Late in 2007, around Thanksgiving I think, my Grandpa was diagnosed with terminal cancer. Over the next few months we watched, as he slowly got worse. We visited him as often as we could, although being in college it wasn't as often as it should have been I guess. He always had lots of advice on how to life your life and things he'd learned in his life. He was also very happy when we visited him over the last few months. He seemed at peace with going to be with Jesus.
Anyway, after the Super Bowl that night I went back to my dorm room and to bed for the night. Early that next morning I had a dream. In the dream I went over to my Grandparent's house to visit Grandpa. In real life the last couple times I'd visited him he was bed ridden and couldn't talk very well, obviously nearing the end. In the dream I walked in the garage door and up the stairs to find the hospital bed gone and Grandpa sitting on the couch in the living room reading his Bible.
I walked in and went over to Grandpa, sat down next to him and asked how he was feeling. His only response to me was, "Jesus Christ lives Joe!" with a huge smile on his face. I looked at him and said, I know Grandpa." At that very moment my cell phone rang and woke me up. I looked at the caller ID and it said, "Dad." I think it was sometime between 6am and 7am, I knew what the call was about. I answered the phone and Dad told me that Grandpa had just passed away.
It took me a second but then I realized the weight of the dream I had just had. Now I don't know whether you believe in God giving you messages through dreams or not. I typically don't, as I had never had anything like this happen to me, but I couldn't help but think that this was a message from God. I mean, what are the chances that at the VERY MOMENT my Grandpa died, that I would have a dream that he was completely healed and professing that Christ lives?
Coincidence...maybe...maybe not. You decide. I know that this is something I will never forget.
I had a dream when my dad died Joe. I was in an auditorium with my mom my sister and brother. It was pretty empty like something was going to happen there and we were early. I then saw my dad walk into the auditorium. We all said there was dad but it couldn't be because he had died a couple of months before. But it was him. I saw all our arms reach out for him but we couldnt reach him. Then I heard a whisper in my ear. " I love you Laura and I"ll be there for you." Within the next week I was reading in my Bible and I came to Matthew 10:27. "What I tell you in the dark, speak in the daylight; what is whispered in your ear, proclaim from the roofs." I believe in messages from God in my dreams.
ReplyDeleteI also believe in messages from God through dreams, and I think these experiences not only demonstrate our connection to God, but our spiritual connection to eachother through God (Love).
ReplyDeleteSomething similar I have read about are near death experiences. The most interesting thing about "NDE's" is that when researchers have compiled hundreds of thousands of documented experiences and synthesized the data, there emerges a clear picture of a universal experience with striking similarities accross cultures and time periods that could not possibly occur by chance. One important universal factor is that everyone reports being immersed in the glowing light of an unimaginable compassionate force.
An important thing for us to note is that people of other creeds, from other times and places that have not been exposed to Christianity, have never reported seeing Jesus, or other Christian representations. While the essence of the divine light people find there is the same, this experience has never converted anyone to another religion. This is evidence that we have a participatory role in this experience, that what people see and how they interpret the divine light is just a reflection of their spiritual beliefs. Hindus have Hinduistic experiences to report back, Christians have Christian experiences, etc. God, it seems, has this essence of divine love and grace, and in this wierd realm of after life we see the divine forms we expect to see, the filters we have used in life to understand God are still at work when we are passing on. The God is the same, but the form he takes is different for different people.
I think all of this shows not only that the God experience is universally accessible, but that maybe we should not use that experience to justify adherence to a complex religious doctrine. Believing that Christ is the son of God is something I encourage, unless it leads you to the common mistake of also believing that if someone does not accept Christ as the son of God, then they cannot still have the same connection to the same God.
God exists both inside and outside of Christianity. I believe the truth of what your Grandpa told you, Jesus Christ lives! What you, your grandpa, and I call Jesus Christ is the same thing other religions are calling a different name. Again, what divides us is an illusion, and we have to tear it down to spirit and truth.
I have lots of things flying through my head right now that I want to get into. So I'll just start with a couple and see where we go.
ReplyDeleteYou believe in one true God, you believe that Jesus Christ lives. Therefore you must believe that Jesus died, and was resurrected from the dead? But, you have also seen that other religions call Jesus by other names. Did this Jesus of other religions embody the same mission that Jesus came to earth to complete (death and resurrection for the forgiveness of sins)? Like I told you before, I know very little about eastern spirituality and religions...so you may have to dumb them down so I can try to have a basic understanding of where you are coming from.
Also, you have talked about this "quest for truth." How does this quest for truth change who you are at your very core? Do you believe that humans are essentially broken/sinful in nature and unworthy of God, and if humans are naturally sinful, how does the truth that you have found in your life deal with that, or, how can we become reconciled to the God that you see through your truth quest?
Maybe all that is too much for one response, I don't know. I have a lot of questions and comments but we have plenty of time so I'll leave it at that.