DREAMER'S CHALLENGE: Day 6

    I do not remember what I dreamed last night (I am still adhering to the "no TV" Dreamer's Challenge!), but this morning I read an interesting passage of Scripture that encouraged, awed, and disturbed all at the same time!

    If you read Psalm 50 for yourself, maybe you will see what I mean, but for those of you who do not have the time to do so, here is a summary of and few selections from the psalm:

    Psalm 50 begins with this awesome introduction of God's power:

1   The Mighty One, God the LORD,
Has spoken and called the earth
From the rising of the sun to its going down.

2 Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty,
God will shine forth.
3 Our God shall come, and shall not keep silent;
A fire shall devour before Him,
And it shall be very tempestuous all around Him. 

    The writer shifts gears and begins to document a "conversation" God has with his people, the Israelites.  He tells them that He has some complaints against them.  He starts out by clarifying that it is not His people's sacrifices that He is displeased with, for these are faithfully served at the appointed times.  He even says that the sacrifices are not the point, because what He really wants is for the Israelites to be THANKFUL, thus glorifying Him.  This proves to be His true complaint against them.  
    Next, He mentions what He wants to do for those who choose to be thankful to God:    

14 Offer to God thanksgiving,
And pay your vows to the Most High.
15 Call upon Me in the day of trouble;
I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me.”

He then rebukes the wicked:

16 But to the wicked God says:
“What right have you to declare My statutes,
 Or take My covenant in your mouth,
17 Seeing you hate instruction
 And cast My words behind you?
18 When you saw a thief, you consented with him,
And have been a partaker with adulterers.
19 You give your mouth to evil,
And your tongue frames deceit.
20 You sit and speak against your brother;
You slander your own mother’s son.
21 These things you have done, and I kept silent;
You thought that I was altogether like you;
But I will rebuke you,
And set them in order before your eyes. 

God concludes Psalm 50 by warning His people:

22 “Now consider this, you who forget God,
Lest I tear you in pieces,
And there be none to deliver:
23 Whoever offers praise glorifies Me;
And to him who orders his conduct aright
I will show the salvation of God.”

My initial reaction was not PRAISE GOD, it was more like...

WHAT?!

After all, the picture painted of God with "fire devouring before Him" and tempestuousness circling around His feet sounds pretty scary for the casual reader!  And what is with God's demand to be praised and thus glorified by His people under threat of being torn to pieces?  Isn't God supposed to be...loving?

My prayer after reading that passage was one of desperation and pained trust in God...I basically begged for God to reveal the truth of the unsettling passage to me as soon as possible!  My faith was wavering, my heart pounding in my ears.  How could one moment's worth of spiritual confusion so quickly reduce me to such a spiritually vulnerable state?  All I knew was that I didn't like it.  

Thankfully, God rescued me just in the nick of time from my pitiful bout of doubt through a wise word from my father, and an insightful book about Jesus (McDowell's More Than A Carpenter).  

    I knew I was missing something, and it bothered the heck out of me all morning until I was able to talk it out with my dad.  After talking with him, I realized that God's demand for praise from His people arose from a deep love and concern he harbored for the fate of all mankind.  He wanted His people to glorify Himself with their thankfulness so the surrounding nations would see God and commit their lives to Him.  God was trying to draw people to Himself, thus keeping as many people out of hell as He could.  When the Israelites became ungrateful and wicked, they were setting a bad example for the other nations!  That is why God was so adamant about their attitude towards Himself; it was not really for His own sake, but for His people's sake that He demanded His people's respect.  He was after all, their originator AND savior from the bondage of Egypt!  

    All in all, today proved to be a spiritually invigorating, long, good day.


    Oh, one more thing (that is a declaration, really):

    May we never shy away from verses that seem difficult or disturbing; instead, let us embrace them as spiritual exercises, strategically placed in His Word to not only cause us to grow in Biblical knowledge and wisdom, but to teach us to trust in God as well!

Why Do We Have Nightmares?

    Have you ever wondered why people—believers and non-believers alike—have nightmares?

   It seems like whenever someone has a dream in the Bible, it is either prophetic or contains a cryptic message for the dreamer that only another person, or the passing of time, can rightly interpret.  All dreams mentioned in the Bible are from God, which begs the question: who are nightmares from, and what is their purpose?

   God could not have designed people to receive dark, troubling dreams.  Are bad dreams simply the after-effects of sin in a fallen world, or is the meaning behind their existence deeper?  Perhaps the devil implants these dreams in our minds, or at least his demon minions.  What about Christians though?  Aren't they supposed to be protected from demons?  Or are we all just watching too many bad movies?

   Last night I had the most troubling dream—one I would never want or be allowed to see if it were a movie.  And yet, there it was, playing in my head in the wee morning hours.  There is no escape from a dream like this, either, and often the dreamer wakes only to feel confused, embarrassed, and disturbed.  Where is God during these freakish night disturbances?  Does He care?

   A friend of mine and her sister have nightmares almost every night--this runs in her family—ones so bad that they have trouble sleeping, and wake up screaming or crying.  These dreams are dark, and prayer does not prevent their nightly occurrences.  Once, after my friend woke up from a particularly bad dream in the middle of the night, she was angry and confused with God for allowing her to suffer.  After praying and bedding with her sister for the remainder of the night, she turned off her bed light to go back to sleep...only to be prompted to look up a random verse that popped into her head.  She tried to push the verse away because she was tired, but she could not clear her mind of the mysterious address: 1 Kings 3:15.  She did not know which verse that was, and did not remember ever hearing the reference before.  After turning on the light by her bed, she flipped to 1 Kings3:15 in her Bible to read:

Solomon then woke up and realized it was a dream.

To my friend, this was like a father coming in to comfort his scared little girl by saying, “It was just a bad dream.”  My friend still does not know why she has nightmares, but she does know that when she does, God is with her, and wants to help her through her trials, whatever they may be.

   Maybe nightmares, like all other trials, are permitted by God to haunt us because He wants us to come to HIM for help and guidance.  I don’t think He enjoys watching people suffer, but sometimes the only way people can find truth is through suffering.  If it takes a series of bad dreams for someone to realize that they need God’s help, then their suffering is ultimately—and mysteriously—worth it.  I don’t know all the answers—heck, I don’t know half, or even a 16^th of the answers!—but I DO know that what it all boils down to is the trust that we have in God.  Solomon councils in Proverbs 3:5:

​​​​​​​

Trust in the LORD with all your heart, ​​​​​​and do not rely on your own understanding.

   Still, I cannot help but wonder if many bad dreams can be prevented.  I wonder what would happen if I stopped watching TV and reading “fun novels” for a week, and started praying and reading God’s Word instead, right before I turned in each night to sleep?  Would the nightmares cease?  This week, I am going to find out—and I think the conclusion will be interesting.

   Every day from Thursday the 12^th to Thursday the 19^th I will post the results of my “experiment” on my blog: what passage I read from the Bible before I fall asleep, and the types of dreams I have each night (if I can remember them).  This is probably something worth doing regardless of the conclusion that is drawn; after all, spending more time with God is never a waste of time!  

   If you like, you can join me by fasting from entertainment and praying instead from Wednesday the 12th to the 18th, and post your experiences beneath my posts as comments.  Who knows; maybe this week will be so successful for us that we might just keep fasting and praying forever!  Ha-ha, I guess we’ll see.  

Dreamers, Let the entertainment fast and nightly praying begin!