Every once in a while something happens that reminds us that we are not alone in the universe. In this particular story, one of my good friends (we will call him “Jim” here) had something happen to him that appears to defy skeptical explanation. As this story is too remarkable not to share, I decided to get it down in writing so none of the details are lost over time. Everything I am recounting is true to the best of my ability to recall - today you get to learn something about your blogger!
On Wed, April 30th, 2008 I had lunch with one of my good friends. I have known Jim for about 10 years, and I invite him over to my house from time to time. It is not uncommon that we have lunch, but the topic of conversation was indeed uncommon! As we sat down to eat, Jim mentioned to me that he had a very intense dream Monday night (2 days prior), and although he felt a little sheepish – he wanted to share it with me. I will paraphrase his dream experience below as best I can, in his “own words”:
“I had this dream where I was struggling with my faith. All of a sudden there appeared like an evil presence around me, demons really. And then eventually there was just one demon and he was completely evil and was just standing there laughing at me. Soon I saw (or more to the point – felt the presence of) Jesus. He was offering his hand to me that I might get away from this demon, but there was a heavy feeling surrounding me. I couldn’t move forward to take His hand. Jesus then had what amounted to be a kind of “disapproving older brother smirk”, as he explained to me that He was frustrated because I was not choosing Him, even though he had sent me you (Jim here refers to myself; the author) to show him the way to Christianity. At this time Christ presented me with 2 pieces of evidence. Jesus said that you (Jon) had something for me, and that if I needed more information to believe, that I should ask you about something that happened to my son. In particular, that he had fallen down and hurt himself. I could also see him close to his sister when it happened.”
Once I had heard him relate this dream to me, I answered that the “thing that I had for Jim” was an open invitation to attend our church, AND that Monday evening my son had in fact fallen down and hurt himself!!!!!! We both sat there in stunned silence, as we realized that he had been presented with empirical evidence regarding events that had happened to my son…… from a DREAM! I must say here that we both considered this to be more than a dream, really more like a communication. This was more than a little disconcerting at first, especially to Jim; as he had been struggling with the existence of God for more than a year. I believe it is apparent that he had asked God for an answer and he received one! The beauty of this story comes from the fact that it happened to Jim and to myself, and it allowed me the opportunity to share this with everyone in my circle. This is not some account from complete strangers, we need not struggle with questions like, “can we trust these people”, or “I wonder if this really happened.” Let me assure you, it happened.
So what can we learn form this? I feel that we can learn that God is real, and He can still communicate with people – just like in the New Testament, just like in the Old Testament. Our culture is not ready for large-scale divine intervention yet; we wouldn’t know how to handle it. But Jim was ready for a dream that may just have been a vision. See the picture above for the red arrow showing scratch on my son’s cheek from his fall!
On Wed, April 30th, 2008 I had lunch with one of my good friends. I have known Jim for about 10 years, and I invite him over to my house from time to time. It is not uncommon that we have lunch, but the topic of conversation was indeed uncommon! As we sat down to eat, Jim mentioned to me that he had a very intense dream Monday night (2 days prior), and although he felt a little sheepish – he wanted to share it with me. I will paraphrase his dream experience below as best I can, in his “own words”:
“I had this dream where I was struggling with my faith. All of a sudden there appeared like an evil presence around me, demons really. And then eventually there was just one demon and he was completely evil and was just standing there laughing at me. Soon I saw (or more to the point – felt the presence of) Jesus. He was offering his hand to me that I might get away from this demon, but there was a heavy feeling surrounding me. I couldn’t move forward to take His hand. Jesus then had what amounted to be a kind of “disapproving older brother smirk”, as he explained to me that He was frustrated because I was not choosing Him, even though he had sent me you (Jim here refers to myself; the author) to show him the way to Christianity. At this time Christ presented me with 2 pieces of evidence. Jesus said that you (Jon) had something for me, and that if I needed more information to believe, that I should ask you about something that happened to my son. In particular, that he had fallen down and hurt himself. I could also see him close to his sister when it happened.”
Once I had heard him relate this dream to me, I answered that the “thing that I had for Jim” was an open invitation to attend our church, AND that Monday evening my son had in fact fallen down and hurt himself!!!!!! We both sat there in stunned silence, as we realized that he had been presented with empirical evidence regarding events that had happened to my son…… from a DREAM! I must say here that we both considered this to be more than a dream, really more like a communication. This was more than a little disconcerting at first, especially to Jim; as he had been struggling with the existence of God for more than a year. I believe it is apparent that he had asked God for an answer and he received one! The beauty of this story comes from the fact that it happened to Jim and to myself, and it allowed me the opportunity to share this with everyone in my circle. This is not some account from complete strangers, we need not struggle with questions like, “can we trust these people”, or “I wonder if this really happened.” Let me assure you, it happened.
So what can we learn form this? I feel that we can learn that God is real, and He can still communicate with people – just like in the New Testament, just like in the Old Testament. Our culture is not ready for large-scale divine intervention yet; we wouldn’t know how to handle it. But Jim was ready for a dream that may just have been a vision. See the picture above for the red arrow showing scratch on my son’s cheek from his fall!
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