Crazy dream night

Seriously! What is this? Crazy dream night?! 

At Bible study last night Brandon asked the kids: "When you go before God on Judgement day, and he looks you in the eyes and says What did you do for me? What will you tell him?" My response: Lord, I loved you . And because I loved you, I loved your people.

I had another dream last night. I don't know if I died in this one or not because I woke up before it happened. But I think the point is, death is irrelevant to God's chosen.

In my dream, there was a beautiful little girl. Maybe 14? And she was getting caught up in the sinful lifestyle of her family, she was considering prostitution. It is just sex right? No! Sex is sacred-she is worth more than that! Sex will degrade her and eat at her morally. Everything I try to tell her, I say in vain as she is money struck. The lies of this world and her sisters drip like honey. She consents to her first job. 

I plead with her on behalf of her virginity-her soul. Brandon tells me to let her go, trying to protect me, explaining to me that there is nothing that I can do. I get in her limo with her, the whole way trying to convince her of her self worth-her value in Christ: You are precious to him-priceless. We pull up to a motel 6. I scoff at the sleaziness of it all! She gets out, she enters the motel. I go to follow her but stop. 

Then I see it, but it's too late. Sex trafficking. It's a blood bath inside the hotel. More vivid and graphic than I dare to type in my blog but the images of my dream were gruesome and horrifying. Worse than any movie that I usually avoid  watching. 

I'm seen. I'm "invited in" as a guest of the host. I've seen too much. I enter, without fear, but knowing full well, I will not be allowed to leave. 

I get on my cell phone as I sit on the disgusting couch, surrounded by women, naked and crying with shame at the horrible acts they have been forced to do-some mutilated, others forced to have mutilated. 

I have no cell reception and so I loudly fake a call to no one-on my call I plea with the imaginary person saying "give up your sinful ways! It's not too late to repent!" Realizing that I am actually talking to Everyone who will listen. 

The host enters. He is handsome. He is suave. He, I know is responsible for all the evil I have witnessed. He might as well have been the devil himself. 

"You screwed up" he tells me. 

I reply that I didn't. I am exactly where I am supposed to be. That god loves these children of his, and that if my death saves one of them, then it will not have been in vain." 

"He laughs at me mockingly "you don't fear death?" 

I respond no. I don't because I have the hope in me that transforms my death into my eternal life. And if he kills me I go before my Lord as a martyr. But that he will live and he will not escape Christ's judgement. 

He responds with a wicked laugh, his face contorts into the psycho that he is. He cannot let me die so confident! He begins to tell me that after he kills me he will kill my family...

I interrupt his speech with betraying tears. "Get behind me Satan. You cannot hurt my family for they too have their confidence in The Lord. Even if you did find them you cannot kill them for they too will join me in paradise. And although I don't want them to experience the taste of death I rest in the satisfaction of the promises of The Lord. So it is he who has a choice. 

And there I begin to preach the redemption Gospel to this sex trafficking murderer. For even he is a child of God not too far from Gods redemptive mercy and Grace. 

I tell him that it is he who has a choice. He can kill me and flee continuing to live in his pattern of gruesome sin. He could kill me and in his hate kill my family as well. Or he could repent, and face his crimes but know that his soul can find rest. 

Wishful thinking on my part. And then I awoke. 

I awoke with the hope of The Lord that not even death can separate me from his love. Death cannot stop his kingdom, his truth for his chosen. But for those reading this who do not have the hope found only in The Lord Jesus Christ-repent!  You are never too far from God's forgiving grace, while living you can choose him! Choose to repent of your sinfulness and seek him! 

And for those of us hiding in God's truth, fear not! One of the most difficult things to deal with in life is the death of a loved one. Even for the Christian, death is a part of life. Unlike they that do not believe, the Christian has a blessed hope – that is the return of the Savior Jesus to catch up His Church and bring them to eternal life with Him and God the Father in Heaven. Here are some scripture quotes about death that I hope will comfort you as they have been used to comfort me.

As He Promised, He Will Do

John 14:1-4 “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going.”

Romans 8:16-17 The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.

2 Corinthians 5:6-8 So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight. Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.

1 Thessalonians 4:16-18 For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words.

1 Thessalonians 5:9-11 For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,  who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him. Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.

Because of Calvary, We Live

2 Samuel 12:23 But now he is dead. Why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he will not return to me.” (King David speaking of his infant son who died)

John 11:23-26 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?”

1 Corinthians 15:54-57 When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Philippians 3:20-21 But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.

In His Time, He Will Do

1 Corinthians 15:20-23 But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ.

Philippians 1:23-24 I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account.

1 Peter 1:3-5 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

1 John 3:1-2 See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.

Revelation 21:1-4 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

Safe In His Arms, Now and Forever

Psalm 23:4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil,

Psalm 116:15 Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints.

John 10:27-29 “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.” (Jesus speaking)

Romans 8:38-39 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 14:8 For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s.

Revelation 14:13 And I heard a voice from heaven saying, “Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.” “Blessed indeed,” says the Spirit, “that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them!”

Christian Quotes About Death

“They that love beyond the world cannot be separated by it. Death cannot kill what never dies.” ~ Williams Penn

 ”When the time comes for you to die, you need not be afraid, because death cannot separate you from God’s love.” ~ Charles H. Spurgeon