(I'm so in love y'alll) In my cute shy voice. Beautiful blessings and this amazing feeling. I do have quite some understanding of what this dream could mean but I'm still going to do some research to make sure my inklings are right. They say if you can remember your dream it ain't over. I was laying there under the covers with my hand out. I do remember looking at myself while dreaming. I can't remember what I was dreaming about while holding God's hand. I can remember dreaming about me holding God's hand. I felt like we were holding hands for a long time. I remember while holding God's hand I started to dream about something else while dreaming about something else. I was half woke I remember taking my right hand from under the cover and reaching for God. Still in doubt asking myself why would God want to touch my hand. That I didn't like so I turned over reaching for God. I felt something of satisfaction from the person to my left. I could feel it in my chest I kind of turned over. Then someone to my left was telling me that wasn't God. God was reaaching his right hand out to me. I was laying in my bed outside close to the fence where God was standing. Maybe fall cuz the grass wasn't quite green. It started out this man was leaning on a wooden fence. Tomorrow if you read the newspaper – keep your Bible open.I had a dream God was trying to hold my hand. Our job on this issue is to be “on mission” and speak God’s truth in love (Ephesians 4:15) rather than accommodate the culture. One of the authors of the Statement of Dissent actually said that the Bible does speak on these matters. Please beware of the danger of the explanation offered: “We use experience and reason and tradition to evolve, to let people know the context of 2,000 years ago is not the context of now.” Evolving away from God’s standard of absolute truth is never a good evolution and will bring disastrous consequences. Summed up so well, in fact, that I really wonder what there is to vote on. I would say that the Scriptural position is summed up well in Romans 1:24-27. With the “Bible in one hand,” I could cite a lengthy list of verses. The second issue that jumped off the page was story of the local United Methodist congregations that are mounting a dissent to their denomination’s recent vote on LGBTQ issues. (They voted against ordaining LGBTQ clergy and sanctioning same-sex weddings.) The congregations identified in the article are signing a Statement of Dissent and defying the denominational hierarchy. Use the National Suicide Hotline: 1 (800) 273-8255. Ask them if you can talk with them on a daily basis about this. Solicit their promise to call you when they need to talk. Offer every resource you know of to help them. Determine if they have a plan and the means to carry out the plan. They are already considering it and we need to ask about it.) Be open to their thoughts and gracious in your responses. If you think someone is thinking about suicide, ask them. Just a few things I have learned along the way: The old idea that if people talk about suicide that they will not do it is just that: OLD – and wrong. We must walk with people and help carry their burdens. With that said, we must be “on mission” to help with the rampant hopelessness that contributes to suicide. We must be communicators of the fact that people are loved and valued by God and us. The Bible truth is that God should be the one who determines when our time on this earth is to conclude. The Bible truth is that God is the giver of life. Genesis 2:7 contains that amazing truth that God forms us from the dust of the earth, breathes into our nostrils the breath of life, and we become living beings. (It shatters hearts and leaves heads spinning.) Some statistics indicate that death by suicide has now edged out accidents as the number one cause of death among 15-24 year-olds. It makes my chest tighten up just to think about suicide and the effect on those left behind. Suicide has touched families in our church. The truth is – we do not have to read about this in the paper. Nearby was an article about the suicide of one of the parents of a victim of Sandy Hook. The paper reported two suicides within a week among survivors of the Parkland school shooting in Florida. May I try the “Bible in one hand newspaper in the other” approach on a couple of issues? (One of our Core Values at Madison is that we want to communicate with Biblical integrity and cultural relevance.)Īs I zipped through the electronic version of The Columbus Dispatch today – a couple of things jumped off the pages. It was the renowned theologian Karl Barth who said that we should “preach with the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other.” There may be some caveats to that – but I believe that Barth was saying that our preaching should align with the truth of Scripture while at the same time being culturally relevant.
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