My Nightmares

1 Corinthians 16:22: If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha.

As a child I heard my father use the phrase Anathema Maranatha about unbelievers. I didn*t fully understand what it meant but I knew it was something awful. It means accursed at the coming of Christ. While the phrase speaks about a future curse the Bible also reveals that the same individuals who will be accursed in the future have the wrath of God upon them here and now.

John 3:36: He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.

People like that are all around us. What would the Lord have us do for them? Do we love them? Are we praying for them? Are we witnessing to them? Are we trying to share the gospel with them? Are we trying to warn them? Are we trying to be Christ-like before them? Do we invite them to church? Are we trying to give them the Word of God, the Bible? Do we have compassion for them? Do we weep over them?

We need to be very careful not to attach unbiblical meanings to dreams and visions. I occasionally have nightmares. The circumstances vary but the theme of the nightmares is always the same. The nightmares are always deeply troubling while they are happening. They seem to last all night. When I awake from them I am very comforted that the nightmares were not about me. They were FOR me. They were for a purpose of God. The nightmares are to me a clear message from God. They are a message that I should have more concern for the lost. The nightmares make me vividly aware of the desperate plight of the lost. In them I am always trapped somehow. I am in a maze. I am in a huge building and cannot find a way out. I can never get back where I came from. There are no fire escapes. Doors that I just came through disappear. People give me directions but the directions always lead deeper into the place. The directions never jibe with what I find. There are other people there but they are not concerned that they are trapped. They laugh at my attempts to escape. They try to convince me that I am not trapped, that I will soon be free. Many troubling words fit the nightmares: doomed, miserable, lost, hopeless, ignorant, struggling, stuck, imprisoned, in quicksand. There is never any escape.

Several times when I awoke from the nightmares, perhaps all of the times, I have written an article such as this one for the purpose of giving myself and others a greater burden for lost souls. I seem to have the nightmares when I become forgetful of the horrible future of the lost, when I become hardened toward them or when I forget that it is only through the grace of God that I have been freed from a horrible life and a horrible eternity. I thank the Lord for those nightmares. (The next morning) And, by the way, I don*t seem tired and I have plenty of energy the next day, in spite of the nightmares. It seems also that the Lord blesses me and uses me in some special ministries after the nightmares.

Incidentally, when I first became a Christian I dreamed many times about leading people to Christ before it actually happened. I believe that recurring dream helped give me the courage to attempt to share the gospel with others.

Care to discuss My Nightmares with Ron?

He'd also like to hear your prayer requests