John Wayne and Jesus

Previously, I posted about a dream I had.  My dreams pale in comparison to the dreams Rick has.  Rick’s dreams are sometimes very vivid and detailed.  He can recite word for word what happened, who was there, what everyone was doing and saying.  Last year he had two dreams that stand out among the rest.

The first is his John Wayne dream.  Rick is a big fan.  Rick has often said if he could talk to anyone dead or alive, it would be John Wayne.  He can almost recite word for word some of John’s movies, especially The Sons of Katie Elder.  It is Rick’s favorite.  Here is his dream.

Rick is spending the day with John Wayne.  John asks Rick if he wants to go with him to his ranch in Colorado to check on his cattle and horses.  Apparently, Dean Martin told John the Feds were coming around collecting back taxes on their movie The Sons of Katie Elder and they had already taken Dean’s horses.  John was afraid they would take his cattle and horses so he and Rick flew up to the ranch (with John as the pilot of his own jet plane) to check things out.  Everything is okay at the ranch and all his animals are still there.  Then Rick says to John, “My wife wants to know why you walk so prissy.” (I have said to Rick in the past that I thought John Wayne had a prissy walk.) John tells Rick it is because he spent so many years riding horses in the movies that it messed up his hip.  The dream ends. 

The second dream Rick had was his dream about Jesus.  This one was really special.  Here is what he dreamed.

Rick is standing outside a building.  There’s a man sitting up against the building.  Rick goes over to talk to him.  He is dressed in a robe with a hood and his hair is long and brown.  The man has only one leg. 

Rick asks the man, “What happened to your leg?”  The man answers, “Rick, you know I was nailed to the cross.”  With that the man stands up on two legs and Rick realizes he is talking to Jesus.  (We know that Jesus died with both of his legs so we are not sure of the significance of this.)  Jesus says to Rick, “Tell everyone that I am coming soon and they must tell everyone they know.” 

The scene switches to inside the building.  There is a big revival going on, bigger than a Billy Graham revival meeting.  Thousands of people are coming down to accept Jesus as their savior.  The person preaching the revival is Greg Hutchinson.  (Greg is a friend of ours who is the youth pastor at the church we went to when we lived in Lewisville, Texas.)  Rick sees people there at the revival that he knows from his home town, some of them are deceased, the most important one being his mother who passed away in 2000.

The scene switches again to Rick’s family home in Gorman, Texas.  At the house he sees his mother again and several other people he knows, who are also deceased.  He doesn’t talk to any of them, but he sees their faces clearly.  The dream ends.

When Rick woke up from his dream, his pillow was wet with tears.  He told me the dream was so real and he didn’t want it to end.  A few days later Rick called Greg and told him about the dream.  He thought maybe the dream was a message for Greg.  Rick and Greg talked about the dream and what it could possibly mean.  Rick asked Greg if he really could have been talking to Jesus.  Greg says, “Yes, it is possible.”

I believe God does talk to us through our dreams.  Acts 2:17 references Joel 2:28 (important enough to be in the Bible twice) which says,

In the last days, God says,
I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
your young men will see visions,
your old men will dream dreams. Acts 2:17 NIV

You can’t get any clearer than that.  There are many instances in the Bible where God has given man warnings, instruction and knowledge of future events via dreams.  Sometimes God sends his angels to do this.  Sometimes the dreams are clear, but sometimes they need to be interpreted by someone else.  Either way, the Bible shows that God used dreams as a way to get his message through.  If He did it back then, I don’t see why He wouldn’t do it today.

I don’t know if God was speaking to Rick in this dream, but I do know truth when I see it.  Jesus told Rick that He is coming and He is coming soon.

Will you tell someone?

~ P

Dream a Little Dream

Have you ever seen the movie Inception?  It came out in theaters back in July, 2010.  I’ve seen it three times and this last time was just a few days ago.  I think I’m finally beginning to understand that movie!  If you haven’t seen it, it’s the one where Leonardo DiCaprio and friends enter a person’s dream to steal secrets.  It’s a far out theory and was kind of confusing the first time I saw it.  Dreams can be confusing too.  They can also be funny, weird and strange.

My dreams are all over the place.  One minute I’m here, the next minute I’m there.  I can’t tell you who is in the dream with me because I can’t see their faces.  And when I wake up, I only remember the dream for a few seconds before it vanishes into the land of forgotten dreams.  Sometimes all I get from a dream is a feeling.  I’ll wake up frightened and sometimes even sobbing, thankful that I was only dreaming.  Other times I wake up wondering where in the heck that dream came from!

Last night I dreamed my car was stolen.  As soon as I woke up, I got out of bed to write down what I could remember.  I don't normally do this, but this time the dream was very clear in my mind.  This is my dream:

I am living in an apartment complex. I leave the apartment to go to work.  I have one of those big shopping bags in my hand.  I can’t find my car.  I calmly walk up and down the parking area several times looking for my car.  I walk to the building next to mine to catch a ride to work with a friend.  My friend also goes looking for my car but can’t find it either.
 

I call the police and they say there is a problem because the state of Georgia said I had registered the car in 16 different states.  I ask the police how they know I used to live in Georgia and they tell me they can see everything about my car in every state I lived in using the VIN number.  I explain about Rick being a construction worker and we have lived in all those states because of his job.  I hang up and wait for them to call me back.

 

Scene change.  It’s Thanksgiving.  We are having a big feast.  I am with another lady.  I think (more like feel) she is my mother-in-law but I can’t see her face.  (She reminds me of Jamie Lee Curtis.)  I tell her I was invited to another Thanksgiving dinner.  She says we should go and only eat a little.  I go for the mash potatoes first and put two big spoonfuls on my plate with gravy.  My mother-in-law gives me a funny look as she sees all the mash potatoes on my plate.  We look for a place to sit down.  There are rows and rows of tables with people sitting at them.  We stand there looking at everyone.

 

The dream ends and I wake up.

This is a pretty weird dream, even for me.  There's almost nothing that's right.  I don’t live in an apartment.  I don’t have a job.  My car was not stolen. While I have lived in 16 different states, my car has been registered in only two, Illinois and Texas, and not at the same time.  It’s not Thanksgiving.  My mother-in-law looked nothing like Jamie Lee Curtis when she went to heaven in 2000.  And while I have sometimes been known to eat mashed potatoes, they would not be the first thing I put on my plate and I would never take two big spoonfuls.  I don’t like them that much.  But I would put gravy on them for sure.

So what is this dream trying to tell me?  Be careful with my car?  I might lose something?  I should get a job?  Don’t eat too much?  I believe there is always some truth in what you dream.  I'll be careful with my car and leave it at that.

In the next few days, I will post about two dreams Rick had last year that I think you will enjoy.  For now I will toss this dream in with the other nonsensical dreams I’ve had.  But there is one question I would like answered.  What was in that shopping bag?  Any ideas?

  

Sweet dreams,

  

~ P