Church and the group waiting by the beautiful trees and sky those who have gone before? I was not really sure of any of it.

Later that morning we go to church and because this is Thanksgiving week the service devotes a period of time where people can come up to the microphone and give thanks for what God has been doing in their lives.  A certain gentleman, a bit older than me whom I had met a couple of times previously, came over during the earlier greet your neighbor portion to say hi.  Later he was one of the people who gave their sharing.

He told about seeing a friend get older and losing his mind and later a relative going through Alzheimer's and then 10 years ago after a doctor's exam he was told that he too had Alzheimer's. The guy didn't say it but I knew that was a crushing pronouncement.  He and his wife decided they would do something about it and they knelt down and prayed and so far, praise God, he has not had any symptoms.

That evening I opened my Bible to the section for my daily reading which now is in Psalms and noticed that it says in the fourth Psalm, verses 3-5:

But know that the Lord has set apart the godly man for Himself; The Lord hears when I call to Him.

Tremble, and do not sin;  Meditate in your hearts upon your bed, and be still.

Offer the sacrifices of righteousness, and trust in the Lord.

The meaning for the images from my dream now came a little clearer for me. It seems that my father represents the overall Church. I know that there are congregations today that are spiritually really alive and others that are spiritually dead with the majority in between. They might even be considered as "lukewarm".

The Lord is present in the overall Church because He lives in the hearts of those who are believers but there is a problem. For the most part today's Church is in the process of losing it's mind!  Once strong and vibrant it will as a body become weak and feeble, remembering fragments of who it was but not knowing who it is or where it is going.

The man who spoke at the service this morning gave the solution to the problem. There is something we can do and the first step is to get down on our knees with love ones and pray.

The verses from Psalm 4 complete both the prophetic warning and prophetic advice from the Lord. Know that the Lord has set apart the godly man for Himself.  God has a plan for each of our lives. He knows us and indeed loves us and because this is true the Lord hears when I call to Him.

Tremble and do not sin. This is the charge for each one of us. God loves us but all of us are weak and subject to both failure and rebellion. Failure God can understand and He works with His Holy Spirit to bring us back to a relationship with Him. But rebellion builds a barrier that limits what God can do. We should tremble because God is a Holy God whose ways are not our ways and yet they are what's best for us. And how do we know those ways? Mediate in your hearts upon your bed, and be still.

Offer the sacrifices of righteousness.  In this day and age it is too easy to live a life compromised to the standards of the day. This is a huge problem for the Church which wants to be accepted by the society we live in, a society that now accepts almost any type of sexual behavior, worships at the altar of celebrity, excess, violence and many and varied types of occult themes and images, and denies the truth of scripture.

God is not looking for our donations and good works, fine and necessary as they are. He much prefers the sacrifice it takes to live a life holy to Him. The story of the world from start to finish is this.  How is that possible?  And the answer has been proven over and over. Trust in the Lord.

How much time do we have here?  As I've said many times before, I think the time is short but who really knows?  Will there be revival in the Church that will change it and seriously affect the society we live in? Many respected prophets have said that that time will come. I know that there are great revivals happening throughout the world today in China and Africa and South America but here in America I only see the steady progression of spiritual decay. I pray for revival here but, like in my dream, I see my father walking across the field and I fear that I will never see him well again.

But it is not mine to know, it is mine to pray.  On my knees.  On my face.  Mediating in my heart upon my bed.  Being still before my Lord.  Offering the sacrifices of righteousness.  Trusting in the Lord.