Yet another dream

When Mary got home from work yesterday morning we talked a little about her night, then she asked me, “Are you OK?”

“Yes, but I’m upset with you,” I answered with a straight face.

Now I had her attention! “Why??”

“You woke me up at 5 AM.”

Then I shared my dream:

I was dreaming this morning, I can't recall the rest of the dream, but I was lying down on the bed, sleeping or trying to sleep. You walked up to the edge of the bed, grabbed my arm, pulled me up and said, "Time to get up, Jeff, it's 5 o'clock." This was so startling that I woke up. I looked at the clock and it was 4:55! Even more startling! I lay there for a while trying to figure out what this might mean. Nothing came to me so I prayed for the girls and their family.

“So yeah, you woke me up at 5 AM” I said with a smile.

She replied, “That's just so weird.” (Truth be told, she responds to most of my dreams that way ☺) “That’s almost eerie.”


I dream a lot. Or, if all of us dream, I remember quite a few of my dreams. Most times they are just fun to recall. But there have been other times when things have been revealed to me in them. I believe God has spoken to me a few times in my dreams. Since this one was particularly vivid, later on that day I contacted everyone, told them about the dream, and asked if any of them had anything I could be praying about. I haven’t heard back from anyone.

Sometimes dreams are just strange. This very morning I woke up from a dream that continued every time I fell back asleep. It was so strong it was there even as lay there half awake. I didn’t like the plot or its stubbornness, so I got up. ☺

In which I go to Pittsburgh

Last week we hopped in the car and headed north to meet up with the Meesters in Pittsburgh. They were going to an annual quiz meet and we were going to see them and watch some quizzing. This is our story.

Charlotte

Our plan was to drive to Stoystown, PA to visit the Flight 93 Memorial. The trip began well, we made good time to the interstate and then Boom! a traffic jam. The interstate was going nowhere so Mary tried an alternative route. Didn’t work. Took us two hours to go what would normally have taken 20 minutes. Great start.

West Virginia

After we escaped the congestion in Charlotte, we whisked across North Carolina and Virginia and entered purgatory, I mean West Virginia. We must’ve been in West Virginia for three days. I’ve driven across Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. West Virginia drives like the biggest state in the Union.
West Virginia is aptly called the mountaineer state – mountains everywhere you look. Sadly, in order to make all these roads, they blasted the face off of most of them.
We grew weary and night was falling so we stopped in Fairmont for the night. Our plan was to drive straight through but Fairmont made us glad we stopped - it gets dark in West Virginia, the roads are narrow, and they don’t believe in street lights or reflectors on the road!

The next day we hit the road again. As if we hadn’t spent enough time driving north through West Virginia, we now drove east across the state, on into Maryland. Finally, Hwy 219. We headed north and into Pennsylvania.

Pennsylvania

Hello, what’s this? A Pennsylvania welcome!

We were now driving through rural Pennsylvania. Not Amish rural, but the rural that comes just before Amish country. The roads were getting smaller and smaller until there was no longer a shoulder, straight from road to field. This was German country. How German? We drove straight through Berlin!

Very cool covered bridge. We thought this was unique but we saw several more

Finally, in the absolute middle of nowhere we came to the Flight 93 Memorial.

Very somber and thought-provoking

Now it was time to wend our way from rural PA to Pittsburgh, so we made our way to the Pennsylvania Turnpike. It was here we learned turnpike is Pennsylvania Dutch for stand and deliver – cost $7.00 to drive the 70 miles from Somerset to Pittsburgh!

Pittsburgh
At last, Pittsburgh. Our hotel was downtown. Here’s the view from our room.

That's the Allegheny River, just before it joins the Monongahela to form the Ohio River. That yellow bridge is Clemente Bridge. As in Roberto Clemente. And those lights are PNC Park, home of the Pittsburgh Pirates. Driving home we crossed over Mazeroski Way. I’m not a big city guy, but that was cool.

The quiz meet was held at the Allegheny Center Alliance Church, less than half a mile away. This downtown church began in 1894 when Dr. A.B. Simpson asked E.D. Whiteside to oversee this Branch of the Christian & Missionary Alliance. Great history and, even though none of the buildings go back quite that far, they do have neat buildings. Since this was a quiz, we watched a lot of Bible quizzing and in between quizzes hung out with the Meesters. I actually coached the senior quizzers in a couple of quizzes, offering advice, encouragement, and motivation.

In this photo, I am offering a pen to the quizzer who got the most correct answers. Drew rose to the challenge and won the pen. Later, I offered that same pen to another quizzer if she got her name called. She did, so I took said pen from Drew and gave it to her!

Saturday we ate lunch with the Meesters. First, I wandered downtown with Anne, Aimee, and Claire in search of gluten free fair then we returned to the church building for lunch with the rest of the family. During lunch I had a great discussion with Drew, my 14 year old grandson, about a book he is reading:

Yes, that’s what he is reading! When I was 14 I was reading Andre Norton science fiction and Louis L’Amour westerns. I’m impressed. I asked him his impressions and he said Luther appears to be very opinionated, very forceful in his thinking and presentation. (Not offended, just kind of shocked.) I commented, “This is the way preaching is supposed to be; not namby-pamby like so much of today’s preaching.” He was impressed with Luther’s clear presentation of the Creed – “This is a very accurate presentation of the truth and this is what it means.” This excites my heart.

After lunch I went exploring with the senior quizzers. Allegheny Center has a very old and interesting facility. We took the elevator and explored every floor. All six of them. (We took no photos because we were so into the actual exploring.) On the top floor we tried earnestly to get on the roof, but for some reason they keep those doors locked. I tried every interesting door we saw. “Did you really just open that door??” Well, yes, how else would we know what’s behind it! Brought back memories of the days my children and I explored every nook and cranny of Winthrop. And you can ask them, we literally went everywhere.

All this before 2 pm! Dave and I headed back to the hotel to watch the Tar Heels beat Florida State in a very exciting game. Then we all headed to Buca di Beppo for the traditional Saturday-night-end-of-the-Pittsburgh-weekend meal.

Here I am, shocked at how high up we were - we were on the 8th floor. And yes, I took the stairs down twice and up once. Ryan and Chase went down with me the first time. Well, I walked, they ran!

Sunday morning we all drove home. And that was my first visit to Pittsburgh.

Some Golden Daybreak

Advent 2016 - The Second Coming in 1 & 2 Thessalonians

Some Golden Daybreak

For the introduction to this series click here

Today is the 10th day of Christmas and I am finally finished with my Advent series! And this last post has a surprising twist. Let’s take a look.

2 Thessalonians 3:5
And the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God, and into the patient waiting for Christ.

“This preparation for His coming does not lead us to neglect any of life’s duties, but a simple, faithful attitude of righteousness and fidelity to every trust, or, as the Apostle expresses it so finely: “The Lord direct your hearts into the love of God, and into the patient waiting for Christ.”

In the days of Paul a class of men had risen up who have never been without their successors, who abused this doctrine by turning it into an occasion for all sorts of irregularity in life and conduct. They neglected their families. They gave up honest work. They fell into fanatical practices, and they disturbed all religious social order. The Gospel of the Kingdom has no sympathy with such rubbish. The best preparation for Christ’s coming is to be faithful in your calling, whatever it may be, and found at your post. The idea seems to be that Christ expects us to be always ready, and then everything that comes in the way of life’s duties is equally sacred and heavenly.” (A.B. Simpson)


And now let’s go back to a passage I skipped. What?? Yes, I confess, I slid right past a second reference to the advent in 1 Thessalonians 5

1 Thessalonians 5:23-24
The very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 
Faithful is he that calls you, who also will do it.

As I said before, Paul was a holiness preacher.

“This verse contains a prayer for the entire sanctification of the believers at Thessalonica in order that they might be fully prepared for the Lord’s coming. The word “unto” should be translated “at,” implying not that we are to grow into sanctification in view of the Lord’s coming, but we are to receive it as a gift of the God of Peace, and then be preserved in it by His grace so that we shall be in a constant state of preparedness whenever the Lord may come, and we shall be “found of him in peace without spot and blameless.” This preparation must be very thorough and complete, embracing our whole spirit, soul, and body, and including our abiding in Him so that we shall be “preserved blameless” and presented “faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy.” Such a high degree of grace is beyond human attainment, and therefore it is divinely provided and promised to those who will receive it. “Faithful is he that calls you who also will do it.” Dearly beloved, by all the hopes and fears of the coming age, let us receive this grace and be clothed in the fine linen and white, which is the righteousness of the saints.” (A.B. Simpson)

The way I figure it, if the apostle can pray this for me, with confidence that God will do it, then I can pray this for myself, with the same confidence! Is this not confirmed by Peter and John:

2 Peter 3:14  Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless. 

1 John 2:28  And now, little children, abide in him; that, when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming. 

Jesus is coming and God has his work cut out to make me ready, but “faithful is he that calls you who also will do it” Amen and Amen!

I want to conclude this series with a chorus we learned in the first church I pastored, Brent Alliance Church in Pensacola, FL. If you don’t know it, stop by some time and we’ll sing it for you!

Some golden daybreak Jesus will come 
Some golden daybreak, battles all won 
He'll shout the vict'ry, break thro' the blue 
Some golden daybreak, for me, for you.