Prophetic Dream?

 If you are a "YouTuber",

or watch much Christian television,

you probably have been hearing a lot more lately

about "Prophetic Dreams"...

If you are like me,

you may wonder which dreams are from God,

or which may just be what my husband calls

"Pizza Dreams"

caused by something you ate! 😀

Recently I had a dream about this chapel

 that my dad pastored when I was a teenager.

Whether or not it was "PROPHETIC",

I am not sure...

But it did have a lesson for me!

In my dream the pews in the church 

were packed with people.

After the congregation all vacated the building,

 I was left alone with a man

who was chasing me trying to attack me.

Fearfully I ran up and down between pews,

zigzagging, and trying to get to the door to escape.

"If I only had a weapon"

I remember thinking in my dream.

.And then I noticed the hymnbooks 

in the racks on the back of the church benches.

and a plan quickly began to form in my mind.

The "Fight or Flight Syndrome" kicked in!!!

With my heart beating rapidly

and my adrenaline surging, 

I began grabbing hymnals 

and throwing them at my attacker.

He cowered and held his arms

to protect his face as he began to retreat!

He ran out the door and into the parking lot

and I continued to hurl hymnbooks at him.

The roof had lifted off the top of the church building,

and my hymnbook weapons continued to sail 

over the top of the solid rock wall of the church,

hitting their target and chasing him away.

Suddenly reinforcements appeared

as my smiling pastor arrived,

But the fight had already been won,

It was the flying hymnbooks

that sent the enemy scurrying!

****************

Later that morning as I was enjoying

my morning "Coffee with Jesus",

I couldn't get the dream out of my mind,

so I called my younger sis who had also spent many hours

in that chapel in our growing up years.

"Awhhhh", she said.

"Don't you know what that means?"

"It's the sacrifice of praise!"

I had done a post on this almost 10 years ago...

(This was one of my most popular posts,..

You can click on the link above to take you there.)

I needed that reminder as we face the chaos

of the elections and the pandemic.

Prophetic dream or not,

God used that dream 

and the words of my younger sis

 to remind me that it is 

the SACRIFICE OF PRAISE 

that defeat the enemy every time.

"1Make a joyful shout to the Lord, [a]all you lands!

2Serve the Lord with gladness;

Come before His presence with singing.

3Know that the Lord, He is God;

It is He who has made us, and [b]not we ourselves;

We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.

4Enter into His gates with thanksgiving,

And into His courts with praise. 

Be thankful to Him, and bless His name. 

5For the Lord is good; 

His mercy is everlasting, 

And His truth endures to all generations."

Psalm 100 NKJV

Maybe we can't sing together in church at this time, 

but that's no reason not to sing!

May you have JOY in your heart today

as you lift your voice in praise and

SING!  SING!  SING!

A New Look at the Crucifixion...

From a "PK"!

Okay,

so I was brought up as a preacher's kid,
or commonly known as a "PK".

I have no idea how many sermons I have heard ---

not just from my dad or my brother Bill,

but from years of Bible Camps, Vacation Bible Schools, Revival Meetings, etc.

Many hours of my adolescent life were spent in Yardell Chapel,
where my dad pastored from 1956 to 1969.

Sometimes for people like us,

we seem to have a harder time actually getting the truths

that we have been hearing for so many years from our heads into our hearts.

When I was very young, I believed on Jesus as my Savior.

I knew I was a sinner...

couldn't deny that...

frequent "spankings" from my Mother confirmed it!

So I didn't need the words from Romans 3:23

("All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God")

to prove that I couldn't make it to heaven without a Savior.

But I had trouble understanding how Jesus,

who was a perfect man and knew no sin,

could become sin for us so that we could have His righteousness.

(2 Corinthians 5:21)

How could Jesus take on my sin, especially when He died so long ago?

Yesterday as I did my exercises on my mini trampoline,

I also got some exercise of my spiritual muscles as

I watched Joseph Prince, the pastor of the largest church in Singapore.

Wanting to watch it again and to share it,

I was so happy to find it had been posted on youtube.

If you, like me, have struggled to picture Jesus taking your place,

I think you will be blessed by taking time to watch the short animated video.

Maybe it will give you #anewlookatthecrucifixion also!

Click on the hash tag above to take you there!

The Message Translation from Isaiah 53 gives a word picture of that video.
"...it was our sins that did that to Him,
    that ripped and tore and crushed Him—our sins!
He took the punishment, and that made us whole.
    Through His bruises we get healed.
We’re all like sheep who’ve wandered off and gotten lost.
    We’ve all done our own thing, gone our own way.
And God has piled all our sins, everything we’ve done wrong,
    on Him, on Him."

This new look at the crucifixion causes me to take a new look at Jesus.

My younger sis gave me a little book with 365 names for the Lord.

So many of them speak to me that I am having a hard time choosing

which to post on Rock4Today, but I plan on posting one soon!

Thanks for your visit!



Newton County Nostalgia!

My sister-in-law recently took me for a day trip
in the county where we grew up.
Our first stop was what used to be the old Vendor School House,
where the verdant growth helped beautify the burnt ruins.

We caught this dog taking a drink from the spring
 behind the old School House where the children
used to get a drink of water.
If you click on the picture to enlarge it,
you can see the water dripping from his mouth!

Our destination was the Mount Judea Mountain,
as seen in the background.

When we were almost at the top of the mountain,
 we stopped to visit with Lu, who became our new "tour guide".
 She stopped long enough for us to admire the view from this rentable cabin.

This is a view from the home of the gentleman
who owns and rents out the cabin.

As these cows graze the backbone of the mountain field,
they have an excellent view of their surroundings.
We were privileged to share the view with them!

Fortunately for us, there were not a great many cactus.

We saw an abundance of deer as we came down the mountain.
Our "tour guide" informed us that the bear were also
showing up in growing numbers.

Here we are back on the paved road,
and beginning to make our way home.

This is just one of the old barns we saw on our trip.

This is the little community chapel
which my dad used to pastor
in the 1950's through the 1960's.

And, I couldn't head back home without a stop
at the old Yardell spring.
This spring provided water for many people
for many generations.
We would often picnic here,
and enjoy the cool spring water.


This spring reminds me of the words of Jesus
to the woman at the well of Samaria when He said,
"Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again,
but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst.
Indeed, the water I give him will become in him
a spring of water welling up to eternal life."
John 4:13-14



Thanks for coming along with me
on my nostalgic journey back to Newton County!

Oh, by the way, you can expect to be seeing some of the rocks

we picked up from the top of the mountain in future posts of Rock4Today,

where I paint the Names of God on Rocks!