That was an interesting dream

I had a dream today. Very vivid. When I woke up, I considered going back to sleep but I wanted to remember this dream, so I got up in order to write it down.

My house was on a high hill. The back yard was very large and went down to this beautiful and inviting field. I was aware that in the past I would sit at the top of the hill and look at this field. I was drawn to it but had never been down there.

This day, Tiernan was with me and we finally decided to go down there. So we started off down the hill. There was a fence marking the end of my property. As we neared the fence, that part of the back yard was beautiful and I was so excited about it, seems I had never ventured to this part of my yard before. There was a large rock just below the surface, with just a portion of it exposed. And I was thrilled to have it in my yard.

As we drew near the fence, we saw a gate in the fence. And it was open. When we got to the gate and examined it, I had the distinct impression that people had often come onto my property via the gate. For some reason, we stopped at the gate, still on my property, and watched the field. It was so beautiful. It was an open area that lay out before me. There was a steam and there was some wildlife. I thought the stream was shallow, but then we saw this deer (?) with horns swimming downstream. There was a structure here, and some trees, just outside the fence, almost like a covered dock. As we sat there watching the field, yearning to go through the gate, but afraid of something, a car came driving up on the field, from the right. I told Tiernan to be very still and just to wait and see what happened. The car stopped and a woman got out. She greeted us! So much for sitting still. It seems her car had a sensitive camera that let her know if there were any people around. She was wearing some kind of fur coat and when she got out, she put on another fur coat, of a different color and size. I think it was her intention to feed animals and I had the impression that she came often.

At this point, Tiernan said he didn’t want to go the field, it frightened him and he wanted to go back to the house. He said, “It’s so lonely here.” I decided I didn’t want to go back right then, I was determined to go through the fence and explore this beautiful, welcoming, inviting area beyond the gate.

This is the saddest part of my dream - I woke up!

But, I woke up with the impression that this is significant. I’m at the edge of something beautiful and inviting and the gate is open. I haven’t gone through the gate yet, but it seems I am ready and determined to take that step. Clearly, I am still on this side of the gate and passing through will require a definite decision and determination. Alas! I woke up before passing through!!

The adventure continues

Beginning March 2nd I will have another opportunity to teach the adult Sunday School class. The pastor graciously asked me if I wanted to teach the Spring Quarter, but I know how this really went down. He spoke to the other brother first. (Just in cased you didn’t get it, that means he asked me second!) And that brother said, “I don’t want to teach the Spring Quarter. Ask Jeff. He’ll teach any quarter.” Well, he is right about that!

As I already posted on fb, I will teaching The Kingdom Principle of Faith. We will be taking a look at faith in the gospels: What Jesus taught about and How He responded to it. It is exciting to read through the Gospels and see Jesus ministering and teaching. I would like to be able to teach through the Gospel of Matthew, but I only have 13 weeks. And it took me 13 weeks just to teach the Sermon on the Mount!

The Gospels tell us about Jesus. The record of his works is a testimony to who he is. But, in the Gospels, Jesus is preaching and teaching about the kingdom of God. This means they are also a record of kingdom principles. And faith is clearly an important principle in the kingdom of God. So we will examine various encounters in the Gospels where faith is explicitly mentioned and see what we can learn about it.

There is one thing about faith that has intrigued me for some time. Faith is a noun. Faithful the adjective. Faithfully the adverb. Faithfulness is also a noun. But there is no verb form for faith. For that we use a different word in English, Believe. The Greek word has a noun/verb/adjective form, but this one Greek word requires two English words. Isn’t that interesting?

They are both old words, but believe seems to be the older English word.
Believe - Middle English bileven, from Old English belȳfan, belēfan, gelēfan;
Faith - Middle English, from Anglo-Norman fed, from Latin fidēs

Fidēs has a verb form, fidere, and I’m pretty sure fed did as well, yet neither seems to have survived into modern English. I find this fascinating.

To believe is to accept something as true. Faith (belief) is the content of what is believed. So, when we come across expressions like, When Jesus saw their faith… we will be inquiring, “What was it they believed? How would this apply to me today?” Inquiring minds want to know!

As I have gone through the Gospels preparing for this study I have come to the conclusion that there is a distinct possibility that we will not have time to examine every encounter marked by faith. And John! We will probably only look at two there, maybe three. But it is my prayer that what we do consider will encourage, strengthen, and stimulate us to believe Jesus to do great things in us and for us.

Y’know, Jesus is said to have marveled twice, both concerning faith:
When Jesus heard [it], he marvelled, and said to them that followed, Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel.

And he marvelled because of their unbelief

We certainly don’t want Jesus marveling at our unbelief, because in that case, he could there do no mighty work. May the Lord grant us grace to have great faith in him!