March 22, 2010

3-22-10 Monday, 8:10 am Grayrock – 36 degrees, sunny

Luke 5:12-28

Jesus heals a man with advanced stages of leprosy, and great crowds gather to hear him preach and to be healed. “But Jesus often withdrew to the wilderness for prayer” (verse 16).

Some men bring a paralyzed man on a cot to Jesus, and lower him through the tiles on the roof. Jesus announced to the young man that his sins were forgiven, which angered the religious leaders. Next Jesus healed him, and everyone was gripped with great wonder and awe.

Yesterday during my sermon I read from Jesus’ letter to the church at Ephesus in which he noticed they had lost their first love, and He instructed them to return to the works that they did at first. Even though we had slim attendance, I sense that this admonition was important for those who were there. It is important for me to regularly attend to this “first love”, and remember my walk with Christ when I was
18, 19, 20. Guide me in my fifties Lord to do the things I did at first in my love for you.

Psalm 65:1-13
Verses 4-5: “What joy for those you choose to bring near, those who live in your holy courts. What festivities await us inside your holy Temple. You faithfully answer our prayers with awesome deeds, O God our savior. You are the hope of everyone on earth, even those who sail on distant seas.”

Yes! You are the hope of the world, and 3:16 are the numbers of hope. Guide me Lord as I prepare for Easter and the celebration of your victory over sin and death.

I had an interesting dream last night. I try to record my dreams in this journal as a discipline, because God sometimes uses dreams to instruct or warn his people. I was on a small jet (maybe 20 seats) with people from Wesley heading out on a mission trip. As we began to take off, the pilot said we were at the minimums (I think he meant runway length or wind or weight) for take off. It seemed that it took forever to pick up speed, and then all of a sudden two planes were ahead of us on the runway. The pilot gunned the engines (I wondered why he had not already had them at full throttle), and then slammed on the breaks. We veered off the runway down into a ditch, landing nose first, which smashed the cockpit. I was the first one out of the plane, and began helping the other passengers out, none of whom was badly hurt. Then my dream ended.

Hmmm. I wonder what to make of this dream. We had a meeting yesterday for persons interested in the next trip to Honduras. We were pleased that 20 people attended. Another possibility is that I need to go flying. I don’t think I have made any take offs or landings in almost three months. Thank you Lord for this dream. Guide me as I process it.