Sweet Christmas Dreams
Good Morning Friends,
Maybe you are thinking about sugar plumbs or snow coming or the gathering of lights or bells ringing or of Marley’s visions in Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. Whatever is going through your head, it is my wish for you to have Sweet Christmas Dreams.
Scripture: But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.
Matthew 1:20 (ESV)
In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. Even upon my slaves, both men and women, in those days I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy.
Acts 2:17-18 (NRSV)
Message: In my psychology class in college, I was told that everybody dreams every night, even if we do not remember them. My wife tells me she dreams vivid dreams before an anxious upcoming event. But I on the other hand do not typically remember my night dreams. My waking dreams are however something I do remember. Of course, some dreams are positive, some negative, but all are a bit mysterious. I certainly do not know everything about dreams, but I do think that they help us to reboot our thinking. They help us to sort things out. Dreams are mentioned in the Bible in a number of places, and we see that God used dreams a number of times to warn of coming events and judgments, but also to give specific guidance and direction. We have obvious examples in the dreams given to Pharaoh and Nebuchadnezzar, when God was about to bring famine, or when He was about to humble a king by making Him crazy, eating grass. We have the pictorial visions of Ezekiel and of John. We have Jacob wrestling angels in a dream. We have Paul receiving a plain vision to go to Macedonia that needs little or no interpretation. And in today’s scripture we have the dream of Joseph about Mary which brings us back to the Christmas story. So what about dreams this Christmas? Certainly not every dream is meant to be interpreted. And not every dream is a message from God. Still for some you will have a dream that moves you to obey this season…for some you will have a dream that sets you straight. For some of you old men you will dream dreams of Jesus’ Spirit bringing gifts of joy. In that I rejoice. So friends, here is the deal…you all will have dreams and maybe some of them will prompt you in the spiritual reality that Christmas is coming very soon…. Hopefully your dreams will prepare you for what is to come. Sweet Christmas dreams to you.
Pray the eyes of our understanding are enlightened. Pray we realize that God will give dreams to whoever He wants to use, but uses followers of the Way to interpret them. Pray we not get so caught up in dreams that we fail to realize that it is probably more important that God speaks to us through His Word and each other. Pray our intellectual visions help our mind perceive a spiritual truth through ideas quickened by God to better represent His spiritual reality. Pray we know what visions are from God and which are not.
Blessings,
John Lawson
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