In these uncertain times with Covid-19 I have to face what might happen in regards to my family, with lots of uncertainty. I’ve been praying about that, people I know and the local church.
I was longing to receive a word from God particularly for Debbie in her situation with her work on the frontline as a health care professional. That thought was followed by just ask the Lord what he wants to say. I went to sleep expectantly. I woke up with the following dream:
In the dream it was bright and sunny. There were a lot of people on the beach. It was crowded. They were all colourfully dressed. People were having fun playing in and out of the water. People swimming. Lots of splashing. A real holiday atmosphere.
The next scene was on a balcony overlooking the aforementioned scene. There were piles of Mars bars everywhere. I was offered a piece of one by this guy in front of me who was sitting around on a deckchair. I looked at it with scorn. I then saw all the wrappers in the bin which disgusted me.
Everywhere around me people were living it up. Even though it was a beautiful day and everything looked lovely and pleasant – it looked like fun, yet there was unhappiness just below the surface. I noticed I was sad about these things.
Excess was everywhere!
‘Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him, because everything that is in the world—the desire of the flesh and the desire of the eyes and the arrogance of material possessions—is not from the Father, but is from the world. And the world is passing away, and its desire, but the one who does the will of God remains ⌊forever⌋.’
1 John 2:15–17 (LEB)
Jesus said I am the way the truth and the life. He also said I am the resurrection and the life. He who comes to me I will not drive away.
The message about life that Jesus brought in John 6:22-58 is a message for now. Jesus talks about being the bread of life.
Choose this day whom you will serve….choose life.
I have come that you may have life, life in all abundance…
I am the resurrection and the life.
‘Do not work for the food that perishes, but the food that remains to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you.’
John 6:27 (LEB)
This dream has given me a chance to write something about the current situation. My dream drew my attention to John 6.
We find pleasure in many of these things seen in the dream. They are not wrong in and of themselves but when they are pushed to excess and when we lean on them they become idols. They have no life and we end up serving demons. 1 Corinthians 10.18-20
People are looking for life in all the wrong places. It made me think of the love revolution back in the ’60’s and how lots of songs were about love and still are. People are hungry for love in the wrong places. People are hungry for life and looking for it in pleasures and pursuits. Jesus is the life and soul of it all. He’s the one who holds life together by the word of his power.
‘…all things were created through him and for him, and he himself is before all things, and in him all things are held together…’
Colossians 1:16–17 (LEB)
Where does our attention lie? Where are we inclined? What takes precedence in our lives? Is it the things of this age or world? Seek first the kingdom of God…
Where is our dependency? What do we rely on?
I felt anger and sadness as I thought about being offered a small piece of Mars bar. Is that all? There’s all that excess yet this man is only giving a small piece of his large quantity of Mars bars. Contrasted to Jesus who gives all of himself for the life of the world.
All that excess of Mars bars was leaving a lot of waste. Waste is something that shouldn’t be. In God’s economy everything gets used.
What about me? Am I giving my all? Am I giving a small piece of my excess or all of myself? Now there’s a challenge!
What are we feeding on? Too much chocolate (metaphorically – that which the world offers) or the bread that satisfies (that which is a metaphor that is very real and alive) that came down from heaven?
We can have a relationship with life itself that life is a person. The person of Jesus. He connects us back to his family to his Father. He is the one in the business of transformation. When we believe in him and are not conformed to the world, letting him transform us into his likeness He gives us his life and he comes to live with us and in us by his Holy Spirit. He can and does carry us through uncertain times. We just need to trust.
‘You will make known to me the path of life. In your presence is fullness of joy. At your right hand are pleasures forever.’
Psalm 16:11 (LEB)