My Dream

So me and someone else went into this really nice house and it was haunted. I think it might have been a boy from my work whose name is Kale or maybe it was Tehya. We were holding hands because were were terrified and we walked through the dark house. Kale had gotten behind a bit and he had ran to catch up and he said "the people at the table had no expression!" but what he meant was that they didn't have a face. I saw a few of these scary kids. We ran to the parlor and all of a sudden it was daylight. There was an older man (late fifties early 60s) who was the owner of the house. He explined to us that the house was haunted or curesed or something like that, and when there was no sunlight him, and all of these orphaned children turned into monsters. But if you played along with the monsters they wouldn't hurt you. He said that he wanted to move to a sunnier place and he needed normal people to help. Because he didn't want to risk hurting anyone.

Then the sunlight went away behind a cloud of something and it ws dark and all the children and the man turned into monsters. The only person who didn't turn into a monster was the mans wife. We sat at the table and played along with him but did not drink the pumkin juice the scary man offered us. We were not to eat or drink anything the offered us. Then the man got and idea. He took a knife from the table and stabbed his wife in the back and then pretened like he didn't know what happened. The wife stammered around and went outside to wait for the sun to come out. All the mosteres started freaking out and getting scared and angry. I think I was like a nurse or something in the dream and I tried helping her. The man tried to tell everyone that I stabbed her. I asked the man to go get me some towels and some wet, warm cloths. He brought towels and took off an article of clothing that was wet and warm from his sweat. I got angry and told him he had germs and to go get me a clean one. He got angry but I don't think he went back for it. We found something that worked. I looked at the womans wound and they were only superficial but you could see other places in her back where her husband had attempted to do the same thing before.

He yelled at all the orphans that it was me who did it and they had to kill me. I got angry and told the man that he was sick and HE was the one that did it.

I don't really remember what happens next but later we had to find some way to kill all the orphans. And the orphans had turned into clones. Clones of people I think I knew. But one of the clones in particular was Jonathan. A guy from one of my jobs who I have a crush on in real life. The rest of them seemed vile and disgusting and like monsters but Jonathan seemed perfectly normal. They were all wearing these like, almost biking outfits. There were colored like green, pink, and I think the other might have been orange. But Jonathan had on a blue one. But there were still a million clones of him and they had to be destroyed. Me and my team were finding different way to kill them and one of them was by gas or like poison. We found a way to trap them in these rooms and then we poisned the air inside. The most memberable moment from the dream is when I told a Jonathan-clone to follow me and all the clones ran after me. I ran through a room and someone behind shut the door behind them. I got a head and shut the doors behind me trapping them. The doors were see through like the ones at a supermaket. Jonathan stops an looks around confused. Then he realizes what's happening. He hears the poisen and he looks around at it. Then he looks back at me. I start crying, and I lipsynch "I'm sorry." He looks and me and smirks and says "I know"he says something else and points behind me but I don't understand him. I say "what?!" he lifts up his shirt and show that he is wearing spandex shorts. I don't know why I saw this as meaningful but I run off the find the real Jonathan. I'm still super sad because the clones were the people. They had the same feelings and memories.

You Can't Win if You Don't Play

The other day I went to go get gas. When I went to pay there was a line. The guy in front of me bought a lottery ticket. His girlfriend asked him why he bought the ticket and he replied that powerball was up to some ridiculously high number. He thanked the guy next to him for also buy a ticket, reminding him to get one as well.

"You can't win if you don't play!" He said and the two men shared a laugh.

When this happened I knew that God had a message, but I didn't know what it was until I was worshiping this morning.

I recalled a conversation that I had with a friend once. He thought it was ridiculous that one could live a terrible, non-Christian life of sin, and then in their last breath give their heart to Christ and receive eternal life.

As we worshiped this morning, my thoughts started to wander off and I started contemplating the ease of salvation. I imagined lips asking God to reveal Truth.

The simplicity of the phrase. It seemed almost too bold of God to promise us that if we really wanted to know Him and we really wanted to know the Truth, all we would have to do is ask Him in honesty. "Ask and you will receive," it says, "seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you."

Surely there must be more to it than a heavy amount of curiosity and a few mumbled words!

Then I thought back to the lotto ticket. You can't win if you don't play. Perhaps this would be a better slogan for the Christian church?

People will give their money just for a mere chance of winning; the odds heavily against them. But here we see that God asks nothing of us, but to ask. What is money compared to eternal life? People would sacrifice far more for the former than what is needed for the latter.

If a friend told you that they went to the casino and played a slot machine and won without having to pay, would you go try it yourself? Even if you weren't positive it was true. Would what you lost in the efforts it took to do it, be worth what the actual prize was?

When considering your own soul and life, you could ask yourself the same question. Would the promises Jesus made (supplying everything we need, everything will work out for our good, giving us a gift and a passion, victory over death, and of course eternal life with him) worth the few moments and breath it would take to ask Him for it?

When I think of all that Jesus went through. The torture. The trials. All the men and women of the bible who lived lives of sin and mistakes so that we could learn from. It seems a travesty that there is only one single thing that must be done to receive it all.

So you may say that people in churches are brainwashed; that when we say we "feel the Holy Spirt" that it's something we've tricked ourselves into believing. Prove us wrong.

Tonight, right this very second, we can try it. There isn't much to it. But before you do, you must allow the bitterness and bias to fade for just a moment while you pray. Close the door to allow privacy and perhaps embarrassment. Get on your knees. Close your eyes. Before you speak, really allow yourself to believe for a moment that this may true, and say "Dear Lord. Right now I speak to you, not even knowing if your real. But God I pray that you will reveal yourself to me. I pray that the Holy Spirit will come now and reveal the truth to me. I pray that my eyes would be opened and my heart would be softened. Lord you said if I seek, then I will find, so I seek you now..."

If you wish to take it a step further, "Lord, if you are real, and what you promise is true, then I would like to give my life to you now. I ask Jesus to come into my heart right now and wash me clean. Forgive me of my sin and make my heart new. In the name of Jesus Christ, I ask these things. Amen."

When you pray, be very hopeful. And I know God will move in you. If you don't understand some of these things, feel free to say it in your own words or research what everything means. But most importantly: Be honest. Praying for you.