Category Archives: Scripture

Dreams of the Future

Posted on by
Reply


Do dreams reveal the future?

I would say a blanket “NO” but I’ve been reading my Bible, and see that God occasionally made the future known to select individuals by means of their dreams. (But, this primarily happened prior to the completion of the Bible, which is God’s completed — and sufficient — revelation for His people.)

In two dreams given to the Pharaoh of Egypt (Genesis 41) the future was made known to him, after young Joseph interpreted the dreams. The message of the dreams was one and the same: 7 years of famine would follow 7 years of bounty.

Why do we desire to know the future? To prepare for it, and to profit from it I suspect. Pharaoh did just that, appointing Joseph to organize the food supply for the country — which allowed them all to survive the years of famine. If you and I knew something specific about our future, we’d be better able to act and take control. But we know little of our future, really. We know the generalities (grow old and die stuff), but nothing too specific.

Yet we can know the One who holds the future. We can put our trust in the Lord our God, and commit all our ways unto Him. That’s what Joseph did, as told in the book of Genesis. He did not know the future, but was faithful in the present — even through much difficulty. And in the end, Joseph could credit God with orchestrating all things for a greater good.

I think we should let dreams end with the night, and walk by faith each day.
Pastor David Bissett

The Joy of the Lord is Your Strength

Posted on by
Reply


In NEHEMIAH 8.10 the people of God are exhorted to let the joy of the LORD be their strength. Are you doing this? Even if you are a professing Christian, and know the grace of God, is it your great satisfaction to enjoy and delight in the Lord?

So helpful to us in this regard are the writings of Pastor John Piper of Minneapolis, MN. His book DESIRING GOD (now in several editions and languages) is one of the most profound Christian writings of our generation. It presents the biblical call to delight in the Lord as “Christian hedonism” –— usurping a well known term for ‘pleasure-seeking’ — and directing us to seek our greatest pleasures in the Lord our God.

He states the very purpose of human life in the following declaration: The chief end of man is to glorify God BY enjoying him forever. In his book Piper speaks of CHRISTIAN HEDONSIM as a philosophy of life built on the following:

• The longing to be happy is a universal human experience, and it is good, not sinful.

• We should never try to deny or resist our longing to be happy, as though it were a bad impulse. Instead we should seek to intensify this longing and nourish it with whatever will provide the deepest and most enduring satisfaction.

• The deepest and most enduring happiness is found ONLY in GOD.

• The happiness we find in God reaches its consummation when it is shared with others in the manifold ways of love.

• To the extent we try to abandon this pursuit, we fail to honor God and love people. Or, to put it positively: the pursuit of JOY in the LORD is a necessary part of all worship and virtue.

I hope you will ponder the call of Nehemiah 8.10 — and become a Christian hedonist!

Pastor David